Historical Investigation practice questions.

In historical methodology, what best defines a primary source?

• A source produced by a professional historian after long study
• A source from the period, made by someone with direct access
• A textbook that summarises the consensus of many scholars
• Any source that supports the historian's argument

Answer: A source from the period, made by someone with direct access

A primary source originates from the time of the events, produced by a participant or direct witness; sources written later that analyse events are secondary.

When evaluating a source's 'origin, purpose and content', which question addresses PURPOSE?

• When and where was the source produced?
• Who created the source and what was their position?
• Why was the source created and for what intended audience?
• What specific claims and details does the source contain?

Answer: Why was the source created and for what intended audience?

Purpose concerns the author's intention and target audience; origin covers who/when/where, and content covers the actual claims made.

A student's Internal Assessment claims a memoir written 40 years after the events is unreliable purely because of the time gap. What is the strongest methodological objection to this reasoning?

• Memoirs are always more reliable than contemporary documents
• Reliability cannot be judged; only usefulness matters
• The time gap is one limitation; motives and access also matter
• A 40-year gap makes the source primary, so it is automatically valuable

Answer: The time gap is one limitation; motives and access also matter

Sound evaluation weighs multiple factors (motive, access, distortion by hindsight), not a single blanket rule; a source with limitations can still have real value.

Which of the following is the clearest example of historiography rather than history itself?

• A narrative account of the causes of the First World War
• How historians' views of the war's causes changed
• A collection of soldiers' letters from 1916
• A statistical table of casualties from the war

Answer: How historians' views of the war's causes changed

Historiography studies how and why historians' interpretations differ and evolve; the other options are historical accounts or raw evidence.

In the IB History Internal Assessment, which section requires the student to reflect on the methods and challenges historians face?

• The identification and evaluation of sources
• The investigation (analysis and argument)
• The reflection
• The bibliography

Answer: The reflection

The reflection section asks the student to connect their experience to the methods, limitations and nature of the historian's work.

Why can blatant wartime propaganda still be valuable to a historian?

• It gives an objective account of military events
• It reveals a government's aims and messaging
• It should be discarded because propaganda is biased
• It proves the historian's own thesis is correct

Answer: It reveals a government's aims and messaging

Even distorted sources are valuable as evidence of intentions and mentalities; bias is not a reason to reject a source but a feature to analyse.