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294This workshop will focus on the AP%u00ae Historical Thinking Skill of Contextualization. Remember, AP%u00ae Historical Thinking Skills are the things that historians %u201cdo,%u201d and we will explore what context and contextualization mean as part of the historian%u2019s tradecraft.Understanding ContextualizationOur first task is to figure out what context is, and then to explore how you will employ the skill of contextualization in your AP%u00ae U.S. History course and on the exam itself.CONTEXTUALIZATION: The taking into consideration of the broader historical background surrounding an event or processLike anything else, understanding what this term means in your own words will go a long way toward your being able to apply it. So then, what IS context or contextualization? Simply put, contextualization might best be described as %u201cbackstory,%u201d or %u201chow we got to here.%u201d Think of any multipart television, movie, or streaming series that you have ever watched. Have you noticed that after the first episode, each following episode or installment always begins with a quick look at what has happened thus far, to %u201cbring you up to speed%u201d? This quick look provides you with context for what the upcoming episode is all about and where it is going to go. Perhaps a more formal definition for contextualization would be to call it the act of IDENTIFYING and DESCRIBING the historical situation surrounding a specific historical event, development, or process (see the Part 1 AP%u00ae Skills Workshop for a quick review of developments and processes). Consider that no event takes place in a vacuum. Establishing context for a specific event is a way of placing that event %u201cin its proper place in history,%u201d dropping that specific event into the historical moment or background factors that created or led to its birth.It is important for you to understand that %u201cbackstory%u201d and %u201ccausation%u201d are not the same thing. It might be helpful for you to go back and take a look at the Part 2 AP%u00ae Skills Workshop, which addressed causation, as you read this Workshop or afterwards. They are separate and distinct. Causation focuses on what people do; contextualization is more grounded in what makes people do what they do. As such, when we seek to contextualize, we are focusing on the situation and setting in which an event occurred, rather than trying to nail down what caused an event. We have to put ourselves into the place, into the shoes, of those living in a particular moment to understand what they experienced and how they saw things. Then, we can consider how those factors might influence peoples%u2019 thoughts or actions and whether those factors involve economic considerations, religious beliefs, environmental or geographic factors, cultural values, or political institutions, among others.Contextualization is most commonly used in an introductory sense, preceding a thesis or claim. Think of it as the author%u2019s introduction that you read in a work of nonfiction. It sets the table for all that follows. Here is an example from your textbook at the beginning of %u201cAn Empire Transformed,%u201d pages 180%u2013185 in Chapter 5, which lays the groundwork for all of the events, developments, and processes that folloThe war that began as the French and Indian War in 1754 and culminated in the Great War for Empire of 1756%u20131763 transformed the British Empire in North America. The British ministry could no longer let the colonies manage their own affairs while it minimally oversaw Atlantic trade. Its interests and responsibilities now extended into the colonial interior%u2014a much more costly and complicatedContextualizationSkills WorkshopPART 3Contextualization%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.