The book's approach to the Lincoln assassination narrative relies primarily on which source type?

• A. Interviews with witnesses
• B. Purely fictional scenes
• C. Primary sources in a documentary, chronological framework
• D. A purely legal record

Answer: (C)

The main approach being tested is using primary sources organized in a documentary, chronological framework. The book reconstructs the Lincoln assassination by drawing directly from materials created at the time—eyewitness accounts, letters, newspaper reports, official records, and trial or investigation documents—and then presents them in the order in which events actually unfolded. This method lets readers follow the historical sequence with evidence guiding the narrative, rather than relying on imagined scenes or a sole legalist focus. It emphasizes authenticity and a sense of how the story developed as new information emerged.

Why the other options don’t fit: interviews with witnesses would imply new, later recollections rather than contemporaneous documents; purely fictional scenes would contradict the goal of historical reconstruction with real sources; a purely legal record would miss the broader narrative arc and context provided by a variety of primary materials.