Download WhatisHistory_1112

What IS History?
Notes – 8/16/13
HOW TO THINK LIKE AN
HISTORIAN – AP World History
What IS History
• Take a few minutes to write down what
you were doing in your 10th year (5th
grade).
• Now, what kind of evidence would you
need to validate this information (give at
least five examples?
What IS History
• Now, take 5 minutes to write down what
you did yesterday.
• Again, what kind of evidence could you
show to validate this (give five examples)?
• What part does memory play?
Memory vs. Evidence
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Best?
Problems
Context
Interpretations
Point(s) of View (later relate to DBQs)
Historical Thinking Skills
There are four generic thinking skills that are important
for historians:
1. Crafting Historical arguments from
Historical Evidence
–
Constructing and evaluating arguments
using evidence to make valid arguments
2. Chronological Reasoning
–
–
Assess continuity and change over time and
over different regions.
Seeing global patterns and processes over
time and space while connecting local
developments to global ones.
Historical Thinking Skills cont…
3. Comparison and Contextualization
– Comparing within and among societies,
including comparing societies’ reactions to
global processes
– Considering human commonalities and
differences
4. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
– Exploring claims of universal standards in
relation to culturally diverse ideas
– Exploring the persistent relevance of world
history to contemporary developments
1) Recalling the Facts
• History is what we, as individuals, as a
nation, or an historian choose to remember
about the past, or what to focus on, and it is
open to interpretation.
• We can’t put every president on Mt. Rushmore
• We choose which people and events to memorialize
• History is the common experience that binds us together as
people – in a nation, and the world.
• It is our heritage, what we pass onto our children, and
grandchildren, on into the future…..
2) Interpretation
• History involves explaining people and events.
• You can read between the lines. In your own words – what
is happening here?
• You can listen for false statements: What sounds out of
place? What facts don’t fit?
• You can speculate: What made the American colonies
want to be independent?
• You can be a poet, a songwriter, an artist or a journalist:
And if so, what would you say, sing, draw or write about?
• You can illustrate: If you were to draw a political cartoon
about the American Revolution, what would it look like?
In this way, you can begin to be an HISTORIAN!!!!!!
3) Apply
• History involves applying lessons and
information from the past to the present.
• History must be a dialogue between the past and the present.
• You can personalize: What experience have you had that
would help others to understand an event, such as
immigration?
• You can create a hypothetical situation : If you were not
allowed to attend Lakewood just because of the color of your
skin, how would you react?
• You can apply the rules of the past to current events: What
would happen today if we applied the same rules that existed
prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1965? (Think about the Rodney
King incident….)
4) Analyze
• History involves figuring out complicated situations and
their connections.
• You can break a world war down to its parts – which parts can
you identify? Which battles or events are turning points?
• You can examine each part of a war, or event – how are they
related or connected?
• You can create a timeline of events: What are the causes?
What are the effects?
• You can list similarities and differences in wars, events,
leaders, etc. Compare and Contrast all of them to get a greater
understanding of history, and to ask questions that need
answering.
5) Synthesize
• History involves making sense out of multiple facts.
• You can search for patterns, that you may have seen before.
• You can speculate. What choices were not chosen. Why?
• You can predict. The policy of appeasement – where was it
headed?
• You can make generalizations. When a nation fails to live up to
its promises, what may happen as a result?
• You can draw conclusions. Was dropping the atomic bomb
justified and wise, or unjustified? Why?
• You can add up the facts. What new reality might you be able
to draw today from the outcome of World War II?
6) Evaluate
• History involves making judgments about people and
events. This isn’t prejudice.
• You can examine all the sides of an issue, such as Civil Rights.
• You can debate the pro’s and con’s of integrating schools.
• You can describe the strengths and weaknesses of a leaders
policies.
• You can examine the advantages and disadvantages of a
leaders strategies such as non-violence (Gandhi, Martin Luther
King, Jr.)
• You can judge, based on fact, whether a person, policy, or
event measured up to a high standard. Such as, did MLK
measure up to the standards of the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the Golden Rule?
AP World History Themes
•
Historical events are unique, however there
are certain themes that are repeated all over
the world. In this course, we will focus on five
reoccurring themes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems
Development and transformation of social structures
Development and interaction of cultures
State-building, expansion and conflicts
Interaction between humans and environments
Creation, expansion and interaction
of economic systems
This is a powerful force throughout history – as
human cultures have been concerned with
how to use their scarce resources to satisfy
their needs.
•
•
•
•
•
Agricultural and pastoral production
Trade and commerce
Labor systems
Industrialization
Capitalism and socialism
Development and transformation of
social structures
•
•
•
•
Gender roles and relations
Family kinship
Racial and ethnic constructions
Social and economic classes
Development and Interaction of
Cultures
• Throughout history, humans around the
world have developed and diffused their
cultures by interacting on various levels:
•
•
•
•
Religions
Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
Science and technology
The arts and literature
State Building, expansion and
conflict
• Often, throughout history, great change has been
achieved through force. Sometimes this is through
overthrow of government, or through radical change in
thoughts, or discoveries or technology.
• Political structures
• Empires
• Nations and nationalism
• Revolts and revolutions
• Regional, trans-regional, and global structures and
organizations
Interaction between humans and
environment
• History is often related to interaction with
the environment. As you read, think about
these questions/issues:
•
•
•
•
Demography and disease?
Migration (who, what, where, when, why)?
Patterns of settlement?
Technology (used, developed, diffused)?
– Note: ESCPE themes