History
History is the systematic study of the past (opens in new tab), focusing primarily on the human past (opens in new tab). As an academic discipline (opens in new tab), it analyses and interprets evidence (opens in new tab) to construct narratives (opens in new tab) about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science (opens in new tab), while others see it as part of the humanities (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab), 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 (opens in new tab) itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past.

Historical research (opens in new tab) relies on primary (opens in new tab) and secondary sources (opens in new tab) to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab), the Annales school (opens in new tab), Marxism (opens in new tab), and postmodernism (opens in new tab), have distinct methodological (opens in new tab) approaches.

History emerged as a field of inquiry in antiquity (opens in new tab) to replace myth-infused narratives, with influential early traditions originating in Greece (opens in new tab), China (opens in new tab), and later in the Islamic world (opens in new tab). Historical writing evolved throughout the ages and became increasingly professional, particularly during the 19th century, when a rigorous methodology and various academic institutions were established. History is related to many fields, including historiography (opens in new tab), philosophy (opens in new tab), education (opens in new tab), and politics (opens in new tab).

Definition

As an academic discipline (opens in new tab), history is the study of the past with the main focus on the human past.^[1] (opens in new tab) It conceptualizes and describes what happened by collecting and analysing evidence (opens in new tab) to construct narratives (opens in new tab). These narratives cover not only how events developed over time but also why they happened and in which contexts, providing an explanation of relevant background conditions and causal (opens in new tab) mechanisms. History further examines the meaning of historical events and the underlying human motives (opens in new tab) driving them.^[2] (opens in new tab)

In a slightly different sense, history refers to the past events themselves. Under this interpretation, history is what happened rather than the academic field studying what happened. When used as a countable noun (opens in new tab), a history is a representation of the past in the form of a history text. History texts are cultural products involving active interpretation (opens in new tab) and reconstruction. The narratives presented in them can change as historians discover new evidence or reinterpret already-known sources. The past itself, by contrast, is static and unchangeable.^[3] (opens in new tab) Some historians focus on the interpretative and explanatory aspects to distinguish histories from chronicles (opens in new tab), arguing that chronicles only catalogue events in chronological order, whereas histories aim at a comprehensive understanding of their causes, contexts, and consequences.^[4] (opens in new tab)^[a] (opens in new tab)

History has been primarily concerned with written documents. It focused on recorded history (opens in new tab) since the invention of writing (opens in new tab), leaving prehistory (opens in new tab)^[b] (opens in new tab) to other fields, such as archaeology (opens in new tab).^[7] (opens in new tab) Its scope broadened in the 20th century as historians became interested in the human past before the invention of writing.^[8] (opens in new tab)^[c] (opens in new tab)

Historians debate whether history is a social science (opens in new tab) or forms part of the humanities (opens in new tab). Like social scientists, historians formulate hypotheses (opens in new tab), gather objective evidence, and present arguments based on this evidence. At the same time, history aligns closely with the humanities because of its reliance on subjective aspects associated with interpretation, storytelling (opens in new tab), human experience, and cultural heritage (opens in new tab).^[10] (opens in new tab) Some historians strongly support one or the other classification while others characterize history as a hybrid discipline that does not belong to one category at the exclusion of the other.^[11] (opens in new tab) History contrasts with pseudohistory (opens in new tab), a label used to describe practices that deviate from historiographical standards by relying on disputed historical evidence, selectively ignoring genuine evidence, or using other means to distort the historical record. Often motivated by specific ideological agendas (opens in new tab), pseudohistorical practices mimic historical methodology (opens in new tab) to promote biased, misleading narratives that lack rigorous analysis and scholarly consensus.^[12] (opens in new tab)

Purpose

Various suggestions about the purpose or value of history have been made. Some historians propose that its primary function is the pure discovery of truth (opens in new tab) about the past. This view emphasizes that the disinterested pursuit of truth is an end in itself (opens in new tab), while external purposes, associated with ideology or politics (opens in new tab), threaten to undermine the accuracy of historical research by distorting the past. In this role, history also challenges traditional myths (opens in new tab) lacking factual support.^[13] (opens in new tab)^[d] (opens in new tab)

A different perspective suggests that the main value of history lies in the lessons it teaches for the present. This view is based on the idea that an understanding of the past (opens in new tab) can guide decision-making (opens in new tab), for example, to avoid repeating previous mistakes.^[15] (opens in new tab) A related perspective focuses on a general understanding of the human condition (opens in new tab), making people aware of the diversity of human behaviour (opens in new tab) across different contexts—similar to what one can learn by visiting foreign countries.^[16] (opens in new tab) History can also foster social cohesion (opens in new tab) by providing people with a collective identity (opens in new tab) through a shared past, helping to preserve and cultivate cultural heritage and values across generations.^[17] (opens in new tab) For some scholars, including Whig historians (opens in new tab) and the Marxist scholar E. H. Carr (opens in new tab), history is a key to understanding the present^[18] (opens in new tab) and, in Carr's case, shaping the future.^[19] (opens in new tab)

History has sometimes been used for political or ideological purposes, for instance, to justify the status quo by emphasising the respectability of certain traditions or to promote change by highlighting past injustices.^[20] (opens in new tab) In extreme forms, evidence is intentionally ignored or misinterpreted to construct misleading narratives, which can result in pseudohistory or historical denialism (opens in new tab).^[12] (opens in new tab)^[e] (opens in new tab) Influential examples are Holocaust denial (opens in new tab), Armenian genocide denial (opens in new tab), Nanjing Massacre denial (opens in new tab), and Holodomor denial (opens in new tab).^[22] (opens in new tab)

Etymology

Fragment of the Histories (opens in new tab) by Herodotus (opens in new tab), an Ancient Greek historical text^[23] (opens in new tab)

The word history comes from the Ancient Greek (opens in new tab) term ἵστωρ (opens in new tab) (histōr), meaning 'learned, wise man'. It gave rise to the Ancient Greek word ἱστορία (opens in new tab) (historiā), which had a wide meaning associated with inquiry in general and giving testimony. The term was later adopted into Classical Latin (opens in new tab) as historia. In Hellenistic (opens in new tab) and Roman times (opens in new tab), the meaning of the term shifted, placing more emphasis on narrative aspects and the art of presentation rather than focusing on investigation and testimony.^[24] (opens in new tab)

The word entered Middle English (opens in new tab) in the 14th century via the Old French (opens in new tab) term histoire.^[25] (opens in new tab) At this time, it meant 'story, tale', encompassing both factual and fictional narratives. In the 15th century, its meaning shifted to cover the branch of knowledge studying the past in addition to narratives about the past.^[26] (opens in new tab) In the 18th and 19th centuries, the word history became more closely associated with factual accounts and evidence-based inquiry, coinciding with the professionalization of historical inquiry, a meaning still dominant in contemporary usage.^[27] (opens in new tab) The dual meaning, referring to both mere stories and factual accounts of the past, is present in the terms for history in many other European languages. They include the French histoire, the Italian storia, and the German Geschichte.^[28] (opens in new tab)

