Which of the following items is commonly used as a primary source for studying a historical event?

• A. Biographies
• B. Diaries
• C. Textbooks about the period written later
• D. Newspaper column after the event

Answer: (B)

Primary sources are original materials created at the time of the event or by someone with direct experience. A diary fits this best because it provides a first-person, contemporaneous account—tracking what the writer saw, thought, and felt as things happened. It offers direct insight and details that later summaries or analyses can’t fully reproduce.

Biographies are written after events, drawing on various sources to tell someone’s life story, so they’re considered secondary. Textbooks about the period are also secondary, since they synthesize evidence and interpretation after researching the topic. A newspaper column written after the event can be a report of what happened, but when it’s clearly after the fact, it tends to reflect interpretation or hindsight rather than the immediate experience, making diaries still the clearest example of a primary source.