A secondary source analyzes, interprets, explains, or draws conclusions about primary sources. Scholarly books and articles about the Declaration, Lincoln, or the Progressive movement are therefore secondary sources when those subjects are being studied.
Waypoints
Primary Versus Secondary Source
Waypoints places primary sources at the center of serious education. Students should understand, therefore, what distinguishes a primary source from a secondary source.
The distinction is usually straightforward, although it depends partly upon the question being asked.
Begin ReadingThe Basic Distinction
A primary source provides direct evidence of the person, event, idea, institution, or period being studied. Primary sources include original documents and works such as letters, diaries, speeches, laws, constitutions, journals, memoirs, photographs, recordings, manuscripts, essays, books, and works of literature.
The Declaration of Independence, for example, is a primary source for studying the principles articulated by the American Founders. Abraham Lincoln’s speeches are primary sources for studying Lincoln’s political thought. Essays and books by Woodrow Wilson are primary sources for understanding early Progressive thought in the United States.
The distinction can be summarized simply: Primary sources are the materials being studied. Secondary sources are later works that analyze or interpret those materials.
Context Matters
A source is not always inherently primary or secondary, as its classification can depend upon what a researcher is trying to understand.
PLATO–
Plato's Republic
Plato’s Republic, for example, is a primary source for anyone studying Plato’s political philosophy. A modern scholar’s book explaining Plato’s Republic is a secondary source.
AQUINAS–
Commentaries
Thomas Aquinas wrote commentaries on Aristotle. Aquinas’s commentary is a secondary source if the question is, "What did Aristotle mean?" But the same commentary becomes a primary source if the question is, "What did Thomas Aquinas think about Aristotle?"
The same principle applies to more recent works. A twentieth-century historian’s book about Abraham Lincoln is ordinarily a secondary source for studying Lincoln. But that same book could become a primary source for someone studying how twentieth-century historians interpreted Lincoln.
The important question, therefore, is not simply, "Is this a primary or secondary source?" It is also, "What questions are we asking?"
Primary Does Not Mean Infallible
Primary sources bring us closer to the people, arguments, events, and experiences we are trying to understand. That does not mean they are necessarily accurate, impartial, or trustworthy.
Eyewitnesses can misunderstand what they see. Memories can fade. Political speeches can exaggerate. Letters can conceal as much as they reveal. Newspaper reports can contain errors. Authors can be mistaken—or dishonest.
For that reason, reading primary sources requires judgment. Students should ask who produced a source, when it was produced, for whom it was intended, what the author was trying to accomplish, what the author might have known, and what the author might have had reason to emphasize or omit. Sometimes, what an author leaves unsaid can be as important as what he says or writes.
Secondary sources require judgment as well. Historians and other scholars select evidence, interpret it, and sometimes disagree about what it means. The authors of secondary sources should not automatically be presumed more intelligent, perceptive, or authoritative than the thinkers they interpret. When a second-rate scholar attempts to interpret a first-rate thinker, it often shows.
The purpose of distinguishing primary from secondary sources is therefore not to declare one kind of source "good" and the other "bad." Both are valuable. They perform different functions and address different kinds of questions.
Examples
The Declaration of Independence
Primary Source: The Declaration of Independence
Secondary Source: Carl Becker’s The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas.
Secondary Source: Carl Becker’s The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas.
Revolutionary Correspondence
Primary Sources: Personal letters written by soldiers during the American Revolution
Secondary Source: Gordon S. Wood’s The American Revolution: A History.
Secondary Source: Gordon S. Wood’s The American Revolution: A History.
The Emancipation Proclamation
Primary Source: The Emancipation Proclamation
Secondary Source: Allen C. Guelzo’s Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.
Secondary Source: Allen C. Guelzo’s Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.
Secondary sources can provide valuable context and interpretation. But whenever possible, Waypoints encourages students and teachers to encounter important thinkers, statesmen, arguments, and historical documents in their own words.
Waypoints at a Glance
Waypoints is a serious civic learning platform. It helps you study and teach America’s essential documents—and the ideas behind them.
The Waypoints Library includes beautifully published primary-source documents accompanied by written and video tutorials. Together, these materials help teachers, parents, students, and lifelong learners explore American history, political philosophy, economics, liberty, and the challenge of self-government.
No. Waypoints is supplemental by design.
Waypoints is not meant to replace an existing history, civics, government, economics, or humanities curriculum. It is designed to strengthen the curriculum you already use by helping teachers, parents, and students study essential primary sources more deeply.
Not exactly. Waypoints is not a warehouse of ready-made daily lesson plans. Waypoints is a primary-source teaching and learning resource designed to help teachers understand essential documents and bring them into the classroom with confidence. Many tutorials include discussion questions, writing assignments, and classroom activities, but Waypoints begins with the documents themselves.
Waypoints is for teachers, school and district resource recommenders, homeschooling parents, lifelong learners, and anyone who wants to study America’s essential documents and the ideas behind them.
It is especially useful for those who want to understand liberty, constitutional self-government, and the moral and civic principles that shape the American experiment.
The Free Trial gives you access to selected Waypoints materials so you can see how the platform works before choosing a plan.
You can explore selected primary-source documents from the Waypoints Library, along with related written and video tutorials. It is the best way to see how Waypoints helps users study and teach primary sources with greater confidence.
Choose the Home Plan if you are a homeschooling family, parent, individual learner, or small household seeking access to Waypoints.
Choose the Academy Plan if you want access for a school, academy, department, or group of educators and students.
Choose a Custom Plan if you represent a district, charter network, larger organization, homeschool co-op, civic group, or special program with needs beyond the standard plans.
If you are not sure where to begin, start with the Free Trial.