Overview
Comparative Analysis of Primary Documents
Due by Sunday, November 3 by 11:59pm Using 2-4 additional documents within the same archive as the first document you chose for the Analysis of a Primary Document assignment, think about your documents together as a historical source and separately as historical sources; how, why, and by and for whom were they created; and whether there are omissions that might impact their use in answering scholarly questions. In a memo, consider the following numbered questions (with the lettered questions guiding your answers) using between 800 and1000 words. Attach a copy of your chosen documents at the beginning of your memo. 1. For each document, briefly explain who composed the document, for whom, and why? a. How reliable was the writer of the document? b. What kinds of constraints (institutional, cultural, legal, or otherwise) might they have been writing under? How might these have affected the document? c. Are there biases in the document? How might we check for them? d. How does the intended audience impact how the composer of the document composed the document (writing, style, substance, biases)? 2. What makes these documents comparable and how can you compare them? a. Is this a within-case comparison or a case comparison? b. Along what axes are you able to make comparisons? Contrasts? 3. What does the comparison tell us? a. Are there differences between these documents that call into question certain aspects of each other? Are there contradictions or areas of confusion that arise when reading them together? So what? 4. How can we as comparative and historical sociologists use these documents individually and together? a. What are the possible uses of this kind of document? Does it tell us directly about the past? b. Does it provide a window into cultural norms or institutional activities? c. How do these answer change when you view the document alone and when you view the documents through a comparative lens? 5. What are some new questions that comparative and historical sociologists could ask and answer? a. How do new questions arise about the primary document when you add comparisons? b. What questions no longer make sense when you add comparisons?
https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/2119...
(this is the same archive as the last assignment but make sure to use two different sources)
(last time you used "appeal to comrade brothers and sisters in america" so this time use two different sources and make sure to attach them to them to the bottom of the page)