History In Crisis
Read "History in Crisis? Recent Directions in Historiography" literature by Norman J. Wilson
Wilson (History in Crisis?) introduces an array of theoretical positions ranging from strong historicism to strong presentism. You need to understand and familiarize yourself with these options early in this course. The position one takes in regard to this issue determines one's attitude toward the role of history in today's affairs. You, as a historian, need to know where you stand.
Based upon the information you have gathered from all your historical studies up to this point, take a reasoned, personal intellectual position along the continuum established by Wilson.
Compose a position paper of about three pages in which you explain where you stand.
- Show that you understand the presentist-historicist debate as introduced by Wilson
- Illustrate how it bears upon your role as a historian.
- What questions go unanswered by Wilson?