What is History?

Get out a paper and brainstorm: What do you think of when you think of history?

What IS history?

History is everything that happened before right now. What happened two minutes ago? That's history. What happened two years ago? That's history. What happened two hundred years ago? That's history.

ANYTHING in the past is history.

And history is fun. It's the study of stories. Stories about what people did, what they thought, what they wore and ate and laughed at.

The trouble with trying to study history is there is just so much of it!

So when we study history, we tend to focus on:
1. Things that changed everything that came after them (like the American Revolution), and
2. Really great stories (like the story of Roanoke and the mystery of what happened to it).

The other problem with studying history is that it happened in the past. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what REALLY happened. For more about HOW historians find out the truth, spend some time exploring this web site: History Detectives.

So why study history?

Well, there are the great stories. And interesting real people--all the best heroes and villains can be found in real events. There are fascinating mysteries to solve.

And it's good to remember that history is YOUR story--the story that you are the main character of. Knowing what already happened in your story--how you got to where you are and how your world got to where it is--will help you become a hero instead of a villain in your story.

For more fun history exploration, check out this site.