Who invented the light bulb? If you think Thomas Edison did, you're one of millions who have wrong information about the history of lighting. Electric light bulbs actually existed for fifty years before Edison presented his version, and he didn't even invent that one. Edison stole the design from a British inventor named Joseph Swan, who ended up suing Edison for patent violation--and winning! So why does everyone give credit to Thomas Edison for giving us the light bulb? Why do so many people believe that Henry Ford invented the automobile, or that Christopher Columbus discovered America?
In this lesson, we're going to look at how historians evaluate sources to figure out whether or not they're true and accurate. A source is simply a written or spoken account--it's a source of information about an event. As we'll see, sources of history can come from people who were there when the event happened, or people thinking about the event years later. Sources can come from people who are telling the truth, or people who think they know what happened but are wrong, or even people who are lying outright!
Here's an example of the different types of sources historians might find while investigating a mystery, and how they could use them to discover new details.
Although Genghis Khan is one of the most important and influential conquerors in all of history,
historians actually know very little about him. His early life is especially mysterious; in fact, no one
knows for sure what year he was born.
Imagine you are a historian, and you set out to discover Genghis Khan’s birthday. You travel to Mongolia
to begin your research, and start to gather sources.
Some sources you find are written accounts or paintings from people who lived at about the same time
period as Genghis Khan. While these sources are extremely valuable because they come from real
witnesses to history, you begin to see that they’re not always accurate. One says that Genghis Khan was
born holding an eagle feather, and another says his mother was a goddess!
Other sources come from historians who wrote about Genghis Khan’s life centuries after he died. These
sources are also incredibly useful, because scholars have pieced together layers and layers of written
accounts and historical artifacts to create an accurate story. Still, none of them can say for sure when
Genghis Khan was born.
Finally, you uncover an ancient engraving in a forgotten manuscript. It shows Genghis Khan at 35 years
old, and is dated with the year 1197. You’ve found strong evidence that Genghis Khan was born in 1162!
Question
What role do historians and scholars play in writing history?