Methods

Main article: Historical method (opens in new tab)

The historical method is a set of techniques (opens in new tab) historians use to research and interpret the past, covering the processes of collecting, evaluating, and synthesizing evidence.^[f] (opens in new tab) It seeks to ensure scholarly rigour, accuracy, and reliability in how historical evidence (opens in new tab) is chosen, analysed, and interpreted.^[30] (opens in new tab) Historical research often starts with a research question (opens in new tab) to define the scope of the inquiry. Some research questions focus on a simple description of what happened. Others aim to explain why a particular event occurred, refute an existing theory, or confirm a new hypothesis.^[31] (opens in new tab)

Sources and source criticism

To answer research questions, historians rely on various types of evidence to reconstruct the past and support their conclusions. Historical evidence is usually divided into primary (opens in new tab) and secondary sources (opens in new tab).^[32] (opens in new tab) A primary source is a source that originated during the period that is studied. Primary sources can take various forms, such as official documents, letters, diaries, eyewitness accounts, photographs, and audio or video recordings. They also include historical remains examined in archaeology (opens in new tab), geology (opens in new tab), and the medical sciences (opens in new tab), such as artefacts and fossils (opens in new tab) unearthed from excavations (opens in new tab). Primary sources offer the most direct evidence of historical events.^[33] (opens in new tab)

Archives preserve large quantities of original sources for researchers to access.^[34] (opens in new tab)

A secondary source is a source that analyses or interprets information found in other sources.^[35] (opens in new tab) Whether a document is a primary or a secondary source depends not only on the document itself but also on the purpose for which it is used. For example, if a historian writes a text about slavery based on an analysis of historical documents, then the text is a secondary source on slavery and a primary source on the historian's opinion.^[36] (opens in new tab)^[g] (opens in new tab) Consistency with available sources is one of the main standards of historical works. For instance, the discovery of new sources may lead historians to revise or dismiss previously accepted narratives.^[38] (opens in new tab) To find and access primary and secondary sources, historians consult archives (opens in new tab), libraries (opens in new tab), and museums (opens in new tab). Archives play a central role by preserving countless original sources and making them available to researchers in a systematic and accessible manner. Thanks to technological advances, historians increasingly rely on online resources, which offer vast digital databases (opens in new tab) with methods to search and access specific documents.^[39] (opens in new tab)

Source criticism (opens in new tab) is the process of analysing and evaluating the information a source provides.^[h] (opens in new tab) Typically, this process begins with external criticism, which evaluates the authenticity of a source. It addresses the questions of when and where the source was created and seeks to identify the author, understand their reasons for producing the source, and determine if it has undergone some type of modification since its creation. Additionally, the process involves distinguishing between original works, copies, and deceptive forgeries.^[41] (opens in new tab)

Internal criticism evaluates the content of a source, typically beginning with the clarification of the meaning within the source. This involves disambiguating individual terms that could be misunderstood but may also require a general translation if the source is written in an unfamiliar language.^[i] (opens in new tab) Once the information content of a source is understood, internal criticism is specifically interested in determining accuracy. Critics ask whether the information is reliable or misrepresents the topic and further question whether the source is comprehensive or omits important details. One way to make these assessments is to evaluate whether the author was able, in principle, to provide a faithful presentation of the studied event. Other approaches include the assessment of the influences of the author's intentions and prejudices, and cross-referencing information with other credible sources. Being aware of the inadequacies of a source helps historians decide whether and which aspects of it to trust, and how to use it to construct a narrative.^[43] (opens in new tab)

Synthesis and schools of thought

The selection, analysis, and criticism of sources result in the validation of a large collection of mostly isolated statements about the past. As a next step, sometimes termed historical synthesis, historians examine how the individual pieces of evidence fit together to form part of a larger story.^[j] (opens in new tab) Constructing this broader perspective is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of the topic as a whole. It is a creative aspect^[k] (opens in new tab) of historical writing that reconstructs, interprets, and explains what happened by showing how different events are connected.^[46] (opens in new tab) In this way, historians address not only which events occurred but also why they occurred and what consequences they had.^[47] (opens in new tab) While there are no universally accepted techniques for this synthesis, historians rely on various interpretative tools and approaches in this process.^[48] (opens in new tab)

Auguste Comte (opens in new tab) articulated positivism (opens in new tab), advocating a science-based approach to history.^[49] (opens in new tab)

One tool to provide an accessible overview of complex developments is the use of periodization (opens in new tab), which divides a timeframe into different periods, each organized around central themes or developments that shaped the period. For example, the three-age system (opens in new tab) is traditionally used to divide early human history into Stone Age (opens in new tab), Bronze Age (opens in new tab), and Iron Age (opens in new tab) based on the predominant materials and technologies during these periods.^[50] (opens in new tab) Another methodological tool is the examination of silences, gaps or omissions in the historical record of events that occurred but did not leave significant evidential traces. Silences can happen when contemporaries find information too obvious to document but may also occur if there are specific reasons to withhold or destroy information.^[51] (opens in new tab)^[l] (opens in new tab) Conversely, when large datasets (opens in new tab) are available, quantitative approaches (opens in new tab) can be used. For instance, economic and social historians commonly employ statistical analysis (opens in new tab) to identify patterns and trends associated with large groups.^[54] (opens in new tab)

Different schools of thought often come with their own methodological implications for how to write history.^[55] (opens in new tab) Positivists (opens in new tab) emphasize the scientific nature of historical inquiry, focusing on empirical evidence (opens in new tab) to discover objective truths (opens in new tab).^[56] (opens in new tab) In contrast, postmodernists (opens in new tab) reject grand narratives (opens in new tab) that claim to offer a single, objective truth. Instead, they highlight the subjective (opens in new tab) nature of historical interpretation, which leads to a multiplicity of divergent perspectives.^[57] (opens in new tab) Marxists (opens in new tab) interpret historical developments as expressions of economic forces and class struggles (opens in new tab).^[58] (opens in new tab) The Annales school (opens in new tab) highlights long-term social and economic trends while relying on quantitative and interdisciplinary methods.^[59] (opens in new tab) Feminist historians (opens in new tab) study the role of gender (opens in new tab) in history, with a particular interest in analysing the experiences of women to challenge patriarchal (opens in new tab) perspectives.^[60] (opens in new tab)

Areas of study

History is a wide field of inquiry encompassing many branches. Some branches focus on a specific time period, while others concentrate on a particular geographic region or a distinct theme. Specializations of different types can usually be combined; for example, a work on economic history in ancient Egypt merges temporal, regional, and thematic perspectives. For topics with a broad scope, the amount of primary sources is often too extensive for an individual historian to review, forcing them to either narrow the scope of their topic or also rely on secondary sources to arrive at a wide overview.^[61] (opens in new tab)

