What is History?
What is History?
AIM: What is History?
Do Now: Explore the following quotes and determine whether they are a positive or negative view of history? History Quotes
Today we will explore that question. Many famous people have answered this question. Here are some of their quotes, think about whether they are from someone who has a positive or negative view of history.
"History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it
illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily
life, and brings us tidings of antiquity." Cicero
"'History,' Stephen said, 'is a nightmare from which I am trying
to awake.'" James Joyce
"History . . . is indeed little more than the register of the
crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." Edward Gibbon
"The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in
history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience
plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find
yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things
to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to
avoid." Livy
"History does nothing, possesses no enormous wealth, fights no battles.
It is rather man, the real, living man, who does everything, possesses,
fights. It is not History, as if she were a person apart, who uses men
as a means to work out her purposes, but history itself is nothing but
the activity of men pursuing their purposes." Karl Marx
"Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes
the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost
in its own time." Frederick Jackson Turner
We are exploring history as it developed from two different historians, Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BCE – ca. 425 BCE)and Thucydides (ca. 460 BCE – ca. 400 BCE. Herodotus used mostly oral tradition to write his books The Histories and Thucydides relied on the scientific method to gather facts from primary sources (first hand accounts) to make his interpretations.
We are discussing the use of timelines. The basic time periods BC or BCE (Before Christ or Before the Common Era) and AD or CE (After Christ or Common Era). Part of this topic is how to calculate time from BC to AD and from within BC or AD. We are discussing the use of "Circa" or a "c." before dates meaning "around" or "about".
Common Core Standards
Reading
Classwork & Homework
Powerpoint: What is History?
Movie Clip: History of Everything
Class Activity: Why Study History?
Homework: Assignments