Sometimes it is precisely in the interest of building better historical knowledge that facts and detail need temporarily to be abandoned. Gary Howells aims to secure discernible foundation understandings in his students by getting them to engage quickly with those aspects of political concepts that they can grasp. He is then in a position to help them to see the place and significance of events. Building upon Rachael Rudham’s distinctive approach to AS Level teaching, Gary shows how the idea of change over time needs to be fostered in indirect ways. Students need some meaningful grasp of 19th century attitudes and ideas if they are to understand why things appear, to us, to have happened slowly or quickly.