P.E.R.S.I.A.
(Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, Artistic) - An additional schema that can
assist students in learning and understanding history is remembered by the use of the acronym
PERSIA. This acronym helps students to remember that most historical causes of effects can be
labeled as political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and/or artistic in nature. The expert
who thinks about the causes of the Reformation, for example, will immediately categorize these
causes with one or more of these conceptual labels. This schema is one that over-lays any of the
other patterns above. It is important to note that in many cases, a cause will be both economic and
social or political, economic, religious and social.
*Political
*Having to do with gaining, seeking, and organize power; events related to the
functions of the government: making laws, enforcing laws, and interpreting laws.
*Economic
*Having to do with how people meet their basic material needs; the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services; includes such issues as
domestic and international trade, monetary politics, and taxation
*Religious
*Having to do with religious beliefs whether organized or traditional and the
religious institutions of the culture.
*Social
*Having to do with people in groups, their living together, and relations with one
another, includes such issues as gender, economic status, and ethnicity
*Intellectual
*Having to do with the technology, arts, and institutions of a given group of people
at a given time.
*Artistic
*Having to do with people’s philosophy, values, belief and attitudes
Besides pacing and chronological thinking, teachers need to emphasize the course content from a
variety of points of view. The acronym PERSIA enables one group of students to see the French
Revolution, for example, as a crisis of an entrenched three-estate system; another to emphasize
the middle-class banking crisis; another to examine the cynical privileges of an elite clergy; a
fourth group to examine the role of women, urban workers, and peasants; a fifth group to
emphasize the intellectual influence of the philosophies on the French revolutionaries; and a final
group to examine neoclassicism and its role in the French Revolution. Many teachers employ
debates, "meetings of the minds," mock trials, and other interactive devices to encourage multiple
perspectives. By emphasizing point of view, students learn that history is not just one fact after
another to be learned; rather it is a series of interpretations to be carefully weighed. Not only
will they perform much better on the document-based question portion of the AP Exam, they will
have a much greater interest in the field of history.