211-216 are advanced seminars, mainly for juniors and seniors in the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program. All other students need permission from the instructor to enroll in these courses.
HIST 212 Historians and Historiography
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
Permit May Be Required: See above | SEM
This course is a reading course in history and theories about the writing of history, which for short we call historiography. Each week we shall read together and discuss the methodological and practical implications of the week's text. Some of the authors are philosophers but others are historians who both write history but also think about what that means theoretically. We shall read works by practicing historians and those by philosophers and theoreticians, who look at history from the outside as a discipline. The object is to refine on our own theoretical apparatus by confronting the positions articulated in the books (and that includes mine). Each student will take it in turn to lead the discussion and after the session will be expected to write a summary of the issues for circulation to other participants. The final examination will be an invitation to each participant to construct his or her own position on the philosophical issues raised by the course.
