laneolaneo1 Posted July 31, 2008 Report Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hello all, first post etc. etc. I'm writing my Extended Essay on Stalin's purges, and will examine the extent to which they were centrally planned and the extent to which they became self-perpetuating. Here's my problem: I have a mountain of books in front of me, and they all have their own views. I could quite happily cut out quotes from each book, talk about them, and there's the essay, done, finished. But- Is it enough to take what one historian has said and call it a source? Surely, as a historian, I should be examining primary evidence myself, and formulating my own views and conclusions? After all, one of the books I have right here says something like: 'All the books you may have read up till now are wrong. I'm right.' I guess what I'm trying to say is- is it enough just to have an essay of other people's essays, or for history should I be thinking a bit wider in terms of collecting sources? What did you include as your sources? *Waffle, waffle* Thanks for your time, replies and time again. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
__inthemaking Posted July 31, 2008 Report Share Posted July 31, 2008 I did history for my EE too. I used mostly secondary sources but also primary sources. My primary sources consisted of: telegrams, war messages, interview transcripts and journal entries. For my secondary sources, I had: newspaper articles, books, and internet sources (but it was a BBC site so it was pretty reliable). For history, you should definitely have some primary sources. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonneteer_Trombonist Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 You should probably do a bit of research on the historian and his/her credibility. Ask yourself questions like: what other topics has this person researched? Are they related to one another/related to my project? Does he/she make it a habit of denouncing other research on this topic? How different is his/her research, and can you find any clear evidence disputing this "new" history? Using your discretion when searching for essays will probably help you in deciding whether or not you need more sources thank just essays. Saying that, it's usually a wise idea to find some primary sources, or sources which are cited by a lot of essays, in determining the credibility of any historian. Good luck. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBStuck Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 i did an english A1 EE, but i had the same question as yu in a way. i formulated my ideas form the primary souce (in my case a novel), and then supported what i said with literary critics (in your case historians.) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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