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48-571: Much of the primary source material used by the group comes from Israeli government papers that were newly available as a result of being declassified thirty years after the founding of Israel. The perception of a new historiographical current emerged with the publications of four scholars in the 1980s: Benny Morris , Ilan Pappé , Avi Shlaim and Simha Flapan . Subsequently, many other historians and historical sociologists, among them Tom Segev , Hillel Cohen , Baruch Kimmerling , Joel Migdal , Idith Zertal and Shlomo Sand have been identified with

96-410: A biography of a historian, that historian's publications would be primary sources. Documentary films can be considered a secondary source or primary source, depending on how much the filmmaker modifies the original sources. The Lafayette College Library provides a synopsis of primary sources in several areas of study: The definition of a primary source varies depending upon the academic discipline and

144-419: A broader sense primary sources also include artifacts like photographs, newsreels, coins, paintings or buildings created at the time. Historians may also take archaeological artifacts and oral reports and interviews into consideration. Written sources may be divided into three types. In historiography, when the study of history is subject to historical scrutiny, a secondary source becomes a primary source. For

192-453: A certain topic. Whether a source is regarded as primary or secondary in a given context may change, depending upon the present state of knowledge within the field. For example, if a document refers to the contents of a previous but undiscovered letter, that document may be considered "primary", since it is the closest known thing to an original source; but if the letter is later found, it may then be considered "secondary" In some instances,

240-411: A court case may be truthful but may still be distorted to support or oppose the position of one of the parties. Many sources can be considered either primary or secondary, depending on the context in which they are examined. Moreover, the distinction between primary and secondary sources is subjective and contextual, so that precise definitions are difficult to make. A book review, when it contains

288-444: A narrative that may not be accurate. For any source, primary or secondary, it is important for the researcher to evaluate the amount and direction of bias. As an example, a government report may be an accurate and unbiased description of events, but it may be censored or altered for propaganda or cover-up purposes. The facts can be distorted to present the opposing sides in a negative light. Barristers are taught that evidence in

336-415: A person with direct knowledge of a situation, or a document written by such a person. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources , which cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources. Generally, accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight are secondary. A secondary source may also be a primary source depending on how it is used. For example, a memoir would be considered

384-445: A primary source in research concerning its author or about their friends characterized within it, but the same memoir would be a secondary source if it were used to examine the culture in which its author lived. "Primary" and "secondary" should be understood as relative terms, with sources categorized according to specific historical contexts and what is being studied. In scholarly writing, an important objective of classifying sources

432-471: A primary source is not necessarily more of an authority or better than a secondary source. There can be bias and tacit unconscious views that twist historical information. Original material may be... prejudiced, or at least not exactly what it claims to be. The errors may be corrected in secondary sources, which are often subjected to peer review , can be well documented, and are often written by historians working in institutions where methodological accuracy

480-672: A primary source was perpetrated by Sir Edward Dering , who placed false monumental brasses in a parish church . In 1986, Hugh Trevor-Roper authenticated the Hitler Diaries , which were later proved to be forgeries. Recently , forged documents have been placed within the UK National Archives in the hope of establishing a false provenance . However, historians dealing with recent centuries rarely encounter forgeries of any importance. Yoav Gelber Yoav Gelber ( Hebrew : יואב גלבר ; born September 25, 1943)

528-651: A significant change has occurred in how the Palestinian refugee issue is viewed in Israeli society since the late 1990s, with a more complex narrative being more accepted; it recognizes there were instances where Israeli forces expelled Palestinians with the knowledge and authorization of the Israeli leadership. Ben-Josef Hirsch attributes that change to the work of the New Historians and the resulting debate. The New Historians gained respect and sparked debate in

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576-544: A summary of a book or letter has survived. Potential difficulties with primary sources have the result that history is usually taught in schools using secondary sources. Historians studying the modern period with the intention of publishing an academic article prefer to go back to available primary sources and to seek new (in other words, forgotten or lost) ones. Primary sources, whether accurate or not, offer new input into historical questions and most modern history revolves around heavy use of archives and special collections for

