Directions: Incorporate only the material below. Please make sure to properly cite any material you use. While I recommend in-text parenthetical citation, you may use any citation method you prefer (Author’s Last Name or Title of Chapter/Article, and page number if possible).
Complete all three parts.
Part I: Answer the questions for Intro to Critical Thinking article.
Part II: What is history, why study it, and the historian’s craft
Part III: Settler Colonialism
Questions of Part 1: Messer-Kruse – Intro to Critical Thinking (Read the How To Think, Critical Reasoning, and the Danger of Common Sense sections)
– What are Messer-Kruse’s main points in this short excerpt?
– Why do you think this is useful for historians and students of history?
– What did you find most interesting, useful and/or surprising?
Questions of Part 2: Topic: You must explicitly discuss and cite at least four sources from the “What is history and why study it” section and at least one from the Historian’s Craft section when answering the questions.
Minimum length: 400 words
– Based on the course material, explain what History is and why we should study it.
– What do you think historians do and why?
– How do historians know what they claim to know? What challenges do we face when trying to reconstruct and understand the past? Why should one want to think the way historians do?
– How does knowledge of the past shape our understanding of the world?
– How does our understanding of the world inform our knowledge of the past?
– Why is it important for Americans to learn and confront our hard history?
– How do we “tell America’s story without whitewashing the past?”
Questions of Part 3: Read the “Short Introduction to Settler Colonialism,” Veracini’s “Settler Colonialism and the Concept of Transfer,” and Ostler and Jacoby’s “Settler Colonialism and the Meaning of America”
Answer the following in your own words.
– What is settler colonialism? (How is settler colonialism different from other forms of colonialism?)
– What does Veracini mean by the concept of transfer and how/why is this concept central to settler colonialism? Veracini discusses 26 types of transfer in this excerpt. I would like you to choose two from his list and define them in your own words
– Read Ostler and Jacoby’s “Settler Colonialism and the Meaning of America” What are the three most important takeaways from this reading? Hint: If you had to summarize the three key points for someone who did not read this, what would your three points be and why? How does settler colonialism help us understand American history?
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