wunder beta

🧐 Questioning Historical Sources

Before you trust an old source, ask who made it, when, and why — then check it against other sources to see if the facts line up.

lessons

~20 min

to learn

🏛️ History

subject

Ages 6–12

level

Start the course →

What you’ll learn

Ask Three QuestionsAsk who made a source, when, and why, and explain how the answers change its trustworthiness.Before trusting a source from the past, historians ask three questions: who made it, when they made it, and why. A source made by the winning side, or made long after the event, may tell a bent story. Knowing who created a source and for what purpose changes how much weight it should carry.
Check It Against OthersCorroborate a fact by checking whether sources agree, and investigate why they might not.Even after questioning a source, historians corroborate it — they check it against other sources. When several independent sources agree, a fact is more trustworthy. When they disagree, that is a clue to dig deeper: someone may have misremembered, wanted to look good, or seen a different part of the event.
Be the DetectiveCombine questioning and corroboration to judge competing accounts of an event.Being a source detective means doing both steps: first question a source (who, when, why), then check it against other sources. Applied to two reports of one event — like a winning and a losing team describing the same day — this shows why you can't trust a single account alone, and how comparing them reveals a fuller truth.

Questions this course answers

What are the three questions to ask about a historical source?

Ask who made a source, when they made it, and why — the answers shape how much to trust it.

Why does WHO wrote a source matter?

The writer's viewpoint and purpose can bend how they tell the story.

What does it mean to 'corroborate' a source?

Corroboration means checking a source against others; agreement makes a fact more trustworthy.

Three different sources all say it rained on the big day. What can you conclude?

When several independent sources agree, the fact is much more likely to be true.

If two trustworthy sources disagree, a good historian should...

Disagreement is a clue to investigate — maybe someone misremembered or had a reason to change the story.

Grounded in trusted sources

Library of Congress
Stanford History Education Group
BBC Bitesize

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

Related History courses

🗣️When Stories About the Past Disagree 🔍Evidence from the Past ⚖️Slavery and Women in Greece and Rome 🦠The Black Death 🛡️The Crusades 🏛️The Fall of the Roman Republic 📜The Magna Carta ⛪The Medieval Church

Wunder is a personalized learn-anything platform — tell it any topic and it builds a beautiful, fact-checked course in minutes, with narration, a knowledge check, and a college-style University track.

Browse more History courses · All topics · Home