42. 298 Historiography and Historical Methods
Fall 2006
M.
Hickey Old Science Hall Office 130
389-4161
mhickey@bloomu.edu
Navigation links for this syllabus:
Introduction Required Texts Course Grade Scale Paper Form
Class Participation Multi-Part Library Assignment Definition of Research Topic
Definition of Research Questions Common Reading Précis Assignment Individual Reading Précis Assignments
Primary Source Locator Assignment Historiographic Essay Research Proposal
Weekly Schedule of Assignments
-------
On Plagiarism vs Quoting On Disruptive Behavior On Endnote Form
Hickey's Library and General Research Resources Page
____
Link to the Library Assignment
--------
Introduction:
This course has two basic components. The first is an introduction to the branch of historical inquiry known as Historiography. The second is an introduction to basic historical research methods.
The first focus of this course is an introduction to historiography. Historiography is the history of historical writing. We will examine changes in the ways that people western civilizations (primarily in Europe) have understood the meaning and purposes of history. Understanding historiography is critical to understanding a culture's intellectual history. But it is also an integral to doing original historical research.
This brings us to the course's second focus, research methods. Historians ask questions about the past, which they try to answer on the basis of research. A good historians knows how to read for argument, how to ask historical questions, and how to find historical sources. During this semester, we will return repeatedly to the key phrases in the preceding sentence--"read for argument," "ask historical questions," and "find historical sources." Much of your course work will be devoted to sharpening these critical skills.
This course is a pre-requisite for 42.398, Research and Writing. The skills that you develop here will be essential in Research and Writing, but they also will help you in all of your upper-level history courses.
The assignments in this course are designed towards meeting five objectives:
1) understanding how history has evolved as a scholarly discipline
2) understanding how to read secondary sources for argument
3) understanding how to use basic historical research tools
4) understanding how to define and clarify historical research topics and questions
5) understanding how to organize the first stages of a historical research project.
The culmination of this course will be a set of introductory papers on your own individual research project.
Required Texts:
Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 4th edition (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004).
Both texts are required and are available in the University Store.
Course Grade Scale:
A grade of "A" in this course means that your cumulative score on assignments equals 93 percent or more of possible points. A-=90-92; B+=88-89; B=83-87; B-80-82; C+=78-79; C=73-77; C-=70-72; D+= 68-69; D=60-67.
Your grade will be based upon:
Class Participation (10 percent)
A Multi-Part Library Assignment (total of 10 percent)
Definition of Research Topic (5 percent)
Definition of Research Question (5 percent)
Common Reading Précis Assignment (5 percent)
Individual Reading Précis Assignment 1 (5 percent)
Individual Reading Précis Assignment 2 (10 percent)
Primary Source Locator Assignment (10 percent)
Historiographic Essay (20 percent)
Research Proposal (20 percent).
Absence/Late Paper Policy: I will consider absences "excused" only in cases of medical, family, or university/work-related events that the student has discussed with me in advance or are documented by the university administration. I will not accept late papers or give "make up" assignments unless the student has an excused absence.
Paper Form
All papers for this course must be written in 12 point Times Roman font, with one inch margins. Type your name in the top right hand corner of the first page. All pages must be numbered. Staple papers in the top left hand corner.
Do not "double-skip" between paragraphs!
All quotations must be placed in quotation marks (except in the case of bloc quotations). All quotations, paraphrases, and direct summaries must be accompanied by endnotes in proper form. See On Plagiarism vs Quoting and On Endnote Form. Also see Rampolla, chapters 6 and 7.
WARNING: I will not tolerate plagiarism in any form, and if you commit plagiarism of any assignment you will fail the entire class. See On Plagiarism vs Quoting and Rampolla, chapter 6.
Class Participation (10 percent)
This class is organized as a seminar.
Your grade will be based on the quality of your contributions to class discussions. You must attend every class session having completed all readings for the week. Your participation grade will fall in direct ratio to the percentage of class meetings that you miss.
There are study questions on the assigned readings linked to this syllabus. Answer these questions as you read and bring your (written) answers to class. I reserve the option of giving short in-class quizzes on the assigned readings. If I do so, these will be calculated in to your discussion grade.
Multi-Part Library Assignment (total of 10 percent)
There is a Multi-Part Library Assignment linked to this syllabus. The assignment is designed to help you develop skills and habits necessary to conduct your own research projects.
The assignment is divided into two basic sections: Section A (Secondary Sources); and Section B (Primary Sources). Each section is sub-divided into several exercises, which require you to complete a number of tasks. Be sure to read the directions for each part carefully before beginning that portion of the assignment!
