HIST 6051 Herodotus

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522 C. Johnsonfor all involved this process a fundamental question must be addressed:what is the purpose of studying the history of history?

For many-including myself-this question is a constant in our teachinglife and never more so than when we step into our introductoryundergraduate or graduate seminars on historiography. As a teacher thisis a challenging and at times a somewhat frustrating experience. Thechallenge is to get students to approach the topic with the same enthusiasmyou have and to also get them to start thinking historically andhistoriographically. The frustration is, of course, that you don't alwayssucceed. Many reasons account for success or failure in the classroom, onein particular being the construct of an 'ideal type' concerning what theteaching of history should be versus the reality of what it actually is.

The ideal type might envision an intellectual world revolving around the'hollowed halls of academia'. Long walks down tree lined paths on a crispfall day; books under one's arm while engaging in some deep philosophicaldiscussion with either colleagues or students form a utopian aspect of thisvision. The harsh reality, however, is the pressure to publish, maintainhigh marks on student evaluations, serve on an endless multitude ofcommittees and-in the case of small regional universities-provide serviceto the community. Under such circumstances it is no wonder that manyfaculty burn out or just become pawns of the machine that created them.Such statements, while easily being perceived as negative, in many waysreflect one of the harsher realities of academic life in the United Statestoday.

In some cases it was the dream of the ideal vision, rather than the realty,of academic life that influenced many of us to enter into the professoriate.As historians we can trace the discipline's lineage back to the beginnings ofhigher education. Grounded in the humanistic tradition of philosophy, andoriginally pursued as a literary art, history eventually became a disciplineunto itself in the early 19th century. No longer the poor stepchild ofphilosophy departments, history emerged on its own as an academicdiscipline whose sole purpose was the understanding the human past andto train people to better understand that past within the concept of thehumanistic tradition. Looking back on these origins we can find, in part,the origins of an idyllic version of the historical discipline that still holdssome semblance of influence today.

While this again suggests the ideal, rather than the reality of whatuniversity teaching is (and are indeed common to all disciplines), one might argue that through the teaching of historiography such ideals are furtherpromoted as it is the one the one course that seeks to be all-encompassingand also the one that covers the longest span of time. The basic graduate


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Rethinking History 523level historiography class is an attempt to get the student to grasp theconcept of change over time-essential I believe to the understanding ofany historical issue-from the ancient Greek historians to the present day(if you approach the teaching of historiography in such a manner). Yetin attempting to accomplish this task a number of obstacles must beovercome.First, our culture in general has become used to disseminating information quickly, in short bursts and in sound-bite form-a consequence, inpart, of trends in television programming, cellular phones, and the internetjust to name some of the more influential. Another dilemma is that studentsincreasingly rely on the internet as their primary tool for research. For thehistorical profession the internet is both a blessing and a curse. As a blessingit allows us to access data from other libraries and research facilities thatmight not have been available before without actually visiting thoselocations. As a curse it sometimes serves as an alternative for historiansinstead of having to visit those very same libraries and archives in the courseof their research. The consequence being that the fundamental cornerstoneof historical research is compromised as temptation increases to conduct asignificant portion of our research from the comfort of our offices. Thepressure on most professors to publish also fosters this as articles that at onetime were thoroughly researched in archives might now be somewhatimperfect as faculty-untenured and increasingly tenured due to trendscalling for post-tenure review-find themselves in the position of having topotentially sacrifice quality for quantity. The same can be said for studentswho find themselves facing different pressures such as taking many courseswith multiple requirements and a multitude of term papers to write. Theneed to maintain high grade point averages in order to maintainscholarships and or other forms of financial aid is also a factor. To alleviatethis pressure the promise of what lies on the internet is a temping offer ofshort-term gain in the face of long-term consequences that might nevermanifest themselves.

Returning to the subject of historiography, a further problem is posed bythe task of asking the student to comprehend historiographical trends overa 2,300 year period. Add to this the challenge of showing how these trendsare, in many ways, related to and built upon each other and the undertakingchallenges both the professor's teaching and mentoring ability as well as thestudent's intellectual ability to disseminate and connect large amounts ofhistorical concepts and ideas. The questions that arise from this are: howdoes one hope to get the student to grasp the complexities of historicalchange over time from a humanistic and philosophical standpoint whenstudents tend to interact with and view their world more and more from a


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524 C. Johnsontechnological perspective; and how does the past remain relevant to one soattached to the modern world and its distractions?

Finally, most first semester history graduate students are used to takingcourses that focus on specific topics or defined periods of time (usually lessthan 200 years). Entering into the world of historiography they aresuddenly faced with a vast era in time, multiple topics crossing multiplenations and time periods, the influence of political/social issues onhistorical interpretation and methodology and the inevitable concept of'change over time', to name just a few examples.

