The History of history

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In our own troubled times, notions of evidence, truth, and the reliability of information are hotly debated and politically relevant. These questions have been at the core of the discipline of history as practiced in the western world since antiquity. In this seminar course we will read some of the major classics in the field of history from antiquity to the present, covering a variety of topics, from international politics to society and gender. By the end of the class, students will be familiar with the major developments in history in the western world, both as a form of inquiry and writing and as a scholarly discipline. History as an intellectual practice is not simply the retelling of past events, but their analysis and the development of a coherent examination of their significance; indeed, history as a discipline begins by questioning the process itself of reconstructing past events. The aim of this course is to introduce students to historical methodology and interpretation, as they have developed over the centuries since the ancient world. Our topics will include the definition and use of different types of sources and evidence, the question of objectivity, the definition of proper subjects for historical investigation, the changes in the larger issues considered important by historians and affected by their work, the development of different genres of history-writing, the evolution of different ideas of causality, and changes in the image, character, and role of historians as intellectuals. We will do this primarily through a critical reading of the works of several historians from the ancient world to the present day.