Test #1 Study Questions

STUDY QUESTIONS FROM OF THE PEOPLE

Examination No. 1
Chapter 1

1. Who was Malinche and what was her primary occupation?

-A Native American woman who was a cultural translator.
2. What was Cahokia and where was it?
-A powerful city state located near the point where the Missouri river runs into the
Mississippi river.
3. What was the Reconquista?
-period of history of the Iberian Peninsula spanning approximately 770 years between the
Islamic conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the last Islamic state in Iberia at
Granada to the expanding Christian kingdoms in 1492.
4. What did the Latin root of the word slave refer to?
-The salvic people taken in war.
5. What was the principal right that the Spanish possessed under the encomienda system?
-They had the right to compel Indians to work for them.
6. What two countries signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494?
-Spain and Portugal
7. Who did Henry VII of England send to the New World to seek the Northwest Passage
to China?
-John Cabot
8. What was the Requerimiento?
-A document issued by the Spanish crown in order to clarify the legal bases for the
enslavement of hostile Indians.
9. Who was the first European explorer to reach the mainland of what would later be called
the U.S.?
-Juan Ponce De Leon
10. Whose ideas did the Spanish Crown adopt in their policy toward regulating the Native
Americans and preventing further enslavement?
-Las Casas
11. What was the name of the city so beautiful that it seemed like an enchanted vision?
-Tenochtitlan
12. In what year did Cortes finally defeat Moctezumas successor?
-1521
13. What Spaniard left the greatest mark on the southeastern part of the future United
States?
-Herondo De Soto
14. After a smallpox epidemic in Hispaniola some years after the Spanish conquest, the
Native American population dropped from a half million to about _________.
-1,000
15. As the result of the arrival of the Europeans, the indigenous (Native American)
population dropped by about what percent over the course of the first century?
-90%
16. What was the Columbian Exchange?
-Plants, animals, human beings, and diseases were shared between the old and the new.
17. What was the term used for offspring of the Spanish conquistadors and Indian women,
which also refers to mixed blood?
-Mestizo

Chapter 2

1. Don Luis de Velasco was a member of what tribe?

-Powhatan
2. Who landed in North America in 1497 and was the first to claim the land for England?
-John Cabot
3. Why did the Spanish establish their series of forts in Florida?
-To prevent acts of piracy from the French.
4. What is the oldest, continuously inhabited city of European origin on the U.S. mainland?
-St. Augustine
5. What tribes established a league of defense called the Five Nations?
-Mohawk, Oneid, Onondegce, Cayuga, and Seneca.
6. What French king ended the civil war in France and eventually allowed the Protestants
limited religious toleration under the Edict of Nantes?
-Henry Nantes
7. Who founded Quebec?
-Samuel de Champlain
8. On what tribes did the French concentrate with regard to maintaining them as allies?
-Montagnais
9. In what kind of living accommodations did the Huron Indians live?
-Longhouses constructed out of bent tree branches covered with bark, these houses
housed several families.
10. Who were the best diplomats in North America?
-The French
11. What person established New York?
-Henry Hudson
12. What were the main principles of mercantilism?
-Mercantilism is an economic doctrine that includes the idea that a nations wealth should
come from acquiring and exploiting foreign possessions such as colonies, and that any
trade with such possessions is strictly for the benefit of the mother country. The triangle
trade adds an extra element to the trans-Atlantic trade between Europe and its American
possessions by including stops at West African ports for the purpose of collecting slaves
to be sold at the other ports of call.
13. Who explored part of North America on the Halve Maen (Half Moon)?
-Dutch East Indian Company
14. Who discovered the Hudson River?
-Henry Hudson
15. What was the primary source of religious tolerance in New Netherland?
-The Dutch West Company who saw it was necessary to commercial prosperity.
16. In the 40 years of New Netherlands existence, its most profitable activity was what
trade?
-The Fur Trade
17. Who was the winner of the Beaver Wars, 1648-1660s?
-The Five Nations
18. Whose plans and writings in England became a blueprint for colonization?
-Hakluyss
19. Who was the English version of the conquistador?
-Sir Francis Drake
20. What famous Native American welcome American colonists in perfect English, because
he had already been to England?
-Squanto
21. Who was knighted but not allowed to lead the expedition for Englands first colony?
-Walter Raleigh
22. What colony do the authors believe was abandoned rather than lost?
-Roanoke
23. What became the military model for Englands colonial ventures?
-European Nations unified by force.

