What is History?

Offer a definition for the subject we call

“HISTORY”.
History
comes from the Ancient Greek ἱστορία
(historía), meaning 'inquiry', 'knowledge from
inquiry', or 'judge'.

study of the past.

simply recording events does not make
someone a historian. A historian interprets events.
He or she establishes cause and effect relationships.
 What do others say?
• a branch of knowledge that records and explains
past events
–Merriam- Webster

• the study of or a record of past events considered

together, especially events of a particular period,
country, or subject
– Cambridge Dictionaries Online
 WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?
• To know more about the roots of our current culture.
Why is this important?
• To learn about the mistakes of those who have gone
before us. Why is this important?
• To learn about human nature in general by looking at
trends that repeat through history. Why is this
important?
• To learn historical facts. Why is this important?
• To learn about how different factors shape society e.g.
religion, greed, the intersection of different cultures,
technology, etc. Why is this important?
 WHY IS HISTORY IMPORTANT?
• In sum, we study history to learn about who
we are—both our past and our present.
– Learning about the past helps us understand the
present.
– It helps us decide what to do in the future.
– Knowing what went wrong in the past can help us
make better decisions today when we face similar
choices
 WHO STUDIES HISTORY
Historians
• People who studies interprets events interprets
events and establishes cause and effect
relationships.
• They study causes and effects of historical events
• Historians try to figure out why things happened.
• They use their understanding to think about how
those things make a difference today.
study of the past.
• simply recording events does not make
someone a historian.
• A historian interprets events.
• He or she establishes cause and effect
relationships.
Herodotus, the “Father of
History.”
• considered to be the
first historian.
• There were scribes
before him who
recorded events, but
Herodotus was the first
to establish causes and
effects between those
events.
• He set out to study the
past, not just record it.
 WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
Archeologists
• People who studies
Archaeology
• Archaeology is the
study of the past by
looking at what people
left behind.
• An archaeologist digs
in the earth for
artifacts.
 WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
• An artifact is an object
made by people.
• Tools, pottery,
weapons, and jewelry
are artifacts.
• They help
archaeologists learn
what life was like in
the past.
• 700,000-Year-Old Butchered
Rhino Pushes Back Ancient
Human Arrival in the
Philippines
• The find changes the story of
human migration, but
scientists still don’t know what
human species did the cutting
•
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.c
om/smart-news/butchered-
rhino-puts-human-ancestors-
philippines-700000-years-ago-
180968959/#MZEObEBdcBxFf0
IF.99
 WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
Anthropologist
• People who study
Anthropology
• Anthropology is the
study of human culture.
• Anthropologists study
artifacts and fossils,
too.
• They look for clues
about what people
valued and believed.
 WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
Paleontologist
• People who study
Paleontology
• Paleontology studies
prehistoric times.
• Paleontologists study
fossils.
 WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
• Fossil
– Fossils are the
remains of plant and
animal life that have
been preserved from
an earlier time.
– A paleontologist named Donald
Johanson made an important
discovery in Africa in 1974.
– He found the skeleton of an
early human who lived more
than3.2millionyears ago. He
called the skeleton Lucy.
– Lucy belonged to a different
species of early human.
– A species is a group of animals
or humans.
– The members of a species are
alike in some way.
– Lucy is the oldest human species
that scientists have ever found.
Lucy can help us learn more
about how humans developed.
• Perhaps the world's most
famous
early human ancestor, the
3.2-million-year-old ape
"Lucy" was the first
Australopithecus Afarensis
skeleton ever found,
though her remains are
only about 40 percent
complete
WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
Forensics
• scientific tests or
techniques used in
connection with the
detection of crime.
 Definitions of History According to
Others
• History is the version of past events that people have
decided to agree upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A French statesman and

military leader of Italian
descent who rose to
prominence during the
French Revolution and led
several successful
campaigns during the
French Revolutionary Wars.
• History will be kind to me for I • History isn't about dates and
intend to write it. places and wars. It's about
Winston Churchill the people who fill the spaces
• between them.
• History is a gallery of pictures Jodi Pico
in which there are few
originals and many copies. • History is a pack of lies about
Alexis de Tocqueville events that never happened
told by people who weren't
• History will decide if I'm a there.
villain or a hero. George Santayana
Harlan Ellison
• History never looks like history
• History is filled with the sound when you are living through
of silken slippers going it. John W. Gardner
downstairs and wooden
shoes coming up.
Voltaire
• A library is the delivery room for •
the birth of ideas, a place where
history comes to life.
Norman Cousins
• Neither a wise man nor a brave
man lies down on the tracks of •
history to wait for the train of the
future to run over him.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
• A people without the knowledge
of their past history, origin and
culture is like a tree without roots.
Marcus Garvey
• The history of innovation is the
story of ideas that seemed dumb
at the time. Andy Dunn
• What is history? An echo of the
past in the future; a reflex from
the future on the past.
Victor Hugo
A small body of determined
spirits fired by an unquenchable
faith in their mission can alter the
course of history.
Mahatma Gandhi
History repeats itself. So you
might wanna pay attention.
Quavo
• "We learn from history that we
learn nothing from history."
George Bernard Shaw
• "Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana