Glossary of history

This glossary of history is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to the study of history and its related fields and sub-disciplines, including both prehistory and the period of human history.

A

absolute monarchy

A system of government headed by a monarch as the only source of power, controlling all functions of the state.

abstract

A summary of a textual source.

access rights

Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status.

accrual method

The method by which items are added to a collection.

accrual periodicity

The frequency with which items are added to a collection.

accrual policy

The policy governing the addition of items to a collection.

aeon

Also spelled eon.

age

Age of Discovery

Age of Enlightenment

agent provocateur

A person who goes undercover in the ranks of the enemy during a social or political conflict with the intention of damaging or compromising the enemy from within by provoking actions that might not otherwise have taken place. Agents provocateurs have sometimes been employed by governments or businesses to provoke armed clashes between groups, to create disorder, or to incite controversies which might be used as an excuse for war or foreign intervention.

anachronism

A chronological inconsistency, in particular the introduction of an object, linguistic term, technology, idea, or anything else into a period in time to which it does not belong.

ancient history

Also antiquity.

Annales School

A style of historiography linked to the French scholarly journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale and broadly associated with the social history of cultural practices.

annals

Historical accounts of facts and events arranged in chronological order, year by year.

Anno Domini (AD)

anthropology

The study of humanity, culturally and physically, in all times and places.

antiquarian

Also antiquary.

A historian who studies antiquities or things of the past, often with particular attention to artifacts, archives, manuscripts, or archaeological sites from ancient history, as opposed to more recent history. In a broader sense, an antiquarian may also be a person who is simply a collector or aficionado of such artifacts and not necessarily a professional historian.

antiquarianism

Historical study focusing on the empirical evidence of the past, including manuscripts and archives, and archaeological and historic sites and artifacts. The term is now often used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow interest in historical trivia, to the exclusion of a sense of historical context or process.

antiquities

Objects or artifacts from ancient history, especially from the Classical civilizations and cultures of the Mediterranean region and the ancient Near East.

antiquity

See ancient history and Classical antiquity.

archaeology

The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains.

architectural history

The study of buildings in their historical and stylistic contexts.

archival bond

The relationship that each archival record has with other records produced as part of the same transaction or activity and located within the same group.

archival science

The study and theory of building and curating archives.

archive

An accumulation of historical documents and records, or the physical repository in which they are located.

archontology

The study of historical offices and important positions in state, international, political, religious, and other organizations and societies, including chronologies, succession of officeholders, their biographies, and related records.

art history

The study of objects of art in their historical and stylistic contexts.

artifact

Also spelled artefact.

Any material object associated with a culture, such as a tool, an article of clothing, or a prepared food item.

audience

A class of entity for whom a given resource is intended or useful.

autobiography

An individual's account of his or her own life.

auxiliary sciences of history

Also ancillary sciences of history.

The set of specialist scholarly disciplines which help evaluate and use historical sources and are often used to support historical research. These disciplines may include but are not limited to archaeology, archival science, philology, geneaology, numismatics, philately, and heraldry.

Avalonia

A separate plate in the Early Paleozoic consisting of much of what is now Northern Europe, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and some coastal parts of New England.

B

Baltica

A separate continental plate of the Early Paleozoic composed of what is now the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, European Russia and Central Europe. It is named for the Baltic Sea.

barbarian

A Greek word adopted by the Romans to refer to any people who did not adopt the Roman way of life. It is said to have come originally from the sound "bar-bar", which, according to the Greeks, was supposed to be the noise that people made when speaking foreign languages.

Before Christ (BC)

Before the Common Era (BCE)

Bering Land Bridge

Also called Beringia.

The vast tundra plain that was exposed as a land bridge between the continents of Asia and North America during the Last Glacial Maximum, about 21,000 years ago. It is theorized to have served as a migration route for people, animals, and plants for several thousand years before being once again submerged beneath rising sea levels.

bibliography

A list of works, including books, journals and essays, on a particular subject.

Big History

big lie

biography

An account of an individual's life, especially one written by someone other than the individual featured in the account.

black legend

Blitzkrieg

German for "lightning war". A military strategy used by the German Army at the beginning of World War II to achieve victory through a series of quick offensives, especially in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The strategy involved a heavy initial bombardment, followed by the rapid mobilisation of armour and motorised infantry to break the weakest parts of the enemy line.

