Seminar in Historical Methods
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate seminar on how historians in the twentieth century have approached the study of the past. Students read a sequence of influential works chosen to cover a wide range of historical subfields and methodologies, from social history to intellectual history, examining how each author defines their object of study, marshals primary sources, and constructs narrative or analytic argument. Class sessions focus on comparing the strengths and limitations of these different approaches rather than surveying historical events themselves. Materials include a full syllabus with weekly reading assignments and discussion questions drawn directly from the assigned books. The course does not require textbook purchases beyond the reading list and carries no cost, following MIT's standard OpenCourseWare model of free access to course materials without formal enrollment or certification.