Before reading Gaddis’ text, I had a rather linear way of thinking about history. When learning history in middle school and high school, teachers always told students that one event, X, was the cause of Y, which eventually led to Z. In other words, I was always taught that history had one, “right” answer.

Gaddis took this teaching and flipped it on its head. He mentions the importance of multiple causality in history, which I had never even heard before. Gaddis claims that multiple factors can be responsible for an event occurring. Maybe X was partially responsible for Y, but what if U also played a part? Maybe a third factor, T, also played an important role? When we consider multiple causality, the equation becomes much more complicated.

But this allows for greater freedom for historians. Instead of taking the progression of history for granted, historians can research different events, form opinions, and craft arguments. Going back to the math analogy I started in the previous two paragraphs, a historian can theoretically argue that U was more influential in the occurrence of Y than either X or T, and as long as that historian has sufficient evidence to support their argument, they can be considered “correct.” Likewise, another historian can propose another argument, and say that T was the most influential factor that resulted in Y, and they would also be correct, granted again, that they had enough evidence to support their argument.

Gaddis’ argument made me very happy as a history student. The idea of multiple causality makes history a much more entertaining subject than people may initially be led to believe. It is not just memorizing facts: it is a conversation, one that requires critical thinking and close attention to the subject one is studying.