Studying History

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

What is History?

• The study of the past• Historians study history: they want to know

– How people lived– Why the people did what they did– What were peoples challenges and how did

they solve themEQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Culture

• The knowledge, beliefs, customs and values of a group of people

• Historians study past cultures to learn about how people lived their daily lives.

EQ: How can we improve our

understanding of the past?

Archeology• Study of the past based

on what things people left behind

• Archeologists explore places people– Lived, worked and fought– They examine the things

left behind• Often the things left

behind are our only clues as to how people lives

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Understanding History

• Understanding the past helps us to understand our world today– Knowing yourselves– Knowing others– Knowing the world

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Knowing Yourself

• What if you did not know your own past?

• Without our personal history we would have no identity

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Knowing Yourself

• What would happen if countries had no record of their past?– Wouldn’t know how their gov’t came into

being– Wouldn’t know their countries triumphs and

failures• Teaches us the about the experiences we

have been through as a people• Shapes our identity and teaches us the

values we share EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Values

• Ideas that people hold dear and try to live by

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Knowing Others

• Teaches us about cultures unlike our own• Teaches us how we are alike and different• Teaches why people think the way they do

– What struggles have they faced– How have these struggles affected how

people view themselves and others

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Understanding Others

• Helps you to – see the viewpoints of others– Teaches you to respect and understand

others• This knowledge helps promote tolerance

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Knowing the World

• Better understanding of where you live• Understand how today’s events were

shaped by the past

• “those that forget their past are doomed to repeat it”

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

“The purpose of history is not the reader’s enjoyment at the moment of perusal (reading it), but the reformation (improvement) of the reader’s soul, to save him from stumbling at the stumbling block many times over.”– Polybius, The Histories, vol. XXXVIII

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Using Clues

• Fossils – a part or imprint of something that was once alive

• Artifacts- objects created and used by humans

Sources of Information

• Primary Source – an account of an event created by someone who took part in or witnessed the event

• Treaties, letters, diaries, laws, court documents, royal commands, or an audio or video recording

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Secondary Source

• Information gathered by someone who did not take part in or witness the event

• History Book, documentary

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Sources of Change

• Authors of secondary sources do not always agree

• One may think a king was a brilliant leader, another may say he won battles because his soldiers had more advanced weapons

EQ: How can we improve our understanding of the past?

Class Work and Homework

• Fill In • What did I learn• Confused • Say

EQ: How can we improve our

understanding of the past?