Syllabus Fall 2006
History 240: The Historians Craft
Section 2
TR
William Caraher Office:
Merrifield 209 a/b
Department of History Office Phone: 777-6379
william.caraher@und.nodak.edu Office Hours: TR
and by appointment
Introduction:
Hello! Welcome back, and I hope you had a good summer. The following syllabus outlines the
philosophy, procedures, and standards for this class. Most of the course material will be posted on
the class web site including readings, assignments, and general news and notes
that will keep you up to date on the progress of the class.
The class itself will be
organized as a seminar where we will discuss common readings and our progress
toward the completion of a term paper.
It is vital, then, that we all keep up on the reading, engage it
thoughtfully, and be open to a wide variety of
opinions. Weekly reading assignments in
addition to a research paper will make this a busy semester! In the end though,
you will have acquired a whole array of basic research skills and knowledge.
This
course will reward in equal measure creativity and discipline.
Course Goals:
The primary goal of this
class is to teach you the basics of historical research. This is a broad task with many components
ranging from improving your library skills, to fine tuning your writing
ability, to developing a greater sense of self-awareness as a young scholar. At times these diverse goals will seem to run
counter to one another, but we will strive as a class to demonstrate how
historical research, writing, and study are fundamentally interrelated. To
summarize, then, the goals of the class:
Assignments and Grading:
This class will have two courses.
One course will focus on the intellectual and academic traditions of the
field of history. In order to understand
the ideas central to the discipline of history it will be necessary for you to
complete the weekly readings and participate in classroom discussions. This course will culminate in a midterm exam
and produce a paper that demonstrates an awareness of history as a discipline
rather than simply events which have taken place the past.
The second course will focus on the production of a
piece of original research. This paper
will require you to analyze and interpret primary
sources as well as to demonstrate a familiarity with secondary literature. The
paper is expected to be well-written and to be accompanied by a professional,
oral presentation. Over the course of your progress toward
this goal, it will be necessary for you to share your ideas, problems, and
successes with your classmates.
20% Short Book Review I
This will be the first major assignment of the semester
and will emphasize your ability to critique the thesis of a published academic
work. It will also introduce you to my
grading criteria for written work.
20% Short Book Review II
This book review will focus on one of three standard
historiography books. The three books
are:
E. H. Carr, What
is History? (
B. Southgate, History:
What and Why? (London 2004)
M. Gaddis, The Landscape of
History How Historians Map
the Past. (
2002).
You must acquire one of these books.
They might be found in our library, but you will likely have to purchase
one.
The
review will require you to demonstrate an understanding of the major issue in
historical thinking emphasized by the author.
20% Short Assignments
These assignments will generally build toward the final
paper and will range from one page “reaction” papers to bibliographic work and
peer review exercises.
40% Final Paper (10%
presentation/30% paper)
The paper will be both
written and presented.
The
presentations will take place over the last two weeks of the semester and be 15
minutes each. The paper cannot run over
its allotted time or it will be cut off.
You should plan to spend 5 minutes answering questions after your paper.
The
text of the paper should be 10 pages in length double-spaced in Times New Roman
12 point font with 1.25 inch margins left and right and 1 inch margins on top
and bottom. In addition to the 10 pages
of text, your paper should include in this order: a title page, an abstract, an
outline, a proper bibliography, and proper footnotes. The paper is due Friday, December 8th,
by
Weekly
The readings in this class will be challenging! I do not expect you to understand every word
of every reading. (Sometimes I
won’t!) I do, however, expect you to
read each assignment carefully and do your best to extract meaning from each assignment. To do this, it is important that you do not
“give up”. The only way to improve your
reading skills is to read challenging books and understand them the best you
can.
This class requires four books:
J.
Tosh with S. Land, The
Pursuit of History. 4th edition. (
K.
Turabian, A Manual for Writers
of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
6th ed.
W. Strunk
et al., Elements of Style. 4th
ed. New York 2000.
You must also acquire one of the following:
J. L. Gaddis, The
Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past. (Oxford 2002).
E. H. Carr, What is History? (
B. Southgate, History: What and Why? (London 2004)
In addition to these books, there will be regular
online readings. In general, I will post
these readings on the Blackboard page as Adobe PDF files. You can then either read them on your
computer screen or print them out and take them to class. I would generally recommend that you take
notes on all the readings and bring them to class for discussion.
Week
1: Introduction to History
Tuesday
August 22nd
Introduction
Thursday
August 24th
Herodotus and
Thucydides – available on Blackboard.
Tosh, Pursuit, Chapter 1
Week
2: Getting Started in Research
Tuesday
August 29th
Tosh, Pursuit, Chapter 2
Thursday
August 31st
Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher. 4. ed.
