History is often presented as a collection of dates, events, people and ideas. However, these facts only take on meaning and liveliness through historical inquiry, imagination, and interpretation: assembling primary sources, asking questions, providing a context, developing a point of view, and finding a voice. History is more than an assemblage of facts; thinking historically involves critical processes of reading, reflection, and communication. This course will introduce students to the historian’s craft, drawing on the abundant cultural resources available in the City of Boston (libraries, archives, historical societies, museums, monuments, and architecture). As interdisciplinary historians of American culture, students will draw on primary and secondary sources in a variety of forms, including rare books and manuscripts, artwork, literature, still photography, film, radio, and new media. In this course, we will not only consider the ways in which technological developments and documentary styles have impacted our historical understanding, we will acquire the skills and theoretical background to represent the real by documenting the past.
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Without documents,
there is no history . . .
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