History

Ideas of History

Module code: V1375
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

This module is about different ways of doing history. By studying a variety of approaches to history you will sharpen your critical skills in evaluating different types of historical writing.

Ranging from Whig history in the nineteenth century, to non-western historical traditions, and to recent innovations such as microhistory and the history of emotions, the module will introduce you to some key approaches to history and to some fundamental methodological issues in our discipline.

• What explains the differences in the ways historians have tried to make sense of the past?
• What are the key methodological concerns that have shaped the writing of history?
• What counts as evidence, and what, indeed, counts as historical writing?

The plurality of approaches to history introduced in your weekly lectures attests to the diversity of possible perspectives on historical change and agency, sources and evidence, and to the changing relationship between historical writing and its context.

Module learning outcomes

• Deploy established knowledge of key approaches to history and classic texts in historiography to undertake critical analysis of historical information, and to propose solutions to problems arising from that analysis.
• Deploy knowledge of the complex factors that shape the writing of history at a given time and place to reflect on current historical practice.
• Think critically about the status of historical knowledge, understand how different intellectual traditions deal with key methodological issues in history-writing, and apply that understanding to a precise historical problem.
• Critically evaluate a specific approach to history, and communicate information and arguments in a variety of formats.