070078 UE Readings in the History of Historiography (2025S)

How do historians work? What is history and history writing? How has history evolved as a discipline and alongside it our understanding of historical realities? In this seminar we will learn about the history of history, so to speak. We will acquire general knowledge on the long-term evolution of historiography and some of the most widely used methodological approaches to history writing. At the same time, by critically discussing the assigned readings in class, we will become familiar with the main formal features of scholarly history writing. Particular emphasis will be given to comparative, transnational, global and microhistorical approaches as well as to gender history. In so doing, we will also explore how these approaches can be used in historical sub-disciplines such as financial history, which might at first appear to be characterised by little methodological variety due to its relative short history and limited focus. Finally, although in a cursory way due to the length of the course, we will attempt to look beyond Western historiography and open up our perspective to historical traditions from the rest of the world.