http://web.archive.org/web/20001215223500/http://www.humanities.ccny.cuny.edu/history/reader/analects.htm

I would like you to engage in a primary source analysis. Historians do such analyses all the time. It is one of their main ways of understanding what strengths and limitations the sources that tell them about the past have and how reliable those sources may be. Focusing on just one of the primary sources above, please answer the following questions in the Discussion Forum:

What is the document’s tone?What words or phrases convey it?

What are three key points (assertions, judgments, conclusions)?

What assumptions does the writer make?

What values does the writer express? Might they distort his account?

Do you think the document is reliable? Why or why not?

Please limit your answers to all five questions to 500 words total to start.