Bolsheviks

A small, tightly organised, revolutionary Marxist group in early 20th-century Russia which split from the Russian Socialist movement in 1903 and was led by Vladimir Lenin. In November 1917, during the so-called October Revolution, the Bolsheviks ("Majority") took control of a chaotic Russia, becoming the de facto rulers after the subsequent civil war. They then renamed themselves the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

book review

A critical examination of a text, usually including a summary of the work and opposing views.

bottom-up approach

An approach to historical scholarship that attempts to explain the experiences or perspectives of ordinary people, as opposed to elites or leaders. Contrast top-down approach.

bourgeoisie

The capitalist class that came to be known as the middle class, between the aristocracy and the working class. A new middle class of merchants and businessmen prospered throughout Europe from the 16th century, and especially in Britain, which Napoleon described as a "nation of shopkeepers". In modern times, the term bourgeois is often used derogatorily to describe anything considered humdrum, unimaginative and/or selfishly materialistic.

Bronze Age

In Britain, a period from about 2300 to 700 BCE when metal first began to be widely used, possibly as a result of the increase in contact with mainland Europe. However, various types of stone, particularly flint, remained very important long after metal became available. The Bronze Age saw the introduction of cremation of the dead and burials in round barrows. The later (and best-known) phases of construction at Stonehenge also date from this period.

Buranji

Written chronicles of Ahoms, a medieval kingdom of Assam, India.

C

Caesar

A Roman family name best known for being used by several rulers of Ancient Rome. Contrary to popular opinion, the name "Caesar" did not originally mean "emperor", although in modern times it has come to be defined as a synonym for autocrat. When the Roman leader Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, his nephew and successor Augustus had himself formally adopted by the dead man and so also adopted the family name Caesar. Tiberius and Caligula inherited it by adoption as well. Later Roman emperors acquired the name upon their succession or when they were formally adopted as heirs.

calendar

A descriptive list of archival documents, sometimes compiled in sufficient detail that it can be used as a substitute for the originals.

Cathaysian Terranes

A set of small landmasses that developed in tropical to subtropical latitudes on the eastern side of Pangaea during the Permian and Triassic, comprising what is now North China (Sino-Korea), South China (Yangtze), Eastern Qiangtang, Tarim, and Indochina.

century

A period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally (e.g. 15th, 16th, 17th) in English and many other languages.

charter

A legal grant of authority or rights.

chorography

The geographical description of regions, often with reference to their history and antiquities.

chronicle

A historical account of facts and events arranged in chronological order.

chronology

The study of the sequence of past events.

classical antiquity

Also sometimes classical era, classical period, or classical civilization.

The period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD in the geographical area centered on the Mediterranean Sea, particularly relating to the contemporaneous civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, known as the Greco-Roman world, which flourished and wielded enormous influence across much of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia during this time. Though its boundaries are imprecise, the classical period is traditionally considered to have begun with the earliest writings of the Greek poet Homer and ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the decline of classical culture during Late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

Cimmerian Terranes

Also called Cimmeria.

An archipelago of small landmasses that developed in tropical and subtropical latitudes on the eastern side of Pangaea during the Triassic. Blocks that comprised it include what is now Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Malaysia.

circa

Variously abbreviated c., ca., circ., or cca.

Approximately, about, around; near or in the vicinity of. A Latin term signifying approximation or uncertainty, usually by immediately preceding a date or a numerical measure. Circa is widely used in historical writing and genealogy when the dates of events are not accurately known. When used with date ranges, it or its abbreviation is applied before each approximate date, while dates without circa preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty.

citation

A reference to the published or unpublished source for an assertion or argument.

classical tradition

classics

Also called classical studies.

