Historical significance

Historical significance is a historiographical concept that defines and influences the social remembrance of past events.

Some would say the Ferranti MRT is "just" a clipboard with a built in calculator, but others claim it has historical significance as "the world's first application-specific handheld computer".

Historians consider knowledge of dates and events the primary content of history, or "first-order knowledge". They class historical significance as an aspect of the study of primary content, deeming it secondary or "second-order knowledge". However, the way dates and events are chosen and described is often used to assign significance, without acknowledging bias. As Winston Churchill has said: "History is written by the victors".

Relevance

A central topic to the study of history, historical significance defines what is remembered about the past, through its reflections in various objects of contemporary culture (images on stamps and banknotes, street names, etc.) Examining it can be an effective tool for guiding students to understand how cultural background affects perception of history and the preferences they have.[1]

Examples

Historical significance is typically assessed by judging an event against pre-defined criteria. For example, UNESCO includes any site as a world heritage site, provided it "bear[s] a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization".[2] However, these criteria are often subjective and perception-biased or unavailable.[2] Thus the alluding of any event as historically significant or non-significant remains open to challenge.[2]

Numerous criteria for assessing historical significance have been proposed.[3][4][5][6]

References
  1. Stephanie Levesque (Winter 2005). "Teaching second-order concepts in Canadian history: The importance of "historical significance"" (PDF). University of Western Ontario. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 April 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
  2. "Debating Historical Significance" (PDF). Edge Hill University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 March 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  3. "Lesson notes". Cambridge University. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  4. Fulton, David (2014). The Guided Reader to Teaching and Learning History. Routledge. p. 108–14. ISBN 9781136472848.
  5. Partington, Geoffrey (1980). The Idea of an Historical Education. NFER Publishing Company. ISBN 9780856332029.
  6. Cercadillo, Lis (2006). "'Maybe they haven't decided yet what is right:' English and Spanish perspectives on teaching historical significance". Teaching History (125): 6–9. ISSN 0040-0610. JSTOR 43260148.
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