The Main Reading Room of the United States Library of Congress is the primary entrance into the Library's research collections, and the principal reading room for work in the humanities and social sciences. (Photo courtesy of maveric2003 on Flickr.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Jeffrey S. Ravel
MIT Course Number
21H.991
As Taught In
Fall 2010
Level
Graduate
Translated Versions
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
We will doggedly ask two questions in this class: "What is history?" and "How do you do it in 2010?" In pursuit of the answers, we will survey a variety of approaches to the past used by historians writing in the last several decades. We will examine how these historians conceive of their object of study, how they use primary sources as a basis for their accounts, how they structure the narrative and analytical discussion of their topic, and the advantages and limitations of their approaches.
Other Versions
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