What is History?

What is History?

Prior to my Introduction to Canadian History course, I didn’t fully understand what history is or how to describe it.

On the first day of this course, my professor asked the class what we thought History was?

This was my answer: “I believe that history can range from any time previous to the date that something is being reviewed or studied, meaning it could be from 100,000 years ago or yesterday. History is a way of knowledge. It informs people who may not have been there at the time of the event how, and why, something happened.”

Though I still somewhat agree to the above statement that I made at the very beginning of this course, I now know that history is so much more than that!

History is…what happened, and how we know it.

History is…based on reliability and verifiability.

History is…open to revision.

Forms of history can include: a chronicle, archive, record, diary, report, narrative, photo, account, study, tale, story, saga; memoir.