Brief explanation for the student to understand why we study History

2. WHAT IS HISTORY?
"History . . . is indeed little more than the register of
the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of
mankind." Edward Gibbon
According to Webster’s Dictionary:
• a chronological record of significant events (as
affecting a nation or institution) often including an
explanation of their causes
• a branch of knowledge that records and explains
past events <medieval history>
• a : events that form the subject matter of a
history b : events of the past

3. WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?

4. WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?
• To learn from past mistakes, and not
to repeat them.
• To know where we come from
• To learn the origin of our everyday
life
• To be wiser

5. WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?
Traditionally, historians have recorded events
of the past, either in writing or by passing
on an oral tradition, and have attempted
to answer historical questions through the
study of written documents and oral
accounts. For the beginning, historians
have also used such sources as
monuments, inscriptions, and pictures. In
general, the sources of historical
knowledge can be separated into three
categories: what is written, what is said,
and what is physically preserved, and
historians often consult all three. But writing
is the marker that separates history from
what comes before.

6. SO WE CAN UNDERSTAND
OURSELVES
OTHERS
THE WORLD

7. WHO WRITES HISTORY?

8. WHO WRITES HISTORY?
There are many people who participate in the
process. We could call them historians,
but there are also other scientists and
branches involved:
 Archaeologists
 Anthropologists
 Chemists
 Linguists
 Etc…

9. WHO WRITES HISTORY?
ARCHAELOGISTS: The purpose of archaeology is to learn more about past
societies and the development of the human race. Over 99% of the history of
humanity has occurred within prehistoric cultures, who did not make use
of writing, thereby not leaving written records about themselves that we can
study today. Without such written sources, the only way to learn about
prehistoric societies is to use archaeology.

10. WHO WRITES HISTORY?
ANTHROPOLOGISTS: They are the academics who study humankind. They deal
with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the
evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies
as well as individual and collective forms of human experience

11. WHERE DO WE GET THE INFORMATION FROM?
Sources: A source is also someone or
something from which you obtain
information
• Chronicle: a record of events in the order
in which they happened
• Archaeological:
• Fossils, excavation sites, ornaments,
buildings, tombs, etc.
• Oral:
• Stories, fables, myths, witnesses, etc.
• Written:
• Records, inventories, books, poems,
etc.
• Multimedia:
• Photographs, videos, radio, etc.

12. WHERE DO WE GET THE INFORMATION FROM?
Cast of bodies from the site of Pompeii,
near Naples.

13. HOW CAN WE APPLY IT TO OUR EVERYDAY
LIFE?