Thinking Like a Historian Unit #2

Warm Up List as many reasons as you can: Why should people study/learn about the past? What do we get out of it?

Why study history? History is the study of the past. We study history to: Understand people and cultures Understand why things are the way the are (technology, government, laws, religions, etc) Understand why and how change happens in society Give us an identity; understand where we came from and understand the forces that shape our lives and our experiences.

Plus… Studying history gives us access to the laboratory of human experience.

What is history? History is the study of the past using recorded events. History usually involves the study of written documents. What do you think pre-history means? Prehistory is the study of cultures that existed before writing was invented. How do we learn about prehistory if people didn’t write?

Ways to Understand the Past Archaeology: The study of ancient artifacts—or objects— people from the past left behind.

Ways to Understand the Past Oral tradition: The study of stories that different cultures pass down by word of mouth.

Challenge: What stuck? Who would most likely study these sources and what could they learn about them? (Archaeologist, Historian, Oral Tradition) 1) Stories told about you by your parents 2) Diary entries written by soldiers in the Vietnam War 3) Walls built around an ancient city 4) A pyramid built by the ancient Egyptians with hieroglyphics carved into it 5) List of people who died from the Black Death

Types of Sources Primary Sources: materials that were created at the time the event occurred or materials created by those who experienced the event. There are four categories of primary sources: Published (1) Unpublished (2) Oral (3) Visual (4)

Types of Sources Secondary Sources: materials that were created after the event. These materials might tell you about an event, person, time or place, but they were created by someone not from the time period. Examples could be: history books, school textbooks, encyclopedias, history magazines, websites, and documentaries

Challenge: What stuck? Primary or Secondary? 1) A biography of Theodore Roosevelt written in ) An autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 3) Photographs of a Civil War camp 4) A documentary on the signing of the Declaration of Independence 5) A pyramid built by the ancient Egyptians