By period

Chronological division is a common approach to organizing the vast expanse of history into more manageable segments. Different periods (opens in new tab) are often defined based on dominant themes that characterize a specific time frame and significant events that initiated these developments or brought them to an end. Depending on the selected context and level of detail, a period may be as short as a decade or longer than several centuries.^[62] (opens in new tab) A traditionally influential approach divides human history (opens in new tab) into prehistory (opens in new tab), ancient history (opens in new tab), post-classical history (opens in new tab), early modern history (opens in new tab), and modern history (opens in new tab).^[63] (opens in new tab)^[m] (opens in new tab) Depending on the region and theme, the time frames covered by these periods can vary and historians may use entirely different periodizations.^[65] (opens in new tab) For example, traditional periodizations of Chinese history (opens in new tab) follow the main dynasties (opens in new tab),^[66] (opens in new tab) and the division into pre-Columbian (opens in new tab), colonial (opens in new tab), and post-colonial periods plays a central role in the history of the Americas (opens in new tab).^[67] (opens in new tab)

Historians draw on evidence from various fields to examine prehistory, including fossils like Lucy (opens in new tab).^[68] (opens in new tab)

The study of prehistory includes the examination of the evolution of human-like species (opens in new tab) several million years ago, leading to the emergence of anatomically modern humans (opens in new tab) about 200,000 years ago.^[69] (opens in new tab) Subsequently, humans migrated out of Africa (opens in new tab) to populate most of the earth. Towards the end of prehistory, technological advances in the form of new and improved tools led many groups to give up their established nomadic (opens in new tab) lifestyle, based on hunting and gathering (opens in new tab), in favour of a sedentary (opens in new tab) lifestyle supported by early forms of agriculture (opens in new tab).^[70] (opens in new tab) The absence of written documents from this period presents researchers with unique challenges. It results in an interdisciplinary approach relying on other forms of evidence from fields such as archaeology (opens in new tab), anthropology (opens in new tab), palaeontology (opens in new tab), and geology (opens in new tab).^[71] (opens in new tab)

Historians studying the ancient period examine the emergence of the first major civilizations (opens in new tab) in regions such as Mesopotamia (opens in new tab), Egypt, the Indus Valley (opens in new tab), China, and Peru, beginning approximately 3500 BCE in some regions. The new social, economic, and political complexities necessitated the development of writing systems (opens in new tab). Thanks to advancements in agriculture, surplus food allowed these civilizations to support larger populations, leading to urbanization (opens in new tab), the establishment of trade networks, and the emergence of regional empires. In the later part of the ancient period, sometimes termed the classical period, societies in China, India, Persia, and the Mediterranean expanded further, reaching new cultural, scientific, and political heights. Meanwhile, influential religious systems and philosophical ideas were first formulated, such as Hinduism (opens in new tab), Buddhism (opens in new tab), Confucianism (opens in new tab), Judaism (opens in new tab), and Greek philosophy (opens in new tab).^[72] (opens in new tab)

In the study of post-classical or medieval history, which began around 500 CE, historians note the growing influence of major religions. Missionary (opens in new tab) religions, like Buddhism, Christianity (opens in new tab), and Islam (opens in new tab), spread rapidly and established themselves as world religions (opens in new tab), marking a cultural shift as they gradually replaced other belief systems. Meanwhile, inter-regional trade networks flourished, leading to increased technological and cultural exchange. Conquering many territories in Asia and Europe, the Mongol Empire (opens in new tab) became a dominant force during the 13th and 14th centuries.^[73] (opens in new tab)

Historians focused on early modern history, which started roughly in 1500 CE, commonly highlight how European states rose to global power. As gunpowder empires (opens in new tab), they explored and colonized (opens in new tab) large parts of the world. As a result, the Americas were integrated into the global network, triggering a vast biological exchange (opens in new tab) of plants, animals, people, and diseases.^[n] (opens in new tab) The Scientific Revolution (opens in new tab) prompted major discoveries and accelerated technological progress. It was accompanied by other intellectual developments, such as humanism (opens in new tab) and the Enlightenment (opens in new tab), which ushered in secularization (opens in new tab).^[75] (opens in new tab)

The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on economic and social life, marking the transition from agrarian (opens in new tab) to industrial societies (opens in new tab).^[76] (opens in new tab)

In the study of modern history, which began at the end of the 18th century, historians are interested in how the Industrial Revolution (opens in new tab) transformed economies by introducing more efficient modes of production. Western powers established vast colonial empires (opens in new tab), gaining superiority through industrialized military technology. The increased international exchange of goods, ideas, and people marked the beginning of globalization (opens in new tab). Various social revolutions challenged autocratic (opens in new tab) and colonial regimes, paving the way for democracies (opens in new tab). Many developments in fields like science, technology, economy, living standards, and human population accelerated at unprecedented rates. This happened despite the widespread destruction caused by two world wars (opens in new tab), which rebalanced international power relations by undermining European dominance.^[77] (opens in new tab)

By geographic location

Areas of historical study can also be categorized by the geographic locations they examine.^[78] (opens in new tab) Geography (opens in new tab) plays a central role in history through its influence on food production (opens in new tab), natural resources (opens in new tab), economic activities, political boundaries, and cultural interactions.^[79] (opens in new tab)^[o] (opens in new tab) Some historical works limit their scope to small regions, such as a village or a settlement. Others focus on broad territories that encompass entire continents, like the histories of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.^[81] (opens in new tab)

The Pyramids of Giza (opens in new tab) showcase the lasting heritage of the ancient Egyptian civilization.^[82] (opens in new tab)

The history of Africa (opens in new tab) begins with the examination of the evolution of anatomically modern humans.^[83] (opens in new tab) Ancient historians describe how the invention of writing and the establishment of civilization happened in ancient Egypt (opens in new tab) in the 4th millennium BCE.^[84] (opens in new tab) Over the next millennia, other notable civilizations and kingdoms formed in Nubia (opens in new tab), Axum (opens in new tab), Carthage (opens in new tab), Ghana (opens in new tab), Mali (opens in new tab), and Songhay (opens in new tab).^[85] (opens in new tab) Islam began spreading across North Africa in the 7th century CE and became the dominant faith in many empires. Meanwhile, trade along the trans-Saharan route (opens in new tab) intensified.^[86] (opens in new tab) Beginning in the 15th century, millions of Africans were enslaved and forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the Atlantic slave trade (opens in new tab).^[87] (opens in new tab) Most of the continent was colonized (opens in new tab) by European powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[88] (opens in new tab) Amid rising nationalism (opens in new tab), African states gradually gained independence (opens in new tab) in the aftermath of World War II (opens in new tab), a period that saw economic progress, rapid population growth, and struggles for political stability.^[89] (opens in new tab)

Historians studying the history of Asia (opens in new tab) note the arrival of anatomically modern humans around 100,000 years ago.^[90] (opens in new tab) They explore Asia's role as one of the cradles of civilization, with the emergence of some of the first ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China beginning in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE.^[91] (opens in new tab) In the following millennia, civilisations on the Asian continent gave birth to all major world religions and several influential philosophical traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism (opens in new tab), Christianity, and Islam.^[92] (opens in new tab) Other developments were the establishment of the Silk Road (opens in new tab), which facilitated trade and cultural exchange across Eurasia (opens in new tab), and the formation of powerful empires, such as the Mongol Empire.^[93] (opens in new tab) European influence grew over the following centuries, ushering in the modern era. It culminated in the 19th and early 20th centuries when many parts of Asia came under direct colonial control until the end of World War II (opens in new tab).^[94] (opens in new tab) The post-independence period was characterized by modernization, economic growth, and a steep increase in population.^[95] (opens in new tab)

