Course Schedule:
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September 9: Introduction |
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Virtual: Thinking About History, I |
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September 23: Thinking About History |
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September 30: History and Historians |
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October 7: Historical Writing |
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October 14: No classes |
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October 21: Historiography: Chinese History |
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October 28: Historiography: Diplomatic History |
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November 4: Historiography: Latin American History (virtual) |
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November 11: Journal Articles |
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November 18: Review Essays |
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November 25: Government Documents: Executive Branch |
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December 2: Government Documents: Legislative Branch |
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December 9: The Internet and History |
Unit One: The Historical Profession
September 23: Thinking About History
| Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft (sourcebook) |
| Novick, That Noble Dream, pp. 1-60, 274-360. |
September 30: History and Historians, II
| Peter Novick, That Noble Dream, pp. 1-17, 47-60, 320-360, 454-521. |
| James Paterson, "Americans and the Writing of 20th Century United States History"; and Daniel Rodgers, "Exceptionalism," in Molho and Wood, Imagined Histories, pp. 21-40; both in sourcebook. |
| Perry Anderson, "Structure and Subject," in Anderson, In the Tracks of Historical Materialism, pp. 32-55, in sourcebook. |
| assignment: two-page op-ed, open subject, all to be posted on class web site for following week's discussion. |
| READING NOTES |
Units Two and Three: Approaching Historical Writing; Historiography
The first of units aims to begin preparation for MA essay by providing a review of basic historical writing skills, introduction to two major (research article, review essay) approaches to MA thesis. I tried to pick historiographical essays that covered the field while simultaneously providing original insights of their own, while the journal articles offered different models to a possible MA topic--some, like the Brinkley, on a relatively narrow question that then is broadened into a more general discussion; others, like the Gerstle, more of an intellectual history; the Sugrue is a good combination of social and political history using neighborhood organizations--of the type readily accessible in Brooklyn. The historiography classes introduce the concept in more detail, from the perspective of a variety of fields.
| Richard Lanham, Revising Business Prose (all) |
| assignment: edit one classmate's op-ed, to begin general discussion on writing styles of all op-eds in class; grade for this assignment will be solely based on the edits, not on the original writing. Make sure to download everyone's op-eds before coming to class. |
October 14--No classes
October 21: Historiography--Chinese History
October 28: Historiography--Diplomatic History
November 4: Latin American History--Virtual: Pick up packet at Far Better
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And, in the shameless self-promotion department, if you're looking for a good course for the spring, you can sample my American Politics course. |
| Alan Brinkley, "The Antimonopoly Ideal and the Liberal State: The Case of Thurman Arnold," Journal of American History 80 (1993), pp. 557-579. |
| Gary Gerstle, "The Protean Character of American Liberalism," American Historical Review 99 (1993), pp. 1043-1073. |
| Hugh Davis Graham, "Legacies of the 1960s: The American 'Rights Revolution' in an Era of Divided Government," Journal of Policy History 10 (1998), pp. 267-287. |
| Thomas Sugrue, "Crabgrass-Roots Politics: Race, Rights, and the Reaction against Liberalism in the Urban North, 1940-1964," Journal of American History 82 (1995), pp. 557-578. |
| Link to JSTOR proxy information |
| I can't link directly to JSTOR articles, so the links above only take you to the JSTOR general site. Once there, click SEARCH and type in the author's name (e.g., "Brinkley, Alan"), and then click on the relevant title. |
| Nicholas Curry, "Writing Atlantic History, or Reconfiguring the History of British Colonial America," Journal of American History 86 (1999), pp. 1093-1114. |
| Frank Ninkovich, "No Post-mortems for Postmodernism," Diplomatic History 22 (1998), pp. 451-466. |
| Daniel Rodgers, "The Search for Progressivism," Reviews in American History 10 (1982), pp. 113-132. |
| assignment: 7-page review essay on one of the three historiographical areas. |
Unit Four: Using Government Documents
| case study: Americanizing the war in Vietnam |
| document research: Foreign Relations of the United States series |
December 2: Legislative Branch
| case study: Congress |
| document research: Congressional Record; or congressional hearings; both at Thomas |
| assignment: 7-page paper on one of the two topics, based exclusively on primary source material. |
Unit Five: The Internet and History
goal: provide a glimpse of how the internet can be used in the classroom, some background in using it for research, and also have a general discussion on the dangers/limitations of the internet's use in writing and teaching history.
December 9: The Internet and History
Edward Ayers, "The Pasts and Futures of Digital History"
guided research in one of the following internet document collections: