“The moral of this Shakespearean tale? Always trust your primary sources!”
VERY NOW AND AGAIN IN HISTORY, CERTAIN things need restating. It's an obvious point, but like journalists, historians build their picture of the past using sources. They distinguish between primary and second‑ ary sources, sources you can trust, others maybe you cannot. And primary sources – first hand, contemporary, authoritative, corroborated – are the basis of any historical narrative. This is a
