Presentation from Lizzie

Wednesday September 5, 2012

Today was a light, but interesting day.  During the first half of class Professor Butters talked about the New Left.  This was created in the 1960s and 70s and was inspired by the Annales.  It was also inspired by events such as Vietnam, Women's Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and other events.  This group believed that truth is relative (there are different views: "history is written by the winner").  People must understand that there is no "truth" in history because everything is a type of interpretation.  There are, however, accepted truths, such as the date of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.  Things that historians must always keep in mind are that some concepts/truths can change over time.  For example, the idea of liberty had drastically different meanings in the 1700s than it does today.  Historians also must keep in mind that books, articles, newspapers, etc. are written for an audience, and, therefore, can have some biases or points that the writer is trying to make.  Historians must always make sure to take nothing at face value because there could always be some sort of bias or angle at which authors try to make.  Even people change their stories during interviews to make themselves seem more interesting.....historians are always on the watch!

The second half of class was a presentation/demonstration from Lizzie M. from the library.  She showed the class how to look up information for their topics on the library's online databases.  This includes books, articles, newspapers, and anything else that can help us write our papers!  These databases are HUGE!  I was happy to see some things on the Great Depression online.  I signed up to meet with Lizzie on September 13th at 6:00p.m. to talk with her about my topic.  Meanwhile, I am going to spend some time in the library online finding and printing some of the articles that I find.  I think these data bases will be very helpful for my research.  I also plan to call the Aurora Historical Society tomorrow and schedule an appointment with someone who can walk me through what I need to do and what information I can use in my research.  I, hopefully, will be able to spend Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the Aurora Historical Society (they are only open 9-12 those days) finding information and then on the weekends I can gather the information and start typing my paper out, or at least making an outline.  I am quite excited to start, but I am sure that once I do I will get stressed out with all the information that I find!  I must make sure to narrow down my topics because I am sure that I will find enough information to write my 25 page paper.  The only problem that I foresee myself having is how to cite these sources, such as pictures and other artifacts, but I bet there is something in our very large Chicago Style Manual book that will help!