Historical Thinking, Historical Interpretation, Historical Communication

Elements of Historical Thinking	Elements of Historical Writing & Presentation
Change	Claim: a historical generalization
Empathetic Historical Understanding	Evidence: specific documentary information recording an historical event, thought, perception, process, etc.
Multiple Perspectives by past people; and by historians	Qualification: a limiting condition pertaining to the claim or the evidence
The Past in the Present	Warrant: the reasons why a specific piece of evidence is suitable for supporting or addressing the claim, including the reasoning explaining how best to interpret the evidence, what kind of caution needs to be kept in mind, etc. In general, this can be called a “critical approach” to evidence, “critical” meaning “analytical” and “evaluative,” not “negative.”

	Claim
Qualification		Warrant
	Evidence

Here is an example of a very broad claim related to the Industrial Revolution from the introduction of Chapter 20 in Spielvogel.

Although the Industrial Revolution took decades to spread, it was truly revolutionary in the way it fundamentally changed Europeans, their society, and their relationship to the rest of the world.

Ideas for Pertinent Evidence	Examples of Evidence
The growth in size and number of cities , i.e., that urbanization was linked to industrialization as the factory system of production led to the primary location of production being in towns and cities.	In 1851, 50 percent off the English population lived in urban areas (defined as communities over 2000 people), a change that was first to occur in Europe. See Speilvogel, pp. 567-8 for similar evidence concerning the growth in the size and number of cities.
The domination of textile production overseas.	This domination in India and Ireland occurred through compeition—capturing the market for cotton goods through lower prices of English goods massed produced in factories, and through the conscious policy of de-instustrializing handicraft production in Ireland (18^th century) and India (early 19^th century)
A change in the distribution of income or wealth such that the gap between the wealthy and the poor grew larger.	Evidence for this could be 1) a statement or conclusion by an expert in the field 2) factual information showing that the gap did in fact grow. Historians still debate whether the standard of living for working people improved or not during the early phase of industrializing in England, from 1780s to 1830s or 1840s. Spielvogel presents the view that there was substantial variation in wages and cost of living by region, occupation, and so forth, but concludes with those historians that argue that a modest improvement occurred. Note: because of the complexity involved any decent claim in this area of historical inquiry and debate is bound to be qualified as not holding for all regions, all groups, etc.
The shift from the domestic system of textile production to the factory system of production.	Families who worked up textiles for urban merchants and middlemen (cottage industry, domestic industry) had a good deal of control over the use of their time for production.  Working patterns comprised a task orientation to work, much like academic life today.  Individuals and families who worked in factories found their days highly regulated by the clock and controlled by supervisors.  Patterns of work were geared to a time orientation of work.  The factory work rules in Spielvogel show this. "The Factory Bell," a popular poem/song in the 1830s can't be said to echo the very words of factory workers who lamented the loss of their former lives in domestic industry, but it attests to the kind of lament that was associated with the new regime of factory work.
The rise of a new ideal for social emulation: the Entrepreneurial Ideal as opposed to the Aristocratic Ideal of the pre-industrial period.	In Spielvogel, not the selection on Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) from Edward Baines, The History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain (p. 554).  Note the praise for Arkwright’s inventiveness, his industriousness Contrast the ideal of leisure and privilege in a rural, agrarian setting associated with the lives of the English gentry and aristocracy of the 18^th century. Consider this painting by Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Adams (1745-6). The warrant for this painting as a suitable evidence for the aristocratic ideal is: the gentry and aristocracy engaged painters to portray their adhesion to the aristocratic idea in portraits, thereby projecting an image in keeping with the qualities of a proper gentleman: landownership, leisure, etc.