SPRING 2021

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY
HIS 102: INTRODUCTION TO WORLD CIVILIZATION

Lecture 2:
Methods and Approaches to study the History
of the World Civilizations
Dr. Kazi Maruful Islam
kazi.islam07@northsouth.edu
20 February 2021
 TALKING POINTS

• Studying the History of World

Civilizations: What and How
• What is history
• Historiography
• Meaning of civilizations
• Features of civilization
• Subjectivity and biases in studying history
of civilizations
 WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY?

• People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future.
History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that
press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come. It
shows all the desirable and available branches of knowledge.
§ Helps Us Understand People and Societies.
§ History Contributes to Moral Understanding
§ History Provides Identity.
§ Studying History Is Essential for Good Citizenship.
 HOW TO STUDY HISTORY?

§ World history is comparative, transregional and transcultural approach to the

study of history,
§ World History offers a global perspective on past events, as well as cultural and
geographic developments over time.
§ Instead of focusing on discrete events, World History takes a big-picture approach
to history and considers how those events relate to each other in a larger human
story.
• 1.Develop ideas make connection.
• 2.Relating important information.
• 3.Watch movies.
• 4.Reading history book.
 HISTORICAL READING

• Reading that embodies ways that historians interpret the world:

• Historians create categories of historical study such as
• Political
• Ideological
• Social
• Economic
• Artistic
• Historians study basic systems (feudalism, monarchy, etc.)
 WHAT IS HISTORY READING?

• Historians study relationships among these systems and

categories:
• Contingency
• Chance; Coincidence
• Chronology
• Historians study change over time.
 SOURCES OF HISTORY

• 1.Contemporary.
• 2.Confidential records.
• 3.Public reports.
• 4.Government documents.
• 5.Pulic opinion
• 6. Archeological evidences
• 7. Personal memoir
• 8. Travelogue
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE WORD
“CIVILIZATION”?
 CIVILIZATION: MEANING

• Civilization is any complex society characterized by urban

development, social stratification, a form of government
and symbolic systems of communication such as writing
• Civilization is a form of human culture in which many people live
in urban centers, have mastered the art of smelting metals, and
have developed a method of writing.
• A civilization is a complex human society that may have certain
characteristics of cultural and technological development.
• https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/civilizations/
 SUBJECTVITY/BIAS IN WRITING THE
HISTORY OF WORLD CIVILIZATION

• European Supremacy
• Colonial Legitimacy
• Racial Supremacy
• Male Supremacy
 DEFINITION OF CIVILIZATION

• Active complex societal organism charaterized by society,

culture, religion, infrastructure living in a larger time and
space
• For last 8000 years, 29 civliations evolved across the world
 MESOPOTAMIA CIVILIZATION

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVf5kZA0HtQ
THANKS