Judging by Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) and Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), historical positivism—the view that history is a story of continual progress—was on the wane by the first decades of the twentieth century.
Or was it? John Scott’s Behind the Urals (1942) and the film “Burnt by the Sun” (1994, set in the mid-1930s) hint at the persistence of historical positivism, even amid the social and political upheaval of Stalinism. Basing your answer on the three assigned readings and the assigned film, describe the evolution of historical positivism during the first half of the twentieth century.
It is imperative that your essay be argumentative–i.e., you must identify how historical positivism changed, if at all, over the course of these decades, and marshal evidence from the readings and film in support of your argument. In addition, carefully review the requirements for essays on the syllabus for information on appropriate length, format, style, and citation style. All citations must be Chicago-style footnotes. Failure to use proper citations constitutes a failure to complete the assignment as directed.
