Course aims


Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

ORGANIZING QUESTIONS:

By the end of the course, you should be able to answer:

  • What is the practice of history?
  • Why might scholars take different historical approaches to similar topics?
  • What kinds of sources do historians use?
  • How do historians construct arguments?
  • How can we critique historical arguments?
  • How can we understand the practice of history through American disaster history?

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Historical skills – by the end of the course you should be able to:

  • Link events and themes from the past with current events.
  • Clearly express ideas and arguments through writing and speech.
  • Read, digest and analyze scholarly work on American disaster history.
  • Locate, select and use primary and secondary sources
  • Use and critique others’ use of primary sources in making historical arguments.

 

Command of information – by the end of the course you should have:

  • Knowledge of the context for the disasters we discuss in class. This includes major political, social and economic events, movements and turning points during America’s “Gilded Age”
  • Familiarity with the most expensive, deadly and destructive disasters in American history.
  • Awareness of the different explanations and interpretations of American disaster history.