Holv to Read a t{istory Assignment

no escaping that simple t'act. And reading history can be a satist-ving experiencc. regardless of r.r-hat -vou might hal,e heard. It all depends on the book you are reading. For instance. there are quite a felr'books that T have read'r,r'hich literally transported me for me mav not lr'ork tbr in ime and space. The rnedicval scholarship of .Iacques LeGotland George Dub-v tall into this categofl'. But rr,tat pret-erence. oipersonal it's a matler ollerr, vou. Most

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stud-v of historv rneans reading.

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can't tell vou horv man-v times I've heard students admit that thev hated a certain text because it tas boring or too long or too conlpiicated. What malies such a comment sometimes harder to accept is that often, some of the te{s instructors assign are those books u'hich made a difference in their oln lives. Stil1, havilg beel a student ur-vselt, antl not a great olle I miglt add. the retlection that a ter:t is boilng or too long is sometunes just.

In order to rnake the reading of histon more satisl\"ing and more purposeful, vou nmst nuke an eflbrt. This means thal vou mtlst hale a general sense of the su\ect matter. You can't justlump into a text ard expect to get much out of it especiali-v if the sr:bject matter is genuhel-v alien to 1-ou. If vou do just junrp in, 1,or will quickl,v become lost as the information presented rlill make little sense.
Okay. so it's the beginning of the term and you've been given -your hrst reading assignment. Let's sav vou are emolled in my 20th Centur)'Europe course and you have been asked to read Modris Eksteins' The Rites of Spring Horv do .vou begin? I. Pick up the book, look at the covers. See anrthing interesting? 2. Who r.lrote tlre book'? Does the publisher gil'e ,vou anv intbranatiou? 3. When,ulas it r.lritten? I)o -vou think this makes a difference? Wh-v'7 4. Scan the Table of Contents. See an1'thing -vou like? 5. Read the llet'ace and Introduction. 6. Are there an-v illustratiorrs'l footnotes? a bibliograph-v? 7. Can -vou deternine the general thesis of the book? 8. Read the first sentence. Does :it hold -voru attention? Or. do rou then put the book doun and sa\'. "I'11 start reading this tomorrour'? 9. l)oes it look lite a good book? u,orth.v to be read? 10 Why might 1'our instntctor have assigned this particular lerl? That's achurlly quite a bit of investigative u,ork on -vour part imd _r,ou havenlt even reallv started to read lour assignmenl. Still. this is something you must do. Reading involves engagement. Reading is not passive. You must make the effort. It'-vou dont. disaster, and thafs ufiat r.re're tr-r'ing to avoid.
b-v a historian. the motograph deals uith a r.'e$ specihc portion of the historical record. When reading a monograph. 1'ou need to pa,v special attention to the authols general thesis. Your instructor has assigned the molograph becatse (1) it covers the materiai he \rsants to cover and (2) it provides a specific interpretation. That interpretation mav be an accepted one oi simpl,v one that riour instructor aggees rith. In somc cases. \'our irstructor may' hal'e deliberatel-v assigned a book li'hose thcsis is at variance 'I'o lbrce tris students to clarili' their orm position and to sho$'them that there are indeed 11it1 6is or.ln. Whv u'ould an instructor tlo this? Sinplel vanous hjstorica.l interprelatrons.

Iir the example above, the tert under revierv is u'hat is called a monograph. Written

the rnonograph aside. the rnost cornmon history assignment, horvever, is the reading of a textbook. Textbooks are rarel-v exciting stutTand so .vou neecl to approach them a bit differentl-!. For one thhg. ther, are usualll' the u'ork of several authors. This means that a varie\' oi iuterpretations at'c at .ir.ork. So manv. in fact. that ollentimes. the end result is no interpretation at all. You are left rnith 1000 pages of "stuffl' without an interpretive stnrcture. Of course. like hlms and food, there are bad terlbooks and good ones. Bad texlbooks either cover too much materiai or just the opposite.
thev don't cor,,er errougJr. As -vou might have guessed, the better tertbooks tnake the atLempt to balance length r,r,ith coverage. Check out tlre tertbook the same \1a!'you checked out the monograph. Thumb through the book. look at the pichres. tables and maps. An1'thing skike your evel'['ake a look at one chapter. Hon.is the chapter organized? Get familiar lr{th the la-vout because there's a good chauce the tetbook r,r,i11 be vnrir main focus for the duration ol the semester.

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vou've been assigned a textbook ,vou should alu,a-vs make even' effort to read those chapters u,hich are directl-v related to the lectures presented in class. If 1,our instructor is an-v good, the structure of the class *"i11 tbllou' the orgarrizatiot of the textbook. Underline and sornehor,r' mark information tr,,hich seems to be irnportant. However, vou must be able to distinguish betueen rvhat is tru1y irnportant and the evidence the hislorian dran's upon to tashion his conclusions. f)ont rurderline eventhing ! If -vou like, make notes in the mnrgins of the text. I-ook at the photographs. uaps and illustrations. Do the-v help you in an1'*a_v or do ,vou just gloss over them as perhaps urnecessan'? You rnay also be assigned a book ofreadings for vour course. I use this tlpe ofter1 trequentll'. These books usually contaia a series ofprimart' sources as u ell as secondary sources ll.hich heip to erplain the primary sources. These terts are sometimes called sourcebooks or readers. If ,vou are assigned such a text -vour instructor expects that vou read the selections and be able to highlight the general argument. for that is il're u'hole point of the sourcebook. The primary documents usuall_v become the groulduork for in-class discussions, hence their importance. Do not talie these readings
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To sum up, the on1-v uay you are going to get through all the reading is to approach il uith the proper attitude, something I have alreadl' discussed. Approach the reading in a positive xa,v-don't build brick rvallsl Most instructors assign readilrgs because tlrey uant their students to read. Lectures are one flring. Books are another. And rvhether,vour urstnrctor assigns tertbooks. rnonographs. sourcebooks or eve[ nol'els, the above rules all app11'
One last thing. Feel free to assess tlre assigned readings. Although end of semester course evaluations ollen contain a section rvhere the student cmr assess the books. rrtry not tell your professor as vou are reading the terl. Is it anv good? Should it be used again? Wh-v is it good? or bad? I've alu'a1,'s had the habit of asking students about the books u,hile thel' are reading them. After all^ I need to knolv u'hether or not these books are u'orth using again. ,And b_v asking the students their opinion o1'a terl is an ercellent na-v to develop a relationship betx'een instructor and student. I don't kno'r.Ta class "Well u'hat do votr ,hink?" ahorrt rrorr hrrt T'rre al*'ar.s thorroht it a oood thino rrht:n an instnlctor ^ckq