Historical Reasoning (APUSH Edition)

Continuity and change allows us to consider periods of time.  When we think about history in this way, we can see how the economy, or politics, or social relationships changed in a period of time.  History is also shaped by continuities.  These are things that stay the same during a period of time.  Continuities help give periods of history a distinct character.  There are things we expect in certain time periods that we don't expect in other time periods.

It's the pattern that tells us something interesting about a given period of history.  This is like when your English teacher keeps pointing out all the symbols in a book.  The whale in Moby Dick keeps showing up.  The blood in Macbeth keeps showing up.  The green light in The Great Gatsby keeps showing up.  A green light by itself doesn't mean anything.  But when it keeps showing up, or changes suddenly, that's meaningful. ​

Causation allows us to connect separate events together by creating a chain of events.  When we think about history in this way, it allows us to see how Event A led to Outcome B.  In turn, Outcome B leads to Result C (and so on).  Information is important if it helps you create these strings of events. 

Think of this like chapters in a book.  Each chapter only gives part of the story.  If you read the sixth chapter in a random book, it would be hard to understand what the characters were doing.  If you read all the chapters in order, then the story should make more sense.  You could probably recount the story to another person in a way they could understand.  Even if you missed some important moments in the book, they could get the gist.  ​

We're interested in the whole story, so it's not the individual events that matter.  It's the sequence of events and what they tell us about history.  The date the Stamp Act was passed is trivia.  This is where the gold is: The Stamp Act helped cause the American Revolution because it fanned the flames of a debate about political rights.  We've linked two events together in time, and thus created a pattern.

You'll typically run into causation in two places.  First, you'll want to understand the causes of major wars in US History.  Second, you want to know the effects of major events.  This includes wars, certainly, but it also includes other points in history where things changed in a significant way.  For example, it's important to understand the effects of the Industrial Revolution.  This is not a war, but it is a thing that happened in history that had lasting consequences.