Making Sense of History (Web) presents two approaches that will help students and teachers make effective use of primary sources.

„Making Sense of Documents“ includes sections on specific types of primary sources, such as oral history, maps, letters and diaries, advertisements, and documentary photography; historians offer tips for analyzing online primary sources and provide a guide to online and print sources. „Scholars in Action“ allows students to interpret a specific primary source (e.g., letters of labor activist Sarah Bagley) before listening to a historian discuss the document.

Making Sense of …

… Letters and Diaries
This guide offers an overview of letters and diaries as historical sources and how historians use them, tips on what questions to ask when reading… [more]

… American Popular Song
Written by Ronald G. Walters and John Spitzer, Making Sense of American Popular Song provides a place for students and teachers to begin working with… [more]

… Documentary Photography
In this guide, James Curtis helps students and teachers understand the documentary images that often illustrate textbooks but are almost never… [more]

… Oral History
Written by Linda Shopes, this guide presents an overview of oral history and ways historians use it, tips on what questions to ask when reading or… [more]

… Films
Written by Tom Gunning, this guide offers an overview of early twentieth-century film and how historians use it, tips on what questions to ask when… [more]

… Advertisements
This guide, written by Daniel Pope, offers an overview of advertisements as historical sources and how historians use them, a brief history of… [more]

… Maps
This guide offers an overview of the history of maps and how historians use them, a breakdown of the elements of a map, tips on what questions to ask… [more]

… Numbers
Written by Gary J. Kornblith, this guide offers an overview of quantitative methods, how historians use historical data, and step-by-step… [more]