Making History: Practices and Theory
HIST 380
Spring 2009
| Section:
01
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This research seminar will examine historiography as a practice, an art, and, finally, as an object of theoretical reflection. It hopes to reveal history-writing's own history - to reveal the values, moral aesthetic, and politics that have dominated the desire of people around the world to commemorate events, repeat them, and consciously build the present out of renewed confrontation with or celebration of their pasts. It will consider the relationship of social status and virtues. It will analyze the power of history to articulate political and moral options. Throughout the course we will focus on the rhetorical means by which historians present their views, the philosophical premises that undergird them, and the passions and interests that might have motivated them. This will require due attention to both the context and the text's production and reading and to the text's words themselves. |
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Essential Capabilities:
None |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Course Reader of Selections from the History of History Writing, from the Bible and Herodotus to recent authors such as Peter Brown, Michel Foucault, and William MacNeil.
HISTORY AND THEORY: CONTEMPORARY READINGS
G. SPIEGEL, ed., PRACTICING HISTORY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN HISTORICAL WRITING
Additional articles on historical theory and philosophy.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two five-page papers on set texts.
One 15-20 page term paper. |
| Instructor(s): Shaw,Gary Times: ..T.R.. 01:10PM-02:30PM; Location: PAC421; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 20 | GRAD: 0 | SR non-major: 7 | JR non-major: 6 | SO: 6 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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