Keys to History

• What is history?• Why is culture important?• What are primary and secondary sources?• What is bias?• How do we interpret different types of maps?

What is History?

• History is “His story”• History is a collection of information detailing

the past.• Prehistory is the time before people began

recording information

What tells us History?

• History Books• Newspapers• Magazines• Journals/Diaries• Maps• Atlases • ARTIFACTS

• 1. any object made by human beings, esp. with a view to subsequent use.

• 2. a handmade object, as a tool, or the remains of one, as a shard of pottery, characteristic of an earlier time or cultural stage, esp. such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

Material Culture

• All objects tell history!

• A pen with a company name written on it can tell where a person has been and what a person has done.

• A bullet pulled from a wall can tell the story of a struggle, shots fired (or misfired) and the gun from which it was fired. Technical, but also HISTORICAL. Think about what sort of conflict the bullet was fired in.

Primary and Secondary Resources

• I. Source is anything that tells about the past. This can be a tangible item or a written document.

A. Evaluating a source. (What factors do you think are important in

evaluating a source?) Where, when and why was the source created?

B. Two types of sources: Primary and Secondary

Primary Sources

• Actual records of the past. Words or artifacts from witnesses or participants in the event.

1. Original and unedited.2. Not interpreted by another source.• Examples?

Secondary Sources

• Descriptions of the events taken from primary sources. Commentary, analysis, restatement, summary or explanation of a primary source.

• Secondary sources generally use primary sources to persuade or create an opinion of an event.

• Examples:

How can you tell the difference?

• Use the time and place rule.• An article written about Pearl Harbor in 1990.• An interview of a Holocaust Survivors Grandson.• A television show about building the pyramids.• A video of the 2004 tsunami.• The diary of a victim of the Alabama Civil Rights

Riots.

What is Bias?

• Bias – to cause partiality or favoritism in (a person); influence.

• Bias Rule – tell what the creator “thought” happened or what they want the reader to think happened.

• Even eyewitnesses are biased. Why?

• What would a the diary of holocaust survivor say about being in a concentration camp?

• What would the diary or Nazi Guard say about the same thing?

• What are some biases you have?

TYPES of Maps• CLIMATE MAPS

• Give general information about the climate and precipitation (rain and snow) of a region. Cartographers, or mapmakers, use colors to show different climate or precipitation zones.

• RESOURCE OR ECONOMIC MAPS

• feature the type of natural resources or economic activity that dominates an area. Cartographers use symbols to show the locations of natural resources or economic activities

• PHYSICAL MAPS

• Illustrate the physical features of an area, such as the mountains, rivers and lakes. The water is usually shown in blue. Colors are used to show relief—differences in land elevations. Green is typically used at lower elevations, and orange or brown indicate higher elevations.

• POLITICAL MAPS

• Do not show physical features. Instead, they indicate state and national boundaries and capital and major cities. A capital city is usually marked with a star within a circle.

• Topographic Maps

• Include contour lines to show the shape and elevation of an area. Lines that are close together indicate steep terrain, and lines that are far apart indicate flat terrain.