historical thinking

This article is part four of a four-part series on the future of quantification in history. For the thematic introduction to the series, please click here. Or click on the following links for part one, part two, or part three. Kaplunk: “Your reserve in tools is low.” Kaplunk: “Your reserve inContinue Reading

This article is part one of a four-part series on the future of quantification in history. For the thematic introduction to the series, please click here.   At face value, it might appear to the casual reader of Play the Past, that the main focus of this blog is theContinue Reading

Last week I proposed that the design of historical simulation games around problem spaces provides guidelines for how one can meaningfully critique them as historical interpretations. This week moves to the flip side of the coin: how the concepts and functioning of problem spaces illustrated so well in historical simulationContinue Reading

In my previous ‘Practical Necromancy’ post, I made the argument why we should toy with history, using the Netlogo agent based modeling environment. Let me tell you today what happened when I introduced the idea of simulating the past to my first year students. The phrase ‘digital history’ does indeedContinue Reading

My students – especially my first year students – sometimes wish for direct, first person testimony. Wouldn’t it make life easier if we could just interrogate them, read what they thought, directly? Seeing as how most of the people in question (in my classes) are Romans, this would require aContinue Reading