What is History?

What is history? History is “what one age finds worthy of another.” Jacob Burkhardt History (from Greek ἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation")

Like putting together a puzzle…

What is a historian? A person who studies the past trying to give an objective interpretation of it. This area is more general This is not an easy job. You must be able to recognize evidence, decide how useful it is and come to conclusions based on what you have found out.

Timelines Chronology or putting things in the right order is very important in history. Can you imagine how confused you would be if you didn't know that the Romans arrived in Britain before William the Conqueror or that Queen Victoria came to the throne after Queen Elizabeth I? This is why dates are so important to the study of history. The most commonly used system of dating things in history is the one which we use every day that is based on the Gregorian Calendar.

The “Big Bang”

Historians work in four categories: Politics Economics Society Culture

The Sciences of History: There are seven main sciences that historians use. They are: Anthropology Archaeology Geology Philology Psychology Sociology Paleontology

Anthropologist Studies the past by looking at the culture of a specific group or civilization

Archeologist Studies the past by using artifacts to discover clues to ancient civilizations and mysteries.

Geologist Studies the past by examining rocks and minerals to identify climate and other natural patterns of the past

Philologist Studies the languages of different civilizations.

Psychologist Studies individual human behaviour.

Sociologist Studies different societies and how they react with one another.

Paleontologist Studies the past by examining fossils to discover and reconstruct the past

Why are they important? What do you think???????????

Here are a few ideas Helps us understand who we are today, by knowing where we come from. Insights to how the ancient cultures worked and functioned, so we may apply this information to ourselves. Because it is fun to learn about.

Bias in History

What is bias? According to Webster's Dictionary online: Bias is defined as: an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially: a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment: PREJUDICE

History was written by the victors... True or False?

That documents—especially ones written at times when only the elites were literate and had access to writing supplies—were probably written by the victors, while history—the writing of arguments based on informed analysis of those documents—is written by historians.

Most people's definition of history is fairly simple Most people's definition of history is fairly simple. It's "what-really-happened-in-the-past." But professional historians know that the reality of history is so problematic.

As many a policeman will assert who has tried to determine from several eyewitnesses' reports exactly what happened in an accident, it's often difficult to piece together different people's versions of the "truth" and construct one coherent narrative on which everyone agrees. In fact, it's impossible…

For historians, this is both good news and bad news For historians, this is both good news and bad news. It's bad—all too bad, really!—that we will probably never fully understand what-really-happened-in-the-past, certainly not in such a way that sensible people will agree about historical reality.

What do you see?

What do you see?

Does everyone see the same thing?

Bias Are you biased? It's not a trick question. Practically everyone is biased in some way. Basically, bias means having an unfair or unbalanced opinion. Since history is a subject where people express their opinions it means that we have to be very careful to watch out for bias.

Different perspectives on thousands of issues are a part of human life Different perspectives on thousands of issues are a part of human life. The most important thing is to understand that these different perspectives exist. With this understanding comes knowledge, and with this knowledge comes respect.

People were either hunters or gatherers. During the stone age, people started making use of the soil. This began agriculture. People no longer had to travel to look for food.