Chapter 3

1. Who was the first Englishman to encounter Pocahontas and teach her some English?
2. -John Smith
3. Who was the Virginia Company named after?
-Never married Queen, Elizabeth I
3. Of the original 104 colonists to Virginia in 1607, how many were left by January 1608?
-38
4. What person started the Anglo-Powhatan Wars of 1610-1646?
-De La Warr
5. What ended the first Anglo-Powhatan War of 1610-1614?
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6. What was the economic salvation of the Virginia colony?
-Tobacco
7. Who established or was granted the land for the first proprietary colony?
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8. What was the name of the first proprietary colony?
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9. What were the 3 types of colonies?
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10. About how many indentured servants died before completing their term of service?
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11. Chesapeake society was shaped by what four forces (All are forces except ___)?
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12. Where was the first clear evidence of slavery dating to 1639 in an act by what colonial
assembly?
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13. What was Arminianism?
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14. What were the names of the two ships that were to carry Pilgrims to America?
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15. Who was the Englishman who broke into the Portuguese slave trade?
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16. By 1660, about what were the populations of the New England and Chesapeake colonies?
 -
17. Who made the famous speech about Puritans being as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all
people are upon us?
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18. A little church and a little commonwealth referred to what?
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19. The viewpoint of the classic New England village with a steepled church and two-story,
white-clapboard colonial homes with black shutters comes from what century?
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20. New England turned especially to what type of farming?
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21. Where was the sewer of New England?
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22. Anne Hutchinson opened herself up to charges of what heresy?
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23. What caused the Pequot War?
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Chapter 4

1. Who was Tituba and where does she fit in colonial history?
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2. What English king was beheaded after the English Civil War?
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3. What economic theory set England and other countries against each other in the race for
wealth?
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4. What was the Charter of Libertyes and Priviledges?
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5. What colony drafted the Fundamental Constitutions?
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6. Who was John Lawson?
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7. Where was Britains first slave society?
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8. After about 1690, what staple crop became the mainstay of the Carolina colony?
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9. Where was the race line first drawn between Africans and Europeans, so that Africans
were portrayed as beasts?
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10. What staple crop developed in Carolina after 1690 that increased the demand for slave
labor?
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11. What was the issue in Bacons Rebellion?
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12. Why was it called Bacons Rebellion?
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13. How many (or what percent or fraction) of the Europeans who immigrated to British
America before the Revolution were unfree, i.e., servants and redemptioners?
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14. What was a jeremiad?
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15. What was the Half-Way Covenant?
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16. King Philip was also known by what name?
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17. What man and group turned the tide in King Philips War?
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18. Who headed the Dominion of New England? What happened to the Dominion?
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19. In what documents, did John Locke explain his theory of human rights?
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20. About half of all prosecutions for witchcraft took place in ______________.
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21. What person attempted to regulate every aspect of Quebec life?
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22. What was colonial Louisianas major cash crop?
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23. What was the most valuable region economically in Frances New World empire?
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24. What is the significance of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose?
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25. What was the most successful Indian revolt ever in North America?
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Chapter 5

