History is the study of the past; it describes /narrates

and analyses human activities in the past and the

changes that they had undergone.

The word history came from the Greek word historia

which means “finding out,” “inquiry,” and “narrative.”
In some interpretations, historia means “knowledge
acquired investigation.”
 The American Historical Association defines
history as “the never-ending process whereby people
seek to understand the past and its meaning.”

History, in many ways is a way for us to

understand ourselves and make sense of the world.
 Important Personalities in History
Herodotus (484–425 BCE), a Greek historian,
known to be the Father of History. He compiled and
systematically, arranged his collection of works in
the Histories (440 BCE). Narrating the events which
took place during the Greco-Persian War, he
presented his accounts by providing geographic and
ethnographic information, which was in part
provided to him by people he had interviewed.
 Important Personalities in History
Thucydides (460–400 BCE), a Greek Philosopher,
historian and general. He is known as the Father of
Scientific History as his History of the
Peloponnesian War (431 BCE) recounted events,
based on evidence and analysis. His works, as he
described it in his introduction, narrated facts
without becoming fictional by using gods and deities
as reference.
 Important Personalities in History

Ban Gu (32–92 CE) was a Chinese historian and

poet. He became famous in compiling the Book of
Han, which contained the history of the Han
Dynasty. It is regarded as the first work to have
covered a single dynasty in detail.
 Important Personalities in History

Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) a German

historian and founder of the modern study of
History. He was the first to have provided a
historical seminar where he elaborated on the
methods and techniques in studying history.
 Important Personalities in History

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was, among others, a

German Philosopher, Economist, and Sociologist. Marx is
often referred to as the Father of Communism. Marx
stated in his book The German Ideology his theory on the
materialist conception of history. The principle idea of this
theory is that the material conditions or resources
determine a group’s social structure and social order-“it is
not the consciousness of men that determines their
existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that
determines their consciousness.”
 Important Personalities in History

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) wrote A study of

History.
• In this book, Tonybee narrated the histories of 26
civilizations, describing how they overcame
challenges with the guidance and leadership of an
elite group of leaders.
 Fields of HISTORY
• Cultural history focuses on the study of belief systems,
customs, social forms, political systems, material traits,
and economic activities of a group or community
usually for the purpose of cross comparison with
others.
• Social history is concerned with the study of particular
kinds of phenomena such as family and marriage,
adolescence, and work and leisure using sociological
theories and approaches. Intellectual history looks into
the history of ideas and theories.
• Historiography is one of its primary subfields wherein
 IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY
History is one discipline whose methods and approaches
are highly used by practitioners in other disciplines in
Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and History is one
discipline whose methods and approaches are highly used
by practitioners in other disciplines in Social Sciences,
Natural Sciences and humanities