HIST603

A seminar on 20th-century American historiography. Exposes the students to numerous historical approaches over a variety of subjects and time periods, as opposed to providing a comprehensive history of the modern United States. The goal is to understand the kinds of questions historians ask and the various methodologies they use to study that past. Students focus on those historical works that have been critical to our collective understanding and that have driven the historiographical conversation between and among historians. Students read texts, both "old" and "new," to understand how historians have researched, thought about, discussed and even debated the most salient issues across the last century of American history. Students will complete a final historiographical paper. Constitutes the major preparation for the capstone essays in U.S. history, in conjunction with one other U.S. historiography course.