A map of Ancient Greece, showing both sides of the Aegean Sea

Due to its influence on Western culture and philosophy, Ancient Greece (opens in new tab) is an important area of study for historians of Europe.^[96] (opens in new tab)

In the study of the history of Europe (opens in new tab), historians describe the arrival of the first anatomically modern humans about 45,000 years ago.^[97] (opens in new tab) They explore how in the first millennium BCE the Ancient Greeks (opens in new tab) contributed key elements to the culture (opens in new tab), philosophy (opens in new tab), and politics associated with the Western world (opens in new tab),^[96] (opens in new tab) and how their cultural heritage influenced the Roman (opens in new tab) and Byzantine Empires (opens in new tab).^[98] (opens in new tab) The medieval period (opens in new tab) began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire (opens in new tab) in the 5th century CE and was marked by the spread of Christianity (opens in new tab).^[99] (opens in new tab) Starting in the 15th century, European exploration and colonization interconnected the globe, while cultural, intellectual, and scientific developments transformed Western societies.^[100] (opens in new tab) From the late 18th to the early 20th centuries, European global dominance was further solidified by the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of large overseas colonies.^[101] (opens in new tab) It came to an end because of the devastating effects of two world wars.^[102] (opens in new tab) In the following Cold War (opens in new tab) era, the continent was divided into a Western (opens in new tab) and an Eastern bloc (opens in new tab). They pursued political and economic integration in the aftermath of the Cold War.^[103] (opens in new tab)

Historians examining the history of the Americas document the arrival of the first humans around 20,000 to 15,000 years ago.^[104] (opens in new tab) The Americas were home to some of the earliest civilizations, like the Norte Chico civilization (opens in new tab) in South America and the Maya (opens in new tab) and Olmec civilizations (opens in new tab) in Central America.^[105] (opens in new tab) Over the next millennia, major empires arose beside them, such as the Teotihuacan (opens in new tab), Aztec (opens in new tab), and Inca empires (opens in new tab).^[106] (opens in new tab) Following the arrival of the Europeans from the late 15th century onwards, the spread of newly introduced diseases drastically reduced the local population. Together with colonization, it led to the collapse of major empires as demographic and cultural landscapes were reshaped.^[107] (opens in new tab) Independence movements (opens in new tab) in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the formation of new nations across the Americas.^[108] (opens in new tab) In the 20th century, the United States emerged as a dominant global power and a key player in the Cold War.^[109] (opens in new tab)

In the study of the history of Oceania (opens in new tab), historians note the arrival of humans about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago.^[110] (opens in new tab) They explore the establishment of diverse regional societies and cultures (opens in new tab), first in Australia and Papua New Guinea and later also on other Pacific Islands (opens in new tab).^[111] (opens in new tab) The arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century prompted significant transformations, and by the end of the 19th century, most of the region had come under Western control.^[112] (opens in new tab) Oceania became involved in various conflicts during the world wars and experienced decolonization in the post-war period (opens in new tab).^[113] (opens in new tab)

By theme

Historians often limit their inquiry to a specific theme.^[114] (opens in new tab) Some propose a general subdivision into three major themes: political history (opens in new tab), economic history (opens in new tab), and social history (opens in new tab). However, the boundaries between these branches are vague and their relation to other thematic branches, such as intellectual history (opens in new tab), is not always clear.^[115] (opens in new tab)

Political history studies the organization of power (opens in new tab) in society, examining how power structures arise, develop, and interact. Throughout most of recorded history, states (opens in new tab) or state-like structures have been central to this field of study. It explores how a state was organized internally (opens in new tab), like factions (opens in new tab), parties (opens in new tab), leaders, and other political institutions. It also examines which policies (opens in new tab) were implemented and how the state interacted with other states.^[116] (opens in new tab) Political history has been studied since antiquity by historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides, making it one of the oldest branches of history, while other major subfields have only become established branches in the past century.^[117] (opens in new tab)

Military history studies armed conflicts, including advancements in military technology, like trebuchets (opens in new tab).^[118] (opens in new tab)

Diplomatic (opens in new tab) and military history (opens in new tab) are associated with political history. Diplomatic history examines international relations (opens in new tab) between states. It covers foreign policy (opens in new tab) topics such as negotiations, strategic considerations, treaties (opens in new tab), and conflicts between nations as well as the role of international organizations (opens in new tab) in these processes.^[119] (opens in new tab) Military history studies the impact and development of armed conflicts (opens in new tab) in human history. This includes the examination of specific events, like the analysis of a particular battle and the discussion of the different causes of a war. It also involves more general considerations about the evolution of warfare, including advancements in military technology (opens in new tab), strategies (opens in new tab), tactics (opens in new tab), logistics (opens in new tab), and institutions.^[120] (opens in new tab)

Economic history examines how commodities (opens in new tab) are produced, exchanged, and consumed. It covers economic aspects such as the use of land, labour (opens in new tab), and capital (opens in new tab), the supply and demand (opens in new tab) of goods, the costs and means of production (opens in new tab), and the distribution of income (opens in new tab) and wealth (opens in new tab). Economic historians typically focus on general trends in the form of impersonal forces, such as inflation (opens in new tab), rather than the actions and decisions of individuals. If enough data is available, they rely on quantitative methods, like statistical analysis. For periods before the modern era, available data is often limited, forcing economic historians to rely on scarce sources and extrapolate information from them.^[121] (opens in new tab)

Social history is a broad field investigating social phenomena, but its precise definition is disputed. Some theorists understand it as the study of everyday life outside the domains of politics and economics, including cultural practices, family structures, community interactions, and education. A closely related approach focuses on experience rather than activities, examining how members of particular social groups, like social classes (opens in new tab), races (opens in new tab), genders (opens in new tab), or age groups (opens in new tab), experienced their world. Other definitions see social history as the study of social problems, like poverty, disease, and crime, or take a broader perspective by examining how whole societies (opens in new tab) developed.^[122] (opens in new tab) Closely related fields include cultural history (opens in new tab), gender history (opens in new tab), and religious history (opens in new tab).^[123] (opens in new tab)

Intellectual history is the history of ideas and studies how concepts, philosophies, and ideologies (opens in new tab) have evolved. It is particularly interested in academic fields but not limited to them, including the study of the beliefs and prejudices of ordinary people. In addition to studying intellectual movements themselves, it also examines the cultural and social contexts that shaped them and their influence on other historical developments.^[124] (opens in new tab) As closely related fields, the history of philosophy (opens in new tab) investigates the development of philosophical thought^[125] (opens in new tab) while the history of science (opens in new tab) studies the evolution of scientific theories and practices, such as the scientific contributions of Charles Darwin (opens in new tab) and Albert Einstein (opens in new tab).^[126] (opens in new tab) Art history (opens in new tab), another connected discipline, examines historical works of art (opens in new tab) and the development of artistic activities, styles (opens in new tab), and movements (opens in new tab). It includes a discussion of the cultural, social, and political contexts of art production.^[127] (opens in new tab)

