Quick questions on Why approaches to history change for HSC History Extension

(1961), which stressed the historian's selecting and present-shaped role, and Geoffrey Elton's The Practice of History (1967), which defended the primacy of evidence and the recovery of past intentions, is the single most cited set-piece of twentieth-century English-language historiography. Knowing both sides precisely is essential for the Extension exam. :::

Finally, history changes through its own internal arguments. Each generation defines itself partly against its predecessors. Herbert Butterfield's attack on Whig history, Geoffrey Elton's defence of empirical political history in The Practice of History, and Keith Windschuttle's polemic against what he saw as the relativism of social and postmodern history in The Killing of History are all examples of historians driving change by contesting the dominant approach. The famous exchange between E.H.

The argument to make is causal: name the change in approach, then name its driver, context, ideology, new evidence or internal debate, and a historian who embodies it. Showing, for example, that the Annales turn to structures was driven both by intellectual borrowing from the social sciences and by disillusion with a political history that had failed to explain the World Wars, demonstrates that you can explain historiographical change rather than merely narrate it. That is exactly what the dot point and the Extension exam reward.

"Identify/name" wants the driver category and one example; "explain" wants a mechanism linking a specific driver to a specific change, with a named historian; "evaluate/analyse" wants at least three drivers or exchanges developed together, with a judgement on which mattered most or how they interacted.

Carr's What Is History? (1961) and Elton's The Practice of History (1967) are the most citable, most expected exchange; know both years and both positions exactly, since markers reward precision over a vague "historians have disagreed".

Explain how twentieth-century political catastrophe drove a specific change in historical approach. [6 marks]

Evaluate the extent to which historiographical debate itself is a driver of change in approaches to history. [8 marks]

Name the four categories of drivers of historiographical change identified in this dot point. [4 marks]