User:Stewartadcock/en-junior/History

History is a term for information about the past. When used as the name of a field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of human societies.

Historians use many types of sources, including written or printed records, interviews (oral history), and archaeology. Different approaches may be more common in some periods than others, and the study of history has its fads and fashions. The events that occurred prior to human records are known as prehistory.

Knowledge of history is often said to encompass both knowledge of past events and historical thinking skills.

It should be noted that the term 'History' is not used to represent the entire history of our species, but events that have occurred since the agricultural revolution and the appearance of civilizations, the past 10 000 years or so. Events that occur before this time are lumped together under the term prehistory (which covers more than 99% of our species' time on this planet), despite no change in the genetic make up of pre and post-historic humans.