You must complete each portion of the assignment on schedule (see the weekly schedule of readings and assignments).
You will get credit for a portion of the assignment only if you have completed that portion correctly, according to the instructions. If you have made errors, you will have two days (after I return your paper) to correct that portion of the assignment. If, when you turn in the revised paper, it is correct, then you will receive credit; if not, you will receive no credit.
If you complete the entire library assignment (all 11 parts), you will receive full credit (10 percent of the course grade).
Your grade will fall in direct ratio to the number of portions you fail to complete correctly.
DUE DATES:
A 1 Week II (9 September)
A 2, A 3 Week III (16 September)
A 4, A 5 Week IV (23 September)
B 1, B 2 Week V (30 September)
B 3, B 4 Week VI (7 October)
B 5, B 6 Week VII (14 October)
Link to the Library Assignment
Definition of Historiographic Research Topic (5 percent):
Pick a topic on which you will conduct introductory research.
At this point, you will focus on using secondary sources to learn about the topic and to study its historiography (the history of what other historians have written about the topic).
Pick a research topic that interests you and that hold your interest for the whole semester. Assignments related to your topic will account for more than half of your grade!
It also is important to choose a topic that is "do-able," that is neither too broad nor too narrow.
For instance, "the history of the Civil War" is too broad--it would take years to finish! But "the participation of firemen in the Bloomsburg Fourth of July Parade in 1905" is too narrow--you probably would not be able to find enough evidence for a term paper.
To ensure that you choose a "do-able" project, and prevent you from spending a lot of time going down dead-end streets, I require that you:
Schedule a brief conference with me to discuss your topic.
At the conference, present me with a clear written statement that explains what your research topic is. This should one paragraph, presented in complete and grammatical sentences.
At the conference, present me with a reading list of at least 15 secondary sources that discuss your topic. The list must include at least two (but no more than four) different college-level textbooks that discuss your topic. The remaining secondary sources must be scholarly books and/or articles published in scholarly historical journals.
Your list of secondary sources must be in proper bibliographic form (see Rampolla, chapter 7, part d-2).
It is not necessary for you to read all of these books and article before our conference, but you must read the textbook accounts. And you should start reading the other works as soon as possible!
If I approve your topic and your reading list, you will receive full credit (5 percent).
If I do not approve your topic and reading list, you will repeat the process until I approve of your topic and reading list.
DUE DATE:
Definition of research topic and reading list approval by the end Week IV (23 September)
Definition of Research Questions (5 Percent):
Choosing a topic is the starting point for historical research, but before you can begin serious work with primary sources you should define the research questions that you hope to answer.
The questions you ask often shape the types of primary sources you need to examine and influence the methods you use to analyze those sources.
Also, you need to define your research questions before you can write a research proposal, which is the final requirement for this course!
Defining a clear historical research question is not as easy as you might think. You want to avoid questions that are simply too big to answer in an undergraduate research project ("how has the influence of big oil companies shaped US foreign policy since World War Two?"). You want to avoid questions that are so narrow that they don't require enough research to fill a semester ("Did Harry Truman have a dog?). You also want to avoid questions that don't in some clear way add to our understanding of larger historical issues ("What kinds of buttons did Union soldiers from New York have on their uniforms in 1863?"). You want to avoid questions that really are not answerable on the basis of historical research, such as important questions that really are maters for philosophical speculation ("Was Stalin more evil than Hitler?"). Finally, some popular questions have either simply not good questions or have been "done to death." Sorry, but I will not let you write a paper on questions like "Why did Truman drop the A-bomb?" or "Who really killed JFK?"
So, where do you start in defining a clear historical research question?
Well, you can't ask a good question about a topic until you've read something about that topic. Therefore, you should be thinking about "do-able" research questions as you read the books and articles on your secondary source reading list.
Before the end of Week XI, you must:
Meet with me for a brief conference to discuss your research questions.
At that conference, present me with a clear written definition of your main research question or questions. This should one or two paragraphs, in complete and grammatical sentences. It should explain the question and explain why that question is worth asking (in other words, why is it of historical significance).
If your questions are clear, well-focused, and appear answerable on the basis of historical research, you will receive full credit (5 percent).
If your questions are not clear, well-focused, and answerable, you will repeat the process until I approve of your questions.
DUE DATE:
Definition of research questions, by the end of Week XI (11 November)
If you fail to attend your scheduled conference appointment or fail to schedule a conference, you will fail this assignment.
Common Reading Précis Assignment (5 percent)
A précis is a very concise summary.
Historians (like all thinking persons) must learn to "read for argument." When you read a book or article, you need to understand the author's main point (the "thesis"). Remember, historians don't just list "facts"! They interpret evidence and propose arguments to explain what the "facts" mean.
