Using sources: reliability, utility and interpretation
Learn Using sources: reliability, utility and interpretation for Year 9 pupils (ages 13–14). Free practice questions, lessons and worked examples — aligned to the UK National Curriculum.
What you'll learn
- 1
When you use a historical source, ask three things: who made it, when, and why.
- 2
A wartime government poster is not reliable as a record of how people felt — it was made to persuade. But it is very useful evidence of what the government WANTED people to feel.
- 3
Why is a propaganda poster still useful to a historian?
- 4
What does "utility" mean when judging a source?
- 5
Apply it: a biased source is not a useless source. A propaganda poster is unreliable about facts, but extremely useful evidence of what a government wanted people to believe.
- 6
A wartime propaganda poster is most useful as evidence of what?
- 7
Should a biased source be thrown away?
Practise Using sources: reliability, utility and interpretation with Whizlo
Free AI-tutored lessons, unlimited practice questions, and progress tracking for ages 13–14. Aligned to the UK National Curriculum.