1. Who was George Whitefield?

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2. How many people immigrated to the U.S. in the eighteenth century?
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3. Where did the Scotch-Irish tend to settle?
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4. By 1808, how many slaves had been imported into the U.S.?
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5. By the American Revolution, how many servants had been imported into the U.S.?
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6. What was the approximate mortality rate among Europeans and slaves?
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7. By the nineteenth century, what country in the Western Hemisphere had the largest
population of African descent in the New World?
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8. What were the three factors shaping the economy of colonial America?
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9. What was the most productive region of colonial America?
 -
10. By 1700, what two new items made it easier to attend to ones appearance?
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11. What were the important addictive products that drove the colonial plantation economy?
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12. Who was John Peter Zenger and why is he important?
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13. What was the bloodiest slave revolt ever in the American colonies?
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14. What were the major movements (one intellectual, one religious) of the 18th century?
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15. What was Jeffersons trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced?
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16. What famous book did Adam Smith write?
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17. Who was the first minister in Massachusetts that people gravitated toward in the new
religious movement of the eighteenth century?
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18. Who was the Grand Itinerant?
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19. For American slaves, what was the major result of the religious revivalism?
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20. For education, what was the major result of the religious revivalism?
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 Reynolds Chapter 1-5 Study Question Answers
Ch 1
1. People first arrived in North America closest to 25000 BCE.
2. The first Americans most likely arrived in the New World from Asia by way of a land
bridge.
3. The European who explored North America around 1000 was Leif Ericson.
4. The Maya Indians populated the area of Central America.
5. The Portuguese who promoted overseas trade in the fifteenth century was Henry.
6. The part of South America claimed by the Portuguese in 1500 was Brazil.
7. Tikal was a great city of the Inca.
8. The great city that existed along the Mississippi River in the years prior to the arrival of
the Europeans was Cahokia.
9. Historians call the religious wars that swept across Europe from 1-95 to about 1290 the
Crusades.
10. Vasco da Gamas significance is that he established a Portuguese sea route to India.
11. Meso-America refers to Mexico and Central America.
12. The people that built large stone heads along the east coast of Mexico around 1200 were
the Olmecs.
13. Marco Polo developed important trade with Asia.
14. The African slave trade was started by Africans.
15. When Columbus sailed in 1492 he established the first permanent European colony in the
Americas.
16. The pope divided the world in the Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugal and Spain.
17. Christopher Columbus sailed to America for Spain.
18. The first expedition to circumnavigate the globe began under Ferdinand Magellan.
19. The Spice Islands refer to the eastern Indian Ocean.
20. Christopher Columbus set foot on each of the following locations except North America;
he set foot on the Caribbean, South America, and Central America.
21. The Americas got their name from an Italian banker and merchant.
22. Mammoths were large animals hunted by early Americans.
23. The Aztecs descended from the people called the Chichimecs.
24. The founder of the Muslim religion was Mohammed.
Ch 2
1. The area called New France became Canada.
2. The area called New Netherlands became New York.
3. Which of the following lacked North American colonies? -Portugal
4. The European nation that first settled in Manhattan Island was Holland.
5. The explorer who founded Quebec was Samuel de Champlain.
6. The explorer who claimed New Amsterdam was Henry Hudson.
7. The Spanish established their first permanent settlement in what became the continental
United States at St, Augustine.
8. Herman Cortes conquered the Aztecs.
9. A Spaniard who explored the American southwest was Francisco Coronado.
10. The European explorer who led the first expedition into California was Juan Rodriguez
Cabrillo.
11. Spains first settlement in the Southwest was at Santa Fe.
 12. The monk credited with starting the Reformation was Martin Luther.
13. Swedish immigrants to America in the 1630s settled in the area around Delaware.
14. The European explorer who discovered the Mississippi River was Hernando de Soto.
15. The oldest permanent European settlement in North America was St. Augustine.
16. The most important Protestant theologian in the 15302 and 40s was John Calvin.
17. The European nation that explored most of the Caribbean islands in the early sixteenth
century was Spain.
18. The European who first sighted New York harbor was Giovanni da Verrazano.
19. The explorer who established New France was Jacques Cartier.
20. The Catholic order that helped settle the Ohio Valley for France was the Jesuits.
21. Saint Thomas Aquinas supported the concept of justification by works.
22. The French were closely allied to the Hurons.
23. The Brown Robes were Franciscans.
24. The Spaniard who spread stories about the Seven Cities of Cibola and encouraged Spanish
exploration north was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.
25. The primary interest of the French in Canada after 1600 was the fur trade.
Ch 3
1. The Virginia Company founded a sound economic basis with the growth of tobacco as a
cash crop.
2. The Virginia Company sent settlers to Virginia primarily because it sought to make
money.
3. The crop that saved Virginia in the 1610s and became Americas primary export in the
colonial period was tobacco.
4. The great English monarch who ruled during the second half of the sixteenth century was
Elizabeth I.
5. The first colonial legislature in British North America was called the House of Burgesses.
6. Although all the following (religious, political, social, commercial) were important
reasons why the English established their first colony in North America, the predominant
reason was commercial.
7. The first attempt at British colonization in North America was Roanoke.
8. African slavery began in British North America in the early 1600s.
9. Most Europeans arrived in British North America during the seventeenth century through
indentured servitude.
10. The colony founded by Catholics was Maryland.
11. The first explorer to sail to American for England was John Cabot.
12. Most of the British North America colonies were royal colonies.
13. The colony that passed the first religious toleration in 1649 was Maryland.
14. The church created by Henry VIII was Anglican.
15. The first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe was Francis Drake.
16. The British colony at Roanoke was founded by Walter Raleigh.
17. The Mason-Dixon Line separated the slave states from the free states.
18. Pocahontas was the daughter of a Powhatan Chief.
19. The Northwest Passage was an elusive sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
20. Privateers were considered pirates by their enemies.
Ch 4
 1. The theory of mercantilism holds that the national government should regulate trade for
its own good.
2. The British took the area of New York from the Dutch.
3. Bacons Rebellion dealt with the desire for colonies to move west.
4. The Great Migration to America in the 1620s and 1630s involved Puritans.
5. The religious group that believed in pacifism was the Quakers.
6. The Glorious Revolution refers to the overthrow of King James II.
7. The great Puritan leader who wanted to create a city upon a hill in America was John
Winthrop.
8. The most serious slave rebellion during the colonial period occurred at Stono Creek,
South Carolina.
9. The area of the northeast United States named by John Smith was New England.
10. While all religious groups that came to America were on a pilgrimage, the group most
people call the Pilgrims are Separatists.
11. In America, William Bradford led the Separatists.
12. The Native American who helped the colonists survive the first year in Massachusetts
was Squanto.
13. William Penn led the Quakers.
14. The Mayflower Compact established a relatively representative government at Plymouth.
15. Tommy Hall was the center of Democratic party politics in New York during the
nineteenth century.
16. The most populous city in British North America was Philadelphia.
17. The Domination of New England was an attempt by the crown to tighten its control over
America.
18. William and Mary came to power during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89.
Ch 5
1. Which colony took the most forceful and direct action against the policies of the British
crown in years just before the Revolution? -Massachusetts
2. The Townshend Acts levied new taxes on the Americas.
3. The infamous tax of 1765 that led to the first organized colonial resistance to tax was the
Stamp Act.
4. The American who helped settle Kentucky despite the Proclamation Act was Daniel
Boone.
5. The religious revivalism of the early eighteenth century was called the Great Awakening.
6. The new reasoning of the eighteenth century was called the Enlightenment.
7. The only colony in British North America directly established to the crown was Georgia.
8. The war fought between England and France in the mid-eighteenth century was called the
Seven Years War.
9. One result of the French and Indian War was France lost almost all its territory in North
America.
10. Among the American leaders of the Enlightenment was Benjamin Franklin.
11. Benjamin Franklins most influential publication was Poor Richards Almanac.
12. The first attempt by the colonies to create a government for defensive reasons was the
Albany Plan.
13. Cajuns were a group of French Canadians.
14. The British prime minister who was responsible for the salutary neglect of the colonies
during the 17202 and 30s was Robert Walpole.
 15. The home where George Washington lived was called Mount Vernon.
16. The Pennsylvania Dutch were from Germany.
17. Benjamin Franklins background was a printer.
18. The most famous preacher of the Great Awakening was George Whitefield.
19. The man who became the king of England during the Seven Years War was George III.
20. Old Lights were preachers who did not welcome the religious revivalism of the 1730s.
21. The Zenger case of 1735 struck victory for freedom of the press.
22. Writs of assistance gave British customs officials the authority to search an American
ship for contraband.
23. The Paxton Boys were angry farmers in Pennsylvania who wanted the government to
help eliminate Native Americans.
24. Jury nullification was when jurors refused to find someone guilty because they
considered the law wrong.
25. Among the few members of Parliament who were sympathetic the Americans was
Edmund Burke.
26. The Quebec Act infuriated Americans because it allowed Canadians to remain Catholic,
limited American access to the Ohio Valley, and it called for an appointed legislative
council.

