This article is about the academic discipline.

For a general history of human beings,

see History of the world. For other uses, see History (disambiguation).

Herodotus (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC), often considered the "father of history"
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.[1]

—George Santayana

History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by

investigation')[2] is the past as it is described in written documents, and the study
thereof.[3][4] Events occurring before written records are considered prehistory. "History"
is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery,
collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these
events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.

History also includes the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and
analyse a sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and
effect that determine them.[5][6] Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its
usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of
providing "perspective" on the problems of the present.[5][7][8][9]

Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as
the tales surrounding King Arthur), are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends,
because they do not show the "disinterested investigation" required of the discipline of
history.[10][11] Herodotus, a 5th-century BC Greek historian is often considered within the
Western tradition to be the "father of history", or by some the "father of lies", and, along
with his contemporary Thucydides, helped form the foundations for the modern study of
human history. Their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-
focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention
or approach in modern historical writing. In East Asia, a state chronicle, the Spring and
Autumn Annals, was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-
century BC texts have survived.

Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history
which have evolved over the centuries and continue to change today. The modern study
of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of
certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught
as part of primary and secondary education, and the academic study of history is a major
discipline in university studies.

The title page to The Historians' History of the World

Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current
dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, and sometimes write to provide lessons for
their own society. In the words of Benedetto Croce, "All history is contemporary
history". History is facilitated by the formation of a "true discourse of past" through the
production of narrative and analysis of past events relating to the human race.[17] The
modern discipline of history is dedicated to the institutional production of this
discourse.

All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the
historical record.[18] The task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can
most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the
constitution of the historian's archive is a result of circumscribing a more general
archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents (by falsifying their
claims to represent the "true past").

The study of history has sometimes been classified as part of the humanities and at other
times as part of the social sciences.[19] It can also be seen as a bridge between those two
broad areas, incorporating methodologies from both. Some individual historians
strongly support one or the other classification.[20] In the 20th century, French historian
Fernand Braudel revolutionized the study of history, by using such outside disciplines
as economics, anthropology, and geography in the study of global 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. From 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.[21] But
writing is the marker that separates history from what comes before.

Archaeology is a discipline that is especially helpful in dealing with buried sites and
objects, which, once unearthed, contribute to the study of history. But archaeology
rarely stands alone. It uses narrative sources to complement its discoveries. However,
archaeology is constituted by a range of methodologies and approaches which are
independent from history; that is to say, archaeology does not "fill the gaps" within
textual sources. Indeed, "historical archaeology" is a specific branch of archaeology,
often contrasting its conclusions against those of contemporary textual sources. For
example, Mark Leone, the excavator and interpreter of historical Annapolis, Maryland,
USA; has sought to understand the contradiction between textual documents and the
material record, demonstrating the possession of slaves and the inequalities of wealth
apparent via the study of the total historical environment, despite the ideology of
"liberty" inherent in written documents at this time.

There are varieties of ways in which history can be organized, including

chronologically, culturally, territorially, and thematically. These divisions are not
mutually exclusive, and significant overlaps are often present, as in "The International
Women's Movement in an Age of Transition, 1830–1975." It is possible for historians
to concern themselves with both the very specific and the very general, although the
modern trend has been toward specialization. The area called Big History resists this
specialization, and searches for universal patterns or trends. History has often been
studied with some practical or theoretical aim, but also may be studied out of simple
intellectual curiosity.[22]

History and prehistory

Further information: Protohistory

The history of the world is the memory of the past experience of Homo sapiens sapiens
around the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in written records. By
"prehistory", historians mean the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no
written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. By studying
painting, drawings, carvings, and other artifacts, some information can be recovered
even in the absence of a written record. Since the 20th century, the study of prehistory is
considered essential to avoid history's implicit exclusion of certain civilizations, such as
those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have
been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the Western world.[23] In 1961, British
historian E. H. Carr wrote:

The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people
cease to live only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past
and in their future. History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition
means the carrying of the habits and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the
past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations.[24]

This definition includes within the scope of history the strong interests of peoples, such
as Indigenous Australians and New Zealand Māori in the past, and the oral records
maintained and transmitted to succeeding generations, even before their contact with
European civilization.

Historiography
Main article: Historiography

The title page to La Historia d'Italia

Historiography has a number of related meanings. Firstly, it can refer to how history has
been produced: the story of the development of methodology and practices (for
example, the move from short-term biographical narrative towards long-term thematic
analysis). Secondly, it can refer to what has been produced: a specific body of historical
writing (for example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "Works of
medieval history written during the 1960s"). Thirdly, it may refer to why history is
produced: the Philosophy of history. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past,
this third conception can relate to the first two in that the analysis usually focuses on the
narratives, interpretations, world view, use of evidence, or method of presentation of
other historians. Professional historians also debate the question of whether history can
be taught as a single coherent narrative or a series of competing narratives.[25][26]

Font: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History