The study of classical antiquity, in particular of Ancient Greek and Latin literature and their respective languages, and traditionally also Greco-Roman art, philosophy, history, mythology, and society.

cliodynamics

cliometrics

The systematic application of economic theory, econometric techniques, and other formal or mathematical methods to the study of history; a quantitative economic history.

codex

(pl.) codices

A book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, parchment, or similar materials, especially a manuscript book with handwritten contents and formatted so that individual pages are stacked and fixed to a spine along one edge.

codicology

The study of codices or manuscript books as physical objects, specifically the materials and techniques used to make books, including writing surfaces (such as parchment or vellum), pigments, inks, bindings, handwriting, marginalia, glosses, and so on.

coherence theory of truth

A theory that regards statements as true if they are coherent within some specified set of sentences, propositions, or beliefs.

colonialism

The practice or policy by which one people or sovereignty exerts social, political, and/or economic control over other people or geographic areas, typically by establishing a colony whose administration is distinct from that of the colonizers' home territory and generally with the aim of economic dominance. The foreign administrators rule the colony in pursuit of their own interests, often imposing their language, religion, and culture upon the colonized region while seeking to benefit from the exploitation of its people and resources. Colonialism is often associated with though is distinct from imperialism.

Common Era (CE)

comparative history

The comparison of different societies which existed during the same time period or shared similar cultural conditions.

Congo Craton

A separate continental plate that rifted from the supercontinent Rodinia in the Late Precambrian. It contained a large part of what is now north-central Africa.

context

In archaeology, a discrete physical location, distinguishable from other contexts, which forms one of the units making up an overall archaeological site. The context in which an artifact is found provides important evidence for its interpretation.

correspondence theory of truth

A theory that regards statements as true if they correspond to the world that we know by perception.

counterfactual history

A form of historiography that seeks to explore history by extrapolating a timeline in which key events happened in ways other than the ways in which they did in fact occur.

Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway

Also referred to simply as the Western Interior Seaway.

The epicontinental sea that formed as marine waters from the north spread over North America from around 130 to 70 million years ago (Ma). At its peak in the Middle Cretaceous (~90 Ma), it extended from present-day Utah to the Appalachians and from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico.

cryptohistory

cultural history

The academic study of the origins and history of the culture and cultural practices (e.g. music, theater, literature, fine art) of a particular group of people.

culture

D

Dark Ages

date

A specific point or period of time.

dossier

A group of documents deliberately assembled to provide information about a specific topic. The term often connotes information that has been purposefully collected from various sources, as opposed to documents that exist in an organic collection originating from a single source or resulting from routine activities.

diplomatics

The study and textual analysis of historical documents.

discipline

The study, or practice, of a specific subject using a specific set of methods, terms and approaches. History is a discipline, as is archaeology, chemistry, and biology.

E

economic determinism

The socioeconomic theory that economic relationships have been the main or sole driving force in all of human history.

economic history

The study of economies or economic phenomena of the past.

Edwardian

1.  The period of British history that spanned the reign of King Edward VII (1901–1910), or more generally the period between the turn of the 20th century and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.

2.  Of or related to this period; an adjective used to describe any person, object, event, idea, or concept characterizing or associated with the Edwardian era, either by having originated or flourished during the period or by retrospectively coming to represent it, especially in the United Kingdom but more broadly in any part of the British Empire.

empire

A type of sovereign state made up of multiple territories and peoples subject to a single and supreme ruling authority, often an emperor or empress. Empires can be composed exclusively of contiguous territories, e.g. the Russian Empire, or may include territories which are remote from the empire's home territory or metropole, as with a colonial empire. The concept of an empire is often associated with the concept of imperialism, though the latter also refers to a political policy or ideology that is not necessarily practiced by empires and can apply to many other forms of government.

Enlightenment

A cultural and intellectual movement of the late 17th to late 18th centuries that emphasized reason and individualism rather than tradition, predominantly among Western European cultures but also in other parts of the world.

environmental history

An approach to history that examines how nature and natural processes (i.e. plants, animals, geology, etc.) have shaped human agency and affairs, and conversely how humans have shaped nature.

eon

See aeon.

epigraphy

The study of ancient inscriptions.

episteme

The dominant mode of knowledge or understanding of a particular era, common to many or all forms of knowledge produced at the time.

epoch

An instant in time chosen (sometimes arbitrarily) as the origin or beginning of a particular calendar era, thereby serving as a reference point from which time is measured and by which historical events are temporally related.

era

Any span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography. In chronology, an era is the highest level of organization for the measurement of time, as used in defining calendar eras for a given calendar and regnal eras in the history of a monarchy. The term is also used in geologic time, where an era is a subdivision of an aeon.

essentialize

To assume the existence of an inner "essence" or an essential character shared by all of the members of a group which in reality is diverse, variable, and fluid.

ethnohistory

A branch of history or an approach to historical scholarship which addresses the history of the native peoples of a particular place or region, in particular the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Ethnohistory is an interdisciplinary approach that often supplements written historical documents with methods from anthropology, folklore, oral history, and archaeology.

