History

evidence: physical (coins, buildings, paintings)
          written/oral: PRIMARY SOURCES
    |      
    |      
    |     SECONDARY SOURCES            <-----
    |     (written by other historians)      |
    |         |                              |
    |         |                              |
    |         |                              |
a story of the past -------------------------

• evidence is liable to forgery,

• “a” story, because history is liable to bias: every historian must be writing from some perspective, has to make some selection from all the evidence and sources available –
  
  
  • e.g. even writing about the Roman Empire, a British historian in1900, during the colonial time, will write differently from a modern American historian;
    
    
  • so historians have a responsibility
    • to avoid presenting a one-sided view,
    • to make it clear where they stand.

… either as individuals or as a society:

• “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana)

• For a person, a family or a people to have a sense of identity.

• For pleasure: we enjoy (writing and) reading stories – cf. not only academic history, but also the many historical novels.

• “The proper study of mankind is man” (Alexander Pope) – but how can we know what man is capable of, if we do not know what man has done?