History
The branch of knowledge that deals with past events. Understanding history can help us understand the present and it can help us understand the complexity of things that happen around us every day. It doesn't provide all the answers (history does not always repeat itself), but it can help us ask the right questions.
What is History? History is the study and interpretation of the recorded past. We often think of history as a set of dates, names, and facts to be memorized. Facts do help us study history, but they are nothing more than trivia until we try to make some sense out of them. Thoughtful, informed interpretation and synthesis of these facts will help us understand the development and interrelationships of human societies. History helps us understand many events that at first seem inexplicable, and it also helps us understand that the causes and effects of these events are often very complex.
There are many ways to look at history, and we all have a unique perspective we can bring to studying it. History is often studied by period (such as the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance), geographic or cultural area (such as Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America), or theme (such as "revolution", or "labor").
Let's say we want to examine the problem of "slavery". The way we approach the problem might depend on our interests, our location, available materials, or any one of hundreds of factors.
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Someone with an interest in local history might study slavery practices in a particular community or plantation. An interest in African history might move us to try to discover the social or economic effects of slavery in Western Africa. If we're interested in economics, we might study the relative costs and benefits of the slave trade in the U.S. Someone with an interest in religion might look at the African religions and how they blended with Christian religions of slaveholding countries to form a unique set of syncretic beliefs and practices.
There are few interests that could not be addressed. The list of approaches could be endless; each approach brings us new insights into how life was lived and into a very important problem in world history.
Writing and thinking about history are often done in two parts. The first part, the "rational" part, is the gathering of information (the facts). There are many potential sources for this: archaeological sources (stone tablets, stone columns with pictographic symbols), chronicles, books, newspapers, diaries, public records, and many more. Traditionally, most records have been written, but the development of electronic media has meant that we also have access to audio and video recordings (interviews for oral history, documentary films, etc.), and computerized records.
Once we have our facts, we need to synthesize them. This is often called interpretation. How reliable is our information? Do our sources conflict with one another? This is the most difficult part, but it's also the creative part, the part that makes history live and breathe and makes it much more than an endless list of names and dates.
Uses and Abuses of History
History has had many uses ever since people started thinking about it and writing it. In ancient China, for example, it served as a way to preserve traditions and as an instructive tool for leaders to learn from the examples of their predecessors. In the early days of writing history, such chronicles were often written as events happened.
Herodotus (484 BC to 428 BC), a Greek writer and historian, was one of the first to take a broader view of history and to try to interpret a variety of sources.
Christian churches long used history as a way to interpret the unfolding of world events as the manifestation of God's plan, and many leaders have used "official" histories (chronicles) as a way to document what they perceive to be their own greatness. Whenever we study history, it's a good idea to use a wide variety of sources. Often, these sources will contradict each other, and that's part of the challenge of history.
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