What is the nature of history as a form of knowledge? How do historians engage with the past? What is the relationship between history and literature, fact and fiction? Students will grapple with these and related questions through a range of media--including articles, books, film, public lectures, and interviews--addressing fields as diverse as global maritime history, temporality, microhistory, historical biography, oral history, memoir, and the historical imagination. In addition to learning about what it is historians actually do (and how they think about what they do), students will compile a portfolio of "public writing" that includes op-eds, book reviews, film reviews, summary distillations, and intellectual profiles. Weekly writing assignments will benefit from detailed peer editing and collaborative in-class workshopping. Over the semester, students will learn how to craft scholarly insights and arguments about history in jargon-free prose for an interested, educated public. |