Reznikoff's sources for Testimony were hundreds of volumes in the Reporter series (these are published by region) from 1885-1915. He looked particularly for cases involving "injury (death, assault, theft) due to primitive violence; injury due to negligence, particularly those caused by machinery . . . , and unusual characters or places--unusual and yet characteristic of the time." These, he thought, would illuminate the transition in America from an agricultural to an industrial society and, presumably, the impact of that transition on particular individuals.