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For broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and it coincides with the invention of writing. For some geographic regions or cultures, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history because of the limited use of written records.
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. [1] [2]Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the history and function of that person or organization.
Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn on, and the historian's skill lies in identifying these sources, evaluating their relative authority, and combining their testimony appropriately in order ...
The National Archives and Records Administration ( NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, [ 4] charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents that make up the National Archives. [ 5]
Historical documents are original documents that contain important historical information about a person, place, or event and can thus serve as primary sources as important ingredients of the historical methodology . Significant historical documents can be deeds, laws, accounts of battles (often given by the victors or persons sharing their ...
Archival research is a type of research which involves seeking out and extracting evidence from archival records. These records may be held either in collecting institutions, [1] such as libraries and museums, or in the custody of the organization (whether a government body, business, family, or other agency) that originally generated or ...
Social history, sometimes called the "new social history", is a broad branch that studies the experiences of ordinary people in the past. [129] [130] It had major growth as a field in the 1960s and 1970s, and still is well represented in history departments. However, after 1980 the "cultural turn" directed the next generation to new topics.
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. [3]