What is the Study of

History
 History is the study of all things
that all kinds of people have
done in the past about which
we have information.
 Reasons for Studying

 To have fun!
 Make a living
 Other careers
 Gain insight/background into
other professions.
 Enjoyment/hobby.
 Historical Mindedness.
 Historical Mindedness

 Refers to certain attitudes, habits of mind,

tendencies, and awareness including, but
not limited to:
• Tendency to be skeptical
• To be inquisitive
• To be objective
• Habit of seeing likeness/parallels in history
• Uniqueness of each event
• Being tolerant and cosmopolitan
 HISTORICAL
MINDEDNESS CONT.
• The awareness of constancy and change
• The awareness of continuity w/ the past found in
every time and place.
• The habit of wanting to know why things
change.
• The awareness that there are usually multiple
causes for events in history.
• Awareness that our knowledge about the past is
incomplete and tentative.
• That history is filled w/ mystery, the unplanned,
the unexpected, and the coincidental.
 PERIODIZATION

 PREHISTORY - Before people learned to

write.

 HISTORY- When people learned to write to

1500AD

 THE MODERN ERA - 1500AD to present.

 PERIODIZATION

 History’s Categories

• Antiquity - To 500AD

•The Middle Ages 500AD - 1500AD

 CATEGORIES OF
HISTORY
 POLITICAL
 ECONOMIC
 SOCIAL
 INTELLECTUAL
 RELIGIOUS
 CULTURAL
 WHAT MAKES FOR CHANGE
AND CONTINUITY?

 NATURAL FORCES
• THREE TYPES

• METEROLOGICAL
 Geographical/Geological
NON-HUMAN
BIOLOGICAL

AIDS VIRUS
 SOCIAL FORCES -
A DEFINITION
People with problems and the results of their problem solving
efforts
 People with problems...

 Something to think about:

• Types of problems.
• Sources of these problems
• Use of groups and classes?
• The Great Man/Woman Theory - Thomas Carlyle
• Determinism
• What is POWER?
• Individual
• Group
 SOCIAL FORCES -
A DEFINITION
People with problems and the results of their
problem solving efforts

 ...and the results of their problem solving

efforts.

• The effect of emotion/feeling/states of mind.

• Inventions and Discoveries - Three things

• Existence of a problem.
• Have capable people to solve problem.
• Sufficient Technology

• Institutions - A further look.

 INSTITUTIONS
A firmly well established, well-organized group of
people with mutual interest and ideals.

 Set of ideals  TYPES:

 Rules and traditions • Political
 Began as informal to • Religious
deal w/ a problem. • Economic
• Military
• Intellectual
• Cultural
• Social
Two Major Goals of all Institutions -
Self-Preservation and Aggrandizement
 INSTITUTIONS cont.

 FOUR PROBLEMS MUST BE SOLVED TO KEEP AN

INSTITUTION GOING AND GROWING.

• ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL SUPPORT - Where will the funds come from to

operate.

• ESTABLISHING/MAINTAINING INTERNAL ORDER- Members must be unified,

at least on the outside.

• PROVIDING FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE UNIT - To protect against verbal and
physical attacks.

• JUSTIFYING THE EXISTENCE OF THE INSTITUTION - Do people still need us.

 INSTITUTIONS cont.

 Loyalty towards an institution - Why?

The United States, the Marine Corps, KU,
others.
 More Problem Solving Efforts
IDEAS
IDEAS

 Statements of Fact based on:

• FACTS
• BELIEFS
• HOPES

• How do ideas originate?

• How are ideas disseminated?
• How do they become the position of a
people/nation?
 IDEAS cont.

 Importance in causing change in history.

• Ideas-only-a-front-theory.
• The roles men/women of ideas play.
• Representatives or spokesman of their time.
• They expose what they see as injustices, wrongs, etc.
• They propose solutions.
• They instill a sense of power and hope in the hearts of
minds of people.
• They help reinforce, bring into focus, ideas that
already exist in people’s minds.

 Another result of problem solving...

 Wars and how they
cause change.
 Balance of Power Shift - Examples

 Dissolution of Empires and people.

 Stimulated new inventions/tech.

The results of war - legislation and treaties draw new

boundaries, set new rules, change a way of living.
 SUMMARY

 What makes for change in history?

• Natural and Social Forces.
• Natural Forces are:
• Meteorological, Geographical/geological, and
non-human biological.

• Social Forces - People w/ problems and the

results of their problem solving efforts.

• But w/ change we also have...

 CONTINUITY

 Nothing “new under the sun” concept.

• “What has happened will happen again, and what has been done will be
done again, and there is nothing new under the sun.” ECCLESIASTES

 “Nothing ever dies” concept.

• “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look, this is new’? No, it has
already existed, long before our time.” ECCLESIASTES

 Three points about process of continuity and change.

• “New” things have roots and antecedents.
• “New” things normally grow and change.
• “New” things as they grow and change also keep some of what
was present at the beginning.
 CONTINUITY cont.
How to Natural Forces account
for Continuity?
 Climate
• Agricultural

 Geography/Geological
• Security
• Resources (Oil, water, etc)
• Mountains

 Non-Human
• Contents of Rain Forest, Other examples.
 CONTINUITY cont.
How to Social Forces account for
Continuity?

 Reminder - Definition
• ...people with problems and the results of their
problem solving efforts.

• A Result of problem solving -

• INSTITUTIONS
• Again - How do people and
Institutions account for continuity?
 Because they are:
 Afraid to change
 Too selfish to change.
 Too ignorant to change.
 Too lazy to change.
 Too sentimental about
the past.
 Not free to change.
 Convinced that old things are
divinely approved.
 Too poor to change.
 Convinced that survival, progress
depend upon continuity w/ the
past.
 Old things are fine, resisting
change.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
 Others.
 THE SUPERNATURAL

 Faith vs. Empirical data.

• The Greeks
• The Fall of Rome
• Joan of Arc
• Fatima
 FINI

 HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Pick a Current Event and explain the Natural and/or

Social Forces at Work.