ABSTRACT
The use of source material is more often defended as an introduction to the historian's craft than as a path to knowledge of events. The quantity of source material published proves the eagerness with which 'inquiry methods' are being adopted. Much of it also shows the difficulty of applying these methods to history. Integrated studies can easily be a formless adding up of information, a pooling of material without the distinctive methods which gave that material life. Fear of such formlessness lies behind demands that social studies teaching be firmly based on the methods and concepts of the social sciences, so avoiding the kind of syllabus which David Riessman has called 'sheer piety and social slops'. The case for using printed source material in national and international history for other purposes than to illustrate a narrative is less often presented, seeming open to serious objections which will also be considered.
