A Level History Source Questions

I'm absolutely useless at this type of question and I come here in drastic need of help.

Source 1:It was quite clear that the elite of the whole capital of Munich was present. Hitler was biting his fingernails and occasionally looking sideways at the platform where Kahr and Lossow sat. Kahr was on his feet, droning away at some incomprehensible and boring speech when the door behind us flew open and in burst Goring with about 25 Brown shirts with guns. Hitler began to plough his way towards the platform and the rest us surged forward behind him. Hitler clambered on to a chair and fired a round at the ceiling. He then stated "The national revolution has broken out. The German Army is with us. Our flag is flying on its barracks. The Bavarian Government will be removed. The government of the November Criminals is going to be overthrown and the direction of policy in the national government in Berlin is going to be taken over by me."

Study the source.How useful is it as evidence for an historian studying the outbreak of the Munich Putsch of November 1923?

I literally have no idea on how to tackle this question. How do I go about this type of question? I'm a member of Coursework.info and I haven't found anything particularly helpful on it regarding this. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Reply 1

blackmillie

I haven't done this type of question since GCSE

How useful is it as evidence for an historian studying the outbreak of the Munich Putsch of November 1923?

Paragraph one you would look at the proveinance of the source:
I.E. who wrote it, what it is (book, speech), when it was written, where it was written (may be incorprated in to who as in a British Journalist).
Take each one of these and evaluate each of them e.g. if it's a Brirtsh Journalist you then incorporate knowledge of things such as censorship, facts may be concealed from the public; the attitude of the writer - to mock their enemies and therefore may be biased and so less useful for an overall view however it does show a british person's opinion. (My example isn't relevant to the source you gave).

Think of what it isn't useful for and what it is useful for.

Then look at the content; use the content and quotes to back up the statements you have made about the proveinance.

Also look at how relevant the article actually is to the Munich Putsch - if there is not much on it then it is not so useful.

I'm not sure if this will totally help you but remember to look at who, what, when and where. Remember to use your own knowledge and the content of the source to back up your statements.

To conclude judge whether it would be useful and who it would be useful to and what it would be useful to show (e.g. a biased British opinion).