624-676: Is a professor of history at the University of Haifa , and was formerly a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1943 and studied world and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is an expert on the history of the Israel Defense Forces . Gelber is also known to have been a vocal opponent of Ilan Pappé when the latter

672-484: Is able to extrapolate the Arab positions from the Israeli documentation" results in "obvious distortions". Israeli historian Yoav Gelber criticized New Historians in an interview, saying that aside from Benny Morris, they did not contribute to the research of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in any way. He did however note that they contributed to the public discourse about the war. Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch argues that, prior to

720-412: Is an artifact , document , diary , manuscript , autobiography , recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Similar definitions can be used in library science and other areas of scholarship, although different fields have somewhat different definitions. In journalism , a primary source can be

768-437: Is based on primary sources, as evaluated by the community of scholars, who report their findings in books, articles, and papers. Arthur Marwick says "Primary sources are absolutely fundamental to history." Ideally, a historian will use all available primary sources that were created by the people involved at the time being studied. In practice, some sources have been destroyed, while others are not available for research. Perhaps

816-453: Is called diplomatics . For centuries, popes used the forged Donation of Constantine to bolster the Papacy's secular power. Among the earliest forgeries are false Anglo-Saxon charters , a number of 11th- and 12th-century forgeries produced by monasteries and abbeys to support a claim to land where the original document had been lost or never existed. One particularly unusual forgery of

864-645: Is important to the future of the author's career and reputation. Historians consider the accuracy and objectivity of the primary sources that they are using and historians subject both primary and secondary sources to a high level of scrutiny. A primary source such as a journal entry (or the online version, a blog), at best, may only reflect one individual's opinion on events, which may or may not be truthful, accurate, or complete. Participants and eyewitnesses may misunderstand events or distort their reports, deliberately or not, to enhance their own image or importance. Such effects can increase over time, as people create

912-459: Is only with great caution that [the author] may proceed to make use of secondary sources." In addition, primary sources avoid the problem inherent in secondary sources in which each new author may distort and put a new spin on the findings of prior cited authors. A history, whose author draws conclusions from other than primary sources or secondary sources actually based on primary sources, is by definition fiction and not history at all. However,

960-437: Is passed from one author to another. In scientific literature , a primary source, or the "primary literature", is the original publication of a scientist's new data, results, and theories. In political history , primary sources are documents such as official reports, speeches, pamphlets, posters, or letters by participants, official election returns, and eyewitness accounts. In the history of ideas or intellectual history ,

1008-436: Is to determine their independence and reliability. In contexts such as historical writing, it is almost always advisable to use primary sources and that "if none are available, it is only with great caution that [the author] may proceed to make use of secondary sources." Sreedharan believes that primary sources have the most direct connection to the past and that they "speak for themselves" in ways that cannot be captured through

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1056-524: The First Intifada , and the start of negotiations with the PLO , as factors that challenged the assurance of some in the state's official version. Aside from these reasons, Adam Comon writes that there were other influences for the emergence. He cites sociologists such as Baruch Kimmerling, Uri Ram, and Gershon Shafir as being "heavily influenced" by the 1970s–80s international academic climate which

1104-646: The World Digital Library and Flickr Commons have items from all over the world. Trove has primary sources from Australia. Most primary source materials are not digitized and may only be represented online with a record or finding aid . Both digitized and not digitized materials can be found through catalogs such as WorldCat , the Library of Congress catalog , the National Archives catalog , and so on. History as an academic discipline

1152-516: The 1990s. A 1998 series on state television marking Israel's 50th anniversary drew much from their work, as did textbooks introduced to ninth graders in 1999. However, this influence was limited to the late 1980s and early 1990s. While still influential in Western academia, the 'new history' narrative and post-Zionism have remained marginalized in Israel. Critics of the New Historians have acknowledged

1200-440: The Israeli national ethos. Post-Zionists differ from Zionists on many important details, such as the status of the law of return and other sensitive issues. Post-Zionists view the Palestinian dispossession as central to the creation of the state of Israel. Baruch Kimmerling criticised the focus on "post-Zionism", arguing that debates around the term were "nonsense and semi-professional and mainly political". According to Kimmerling

