1. Aim: Why should I study global history?
Do Now: Your friend was recently responsible for a car accident on Queens Blvd by running a red light. No one was hurt, and your friend wasn’t charged. Your friend swears that it will never happen again. Would you trust your friend enough to let him/her drive you?
NY State Standards 2
Common Core RS 1, 6, WS 2

2. Answer the following on your handout:
I What is history?
History tells the chronological story of events of our human past.
Chronology: Events that happen in order of time, from past to present.
A timeline is used to show chronology.
AD = Anno Domini “In The Year of Our Lord”
BC = Before Christ
Instead of using these religious terms, historians also can use
CE = Common Era
BCE = Before the Common Era
Answer the following on your handout:
Julius Caesar died in 44 BCE. How many years ago did he die?
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in How many years ago did they land on the moon?
1 BC/ 1 BCE
1 AD/1 CE

3. What is history? Continued…
Julius Caesar died in 44 BCE. How many years ago did he die?
Answer: = 2057 years ago
2. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in How many years ago did they land on the moon?
Answer: 2013 – 1969 = 44 years ago

4. I What is history? Continued…
B) Global History examines the past from a global, rather than an American perspective.
Why do the Vietnamese refer to the Vietnam war as the American War?

5. II What can history tell us about the present?
A) Patterns can help us make predictions about the future, and hopefully help us prevent future mistakes.
Example: Hitler ordered an invasion of the USSR in June of His campaign failed miserably due to exhaustion and lack of preparation for the harsh Soviet winter. If he had studied his history, he would have known that Napoleon had invaded Russia in 1812… and also failed for similar reasons!
B) Current Events can only be understood by knowing the historical events that led up to the present day.
Example: Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over land in the Middle East. Some people believe this conflict began in 1948 when Israel first became a nation. However, historians would tell you that Jews and Muslims have fought over the land of Israel for over 1000 years!
C) History shows how we are connected
Example: Look at your neighbor. Say hi. You’re cousins! ALL modern humans can trace their origins to a single woman in Eastern Africa approximately 200,000 years ago.

6. III How do we study history?
Historians use documents (written sources) to write history
Primary Sources: Original materials from an historical event (diaries, photographs, letters, autobiographies, etc…)
Secondary Sources: Secondhand materials (textbooks, biographies, etc…)
Which sources are primary?

7. How do we study history continued…
B) Archaeologists dig up artifacts (objects made or used by humans) from the past. Archaeologists are scientists, and must record everything they find. C) Scientists have traced human mitochondrial DNA (from our mothers) back to Eastern Africa. D) Linguists study language. Changes in language is part of history.
Was Indiana Jones a real archaeologist? How do you know?

8. VI How to we write history?
Once you have historical evidence, you must analyze it.
Analysis: To examine something carefully by breaking it down to its most essential parts
B) When analyzing historical documents, you should be objective, rather than subjective.
- Objective: Without bias (personal opinion)
- Subjective: With bias
C) Revisionist history looks at a well known part of history, but from a new perspective.
- Focusing on the role of women in early American history
- Studying the importance of African slaves building NYC
Be careful; some revisionist history is just dead wrong. Some of the worst offenders are Holocaust revisionists, who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
How do we know that the Holocaust happened? Millions of documents, physical remains of the death camps, and living survivors are just some of the historical proof. Holocaust revisionists simply do not have any evidence to support their claims.

9. How do we write history? Continued…
Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp, remains as a living testament to the horrors that took place there… so we can never forget. Above is a photograph of a crematorium that was used to burn the bodies of the victims.

10. Can We Trust History? Can history be changed?

11. Key Vocabulary History Linguistics Chronology Analysis Timeline
Objective
Global History
Subjective
Patterns
Bias
Current Events
Revisionist History
Documents
Holocaust Denial
Primary Sources BC
Secondary Sources AD
Archaeologists
BCE
Artifacts CE
DNA