This program is sold out.Call us at (202) 633-3030 to get on the Wait List.Don’t miss out on future programs like this.As a Smithsonian Associates member, you will receive ticket-buying priority.Join today Thinking Like an Historian: A Practical Guide All-Day Program Saturday, October 19, 2019 - 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Code: 1H0464 Tickets Resize text remove add George Peabody Library, a 19th-century focused research library of The Johns Hopkins University How do professional historians work? How do they find and analyze documents and sources, weave them together to tell a story, and identify and answer important questions about the past? Before they write a book or curate a museum exhibition, historians first spend copious amounts of time deep in archives and libraries, both public and private. Using a common set of skills, they focus their research on what are called primary sources: the documents, texts, and objects generated by historical figures themselves. In a unique workshop, Christopher Hamner, an associate professor of American history at George Mason University, demystifies this process by guiding you in how to think about and interpret the past. Using a variety of primary sources from American history, he offers a comprehensive approach to effective research. The sources examined include Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery; propaganda posters from the Second World War; Dwight Eisenhower’s writings on the eve of the D-Day invasion; sources from social movements including the 19th-century temperance movement and the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century; and the U.S. Constitution. Hamner demonstrates how the professional tools used to approach these sources are helpful when delving into a more comprehensive look at an historical event or era. 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Historical Thinking Skills Understand and practice using the research skills of: Sourcing, the process by which historians identify the influence that the author and audience have on a particular historical document; Close reading, the analysis of tone, language, imagery, and symbolism that helps scholars interpret not just what is being said, but how it is expressed; Corroboration, the comparison of multiple sources to examine similarities, disagreements, and contrasts; and Contextualization, the placement of primary sources against historical events to see how each influences the other. 12:30–1:30 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own) 1:30–4 p.m. How Historians Think About Cause and Effect Examine the concepts of: Hindsight, the way that knowledge of events’ outcomes can sometimes undermine historical understanding; Agency, determining who exercises power, where it comes from, and how it is limited; and Contingency, the decision points that help shape events and the “what if?” questions that often accompany them. S. Dillon Ripley Center1100 Jefferson Dr SWMetro: Smithsonian (Mall exit)