How useful are the sources A-I to a historian studying the main causes and events of the demonstration in Tiananmen Square June 1989?

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China In The Twentieth Century

Question 1 - How useful are the sources A-I to a historian studying the main causes and events of the demonstration in Tiananmen Square June 1989?

On the 22nd of April 1989, Chinese students collected together at Tiananmen Square to pay respects to Hu Yaobang, the students saw this as an opportunity to protest for democratic reform. Little did these students know this protest would end with tragic results. Deng blamed Hu Yaobang, a member of the Deng Xiaoping communist party, when students protested for political reform. Due to this he lost his position in the government but still remained in the politburo. His death on 15th April sparked the Tiananmen movement.

Sources A, F and G are from books. Source A, the background to the Tiananmen Square incident from China in the 20th Century written in 1990 by Harriet Ward, a British Historian, who, unlike some Chinese sources controlled by government, has freedom of speech. The book gives a general overview of one hundred years in China, which suggests that the information gathered, could be considered vague and facts possibly have been overlooked, which of course would reduce the source's reliability. However, the source was written one year after the incident, which suggests that the information is probably fairly reliable. We can also assume, as the source was written relatively soon after the events, that some of her knowledge was gained from newspapers and television reports at the time, and therefore can be considered fairly trustworthy. As the historian was not present at Tiananmen Square we also know that this is not first hand reporting. However, I conclude that this book must be a fairly reliable source as it specialises in China in the 20th Century, which suggests that the writer completed detailed research into the subject. This source is quite useful in explaining the causes and events of Tiananmen Square.
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Source F, the events of the 4th June 1989 from the book China, A New Revolution? Written in 1990 by John Bradley, an American historian. This source gives a brief explanation of the events on June 4th. Like source A this information was written only one year after the incidents at Tiananmen Square which suggest the information is dependable for the same reasons as given for Source A. It is also written by a non-Chinese source with freedom of speech, which, as stated above, also increases the reliability of the source. This historian was also not present at ...

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