Discussion/Participation: (30% of your grade) What is an historian? Unfortunately many people equate the study of history with memorizing dates and facts. While these are important, they are not what we do, they are the tools we use to interpret the past. The work of historians is to communicate understandings and interpretations of the past to a larger community. To do that end we will spend a significant portion of each class meeting discussing assigned readings. We will take the “facts” we read and use them to ask questions relating to change over time, cause and effect, structural questions, and historical context, all with an eye toward understanding the historical past.
Weekly Writing Assignments: (30% of your grade)
Research Paper (40% of your grade) The core of historical research revolves around your ability to examine historical sources, both primary and secondary, and say something about the historical past based on your research. The best method to accomplish this is the tried-and-true research paper. More on this later in separate hand out.