Primary sources are those that describe or show information about events as they are unfolding. They give us an understanding about daily life during a particular time period, and also share the mindset of the people living at a certain time in terms of what their thoughts, concerns, and opinions were.
These sources are valuable because they are eyewitness accounts; however, we also need to recognize that they represent the perspective of the person who recorded them. Therefore, we need to look at various primary sources to get a larger picture as well as take into consideration the person or group who created them.
The primary source documents in Essential Primary Sources series by Thomson Gale focus on leading social issues of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. International in scope.