1248-538: The actions of Israeli political leaders and developments in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process . Some commentators have argued that the historiography of the New Historians has both drawn inspiration from, and lent impetus to, a movement known as post-Zionism. Generally the term "post-Zionist" is self-identified by Jewish Israelis who are critical of the Zionist enterprise and are seen by Zionists as undermining

1296-477: The advent of the New Historians, "Israelis held to a one-sided historical narrative of the circumstances leading to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and that any other counter-narratives were taboo." According to Ben-Josef Hirsch, the conclusions of the New Historians, and the wide-ranging debate that they provoked, ended that taboo and changed the way in which the Palestinian refugee problem and its causes were viewed in Israel. Ben-Josef Hirsch says that

1344-469: The available documents relate to England and Wales. Some digital copies of primary sources are available from the National Archives of Scotland . Many County Record Offices collections are included in Access to Archives, while others have their own online catalogs. Many County Record Offices will supply digital copies of documents. In other regions, Europeana has digitized materials from across Europe while

1392-426: The context in which it is used. Although many primary sources remain in private hands, others are located in archives , libraries , museums , historical societies , and special collections . These can be public or private. Some are affiliated with universities and colleges, while others are government entities. Materials relating to one area might be located in many different institutions. These can be distant from

1440-570: The digitized primary source collections of many libraries, archives, and museums. The Internet Archive also has primary source materials in many formats. In the UK, the National Archives provides a consolidated search of its own catalog and a wide variety of other archives listed on the Access to Archives index. Digital copies of various classes of documents at the National Archives (including wills) are available from DocumentsOnline. Most of

1488-487: The displacement happened in the heat of war. According to the New Historians, Israel and Arab countries each have their share of responsibility for the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Palestinian plight. The writings of the New Historians have come under repeated criticism, both from traditional Israeli historians who accuse them of fabricating Zionist misdeeds, and from Arab or pro-Arab writers who accuse them of whitewashing

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1536-408: The environment this fostered inhibited the research of younger academics who were fearful of being labeled as belonging to one of the two camps. On a few occasions there have been heated public debates between the New Historians and their detractors. The most notable: Primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source )

1584-469: The filter of secondary sources. In scholarly writing, the objective of classifying sources is to determine the independence and reliability of sources. Though the terms primary source and secondary source originated in historiography as a way to trace the history of historical ideas, they have been applied to many other fields. For example, these ideas may be used to trace the history of scientific theories, literary elements, and other information that

1632-501: The main primary sources are books, essays, and letters written by intellectuals; these intellectuals may include historians, whose books and essays are therefore considered primary sources for the intellectual historian, though they are secondary sources in their own topical fields. In religious history , the primary sources are religious texts and descriptions of religious ceremonies and rituals . A study of cultural history could include fictional sources such as novels or plays. In

1680-479: The movement. Initially dismissed by the public, the New Historians gained legitimacy in Israel in the 1990s. Some of their conclusions have been incorporated into the political ideology of post-Zionists . While influential in Western academia, the 'new history' narrative and post-Zionism have remained marginalized in Israel. Benny Morris coined the phrase "new historians" in a 1988 paper to describe Ilan Pappé, Avi Shlaim, Simha Flapan, and himself. According to Pappé,

1728-772: The newly available archival material when he wrote his book: "When writing The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947–1949 in the mid-1980s, I had no access to the materials in the IDFA [ IDF Archive] or the Haganah Archive and precious little to first-hand military materials deposited elsewhere." Anita Shapira stated that both Avi Shlaim and Benny Morris "make only meager use of original Arab sources" with most such references being in "English translation", and that Shlaim's claim that he "has no need of Arab documents", and Morris' claim that "he

1776-434: The only eyewitness reports of an event may be memoirs , autobiographies, or oral interviews that were taken years later. Sometimes the only evidence relating to an event or person in the distant past was written or copied decades or centuries later. Manuscripts that are sources for classical texts can be copies of documents or fragments of copies of documents. This is a common problem in classical studies , where sometimes only

