"PARTICULARS"
History means different things to different people, but many have been taught to think of history as only being about the "particulars." These particulars are the names, dates, etc. that were supposed to be committed to memory. The weakness of this approach is that one is called upon to recite/recall these particulars in a very exact fashion leaving little room for error; meanwhile the strength of this approach is that one knows exactly what to recite/recall. The problem is that if history remains stuck at this stage, greater meaning and understanding of history's significance eludes us. Using Benjamin Franklin's categorization, history remains merely "ornamental" and we never ascertain how it might become "useful."
By establishing the learning of "particulars" as this course's secondary goal while establishing the primary goal as going beyond the facts to elicit meaning and significance, the risk is incurred that one might conclude that the "particulars" are not important. That is a mistaken conclusion: without the particulars there is no meaning or significance. One must have a firm grasp of the particulars before embarking on the next stage of eliciting meaning and significance. Therefore below you a link that serves as an overview/review of the particulars of this course.
CA
Click here for on overview / review of California history