History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past.
As
an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about
what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as
a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities 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, 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 itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past.
Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events
and validate interpretations. Source criticism 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, the Annales school, Marxism, and postmodernism, have
distinct methodological approaches.
History is a broad discipline encompassing many branches. Some focus on
specific time periods, such as ancient history, while others concentrate on
particular geographic regions, such as the history of Africa. Thematic categorizations
include political history, military history, social history, and economic history. Branches
associated with specific research methods and sources include quantitative
history, comparative history, and oral history.
History emerged as a field of inquiry in antiquity to replace myth-infused narratives, with
influential early traditions originating in Greece, China, and later in the Islamic world.
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, philosophy, education, and politics.
Definition
As an academic discipline, history is the study of the past with the main focus on the
human past.[1] It conceptualizes and describes what happened by collecting and
analysing evidence to construct narratives. 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 mechanisms. History further
examines the meaning of historical events and the underlying human motives driving
them.[2]
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, a history is a representation of the past in
the form of a history text. History texts are cultural products involving
active interpretation 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] Some historians focus on the
interpretative and explanatory aspects to distinguish histories from chronicles, arguing
that chronicles only catalogue events in chronological order, whereas histories aim at a
comprehensive understanding of their causes, contexts, and consequences.[4][a]
History has been primarily concerned with written documents. It focused on recorded
history since the invention of writing, leaving prehistory[b] to other fields, such
as archaeology.[7] Its scope broadened in the 20th century as historians became
interested in the human past before the invention of writing.[8][c]
Historians debate whether history is a social science or forms part of the humanities.
Like social scientists, historians formulate hypotheses, 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, human experience, and cultural heritage.[10] 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]
History contrasts with pseudohistory, 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, pseudohistorical practices mimic historical
methodology to promote biased, misleading narratives that lack rigorous analysis and
scholarly consensus.[12]
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 about the past.
This view emphasizes that the disinterested pursuit of truth is an end in itself, while
external purposes, associated with ideology or politics, threaten to undermine the
accuracy of historical research by distorting the past. In this role, history also challenges
traditional myths lacking factual support.[13][d]
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 can guide decision-making, for example, to avoid repeating previous mistakes.[15] A
related perspective focuses on a general understanding of the human condition, making
people aware of the diversity of human behaviour across different contexts—similar to
what one can learn by visiting foreign countries.[16] History can also foster social
cohesion by providing people with a collective identity through a shared past, helping to
preserve and cultivate cultural heritage and values across generations.[17] For some
scholars, including Whig historians and the Marxist scholar E. H. Carr, history is a key to
understanding the present[18] and, in Carr's case, shaping the future.[19]
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] In extreme forms, evidence is
intentionally ignored or misinterpreted to construct misleading narratives, which can
result in pseudohistory or historical denialism.[12][e] Influential examples are Holocaust
denial, Armenian genocide denial, Nanjing Massacre denial, and Holodomor denial.[22]
