Varieties of Historical Narrative
F05
Bradford Verter
What is the past, and how much can we know about it? Can we ever truly apprehend the minds of those who lived a hundred years ago, let alone a thousand? What are the real motors of historical change—great leaders, common people, or impersonal factors such as economic shifts or the weather? What do different types of sources—statistics, personal archives, published texts, court records, etc.—reveal about the past? Who writes history, and how have individual biases and desires influenced the production of knowledge? Finally, how have our memories of the past influenced our understanding of the present? To address these questions we will analyze examples of different types of historical narrative and read theoretical texts on the history of writing history.