What is history? Essay

Submitted By lindseybeaulieu
Words: 748
Pages: 3
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What is history? History is much more than just past events. History is all things that man knows about, that has been recorded. It is past events, past people, and everything that is been recorded that we know to this day. John F. Kennedy said “History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.” This quote is what I think history is because, history is all the past rushing into the future for us to know about today. History is about asking questions. Such as, to what extent is history dependent on who kept or preserved a written record? History is written about, and by the people of the past, whether it be one hundred years ago, or one thousand years ago. It is mainly written by the higher class. Due to the fact that kings/priests/pharaohs were a part of the higher class, they were much more historically significant. Further back in history, most people were able to write. Although a large amount of the people were able to write, historians tend to see most of the historical writings in the perspectives of the higher class citizens, resulting in the difficulties of knowing what went on outside of these peoples lives. The higher class may have one perspective on it, but that does not determine the whole story. To connect to modern history, people know more about the higher people than anyone else. The average person today knows more about a celebrity than they do the congress or the government. Although nowadays the general public are able to write and be heard, they aren’t unless something big happens, and most people still don’t hear about it. Today, a general person is able to look up someone online such as Justin Bieber and find out everything about him to the time he was born. All the way into today, history is about the higher people. Most history is about the people that are important. When looking at different historical sources, you have to keep many things in mind. There has to be many sources to look at, the person looking at them has to be qualified, and you have to be creative. For one to talk meaningfully of history is near impossible. People are not able to look as meaningfully into the past because we don’t have enough information from it. The more evidence there is of something, the more likely it is to have actually happened. It also has to be kept in mind that depending on the expert his or herself, people are more likely to believe one than they are to believe another. Today, we are able to look at history through written-records, paintings, and pictures etc. But that doesn’t nearly bring all the information.
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