Questions on how useful a source is to a historian are one of the most commonly asked assessment exercises at GCSE. Developing the skill to assess the utility of sources is a key part of being an effective historian. The usefulness of a source can be analysed in a number of ways and you need to examine various aspects of a source to help you decide how useful it is.
You will often be asked to examine a photograph and decide on its utility. Written sources too can be examined. You will always be helped by looking at both the content and the provenance of the source — you need to be confident at assessing both of these elements to answer a utility question effectively. Here we will be looking at sources from the USA in the 1920s and 1930s to help us develop this skill.
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