Euramerica

A supercontinent that existed in the Late Silurian through Devonian, formed by the collision of Baltica, Laurentia, and Avalonia. It included what is now North America, Greenland, Scandinavia, and Europe. It is also sometimes referred to as the “Old Red Continent” for the red color of its oxidized deposits.

Eurocentrism

A worldview that is centered on Western civilization or Western culture, particularly that originating in or associated with Western Europe, to the exclusion of or in a way that is biased against non-Western cultures. The term may also apply to the whole continent of Europe or beyond to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly tied to Western Europe by immigration, colonization, or influence.

F

fakelore

Also called pseudo-folklore.

Inauthentic, manufactured folklore that is presented as if it were genuinely traditional. Compare invented tradition.

feudalism

The legal and social order prevailing through much of medieval Europe, in which society was structured around a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations.

floruit (fl.)

Denoting a date or period during which a particular person or group is known to have been alive or active.

folklore

The expressive body of culture shared by a particular group of people, encompassing the oral traditions (e.g. tales, proverbs, and jokes) and the material culture as well as the customs, lore, folk beliefs, rituals, celebrations and ceremonies, holidays, and initiation rites practiced by that group, and in particular those cultural elements which are transmitted informally from one individual to another and from one generation to the next either through verbal instruction or demonstration.

fonds

In archival science, an aggregation of documents which all originate from the same source.

G

genealogy

The study of family relationships.

Gondwana

A supercontinent that existed from the Cambrian to Jurassic, mainly composed of what is now South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica, and Australia.

Gregorian calendar

H

hagiography

A biography of a saint or saints, or more broadly any biography in which the author is uncritical or reverential towards the subject.

hegemony

The political, economic, military, and/or cultural predominance of one state over other states, or more generally of any group or regime which exerts undue influence within a society.

heraldry

The design, display, and study of armorial bearings and devices, often practiced together with the study of ceremony, rank, and pedigree.

heritage tourism

hermeneutics

The theory and methodology of the interpretation of texts.

histoire des mentalités

histoire totale

historian

A scholar who studies or writes about history.

historical classification

historical method

The collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. The historical method involves the historian identifying and drawing upon primary sources, secondary sources, and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology, evaluating the relative authority of these sources, and then combining their testimony appropriately in order to construct an accurate and reliable picture of past events and environments.

historical negationism

Falsification or distortion of the historical record, especially by the practice of denialism. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with historical revisionism but may also be considered technically distinct, in that the latter can be applied to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned reinterpretations of history. Historical negationism, by contrast, is always illegitimate in its attempts to revise the past because it is practiced without impartiality or because it uses techniques that are inadmissible in proper academic discourse, such as presenting known forgeries as if they were genuine, inventing implausible reasons for distrusting genuine historical documents, and manipulating statistical figures to support a particular point of view.

historical realism

The view that there is a continuity and correspondence between the real world and the narration of that world in historians' narratives.

historical record

historical revisionism

historical thinking

The practice of critical thinking and literacy skills in evaluating and analyzing primary source documents in order to construct a meaningful and reliable account of the past. See also historical method.

historicism

A mode of historical enquiry that insists that the past must be understood on its own terms, as opposed to trying to understand it from the perspectives permitted by modern knowledge, values, and beliefs, known as presentism.

historicity

The historical actuality or authenticity of persons or events in the past; the quality of being part of history instead of being a myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status.

historiography

1.  The study of the methods, sources, and theoretical approaches used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline.

2.  A body of historical work on a particular topic.

3.  The history of historical writing about a particular topic.

history

The study of the past as it is described in written documents; events occurring before written record are generally considered prehistory. The term is also commonly used to refer to any set of events which happened earlier in time, written or otherwise. History in academic study is considered the product of our attempts to understand the past, rather than the past itself. History relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events.

history from below

See people's history.

human history

1.  The complete narrative of humanity's past, generally as reckoned from the emergence of anatomically modern humans c. 300,000 years ago to the present day (though sometimes inclusive of much earlier periods in human evolution), and thereby encompassing both prehistory and written history.

