HIST 301A(F) Approaching the Past: History, Theory, Practice
This course will explore how the discipline of `History' has come to assume its present form and how a number of historians since the 1820s have understood their craft. We will begin by discussing the work of three great nineteenth-century historians (Macaulay, Marx, and Ranke) who believed that historical "truth" existed and could, with skill, be deciphered. Next we will explore the philosophy and practice of the cultural and social historians of the 1960s/1970s, comparing and contrasting it with that of their nineteenth-century predecessors. We will then consider the work of those recent theorists who have tried to refute historians' claims to be able to capture the "truth" of the past, focusing on the state of the field in the wake of challenges posed to its epistemological foundations by "post-modernism." We will conclude with an assessment of the state of the discipline today. In general, we will be less concerned with "the past" than with what historians do with "the past." Consequently, we will focus primarily on those abstract, philosophical assumptions that have informed the practice of history.
Format: discussion. Evaluation will be based on class participation, a 250-word position statement ("What is History?"), two 9- to 11-page interpretive essays, and a take-home final exam.
Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 15-20). Restricted to History majors.
Hour: WATERS

HIST 301C(F) Approaching the Past: Practices of Modern History
What is history? What is it that historians do? In this course, students will explore questions of how and why we historians practice our craft. The first section of the course will examine how historians come to know, think about, and understand the past. Issues of the nature of historical "truth," objectivity and bias, types of sources, and uses of theory will be discussed. Next, we will address the ways in which historians write about the past, considering the influence of postmodernism on historical narratives, and historical film. Finally, we will examine the uses of history, including ethical and moral ramifications of our work, history education, and the construction of historical memory. The class will meet once a week, and each session will focus on some theoretical material as well as readings that concretely illustrate the methodological issues at stake. These readings will be drawn from a broad range of topics, such as the Great Depression, the Pacific War, the Holocaust, and the assassination of JFK.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, response papers, short essays, and a final paper.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). Restricted to History majors.
Hour: SINIAWER

HIST 301D(S) Approaching the Past: Is History Eurocentric?
The modern historical profession is very much a European creation, originating in the Age of Enlightenment. Championing reason and challenging religious views of the past, the Philosophes linked the new secular study of man and his society to a view of historical progress. Some have argued that the very nature of the historical discipline is Eurocentric, based as it is on Western concepts of reason, science, and historical evolution which privilege European history at the expense of its non-Western counterparts. In this course, we will study some of the important spokesmen for historical progress (Voltaire, Condorcet, Marx, von Ranke) as well as some of their important critics. The first half of the course will survey the history of the historical profession from the Enlightenment to the present. In the second half of the course, we will read some of the great works of history which have attempted to explain the rise of the west, grappling with how and to what extent these interpretations are Eurocentric.
Format: discussion. Evaluation will be based on class participation, two 10- to 12-page papers, and a final exam.
Restricted to History majors.
Hour: SINGHAM

HIST 301E(S) Approaching the Past: Three Historians of the Dark Ages
This History 301 seminar investigates the nature of History through the three most important historical writers of the so-called European Dark Ages: Gregory of Tours (d. 594), a Gallo-Roman aristocrat and bishop who chronicled the bloody feuds of the early Frankish kings and queens; the Venerable Bede (d. 735), a Benedictine monk who famously narrated the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England from paganism to Christianity; and Einhard (d. 840), the biographer of the great emperor Charlemagne. For each of these early medieval authors, we will seek to understand not only how he conceived of and wrote about the past, but also how modern historians have tried to use his surviving writings as evidence to construct their own historical arguments and narratives. In this way, our examination of three historians of the Dark Ages will become an exploration into historical methodology, historiography, epistemology, and the limits of historical knowledge.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, short weekly response papers, and several longer papers.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). Restricted to History majors.
Hour: GOLDBERG

HIST 301F Approaching the Past: Remembering American History (Not offered 2008-2009; to be offered 2009-2010)
Much of what we know and understand about American history is rooted in the received narrative of our national history, a history that is constructed of individual, collective, and a national memory of the past and its meanings. This course will examine some forms through which American historical memory is presented and (re)presented, such as monuments, museums, novels, film, photographs, and scholarly historical writing, by considering a number of pivotal events, institutions, or eras in American history: slavery, race, and the Civil War; the Great Depression; World War II; the Sixties and the war in Viet Nam; and the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001.
Format: seminar. Assignments will include weekly response papers, critical essays, a museum exercise, and a final project to be completed in consultation with the instructor.
Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). Restricted to History Majors.
WONG