Source
features Underlying questions
Why are the questions signicant
for analysis?
Suggested instructional
strategies to develop prociency
Authorship Who wrote the
document and what is
his or her relationship
to the historical event
being addressed?
What was the author’s
position in society?
Do we know anything
about this person
beyond what is provided
in the source that would
aect the reliability of
the document?
The author of every document
is a unique individual with a
unique point of view. The author’s
relationship to an event (such as
distance in time or experience
from that event) aects his or her
understanding of that event. Even
an author who seeks to write an
objective and truthful account
of an event will be limited by
his or her ability to understand
what happened, to accurately
remember the event, and to
determine what was signicant
about the event and what can be
left out of the account. To make
generalizations about the past,
we must rst understand who the
author of any given document
was. If we do not know who the
author was, we must make an
educated guess.
If the author is known, ask
students to research the author.
If the author is unknown, ask
students what the content and/
or format, along with the date
the document was produced,
suggest about authorship.
In either case, discuss how
knowing who the author is
(or might be) aects how we
understand the content.
Ask students how an author of
a dierent social status or with
a dierent political point of view
might respond to the document.
Give students some information
about the author, and ask
which piece of information
might render the document less
reliable as an objective account.
Author’s
point of view
What was the author’s
point of view?
Does the author’s point
of view undermine the
explicit purpose of the
source?
How can you tell, if at
all, what other beliefs
the author might hold?
As discussed below, all sources
have a purpose, which the author
is usually aware of. However, he
or she may not be aware of how
his or her point of view shapes a
document. Factors that may shape
point of view include aspects of
the creator’s identity (e.g., gender,
religion, ethnicity, political
aliation), his or her relation to
the event (e.g., actor, bystander,
critic), and the distance in time
between the event and the
document’s creation. For example,
a humanist extolling the values of
education to create civic-minded
individuals may assume that all
individuals have the leisure time
necessary to pursue an education
because he is addressing his
work to other men of elite social
status, like himself. He thus
introduces a bias into the source,
which may aect its reliability.
Compare two accounts of
the same event by authors
about whom a good deal of
information is known; for
example, Helen Maria Williams
and Arthur Young on the 1790
Festival of the Federation in
France. Ask students to identify
dierences in the accounts, and
discuss how what we know
about the authors can explain
these dierences.
After identifying possible biases
in a source, ask students how a
reader who shared these biases
and one who did not (or who
had dierent biases) might
respond to the source.
Compare dierent types of
sources—text, map, photograph,
painting, cartoon, chart—to
ask what we can tell about
an author’s beliefs from the
source itself.
Return to Table of Contents
© 2017 The College Board
AP European History Course and Exam Description
AP European History Instructional Approaches
187