Introduction: The "Tools" of a Historian

Welcome to one of the most important chapters in your AS History course! When you study history, it’s not just about memorizing dates like 1485 or 1917. The real "magic" happens when you start thinking like a historian. To do this, you need to use second-order concepts.

Think of these concepts as the "skeleton" of your essay. They provide the structure that helps you turn a list of facts into a powerful, analytical argument. In your OCR AS Level exams, these concepts are the key to unlocking AO1 (Assessment Objective 1), which makes up 50% of your total marks. Whether you are writing about the Early Tudors or the Cold War, you will use these tools to explain why and how things happened.

1. Cause and Consequence

These are the "Before" and "After" of history. They help us understand the links between events.

Cause: Why did it happen?

A cause is the reason something occurred. In your exam, try to distinguish between different types of causes:

  • Long-term causes: These are "underlying" factors that build up over many years (e.g., the long-standing economic problems in France before 1789).
  • Short-term causes (Triggers): These are the specific events that make something happen right then and there (e.g., a bad harvest or a specific political decision).

Consequence: What happened next?

A consequence is the result or impact of an event. Like causes, consequences can be short-term (immediate ripples) or long-term (lasting changes that affect future generations).

Quick Tip: Don't just list what happened. To get higher marks, you must analyse which cause or consequence was the most important. For example, was Henry VIII’s desire for an annulment the main cause of the break with Rome, or were economic factors more significant?

2. Change and Continuity

History is a story of movement, but it is also a story of things staying the same. These concepts help you track progress over time.

Change

Change is when a situation becomes different. When looking at change, ask yourself:

  • How fast was the change? (Was it a sudden revolution or a slow "evolution"?)
  • How extensive was it? (Did it affect everyone, or just the rich and powerful?)

Continuity

Continuity is when things stay the same, even during times of great upheaval. For example, even after a change in monarch, many local government structures often stayed exactly as they were.

Analogy: Imagine a river. The water is always moving and changing (Change), but the riverbed and the banks might stay the same for centuries (Continuity).

Key Takeaway:

The best essays often show how change and continuity happened at the same time. You might argue that while the 1917 Russian Revolution brought massive political change, many continuities remained in how the country was actually managed on a day-to-day basis.

3. Similarity and Difference

These concepts are all about comparison. They help you look at two or more things and see how they relate to each other.

  • Similarity: What do two events, people, or periods have in common? (e.g., How were the threats to Henry VII similar to the threats faced by later monarchs?)
  • Difference: What makes them unique? (e.g., How did the rule of Stalin differ from the rule of Tsar Nicholas II?)

Common Mistake to Avoid: When a question asks you to compare, don't write one paragraph about "Person A" and then a separate paragraph about "Person B." Instead, try to compare them within the same paragraph using "connective" words like "similarly," "conversely," or "in contrast."

4. Significance

Significance is a judgement of how much an event or person actually mattered. Since you can't write about everything in a 90-minute exam, you have to decide what is "significant."

To judge significance, you can use the "5 R's" trick:

  • Remarkable: Was the event noticed at the time?
  • Resulted in change: Did it lead to consequences?
  • Revealing: Does it tell us something important about the period?
  • Remembered: Is it still considered important by historians?
  • Resonant: Did it affect people for a long time?

Don't worry if this seems tricky at first! Significance is often subjective—historians often argue about it. Your job in the exam is to provide a "substantiated judgement" (an opinion backed up by facts) on why you think something was significant.

How to use these in your AS Exams

In the OCR AS Level (H105), you will encounter these concepts in two main places:

Unit Group 1 (British Period Study and Enquiry): In Section B, you will write a period study essay worth 20 marks. The question will usually use one of these concepts. For example: "To what extent was the government of Henry VII more effective than that of Henry VIII?" (This is a Similarity/Difference and Significance question).

Unit Group 2 (Non-British Period Study): In Section A, you will write a 30-mark period study essay. These questions will challenge you to explain and evaluate key features of the period using these second-order concepts to reach a conclusion.

Note: For help with the specific skills needed for source analysis or historian interpretations, see the chapters on Source Enquiry and Evaluating a Historian's Interpretation.

Quick Review: The Historian’s Checklist
  • Cause/Consequence: The "Why" and the "Impact."
  • Change/Continuity: What moved and what stood still.
  • Similarity/Difference: Comparing and contrasting.
  • Significance: Deciding what really matters and why.

Final Tip: When you are planning an essay, look at the question stem. If it says "How far did X change...", highlight the word change and make sure your plan includes points about both change and continuity to provide a balanced argument!