Students come to the UT History department for a wide range of reasons. Some are curious about the origins of their families, hometowns, or religious and cultural traditions, while others want to learn more about the current state of the world—how it came to be the way it is today. Still others like to read about the grand sweep of human history, with all its attendant drama driven not only by fascinating individuals and big ideas, but also by the choices of ordinary people and the imperatives of everyday life. Studying history alerts us to the ways that people contend with and shape the natural environment, and the reasons why people gather into groups and identify themselves in certain ways. History is a story more lively and intriguing than a novel because it is real--as best we can determine from the available evidence! Doing history means playing detective in order to locate, study, and then piece together information gleaned from documents and other kinds of materials, with the aim of telling a true story about the human past.

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