The Crusades: Course Goals

History teachers always want their students to master the factual material of their subjects. That's a given. But history isn't simply an unchanging factual account of the past; it is a narrative reconstruction of the past or a story told about the past, which is created following certain, often unspoken, rules. Historians sift through the surviving evidence of the past and weigh it. In the process they have to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Learning how to do this last task is a major goal of this course. In this class you will not simply "learn" history; you will "do" history, that is, create historical narratives yourselves, and in the process you will become more experienced in working with the complications provided by evidence.