“From a Vibrant City to a Warzone”: Shostakovich's 7th Symphony as a means to foster historical understanding through empathy

Journal of Social Studies Research 42 (4):327-343 (2018)
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Abstract

Scholars have long pointed to the power of music as a primary source in instruction for bringing past actors into sharper view and engender deeper connections with the past. By employing Dimitri Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, composed amidst the Nazi siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, we sought to explore, more precisely, the nature of how music, as a primary source, enhances the study of history among students. Through the formulation, execution, and assessment of a two-day lesson with students in five secondary history classes, three of which listened to the symphony and two of which did not, we found that the incorporation of the symphony resulted in students’ enhanced empathetic understanding of the past. Implications include details regarding profound opportunities for, as well as challenges to, cultivating historical empathy through the use of music as a primary source.

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Historical Empathy in the Social Studies Classroom.Sarah Brooks - 2009 - Journal of Social Studies Research 33 (2):213-234.

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