Practice question · True or false
Source criticism is the preliminary stage completed before the historical argument begins.
Hints
- The weighing is the argument, not a preliminary to it.
- Nobody ever has sources good enough to skip it.
Show the answer
False
Why
It is the argument. Nobody ever has good sources, the case is built out of the weighing itself, not after it.
Practise Source Criticism in Practice
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Source Criticism in Practice
- Complete the practice.
- Put the questions of source criticism in their working order.
- Sort each situation: strong corroboration or illusory corroboration?
- Two sources diverge exactly where their interests diverge. What follows?
- Four independent chronicles agree on the size of an army. How much does the agreement add?
- Why is purposeless detail often the most trustworthy part of a document?
- What makes a historical argument honest?
- Why is admitting what the evidence cannot settle a strength?