Connections not causes

Scientists consider that the notion of cause and effect is scientifically illiterate but only a few historians have caught up with this view. During the last three decades new fashions in historiography like Postmodernism and Alternative History have led to historical explanation becoming something of a back number but many historians still persist in discussing historical developments in terms of causes that they have been quite arbitrary in selecting. This article suggests that instead of pretending that we already understand the past so well that we can identify the processes whereby one historical situation leads to a subsequent historical situation, it might be better to concentrate on simply identifying discrete historical phenomena that seem to be connected and related, even if we do not expect to understand yet precisely how they might be connected.