Environmental history (opens in new tab) studies the relation between humans and their environment. It seeks to understand how humans and the rest of nature have affected each other in the course of history.^[128] (opens in new tab) Other thematic branches include constitutional history (opens in new tab), legal history (opens in new tab), urban history (opens in new tab), business history (opens in new tab), history of technology (opens in new tab), medical history (opens in new tab), history of education (opens in new tab), and people's history (opens in new tab).^[129] (opens in new tab)

Others

Some branches of history are characterized by the methods (opens in new tab) they employ, such as quantitative history (opens in new tab) and digital history (opens in new tab), which rely on quantitative methods (opens in new tab) and digital media (opens in new tab).^[130] (opens in new tab) Comparative history (opens in new tab) compares historical phenomena from distinct times, regions, or cultures to examine their similarities and differences.^[131] (opens in new tab) Unlike most other branches, oral history (opens in new tab) relies on oral reports rather than written documents, encompassing eyewitness accounts, hearsay (opens in new tab), and communal legends (opens in new tab). It reflects the personal experiences, interpretations, and memories (opens in new tab) of common people, showcasing how people subjectively remember the past.^[132] (opens in new tab) Counterfactual history (opens in new tab) uses counterfactual thinking (opens in new tab) to examine alternative courses of history, exploring what could have happened under different circumstances.^[133] (opens in new tab) Certain branches of history are distinguished by their theoretical outlook, such as Marxist (opens in new tab) and feminist history (opens in new tab).^[134] (opens in new tab)

World history (opens in new tab) examines history on a global level, incorporating the whole of human history (opens in new tab).^[135] (opens in new tab)

Some distinctions focus on the scope of the studied topic. Big History (opens in new tab) is the branch with the broadest scope, covering everything from the Big Bang (opens in new tab) to the present, incorporating elements of cosmology (opens in new tab), geology, biology (opens in new tab), and anthropology.^[9] (opens in new tab) World history (opens in new tab) is another branch with a wide topic. It examines human history as a whole, starting with the evolution of human-like species.^[135] (opens in new tab) The terms macrohistory (opens in new tab), mesohistory, and microhistory (opens in new tab) refer to different scales of analysis, ranging from large-scale patterns that affect the whole globe to detailed studies of local contexts (opens in new tab), small communities, family histories (opens in new tab), particular individuals, or specific events.^[136] (opens in new tab) Closely related to microhistory is the genre of historical biography (opens in new tab), which recounts an individual's life in its historical context and the legacy it left.^[137] (opens in new tab)

Public history (opens in new tab) involves activities that present history to the general public (opens in new tab). It usually happens outside the traditional academic settings in contexts like museums (opens in new tab), historical sites (opens in new tab), heritage tourism (opens in new tab), and popular media.^[138] (opens in new tab)

Evolution of the discipline

Before the invention of writing, the preservation and transmission of historical knowledge were limited to oral traditions.^[139] (opens in new tab) Early forms of historical writing mixed facts with mythological elements, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh (opens in new tab) from ancient Mesopotamia (opens in new tab) and the Odyssey (opens in new tab), an ancient Greek (opens in new tab) text attributed to Homer (opens in new tab).^[140] (opens in new tab) Published in the 5th century BCE, the Histories (opens in new tab) by Herodotus (opens in new tab)^[p] (opens in new tab) was one of the foundational texts of the Western historical tradition, putting more emphasis on rational and evidence-based inquiry than the stories of Homer and other poets.^[142] (opens in new tab) Thucydides (opens in new tab) followed and further refined Herodotus's approach but focused more on particular political and military developments in contrast to the wide scope and ethnographic (opens in new tab) elements of Herodotus's work.^[143] (opens in new tab) Roman (opens in new tab) historiography was heavily influenced by Greek traditions. It often included not only historical facts but also moral judgments (opens in new tab) of historical figures (opens in new tab).^[q] (opens in new tab) Early Roman historians used an annalistic (opens in new tab) style, arranging past events by year with little commentary, while later ones preferred a more narrative and analytical approach.^[145] (opens in new tab)

The Book of Rivers and Canals from Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian

Sima Qian (opens in new tab)'s Shiji (opens in new tab) or Records of the Grand Historian was a foundational work in Chinese historiography (opens in new tab).^[146] (opens in new tab)

Another complex tradition of historical writing (opens in new tab) emerged in ancient China (opens in new tab), with early precursors starting in the late 2nd millennium BCE. It considered annals the highest form of historical writing and emphasized verification through sources. This tradition was associated with Confucian philosophy (opens in new tab) and closely tied to the government in the form of the ruling dynasty (opens in new tab), each responsible for writing the official history of its predecessor (opens in new tab). Chinese historians established a coherent and systematic method for recording historical events earlier than other traditions.^[147] (opens in new tab) Of particular influence was the work of Sima Qian (opens in new tab), whose meticulous research method and inclusion of alternative viewpoints shaped subsequent historiographical standards.^[148] (opens in new tab) In ancient India (opens in new tab), historical narratives (opens in new tab) were closely associated with religion (opens in new tab). They often mixed factual accounts with supernatural elements, as seen in works like the Mahabharata (opens in new tab).^[149] (opens in new tab)

In Europe during the medieval period (opens in new tab), history was primarily documented by the clergy (opens in new tab) in the form of chronicles. Christian (opens in new tab) historians drew from Greco-Roman (opens in new tab) and Jewish (opens in new tab) traditions and reinterpreted the past from a religious perspective as a narrative highlighting God's divine plan.^[150] (opens in new tab) Influential contributions shaping this tradition were made by the historians Eusebius of Caesarea (opens in new tab) and Bede (opens in new tab) and by the theologian Augustine of Hippo (opens in new tab).^[151] (opens in new tab) In the Islamic world, historical writing was similarly influenced by religion, interpreting the past from a Muslim (opens in new tab) perspective. It placed great importance on the chain of transmission (opens in new tab) to preserve the authority of historical accounts.^[152] (opens in new tab) Al-Tabari (opens in new tab) wrote a comprehensive history, spanning from the creation of the world to his present day. Ibn Khaldun (opens in new tab) reflected on philosophical issues underlying the practice of historians, such as universal patterns shaping historical changes and the limits of historical truth.^[153] (opens in new tab)

