This series will explore liberalism and historical methods, including how historians actually practice their craft, what implications liberal theory has for historical methods, how different forms of social power impact the writing of history, and how ideas develop over time, especially when interpreted and reinterpreted by successive generations.
Sessions will take place one Wednesday each month for four months, via Zoom, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Participants will receive an honorarium of $125, plus a $30 stipend for book purchases, per session (international participants will receive all payments at once upon completion of the program). Please note this means you are expected to purchase your own readings from your preferred vendor. Applicants will be notified of an acceptance as quickly as possible.
Readings:
May 25: The Essential Method
- Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: A Curious History (1999).
June 22: Microhistory and Individuals
- Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1976).
July 27: Power and Perspective
- Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (2015 version).
August 24: Ideas and Time
- Quentin Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism (Reprint 2012).