Fall 2018: Medieval Saints and Sinners Event-Driven History Collaborative Reading

An Exemplar for Re-Periodizing the Middle Ages

Some major historical events seem like obvious watershed moments as we experience them. Others appear obvious only in hindsight. Still others require a great deal of analysis and discussion and even then, their importance remains controversial. William Sewell’s article provides a thoughtful theoretical grounding in how we might identify and structure our understanding of shifting historical trends and choose the dividing points between different periods of history.

I divided the Sewell article among the students and asked them to read one section of the article, which defines several features of a significant historical event. A set of PowerPoint slides guided students as they deconstructed their section and rewrote it in their own words.

Student Analysis of Sewell

First, we documented the structure of the article itself, since one of my goals was to provide students with several examples of structured historical argumentation, so that they had a model to copy.

Next, student groups split up and documented the highlights of the section they were working with.

Finally, we explored the overlaps in each section, looked for moments of surprise, and explored how they might use the article’s theory to help them with their own historiography. Students were surprised to see emotion acknowledged as historically important, because they have been trained to think about history as “objective” and unemotional. They also found use in the acknowledgement of tension between transformation as a feature of historical events and the call to ritual and authority, which suggests that historical events are rooted in existing tradition.