HIS195
Reacting to the Past
Dr. Alister Chapman
Course Description (Catalog)
An exploration of two defining historical crises through role-playing games. Students take on particular roles and act out particular debates from the past.
Course Description, Spring 2008
Reacting to the Past is an opportunity to put yourself in the past and see things from the perspective of people who lived there. We can never truly “see things their way,” but we can think about what it would have been like to be in their shoes. In this course, you will play two games that will to study the development of modern European politics as you put yourselves in others’ footwear.. In the first, you will be members of the English parliament in the 1530’s, working with Henry VIII and his ministers to solve the political and religious crises of what we now know as the English Reformation. In the second, you will be deputies in the French Constituent Assembly in 1791, discussing the best way forward for a constitutional France. Each student will play a particular role in both games, and each will have to make the studied leaps of historical imagination necessary to speak—and eventually vote—as their characters might have done. You will learn how to think historically, how to think sympathetically, and how to argue pointedly.
Readings
Coby, J. Patrick. Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament. New York: Pearson, 2006.
Mark Carnes and Gary Kates, Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France. New York: Pearson, 2005.
Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. 1790.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. 1762.
MacCullough, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History. New York: Penguin, 2004.
Schama, Simon, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Course Goals
The basic aim of this course is to help you to think. Obviously, you all know how to do that, but what would it mean to think better? More clearly? In this course you will learn how to do that by being forced to think in complex ways from perspectives and in periods very different from your own. If you can learn how to do that, thinking for yourself is a chip shot (well, almost).
More particularly, this course will teach you to think historically. A GE category, to be sure, but also a way of thinking that serves human flourishing and the kingdom of God. We are all products of very particular times, places, and communities, and the sooner we acknowledge this, the better. The better for us, for we shall be able to understand ourselves more clearly. And the better for others, whom we shall approach with more curiosity and less condemnation because we recognize that they too have been shaped by the past and their past. In this course, you will have to understand people in the past well enough to represent them, which will mean hours poring over documents from the time and the work of historians who have tried to make sense of them. You will have to do your own historical research, to find out about the person you represent in each game and what he or she would have believed, said, and done. You will learn to think as historians think, trying to make sense of what seems foreign and reveling in the complexities of human existence. You will grow in humility as you confront the difficulties of understanding another. But you will also develop intellectual muscles that will enable you to think about the world in which God has called you to live with creativity and confidence.
By now, it should be clear that in this course you have a part to play. Two, actually—one in the Reformation Parliament in England, and another in the French Constituent Assembly. In order to play these parts, you need to make your voice heard, and this course therefore also provides an opportunity for you to work on your speaking. This class satisfies the GE requirement for a speech-intensive course. How do you communicate clearly? Audibly? Persuasively? Extemporaneously? Over the course of the semester, you will get lots of practice.
Assignments
1. Reading
If you want to understand the past, you have to learn about it first. Some of that information I will give you in class, but much you will have to ferret out for yourselves. The course therefore requires you to read both primary documents from the period in question and the secondary works of historians who have tried to make sense of what happened. We will spend time at the beginning of the course talking about how historians handle primary and secondary sources. You should be very adept with both by the end of the semester. To put it another way, you will know how to think historically.
2. Writing
The second type of assignment that will train you to think historically is writing. You will write two “papers” during the semester, one for each game. Each will be written in character, and you may choose whatever format you feel helps you to pursue your objectives in the game: a letter, a legal brief, an indictment, a newspaper article—whatever serves your cause. You will obviously have to understand the primary and secondary sources well if you are to make a good case.
What you write will then be posted on the class website. We will find out in class whether you have persuaded your opponents or not.
Together, the papers will make up 30% of your grade.
3. Speaking
You are in parliamentary assembles. Therefore you must speak. In each class session, you will have the chance to contribute to debates (unless “you” have died). In addition, you will each have to give at least three, set-piece speeches (totaling at least thirty minutes) on which you will receive not only the responses of your fellow representatives but also detailed feedback from me. The basic aim, of course, is to persuade others. We will talk at the beginning of the semester about how to put speeches together and how to deliver them with verve. Votes will be taken. Reputations gained and lost. You must persuade the un-persuaded. Therefore you must state your case and do it well.
Together, your three speeches and general class participation will count for 40% of your grade.
4. Tests
In both of the games, you need to come up to speed on the historical context before we can start debating. There will therefore be a test at the beginning of each half of the course to make sure that you have the basics down. Each is worth 10% of your grade.
5. Exam
There will be a take home final exam to provide an opportunity for you to reflect on what you have learned in the course. It is worth 10% of your grade.