Multiple matching
You are going to read an article in which five historians discuss counterfactual (‘what if’) history. For questions 1-10, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once.
The Uses of ‘What If?’
Five historians discuss the value and dangers of counterfactual history
Dr Helena Marchetti, university lecturer
I use counterfactual questions constantly with undergraduates, though not for the reasons my more sceptical colleagues suppose. The point is not to construct alternative worlds for their own sake. It is to expose the hidden logic of an argument. When a student writes that a treaty ‘caused’ a war, I ask what would have happened without it, and the student is obliged to spell out which forces were already in motion and which were genuinely set off by the treaty. Nine times out of ten, the essay improves considerably. Where students go astray is in their enthusiasm. Given licence to imagine, they rewrite half a century at a stroke: the general survives, the election goes the other way, the harvest does not fail, and the result is a novel rather than an argument. I insist on a simple discipline. Alter one thing, preferably something that very nearly happened, and hold everything else as constant as you reasonably can. A counterfactual that requires five miracles tells you nothing about the past; it tells you only about the imagination of the person who devised it. Used with restraint, though, it is the most useful question a historian can ask.
Which historian insists that counterfactual assumptions are made by all historians, whether or not they acknowledge it?
Which historian suggests that counterfactual history tends to overstate the influence of individuals?
Which historian reflects on the extent to which their own life depended on a chance occurrence?
Which historian values counterfactual questions for obliging students to make their reasoning explicit?
Which historian openly admits that financial considerations play a part in their work?
Which historian argues that such speculation becomes less credible the further it extends in time?
Which historian describes efforts to quantify the effects of an imagined alternative?
Which historian recommends keeping changes to the historical record to a minimum?
Which historian claims that an entertaining approach can lead people towards more serious study?
Which historian dismisses the genre as an amusement that does not deserve scholarly attention?
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