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Study of Historywc

This document provides an overview of the study and writing of history. It discusses what history is, how historians study and interpret the past, the challenges they face, and why studying history is important. Key points covered include defining primary and secondary sources, the concepts of bias and perspective in historical analysis, and six concepts to guide historical thinking: establishing significance, using evidence, identifying change over time, causation, historical perspective, and considering ethics.

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35 views20 pages

Study of Historywc

This document provides an overview of the study and writing of history. It discusses what history is, how historians study and interpret the past, the challenges they face, and why studying history is important. Key points covered include defining primary and secondary sources, the concepts of bias and perspective in historical analysis, and six concepts to guide historical thinking: establishing significance, using evidence, identifying change over time, causation, historical perspective, and considering ethics.

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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HISTORY OF

WESTERN
CIVILIZATION
Historical Thinking
THE STUDY AND WRITING OF HISTORY

What is history?
 History
 The record of human activities; the term is usually reserved for those
actions considered to be significant for their impact upon societies of
that time or later.
 A method of inquiry used by historians while investigating and analyzing
the past.
STUDYING HISTORY

 Historians may disagree over the importance of some


person or event, that is, the amount of influence that
person or event had upon others or on the future.
Historians may also disagree if one has access to more
material than another and thus has greater knowledge of
what happened
 Early histories are most often the stories of important
people; Generals, Monarchs, Explorers, etc. How does
today’s history differ?
STUDYING HISTORY

 No historical account can ever be regarded as absolutely


final because:
 New material may be discovered which changes the previous
way of seeing a person or event
 Another historian, using the same material, may offer a different
and better explanation of its significance
HISTORIOGRAPHY
The writing of history.
 Historians have problems in selecting, organizing and
writing their material because:
 Their sources may be biased, incomplete or contradictory
 Meanings of words may have changed over time
 They may have their own biases affecting how material is interpreted
 Bias
 A predisposition to support a certain view making it difficult to be objective or
impossible to judge fairly.
 Ethnocentrism
 The belief that one’s own group is superior, leading to the judging of others by
the standards of one’s own culture
THE STUDY AND WRITING OF HISTORY

Sources:
 Primary Sources
 Letters, speeches or reports written by participants or eye-
witnesses. Other primary sources include artifacts unearthed by
archaeologists, videotapes, recordings and photographs.
 Secondary Sources
 Books and articles about events or person written by individuals
investigating or analyzing that topic.
WHY STUDY HISTORY?
 The study of history provides a greater understanding of the present, a
better basis for predicting future events, and the development of
intellectual skills such as the ability to analyze information.
 The study of history can create a better citizen.
 There are many benefits to studying history including: fascinating stories,
a basis for understanding the present world, an anticipation of the
future, development of greater objectivity and solid intellectual training
 In short, history can help you become the type of person our
democratic society requires- informed, reasonable and conscientious.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Examine the following two sets of questions:


1. When did the French Revolution begin? What happened at the
Bastille? What was the Reign of Terror?

2. To what extent was the monarchy responsible for the outbreak of the
French Revolution? How would the results of the French Revolution
lead to further tensions? Is revolution against a ruling government ever
justified? Why?

How are the questions similar? How are they different?


ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
 May lead to more questions rather than clear-cut answers
 Are open-ended – they do not have one “correct” response and may
even have no correct response
 Cannot be answered with a “yes” or a “no” or even with a single
sentence.
 Are thought provoking, requiring you to make choices, decision, and
judgments that can be supported by evidence or criteria.

Unlike the grade 11 Canadian History course, this course has not been
based on essential questions. Therefore, it is important to develop our
own.
THINKING HISTORICALLY
 The act of interpreting and assessing evidence from the past, as well as
the narratives, or stories, that historians and others have constructed
from this evidence.
 6 historical thinking concepts will guide and shape how you think about
and study history in this course. They are:
 Establishing historical significance
 Using primary-source evidence
 Identifying continuity and change
 Cause and consequence
 Taking a historical perspective
 Considering the ethical dimensions of history
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
 Make informed and defensible
judgments about the historical
significance of people and
events in the past.
SOURCE EVIDENCE
 Select, evaluate and interpret
primary and secondary source
evidence in order to retell and
explain the past as objectively
and accurately as possible
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
 Observe and explain
continuity and change over
time
CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE
 Analyze the multiple causes
and consequences of
historical events and
developments
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 Take a historical perspective
in order to interpret the past as
it may have been experienced
by the people who lived in it
MORAL DIMENSION
 Consider the moral
dimension of events in the
past and the value judgments
that may influence historical
account
HOW CAN WE DEFINE “WESTERN
CIVILIZATION”?
 Brainstorm a definition for Western Civilization giving careful
consideration to geography, politics, economics, religion, ideology and
culture.
 Create a list of influential people, places, and documents essential to the
development of Western Civilization.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
 Western civilization developed in Europe from sources on both sides of
the Mediterranean Sea. This civilization has several distinguishing
characteristics:
 an acceptance of change encouraged by the belief that the universe has
order and purpose
 an emphasis on changing the physical environment to improve living
standards
 an enthusiasm for expanding beyond its own boundaries
 its gradual but widespread acceptance of democracy
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
 Other cultures should study these unique features of Western
civilization as:
 non-Western civilizations have been greatly affected by the features
 the history of Western civilization offers valuable lessons in those policies to be
emulated and those to be avoided
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
 Canada is a product of Western civilization as demonstrated by:
 values which follow traditions developed in Western Europe
 a political system which is patterned after those of Britain and
France
 an appreciation of what is significant in art, literature, music,
sculpture, and architecture
 the dominant languages – English and French
 a large majority of our population descended from Europe

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