Why the past keeps changing

History · Historical Thinking · ages 16-18

Name ______________________ Date ____________

How do you show a telling changed?
- Read one era deeply
- Sum one event across three eras of writing
- Count the pages
What does historiography study?
- How each age retells the past
- Old coins and pots
- Future weather
Retellings often say as much about now as about then.
Circle one: True False
A tale runs smooth as silk. What should you ask?
- What was trimmed
- How fast the writer types
- How much ink it took
Fresh digs find nil, yet the tale shifts. What drove it?
- Fresh questions
- Fresh finds
- Fresh ink
Two honest writers can cite facts yet blame split causes.
Circle one: True False
Three eras paint one rising as glory, then shame, then lesson. What does the drift prove?
- Facts changed thrice
- Eras saw themselves
- Writers never read
A writer in a boom age praises bold kings. What may her age hide?
- The kings' names
- The book's price
- The folk's cost

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Sum one event across three eras of writing · Side-by-side eras bare the drift and what each prized.
How each age retells the past · It tracks retellings as fresh tools and debates make old tales thin.
True · Each age bends old facts to its live debates.
What was trimmed · Trimmed rough bits often hold the true point.
Fresh questions · New aims rework old facts with no new trove.
True · Cause rungs differ, so both tales can stand.
Eras saw themselves · The shift in ink maps shifts in mind.
The folk's cost · Fat years ease praise of crowns and dim shed tears.