HIST 326: The Crusades: Secondary Sources

Secondary sources interpret or analyze primary sources. Thus, they are a step removed from the event or original text. Examples of secondary sources include:

• Articles from journals
• Articles from magazines
• Articles from edited collections
• Biographies
• Book reviews
• Documentary films
• Essays in anthologies
• Literary criticism
• Popular press books
• Scholarly books

How you use a source determines whether it is a primary source or secondary source. If you are analyzing a magazine article from the 1940s to talk about what life was like during that time period, it is a primary source. However, if you are citing information from a magazine article written today about the 1940s, then it is a secondary source.

• Start your search by doing keyword searches.
• Look at the subject headings of relevant records to determine the terminology used in the database for your topic.
• Combine the keywords "review article" or "historiography" with your topic to find analyses of the scholarship on your topic.
• Use the Language Limit to remove items in languages you cannot read.
• Use the Historical Period limit to narrow your search to the time period you are researching.

Get it at Williams

Many of our databases have this button or this  button, which searches for the full-text of the article in our collections. If we don't have it electronically, look for the "Request article scan" link in the "Get It" section.