Making History

History is ‘made’ as much by those who write about events as by those who cause and experience them. The Titanic, the Boxer Rebellion, and Alexander the Great share a power to generate historical meaning in multiple time periods. In this seminar we will look at the ways people make past events meaningful for themselves in their own historical circumstances. Using recent books about the Titanic disaster and the Boxer Rebellion as case studies, we will focus on the narratives of Curtius Rufus and Arrian to study how Greeks and Romans explained and emulated Alexander. 3 hrs. sem.