Key Terms
Dueling Voices
Two conflicting accounts or ongoing historical debates; teaches source comparison.
Beyond the Book
Uses art, architecture, music, film, and physical objects as historical evidence; shows history lives beyond written tex
Link to Learning
Directs students to outside digital resources.
Primary source
From the time period under study. Examples: diaries, government documents, letters, photographs, musical instruments, st
Secondary source
Created after the time period. Examples: a 20th- century biography of an ancient figure, a 1960s map of World War II bat
Historiography
Before interpreting the past yourself, understand how others have already interpreted it.
Rhetoric
The deliberate choice of language to achieve an effect. Examining rhetorical choices reveals intent.
Signs of a reliable source
Identified author (scholar, museum, research organization); cited information; corroborated by other sources; listed in
Social history
Examines all classes and categories of people. Guided by the concept that history is made by everyone.
Examples
Europe (Herodotus) and China (Sima Qian).
Herodotus
5th century BCE; called the Father of History in the West; wrote the history of the Greco-Persian Wars.
Sima Qian
Born mid-2nd century BCE; called the Father of History in China; wrote Records of the Grand Historian, a history of the
Latin American historical record
Significantly damaged when European conquerors deliberately destroyed Indigenous writing, believing it represented a rel
African historical record
Complicated by the continent's size, diversity, colonial past, extreme climate (limits survival of documents and archaeo
Primary cause
The most immediate reason; the spark. What triggered the event directly.