Practice question · Select all that apply
Why do historians say that a period boundary is an argument rather than a fact?
Hints
- Three of these describe why boundaries are contestable; the fourth invents an authority.
- Nobody ratifies a period.
Show the answer
- A. Different boundaries organise the same evidence into different causal stories
- B. Rival traditions place the same events in different periods
- C. A boundary asserts that one change was more decisive than others
Why
The point is not that periodisation is arbitrary, some boundaries organise the evidence far better than others, but that it is answerable to argument. Choosing 1789 or 1945 or 1750 commits you to a claim about what made the present, and that claim can be defended or attacked.
Practise What "Contemporary History" Is
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History II is free to start.
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