With the emergence of the Tang dynasty (opens in new tab) (618–907 CE) in China, historical writing became increasingly institutionalized as a bureau for the writing of history was established in 629 CE. The bureau oversaw the establishment of Veritable Records (opens in new tab), a comprehensive compilation serving as the basis of the standard national history. Tang dynasty historians emphasized the difference between actual events that occurred in the past and the way these events are documented in historical texts.^[154] (opens in new tab) Historical writing in the Song dynasty (opens in new tab) (960–1279 CE) happened in a variety of historical genres, including encyclopedias, biographies, and historical novels, while history became a standard subject in the Chinese educational system (opens in new tab).^[155] (opens in new tab) Influenced by the Chinese model, a tradition of historical writing emerged in Japan (opens in new tab) in the 8th century CE. Like in China, historical writing was closely related to the imperial household (opens in new tab), but Japanese historians placed less importance on critical source evaluation than their Chinese counterparts.^[156] (opens in new tab)

During the Renaissance (opens in new tab) and the early modern period (opens in new tab) (approximately 1500 to 1800), the different historical traditions came increasingly into contact with each other.^[157] (opens in new tab) Starting in 14th-century Europe, the Renaissance led to a shift away from medieval religious outlooks towards a renewed interest in the earlier classical tradition of Greece and Rome. Renaissance humanists (opens in new tab) used sophisticated text criticism to scrutinize earlier religious historical works, which contributed to the secularization (opens in new tab) of historical writing. During the 15th to 17th centuries, historians placed greater emphasis on the didactic (opens in new tab) role of history, using it to promote the established order or argue for a return to an idealised vision of the past. As the invention of the printing press (opens in new tab) made written documents more accessible and affordable, interest in history expanded outside the clergy (opens in new tab) and nobility (opens in new tab). At the same time, empiricist (opens in new tab) thought associated with the Scientific Revolution (opens in new tab) questioned the possibility of arriving at universal historical truths.^[158] (opens in new tab) During the Age of Enlightenment (opens in new tab) in the 18th century, historical writing was influenced by rationalism (opens in new tab) and scepticism (opens in new tab). Aiming to challenge traditional authority and dogma through reason and empirical methods, historians tried to uncover deeper patterns and meaning in the past, while the scope of historical inquiry expanded with an increased focus on societal and economic topics as well as comparisons between different cultures (opens in new tab).^[159] (opens in new tab)

In China during the Ming dynasty (opens in new tab) (1368–1644), public interest in historical writings and their availability also increased. In addition to the continuation of the Veritable Records by official governmental historians, non-official works by private scholars flourished. These scholars tended to use a more creative style and sometimes challenged orthodox accounts.^[160] (opens in new tab) In the Islamic world, new traditions of historical writings emerged in the Safavid (opens in new tab), Mughal (opens in new tab), and Ottoman Empires (opens in new tab).^[161] (opens in new tab) Meanwhile, in the Americas (opens in new tab), European explorers recorded and interpreted indigenous narratives, which had been passed down through oral and pictographic (opens in new tab) practices. These views sometimes contested traditional European perspectives.^[162] (opens in new tab)

Leopold von Ranke (opens in new tab) revolutionized the standards of historical scholarship by introducing a thorough evaluation of primary sources.^[163] (opens in new tab)

Historical writing was transformed in the 19th century as it became more professional (opens in new tab) and science-oriented. Following the work of Leopold von Ranke (opens in new tab), a systematic method of source criticism was widely accepted while academic institutions (opens in new tab) dedicated to history were established in the form of university departments, professional associations, and journals.^[164] (opens in new tab) In tune with this scientific outlook, Auguste Comte (opens in new tab) formulated the school of positivism (opens in new tab) and aimed to discover general laws of history, similar to the laws of nature (opens in new tab) studied by physicists.^[165] (opens in new tab) Building on the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (opens in new tab), Karl Marx (opens in new tab) proposed one such general law in his theory of historical materialism (opens in new tab), arguing that economic forces and class struggle (opens in new tab) are the fundamental drivers of historical change.^[166] (opens in new tab) Another influential development was the spread of European historiographical methods, which became the dominant approach to the academic study of the past worldwide.^[167] (opens in new tab)

Related fields

Historiography

Main article: Historiography (opens in new tab)

Ibn Khaldun (opens in new tab) was an influential figure in Islamic historiography.^[175] (opens in new tab)

Historiography is the study of the methods and development of historical research. Historiographers examine what historians do, resulting in a metatheory (opens in new tab) in the form of a history of history. Some theorists use the term historiography in a different sense to refer to written accounts of the past.^[176] (opens in new tab)

A central topic in historiography as a metatheory focuses on the standards of evidence (opens in new tab) and reasoning in historical inquiry. Historiographers examine and codify how historians use sources to construct narratives about the past, including the analysis of the interpretative assumptions from which they proceed. Closely related issues include the style (opens in new tab) and rhetorical (opens in new tab) presentation of works of history.^[177] (opens in new tab)

By comparing the works of different historians, historiographers identify schools of thought based on shared research methods, assumptions, and styles.^[178] (opens in new tab) For example, they examine the characteristics of the Annales school (opens in new tab), like its use of quantitative data from various disciplines and its interest in economic and social developments taking place over extended periods.^[179] (opens in new tab) Comparisons also extend to whole eras from ancient to modern times. This way, historiography traces the development of history as an academic discipline, highlighting how the dominant methods, themes, and research goals have changed over time.^[180] (opens in new tab)

Philosophy of history

Main article: Philosophy of history (opens in new tab)

The philosophy of history^[r] (opens in new tab) investigates the theoretical foundations of history. It is interested both in the past itself as a series of interconnected events and in the academic field studying this process. Insights and approaches from various branches of philosophy are relevant to this endeavour, such as metaphysics (opens in new tab), epistemology (opens in new tab), hermeneutics (opens in new tab), and ethics (opens in new tab).^[182] (opens in new tab)

In examining history as a process, philosophers explore the basic entities that make up historical phenomena. Some approaches rely primarily on the beliefs and actions of individual humans, while others include collective (opens in new tab) and other general entities, such as civilizations (opens in new tab), institutions (opens in new tab), ideologies (opens in new tab), and social forces.^[183] (opens in new tab) A related topic concerns the nature of causal mechanisms (opens in new tab) connecting historic events with their causes and consequences.^[184] (opens in new tab) One view holds that there are general laws of history that determine the course of events, similar to the laws of nature (opens in new tab) studied in the natural sciences (opens in new tab). According to another perspective, causal relations between historic events are unique and shaped by contingent factors.^[185] (opens in new tab) Historically, some philosophers have suggested that the general direction of the course of history follows large patterns. According to one proposal, history is cyclic, meaning that on a sufficiently large scale, individual events or general trends repeat (opens in new tab). Another such theory asserts that history is a linear, teleological (opens in new tab) process moving towards a predetermined goal.^[186] (opens in new tab)^[s] (opens in new tab)

The topics of philosophy of history and historiography overlap as both are interested in the standards of historical reasoning (opens in new tab). Historiographers typically focus more on describing specific methods and developments encountered in the study of history. Philosophers of history, by contrast, tend to explore more general patterns, including evaluative questions about which methods and assumptions are correct.^[188] (opens in new tab) Historical reasoning is sometimes used in philosophy and other disciplines as a method to explain phenomena. This approach, known as historicism (opens in new tab), argues that understanding something requires knowledge of its unique history or how it evolved. For instance, historicism about truth (opens in new tab) states that truth depends on historical circumstances, meaning that there are no transhistorical truths. Historicism contrasts with approaches that seek a timeless and universal understanding of their subject matter.^[189] (opens in new tab)

