1. TOP TEN AMERICANS

2. THE USUAL SUSPECTS

21. MR. VIEIRA’S TOP TEN

22. PRINCE WHIPPLE

24. ELLEN CRAFT

26. JOSIAH HENSON

28. ELIZABETH KECKLY

30. ELMER ELLSWORTH

32. CHIEF JOSEPH

34. JEANETTE RANKIN

35. JEANNETTE RANKIN

36. JACK KILBY

38. CLAUDETTE COLVIN

40. BOB MOSES

42. JOE CICHON

44. WHAT IS HISTORY?

45. 1. At the most basic level, history is the study of the human past. 2. History is an argument about the past. 3. History is an argument without end.

46. WHAT IS HISTORY? It is important to realize that history is not something that is distant from us but rather is part of our own experience. Every day we operate within an historical framework, thinking historically. Every time we read a newspaper, write a letter or an e-mail to family or friends describing what we did over summer vacation, or engage in a conversation in which we discuss what has been going on in our lives the past week we operate as historians by describing what happened in the past.

47. WHAT IS HISTORY? At the same time, history is not simply a recitation of the facts of the past. To have value, the facts need to be interpreted, and this is the task of the historian. Interpretation of historical evidence adds an analytical dimension to the study of the past.

48. WHAT IS HISTORY? The facts do not speak for themselves. History does not “tell” us anything. It is the historians who give a voice and provide a mirror to events that have happened. Ideally, they do so by employing a scientific methodology that allows them to sort through the evidence to determined what happened.

49. WHAT IS HISTORY? Historians apply the techniques of their profession to present a truthful portrait of historical events. An historian is like a detective. The key question, however, revolves around the extent to which all historians view events from the same perspective.

50. WHAT IS HISTORY? What factors might contribute to the way individual historians perceive the past? What conditions and experiences might lead one group of scholars to have different interpretations of important historical episodes from another? How do historians discover the facts of particular facts?

51. WHAT IS HISTORY? Having discovered the facts, can they offer an interpretation of the past that is objective, balanced, and unbiased? Should an historian be neutral? Is history true?

52. HISTORY IS INCREDIBLE! AMAZING! THE BOMB! WHAT’S HAPPENING! FUN! THE ONLY SUBJECT THAT MATTERS!!