1

Use of sources

a. What sources are used in the Swedish text by Peter Englund and the English text by Christopher Clark?

b. Discuss with a classmate if great historians need not to disclose their sources?

The somewhat contradictory fact that recognized historians by the weight of their famous name do not need to present their sources can be criticized and also defended. They can be criticized for being unscientific and lazy, and defended by the fact that scientific scholarly scrutinizing is part of their culture and they have already proven to be trustworthy in their previous work.

2

Could the text have been written differently?

a. Compare the content of the two articles, how do they differ?

b. Compare with your textbook and Wikipedia – how do they describe the actors and the events?

History is based upon a selection of information and the construction of narratives. Therefore it is possible to tell a number of stories about the same event. Not just any story, but there are a number of possible facts to focus upon and various conclusions to be made. Even a distinguished professor wants to tell a good story, but here we have two professors telling quite different stories. The story of Clark is more traditional and closer to what you can find in textbooks and Wikipedia, whereas Englund stresses coincidence as a decisive factor in a new way.

3

How trustworthy do you consider the text?

No sources, but still written by distinguished historians and holding many other values that might be considered signals of trustworthiness. Putting these texts in relation to other historical academic writing will show that they are historically correct, but Englund's interpretations can be regarded as unorthodox.

4

What theoretical position (bias) do you think the author has? What theoretical perspective(s) can you find in the text?

All authors hold a personal, ideological, perspective. In Englund's case it is quite hard to tell. At least the Swedish author does not present a deterministic theoretical position, while Clark's story is more deterministic. A question more designed to make students think about different authors’ tendency rather than producing the “right answer”

Contra-factual is okay?

a. Do you consider it historically acceptable to speculate in contra-factual ways, as the Swedish author does in his text? Please reflect and justify your answer.
b. Compare your answer with a classmate and try to find different arguments for and against contra factual history.

The use of contra-factual history is an on-going debate among historians and in history didactics. It is often argued that this might hold interesting pedagogical potentials to stimulate creativity and historical consciousnesses. On the other hand contra factual history is criticized for not being historical science – a science of balanced interpretations of facts – but rather just fantasies turning history into fiction and thereby losing the true nature of historical studies.

6

Your own story

Construct your own contra-factual story of, for example, the French Revolution or the causes of World War II. Write a short text of what would have happened if things were a bit different.

The idea is to stimulate the creativity of the students, and also their historical consciousness, by making them rethink history. Constructing narratives of alternative history can make them understand how the past, present and future hold a number of options. Humans write their own history and build societies; actions that can shape the future.

Popular historical writing

a. How can one see that the texts “World War I – an inevitable disaster?” and "The shot that sparked the First World war" are written for popular historical magazines?

b. Compare headers and highlighted quotations in the two texts.

c. What do you think is typical of headlines and layout in popular history?

a. The Swedish text is not a simple text to read, but still it holds an ambition of pointing out spectacular coincidence in a well-known subject in popular history. First World War is a popular topic in this type of magazines, and the attempt to present spectacular views of the past is also a part of the media logics. In the English text a spectacular drama is clearly central, and it is further emphasized by the layout.

b-c Headlines and quotations show how the drama of the past is often central in popular history.

In what ways might the text and images reinforce a male dominated historical perspective?

Almost all the actors are male and the event was clearly male dominated. The social developments, at least partly, leading to war are barely noted in the texts. Man was the head of family and politics at the time, but the interest for male dominated history is still evident in popular historical magazines..