What is history What is history history is

What is history?

What is history? • history is the study of the human past • historians study records of past events and prepare new records based on their discoveries

Two Sources of History • Primary Sources • Secondary Sources

Primary Sources Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events occurred. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons.

Primary Sources EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS ARTIFACTS

Secondary Sources • Materials prepared later by people who study primary sources • Historians create secondary sources from their study of primary sources

How does history happen? 1. People change history.

How does history happen? 2. Ideas become irresistible forces that dictate history ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL

How does history happen? 3. All civilizations are faced with a crisis which is either one of ideas, or one of technology.

How does history happen? 4. New ideas conflict with old ideas. Monarchy vs Democracy

How does history happen? 5. People divide into class systems • Dominant classes control means of production • Dominant classes have power over other classes and the government • It is difficult to end the power of dominant class systems

How does history happen? 6. Geography dictates history Washington Crossing the Delaware River South Pass, Wyoming

How does history happen? 7. Winners dominate History • Those who win write history • History is dominated by those in power • The “real” story of those who lost sometimes remains unwritten Indians or Native Americans? Savage or Cultural Icon? What happened at Topaz?

How does history happen? 8. Ideas and practices simply come together in various places that can hardly be predicted.

How can we interpret history? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. When was it written or produced? Where was it written or produced? Who Produced it? What influenced the Production? In what original form was it produced?

What Thinking skills should a history student develop? Bloom’s Taxonomy Easy • Knowledge- What are the Facts? • Comprehension- Do you understand what happened? • Application- How does it relate to today? • Analysis- Hidden meanings, compare and contrast, organization of ideas • Synthesis- Cause and effect, predict • and make conclusions, bring together knowledge from several areas • Evaluation- Evaluate the decisions of historical people. Access the value of historical theories. Hard