There several differences between primary and secondary sources.  Primary sources tend to de reliable since they tend to come directly from someone who was at the event and witness what was going on and what happened.  A primary source is the document that we have that came directly from the time that the event is talking about. The special thing about a primary source is that you can see the time period in which it was written just by how it was written.  A modern-day description of the primary source document can never do the original justice since it loses all of its charm and real connection to the past.  The last thing that is different about primary sources is that they tend to excite more interest because who wouldn’t want to read a first-hand interview with their favorite historical person.  Secondary source documents on the other hand are less reliable and more unreliable.  Second hand sources are written by someone who was not at the original event but had read the primary sources and wrote down their interpretation of it.  Secondary sources are primarily the modern take on the historical event.  Because second hand sources are by someone who was not their it’s basically a report of other reports. 

The 2 big questions so many people ask when it comes to history are why study it and why is it important.  The main answer to that is that it’s the study of the past.  We study the past so that we may not make the same mistakes again.  We are still humans just like the people living 2000 years ago we are just more likely to blow up the world.  By studying history, we can learn who we are and where we come from.  Many people now like to learn who their ancestors were and maybe without even realizing it they are studying history.  Another reason it is important to study history is that it helps us understand people and the society in which they live, why we do what we do. Understanding change is another way that studying history is important.  If we don’t understand that change is inevitable and always happening around us, we cannot get very far in life.  Along with understanding how the world, people, and societies work, the study of history can also be beautiful.  History is an art and when its told well there’s much to be seen within it.  The study of history also promotes thoughts about human experience.  “History” is “teaching by example” (Sterns, 1998).