Historical objectivity

Diverse debates in the philosophy of history focus on the possibility of an objective (opens in new tab) account of history. Various theorists argue that this ideal is not achievable, pointing to the subjective (opens in new tab) nature of interpretation (opens in new tab), the narrative aspect of history, and the influence of personal values and biases on the perspective and actions of both historic individuals and historians. According to one view, some particular facts are objective, for example, facts about when a drought occurred or which army was defeated. However, this view does not ensure general objectivity since historians have to interpret and synthesize facts to arrive at an overall narrative describing large trends and developments.^[190] (opens in new tab) As a result, some historians, such as G. M. Trevelyan (opens in new tab) and Keith Jenkins (opens in new tab), assert that all history is biased, arguing that historical narratives are never free of subjective presuppositions and value judgments.^[191] (opens in new tab)

Some outlooks associated with realism, empiricism (opens in new tab), and reconstructionism,^[192] (opens in new tab) conceptualise history as the search for truth or knowledge, which they see as recoverable through rigorous evaluation and careful interpretation of evidence.^[193] (opens in new tab)^[t] (opens in new tab) Other scholars critique this view, emphasising the subjective and partial nature of historical knowledge.^[u] (opens in new tab) Perspectivists (opens in new tab) claim that historical perspectives are inherently subjective, as they require selecting particular sources and inquiries, and ascertaining what information can be regarded as historical fact. They argue that statements can only be objective within or relative to one of several competing historical perspectives.^[198] (opens in new tab) A stronger scepticist (opens in new tab) or relativist (opens in new tab) outlook states that no historical knowledge can be proven objective.^[199] (opens in new tab)^[v] (opens in new tab) This emphasis on subjectivities has been extended by postmodernist (opens in new tab) theories that suggest that it is impossible to know the past objectively, adding that meaning is created through human-made texts, the language of which "constitute our world as we perceive it".^[201] (opens in new tab)^[w] (opens in new tab) Neo-realists have responded to this trend by reemphasising the centrality of empiricist methodologies to historical analysis. They acknowledge the influence of subjective evaluations but contend that historical truth is reachable nonetheless.^[203] (opens in new tab)^[x] (opens in new tab)

Education

History is a standard school subject in most countries.^[204] (opens in new tab)

History is part of the school curriculum (opens in new tab) in most countries.^[204] (opens in new tab) Early history education aims to make students interested in the past and familiarize them with fundamental concepts of historical thought. By fostering a basic historical awareness, it seeks to instil a sense of identity (opens in new tab) by helping them understand their cultural roots.^[205] (opens in new tab) It often takes a narrative form by presenting children with simple stories, which may focus on historic individuals or the origins of local holidays, festivals, and food.^[206] (opens in new tab) More advanced history education encountered in secondary school (opens in new tab) covers a broader spectrum of topics, ranging from ancient to modern history, at both local and global levels. It further aims to acquaint students with historical research methodologies, including the abilities to interpret and critically evaluate historical claims.^[207] (opens in new tab)

History teachers employ a variety of teaching methods (opens in new tab). They include narrative presentations of historical developments, questions to engage students and prompt critical thinking (opens in new tab), and discussions on historical topics. Students work with historical sources directly to learn how to analyse and interpret evidence, both individually and in group activities. They engage in historical writing to develop the skills of articulating their thoughts clearly and persuasively. Assessment (opens in new tab) through oral or written tests aims to ensure that learning goals are reached.^[208] (opens in new tab) Traditional methodologies in history education often present numerous facts, like dates of significant events and names of historical figures, which students are expected to memorize. Some modern approaches, by contrast, seek to foster a more active engagement and a deeper interdisciplinary understanding of general patterns, focusing not only on what happened but also on why it happened and its lasting historical significance.^[209] (opens in new tab)

History education in state schools (opens in new tab) serves a variety of purposes. A key skill is historical literacy, the ability to comprehend, critically analyse, and respond to historical claims. By making students aware of significant developments in the past, they can become familiar with various contexts of human life, helping them understand the present and its diverse cultures. At the same time, history education can foster a sense of cultural identity (opens in new tab) by connecting students with their heritage, traditions, and practices, for example, by introducing them to iconic elements ranging from national landmarks and monuments to historical figures and traditional festivities.^[210] (opens in new tab) Knowledge of a shared past and cultural heritage can contribute to the formation of a national identity (opens in new tab) and prepares students for active citizenship (opens in new tab). This political aspect of history education may spark disputes about which topics school textbooks (opens in new tab) should cover. In various regions, it has resulted in so-called history wars over the curriculum.^[211] (opens in new tab) It can lead to a biased treatment of controversial topics in an attempt to present their national heritage in a favourable light.^[212] (opens in new tab)^[y] (opens in new tab)

Informal education (opens in new tab) provided by exhibitions of historic artefacts in museums is part of public history (opens in new tab).^[214] (opens in new tab)

In addition to the formal education (opens in new tab) provided in public schools, history is also taught in informal settings (opens in new tab) outside the classroom. Public history (opens in new tab) takes place in locations like museums (opens in new tab) and memorial sites, where selected artefacts are often used to tell specific stories.^[214] (opens in new tab) It includes popular history (opens in new tab), which aims to make the past accessible and appealing to a wide audience of non-specialists in media such as books, television programmes, and online content.^[215] (opens in new tab) Informal history education also happens in oral traditions (opens in new tab) as narratives about the past are transmitted across generations.^[216] (opens in new tab)

Other fields

History employs an interdisciplinary methodology (opens in new tab), drawing on findings from fields such as archaeology (opens in new tab), geology (opens in new tab), genetics (opens in new tab), anthropology (opens in new tab), and linguistics (opens in new tab).^[217] (opens in new tab)^[z] (opens in new tab) Archaeologists study human-made historical artefacts and other forms of material culture (opens in new tab). Their findings provide crucial insights into past human activities and cultural developments.^[219] (opens in new tab) The interpretation of archaeological evidence presents challenges that differ from standard historical work with written documents. At the same time, it offers new possibilities by presenting information that was not recorded, allowing historians to access the past of non-literate societies and marginalized groups within literate societies by studying the remains of their material culture. Before the advent of modern archaeology in the 19th century, antiquarianism (opens in new tab) laid the groundwork for this discipline and played a vital role in preserving historical artefacts.^[220] (opens in new tab)

