Primary sources are what might be called the "building blocks" of history. They are, by definition, sources that were produced at the time being studied. Most primary sources are written--government documents, letters, newspapers, court records, and so on. But works of art can be primary sources, as can a variety of different artifacts. Still, the primary sources we use in the classroom are almost always texts. Secondary sources, on the other hand, are commentaries or studies of a historical subject produced after the fact. So if you were studying the American Civil War, a primary source would be the text of the Emancipation Proclamation or a soldier's letter home to his family. A secondary source would usually be a book about the Civil War like James Macpherson's Battle Cry of Freedom or Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering. When historians study history, they use primary sources, but they also build upon (and argue against) what other historians have written in secondary sources.
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