Secondary sources

What is the first thing you do when you want to find out about what happened in the past? Most people would probably say that they would look in a book, ask a teacher or other expert or check it out on the internet. These are all excellent sources of information. Resources like this can tell us not only historical facts but we can also use them to find out what other people think about what happened, in other words their interpretation of history. This type of information is called secondary evidence. We’re going to find out more about using secondary sources but try doing this exercise first.

Finished? Excellent! Now that you can recognise secondary sources let’s find out about how they can be used by looking at some information about the First World War.