{"id":1861,"date":"2016-08-29T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/?page_id=1861"},"modified":"2023-04-25T12:48:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T12:48:59","slug":"historical-thinking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/course-syllabus\/historical-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>History is the study of people and the choices they made.<br \/>\n(By Zachary Schrag,\u00a0<em>The Princeton Guide,\u00a0<\/em>p. 9)<\/p>\n<p>History is the study of past human behavior in the context of its time<em>s<\/em>\u00a0from the evidence that remains.<br \/>\n(By Matthew Pinsker, History 204)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Essential Question<\/h3>\n<p>What is historical thinking?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The Dickinson History Department organizes that concept into five learning objectives for all of its students:<\/p>\n<p>1. Develop historical perspectives<br \/>\n2. Express themselves clearly<br \/>\n3. Locate relevant information<br \/>\n4. Identify key historical issues and debates<br \/>\n5. Support plausible historical arguments<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nvUmB6SqLnY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But other institutions define historical thinking in different ways. \u00a0In particular, Sam Wineburg, a noted scholar of history education, has created resources for classroom teachers to promote historical thinking around five core components:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Multiple Accounts &amp; Perspectives<\/li>\n<li>Analysis of Primary Documents<\/li>\n<li>Sourcing<\/li>\n<li>Understanding Historical Context<\/li>\n<li>Claim-Evidence Connection<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Learn more about Wineburg&#8217;s approach at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sheg.stanford.edu\/\">Stanford History Education Group<\/a>.\u00a0 Or read Sam Wineburg, <em>Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, Charting the Future of Teaching the Past\u00a0<\/em>(Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001), [<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=2M-9Q22IxS8C&amp;lpg=PP3&amp;dq=sam%20wineburg%20historical%20thinking%20and%20other%20unnatural%20acts&amp;pg=PP3#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOOGLE BOOKS<\/a>].<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Schrag&#8217;s Opening Guide to History Vocabulary (Chapters 1-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contingency<\/li>\n<li>Determinism<\/li>\n<li>Agency<\/li>\n<li>Academic history<\/li>\n<li>Public history<\/li>\n<li>Herodotus (c. 484 &#8211; 425 BCE)<\/li>\n<li>Thucydides (c. 460-c. 400 BCE)<\/li>\n<li>Tacitus (c. 56-c.120 CE)<\/li>\n<li>Edward Gibbon (1737-94)<\/li>\n<li>Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886)<\/li>\n<li>Henry Adams (1836-1918)<\/li>\n<li>American Historical Association (AHA)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Pinsker&#8217;s Seven Stages of Historical Thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Humility<\/li>\n<li>Curiosity<\/li>\n<li>Persistence<\/li>\n<li>Empathy<\/li>\n<li>Nuance<\/li>\n<li>Precision<\/li>\n<li>Clarity<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Close Reading:\u00a0 Machiavelli in exile<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>by Niccolo Machiavelli<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the coming of evening,<br \/>\nI return to my house and enter my study;<br \/>\nand at the door I take off the day\u2019s clothing,<br \/>\ncovered with mud and dust,<br \/>\nand put on garments regal and courtly; and reclothed appropriately,<\/p>\n<p>I enter the ancient courts of ancient men,<br \/>\nwhere, received by them with affection,<br \/>\nI feed on that food which only is mine and which I was born for,<br \/>\nwhere I am not ashamed to speak with them and to ask them<br \/>\nthe reason for their actions;<br \/>\nand they in their kindness answer me; and for four hours of time<\/p>\n<p>I do not feel boredom,<br \/>\nI forget every trouble, I do not dread poverty,<br \/>\nI am not frightened by death;<\/p>\n<p>entirely I give myself over to them.<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>(adapted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storiadifirenze.org\/pdf_ex_eprints\/143-connell.pdf\">a letter to Francesco Vettori, December 10, 1513<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History is the study of people and the choices they made. (By Zachary Schrag,\u00a0The Princeton Guide,\u00a0p. 9) History is the study of past human behavior in the context of its times\u00a0from the evidence that remains. (By Matthew Pinsker, History 204) Essential Question What is historical thinking? The Dickinson History Department organizes that concept into five [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1861","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1861\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}