Making History: Controversies in History

Catalog description

This course examines the history of controversies within and concerning the discipline of History. In examining those controversies, this course accomplishes two key goals for history majors: it introduces them to the features and issues of historiography -- the history of the history discipline -- and asks them to evaluate the professional and ethical responsibilities of historians within the larger society. In particular the course examines why there have been vastly different ideas about what the purposes and uses of history ought to be, how those differences have shaped the discipline of history, how these disagreements get expressed through public, political controversies about what "correct" and "proper" history is, and how historians identify, evaluate and resolve professional and ethical conflicts within their discipline.