History 205 A – Summer, 2007
Primary Source Analysis
Documents of the Day
Below are links to primary source excerpts to be read and considered for class on the day with which they are listed. Primary sources are historical texts and images generated by people who witnessed the events they discuss (for example, if you wrote an op-ed piece for the Daily Egyptian about the war in Iraq, in the future historians could use your writing as a primary source for American attitudes about the war). As their title suggests, primary sources are historians’ main tools in comprehending the past, but they are not without complication. When you read each of the documents linked below as well as the books assigned for this course, or think about the images we examine in class, ask yourself the following questions:
1) Who wrote it? When? Under what circumstances?
2) Who was the audience of the document – who was intended to read it? Was it even intended to be read?
3) Why is the author(s) writing? Does he/she have an agenda? What might his/her bias be? Can we trust this source?
4) Is the work an excerpt of a longer work? Can you imagine why the editor chose this excerpt and what he/she left out?
June 12:
June 15:
June 18: Judaism – handouts in class; Jewish Relations with Rome; Paul’s letter to Galatians;
June 19: Early Christianity Martyrdom of St. Perpetua; Gospel of Mary Magdalen; Edict of Milan; Nicene Creed; Rule of St. Benedict; Mission to England
June 20: Christianity goes on the Road: St. Augustine’s Confessions; June 21: Islam – Qu’ran; Qu’ran on Women
June 26: The Institutional Church – Bede’s Life of Gregory the Great; Urban VIII Preaches Crusade; Unam Sanctam
June 27: Courtly Culture – Islamic
Influence; Capellanus’ Art of
Courtly Love
June 29: Church Culture – Scholastics and Abelard; Poetry of St. Francis; Franciscan Order
July 2: Economic Revolution - Guilds, Fairs, Trade
July 3: 14th Century Crisis – The Bubonic Plague; Joan of Arc; Catherine of Siena
July 5: Contexts for Exploration – Mandeville’s Travels; Marco Polo