HIST 301 Historical Interpretation
What is history? It is often said that history should be objective, that it should provide just the facts, that it should bring people a sense of the past "as it really was." Those who study and write history professionally tend to view these demands as extremely naive. It is a fact that historians have produced radically different interpretations of particular events or developments in the past. The dominant interpretations of important events have changed greatly over time. The study of these changes is called historiography. Through the readings in this course, students confront such interpretive discrepancies and changes with respect to several important historical developments, which occurred in different parts of the world and in different eras.
Note: This course is required for History majors and minors and for Social Studies Teaching majors.
Prerequisites
Special information
4 Undergraduate credits
Effective January 13, 2003 to present
Meets graduation requirements for
Learning outcomes
General
- Understands ideas, theories, and modes of historical inquiry well enough to analyze historical and contemporary developments, as demonstrated by written assignments and class participation, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
- Understands key concepts, including time, chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity well enough to explain, analyze and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity, as demonstrated by written assignments and class participation, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
- Understands multiple historical and contemporary viewpoints within and across cultures, as demonstrated by written assignments and class participation, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
- Understands that historical knowledge and the concept of time are socially influenced constructions that lead historians to be selective in the questions they seek to answer and in the evidence they use, as demonstrated by written assignments and class participation, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
- Understands the process of critical historical inquiry as a method of reconstructing and interpreting the past, as demonstrated by written assignments and class participation, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum
Goal 5: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
- Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
- Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
- Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.
Fall 2024
| Section | Title | Instructor | books | eservices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Historical Interpretation | Otsubo, Sumiko | Books for HIST-301-01 Fall 2024 | Course details for HIST-301-01 Fall 2024 |
Spring 2025
| Section | Title | Instructor | books | eservices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | Historical Interpretation | Grant, Jeanne E | Books for HIST-301-50 Spring 2025 | Course details for HIST-301-50 Spring 2025 |