Just as 30 years of research on historical empathy have produced competing con- ceptualizations of the construct, the scholarship also offers differing rationales for curricular attention to historical empathy. Some authors have devoted only a sentence or two to why empathy should be promoted in history classrooms; in other cases, a rationale is more or less implied rather than explicitly stated. Conversely, several scholars have made clear arguments for students' develop- ment of historical empathy, and these pieces have exerted considerable Influence on the related empirical research undertaken in their wake.