About this class
History at Large is a course in historical method, conducted through the museums, archives, and historic sites of New York City. It treats history as a discipline of inquiry rather than a settled body of facts: each series is organized around a defined problem — among them immigration and the building of New York, the Civil Rights Movement, the history of science and invention, and the development of the city's neighborhoods — and develops historical thinking through close primary-source analysis, engagement with current scholarship, and the study of objects and sites in their original context.
Each session pairs guided reading and seminar discussion with the analysis of a primary source: a photograph, a map, a letter, a legal document, or an artifact. The course treats New York's cultural institutions as research sites rather than destinations. Scheduled study visits to the American Museum of Natural History, the New-York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, the Tenement Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and rotating collections give participants direct access to primary materials and exhibitions, with each visit anchored to the week's reading and a guiding analytical question — extending the seminar into the collections themselves and treating exhibitions and archives as evidence to be interpreted.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
- Read and interpret primary sources — photographs, maps, legal documents, letters, and artifacts — using contextual and analytical methods
- Construct and defend historical arguments using evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources
- Distinguish whose stories appear in historical records and whose are absent, and identify the implications for historical interpretation
- Connect events across time, tracing cause-and-effect relationships and long-term consequences
- Use museums and archives as research environments, including the kinds of questions they're designed to answer
- Develop and pursue an independent historical question through a personal research project
Methodology
The course adopts the practice of public history: rigorous engagement with sources combined with site-based learning at New York's leading cultural institutions. Discussion is structured to surface multiple historical perspectives and to develop the habits of careful historical reasoning.
Topics we cover
- Reading history: primary sources, photographs, maps, and artifacts
- Rotating series topics: examples include Immigration & the Building of New York, Civil Rights & Social Change, Science & Invention Through the Ages, Women in History, and NYC Neighborhood Stories
- Cause and effect across time: how events connect and consequences unfold
- Reading history critically: examining whose stories get told and whose don't
- Local and national history: how big events played out close to home
- Museums as historical institutions: what they preserve and the choices behind those decisions
- Connecting past to present: what history reveals about contemporary issues
- Developing personal historical inquiry
Who it's for
For adults curious about the past who want to engage with history through the museums, sites, and stories of New York City — and to develop the analytical skills to read primary sources, build historical arguments, and connect historical events to the present. No prior history coursework required.
Who teaches it
Joseph Amodeo
Founder and lead instructor at The Grove. Doctoral student in education policy at the University of Illinois with master's degrees in rehabilitation counseling, public administration, political science, and religious studies, plus eight professional credentials and over a decade of teaching experience at the college and professional level.
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Pricing
$75 per session · 90 min per class. Register for 8 or more sessions across any combination of classes at The Grove and save 15%.
Registration is handled on our secure registration site.
Classes at The Grove are non-credit, personal-enrichment programs offered by Big Apple Coaching LLC. Participation does not confer academic credit, professional certification, or licensure.