This week, ending in February 08 2018:
Today's thread is for open discussion of:
History in the academy
Historiographical disputes, debates and rivalries
Implications of historical theory both abstractly and in application
Philosophy of history
And so on
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion only of matters like those above, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
Hi friends! I've been working as a middle school history teacher for a while now, and one thing I'm trying to get my budding young historians to think about is the way our cultural backgrounds influence the way we judge the importance of an event, idea, or source. (To be honest, I'm fairly sure that in-depth debates on historiography are pretty far outside my purview, but I am fundamentally against dumbing shit down for my students, and I don't want them to wait until college to hear about historiography like I did, soooooo.) What I'm wondering is your own personal philosophy as a historian on acknowledging and questioning your own life perspective as you study a source, and the ways in which you were explicitly or implicitly taught to do so in the course of your historical education.
(Also, hi!)