What Is History?

History is the study of how the world we live in now has been shaped by the events of


the past. It is a record of human experiences   relative to the society in which we live. Our


lives as members of western civilization, have been formed by outstanding institutions,


ideas, and creative works. Without the knowledge of our past we would have little


direction in our society, we can not learn from past mistakes and successes, to put it


bluntly, we learn the past to predict the future.


The majority of the knowledge we gain by studying history is of the political,


economic, and social record of our past. We learn the reasons why certain governments


succeeded and others failed by studying our political record. Issues such as trade and


commerce have existed since the origin of civilization and   by studying our economic


record we may learn the solutions to any problems we may come across today. These


aspects are too closely related to ever be mentioned in isolation.


Although closely associated with the previous two, one aspect of history which effects


every human being on the planet is our social record. Every culture’s traditions have


made some contribution to the society we live in, the art and music of the past have such


obvious descendants in everyday life, especially in the United States, that one can’t help


but thinking that people in the past weren’t that different than people today.


One of the most important reasons for studying our history is simple self-preservation.


Without certain skills passed down from generation-to-generation, human survival would


be extremely difficult. Skills such as linguistic communication and cartography, are key


to are survival. Maps are a clear record of history, a simple map can show how people


have migrated from various regions across the...