K. L Turabian,
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses,
and Dissertations. 6th ed.
Assignment:
What is History? Why Study History (500 words)
Week
3: Primary Sources
Tuesday
September 5th Meet at Archives
Tosh, Pursuit, Chapter 3.
Thursday
September 7th Meet at Archives
Tosh, Pursuit, Chapter 4.
Assignment:
Starter Bibliography: 3 Monographs and 3 Articles.
Week
4: From Thesis to Topic
Tuesday
September 12th
W. V. Harris, “On War and Greed in the 2nd
C. BC,” American Historical Review 76
(1971), 1371-1385.
R. MacMullen, “Social
Mobility and the Theodosian Code,” Journal of Roman Studies 54 (1964),
49-53.
Thursday
September 14th – Electronic Sources
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/36.4/denbeste.html
From: http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/
K. Schrum,
“Surfing for the Past: How to Separate
the Good from the Bad”
Roy Rosenzweig, "Scarcity or Abundance?
Preserving the Past in a Digital Era"
David A. Bell, "The Bookless Future: What the Internet is Doing to Scholarship"
Assignment:
Short Book Review I (3-5 Pages)
Week
5: The Historical Method
Tuesday
September 19th
W. Strunk et al., Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York 2000.
Thursday
September 21st
Tosh, Pursuit, Chapter 5 and 7.
Assignment:
Annotated Bibliography
Week
6 The Historical Method
Tuesday
September 26th
Historiography Monograph Review
J.
L. Gaddis, The Landscape of History. Oxford 2002.
E. H. Carr, What
is History? (
B. Southgate, History:
What and Why? (London 2004)
Thursday
September 28th
Peer Review Day
Assignment:
Short Book Review II
Week
7 The Style of History
Tuesday
October 3rd
Tosh,
Pursuit, Chapter 6
Thursday
October 5th
Midterm Report on Papers
Assignment:
Thesis and Outline
Week
8 Scale and Scope of History
Tuesday
October 10th
Tosh, Pursuits, Chapter 8
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class.
Thursday
October 12th
C. Ginzburg,
The Cheese and the
P. Horden
and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A
Study of Mediterranean History.
Oxford 2000. 26-49.
Week
9 Contested Histories
Tuesday
October 17th
E. Said, Orientalism.
T. Mathews, The
Clash of Gods. rev. ed.
Thursday
October 19th
Writing the First Draft
Week
10 Material Culture and History
Tuesday
October 24th
K. Verdery,
“The restless bones of Bishop Inochentie Micu” in The
Political Lives of Dead Bodies.
E. F. Athanassopoulos,
“Historical Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes,” from Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes: Current Issues. Ed. by E. Athanassopoulos
and L. Wandsnider. Philadelphia 2004. 81-98.
Thursday
October 26th
Video: Survey on
Assignment:
First Draft Due
Week
11 The Profession of History
Tuesday
October 31st
Read from http://www.historians.org/info/AHA_History/pres_index.htm:
Andrew Dickson White, “On
Studies of General History and the History of Civilization” (1884)
Charles K. Adams, “Recent
Historical Work in the Colleges and Universities of
Arthur S. Link, “The American Historical Association, 1884-1984:
Retrospect and Prospect” (1984)
William
E. Leuchtenburg, “The Historian and the Public Realm”
(1991)
Thursday
November 2nd
P. Novick,
That Noble Dream: the "objectivity
question" and the American historical profession.
Week
12 History in the Public Eye
Tuesday
November 7th Teaching History
Various Authors, “Textbooks
and Teaching” JAH 78 (1992),
1337-1400.
G. Kornblith
and C. Lasser, “Teaching the American History Survey
at the Opening of the Twenty-First Century: A Round Table Discussion” JAH 87 (2001), 1409-1440.
Thursday
November 9th Public History
E. Foner,
“Ken Burns and the Romance of
T. Cripps, “Historical Truth: An Interview with Ken Burns,” American Historical Review 100 (1995),
741-764.
Week
13 Peer Review Week
Tuesday
November 14th
Various authors, “What We See and Can't See in the
Past,” Journal of American History
83 (1997), 1217-1281.
Thursday
November 16th
Peer Reviews
Assignment:
Second Drafts due on Tuesday; Peer reviews due on Thursday.
Week
14
Tuesday
November 21st Writing Day
Thursday
November 23rd Thanksgiving Holiday
Week
15
Tuesday
November 28th Presentations
Thursday
November 30th Presentations
Week
16
Tuesday
December 5th Presentations
Thursday
December 7th Presentations