PRINCIPLES FOR
EVALUATING AND CRITICIZING HISTORICAL DATA:

1. Multiply Sources

2. Integrate Sources by Comparing Them
         a) With manuscript copies, collate them
         b) With documents
                  --Compare sources with each other
                  --Check against calendars
                  --Check against standard reference books
                  --Check against your own knowledge of the period

3. Evaluating the Relative Quality of Your Sources
         a) Distance from the subject
                  --Prefer the primary source to the secondary source: i.e. the eyewitness to the hearsay account
                  --Prefer the contemporary to the later source: i.e. the diary to the memoire, the contemporary chronicler to the later historian
                  --Prefer the socially near to the socially distant
                  --Prefer the geographically proximate to the geographically distant
          b) Expertise: Prefer the expert to the inexpert
         c) Prefer the unbiased to the biased; compensate for bias when necessary, privileging sources that testify against their normal biases
         d) Reject forgery, lies and fraud (except as evidence of the mentality of forgerers, liars, and swindlers).