Sourcing in History
A historian is a kind of detective: How do they know if a source is reliable? Which sources reflect firsthand knowledge, and which might just be based on hearsay? Use these materials to teach your students the fundamentals of historical sourcing and give them a foundation of research and critical thinking skills that can crack any mystery.
Featured Materials
Quick Sourcing – Introduction
Learn how to use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to source documents and help you prepare to respond successfully to document-based questions (DBQs).
Sourcing – Introduction
Who? Where? Why? These are crucial questions a historian must ask of every text they read. This important skill is called sourcing.
Sourcing – Who Started the Cold War?
Who started the Cold War? Dig into this big and important question by putting your sourcing skills to work.
Sourcing – Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
These sixteenth-century documents describe the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Why did they do it? How did indigenous peoples respond?
Sourcing – Why Was Slavery Abolished?
Analyze a variety of sources in order to dig into an important question—why was slavery abolished?
Sourcing – Differing Perspectives on Imperialism
Imperialism had very different impacts for different groups of people. These sources explore some of the justifications behind imperialism.
Sourcing – The Inoculation Debate
Reading historical documents is more than just understanding words on a page. Here, with the help of the HAPPY tool, you’ll dive into the skill of sourcing.
Teaching This Skill
Sourcing in the Classroom
Students will discover how authors frame events and how that impacts interpretation.
Sourcing One-Pager
Understand the who, where, and why of written documents.
Sourcing Activities Placement
Locate these activity progressions in all of our courses.
Sourcing Tool
A thinking tool that helps students develop their understanding of sourcing.
Quick Sourcing Tool
A quicker approach, for when students need to source multiple documents at once.
Sourcing Feedback Form
Provide specific and detailed feedback to build historical sourcing skills.
OER Primary Source Collection Placement
Quick access to all the primary source collections in OER Project courses.