This course is the second in a series of five courses on the nature of historical thought and practice. (It may be taken independently of the others in the series.) This one covers some of the principal interpretive and methodological approaches that historians have adopted over the past century or so to help them understand the past. These approaches have included, but have not been limited to, Marxism, feminism, psychohistory, quantitative history, and post-colonialism. As even an abbreviated list of approaches suggests—the course will cover more than these—to enrich their own narratives and analyses, historians are influenced by and borrow freely from a wide variety of currents of thought arising in other intellectual disciplines and in the larger world. Accordingly, in addition to being an introduction to a selection of intellectual currents that have affected historical inquiry from outside, the course will cover the application of some recent scientific and technological advances developed for other purposes that historians have similarly adopted in their pursuit of a fuller understanding of the past. The course’s aim is to provide insight into the choices of intellectual instruments historians currently have at their disposal in their attempts both to understand the always limited stock of leftover historical evidence and to extract the many possible meanings the past may come to possess via interpretation. Needless to say, many of the interpretive currents the course examines have in recent decades aroused strong feelings in many quarters about their value and utility as well as concern about their influence on thinking, morality, and civic culture. Yet although the immediacy of today’s debates about them is unlikely to be far from our minds, the focus of the course will resolutely be the intellectual and other influences that help shape historical thought and practices in every era.

COURSE FORMAT
This is an interactive online seminar course that meets weekly over 6 weeks. Live online sessions will use the zoom platform. Weekly reading or other forms of materials may be assigned. Weekly sessions will be recorded and available for registered participants to access throughout the course.
There are no papers or grades. This course does not offer any credits or certificates. This course is intended for learning for the love of learning.


COURSE MATERIALS
This course will require participants to purchase additional materials:
Required Course Materials:

The second edition of Anna Green and Kathleen Troup (eds.), The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in History and Theory.
(Note: it must be the Second edition, for the first doesn’t cover the ground of the original one.) Note also that the assignments will not follow the sequence of the chapters.

COURSE CANCELLATION POLICY
Registrants can cancel and receive a full refund up to March 3 . After March 3, there will be no refunds issued.
Yale Alumni College courses are subject to schedule changes as well as cancellations. If Yale Alumni College must cancel any course prior to its start due to low enrollment, you will be notified of this by the cancellation date. Upon cancellation of a course, registrants may transfer their registration to another available course or have the registration fee fully refunded.
In the event of a disruption to the original course schedule, including but not limited to; Professor absence, hazardous weather conditions, or local travel restrictions, Yale Alumni College will do its best to reschedule the missed class for the week immediately following the original end date at the same course time and day.