What is History?

What is history?

Readers of historical books need to know the answer.

On Memorial Day, my eight-year-old daughter and I were talking about memory and how it differs from history.

I realized we don’t address this deceptively simple question enough.

Looking back through my education, I don’t remember discussing the very basic question, “What is history?” until upper-level undergrad history courses, which only history majors take. But everyone needs to think about this question.

I wish we talked about it sooner.

Because we all live in a present created by the past, we all have an interest in understanding the basics of how we talk about what came before us. How we understand the past affects how we understand the present and how we in turn create the future.

A lot of people are looking for a definition of history. In my research for this post, I found that around 110,000 people per month search that term on Google.

I found a lack of simple, concise answers in everyday language. I’m going to do my best to fill in that gap with this post.

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Definitions and Differences: The Past, History, and Historical Memory

I’m going to start by giving you the simplest definitions of these term I can.

Keep in mind that simplicity is my goal. Multiple books exist about each of these concepts.

Here we go:

The Past is everything known and unknown, knowable and unknowable, that has happened up to the present moment. In short, it’s all of time before now.

History is the chronological narrative record (story) that results from a process of interpretation of the past in which trained practitioners (historians) use standardized methods to arrive at conclusions by studying evidence of the past.

Historical Memory is the story people in any given society tell themselves and each other about their past and what it means.

“The past” is a fairly simple concept, but “history” is a deeply complex one.

When people use the phrase “historical facts” or when they say, “You can’t change history,” I find they’re most often referring to the past. Sure, a certain set of known and unknown events occurred at some prior point. I’d agree that the past can’t be changed. (And based on nearly every time-travel movie I’ve seen, it’s not a good idea to try!)

History, however–well, history can and does change based on new research methods and newly unearthed sources. Historians of different generations in different parts of the world receive different training and make different assumptions based on the biases of their own contexts. They also have different sources available to them. When you consider all that, it’s easy to see why history is not and cannot be viewed as a single, unchanging narrative.

This is one reason you can’t pull any book off the shelf–say, a book about the American Civil War (1861-1865) from 1950–and assume you’re getting “historical facts.”

You might be getting some accurate information, but at this point that scholarship is nearly 75 years old and what you are learning is what historians believed to be true in 1950. Various elements have been built upon or refuted by later historians. The book may have been excellent in its day–but even the best history needs updating.

Historical memory takes us into different territory. How do we as a society remember our past? What stories do we tell that are more rooted in emotion than in analysis? What holidays do we observe? What do we hold sacred? What stories do we tell again and again about the origins of our people? Are there monuments, songs, movies, books, art? How do we create collective “memories” that bind us together?

Related: 15 of My Family’s Favorite Books About Ireland

Here are two books that ask and answer “What is History?”

E.H. Carr’s classic work remains relevant and studied today.

Helen Carr, E.H. Carr’s great-granddaughter, and Suzannah Lipscomb updated the question and the answers for a new century. (To be clear, these are two different books.)

Frequently Asked Questions about History

I didn’t make these up. These are actual questions people plug into Google on a regular basis.

Related: 20 Berlin History Books Recommended by Travelers and Tour Guides

Why It Matters

Fights about history are taking over school board meetings and kitchen tables across the United States (and in many other countries as well).

We all need to know what we’re talking about.

We need to know the differences between the past, history, and historical memory in order to have a hope of understanding each other and getting to that brighter future together.

We need to be able to define our terms.

What other questions do you have about this topic: What is history?

Leave them for me in the comments!

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