Writing a précis of an article, chapter, or book requires that you grasp the author's main point and boil it down to a few paragraphs of summary. (See Rampolla, pp. 23-24, "Summaries.")
This assignment will focus on Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern.
At our last in-class discussion of Breisach, you will chose a chapter (by lottery) on which you will write an in-class précis.
Without quoting the author at all, you must explain his thesis (main point) in this chapter in one or two paragraphs.
Begin your paper by stating as clearly as possible the fundamental question that the author is trying to answer in the chapter.
Then explain as clearly as possible the main point the author makes to answer that question.
You can use your notes to write this in-class précis. So it is in your best interest to take good notes both when you are reading the book and when we discuss each chapter.
Remember, explain the thesis. (Don't simply describe the topic of the chapter!)
If you don't understand the assignment, be sure to talk to me before this class session!
I will grade each précis on the basis of its logic, clarity, and accuracy.
PROBABLE DUE DATE: Week VIII (18 or 20 October)
Individual Précis No. 1 (5 percent)
Pick one book from your secondary source reading list. Write a précis (a summary) of the book's thesis. (See Rampolla, pp. 23-24, "Summaries.")
The book on which you write your précis must be on your approved reading list and meet the following criteria:
In a one-page précis:
Without quoting the author at all, you must explain the author's thesis (main point) in one or two paragraphs (max. length of one page).
At the head of your paper, identify the author, title, and publication information for the book using bibliography form (Rampolla, 7-d2).
Begin your paper by stating as clearly as possible the fundamental question that the author is trying to answer in the book.
Then explain as clearly as possible the main point the author makes to answer that question.
Remember, explain the thesis. (Don't simply describe the topic of the book.)
If you do not understand the assignment, be sure to talk to me before you start writing!
I will grade each précis on the basis of its logic, clarity, and accuracy.
DUE DATE: Week IX (28 October)
Individual Précis No. 2 (10 percent)
Pick another book from your secondary source reading list on which you will write a précis (a summary of the book's thesis). (See Rampolla, pp. 23-24, "Summaries.")
The book on which you write your précis must be on your approved reading list and meet the following criteria:
In a one-page précis:
Without quoting the author at all, you must explain the author's thesis (main point) in one or two paragraphs (max. length of one page).
At the head of your paper, identify the author, title, and publication information for the book using bibliography form (Rampolla, 7-d2).
Begin your paper by stating as clearly as possible the fundamental question that the author is trying to answer in the book.
Then explain as clearly as possible the main point the author makes to answer that question.
Remember, explain the thesis. (Don't simply describe the topic of the book.)
If you do not understand the assignment, be sure to talk to me before you start writing!
I will grade each précis on the basis of its logic, clarity, and accuracy.
DUE DATE: Week X (3 November)
Primary Source Locator Assignment (10 percent)
To write a paper based upon your own original research, you first need to locate primary sources. This assignment is designed to get you started in the search for primary sources related to your research topic.
1. Locate and identify a primary source collection or database related to and useful for your research topic.
2. Schedule a conference with me to discuss your primary source.
3. At the conference, present me with a written identification the source collection in bibliography form (see Rampolla, 7-d2). If I approve, then you can go on to step 4; if I do not approve, then you must repeat steps 1-3.
4. Write a 2-3 page paper that:
REMEMBER, I am asking you to identify a collection of sources, not one specific document! You could use a volume of published memoirs or an autobiography, for example, but not excerpts from a published memoir or a short memoir/autobiographical sketch. You could use an on-line collection of dozens of archival documents, but not an on-line collection with only 3 or 4 documents (etc.).
I will grade your paper on the basis of its logic and clarity and your use of correct form.
DUE DATES:
Historiographic Essay (20 percent)
In this paper, you will analyze what other historians have argued about your topic. (Notice--I want you to analyze what they have "argued about on your topic." DO NOT focus on how they answer your specific research question!)
You must explain how historical interpretations on your topic have changed over time and the differences between various “schools” of historical interpretation regarding your topic.
In other words, you are going to compare and contrast what many historians have argued about your topic and try to explain why interpretations have changed.
Preparing for your paper:
SOME VERY IMPORTANT TIPS!!!!!
Writing your paper:
I will grade this paper on the basis of the logic of your argumentation, the clarity of your presentation, the accuracy of your analysis of secondary sources, the use of appropriate sources, and your use of proper form for quotations and endnotes.
DUE DATE: Tuesday of Week XV (6 December)
Research Proposal (20 percent)
Most professors who teach Bloomsburg's History 498 (Research and Writing Skills) will require that you write a formal research proposal. Graduates students in history must write research proposals, and so do professional historians of all types. So it is a good skill to learn.
