Microhistory and Macrohistory
HIST 315
Fall 2016
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01
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Historians routinely employ shifting scales in making sense of the past: they zoom in, they zoom out. Peering through an impossible "microtelescope," historians focus on the particulars to discern local meaning and then invest those meanings with significance by setting them in a global context. To paraphrase Leopold von Ranke, historians take pleasure in the particular, but (or rather, because) they keep an eye on the universal. But recent decades have witnessed (arguably) a "scalar bifurcation" in history: Even as macrohistorical frames have gained wide appeal, whether as spatial ("world") or temporal ("deep")--or both ("global" and "big")--there has been a concurrent growth in microhistory. Not coincidentally, historians debate the precise meaning of these scalar referents. The question that animates the present seminar is whether the rise of micro- and macrohistorical narratives reflects a kind of "historiographical symbiosis." Do the two genres flourish together and even feed off one another? In exploring and (hopefully) answering this question, we will read theoretical reflections on macro- and microhistory, and we will sample key offerings in each genre. In the process, we will arrive at a sharper understanding of what, precisely, macro- and microhistory are, and we will discern the significance and value of shifting scales for the historian's craft. |
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| 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: (HIST-MN)(HIST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson and Istvan M. Szijarto, WHAT IS MICROHISTORY? THEORY AND PRACTICE (2013)
Sebastian Conrad, WHAT IS GLOBAL HISTORY? (2016)
Additional readings will be made available on electronic reserve and online, including theoretical/historiographical reflections by Carlo Ginzburg, Patrick Manning, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Natalie Davis, William McNeill, C. A. Bayly, Patricia Cline Cohen, Brad Gregory, Chuanfei Chin, Matti Peltonen, Partha Chatterjee, John Demos, Lynn Hunt, Giovanni Levi, Ranajit Guha, Francesca Trivellato, David Christian, Robert Darnton, Daniel Lord Smail, Ian Morris, Julie Adeney Thomas, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jurgen Osterhammel, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Fernand Braudel, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, and others too numerous to mention.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly response posts, presentations/discussion, a short paper, and a final research paper. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Late work will be penalized. |
| Instructor(s): Pinch,William R. Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: FISK101; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 8 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 3 | FR: 0 |
| 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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