2.  The scientific study of this narrative, as it is understood through archaeology, anthropology, genetics, linguistics, and since the advent of writing, from primary and secondary written sources.

humanism

An intellectual movement of the Renaissance associated with the re-discovery of Classical ideas.

I

Iapetus Ocean

A relatively small ocean that existed between the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, and Avalonia from the Late Precambrian to the Devonian.

illuminated manuscript

A manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration.

imperialism

impresa

Also impress, heraldic badge, livery badge, personal device, and cognizance.

An emblem, badge, or para-heraldic device worn by nobility in the Middle Ages, usually accompanied by a motto in Latin and painted on shields or helmets in tournaments, embroidered on clothing or on equine caparisons, or embodied in standards, brooches, paintings, tapestries, or other works of art. These emblems were meant to be expressive of the character, aspirations, and achievements of a particular person, rather than an entire family or lineage, and were often designed anew for each individual occasion.

Industrial Age

interdisciplinary

The study or practice of a subject which applies the methods and approaches of several disciplines. For instance, while history, literature and archaeology are separate disciplines, they may be combined in an interdisciplinary approach.

interpretation

The ensemble of procedures by which the historian–according to personal perspective, temperament, social conditioning, and conscious choice–imposes a pattern of meaning or significance on his subject; the process of selection, arrangement, accentuation, and synthesis of historical facts that establishes the personal stamp of an individual historian on an account of the past.

Iron Age

J

journal

A scholarly periodical, often focusing on a particular historical theme.

Julian calendar

L

lacuna

A gap in a manuscript, inscription, or text.

landscape history

Also called landscape archaeology.

The study of the ways in which humanity has changed the physical appearance and landscapes of the surrounding environment in the past, and how they continue to change in the present.

Laurasia

A supercontinent that existed from the Jurassic to Early Tertiary after splitting from Pangaea. It was composed of Laurentia, Baltica, and Avalonia (what is now North America, Scandinavia, Greenland, and Western and Central Europe), and eventually fragmented into Eurasia and North America in the Tertiary with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Laurentia

A separate continental plate that existed from the Late Precambrian to Silurian, consisting of the major part of what is now North America, northwest Ireland, Scotland, Greenland, and pieces of Norway and Russia.

legend

local history

The study of the history of a small geographical area, of a local community, or of the local incidence of broader national or international trends. If undertaken with a view to casting light on larger historical questions, local history may be regarded as a branch of microhistory.

longue durée

An approach to the study of history popularized by the French Annales School which gives priority to long-term historical processes and phenomena, concentrating on all-but-permanent or slowly evolving structures from which broad patterns and trends can be interpreted, in contrast to the more traditional focus on the lives of specific individuals and specific events that occurred at specific points in time.

lore

See folklore.

M

macrohistory

The study of large, long-term trends in world history, undertaken in order to uncover ultimate patterns that cut across the more specific details of diverse historical cultures.

manuscript

Any document written by hand, as opposed to one that is printed or reproduced in some other way.

microhistory

The intensive historical investigation of a small and narrow unit of research (an event, a community or an individual), generally undertaken with a view to casting light on broader historical questions. Local history may be considered a branch of microhistory.

Middle Ages

Also called the medieval period.

The period in the history of Europe and the Near East lasting from approximately the 5th century to the 15th century AD, usually considered to have begun with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire c. AD 476 and to have ended with the transition to the Renaissance and the discovery of the Americas in the late 1400s. The Middle Ages can be seen as part of the broader post-classical period of world history, and as the middle of the three traditional divisions of Western history, preceded by classical antiquity and followed by the modern period. The medieval period itself is often subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

migration

The movement of human beings from one place to another with the intention of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new location. Human migrations have been defining components of the history of every settled place and a major driver of economic, cultural, and linguistic exchange between populations, so historians often emphasize the importance of studying their causes, paths, and effects.

military history

The study of the history of armed conflict and its impact on society. It may range from the study of specific military actions and engagements to the much broader examination of warfare as a political tool.

modern history

Also called the modern period or modernity.

modernity

1.  The state of being modern, by any of various definitions of the term.

2.  The historical period defined by modern history, with various starting and ending points but sometimes inclusive of the present day (i.e. contemporary history), especially when used generically to contrast the recent or current state of human civilization with previous eras.

