This unit is designed to help students to become better historians and better analysts of historical writing.  It seeks to illuminate the principles, strategies and assumptions which underlie different forms of history - both today and in the past.  And it seeks to acquaint students with current debates about the discipline.

This course considers what historians aim to do, and what they actually do. It asks questions such as:  How can we know what happened in the past?  Why do historians disagree about what happened?   What is the relationship between the present and the past, and how does this inform the way we research and write history?  How are historical narratives constructed?  What literary and rhetorical techniques do they use?  How do they employ evidence? 

The course will consider key developments in historical thought and method, from the classical period to the present day.  It will invite students to consider the social functions of historical writing, as well as to critically assess the methods and models employed by different schools and traditions amongst historians.  Students will have a chance to examine trends in recent historical practice, and to explore the influence of disciplines such as sociology and anthropology on history, as well as of movements such as postmodernism, feminism and post-colonialism.

It will develop student's intellectual resources by encouraging critical assessment of the methods which have been employed by historians in their efforts to understand and write about the past. 

Beyond specific knowledge, students can expect to enhance their skills in the following areas:

• critical thinking
• argument formation
• document analysis
• narrative and analytical writing
• oral presentation

1st Essay 1500 words (35%), 2nd Essay 3000 words (55%) and tutorial participation (10%).

One lecture (1.5 hours) and one tutorial (1 hour) per week for thirteen weeks.  Lectures will be recorded.

At least twelve units at first year level in History (Faculty of Arts) or Asian History (Faculty of Asian Studies). Students entering History IV must have successfully completed this course.

Curthoys, A and Docker, J. Is History Fiction?, UNSW Press, 2005.