Something, something, something, DARK SIDE History 

Or, I have 2 1/2 history degrees and all i got was this lousy sense of perspective

What is history?

• Beyond events, dates, names
• Lived Experience
• Hows and Whys

PS: Nothing is uni-causal

The Five C's of historical thinking

• Change over time
• Context
• Causality
• Complexity
• Contingency

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2007/what-does-it-mean-to-think-historically

The coolest thing I did in grad school

(the first time)

Probate inventory

• Decoding the contents
• What does it mean?
• What can we learn about this person from context?

Lenses, Schools, Perspectives

Historical thinking 2.0

Historiography has trends, just like anything else

• Great Men
• Economic/Marxist
• Micro-history
• Historical Demography
• Uncovering Silences

Great men

Marxist/economic

Microhistory

Historical Demography

Uncovering silences

What did you do in the war, Granny?

Cultural History

The Grand Tour and the Expansion of the British Mind: Cultural Imperatives in the Eighteenth Century

Interrogating sources

The Takeaway

• What are the sources used?
• Who are the participants talked about (and who is missing)?
• What agenda might the author have? 
• What lens are they using to look at the event?