An introduction to the craft of academic history, particularly useful for potential history majors and those interested in the practice of writing history. Students will immerse themselves in primary documents from three critical historical events: the Salem Witch Trials, the New York City Draft Riots, and the Little Rock school integration crisis. Using those primary documents as raw material, students will practice writing their own histories. We will stress interpretation of documents, the framing of historical questions, and construction of historical explanations.

This gateway course to the study of history will be an immersive exploration of sources written in and about Asia between 1500 and 1900 CE. Students will study major scholarly debates in Asian history on the nature of early modernity, the agency of marginal actors, and the interpretive work of modern researchers. We will focus on India and China by dwelling on the themes of kingship and court culture, Jesuit writings, women and gender, and the tea and opium trades. Students will write three short papers: one on methods and two based on close and critical reading of these clusters of primary sources in translation.