History & Its Sources

In the last post I tried to establish a more precise definition of the word "history." It's important to go into AP Euro, from the very beginning, understanding that this course is very different from the "history" classes that you have taken in the past. For most of you, that would be middle school social studies classes. The very definition of history as an ongoing inquiry and a living discussion, as opposed to an authoritative narrative of events (wars and dead guys!) sets any of the AP history courses apart from standard social studies classes. This is very important to remember come August. In order to make sense of and do the work of history (you know, that whole "discussion and argument" thing), you must have a basic understanding of the past. That doesn't mean that you are expected to come class understanding every last detail. That's what the discussions are all about; developing and understanding. However, it does mean that you should come to class having read the assigned reading while trying your best to make some sort of sense out of it all. If you have a question, write it down. Questions only add to the discussion. If you don't at least keep up with the reading then we can't really get down to the business of history. We just get bogged down in the "what happened" part of history and can't get to any of the real questions.

Okay, I'll go ahead and step down off of my soapbox and get to the real purpose behind this post. If history is a dialogue about the past, how do historians know what happened in the past? In order to answer this question, it is important to remember that history is a written discipline. It is primarily based upon written sources, and it is presented in a written format. Historians base their primary arguments upon an analysis of the written record of events. Yes, that means primary sources. Primary sources can be written documents, archeological artifacts, stories passed down orally, or (my favorite) works of art. As a student of European history, you will be expected to read and analyze historical evidence, and to come to your own conclusions about that evidence. Don't be afraid to "be wrong." Your teachers are there to guide you. They will help you learn how to interpret evidence in a way that makes sense. As an AP Euro student, you will also be expected to present your own historical arguments in writing. That's right, you will be doing a little bit of your own work as historians. Again, don't go running away. Your teachers are there to help you learn how to become better historical thinkers and writers. You just have to be willing to work and struggle through the process with them.

Historians don't reinvent the wheel every time they sit down to write. They do read the works of their fellow historians, and the works of those who came before them. They may read the works of a different type of historian (Yes, there are different kinds of historians) in order to gain a better understanding of a particular subject or era. For example, an art historian working on an essay about fifteenth-century Italian Renaissance art, might read the work of a social historian about Renaissance Italy to better understand the social context in which these works were created. If we only depended upon our textbook as our only source of historical knowledge, we would get a very broad view of history, but it would be lacking in depth. For that reason, we will also be reading selected passages from the works of other historians (Short passages!).

Okay, I've babbled on long enough for now. I'm not sure what the next post will be about. For now, I suggest that you go back through my blog to the posts I wrote last summer about the disasters of the fourteenth century. This will give you a better understanding of the century before 1450, our starting point in AP Euro. This will provide you with a little bit of context to help you better understand the Renaissance, our first unit of study.

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