Focus
This course is designed as an introduction to the practical skills of doing
history and is aimed at freshmen and sophomores planning to major in history or
others seriously interested in learning how to navigate the waters of historical
study. The course emphasizes acquiring the techniques contemporary historians
use to research into the past, make sense of their findings, and present them to
others in a variety of media. Students will discover how to do a thorough
bibliographical search of all major forms of historical work, to find and
interpret primary sources,and to master the basic historical essay as well
as learn a variety of practical tips for “doing history” in the classroom. These
techniques will be illustrated through materials that bear upon a common
topic.
The topic this term is the emergence of the mass consumer society in the era
after World War II, an era sometimes known as the Electronic or Media Age
because of the dominant role played in it by radio, recordings, television, films,
and other new mediums of popular culture. Although first developed in North America,
the new society and culture became increasingly global in extent, proving perhaps
the most decisive forces of change toward the end of the twentieth century. Equally
criticized by traditional groups, Marxists, liberal Western elites, counter culture
advocates of the left, and neo-conservatives of the right, consumer society and its
culture have nonetheless achieved unchallenged sway across the entire globe as the
dominant influence in the contemporary world. Historians are now beginning
to ask how and why it attained this stature. And so shall we.
Lawrence University