إرفنج ضد ليبستدات David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial:
Electronic Edition, by Richard J. EvansTable of Contents |<< 2.3
Professional historia...||< 2.1 Publishing career||2.5
Reputation >||2.6 Conclusion >>| 2.4 Documents and sources 2.4.1
Historians customarily distinguish between primary sources,
which were produced at the time of the events to which they
relate, and secondary sources, which were produced afterwards
and rely on memory or on the work of other historians. Clearly,
primary sources are prima facie regarded as more reliable,
although they must of course be assessed critically as to their
authenticity, their authorship and their purpose. As far as
secondary sources are concerned, the greater the distance in
time from the events to which they relate, the more critically
they must be examined. On the other hand, evidence given after
the event in the form of testimony in a public trial is
relatively sound because it has been given in public,
participants in the trial have had the opportunity t