3.  The ensemble of sociocultural norms, attitudes, practices, ideas, and beliefs associated with this period, often with an emphasis on those originating in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Age, and/or the early modern period.

monograph

A piece of writing, especially a book or an essay, that is the product of detailed, specialized research, often by a single author, on a particular subject or an aspect of a subject, e.g. a specific historical phenomenon, person, place, or event.

myth

mythology

The collected body of myths shared by a culture or a group of people, or the academic study of such myths.

N

notaphily

The study and collection of paper currency and banknotes.

numismatics

The study and collection of all forms of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and other means of payment used to resolve debts and exchange goods.

natural history

A domain of inquiry involving organisms including animals, fungi, and plants in their natural environments which leans more towards observational than experimental methods of study.

O

onomastics

Also onomatology.

The study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names.

original order

A concept in archival theory which proposes that a group of records should be maintained in the same order as they were placed by their creator.

P

paleography

Also palaeography.

The study of historic writing systems, especially very old or ancient ones, and the deciphering, dating, and authentication of historical manuscripts, with a focus on the forms, processes, and methods of writing, in particular the analysis of handwriting, rather than the textual contents of documents.

Paleo-Tethys Ocean

A large ocean that originated between eastern Gondwana, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Baltica in the Ordovician and finally closed in the Jurassic. It was replaced by the Tethys Ocean as eastern Pangaea was assembled.

Pangaea

Also spelled Pangea.

A supercontinent that existed from the end of the Permian to the Jurassic, assembled from large continents like Euramerica, Gondwana, and Siberia, as well as smaller landmasses like the Cathaysian and Cimmerian Terranes. The name Pangaea is Greek for “all lands”.

Pannotia

A supercontinent that existed in the Late Precambrian and gave rise to the continents of Gondwana, Laurentia, Siberia, and Baltica in the Cambrian.

Panthalassic Ocean

Also called the Panthalassa.

A vast ocean that existed from the Late Precambrian to the Jurassic, circling the globe and connecting to smaller oceans that developed throughout the Phanerozoic.

past

The entire set or any subset of events which happened previously in time.

periodization

The process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named periods or blocks of time, e.g. the Bronze Age, the Middle Ages, the Victorian Era, etc. This is often done to facilitate the analysis of history and the causality that might have linked specific events, resulting in descriptive abstractions that provide convenient labels for periods of time with relatively unique or stable characteristics, though these labels often overlap because the beginnings and ends of the time periods are imprecisely defined. In reality, history is continuous and not generalized, and therefore all systems of periodization are more or less arbitrary.

people's history

Also called history from below.

1.  A type of historical narrative which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of ordinary people rather than leaders or authority figures, using a bottom-up approach that rejects elite perspectives, instead emphasizing those of the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, nonconformists, social or cultural minorities, and any group that otherwise exists on the margins of society.

2.  History for and about the majority of the population, especially that which is highly accessible and relevant to the people as a whole, as opposed to history that is intended for or only accessible to well-educated audiences or serious scholars.

phaleristics

The study of military orders, decorations, and medals.

philately

The study of postage stamps.

philology

The study of language in oral and written historical sources, in particular literary texts, involving the establishment of their authenticity and original form and the determination of their meaning. The discipline lies at the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics.

political history

The study of past events, ideas, movements, and leaders in politics.

post-classical history

prehistory

Also pre-literary history.

