CLEP Western Civilization I flashcards

22 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

Evidence produced in, or directly connected with, the period being investigated; its usefulness depends on the question, provenance and conditions of survival.

Secondary interpretation

An account constructed through later analysis of evidence, which should be assessed through its argument, source base and explanatory choices rather than its date alone.

Provenance

The origin and transmission history of an item, including its creator, date, context and later custody, used to judge what it can establish.

Audience

The people an author intended or expected to address; audience can influence vocabulary, selection, emphasis and the strategic purpose of a historical communication.

Genre

The type and conventions of a source, such as a speech, law, diary or statistical table, which affect what statements in it are doing.

Corroboration

Comparison with other relevant evidence to test a claim, while checking whether apparently separate accounts actually depend on the same original source.

Contextualization

Relating a source or event to the circumstances, institutions, concepts and available choices of its period rather than interpreting it in isolation.

Chronology

The ordering of events in time, which helps identify relationships and possible explanations but does not itself prove that one event caused another.

Periodization

Division of time into meaningful units according to an explicit criterion; different political, social or economic questions can justify different boundaries.

Causation

An explanation of how conditions, decisions and mechanisms contributed to an outcome, distinguishing a chronological association from a supported causal argument.

Continuity

Persistence of an institution, practice or relationship across a chosen interval, which can coexist with major changes in another historical dimension.

Trigger

A relatively immediate event that helps initiate a process under existing conditions, distinct from the full set of deeper causes or later consequences.

Structure

A more persistent arrangement of social, economic or political relationships that shapes possibilities without making every individual decision mechanically inevitable.

Contingency

The dependence of an outcome on particular circumstances and choices, used to avoid describing subsequent events as the only possible historical path.

Anachronism

Uncritical transfer of a concept, institution or expectation from one period into another, obscuring the meanings and choices available to historical actors.

Teleology

Explanation that treats a later outcome as the predetermined purpose of earlier events, instead of reconstructing uncertainty, alternatives and actual causal mechanisms.

Historiography

The study and development of historical interpretations, including how historians select questions, evaluate sources and disagree about the meaning of evidence.

Multiperspectivity

Examination of different actors and observers while retaining standards of evidence; it does not make mutually contradictory factual assertions equally reliable.

Normative source

A text that prescribes rules or desired conduct, whose existence establishes a stated norm rather than universal compliance with that norm.

Retrospective account

A source written after the events it describes, potentially combining remembered experience with later knowledge, public narratives and changing personal interests.

Representativeness

The extent to which selected evidence can support a claim about a wider population or experience, rather than only the individuals actually observed.

Historical judgment

A reasoned conclusion about the past that makes its evidence and criteria explicit and distinguishes established observations from interpretation or value assessment.