From: Anonymous Seven
Date: 1/20/00
Time: 8:38:39 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.175.30
Anonymous Seven History
The historical record can be both huge and limited. There is a countless number of evidence that allows us to look into the past. Private individuals leave behind many pieces of evidence every day. Checks to e-mails document one's activity. Public events are well documented. Events like court cases and elections receive media attention therefore they may have more historical significance. But with all the evidence left behind so much is not noted, lost, or destroyed giving us a limited view of history. The evidence that historians use are both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources like artifacts and photographs tend to be more reliable because they are actual records from the past. Historians also rely on published documents and oral traditions and histories though they can be less reliable due to the creators biases. Secondary sources are things like textbooks that are an author's interpretation of the historical facts Tying these sources together gives us what historians call the historical record.