Geology and other earth sciences (opens in new tab) help historians understand the environmental contexts and physical processes that affected past societies, including climate (opens in new tab) conditions, landscapes, and natural events.^[221] (opens in new tab) Genetics provides key information about the evolutionary origins of humans as a species, human migration (opens in new tab), ancestry (opens in new tab), and demographic (opens in new tab) changes.^[222] (opens in new tab) Anthropologists investigate human culture (opens in new tab) and behaviour, such as social structures (opens in new tab), belief systems (opens in new tab), and ritual practices. This knowledge offers contexts for the interpretation of historical events.^[223] (opens in new tab) Historical linguistics (opens in new tab) studies the development of languages over time, which can be crucial for the interpretation of ancient documents and can also provide information about migration patterns and cultural exchanges.^[224] (opens in new tab) Historians further rely on evidence from various other fields belonging to the physical (opens in new tab), biological (opens in new tab), and social sciences (opens in new tab) as well as the humanities (opens in new tab).^[225] (opens in new tab)

In virtue of its relation to ideology (opens in new tab) and national identity, history is closely connected to politics (opens in new tab) and historical theories can directly impact political decisions. For example, irredentist (opens in new tab) attempts by one state to annex territory of another state often rely on historical theories claiming that the disputed territory belonged to the first state in the past.^[226] (opens in new tab) History also plays a central role in so-called historical religions, which base some of their core doctrines on historical events. For instance, Christianity (opens in new tab) is often categorized as a historical religion because it is centred around historical events surrounding Jesus Christ (opens in new tab).^[227] (opens in new tab) History is relevant to many fields through the study of their past, including the history of science (opens in new tab), mathematics (opens in new tab), philosophy (opens in new tab), and art (opens in new tab).^[228] (opens in new tab)

References

Notes

Some authors restrict the term history to the factual series of past events and use the term historiography (opens in new tab) for the study of those events. Others use the term history for the study and representation of the past. They characterize historiography as a metatheory (opens in new tab) studying the methods and historical development of this academic discipline.^[5] (opens in new tab)
Some theorists identify protohistory (opens in new tab) as a distinct period after prehistory that spans from the invention of writing to the first attempts to record history.^[6] (opens in new tab)
Big History, formulated by the historian David Christian in the late 1980s, reaches back even further to the Big Bang, covering the cosmological development of the universe and the biological evolution of life in addition to human history.^[9] (opens in new tab)
Early historians, such as Herodotus and Thucydides, already criticised the accounts of Homer and other poets as fantastic and inaccurate.^[14] (opens in new tab)
Historical revisionism (opens in new tab), a related outlook, seeks to overturn established perspectives on history. This can take a variety of forms, from the introduction of new evidence and methods which counter current thinking, to criticising the value or significance of historical events or actors. Some theorists use the term revisionism in a neutral sense for any rejection or reinterpretation of mainstream views. Others associate it with practices that disregard genuine evidence and incorporate intensely skeptical and relativist (opens in new tab) views to justify pseudohistorical perspectives, attempting to discredit established knowledge of historical events through epistemic criticism.^[21] (opens in new tab)
Understood in a narrow sense, the historical method is sometimes limited to the evaluation or criticism of sources.^[29] (opens in new tab)
The exact definitions of primary source and secondary source are disputed and there is not always consensus on how a particular source should be categorized. For example, if a person was not present at a riot but reports on it shortly after it happened, some historians consider this report a primary source while others see it as a secondary source.^[37] (opens in new tab)
Leopold von Ranke (opens in new tab)'s emphasis on source evaluation significantly influenced the practice of historical research.^[40] (opens in new tab)
Historians consider the context and time of the document to understand the meanings of the terms it uses. For example, if a document uses the word awful, they have to decide whether it expresses the modern meaning 'terrible' or the historical meaning 'worthy of awe'.^[42] (opens in new tab)
This becomes particularly challenging if different sources provide seemingly contradictory information.^[44] (opens in new tab)
The creativity and imagination needed for this step is one of the reasons why some theorists understand history as an art (opens in new tab) rather than a science (opens in new tab).^[45] (opens in new tab)
For example, Martha Washington (opens in new tab) burned all private letters between her and her husband George Washington (opens in new tab), leaving decades worth of silences on their relationship.^[52] (opens in new tab) Another cause of silences, the existence of a taboo (opens in new tab), such as a taboo against homosexuality (opens in new tab), can have the effect that little information on the topic is recorded.^[51] (opens in new tab) The practice of erasing names of deceased people considered enemies from public record is known as damnatio memoriae (opens in new tab).^[53] (opens in new tab)
There are disagreements about when exactly each period starts and ends. Alternative subdivisions may use overlapping or radically different time frames.^[64] (opens in new tab)
New diseases and European military aggression and exploitation had severe consequences in the form of a drastic loss of life and cultural disruption among Indigenous communities in the Americas.^[74] (opens in new tab)
Emphasizing the central relation between geography and history, Jules Michelet (opens in new tab) wrote in the 1869 preface of his Histoire de France: "without geographical basis, the people, the makers of history, seem to be walking on air".^[80] (opens in new tab)
Herodotus is traditionally considered the "father of history" but has also been called the "father of lies" because not all of his accounts were reliable.^[141] (opens in new tab)
This aspect is also found to some degree in works of Greek historians, including Herodotus and Polybius (opens in new tab).^[144] (opens in new tab)
Historical theory is a closely related term sometimes used as a synonym.^[181] (opens in new tab)
Some philosophers have followed Francis Fukuyama (opens in new tab) in arguing that the "end of history (opens in new tab)" has already arrived based on the claim that the ideological evolution of humanity has reached its endpoint.^[187] (opens in new tab)
The German historian Leopold von Ranke (opens in new tab) was among the most important proponents of this scientific approach in the 19th century.^[194] (opens in new tab) Key modern scholars taking this view include Sir Geoffrey Elton (opens in new tab), Arthur Marwick (opens in new tab) and E. P. Thompson (opens in new tab).^[193] (opens in new tab)
These critiques rest on arguments including that: it is impossible to recover the totality of the past; as events have already passed, accounts cannot be verified against events but against other accounts; historical writing is mediated and constructed by the historian and the process of narrative construction involves interpretation and selective readings;^[195] (opens in new tab) and evidence itself is necessarily subjective as its content is mediated through its maker and its survival through processes of selection.^[196] (opens in new tab) From this viewpoint, hindsight and modern theorising also allow historians to piece together evidence and put forward interpretations that are only visible after the fact and do so from a biased perspective, meaning that history as the known past is a human creation.^[197] (opens in new tab)
Among the proponnents of the more relativist viewpoint was E. H. Carr (opens in new tab), whose What Is History? (opens in new tab) (1961) examined how historical and social contexts impact the way historians choose and analyse facts.^[200] (opens in new tab)
Some scholars argue that recognising the subjective nature of historical sources has the benefit of opening up new areas of research and new ways of engaging with historical subjects; it also provides new approaches for analysing sources, critiquing dominant narratives, and allowing historians to engage with different concepts.^[202] (opens in new tab)
Scholars advocating for this view include Richard J. Evans (opens in new tab).^[203] (opens in new tab)
For example, some Japanese high school history textbooks have faced various criticisms (opens in new tab) for downplaying Japan's colonial and wartime activities.^[213] (opens in new tab)
They are sometimes grouped under the label auxiliary sciences of history (opens in new tab).^[218] (opens in new tab)

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