WWII for Dummies, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and The Rising Sun, I believe (War As I Knew It is the Patton book, right?), although I’m not sure where you’re going with this. My best guess is that it’s a demonstration that primary sources are subject to a more varied and often stronger set of biases than secondary or tertiary sources, and that that should be kept in mind when interpreting them; is that about right?
It was a trick question (sorry!) - all media are primary sources. From the wikipedia article:
“Primary” and “secondary” are relative terms, with sources judged primary or secondary according to specific historical contexts and what is being studied.
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For example, encyclopedias are generally considered tertiary sources, but Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, originally published in the 1st century, is a primary source for information about the Roman era.
Not all of the books I mentioned are primary sources about WWII—the ones you mentioned are primary sources in other subjects. For example, WWII for Dummies is a primary source for a study of the For Dummies series, and Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a primary source for how history was generally written in the second half of the twentieth century (e.g., from the perspective of nations more so than of a random person).
So where I’m going with this is to say that reversed stupidity isn’t intelligence, but information about stupidity is information about a topic, just as legitimate information about a topic is legitimate information about a topic, even if others are stupid about that topic. Knowledge of stupidity is a type of information no different than any other, this is how it indirectly affects knowledge about which the stupid are stupid about.
WWII for Dummies, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and The Rising Sun, I believe (War As I Knew It is the Patton book, right?), although I’m not sure where you’re going with this. My best guess is that it’s a demonstration that primary sources are subject to a more varied and often stronger set of biases than secondary or tertiary sources, and that that should be kept in mind when interpreting them; is that about right?
It was a trick question (sorry!) - all media are primary sources. From the wikipedia article:
Not all of the books I mentioned are primary sources about WWII—the ones you mentioned are primary sources in other subjects. For example, WWII for Dummies is a primary source for a study of the For Dummies series, and Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a primary source for how history was generally written in the second half of the twentieth century (e.g., from the perspective of nations more so than of a random person).
So where I’m going with this is to say that reversed stupidity isn’t intelligence, but information about stupidity is information about a topic, just as legitimate information about a topic is legitimate information about a topic, even if others are stupid about that topic. Knowledge of stupidity is a type of information no different than any other, this is how it indirectly affects knowledge about which the stupid are stupid about.