1824-419: The opinion of the reviewer about the book rather than a summary of the book, becomes a primary source. If a historical text discusses old documents to derive a new historical conclusion, it is considered to be a primary source for the new conclusion. Examples in which a source can be both primary and secondary include an obituary or a survey of several volumes of a journal counting the frequency of articles on

1872-839: The original source of the document. For example, the Huntington Library in California houses many documents from the United Kingdom. In the US, digital copies of primary sources can be retrieved from a number of places. The Library of Congress maintains several digital collections where they can be retrieved. Some examples are American Memory and Chronicling America . The National Archives and Records Administration also has digital collections in Digital Vaults . The Digital Public Library of America searches across

1920-506: The phrase "new historians" refers to "a group of professional Israeli historians who worked on the Nakba ." Morris states the primary reason for their emergence was the opening of classified Israeli state documents. Shlaim and Pappé additionally cite the shift in the political climate of Israel after the 1982 Lebanon War as a second factor for their emergence. Pappé cites Israel's unsuccessful 1982 assault on Lebanon, Israel's "brutal" response to

1968-498: The purpose of finding useful primary sources. A work on history is not likely to be taken seriously as a scholarship if it only cites secondary sources, as it does not indicate that original research has been done. However, primary sources – particularly those from before the 20th century – may have hidden challenges. "Primary sources, in fact, are usually fragmentary, ambiguous, and very difficult to analyze and interpret." Obsolete meanings of familiar words and social context are among

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2016-559: The reason for identifying a text as the "primary source" may devolve from the fact that no copy of the original source material exists, or that it is the oldest extant source for the information cited. Historians must occasionally contend with forged documents that purport to be primary sources. These forgeries have usually been constructed with a fraudulent purpose, such as promulgating legal rights, supporting false pedigrees, or promoting particular interpretations of historic events. The investigation of documents to determine their authenticity

2064-640: The shift in academia. Avi Beker , writing in the Jerusalem Post , states that the effect of the New Historian's work on the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict "cannot be exaggerated". He says the work of the New Historians is now the mainstream in academia, and that their influence was not confined to intellectual circles. To illustrate his point that New Historians were given legitimacy, he cites examples from changes to Israeli school text books to

2112-477: The term has been arbitrarily applied to any research on Israeli history, society or politics that was critical or perceived to be critical. Kimmerling saw this discussion as damaging to research in these areas because it took the focus away from the quality and merit of scholarship and onto whether the work should be characterized as Zionist or post-Zionist. Further, Kimmerling asserted that academics were diverted away from serious research onto polemical issues and that

2160-486: The traditional Israeli narrative, that Arabs were responsible for the exodus of the Palestinians, held from 1948 to the late 1990s. She says that the arguments of the New Historians significantly challenged that narrative, leading to a broad debate both in academia and in the wider public discourse, including journalists and columnists, politicians, public figures, and the general public. Ben-Josef Hirsch believes that

2208-416: The traps that await the newcomer to historical studies. For this reason, the interpretation of primary texts is typically taught as part of an advanced college or postgraduate history course, although advanced self-study or informal training is also possible. In many fields and contexts, such as historical writing, it is almost always advisable to use primary sources if possible, and "if none are available, it

2256-469: The truth about Zionist misbehaviour. Efraim Karsh has accused them of ignoring questions which he says are critical: namely, who started the war, what their intentions were, who was forced to mount a defence and what Israel's casualties were. Early in 2002, the most famous of the new historians, Benny Morris, publicly reversed some of his personal political positions, though he did not withdraw any of his historical writings. Morris says he did not use much of

2304-427: Was a "high tide of postmodern theories and multi-narrative histories." These sociologists introduced new concepts into the discourse surrounding Israeli history, including Zionism as colonialism . Avi Shlaim described the New Historians' differences from what he termed the "official history" in the following terms: Pappé suggests that the Zionist leaders intended to displace most Palestinian Arabs; Morris believes

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