Think Like Historians

Most university introductory history courses are fact-filled lectures from which students glean data for tests. History 100 at Grinnell takes a more inquiry-led approach that teaches students to engage history with an historian’s mindset. 

“We focus on historical thinking and historical methods,” says Edward Cohn, who teaches a section of History 100 that focuses on Europe under Hitler and Stalin. “We emphasize how historians think and how that thinking can change one’s understanding of topics past and present.

“History is not just a collection of facts,” Cohn says, “but a linking of facts to a broader context to develop meaning out of them. History 100 looks at the general process historians have used to develop historical arguments and then goes into those themes in detail on a specific topic in particular sections.”

Building Research Skills

Every semester, History 100 presents two or three different sections on topics like the Spanish conquest of America and European revolutions from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. Each is aimed at giving students tools for increasingly rich pursuits in more advanced courses.

Sarah Purcell '92, L.F. Parker Professor of History and department chair, teaches another section of History 100 in which students work with primary sources from the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. 

“Students might find themselves digging deeply into the Declaration of Independence or the memoirs of a black soldier from the American Revolution,” Purcell says. “We look at the influences and effects of the other revolutions as well, so we’re really exploring the circulation and exchange of ideas, people, and politics in the Atlantic world and the Caribbean.” 

Purcell says the section also integrates strong themes such as human rights, migration, warfare, and slavery. 

Learning to Think Critically

All History 100 sections are writing-intensive. Students compile annotated bibliographies and pursue deep research in primary and secondary sources. Purcell says assembling and presenting that scholarship in a meaningful way helps students learn how to form their own scholarly judgments.

“We are one of a handful of schools that have an introductory structure of this kind,” Purcell says. “It’s a fun class, and it’s satisfying to see students learn a whole process and way of thinking about the past. It helps them think critically about the world.” 

While History 100 sections explore on vastly different topics, Purcell says all students take away the ability to engage effectively with other times and places in their future studies. 

“When they move on to immerse themselves in any other part of the history curriculum — whether it’s ancient China or 21st-century Middle East or the United States — they will have the tools to take it on.”