History is often used as a generic term for information about the past, such as in "geologic history of the Earth". When used as a field of study, history refers to human history, which is the recorded past of human societies.
The term "history" comes from the Greek historia, "an account of one's inquiries," and shares that etymology with the English word story.
Historians use many types of sources, including written or printed records, interviews (oral history), and archaeology. Different approaches may be more common in some periods than others, and the study of history has its fads and fashions (see historiography, the history of history). The events that occurred prior to human records are known as prehistory.
There is a very large amount of historical information available in Wikipedia, and several different ways of classifying it are given below.
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History classified by location
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2 A typical academic classification 3 Ideological classifications 4 See Also 5 External links |
Other classifications
(Not necessarily part of academic history studies)A typical academic classification
Ideological classifications
History is often studied from a specific ideological perspective, perhaps one that the practitioners feel is usually ignored.
- Marxist history;
- Feminist history (also called herstory);
- etc.
You may also want to see dubious historical resources and historical myths for a list of false beliefs and histories which were once or are now popular and widespread, but which are proven to be false or dubious.
Guidelines for history on Wikipedia can be found at Wikipedia:History.
See Also
External links