FOOTNOTES/ENDNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Footnotes/endnotes and bibliographies are two methods of documentation used by historians and
other practitioners in various academic disciplines. A footnote/endnote is the documentation of a
source used by an historian. If the historian mentions, for example, that the population of the
U.S. around 1780 was about two and one half million people or that Abraham Lincoln made
certain comments, such facts should be documented. An historian may also want to add some
information. In either case, the historian usually places a number or other symbol in superscript
form at the end of the information provided, and the footnote or endnote provides the source or
additional explanation. The only difference between a footnote or an endnote is the placement of
the note; a footnote is located at the bottom of the page where the historian (or other
practitioner) used the source, while an endnote is placed with all other notes at the end of the
chapter or book. Footnotes used to be the most common, but endnotes are most common now,
because they are easier to handle from a publishing standpoint.
A bibliography is a listing of sources (usually at the end of a book) used by the historian in
writing the book. The bibliography may be a Select Bibliography, meaning that it is not
comprehensive, but is rather a limited subset of the important sources. Because documentation is
very important to the historians craft and everyone needs to understand an historians
documentation system, many systematic footnote/endnote and bibliographic formats have been
developed. These formats include The Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Style Manual, Kate
Turabians A Manual for Writers, and many others. For the purposes of this class, we are going
to learn the format set out in Dr. Reynolds Making the Grade in History and Political Science.
The following footnote/endnote and bibliographic formats are for a one-author and a two-author
book. Note the differences between the footnote/endnote and bibliographic formats:
Book with One Author
Footnote/Endnote: 17. John Q. Public, History of the World Since 1992. (New York:
College Publishing Co., Inc., 1994), pp. 67-72.
Biblio. Format: Public, John Q. History of the World Since 1992. New York:
College
Publishing Co., Inc., 1994.
Book with Two Authors
Footnote/Endnote: 17. John Q. Public and Jane M. Doe, History of the World Since
1992. (New York: College Publishing Co., Inc., 1994), pp. 67-72.
Biblio. Format: Public, John Q., and Doe, Jane M. History of the World Since
1992. New
York: College Publishing Co., Inc., 1994.

Commonly Used Historical Terms

abolitionist a person who wanted to abolish slavery
absolutism unrestricted power of a government
agrarian relating to agriculture or farming
amicus curiae information submitted to a court offering additional information by friends of the
court
Annapolis Convention a 1786 meeting called by the Virginia Legislature to revise the Articles
of Confederation; led to the Constitutional Convention
ante bellum the period before, as in the ante bellum South, meaning the South before the Civil
War
bicameral referring to a legislative body with two chambers, as with the U.S. Congress
comity the practice of one nation respecting the laws another
containment policy the policy formulated by George F. Kennan of the State Department in
1947 that the U.S. must contain communism and implemented by President Truman in response
to Soviet aggression in Turkey and Greece
de facto refers to something that exists in fact or is legally valid
de jure refers to something that is required by law
grandfather clause restriction used in the South to prevent black voting by requiring that
grandfather voted
habeas corpus Means to "produce the body," that is, to be formally charged after an arrest
muckraker a person who exposed scandal or corruption around the turn of the century (1900)
mulatto a person of both black and white racial descent
nepotism refers to practice of granting favors or appointments to relatives
oligarchy a government ruled by a small elite group which usually controls the wealth, military,
and social hierarchy of the society
petit jury a jury of peers, usually consisting of twelve persons
plutocracy a government controlled by the wealthy
pocket veto power of a president or governor to ignore a bill during the last days of a
legislative term and let it die from lack of a signature
quid pro quo something for something; a trade-off in diplomatic jargon
rule of four the Supreme Court's policy to hear a case if four justices agree
sovereignty the power a state exercises within its boundaries
status quo the state or condition of remaining the same or as things are
suffrage the right to vote theocracy a political system controlled by the clergy and where
church law is supreme
Truman Doctrine the statement developed by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 that the U.S.
would contain the spread of communism
writ of mandamus meaning "we command," it is issued by a court to demand that
something be done
xenophobia a hatred or dislike of foreigners

