Day 9 was actually today so I should be back on track a little bit. Class began with my professor announcing that he is having a seminar tomorrow for his upcoming book. I can’t give the title or anything about it but it’s another work about mass incarceration related to concentration camps, not regular prisons. I don’t think I will attend the seminar, I would love to share what the book and what his other works are but I fear that would definitely out me, although I am certain that some people have figured out my school by now. If you do, please keep it to yourself lol.

After that we got into the content, and it as just going over the reading material: a chapter from the textbook and pages from some assigned work. I think I forgot to say what textbook we have to read, it’s called From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography. Theres not much to say, really, which sucks, usually the Chronicles are pretty engaging but so far this semester has been kind of bland save for my office hours visits. This class just focused on how history started, the study oof history, with Herodotus and some background on him. He is called the “Father of History” but also the “Father of Lies” by his detractors. We then examined how the study of and attitudes towards history took a shift in the 19th century: growth of nationalism and unification (Germany), the French Revolution, urbanization, the Industrial Revolution, and nostalgia as life was changing. History started to be seen in a special way, it was to be studied in a way that was separate from the present, it is individualized and within context. Which is all well and good but I also think it’s dangerous to separate ourselves from the past too much, and I think you know what I’pm talking about. This isn’t really a criticism but more of a warning as I know some folks like to see the past in a vacuum rather than how it informs how we live today, even the ancients have left their mark.

We then had the reading comprehension test and I failed this one. The questions as about who said a quote that I can’t remember. And I could not remember for the life of me. But I recalled Diderot being mentioned so I just said him, and it was incorrect. The answer was Leopoldo Von Ranke. The quiz is open book but I didn’t know which reading he was testing us on, it is safe to assume if will always be about the non-textbook but my dumbass was scrambling. Oh well. After the quiz we learned about Ranke and his safe guards for academic integrity and to ensure that the telling of history is as truthful and unbiased as possible. Unfortunately I don’t know if his “academic gatekeeping” was all that effective but it fine, I guess. We talked about what those safe guards are and the class ended. Nothing else much to say.

Again, I am sorry for the triple posting, this weekend was a weird one. Also I have a quiz later this week so thats cool, hopefully I do well.