What is History?
What is history?
In history we study the lives of famous people…and the lives of ordinary people
We study people who may live in simple societies…or in great civilizations
We study great events:
Wars
Disasters
Technical developments and discoveries
Achievements
What is history?
History looks at what has happened in the past.
In particular, it looks at what PEOPLE have done in the past.
It looks at the lives of famous men and women and the lives of ordinary people.
It looks at famous events that have shaped society:
Wars
Disasters
Discoveries
Ideas
How do we know what happened in the past?
We find out about the past by using evidence
Pieces of evidence are things that have been left behind by people of earlier times.
There are two main types of evidence
Archeological Evidence
Historical (written) Evidence
History is mainly based on written evidence. Humans learned to read and write a long time ago.
There are two types of written evidence:
Primary source This type of evidence dates from the time of the event being studied. This type of evidence is also called First Hand evidence.
Examples: Photographs of an event
Newspaper articles about an event
A letter written at the time of the event
A document written at the time like the
Declaration of Indepencence written on July 4, 1776. The actual document still exists and can be studied!
Secondary source
This type of evidence was written or created AFTER the event and looks
back to earlier times. This type of evidence is also called Second Hand
Evidence
Examples:
A book written many years
Examples:
A book written many years
after an event
A song written by a person who
heard
about the event from their mother
A book written by someone who studied a primary source
A book written by someone who studied a primary source