What is the difference between history and the past

Sadly, almost everything from the past has disappeared forever and only fragments of evidence that it ever existed remain. Think about the billions of people that have ever lived and how we will never know anything about them, or their lives, because nothing about them remains. Similarly, think about the countless weapons, tools, houses, clothes, and ideas that must have been made over the millennia, and how most of them crumbled, rusted, fragmented, and disappeared in just a few weeks, years, and centuries after they were made.

Stories are easily understandable for most people, and presents the past in a chronological way, from beginning to end, taking you on a journey through the highlights of the narrative. Instead, they spend years on dedicated research , trying to find out as much as possible to make an educated guess about different aspects of the past.

Ultimately, every historian admits that their story is only their best conclusions about what is most likely, based upon the evidence we have. If another historian can provide a better version of history, they are willing to change their minds.

You cannot write a history that is not based upon evidence. Write a comment. Wake up to Good News for a Change! Jump to another article! Surprise Me! Discover More. By Dr. Lynda What happens when you leave kids in a room, alone, with a marshmallow? Subscribe to never miss out on the goodness! How often? I need good news! Every other day is fine! Once a week is great for me!

Checkout our Instagram for more amazing photos! Ever notice how you end up looking back fondly at. What if your family game night hobby became a worl. It's never too late to learn how! There's no better way to let off some steam than b. The difference between History and Past When used as nouns , history means the aggregate of past events, whereas past means the period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.

History as a noun : The aggregate of past events. Examples: "He teaches history at the university. Examples: "What is your medical history? Examples: "I really enjoyed Shakespeare's tragedies more than his histories. Examples: "A personal medical history is required for the insurance policy. Examples: "I visited a great site yesterday but forgot the URL.

Examples: "I told him that if he doesn't get his act together, he's history. If students are still in doubt, ask them to give you an example of any exceptions to this rule. Not only does a record of an event, or thought, or belief have to be created, but it has to be preserved if people are going to know about it later. Ask students to consider what records they have already left behind that a historian, a hundred years from now, might use to understand them in his or her history of high-school students in the twenty-first century see lesson 1.

Students should note not only the narrowness of the records they are leaving behind, compared to the total of their lives, but also the fact that many of the records they are leaving -- like their school notes, and perhaps family photographs, or e-mails -- probably will not survive for a hundred years, or be in a place where a historian might find them.

A record about the past usually only exists because of a decision, conscious or not, that someone has made about what is important. Who determines what records are created and what records are preserved? And then who determines -- and on what basis -- what historians might be interested in?

Historians differ among themselves in terms of what is important when they come to write their histories. If a historian in the twenty-second century wanted to document a time of particular violence in society, for example, then he or she might be looking to the schools to find evidence that could provide examples of conflict.

A historian interested in high schools as a community that prepared students for life might look instead for evidence that would document co-operation or academic success as a precursor to a successful career.

Urge the students to consider the possibility that the truth is really NOT out there.