This course is designed to acquaint you with a variety of approaches to the past used by historians writing in the twentieth century. The books we will read have all made significant contributions to their respective sub-fields and have been selected to give as wide a coverage in both field and methodology as possible in one semester's worth of reading. We will examine how historians conceive of their object of study, how they use primary sources as a basis for their accounts, how they structure the narrative and analytic discussion of their topic, and what are the advantages and drawbacks of their various approaches.
The main written assignment for this course is a substantial research paper, on any reasonable subject of interest to you. These papers should be between 15-20 pages long, and should explore the given topic in substantial depth. History majors may use this paper to explore a possible thesis topic. The paper will be produced in the following stages:
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You will also be expected to bring to class each week a brief (and informal) commentary on the assigned reading. Each week one student will use his or her commentary as the basis for introducing the class discussion.
Class attendance is an essential component of this course. And participation in class discussion is an important part of the work for the course. Always bring your copy of the reading with you to class so that you can participate fully.
All written work should represent original and individual work. Cases of plagiarism will be investigated fully and reported to the Committee on Discipline at MIT. Plagiarized work will also receive the grade of F.
Grades will be assigned as follows:
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