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Academic Year 2001/2002
Making History
HIST 280 FA
This research seminar will examine history - writing's own history in order to reveal the values, moral aesthetic, and politics that have dominated the desire of people around the world to commemorate events, repeat
them, and consciously build the
present out of renewed confrontation with or celebration of their pasts. It will consider the relationship of social status and virtues. It will analyze the power of history to articulate political and moral options.
Throughout the course we will focus
on the rhetorical means by which historians present their views, the philosophical premises that undergird them, and the passions and interests that might have motivated them. This will require due attention to both the
context and the text's production
and reading and to the text's words themselves.
MAJOR READINGS
Major Readings may include: (selections)
THE EXODUS, IN THE WILDERNESS, THE BOOKS OF KINGS
Herodotus, THE HISTORIES
Thucydides, THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
Tacitus, THE HISTORIES
Eusebius, THE HISTORY OF THE
CHURCH
Bede, THE ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE
Snorri Sturluson, HEIMSKRINGLA
Anna Comnena, THE ALEXIAD
Machiavelli, FLORENTINE HISTORIES
Edward Gibbon, THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
David Hume, THE HISTORY OF
ENGLAND
GWF Hegel, THE PHILOSOPH
Y OF HISTORY
Thomas Carlyle, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Jakob Burkhardt, THE CIVILISATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
Johan Huizinga, THE AUTUMN OF THE MIDDLE AGES
E. P. Thompson, THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING
CLASS
Michel Foucault, MADNESS
AND CIVILISATION
Robert Brentano, A NEW WORLD IN A SMALL PLACE
Simon Schama, DEAD CERTAINTIES
Keith Hopkins, A WORLD FULL OF GODS
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Ongoing research into an historiographical text, evaluated as a research proposal, a bioliographic report, a rough draft, and a final draft of the project.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Class attendance and participation will affect final course grade.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed
Drop/Add form to the Registrar's
Office.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
SECTION 01
- Instructor(s): Shaw,Gary
- Times: .....F. 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: PAC104
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
- SR. major: Jr. major:
- SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 5 SO: 5 FR:
Special Attributes:
- Curricular Renewal: Ethical Reasoning
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2002
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459