Commonly Used Historical Terms

Supplemental List
Connecticut Compromise agreement reached at the 1787 Constitutional Convention calling
for representation in the House to be based upon population and representation in the Senate to
be equal from each state; also called the Great Compromise
detente a French term meaning an easing of bad relations between countries
ex officio refers to an office held by virtue of holding another office
fait accompli refers to something already done demagogue an unscrupulous politician who
appeals to mass prejudice and often uses half-truths or lies
elastic clause Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that Congress can
make any law which it considers necessary
junta a group that controls, often in relation to a government
laissez faire a French term meaning no government regulation of the economy; laissez faire
economics refers to free trade capitalism
republic a government where decisions are made by the peoples elected representatives

ALL ABOUT HISTORY

Lecture Format:

ALL ABOUT HISTORY

I. What is History?
A. Dictionary Definitions
B. Etymology of the Word history
C. Famous Comments about History
D. The Historical Method
E. Is History an Art or a Science?
F. Does History Repeat Itself?
II. The Multiple Dimensions/Facets/Sides/Aspects of History
III. Is History Useful?
A. Everyday Uses of History
B. Government Uses of History
C. Business Uses of History
IV. Bias and Interpretation in History
V. Conclusion

I. What is History?

It is important to answer this question because too often scholars leave out a
discussion of their own field in their introductory classes.

History is much more than students usually think at the beginning of a class.

History has multiple definitions.

A. Dictionary Definitions: The Multiple Definitions of History

History has many definitions according to the various authorities, but most of the
major ones, numbering about eight, appear to be:

1. What has happened or might have happened in the lives or development of a

people, their country and institutions. (NOTE: Might have happened
reveals that historians often do not entirely know what happened, e.g., the
assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy).

2. The past itself (dictionaries often do not account for this definition).

3. Anything that belongs to the past, e.g., the history of his coat, etc.
 4. All recorded events of the past.

5. Something important enough to be recorded (!).

NOTE: Definitions #5 and #6 are about records. History is about using

records to tell stories about the past. Records can be paper records from the
past, or any other kind of evidence, such as sound tracks, audio and video
recordings, magazines, newspapers, microfiche, pottery (!), etc., anything that
provides a window into understanding a subject in the past.

6. The story (narrative) of a country, a people, and their country and institutions,
usually told in chronological order with an analysis and an explanation. (a
typical definition for a book on history or textbook on history)

7. The body of knowledge that is developed by historians, also referring to their

educational discipline which has been around since Early Middle Ages when
Charlemagne opened the so-called palace schools.

8. A scientific account of the various stages of natural phenomena, as with an

account of a patients disease, the various stages in the development of an
amoeba, etc., and virtually anything that traces transformations in a subject.

So history is probably more than a student first thinks it is. It has many
definitions, not just one or two. Virtually anything that changes over time,
and that includes nearly everything, has history. HISTORY TRACES AND
EXPLAINS CHANGE.

B. Etymology of the Word History

1. The word history is found in old English, but of course goes back to a Greek
word of the 5th century B.C..

2. In 5th century Greek, history refers to (1) a narrative (story or tale) or (2)
an inquiry by investigation.

3. The first history of which we have record is that of a 5th century Greek,
Herodotus, who wrote The Persian Wars. As a result, Herodotus has become
known as the father of western history.

