History is often used as a generic term for
information about the past, e.g., as in "geologic history of the
Earth". When used as a field of study, history refers to human
history, which is the recorded past of human societies.
The term "history" comes from the Greek historia, "an
account of one's inquiries," and shares that
etymology with the English word story. It does
not come from the word
his, however some
feminists have
coined the term herstory to refer to history from
a female perspective. (see
non-sexist language)
Historians use many types of sources, including written or printed
records, interviews (oral
history), and
archaeology. Different approaches may be more common in some
periods than others, and the study of history has its fads and
fashions (see
historiography, the history of history). The events that occurred
prior to human records are known as
prehistory.
There is a very large amount of historical information available in
Wikipedia, and several different ways of classifying it are given
below.
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History classified by location:
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History classified by date:
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Miscellaneous classifications, not necessarily part of academic
history studies:
A typical academic classification:
A form of historical speculation known commonly as
virtual history (also called "counterfactual history") been
adopted by some historians as a means of assessing and exploring the
possible outcomes if certain events had not occurred or had occurred
in a different way to that which they did.
You may also want to see
dubious historical resources and
historical myths for a list of false beliefs and histories which
were once or are now popular and widespread, but which are proven to
be false or dubious.
See also
pseudohistory for more about uncritical history.
See also:
Archaeology,
Historian
What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a
list of the most basic topics in History, please see
History basic topics.
A guideline for contributions to Wikipedia in the field of history
can be found at
Wikipedia History standards.
For a discussion of NPOV and history in this context see also:
Can history be truly NPOV?
Links:
