history
Sign in to saveHistory is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term history refers not to an academic field but
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History is the systematic study of the human past, using evidence to construct narratives about what happened and why. It matters because it helps us understand how societies developed and offers potential lessons from past events, though scholars continue to debate whether its primary purpose should be uncovering truth or extracting practical lessons for the present.
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Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- academic discipline
- Image
- Nikolaos Gyzis - Historia.jpg (1892)
Show 6 more facts
- P1151
- Portal:History
- P910
- Category:History
- P5008
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4 (2022)
- P1269
- past
- P2670
- oral tradition
- P1889
- study of history
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Article
24 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Purpose
- Etymology
- Methods
- Sources and source criticism
- Synthesis and schools of thought
- Areas of study
- By period
- By geographic location
- By theme
- Others
- Evolution of the discipline
- Related fields
- Historiography
- Philosophy of history
- Historical objectivity
- Education
- Other fields
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Citations
- Sources
- External links
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term history refers not to an academic field but to the past itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past.
Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability. Historians strive to integrate the perspectives of several sources to develop a coherent narrative. Different schools of thought, such as positivism, the Annales school, Marxism, and postmodernism, have distinct methodological approaches.