Problems with evidence for historical event: EE in history

[WE591S]

Hi everyone,

I am researching for my history EE, and I am having troubles with finding the evidence for an event. The event consists in a conversation between the king and Mussolini, which is mentioned in multiple books but without any reference to a primary source, but always to other secondary sources (other historians' books ) or no reference at all. My supervisor was bemoaning this,  however it seems fair that there is no "transcript" of a private conversation. Is it common\acceptable? How can I back this event better?

Thank you in advance

[IB_taking_over]

Hi,

Welcome to the many "joys" of doing history - not being able to find sources. Jokes aside, you should be fine with just a reference to the secondary sources. If you really wanted, you could acknowledge that several secondary sources discuss this conversation but you could not locate the original document.

Have you searched the Italian archives? Perhaps part of them is online? 

Cheers, IB_taking_over  

[WE591S]

On 8/1/2020 at 6:34 PM, IB_taking_over said:

Hi,

Welcome to the many "joys" of doing history - not being able to find sources. Jokes aside, you should be fine with just a reference to the secondary sources. If you really wanted, you could acknowledge that several secondary sources discuss this conversation but you could not locate the original document.

Have you searched the Italian archives? Perhaps part of them is online? 

Cheers, IB_taking_over  

Thank you for answering!

I did try to look at archives but none is online and I have troubles finding in what specific part of the archive that event can be, they are organized in a very messy way. I guess being an historian must be pretty hard