Welcome to the Unauthorized!

Welcome to my Random Laypersons! Welcome to the VFM, welcome to the Dread Ilk, welcome to the Reprehensibles, welcome to the Unauthorized, and welcome to the Bears!

This is the History Course you have been waiting for! 

Or, rather, it will be, as soon as I get some feedback from you.

I was greatly encouraged when Vox asked you the other night about whether you would be interested in such a course and so many of you said, “Yes—as long as it is real history!”

As Fencing Bear would put it, “Three cheers!” 

We are thinking about having a video a week, starting this summer. 

The first question that I have is about format. What kind of format would make for a good course online? 

What I do not want is to have these videos simply be lectures, the canonical professor-talks-while-the-students-doze lectures you get in the movies before the professor starts encouraging the students to stand on their desks.  

I want, in fact, to make them real—in the sense of the kinds of discussion I would give my students at the University of Chicago. 

Which means you are going to have to do a bit of homework. 

Don’t worry, it will be fun!

Here’s the format I would like to try. I know that those of you who have been following Vox are familiar with his blog. Professor Fulton Brown is a great fan of blogs! You can see several that I have designed for courses I have taught on animals in the Middle Ages, Mary and Mariology, medieval Christian mythology, and Tolkien: Medieval and Modern. 

I use these course blogs as a place for students to talk about the readings they have done and the themes we have discussed in class. I am always encouraged at how much insight they are able to bring to our discussions, as well as stimulated by the questions they raise. 

This is how I would like to use the blog for our online course. 

I will post a short reading (about a page) a few days before our scheduled “class.” You will be invited to leave comments on the blog, whether asking questions about the text or suggesting themes you would like me to address. Your comments will help me gauge the level of familiarity that readers have with the text, as well as help me craft my comments on what I would like you to learn from it. Following the video “class,” you can return to the blog and leave additional comments. Our goal will be to build up a common understanding of how to study history beyond learning the relevant facts.

I will also post reading lists for those who want to delve further. There are thousands upon thousands of books already published on the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. My role as a teacher is to help you learn how to read and evaluate them. 

One week our text might be a portion of a medieval chronicle. Another week it could be an image from an illuminated manuscript. Another week it might be a cathedral. Another week it might be a poem. 

My goal would be to introduce you to the sources for medieval history as well as giving you practice interpreting them so that you know how to evaluate the narratives you find in the history books.

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat the things that appear in history books but never actually happened. —Scott Adams, Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel (2002)

I am also looking forward to using the video portion of our “course” to have guests talk about their own research in the field.

Which brings me to my main request right now, as I am making lesson plans for the summer: What would you like most to learn about the Middle Ages? Please let me know in the comments to this post!

Clearly, the most important question:

Do you want to hear more about Milo?! He has some nice things to say about me! 

For my further adventures in fighting the culture war, see MedievalGate. 

For the New York Times coverage of my friendship with Milo and Vox, see “MedievalGate Makes the Headlines—and the Tweets!” 

On Vox’s support for Milo, see “How to Be God-Right.”