American Civil War Primary Sources

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The American Civil war was a pivotal moment in American history, and for historians to analyze and encode events such as this, the use of primary, secondary, and fictional sources needs to be used. Each type of source will be valued by its own strengths, limitations, and relationships when it comes to use in learning about historical events, and the idea that these need to be used in conjunction with each other will be emphasized through exploring the topic of the American Civil War. When used properly, the task of exploring the American Civil War can become a plausible task through the collaboration of many sources such as the journals, documents, and novels at the disposal of the historian. To begin, Primary sources are great pieces of …show more content…
Secondary sources are scholarly books, journals, and publications that are written well after the event occurred and offer an analysis on a topic drawn from a set of primary sources. The authors of these sources have often spent years on the research and development of these topics, giving the reader better access to the information in primary sources and saving a great deal of time. For example, the lecture given by Professor Andrew Hunt provided an analysis on the origination and effects of he American Civil War in a time span of an hour and a half, a subject that would take months of primary data research in order to understand . However, Secondary sources are limited by multiple factors such as the issue of finding up to date articles. The problem with this data being collected and analyzed over long periods means that with new discoveries or revelations found about the topic would not be reflected upon in a secondary source, leaving a gap or error in the information provided. For example, if a primary source of the Civil War document is found to be fraudulent or largely misinterpreted, the secondary sources that utilised these sources would need to be re-evaluated. Another problem with Secondary sources is that there may be bias in the information without the reader not knowing about it. To …show more content…
These limitations can be counteracted by each others strengths when used together to explore history. Each type of source provides comprehension to topics such as The American Civil War through the foundational knowledge of primary sources, the analysis offered by secondary sources, and the environment generated by fictional sources. In essence, history needs to be looked upon through as many ways as possible in order to understand the few bits of the past that are left, and even novels depicting these events can play a part in understanding our
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