1. History ‘Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past’ – G. Orwell ‘History is more or less bunk’ – H. Ford ‘The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history’ G. Hegel.

2. History (objectives) Explain how historians use artifacts to find out what happened in the past Understand that cultural background of the historian may affect interpretations Give one example how historians’ research interests and interpretations are affected by contemporary ideas Understand how knowledge about history can shape personal and national identities Give two examples how historian use Ways of Knowing in their work Compare historical knowledge to knowledge produced in one other Area of Knowledge

3. Evidence, events and explanation. Historians use evidence to construct the past, so it is the study of traces of the past. In the distant past there is to little evidence. The more recent past can be overwhelmed with evidence.

4. Significance Usually ‘significant events are studied’ this brings about the problem of what a ‘significant’ event is. Another important feature of history is explaining and understanding the past, not just describing it. Using any criteria of your choice, rate the historical significance of the following events: The publication of Charles Darwin’s The origin of species in 1859 Your last math class The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 The 1930 soccer World Cup which was won by Uruguay The birth of Bill Gates in 1955 Former US president Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky The terrorist attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon in 2011

5. Journal entry Discuss the roles of language and reason (logic) in history

6. What use is it? Gives us a sense of identity Should our political leaders have god historical knowledge? Are some countries more obsessed with history than others? Anyone trying to make sense of the ME needs to know its history.

7. Defense against propaganda Governments will try to put their own ‘spin’ on history History can also be used to puncture ‘myths’ about the past. On November 7, 1919, the first image was snapped of the Soviet leadership celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution. After Trotsky and his allies fell from power, a number of figures were removed from the image, including Trotsky, originally standing on the left of Lenin.

8. Helps us understand human nature It reminds us that there are no neat tidy models to explain human nature. History surely teaches us that things can be changed for the good.

9. How do we find out about the past? Primary sources: Someone or something that was there at the time. Secondary sources: Later constructions of history often based on the primary sources. – Julius Caesar’s (100-44 BCE) The conquest of Gaul – Edward Gibbon’s (1737-94) The decline and fall of the Roman Empire Can you think what the problems of both primary and secondary sources might be? If you were to make a time capsule to be opened in five thousand years what would you put inside?

10. Problems of sources Selection Hindsight Bias – Topic choice, confirmation bias, national bias. History is often the history of the elites. The winners However, it is not correct to deny that certain events happened. Just because it is sometimes difficult to find the truth, this does not mean there is no truth to discover.

11. What has caused change? History is not just describing events, it is explaining the outcomes of such events as battles. However, history deals with complex situations, so it is often difficult to isolate the cause of any event. Some historians argue factors that cause change such as geographical conditions, individual motives, chance, social economic conditions are all important.

12. Great people Another theory is that individuals change, make history. AJP Taylor says that the history of modern Europe ‘Can be written in terms of 3 titans, Napoleon, Bismarck and Lenin. Certainly Churchill thought he had changed history.

13. The history of thought RG Collinwood ‘All history is the history of thought’ What he meant is that we should be trying to look into the minds of people to discover why they acted the way they did. i.e empathy Of course it is possible that individuals are shaped not controlled by events.

14. Marxism Marx argued that history is determined by economic factors. As a result he thought it was similar to evolution. He actually came up with a model Perhaps history is merely chance?

15. Causality, determinism, and existentialism The deterministic world-view is one in which the universe is no more than a chain of events following one after another according to the law of cause and effect. There is no such thing as "free will".deterministicuniversechain of eventsfree will Existentialists have suggested that people believe that while no meaning has been designed in the universe, we each can provide a meaning for ourselves. [citation needed] Existentialistscitation needed

16. Causality, determinism, and existentialism Though philosophers have pointed out the difficulties in establishing theories of the validity of causal relations, there is yet the plausible example of causation afforded daily which is our own ability to be the cause of events. This concept of causation does not prevent seeing ourselves as moral agents.moral