History

History is the study of past events. People know what happened in the past by looking at things from the past, including records (like books, newspapers and letters) and artifacts (like pottery, tools, and human or animal remains). Libraries, archives and museums collect and keep these things for people to study history. A person who studies history is called a historian. A person who studies pre-history and history through things left behind by ancient cultures is called an archaeologist. A person who studies mankind and society is called an anthropologist. The study of the sources and methods used to study and write history is called historiography.

People can learn about the past by talking to people who remember things that happened in the past. This is called oral history. When people who had been slaves and American Civil War survivors got old, some historians recorded everything that they said, so that history would not be lost.

People in different parts of the world continue to remember events differently, just as in Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome and Ancient China each thought that they ruled the only important parts of the world and that other parts were "barbarian".

Timeline of history

• Pre-history
• Ancient history
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• Baroque era
• Age of Enlightenment
• Modern History

References

History Portal — All articles about history.