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Origins of History: Unit 1 Overview
Origins of History: Unit 1 Overview
This first overview video introduces you to the origins of history, including how you fit into this history and the role you’ll play in shaping it.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
How can art help us understand history?
What is world history and what’s your role in it?
Why are there many world histories rather than one world history?
How does your history connect with the history of people all around the world?
What are the three frames you’ll be using in this course and what does each one mean?
How is history different from memory?
: [Music] 32,000 years ago, human hands reached into the dark and left behind evidence of their world.
: These drawings from a cave in southern France are among the oldest evidence of human art.
: At the same time, people in other places were creating art and documenting their worlds. All these images
: were drawn thousands of years ago by humans using tools and materials like charcoal and
: ochre. This image was created on June 21st 2024 using the artificial intelligence tool known
: as Dall-E. In the millennia separating these images countless humans left their mark on
: the world leaving behind evidence of our shared connections, astonishing diversity, and boundless
: creativity. Art is one type of evidence that can help us understand history. It can tell us
: about the innovations people made, the tools they used, the connections they forged with each other,
: and what they valued in their communities. By comparing evidence from different places around
: our world and at different times we can make new discoveries about history and what it means to be
: human. This video introduces Unit 1 of the World History Project. But what is world history? At its
: most basic, world history is about drawing connections, identifying the stuff that has
: linked humans across the globe, and through our long history as a species. It's about how we're
: similar and different, how we change over time, and how we interact with our environments. But world
: history is also about you. It's the meaning you make of the past. No matter where you live, you and
: your ancestors are part of world history. But you also have a role to play in interpreting the past.
: It's your job to use evidence to craft historical narratives that are meaningful and significant.
: Whether your evidence is cave art from the deep past, or the technologies that made our modern
: world. History is an account, a story we tell about the past that's supported by evidence.
: Historians want the histories they create to be usable. They want the people who encounter their
: histories to be able to use them to explain the present and prepare for the future. But there are
: a lot of people out there all with different perspectives. There's also a lot of stuff in
: world history which covers hundreds of thousands of years and an entire planet of people. That's
: why there isn't just just one history—there are many. Every historical account changes depending
: on the perspective of the person writing it and the evidence they use to support their
: claims. When historians are deciding how to write their historical account one of the
: first decisions they make is about the scale of their narrative. From the life of an individual to
: the history of the entire Universe, all histories are written at different scales of geography and
: time. Consider you. You're the only subject in the history of you. But your life is connected
: to bigger histories. Each student and every teacher who has ever passed through your school is part of
: the history of your school. Each person in your country is part of your national history. And
: everyone in the world is part of world history. But world history isn't just a history of everything.
: It's a history of us and all the stuff that ties us together. Including the connections that brought
: ideas, people, plants and animals, diseases, religions. All from one part of the world to
: another. These histories—both big and small—helped shape your life. The story of how you're connected
: to the person sitting next to you in class, on the other side of the country, or halfway around the
: world. But these history stories are vast and complicated which is why historians often organize
: them into themes, or frames, for understanding the past. Frames are like lenses for helping us
: to concentrate on one thing at a time. In this course, you will use three frames: communities,
: networks, and production and distribution. Communities include the history of towns
: and nations and fandoms and Discord servers. This frame focuses on all the diverse ways that people
: organize the societies they live in and the groups they form. Networks are the ways that people make
: connections and exchange goods and ideas. Networks include everything from ancient sea routes to
: the internet. Production and distribution is the history of making trading and selling everything
: that people use and consume, from charcoal used on Paleolithic cave walls to the microprocessor
: powering AI. Are there other frames we can use to view the past? Absolutely! Can you think of
: some? You're not just learning history, you also have a role in creating it. Lots of people,
: including you, already create accounts of the past. Our communities and families have lots of ways
: to celebrate and connect to the past. Traditions, holidays, sites of remembrance. These accounts of
: the past and ways of remembering are important. But they're slightly different from history. In
: this course you're going to learn how to be an historian. Historians use evidence from the past
: to create their historical accounts. They evaluate this evidence to better understand the world we
: live in and how it might change in the future. This is the opportunity you have in learning how to
: think historically. In this course, you won't only consume histories others tell you, you will seek
: out and use evidence as you write historical accounts that are important to you.