So far this essay has addressed problems while offering no solutions. Thenext step is to describe the course itself and the challenges presented by theproblems discussed above. After that the results--both positive andnegative-will be offered for examination. Lastly, a summary of theexperience and what was learned from it will be discussed, all the whilekeeping in mind that this piece is based upon one professor's experienceand is in no way meant to be representative of what occurs in otherhistoriography courses.

The seminar consists of 15 sessions meeting once a week for three hours.It is required of all our MA students and must be taken either before orconcurrent with their first topics seminars. Depending upon the semesterthe class will have between three and 10 students. The basic format of thecourse stays the same from semester to semester with only minor changesto the reading list and written assignments. Students are no t allowed to usethe internet in any way (with the exception of using the online librarycatalog), but instead are required to use the paper copies of any journals ortexts that they might need in their work. They are also required to submitphotocopies of this material with their essays. While the system is notfoolproof, it does provide a basic level of monitoring student work whilesimultaneously forcing them to get their hands on original material as wellas learning how to better use a library.

It is a cliche to say that every journey should have a road map (or if notthat at least some sense of direction or purpose). However, that is what theteaching of historiography is: a journey through time. In this seminar theprimary text is Ernst Breisach's Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, andModern. Other books include Georg Iggers' The German Conception ofHistory, and Peter Novick's That Noble Dream: Objectivity and the HistoricalProfession. I also incorporate various shorter essays on specific historio graphical trends (scientific history and the Annales school to cite just two examples).

In Historiography, Professor Breisach's traces the evolution of westernhistoriography from the ancient Greeks to present trends in 'world systems


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Rethinking History 525theories' and post-modernism. Guiding the student through the evolutionof history as a discipline he focuses on a single thought:

Every important new discovery about the past changes how we thinkabout the present and what we expect from the future; on the otherhand every change in the conditions of the present and in theexpectations for the future revises our perception of the past. In thiscomplex context history is born ostensibly as reflection on the past: areflection which is never isolated from the present and the future.History deals with human life as if 'flows' through time.(Breisach 1995, p. 2)The first seminar is devoted to discussing this statement. This in and of itself

is a challenge in that to rely on a six line phrase to dictate the focus of an entireseminar potentially invites a very short session. Fortunately, such is not usuallythe case as the question fosters discussions over just how the individual shouldpursue their own attempt at understanding history. The dialogue brings ou t anumber of issues ranging from the relationship of time to history, how peoplein general interpret history, the past as an historical construct, and the purposefor studying history in the first place. In the end the experiment has producedthe very product it sought to generate: intellectual debate. It also provides thestudents with model for how the rest of the seminar will proceed. The emphasisis placed on their discussions and contributions rather than them relying on meto be the sole transmitter of information.

The next class is devoted to a discussion over what exactly the task is ofthe historian of historiography. At the end of the previous session thestudents were given the following quote to think about from Historiographyconcerning the task of the historian:

... it is to trace the ways in which people in Western culture havereflected on the past and what these reflections have told them abouthuman life in the continuum of past, present, and future.(Breisach 1995, p. 3)Whereas the previous class focused on the concept of history in general, thissession is devoted to the role of the historian in interpreting andunderstanding the human past. Besides treating the statement as a whole,an exercise is conducted in deconstructing the whole into its most basic part:a single word, the purpose being to demonstrate that the most fundamentaltool of any historian is a single word and that one must carefully select andunderstand the words one uses in interpreting the past. For example, if oneremoves the word continuum from the statement the very meaning ofthat sentence is greatly altered. For most of the students this exercise engages


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526 C. Johnsonthem in a thought process that they had not previously engaged in to anygreat extent. It also helps them understand just how important the selectionof each individual word will be in the writing of their own papers.

Another objective of the exercise is to establish within the mind of thestudent the concepts of change over time, history as a reflection of the past,the challenge for the historian to understand those reflections within thecontinuum of past, present, and future, and the importance of understanding historiography as a the main component of the historicalcontinuum. In combination both sessions have established a guidepostfor the student to rely on and look back upon during the rest of themeetings. Finally, a pattern is hopefully established in which the studentnow finds themselves beginning to think historically and historiographically.

Week three is devoted to individual meetings with the students. Besidesusing this as an opportunity to get to know the student, it affords me withthe chance to assess the student's knowledge of and comfort level with thematerial. For the student, they are given the opportunity to ask further questions about the material, and discuss issues that might no t have been coveredto their complete understanding during the first sessions of the course.

