RPH

• The greatest advantage of studying history


  Being able to look into our past and see what we can do or change to ensure a better future.
• Studying history also allows us to appreciate the advancements and achievements we currently enjoy.
• “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
• Greek word historia, meaning “a learning or knowing by inquiry"
• Greek word historia, meaning “a learning or knowing by inquiry"
• Old French estoire, meaning "story or chronicle"
• Old French estoire, meaning "story or chronicle";
• Latin historia, meaning "narrative of past events."
• Latin historia, meaning "narrative of past events."
• History is a record of the past, particularly of humankind's actions, presented in a chronological manner.
• Who is the historian that writes a book about Understanding History; A Primer of Historical Method?

  Louis Gottschalk
• It requires only a moment's reflection to recognize that in this sense, history cannot be reconstructed. The past of mankind for the most part is beyond recall.
• History offers us a storehouse of great ideas.
• History "imparts skills, breadth, and tolerance."
• History "supplies us with a sense of place and identity."
• History instills in us an appreciation of what our country has gone through and gives us context as to how the Philippines of today came to be.
• Learning about marginalized people in the past who fought bravely for their rights can be empowering for someone fighting for a different cause today. Great historical figures may also become one's role models.
• If we do not know about our history, we remain clueless as to the origin of these parts of our identity as Filipinos.
• Historians employ various processes to piece together a narrative that aptly describes a period in the past they want to focus on.
• Writing of history, known as historiography.
• Gottschalk defines historiography as the imaginative reconstruction of the past using data extracted from the critical analysis of surviving records, or simply "the writing of history" itself.
• While a complete reconstruction is not possible, historians can fill in the blanks through in- formed assumptions based on research.
• Historian must be sure that his records really come from the past and are in fact what they seem to be and that his imagination is directed toward recreation and not creation.
• Historiography can also refer to the methods used in analyzing historical writings.
• Gottschalk categorized these methods under four stages: a) selecting the subject the historian wants to investigate; b) collecting potential sources of information regarding the subject; c) checking the credibility of the sources; and d) extracting needed information from the sources.
• Historians may be judged based on the credibility of their sources.
• The sources that historians use can fall under primary sources and secondary sources.
• Primary sources pertain to testimonies, whether oral or written, that came from someone who witnessed or participated in the events being documented.
• Types of primary sources include diaries, letters, oral stories (as told to a historian), government documents, legal documents, and photographs, among others.
• Note that a primary source need not be the actual original material but only its contents.
• Secondary sources are those that build upon primary sources through analysis or synthesis.
• A secondary source can be a collection of particular points from various primary sources, with the additional interpretation of the writer.
• Secondary sources give readers a more holistic view of the research topic while not being limited to a single primary source only.
• A primary source will have come from an individual who is extremely close to the event, most likely even a participant in it, thus making him or her a firsthand source. Meanwhile, someone who had merely heard of the event and then relayed it does not have the same proximity to the event and is thus a secondhand source.
• As both aim to convey information, primary sources tend to be used for their raw information, while secondary sources are used for their interpretation since they offer a synthesized version of various primary sources.
• A tertiary source is another type of reference that provides organized definitions, key terms, overviews, and a list of related sources on multiple topics.
• Some examples of tertiary sources are dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, fact books, directories, guidebooks, and bibliographies.
• In addition to whether a source is considered primary or secondary, one should also con- sider its credibility.
• Having multiple sources means that one can cross-reference them to see if contradictions arise.
• External evidence, which means comparing a source with other contemporary sources to check its validity.