THIST 101 Introduction to History Methods - Sundermann: Secondary Sources: Popular
What is a secondary source?
Secondary sources are pieces created some time after a historical event that provide analysis and attempt to understand a specific event or movement in historical or cultural context. Secondary sources may include articles, books, book chapters, podcasts, and documentaries.
What makes it a "popular" source?
"Popular" refers to the intended audience of the piece--the general public or a non-expert audience. Popular sources may be written by professors and experts, but they can also be authored by journalists or literary authors who have done research on a historical event. Unlike scholarly secondary sources, popular secondary sources have a much wider range of mediums or formats because they shift with technology and the public's tastes. Some common popular sources include:
- Popular history books. While the author will have done extensive research, there is a priority to create an engaging narrative and discuss historical events in language that is accessible to a general reader with no previous knowledge. Often there are fewer or no citations.
- Magazine articles. Magazines such as National Geographic or the Smithsonian will publish articles for a general audience. They may have a few citations, but they generally have gone through an editorial process, not a peer-review process.
- Documentaries, podcasts and radio shows. The host may or may not be an academic expert, but generally has done extensive research (we hope!). There is generally an even greater emphasis on narrative or analysis.
Assessing popular secondary sources
It's important that you use your information literacy skills to assess if popular secondary sources are trustworthy and useful. Anyone with a smartphone can make a podcast or a website, so how does the source demonstrate that it has done due diligence and good research?
- Look for citations, even just a few. Does your podcast refer to historians or authors? Does the article link out to other research? These are good signs.
- Does the source engage directly with primary sources? Does it analyze actual speeches, newspaper articles, etc. or does it rely on hearsay and generalizations?
- Is it affiliated with a trustworthy organization? This might be a radio or news affiliate like NPR, non-profit organizations, or universities.
- Does the author provide their background? How do they establish expertise? If they don't have an "about" page that lists their experience, whether in journalism or history, you may want to be skeptical.
Featured Popular Books
The Winter Army by Call Number: D769.3 10th .I87 2019ISBN: 9781328871435Publication Date: 2019-11-05At the start of World War II, the US Army had two cavalry divisions--and no mountain troops. The German Wehrmacht, in contrast, had many well-trained and battle-hardened mountain divisions, some of whom by 1943 blocked the Allied advance in the Italian campaign. Starting from scratch, the US Army developed a unique military fighting force, the 10th Mountain Division, drawn from the ranks of civilian skiers, mountaineers, and others with outdoor experience. The resulting mix of Ivy League students, park rangers, Olympic skiers, and European refugees formed the first specialized alpine fighting force in US history. By the time it deployed to Italy at the beginning of 1945, this ragtag group had coalesced into a tight-knit unit. In the months that followed, at a terrible cost, they spearheaded the Allied drive in Italy to final victory. Ranging from the ski slopes of Colorado to the towering cliffs of the Italian Alps, The Winter Army is a saga of an unlikely band of soldiers forged in the heat of combat into a brotherhood whose legacy lives on in US mountain fighters to this day.
Hiroshima by ISBN: 9780593472255Publication Date: 2024-09-10The first volume in a two-book series about each of the atomic bomb drops that ended the Pacific War based on years of irreplicable personal interviews with survivors to tell a story of devastation and resilience.
Reds by ISBN: 9781541620032Publication Date: 2024-06-04In Reds, historian Maurice Isserman focuses on the deeply contradictory nature of the history of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), a movement that attracted egalitarian idealists and bred authoritarian zealots. Founded in 1919, the CPUSA fought for a just society in America: members organized powerful industrial unions, protested racism, and moved the nation left. At the same time, Communists maintained unwavering faith in the USSR's claims to be a democratic workers' state and came to be regarded as agents of a hostile foreign power. Following Nikita Khrushchev's revelation of Joseph Stalin's crimes, however, doubt in Soviet leadership erupted within the CPUSA, leading to the organization's decline into political irrelevance. This is the balanced and definitive account of an essential chapter in the history of radical politics in the United States.