Writing a research proposal requires that you think carefully about your topic, the questions you want to answer, why those questions are important, how they relate to what other historians have written, and what sources you will need for your research.
In other words, you have already done the basic work for your research proposal when you completed our earlier assignments. You have already done most of the work! Now you must put it all together.
You will write a brief proposal. Your target length is 5 pages (not counting the bibliography). In that five pages you must explain:
Attach a typed bibliography that follows the guidelines in Rampolla, chapter 7, part d-2. The bibliography must include all your primary and secondary sources, divided into two sections: a section for Primary Sources and a section for Secondary Sources.
I will grade your proposal on the basis of its logic, clarity, and coverage of the issues detailed above; I will grade your bibliography on the basis of your use of accurate form. The proposal will account for 75 percent of the assignment grade and the bibliography for 25 percent of the assignment grade.
DUE DATE: FINAL EXAM SESSION (Thursday of Finals Week, before 4:45 pm)
Weekly Schedule and Links to Study Questions:
I may alter the dates of some assignments during the semester, so check the weekly schedule every week!
_______
Breisach refers to Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
Rampolla refers to Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 3rd edition (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001).
If you click on the reading assignment for each week, it will take you to a linked page of study questions.
_______
Week I (30 Aug/1 Sept): Introduction to this Course; Historical Sources and Historical Questions; Introduction to the Library Assignment; Introduction Topic of Historiography
Readings: Rampolla, pp. 1-13; Breisach, preface and Introduction (pp. xi-4)
Week II (6/8 Sept): History in the Ancient "West"
Readings: Breisach, chapters 1-6 (pp. 5-76)
DUE 9 SEPTEMBER: Library Assignment Part A 1
Definition of Research Topic conferences. Be sure to read Rampolla, Chapter 4.
Week III (13/15 Sept): History in the Late Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages
Readings: Breisach, chapters 7-10 (pp. 77-152)
DUE 16 SEPTEMBER:
Week IV (20/22 Sept): History in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Readings: Breisach, chapters 11-14 (pp. 153-227)
DUE 23 SEPTEMBER:
DEADLINE! 23 SEPTEMBER for Definition of Research Topic conference.
Be sure to read Rampolla, Chapter 4. To format your reading list, see Rampolla, section 7D-2.
Week V (27/29 Sept): History in the Early 19th Century and Introduction to Modern Historiography
Readings: Breisach, chapters 15-17 (pp. 228-271)
DUE 30 SEPTEMBER:
Week VI (4/6 Oct): Late 19th Century Historiography
Readings: Breisach, chapters 18-21 (pp. 272-322)
DUE 7 OCTOBER:
Week VII (11/13 October): Historiography in the 20th Century I
Readings: Breisach, chapters 22-25 (pp. 323-361)
DUE 14 OCTOBER:
Be sure that you read Rampolla, chapter 3, section B-1 (on writing précis papers)
Week VIII (18/20 Oct): Historiography in the 20th Century II
Readings: Breisach, chapter 26-Epilogue (pp. 362-410)
DUE: In class Common Précis Assignment on Breisach
Be sure that you read Rampolla, chapter 3, section B-1 (on writing summaries/ précis papers)
Week IX (25/27 Oct): Discussion of Research Topics, Research Questions, and Other Matters
DUE 28 OCTOBER Individual Précis Assignment No. 1.
Be sure that you read Rampolla, chapter 3, section B-1 (on writing précis papers)
Week X (1/3 Nov): INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES ON RESEARCH QUESTIONS
DUE 3 NOVEMBER : Individual Précis Assignment No. 2.
Be sure that you read Rampolla, chapter 3, section B-1 (on writing précis papers)
Week XI (8/10 Nov): INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES ON RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND PRIMARY SOURCES
DEADLINE! 11 NOVEMBER: Definition of Research Question.
Week XII (15/17 Nov): INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES ON PRIMARY SOURCES
Week XIII (22 Nov): No Classes on 24 November INDIVIDUAL HISTORIOGRAPHY CONFERENCES
DEADLINE! 25 NOVEMBER: Primary Source Locator Paper (you can e-mail it to me)
Week XIV (29 Nov/1 Dec): INDIVIDUAL HISTORIOGRAPHY CONFERENCES
Week XV (6/8 Dec): INDIVIDUAL HISTORIOGRAPHY CONFERENCES/RESEARCH PROPOSAL CONFERENCES
DUE 6 DECEMBER (Tuesday): Historigraphic Essay.
_____________________