The remaining sessions-with the exception of the final meeting-arestructured along the lines of historiographic trends beginning with ancientGreece and continuing on to the present day.' The basic format of eachmeeting is the same, so a detailed discussion of each is not necessary (norpossible given the constraints of space and length). Students are providedwith a question or set of questions designed to prepare them for thesubsequent session. They are required to formulate their responses in theform of an interpretive essay of five pages in length. The idea behindassigning a specific number of pages (they are also required to use setmargins and a common font) is to get them used to having to edit andselect their words carefully in order to create a coherent argument withinthe confines of set parameters. Again, for most, this is a new exercise giventhat in the past most of their written work was in the category ofassignments stating 'between' or 'no less than'.

Using the session devoted to the discussion of the German conception ofhistory in the 19th century, the following questions were posed the weekbefore:

What factors led to the creation of the German historical perspective? How did this approach differ from its French and British counterparts? How did German historians approach their craft during this time and

what did they contribute to the emergence of the study of history as amodern academic discipline?


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Rethinking History 527The first challenge is how to properly address these three questions given

the limitation of five pages. The second is to understand the influence ofpast historiographic and historical trends on the formulation of a Germanconception of history in the 19th century. Third is the ability to addresssuch issues in a comparative format. Finally, the student is asked tocontemplate the influence of 19th century German historical thinking onfuture generations of historians. The process becomes an exercise inaddressing the continuum of past, present, and future within a confinedperiod of time--in essence a microcosm of the purpose of the entire course.

By the time we reach the last topic session dealing with trends in the 1960sand 1970s (that is as far as I usually get) both the students and myself areusually exhausted. However the task at hand is not complete. The courseends with a final paper in which the student draws upon previous essays andnotes from class discussions in responding to the following question:

How has this course influenced your understanding of history as ifflows through time within the continuum of past, present and future?For many this is a twist given that each previous essay has asked them torespond to statements based on defined historiographic periods. Now theyare faced with a challenge to utilize that information but in a way thatforces them to think about how they interpret history within the continuumof past, present, and future. In essence the exercise affords them withthe opportunity to define their own historical perspective based on theinfluence of past historians and historical trends in combination with theinfluence of their own present day perspective of that past.

So what are the results ofsuch an approach? In many ways the entire courseserved as an exercise in overcoming the external and internal problems statedearlier in this essay, as well as the goals outlined for the course. These are thechallenges faced by those involved with the result being that some studentsconcern themselves more with the end result of the process (a high grade)rather than attempting to understand the process itself (learning some of theskills necessary to become an historian), In such instances it would be easy toplace the burden for any failures in this regard on the shoulders of the studentby simply saying that: 'Well, I guess they really were not prepared to devote thetime an effort in to learning the material and developing their skills in writing,critical thinking, and oral presentation', In a very rare instant this isunfortunately the case. In many instances the burden lies with both parties.For my part that might be an inability to get these students to approach thetopic as enthusiastically or with the same sense of purpose that I would likethem to. It also demonstrates that what works for some students in terms of


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528 C. Johnsonthe teaching and mentoring process does not work for others-a cliche, butone that must be constantly thought about. This then becomes a constantexercise in self reflection as a professor of history, one that causes me tocontinually re-evaluate my methods and approach to teaching.

The positive aspects are, of course, overcoming the problems stated atthe beginning of the paper and working with students that embrace thesubject with enthusiasm and a strong sense of purpose. For these studentsthe class not only reinforced their desire to become professional historiansor teachers of history, but through their own efforts provided them withsome of the basic skills to do so. In essence the 'ideal type' of whatuniversity teaching should be is manifested in a small way.

In this essay an attempt was made to discuss the teaching of historiography using one course as a model. It also attempted to define some ofthe problems-both direct and indirect-that influence the teaching of thehistory of history. It was by no means meant to be all inclusive nor allconclusive. The reader is, of course, free to draw what conclusions theywish from this discussion. In the end some final points, however, can beoffered. First, the teaching and learning of historiography is at the core ofthe discipline of history. It serves as a continuum connecting past, present,and future that links all aspects of the discipline. Second, historiographytrains the student to think historically over broad spans of t ime-a tool thatcan then be applied in their other courses and in their own research. Third, itchallenges students to link themes, trends, methodological approaches overthe breadth of time to see cause and affect within the spectrum of historicalwriting. Finally, it helps to give historians a sense of identity and to groundthem with their own past. In the end, if all this can be accomplished thenmaybe the vision of the ideal type is reached in that small way.Note[1] The weekly topics are: Greek historiography; Roman historiography; early

Christian historiography; the Renaissance and Reformation; the 18th centuryand the emergence of nationalism; the German conception of history in the 19thcentury; scientific and economic history; Progressive history; the Annales school;modem trends in historiography.

ReferencesBreisach, E. (1995) Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, 2nd edn, University

of Chicago Press, Chicago.Iggers, G. (1983) The German Conception ofHistory: The National Tradition ofHistoricalThought jimn Herder to the Present,University Press of New England, Hanover, NH.

Novick, P. (1988) That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the AmericanHistorical Profession, Cambridge University Press, New York.


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