1st Edition

Creative Historical Thinking

By Michael Douma Copyright 2018
172 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

172 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

172 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Creative Historical Thinking offers innovative approaches to thinking and writing about history. Author Michael J. Douma makes the case that history should be recognized as a subject intimately related to individual experience and positions its practice as an inherently creative endeavor. Douma describes the nature of creativity in historical thought, illustrates his points with case studies... Read more

Preface

Introduction

Section I: The Argument: Seeing History as a Creative Discipline

Chapter 1: Metaphors of space and time

Chapter 2: Beyond Simple Linear History

Chapter 3: On Facts and Creative Interpretations

Section II: Practical Strategies for Students to become Creative Historians

Chapter 4: How Creative Historians Read and Research

Chapter 5: How Creative Historians Write

Chapter 6: Networking: The Entrepreneurial Historian

Section III: Creativity in the History Classroom

Chapter 7: Rethinking history education with photographs and material culture

Chapter 8: "Why Men Stopped Wearing Hats" and Other Important Historical Questions

Chapter 9: Classroom History Diagrams

Section IV: The Consequences of History as Metaphor

Chapter 10: Can there be one metaphor for all of History?

Chapter 11: Analogies of Historical Thinking

Chapter 12: Creative Historical Thinking for Everyone

Biography

Michael J. Douma is Assistant Research Professor at the McDonagh School of Business at Georgetown University.

"If you are in the business of teaching students how to be effective history teachers, communicators, and practitioners, Michael Douma's new book deserves a place on your syllabus. Creative Historical Thinking is a wonderful contribution to the growing literature on the place of historical thinking in public life."  

-John Fea, Professor of History, Messiah College, author of Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

"An imaginative alternative to linear history. The personal touch of relating dry, chronological events to a reader’s own personal timeline is sure to change how we view both past and present, and weigh their relevance to our lives."

- Richard E. Cytowic, Professor of Neurology, George Washington University, author of Wednesday is Indigo Blue

"Douma provides fresh ideas about the process of doing and teaching history. The emphasis on "creative historical thinking" provides a much needed humanistic emphasis within the literature of doing history. Douma provides ample examples and practical insights into the process of doing and teaching history using creativity within the bounds of the discipline."

- David Zwart, Assistant Professor of History Education, Grand Valley State University