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history
History is often used as a generic term for information about the past, such as in "geologic history of the Earth". When used as the name of a field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of human societies. The term history comes from the Greek historia, "an account of one's inquiries", and shares that etymology with the English word story.

Historians use many types of sources, including written or printed records, interviews (oral history), and archaeology. Different approaches may be more common in some periods than others, and the study of history has its fads and fashions (see historiography). The events that occurred prior to human records are known as prehistory.

Knowledge of history is often said to encompass both knowledge of past events and historical thinking skills.

A criticism of history as a field has been that it has too narrowly focused on political events or on individuals. Deeper more significant changes in terms of ideas, technology, family life and culture have received too little attention. Recent developments in history have sought to redress this.

See also: History of the world

Classifications

A very large amount of historical information is available in Wikipedia, and several different ways of classifying it are given below.

History classified by region

- Africa
- Americas
- Asia
- Europe
- Oceania
- Antarctica

History classified by subregion

- History of North America
- History of South America
- History of Latin America
- History of Central America
- History of the Caribbean
- History of Eurasia
- History of South Asia
- History of East Asia
- History of the Middle East
- History of Australasia (Australia, New Guinea, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia)
- History of the Pacific Islands

History classified by dates

- Centuries
- Decades
- Century in review
- Periodization
- List of named time periods
- List of timelines

Academic classification

- Prehistory
- Ancient history
- Modern history, including early modern history
- Pre-Columbian (History of the Americas also see Mesoamerica)
- Middle Ages (History of Medieval Europe)

History of Religions

- History of Christianity
- History of Islam
- Jewish history
- History of Buddhism

Miscellaneous classifications

- Cultural movements
- Diaspora studies
- Economic history
- History of art
- History of astrology
- History of astronomy
- History of cinema
- History of economic thought
- History of ideas
- History of individuals (biography)
- History of literature
- History of mathematics
- History of medicine
- History of mental illness
- History of philosophy
- History of physics
- History of present-day nations and states
- History of religions
- History of science and technology
- History of sexuality
- History of theater
- Historiography
- History of extinct nations and states
- Intellectual history
- Legal history
- Microhistory
- Military history
- Philosophy of history

Ideological classifications

Although a certain amount of bias in history studies is inescapable, national bias being probably the most important, history can also be studied from a narrow ideological perspective, perhaps one that the practitioners feel is usually ignored. For example:

- Marxist historiography;
- Feminist history (also called herstory);

A form of historical speculation known commonly as virtual history (also called "counterfactual history") been adopted by some historians as a means of assessing and exploring the possible outcomes if certain events had not occurred or had occurred in a different way to that which they did. This is somewhat similar to the alternative history genre in fiction.

You may also want to see dubious historical resources and historical myths for a list of false beliefs and histories that were once or are now popular and widespread, but which are proven to be false or dubious.

Guidelines for history on Wikipedia can be found at Wikipedia:History.