Courses
208: The History of History
History 208 - Spring 2008
MW 1:00 to 2:20
Mr. Denery
What is history and how do we come to know it? Does history follow a plan and, if so, what sort of plan? These are important questions, questions that can illuminate the way entire cultures think about themselves and their place in the world. Medieval Christians imagined themselves as living during history’s final stage as they awaited the end times and the coming of Antichrist. During the Renaissance, historians discovered what Nietzsche famously refers to as the “pathos of historical distance,” that the past is like a foreign country that must be painstakingly explored and interpreted on its own terms. And throughout all of this, there have any number of conspiracy theorists who have seen in the succession of historical events the hidden workings of malicious and unseen agents. In this course, we will explore both the practice and the philosophy of history through a close reading of key texts ranging from Herodotus’ Histories to Nietzsche’s On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life. We will conclude with an investigation into two different “modes” of historical analysis: apocalypticism and, for lack of a better term, “bad” history.
Required Texts:
Elizabeth Clark, History, Theory, Text
Bernard McGinn, Apocalyptic Spirituality
Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned
R. A. Boulay, Flying Serpents and Dragons
Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism
Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations
Office Hours:
Monday, 2:30 to 4:00
Friday, 10:30 to 12:00
13 Hubbard Hall
ext. 3671
ddenery@bowdoin.edu
Requirements:
First Paper 15%
Second Paper 15%
Participation 30%
Final Paper 40%
Total 100%
Papers: You will be expected to write two short (4 to 5 pages) analytical papers. These will consist of close readings of specific texts/problems. The final paper will be a major research work (about 15 pages) that will incorporate both primary and secondary sources. You are encouraged to organize your paper around one of the primary sources discussed in class, but please feel free to focus on works related to, but not covered by, this course. Whatever you choose to write about, all paper topics must be approved by me in advance. I do not accept computer files or e-mail submissions.
Participation: Seminars succeed only if the participants allow it to succeed. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss our readings. In order to make this easier, before each seminar, I will ask some of you to e-mail me a one-page reflection that meeting’s readings. In addition, each of you (in groups of two) will be responsible for leading one meeting’s discussion.
Schedule of Meetings (open to revision)
I. Introduction
wk. 1 Introduction
1/21 Introduction and Themes
1/23 Clark, History (pp. 1-62)
II. History and Order
wk. 2 Greek History
1/28 Herodotus, The Histories (Bk II: 86-153)
1/30 Arnaldo Momigliano, “”Time in Ancient Historiography” (e-reserve)
Bernard Williams, “What Was Wrong With Minos?” (e-reserve)
wk. 3 Divine Plans and the Two Cities
2/4 Augustine, City of God, Bk. V (e-reserve)
2/6 Augustine, cont.
Sabine MacCormack, “The High Walls of Rome” (e-reserve)
Carol Harrison, “The Two Cities”(e-reserve, optional)
wk. 4 Medieval Elaborations
2/11 Otto of Friesing, The Two Cities #1(e-reserve)
2/13 Individual Meetings
2/15 First Paper Due
wk. 5 Historical Revolution of the Seventeenth-Century
2/18 Giambattista Vico, The New Science
2/20 Vico, cont.
wk. 6 Marx and the Economic Hidden Hand
2/25 Karl Marx, Theses Against Feuerbach
2/27 Clark, History, pp. 63-85.
wk. 7 The Modern and the Post-Modern
3/3 Nietzsche, On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life
3/5 Nietzsche, continued
Clark, History, pp. 106-155
3/7 Second Paper due
Break
II. Modes of History: Apocalypticism
wk. 8 Early Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism
3/24 The Prophecy of Daniel
Funkenstein, “Biblical and Post-Biblical Perceptions of History” (e-reserve)
3/26 Lactantius, “The Blessed Life” (in Apocalyptic Spirituality, pp. 1-80)
wk. 9 Medieval Apocalypticism
3/31 Otto of Freising, The Two Cities #2 (e-reserve)
4/2 Savonarola, The Compendium of Revelations (in Apocalyptic Spirituality)
wk. 10 The Apocalypse in the Modern Imagination
4/7 Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth
4/9 Barry Brummett, “The Apocalyptic Rhetor” (e-reserve)
III. Modes of History: Skepticism and Bad History
wk. 11 The Skeptical Mindset
4/14 Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism
4/16 Sextus Empiricus, continued
wk. 12 Skepticism and Science
4/21 Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned
4/23 Charles Fort, continued
wk. 13 Extraterrestrial Reptiles and Their Homosaur Slave-Force
4/28 R.A. Boulay, Flying Serpents and Dragons
4/30 Meetings
wk. 14 Conclusion
5/5 What is an historical explanation?
5/7 Conclusion