The period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominin apes (c. 3.3 million years ago) and the invention of the earliest forms of writing (c. 5,000 years ago), the latter of which marks the beginning of conventional history. The distinction between prehistory and history – i.e. between those events that occurred before the advent of writing and those that occurred after – is important because the scientific study of prehistoric events relies on very different methods from those used to study historic events. In the absence of written records, prehistory can only be understood through the interpretation of physical artefacts, fossils, and preserved archaeological contexts, combined with inferences based on research from other disciplines of the natural sciences, in particular anthropology, evolutionary biology, and geology. The prehistoric period also does not have a universally consistent end date, because human populations invented or adopted writing at different times in different places. See also protohistory.

presentism

The application of present-day ideas and perspectives to depictions or interpretations of the past.

primary source

Material from or directly related to the past. The term usually refers to written records and documents created during the period that is being studied, such as diaries, letters, legal documents, accounts, photographs, and news reports, but may also in the broadest sense include cultural artefacts. Contrast secondary source.

prosopography

The study of collective biography; the examination of a historical group of individuals, e.g. those in a common occupation, institution, or place, through a collective study of their lives.

protohistory

1.  A period between prehistory and history during which a particular civilization or culture has not yet developed writing but during which other contemporary cultures have already noted in their own writings the existence of the pre-literate culture. For example, the cultures of ancient Celtic and Germanic tribes are considered protohistoric when they began appearing in contemporary Greek and Roman sources.

2.  The transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the earliest surviving writings of the first historians to emerge from that society.

provenance

The chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object, document, or group of records.

pseudohistory

A type of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often using methods resembling those in legitimate historical research and frequently in service to a particular political, religious, or personal agenda. Works of pseudohistory share some features with other types of pseudoscience, such as treating myths, legends, and other unreliable sources as literal historical truth; emphasizing historical sources that appear to support the pseudohistorical thesis while ignoring or dismissing those that contradict it; and conflating possibility with actuality, assuming that if something could have happened, then it did.

public history

A range of activities undertaken by people with some training in the discipline of history, but who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings.

Q

quantitative history

An approach to historical research that makes use of quantitative, statistical, and computer-based tools.

R

radical history

History practiced as a form of social protest; i.e. history written in conscious opposition to perceived social injustice and dedicated to the furtherance of progressive political and social change. Practitioners of radical history believe that historians are morally obligated to relate their research to the struggle for positive change and to use the study of the past for the betterment of the present and the future. From their standpoint, knowledge of the past is not valuable for its own sake but only insofar as it may be used to serve some social purpose.

radiocarbon dating

regnal year

A year of the reign of a particular sovereign or monarch, with the date considered as an ordinal rather than a cardinal number, e.g. "the third year in the reign of King Henry VIII". Regnal dating systems were widely used in historical times to date specific events and official records, including documents of parliamentary sessions in the United Kingdom until 1963, when the Gregorian calendar was instead adopted as the formal dating convention.

Renaissance

respect des fonds

An archival principle which proposes that collections of archival records should be ordered and preserved according to the administration, organization, individual, or entity by which they were created or from which they were received.

revolution

Rodinia

A supercontinent that existed during the Late Precambrian before the supercontinent Pannotia, and the oldest supercontinent for which scientists have a good record. The name Rodinia is Russian for "homeland".

Romanticism

A cultural and intellectual movement of the late 18th to mid-19th centuries that emphasized emotion and sentiment rather than reason, predominantly among Western European cultures but also in other parts of the world.

reference work

A text, usually in the form of a dictionary or encyclopedia, which contains facts and information but typically not discussions.

revisionist history

Any approach to history in which a previously held interpretation of history or of an historical event is revised. In the most general usage, every original historian may be said to be a revisionist historian, because the simple act of generating a new understanding of the past necessarily challenges or re-interprets the body of historical knowledge about a subject, though the term may also refer more specifically to re-interpretations of the mainstream or "orthodox" views on a particular time period or event, a practice known as historical revisionism, or, with the much more negative connotation of distorting the historical record in service of a political agenda, to historical negationism.

S

saeculum

A length of time approximately equal to the potential lifetime of a human being or, equivalently, to the time it takes to completely regenerate a human population with new individuals – that is, the duration between the moment at which an event occurs (such as the founding of a city) and the point in time at which every individual who was alive at the first moment has died.

Scientific Revolution

secondary source

Material created by somebody removed from the event being studied; i.e. someone who was contemporaneous with the event but not physically present to witness it, or who was working from a period of time after the event occurred. All historical textbooks, for example, are secondary sources. Contrast primary source.

seal

A device for making an impression, usually in wax, or the impression so formed, historically used to authenticate documents.

Siberia

Also called Angaraland, Angara or Angarida.

