WHY STUDY HISTORY?

WHY SHOULD WE STUDY HISTORY?

Write a short reflection (2-3 sentences) to answer the question above.

WRITE: Take a moment to write an account of

what happened on the last day of exams.

CONCEPTS TO CONSIDER: History as Event (“that happened in

history”) VS

History as Account (“I wrote in my history”)

ROBIN COLLINGWOOD

Caesar at the Rubicon

•The historian must put him or herself in Julius Caesar's mind “envisioning…the situation in which Caesar stood and thinking for himself what Caesar thought about the situation and the possible ways of dealing with it.”

•We can “know Caesar” because human ways of thought transcend time and space

CARLO GINZBURG The historian’s task is just the opposite: He must destroy our false sense of

proximity to people of the past because they come from societies very different from our own. The more we discover about these people’s mental universes, the more we should be shocked by the cultural distance the distance that separates us from them.

TAKE SOME TIME TO REFLECT… Which position do you agree more with

and why?

MARCO POLO’S UNICORN

b. 1254-d. 1324

Marco Polo encountered an animal on his journeys which he had never seen before.

http://www.biography.com/people/marco-polo-9443861

MARCO POLO’S UNICORN “unicorns, which are scarcely smaller

than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and a single large, black horn in the middle of the forehead…They are very ugly brutes to look at…not at all as we describe them when they let themselves be captured by virgins.”

MARCO POLO’S UNICORN

The Indian Rhinoceros-only one horn

WHAT’S THE IDEA? WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH COLLINGWOOD’S POSITION?

Marco Polo used what he knew to understand what he didn’t know

As historians, we can’t put our ideas of the present onto people of the past (presentism)

Historians must try to avoid presentism and see the past on its own terms.

One of the exciting things about studying history is encountering the tension between Ginzburg and Collingwood’s point of view.

How? Use the EVIDENCE!

BACK TO YOUR ACCOUNT: TIME TO SHARE… What did you write?

DISCUSS, RECORD AND SHARE: How were the accounts related to the event? Did the accounts capture the full event? Is it possible for accounts to capture events fully? How did the events differ? Did they use different facts? Sources? Language?

Pictures? Did the accounts identify different significant events? Were the accounts connected to each other? Are there other possible accounts of the event? Did the accounts serve different purposes? What explains the fact that people experiencing the

same event create different accounts? Can one account be better than another? How can we assess competing truth claims?

CONCEPT MAP OF HISTORY: Your account of the last day of exams is

an example of the first two steps of the Concept Map of history:

History as event AND the

Creation of Evidence

THE CONCEPT MAP OF HISTORY

PART TWO:

HISTORIAN OF THE LAST EXAM DAY Create an account that reflects both

your individual accounts and collective points of view about the last exam day.

Use the handout to help you. Choose someone to record the event,

edit the event, keep the group on task and finally a few of you to present the ideas.

PRESENT YOUR GROUP’S IDEAS

BACK TO THE CONCEPT MAP: CONSIDER YOUR ACCOUNT: WHO IS THE HISTORIAN?

WHAT IS THE ACCOUNT? (HISTORY AS ACCOUNT)

WHO COULD THE PUBLIC BE? WHO COULD BE INTERESTED IN YOUR ACCOUNT?

HOW COULD THE PUBLIC ACT TO CREATE HISTORY AS EVENT?

UNDERSTANDING EVIDENCE (PRIMARY SOURCES) How could you know about the event

(last exam day) if you were not there? Create a list! If you were there, do you know it better

or worse than someone who can analyze many accounts?

WHAT IS IMPORTANT AND WHO DECIDES? Create a diagram (e.g. Mind Map) of the

history of Canada.

DETERMINING SIGNIFICANCE-PART 1 Create a diagram of the history of

Canada. Choose the most significant events, developments and themes…See your handout.

ACTIVITY: Compare diagrams. Organize yourselves

into groups with similar diagrams. Criteria: -objective view: significant history is

received form school/authorities -subjective view: significant history is

personal, directly related to self primary sources)

-narrative view: History tells a complex story from a particular point of view (a thesis)

DETERMINING SIGNIFICANCE-PART TWO Complete the assignment Discuss your answers to Part II How did you decide what was

significant? Let’s create “GUIDELINES FOR

DETERMINING SIGNIFICANCE.” Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=62wYq1RGBNg What else could we add to our

guidelines?

HISTORY OF ME Your turn to try…