The views of the author's students about history caused her to reflect on her teaching, specifically, what she was lacking in her attempts to teach civic competence through history. This process led her to research historical thinking and design a study in which she exposed her students to the rigors of history. Grant's (2001) study of 9th grade history students and teachers helped her narrow her focus to the three aspects of historical thinking: (1) historical knowledge; (2) historical significance; and (3) historical empathy. In her research study, the author limits her endeavor to explore these three aspects of historical thinking by focusing on her students' experience writing a historical essay and its influence on their understanding of historical knowledge. She selected a purposeful sample of 10 students that she felt best represented the 52 9th graders she had in world history during the spring semester of 2001. The study demonstrated that students can gain a new appreciation for the interpretive nature of history, which Grant (2001) calls historical knowledge, in three important ways. First, in using these strategies, her students demonstrated an understanding that historical events impacted individuals in personal ways. The second shift that occurred in her students' thinking was that they saw that the events of history impacted individuals in different ways, which caused them to see history as a collection of multiple stories. The third and final change her students experienced was having their perception of what a historian does become real. They now understand that the historian plays an important role in interpreting documents and selects information to shape a historical narrative.