A separate continental plate that existed from the Latest Precambrian to the Carboniferous, composed of a large part of what is now central Russia, namely the modern region of Siberia.

sigillography

The study of seals.

social history

A branch of history that studies the experiences of ordinary people in the past.

statistics

The study of the collection, organization, and interpretation of (historical) data.

Stone Age

The first of the three periods into which prehistory is traditionally divided, during which stone was widely used by early hominins to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. It preceded the Bronze Age and the Iron Age but spanned a period of time far longer than either of them, usually considered to have begun as early as 3.4 million years ago and to have ended with the advent of metalworking and particularly copper smelting, which were adopted at different times in different parts of the world but generally between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE, after which bronze became widespread and supplanted stone in many uses.

stratigraphy

In archaeology, a key concept in interpreting a site through establishing the relative chronology of its separate physical contexts.

subaltern

In postcolonial studies and critical theory, the colonial populations that are socially, politically, and/or geographically excluded from the hierarchy of power of an imperial colony and from the metropolitan homeland of the colonial empire, often deliberately in order to deny their agency and voices in colonial politics.

subaltern studies

T

teleology

A mode of historical interpretation that holds that events move towards a definite end state or goal.

terminus ante quem (TAQ)

The latest time at which a specific, punctual event could possibly have occurred, as indicated by placing the event relative to any other events whose dates are known with certainty. The concept establishes a limit after which an event could not have occurred based on logical expectations about the progression of a chronology, e.g. the decree of a law that is known to have been decreed by a specific monarch could not have occurred after the monarch's death.

terminus post quem (TPQ)

The earliest time at which a specific, punctual event could possibly have occurred, as indicated by placing the event relative to any other events whose dates are known with certainty. The concept establishes a limit before which an event could not have occurred based on logical expectations about the progression of a chronology, e.g. a battle in a which a specific person is known to have been killed could not have occurred before the person's date of birth (or any other securely dated event in the person's life).

Tethys Ocean

A small ocean that existed from the Triassic to the Jurassic. As Pangaea was split into Gondwana and Laurasia in the Jurassic, an arm developed westward called the Tethys Seaway or Tethys Sea.

three-age system

The periodization of human history into three time periods. The most common example is the division of prehistory into the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, though the concept may also refer to other tripartite divisions of historic time periods.

time

The indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future.

timeline

Any display of a list of events in chronological order, typically of a graphical design showing a long bar labeled with dates parallel to it and often contemporaneous events that occurred at those dates.

timeliness

The quality of punctuality and proximity to a historical event, as a means of assessing the reliability of a source. Timeliness is an important consideration in determining the reliability of historical records because records produced contemporaneously with an event are generally considered more accurate than records produced at a later time.

top-down approach

An approach to historical scholarship that emphasizes the experiences and perspectives of elites and leaders, as opposed to average people. Contrast bottom-up approach.

toponymy

The study of placenames.

transhistoricity

The quality of a concept or entity that persists throughout human history and is not governed or defined by the frame of reference of a particular time and place.

typology

In archaeology, the classification of artifacts, buildings and field monuments according to their physical characteristics; an important tool for managing large quantities of archaeological data.

U

universal history

A work that aims to present a complete history of all mankind as a whole, coherent unit, including all times, nations, peoples, and events in recorded history, insofar as a scientific treatment of them is possible.

unwitting testimony

The unintentional evidence provided by historical sources.

urban history

W

warfare

Also simply called war.

Whig history

A mode of historical interpretation which presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment; or, more broadly, any teleological or goal-directed narrative that assumes the inevitability of progress.

women's history

The study of the role that women have played in history, with particular emphasis on the growth of women's rights, individual women and groups of women of historical significance, and the effects that historical events have had on women. Inherent in the discipline is the belief that more traditional approaches to history have minimized or ignored the contributions of women and the impacts of political, social, and technological change on women's lives; in this respect, women's history is often practiced as a form of historical revisionism, seeking to challenge the orthodox historical consensus and make it more inclusive.

world history

Y

yuga

See also

• Index of history articles
• Outline of history

References

General information

• "A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology". Society of American Archivists. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
• USMP Glossary: Paleontology
• DCMI Metadata Terms