Jacques-Louis David, Death of Socrates, 1787. (Image courtesy ofWebMuseum.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Elizabeth A. Wood
MIT Course Number
21H.907
As Taught In
Fall 2000
Level
Undergraduate
Translated Versions
Course Description
Course Description
This seminar examines a number of famous trials in European and American history. It considers the salient issues (political, social, cultural) of several trials, the ways in which each trial was constructed and covered in public discussions at the time, the ways in which legal reasoning and storytelling interacted in each trial and in the later retellings of the trial, and the ways in which trials serve as both spectacle and a forum for moral and political reasoning. Students have an opportunity to study one trial in depth and present their findings to the class.