What Is History Essay Research Paper What

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What Is History? Essay, Research Paper What Is History? What is history? Where do I start? And who says it started there? I wasn?t there, does it matter? Can I accept whatever happens in another part of the world into my personal history, or just in the worlds history? What parts of history are most important? Who decides? What a question! The word history has many attached meanings to it, and the result is that the definition for history depends on who it is you are asking. But What is it? Dictionary.com states that, ?history is a narrative of events; a story.? Everyone has stories. it goes without saying then that everyone has history. But what about looking at the world in a broader aspect. I think we could look at humans, in whole, and see that we all have a history; a

social history. Also, what students mostly study in textbooks, and in lecture halls; political history. Therefore, history, in my terms, can be broken into three very different branches: Personal, Social, and political. A friend of mine unfortunately parted ways with a woman whom he devoted a long period of time to. Inquiring, as I often do, I ask for the details on their break up. I was given a response of, ?Man, She?s history.? And my friend is exactly correct. This woman now lies within his personal history. Had this girl never came into my friends life, he could not claim her a part of his history; his past. We have defined history as, ?a story,? and my friend can tell stories of him and his girl. (in fact lately that is all he talks about) The Vietnam war was a very

important part in history. Actually, the boss at my present place of employment served a long period of time in the war. He was a grunt. I have asked him about it, trying to hear maybe a story or two of what it was like, but he doesn?t like to talk about it. this part of his history he shuts out. Many veterans are like this. I believe the reason being is that the war that is in his history is a very different war than we could ever read in books or hear about from professors. War is different for everyone; as is history itself. These few examples give way to the first area of history; personal history. This is the story that everyone has. A day to day evolving story of everything that resides in an individuals past. Anything someone can think of that has happened; their retelling

of it becomes history. Personal history can, just as the other branches of history, be interpreted for meaning and truth, and most importantly to help with decisions in the future. My friend who had the, ?split up,? can now go over all the history he has with his girl and figure out what it was the lead to the break up. this is important, for this information can help him with future relationships. On the other hand, as in the case of my boss, some people refuse analyzing the past for information. Sometimes the stories are too difficult; too hard to handle. This is acceptable, for it is his history and his choice to do with it what he wants. The next aspect of history is the social history that we all help to form. Social history resides on a broader scale of things, throwing out

every single personal history. Social history, I define, is the story of human beings. How we got to where we are today. What we did to get here. How we have changed. In social history we can understand different groups of humans, and this is where we are greatly influenced by things such as culture, family, and living. Our social history is long. It starts somewhere in the middle of nothing. God or the Big Bang? you pick. and it ends up here right now. We started small, maybe even as small as little neutrons and protons, but we have evolved. We have created a language, created trasnspotation, created the basics of living (food, water, shelter) most importantly we have created the thoughts feelings and moods which now influence us on our journey ahead. To retrace some steps,