About history at St. Norbert College
The history discipline offers courses in African, Asian, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern and U.S. history. These courses examine particular historical periods from a variety of perspectives. Political, social, diplomatic, religious, economic, intellectual and cultural considerations are integral parts of the courses offered. This broad approach provides an opportunity for students to understand better the value commitments of their own and other cultures. Additionally, by investigating events through the interpretation and comparison of sources, students learn the fundamental skills of analysis and critical thinking. By making these contributions to the College’s liberal arts curriculum, the history discipline prepares its major and minor students for careers in teaching, law, business, government and other professions.
The ultimate goal for the student in any history course is to learn the "lessons" of history:
- to compare and contrast differing economies, societies, political systems and cultures;
- to identify the origins of change in the past and present; and
- to understand the continuities in history.
History courses can provide a framework for future knowledge, open up new perspectives on where we have come and suggest alternatives to the way things are done now—perhaps even guides for future acts and ideas. History courses foster the development of the historian's research skills and the ability to read and write analytically, to speak effectively and to think critically. Further, the broad approach of the history discipline fulfills the mission of St. Norbert College by providing students with an academic experience through which to examine the values, norms and ideals of their own and other cultures.
Why study history?
What is history? In one sense, history is the record of past human acts in every sphere. As E.H. Carr put it, "the accumulated record of humanity's achievements and failures, deeds and omissions, in short, the life of humanity". This view gives the impression that history is something done, completed and only changed or updated as humanity adds to the record.
In another sense, history is an ongoing process of investigation—an exploration of humanity's past from many different vantage points. The word "history" does originate from the ancient Greek term for inquiry; historians can be seen as investigators searching for explanations behind historical events, for reasons and patterns, causes and effects, searching for an understanding of the past, for an understanding of humanity itself.
As investigators into the past, historians make use primarily of evidence that has survived from the time or place they are studying, such as objects of art, artifacts, documents or literature. In addition, they utilize the later reflections of poets or statesmen and the studies made by archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, economists, political scientists, philosophers and theologians, as well as other historians. Every field imaginable feeds into the study of history.
As the French philosopher Voltaire said, history can be "a pack of lies we play on the dead." Historians search for truthful, accurate explanations of cause and motivation, but they also make value judgments and interpretations colored by their own experiences and biases. The way a historian looks at a particular event or figure may not be the way that event or figure was perceived at the time. Every historian comes at his or her work from a different perspective, which makes the study of history even more varied and fruitful.
