HIST212 Lecture 11: Lecture 11
18 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
There were six key concepts this term: signi cance. Signi cance is socially constructed, something that everyone agrees on. Something can be signi cant because it is revealing: evidence. Traces of the past allow us to construct a history. We have to be careful, since traces can be misleading: change vs. continuity. Continuity = cumulative, gradual change with no major change. Turning points allow us to pinpoint moments in the past that dont resort to technological revolutions rather than understanding the past: causes and consequences. Important to recognize that a change can have di erent causes, people, and conditions as in uences. Consequences can be unpredictable at the moment of change: historical perspective. Need to appreciate what somebody thinks at the time. Important to do without anachronisms, without imposing our own view of the past: ethical dimensions. Histories are assembled from a series of judgements, constructed. We can assess what people are doing and thinking at the time, knowing context.
