This document discusses the study of history, including what history is, how historians analyze evidence from multiple disciplines and perspectives, and different ways of measuring time across cultures. It also outlines how history is typically periodized, with examples given of periodizations from a European and global perspective. Historians rely on primary and secondary sources as tools to analyze the human past.

1. The Study of HistoryThe Study of History
Unit 1. Introduction to the Study of History
PH1007 Evolution of the Great Civilizations
Created by Carmen Zamora

2. What is history?
• The record of what people
have done in the past.
Does this means that if it’s
not recorded somehow, its
not history?
• Also, history is a
methodological study of
evidence of the human past.

3. • Historians rely on other disciplines to study the evidence
of the past...
• because we cannot fully understand it from only one
perspective.

4. chronology
• Time is linear ...
•for some cultures...
• for others time is actually circular.
• Throughout history, many different ways of measuring the
passing of time have been developed.

5. • Jews and Muslims use lunar calendars to mark their
religious celebrations.
•The Chinese calendar counts years according to 60-
year periods, which repeat over and over.
• The Maya used a combination of various calendars, but did
not count the years.
• We use the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar
designed so Easter would coincide with the spring
equinox.
• During the French revolution a “republican” calendar
replaced the Gregorian one.

6. • We divide history into blocks of time (periods or eras), so it’s
easier to analyze.
• These blocks vary according to:
culture
geographical regions
historical experiences
Periodization of history

7. • B.C. (Before Christ) or B.C.E. (Before the Common
Era)?
C.E. - what happened to A.D.?
The Muslim calendar starts to count in the year 622 C.E.
According to the Jewish calendar, it is the year 5771.

8. Human History

9. European
perspective
AncientAncient MedievalMedieval ModernModern Contemp
.
Contemp
.
AncientAncient Post-
classical
Post-
classical
ModernModern ContempContempClassicalClassical Early
Modern
Early
ModernMesopotamia
Egypt
China
India
Olmec
Greece
Rome
Han China
Gupta India
Maya
Muslim
Medieval
Mongol
Aztec
Renaissance
Reformation
Explorations
Isolation
Age of
Revolutions
Industrial Age
Imperialism
World War I
World War II
Cold War
New World
Order
Global
perspective

10. • Primary sources
• Secondary sources
A Historian’s Tools