300-400 level courses are on special topics and are more advanced. They often presuppose some basic knowledge in the field and should be more difficult courses than courses at the 1-199 levels. The department is trying to insure that some 400 level courses, although substantially more difficult, are also small in size; they thus may be suitable for graduate students.
HIST 449 Jewish Historical Writing
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
R | SEM
The seminar will consider Jewish reflections on the meaning of the past from the Bible until the present. It will present a survey of the history of Jewish historical writing including Josephus, medieval chronicles written both in the Moslem and Christian worlds, Jewish histories of the Renaissance and Early Modern Europe, and the rise of the academic study of Judaism in the 19thcentury. It will conclude with a consideration of modern and contemporary historical trends. The alleged tension between Jewish notions of memory and the modern writing of history, as articulated in Yosef Yerushalmi's well Known book ZACHOR, will be a consistent theme throughout the course. Considerable reading of primary sources. A reading knowledge of Hebrew is helpful but not required.
