HISTORY CONCEPTS

HFT26W0
INTRODUCTION

• For students to understand how historians work

and how historical knowledge is constructed, it is
essential that they understand historical
concepts.
• These historical concepts are chronology,
evidence, accounts, causation, change and
continuity, significance, empathy, diversity and
historiography.
• A sound grasp of these concepts not only helps to
broaden students’ historical knowledge but also
deepens their understanding of the discipline.
• History students must learn to search for
information and evidence, read extensively and
examine historical sources, such as documents,
images and artefacts. More importantly, history
students must be prepared to ask difficult
questions and think critically. You must be willing
to question the validity of evidence, challenge
existing knowledge and evaluate the arguments
of others. One of the first steps toward thinking
like a historian is to learn some key historical
concepts. Like most other disciplines, history
Chronology

• Chronology is the listing of dates and events in

the order that they occurred.
• Historians use these dates and sequence of
events to write their accounts of the past.
• Knowing the chronology of an event in history
enables students to know what happened (the
main event), when it happened (the date/period),
and in what order it happened (the sequence or
development of events).
• A good grasp of chronology enables students to
understand developments and see patterns over
time.
Evidence

• Evidence is used by historians to support their

interpretations of or arguments about the past.
• Evidence is derived from the interrogation of
historical sources.
• Understanding the way evidence is derived helps
students to be discerning when encountering
historical arguments postulated by historians.
• Students must question and assess sources in
terms of
their origins, nature, purpose and content to
determine the value of sources as evidence so as
to verify, support or address the questions that
historians put forth to investigate about that past.
Accounts

• Accounts are typically historians’

reconstructions of events that happened in the
past.
• These writings answer specific questions and
reflect the focuses and points of view of their
authors.
• Understanding the nature of accounts enables
students to recognise that there can be no
single or complete account of the past.
• Different accounts of the same event are natural
as they exist to address or answer different
questions about that past.
Cause and Effect (Causation)

• Historians examine causation in history to

understand the reasons why and how events
happened.
• Different events in history can have different
impact on people, political systems, economies,
and geography over time.
• Examining causation helps students understand
that there is no single cause to one event; most
events happen because of a combination of
circumstances and the decisions and actions of
historical actors.
• Likewise, students will understand that events
can lead
to multiple consequences, which may be intended
or unintended.
• Two important historical concepts are cause and
effect. Every significant event, development or
change is triggered by at least one cause. To
understand an event, the first task of the
historian is to identify and study the factors that
caused it. Sometimes historical causes can seem
straightforward, so that ‘x’ appears to have
Change

• Change is probably the most important of all

historical concepts.
• Exploring, explaining and evaluating change is a
universal focus for those who study or work in
history.
• When investigating the past, most historians
focus not on a specific moment in time but on
how a society changed and evolved over a
longer period. Human societies are never static:
all are undergoing some form of change,
however minor or unnoticeable it might be.
• One of the aims of a historian is to identify,
describe and explain this process of change.
They seek to find out the conditions and factors
that caused change.
• They try to identify how change affected the
society in question. The speed of change is also
significant. Most historical change is slow,
gradual or evolutionary; it causes little
disruption to society and its individual members.
But some historical change – like the upheaval
caused by a war, a revolution, an economic
depression or political radicalism – can be
Continuity
• Continuity is the opposite of change: it is where
things stay more or less the same.
• Historians are interested in change but are
mindful that not everything changes. Even
during a period of great upheaval, some
institutions, traditions and values will remain
constant.
• The rise of a new monarch or political leader
might bring significant change, though the
political system itself may remain the same. A
revolution might hope to create a new society
but it may not change the way that people think
or behave.
• Revolutionary leaders might rebel against
oppressive governments, only to end up using
similar methods themselves. Continuity can be
important because it provides a nation or society
with stability and consistency, allowing it to hold
together and keep functioning.
Significance

• The notion of ‘significance’ in history goes

beyond straightforward considerations about
‘important factors’ or ‘impact’.
• Significance is an assessment as to why an
event, person,
idea or issue mattered in a way that has deep
consequences throughout history, and which have
affected people over an extended period of time,
even till today.
• Significance is not inherent in the event, person,
idea or issue itself. It can be contested, is not
decided by just one group of people and is
ascribed by historians based on a set of criteria.
• Significance is the relative importance or value
of something. Evaluating historical significance
boils down to choosing which things are more
important than others.
• Those who design history courses, for example,
choose to focus on certain people, places and
events because they consider them to have
greater significance than others. History
teachers emphasise certain topics or pieces of
evidence because of their perceived
Historical Empathy

• Historical empathy is the disposition of taking on

the perspectives of people who lived in the past.
• Historians develop empathetic understanding of
the people
they study by investigating and familiarising
themselves with the contexts, constraints, values,
ideas, attitudes and beliefs of people in the past.
• Developing historical empathy enables students
to understand the actions of people who lived in
another time and place, and the way they viewed
the world.
• Students can then appreciate how different
contexts, constraints, values, ideas, attitudes
and beliefs may have affected how those who
lived in the past thought, felt and behaved.
Diversity

• Understanding diversity involves recognising that

people’s experiences throughout history vary along
different lines, including ethnic groups, national
loyalties, geographical boundaries, social class,
religious affiliations, gender, and age.
• Studying these forms of diversity – in terms of
the differences (or similarities) in the
experiences – enables students to appreciate
and understand the richness and complexity of
the past.
• By introducing students to the similarities and
differences of people’s experiences in the past,
it can broaden their worldview and inform their
own views about history and the past.
Historiography

• Historiography is the close study of history and

how it evolves and differs.
• It is largely concerned with the methods and
approaches of historians, the men and women
from whom we ‘receive’ history and historical
understanding.
• There is no single understanding or ‘truth’ in
history; different historians often reach different
conclusions about the same period, event or
issue.
• History is also subject to change and
reinvention. As new historians emerge, they
apply new ideas, values and approaches that
modify our understanding of the past.
• History students must be aware that history is
comprised of competing and conflicting
arguments and viewpoints – and that it is always
changing.
• Historiography can also refer to the body of
historical research and writing on a particular
topic, such as the ‘historiography of the struggle
against apartheid’ or the ‘historiography of
Robert Sobukwe’.