What Is History?
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History is the study of the past. Put simply, history is storytelling. Historians and teachers research and collect evidence of the past in order to tell us the story of what happened in times long ago. However, there is no one correct way to tell history. The way history is told depends on who is telling it and which sources historians choose to draw from. Just as two friends might tell the story about a fun trip in different ways, two historians might retell history in different ways. This is how historical debates arise. That is why primary sources are so important to history as an academic discipline. Primary sources are any source of information that was created during the time period being studied. Although writing is highly prized, a primary source could also be a photograph, painting, artifact, or anything that could give us information about the time and place under research. All history is ultimately constructed upon primary source evidence. Since historians are not able to physically travel back in time, primary sources are the only way to know what might have happened in the past. Any information produced without evidence from primary sources is merely speculation. The historian's job then is to collect that information and interpret it into a historical narrative: a story that can be understood.
Although ancient societies kept records as early as the 4th millennium BC, the practice of collecting primary sources to retell a story based on evidence is believed to have begun with Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC. Although he was certainly not the only ancient historian or the first one to start keeping records, he was among the first to view historical events as the cause of human actions rather than the wills of gods. He was also among the first to establish history as an academic practice of gathering evidence rather than merely telling a story based on speculation or hearsay. For this, he is regarded as "the father of history". Historiography is a field that serves as an extension of history. While history is the study of the past, historiography is the study of how the past is told. Ibn Khaldun, a 12th century Arab scholar, is regarded as "the father of historiography". He was the first scholar known to discuss at length how to avoid mistakes in writing history and how history is affected by the way the historian uses evidence. Because the entire narrative of the past is dependent on how the historian chooses to tell it, historiography and history are intimately connected and mutually important.
While many students regard history as a dry and uninteresting subject, its importance cannot be understated. History plays a role in the life of every single human being on the planet, whether they realize it or not. Take the matter of your very own birth for example. World War II may be the furthest thing from your mind when you think about the story of how you came into the world, but the war was responsible for the movements and life choices of hundreds of millions of people all across the globe. If that war had not happened, would your grandparents have ever met? Would your parents have been born at all? Would you even exist? Would your family be where it is today? This is just one of countless examples of how history affects us down to the individual level. Most if not all current political issues are a direct result of decisions made by leaders in the past. Entire nations and people derive their identities from a sense of shared history. Ethnic tensions and even wars are caused by feuds that began in the past. Millions of people that you share this earth with live and die for historical causes that were put into motion before they were even born. Therefore, to understand the past is to understand the present. In this interconnected world we live in, the key for different groups of humans to coexist in peace is to understand each other. Therein lies the importance of history.
Although ancient societies kept records as early as the 4th millennium BC, the practice of collecting primary sources to retell a story based on evidence is believed to have begun with Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC. Although he was certainly not the only ancient historian or the first one to start keeping records, he was among the first to view historical events as the cause of human actions rather than the wills of gods. He was also among the first to establish history as an academic practice of gathering evidence rather than merely telling a story based on speculation or hearsay. For this, he is regarded as "the father of history". Historiography is a field that serves as an extension of history. While history is the study of the past, historiography is the study of how the past is told. Ibn Khaldun, a 12th century Arab scholar, is regarded as "the father of historiography". He was the first scholar known to discuss at length how to avoid mistakes in writing history and how history is affected by the way the historian uses evidence. Because the entire narrative of the past is dependent on how the historian chooses to tell it, historiography and history are intimately connected and mutually important.
While many students regard history as a dry and uninteresting subject, its importance cannot be understated. History plays a role in the life of every single human being on the planet, whether they realize it or not. Take the matter of your very own birth for example. World War II may be the furthest thing from your mind when you think about the story of how you came into the world, but the war was responsible for the movements and life choices of hundreds of millions of people all across the globe. If that war had not happened, would your grandparents have ever met? Would your parents have been born at all? Would you even exist? Would your family be where it is today? This is just one of countless examples of how history affects us down to the individual level. Most if not all current political issues are a direct result of decisions made by leaders in the past. Entire nations and people derive their identities from a sense of shared history. Ethnic tensions and even wars are caused by feuds that began in the past. Millions of people that you share this earth with live and die for historical causes that were put into motion before they were even born. Therefore, to understand the past is to understand the present. In this interconnected world we live in, the key for different groups of humans to coexist in peace is to understand each other. Therein lies the importance of history.
