Self-study
One of the most vexing problems in historiography is dating an event when the usual sources offer conflicting chronologies of the event. ██████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████████ ██ █████████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████
Summary
One of the most challenging problems in historiography is dating an event when sources offer conflicting information. Historians should minimize the number of these sources by eliminating less credible ones. Once this happens, historians should try to determine independently which of the sources is most likely to be right, although they are sometimes unsuccessful.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
There are some events that historians have not reliably dated.
20.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
We have no █████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ █████
This is too broad to support. There is not enough support to contend that we have no plausible chronology of “most” disputed events. The stimulus says that historians were unable to successfully date some events.
b
Some of the ██████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████████ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████
The stimulus says that historians “on occasion unsuccessfully” try to determine the date for an event after minimizing competing sources. This implies that there are at least some events that cannot be dated reliably.
c
Attaching a reliable ████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████
This is too broad to support. The stimulus only concerns dates where the usual sources offer conflicting information, not “any event.”
d
Determining independently of ███ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████ ███████
This is antisupported. The stimulus suggests this method to date events.
e
The soundest approach ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ █████████
This is too strong to support. The stimulus says that this is an approach, not that this is the soundest or best approach. Be wary of these strong words in answer choices! They can sometimes be supported, but make sure to double-check the stimulus for the support.