WELCOME TO
HISTORY 253: READING AND WRITING HISTORY
Pier Francesco Mola, Saint
Jerome (c. 1660)
Vatican Museum, Rome
The Purpose
The study of history is an exercise in the art of investigation and interrogation of the past. It is not merely the memorization of events and their dates, or of the names of key figures. It is also a search for meaning, not just of particular events or sequences of events, but also of the human condition. Towering figures such as Julius Caesar, Catherine the Great, George Washington, V. I. Lenin or Golda Meier have certainly earned their prominence, but the real motive power of history is provided by the multitudes of ordinary people, many of whose names are lost to us. Thus the true student of history knows that history is shaped by the actions (and inactions) of great and ordinary, known and unknown people, even as we are all shaped by history. Students in this class will learn the fundamental skills that will begin to make them into real historians capable of investigating and interrogating the past, and of formulating coherent and defensible theses based on their research of primary and secondary source materials. Click on the links below to access your class section's syllabus.
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