Unit name | Rethinking History |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST23101 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Dan Haines |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
What is history for? Is history always destined to be present history? Is it possible to write a history of the Crusades that would satisfy audiences in London and in Tehran?
This unit introduces students to the rich debates that have occupied historians on how to practice the craft of history. As you may have realised following your first year's studies, there is little consensus among historians about the function, nature or practice of history today. History is always, and has always been shaped by contemporary discourses. Whilst the course cannot pretend to transcend these arguments, it does aim to supply students with a map of the main contours of debates and an understanding of the main reasons for such fundamental disagreements though a series of case studies of history writing in practice. It also guides students through some of the major movements that have shaped contemporary historical thought.
Aims:
This unit is intended to familiarise students with the diversity and richness of historical writing today. The unit offers an introduction to a variety of sub-disciplines (eg, cultural history) that reflects the range of current and past historical study. The unit aims to equip students with the conceptual tools they need to develop further their understanding of particular topics and to strengthen their capacity to make connections between the different areas of their studies.
All of these elements will contribute to the wider outcome of improving independent learning and research skills.
A. Green and K. Troup (eds.), The Houses of History (1999)
John Arnold, History: A Very Short Introduction (2000)
M. Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
P. Burke, What is cultural history? (2004)
Eric Hobsbawm, On History (2000)
Lumilla Jordanova, History in Practice (2000)
Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (2011)