4. In The Persian Wars, which was about the Greek city-states wars with the
kings of Persia, Herodotus provided both types of history, narratives of
battles, but also inquiries by investigation and resulting analyses/explanations
of why the Greeks or Persian kings won particular battles.

5. We still maintain the dichotomy of narratives and inquiries by

investigation in our histories today as the two hallmarks of historical writing.

a. Some histories emphasize the beauty of the writing and the story. They
take you there, such as Jim Bishops Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Lion
 and the Fox. Toward the end of the book, Bishop describes FDRs funeral
in touching imagery.

b. Other histories emphasize ideas and analysis from an in-depth

investigation, such as Richard Hofstadters Age of Reform about the
Populists, whom Hofstadter claims suffered from status anxiety.

c. Most histories have a little bit of both: story and inquiry/analysis.

C. Famous Comments About History

Famous people have had clever and profound things to say about history, such as:

Voltaire: History is a trick that the living play on the dead.

(It can be, if historians are not careful to follow the records.)

History is the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and

wooden shoes coming up. (Sounds like the Democratic
Revolution.)

History is little else that a long succession of useless cruelties.

(Sometimes without adequate distance or perspective, history may
not appear to make sense.)

Napoleon: History is a myth (legend) men agree to believe.

(Sort of another trick the living play on the dead?)

History is the invention of historians.

(It can be, it the authors bias gets in the way or the rules of
evidence are violated.)

Francois Michelet: History is not [analysis] nor [storytelling] . . . It is

resurrection!

NOTE: Michelet and Otto Ranke were adherents of the Scientific

or Objective School of History in the 1930s, which believed that
history could be actually recreated as it actually happened, if
enough records could be put together. Since Einstein and
relativity, we dont believe this anymore. Everything is relative,
situationally based, and subjective. Still, historians strive for
objectivity in relating stories about history.

Fidel Castro: History will absolve me!

Spoken in 1959 after one of his 2.5 hour speeches to a judicial

panel that was about to sentence him to prison for revolutionary
activities. Castro used Catholic terminology, but to suggest that
HISTORIANS ARE JUDGES, and when the story of his era was
told, he would be forgiven his minor sins and hailed as a hero.
 The Student: History is reading as much as you can as fast as you can and
remembering as much as you can. (Chuckle)

From a Canadian Historian: History is the recitation of dates and events with
dignity. (Chuckle)

D. The Historical Method

1. Aristotle, 3rd century B.C. Greek father of the scientific method, also gave us
essentially the historical method by his famous statement: If you would
understand anything, consider first its beginnings, and then its development.

2. Aristotles statement mirrors what historians basically do. On any subject, they
study its beginnings, and then trace and explain its developments.

E. Is History an Art or a Science?

1. By its dual methods of both storytelling and inquiry/analysis, history keeps a

foot in both art and science.

2. In modern universities, history is sometimes in the College of Arts and

Letters, or sometimes, as at College of the Canyons, it is in the Division and
Business and Social Sciences. Western colleges developed later and have a
tendency to see history as more of a science than an art.

3. Famous historian Jacob Burkhardt memorably said: History is in large part

poetry to me. (History as Art).

4. History really has it own place in learning beyond art and science. It is the
only subject we all become a part ofj, after (and sometimes before) we die. (!)

F. Does History Repeat Itself?

1. Mark Twain said, History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

2. What Twain meant about history rhyming bespeaks its value because studying
history can sometimes tell us about the correct road to take in the future. For
example: President George H.M. Bush notably used an historical example
when he explained why the United States was going to push Iraq out of
Kuwait in January 1991, after Saddam Husseins country suddenly attacked
Kuwait: We can not afford another Munich. He was referring to the Munich
(Germany) Accords signed in 1938, after Hitler promised he would not attack
any more countries if he was allowed to keep the Sudetenland of
Czechoslovakia that he had just taken. Within 2 weeks after the Munich
Accords, Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia and nine months later,
attacked Poland, starting World War II in Europe.

II. The Multiple Dimensions/Facets/Sides/Aspects of History

 A. History can be developed hundreds, perhaps an infinite number, of ways.

B. History can be divided by years. This course is about successive periods of

history.

