HI 222: group project
Seeing the
Individual events are the raw material of history. Accounts of events are the raw material of history’s narrative. The purpose of this project is to see how both kinds of raw materials are transformed into their respective finished products.
More precisely, the premise of this project is that while history depend on individual events, those individual events are almost always impossible to understand apart from their larger context. This project will test that premise by examining the events of a single year and relating them to their larger context to see both what they contribute to the larger picture and what the larger picture contributes to the significance of individual events.
For this project we are fortunate to have the work of Andrew Smith and the web site at http://www.attalus.org, which includes a listing of events and the primary sources of information for those events, arranged year by year, for our period. Each group will be assigned a different year. Everyone in the group will read all of the sources (in English translation) for all of the events listed on the Attalus web site for their year.1 The group as a whole will then consider the following questions:
1. What do we really know about each event? how sure can we be? what don’t we know?
2. How does the event fit into the larger narrative of events as represented by e.g. Scullard?
3. How does the larger narrative contribute to our understanding of the individual events?
The end product will be a 10-15 minute oral report. The report will be presented during our last class period (if the time is free) or at a mutually convenient time during the last week of classes (if we have to use the class period for other things).
A few odds and ends:
1. Multiple groups will be using the same books, so please use them in the library. I’ll put the most important ones on reserve but I can’t put everything, so please think of the other members of the class and don’t check out any primary source texts from the library (I’ll only have to recall them anyway).
2. If you’re having any trouble understanding what going on on the Attalus website or in finding the relevant primary sources e-mail me and I’ll send you further directions.
3. I’ll also be happy to meet with your group as a whole, but to make the most of our time together please don’t make an appointment until you have all looked at all of the sources for all of the events for your year.
1 Not including sources for which there are no English translations. (back)