JUNIOR CYCLE HISTORY 1.2: The The Study of History In this
topic, you will learn about:
Reasons why we study history
Who studies history
Why we study history Through history, we learn how people lived before us. We gain an understanding of how past events unfolded and what their causes and consequences were. Studying history helps us to understand how human experience has shaped our society and the world of today. We can learn to recognise patterns of change. All of this has an impact on us in the present day.
Examining history helps us see how to avoid the mistakes that our ancestors made. We also want to know how to fl ourish – how many civilisations prospered and became powerful. We can be inspired by people in the past. We can develop an appreciation of the cultural achievements of previous generations. It develops our historical consciousness, which means being able to place ourselves in past human experience, linking the past, the present and the future.
Early sixteenth-century Aztec carving
Poster to recruit Irish soldiers for World War I
The French Revolution represented in Liberty on the Barricades by Delacroix
Who studies history? Anybody can study history. As a student taking History, you are a historian!
A historian is someone who is an expert in, or a student of, history. Historians gather evidence from a variety of sources to piece together information about the past. They are interested in the reasons why things happened and also in what the results were. An archaeologist investigates places and objects left by people in the past, including the time before written records were kept. Much of what we know about early history comes from archaeology.
CHECKPOINT!
1. Defi ne the term historian in your own words. 2. Name three groups of people who study history. 3. List three reasons why we study history. 4. Defi ne the term historical consciousness in your own words.
. I understand why it is important to study history. TIME TO GO BACK I CAN MOVE FORWARD 3 GEORGE SANTAYANA
‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’