C. History can be developed by subject, as in history of ________. (This is the BIG

one that has infinite possibilities.)

D. History can be about regions, e.g., the Great West (westward movement), the
Antebellum South, etc.

E. History can be about individual people (biography)

F. History can be about historians and their contributions, biases, etc.

(historiography)

G. History can focus on a very small subject or event with intensity (monograph).

H. History can be focused by a category/subject label (political history, social history,

cultural history, economic history, diplomatic history, medical history, literary
history, religious history, intellectual history, New Left history, technological
history, military history, etc.)

I. History can be focused on one or more countries, e.g., history of France.

J. History can be about a day or about 3 years or a decade or other manageable time
period, as in The Day Lincoln was Shot, The Day Kennedy was Shot, A thousand
Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, or Only Yesterday: An Informal
History of the 1920s (actual books) or a book about the week-long Cuban Missile
Crisis (Six Days in November). The time focus is up to the historian to decide.

K. History can be focused on a combination of the above.

L. History can be focused on movements, single events, and even storms or

cemeteries or single animal species. (Page Smith wrote the History of the
Chicken.) The possibilities are endless and can suit any historians (and readers)
tastes.

III. Is History Useful?

The answer is YES. History is everywhere. Everything is a product of the past, if we

consider the typical human timeline, in which the PAST is everything to the left of the
PRESENT: _____________Past_______________________(Present)

There are everyday uses of history that we dont often recognize. Government and
Business also use history.

A. Everyday Uses of History

 1. The television news is history of the day.

2. Criminal and civil trials are about history and jurors are quasi-historians because
they have to make historical judgments based on evidence presented to them.

3. Many people wear medical bracelets, alerting doctors to their historical allergic
reactions.

4. Almost all adults eventually write resumes, better known today as work histories.

5. Many localities have historical societies, historical preservation organizations, etc.

6. The past is the sum total of what we as individuals, groups, organizations, and
countries have come to be and are for the present.

B. Government Uses of History

1. Seven years after creation of the Constitution, Congress created the Library of
Congress, to be the repository of all printed historical materials in the U.S. We
cant meet that goal anymore, with desktop publishing and the sheer volume of
printed matter. But the Library of Congress has an important research role.

2. The U.S. State Department uses hundreds of historians to become country experts
and write position papers on U.S. diplomatic policies.

3. Every one of the 16 U.S. cabinet-level departments and most of the government
corporations, and independent executive agencies have historians.

4. Historians in the military (Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, Army, Navy, National
Guard) often analyze past successes and failures of military operations.

5. Since 1932, the U.S. government has helped to fund and operate Presidential
Libraries for outgoing U.S. presidents.

6. The United States Archives and Records Services, as its name implies, is
responsible for saving and organizing historical government and congressional
records.

C. Business Uses of History

1. Businesses have the same need for historians as government does, to advise them
of methods and programs that have already been tried.

2. Historians are also used to advise Hollywood regarding period clothes, furniture,
architecture, and equipment. Example: The 1956 movie Cleopatra starring
Elizabeth Taylor, without an historical review, had Cleopatra in Rome pass under
an arch that did not exist until about 500 years after her death.
IV. Bias and Interpretation in History

A. Bias of some kind is probable in most undertakings. Does that make bias bad?

B. No, bias is everywhere, even in scientific pursuits. For example, a doctor may
misdiagnose a stomach ache instead of appendicitis once in awhile even under the
best of circumstances because he reads the symptoms a certain way, as determined
by his own personal set of lenses. Bias is easier to understand than to eliminate.

C. Historiography is the study of historians by other historians to determine, among

other things, the biases held by the historians being studied. Understanding bias and
the basis for interpretation is an important intellectual pursuit of anyone evaluating
the value of an historical study.

CONCLUSION

History is a little more than what it first appears to be. Since the Early Middle Ages, it has been
a viable educational discipline and field of learning that has its own peculiar characteristics and
benefits for both historians and students.