What is the best historical primary source of information?

Question

Most people believe in history. For example Caesar. Now what is the best source of information for reliable history and why?

Answer 1

The best source is multiple sources.

In History there are always issues of accuracy and objectivity. Many old books are full of errors both intentional and unintentional. Furthermore people's writing style has changed dramatically in the modern age. In antiquity people used a lot more figurative language and symbolism and didn't talk about things as directly and scientifically.

If you get through all of that then there is still the issue of objectivity. By this I mean that every writer has a point of view and even if one tries it is very hard to stay objective and keep one's own opinions in check, there is always at least a little bit of opinion in the 'History'.

So the only way to form anything like a clear picture of the past is to piece it together from as many original sources as you can find. Its a lot like being a detective, one clue may be more important than another one but it is the aggregate of all the available data that forms the most accurate picture.


P.S. - Wikipedia has some good information on it but it is not a primary source and shouldn't be used exclusively to measure Historical accuracy.

Answer 2

Actually -- and I don't know if this is what you intended by your question -- by Wikipedia's own definition of "primary source" it does not qualify as a primary source, because a primary source is one that is essentially an original source of information rather than a text that just cites other sources.

For events in the past century+, I should think that microfilmed newspapers would be good primary sources as 1) contemporary with the event, 2) comprehensive, 3) available at most larger public libraries. If you go back to Caesar's time, the choice of true primary sources are obviously much more limited. However, many societies of the past had one or two historians of note; an example is Georgio Vasari who was noted as a chronicler of Italian Rennaissance art and was repeatedly cited by the work that I recently finished reading ("The Rennaissance" by Will Durant).

Answer 3

Wikipedia :))