This course introduces history majors to the history of history writing (historiography) and to the intellectual influences that have shaped the ways in which contemporary historians have framed questions about, and explanations of, the past. Part I will deal with the origins of written history in chronicles and its evolution to the national histories of the 19th century. Part II will deal with Karl Marx's response to national histories and the historians who were influenced by him. Part III will consider distinct methods of, and approaches to, historical interpretation and explanation, including micro- and macrohistory, Orientalism, feminist and gender-based approaches, the question of race in human history, and environmental history. |