History began with the Greeks. Or at least, the Western tradition of the writing of history began with them; after all, it was the Greeks who gave us the term “history.” Literally meaning “inquiries” in the original Greek, it served as the title of an account of the Persian Wars written by Herodotus, the so-called “Father of History”. But not everyone agreed with Herodotus’ approach. Most strikingly, his immediate successor, Thucydides, emphatically rejected his methodology and proposed an alternative. And subsequent writers regularly proposed alternative viewpoints regarding best approach to writing history. This course will trace the development of historical writing in the ancient world and explore the different approaches that Greek and Roman historians brought to the discipline by analyzing a variety of primary sources (in translation). In the process, we’ll explore questions about the purpose and methodology of history more broadly, including about how we practice it today. Weekly hours: 1.5 Lecture hours and 1.5 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit
History began with the Greeks. Or at least, the Western tradition of the writing of history began with them; after all, it was the Greeks who gave us the term “history.” Literally meaning “inquiries” in the original Greek, it served as the title of an account of the Persian Wars written by Herodotus, the so-called “Father of History”. But not everyone agreed with Herodotus’ approach. Most strikingly, his immediate successor, Thucydides, emphatically rejected his methodology and proposed an alternative. And subsequent writers regularly proposed alternative viewpoints regarding best approach to writing history. This course will trace the development of historical writing in the ancient world and explore the different approaches that Greek and Roman historians brought to the discipline by analyzing a variety of primary sources (in translation). In the process, we’ll explore questions about the purpose and methodology of history more broadly, including about how we practice it today. Weekly hours: 1.5 Lecture hours and 1.5 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): 3 credit
