History 501: Theories and Methodologies of History

Course Description:

This course is the introduction to the study of history for graduate students.  Principal emphases are placed on the development of history as a discipline, major schools of historical interpretation, and recent development in analysis and theory.  Other topics include an introduction to the interrelationships of history with other disciplines in the social sciences and humanitites.  Students will be introduced to historical theories and practices through research in both historiographic and primary resources.

Course Requirements:

Participation in class discussions constitutes a significant part of your final grade (25%).
Three brief essays will introduce you to methods and theories of current historical scholarship:
    1) A short analysis of a journal article (original research) from a current historical journal of your choice (10%) Due 2/11
    2) A short (3 pages) analysis of a “literature review” or “forum” from a current historical journal (10%)   Due 2/18
        (Address subject, author’s discussion of differences in interpretation, nature of new scholarship on subject)
    3) An essay of  (3-5 pages) comparing ideologies and themes of two historical journals (10%)    Due 3/17
Much of the course will be devoted to learning how to “do” history by completing an original research paper.  This assignment will be divided into several components:
    1) A one-page discussion of possible research topic (5%)   Due 2/25
    2) A bibliography of primary sources, as complete as possible (5%)    Due 3/24
    3) A short historiographic essay, to be incorporated as the “literature review” into your final paper (5%) Due 4/14
    4) A final research paper of 15-18 pages, with required submission of first draft (30%)  First draft due 4/28
Students who fail to complete all assignments will not receive a passing semester grade.

Regular attendance and class discussions are an important part of the course.   All students are expected to have completed the reading assignments before each class session and should be prepared to answer questions and participate in class discussions.
 

Required Readings:

Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession
Stephen Davies, Empiricism and History
History 501 Course reader

All books are available for purchase in the university bookstore, and readings are on 3-hour course reserve in the Reserve Book Room of the Main Library (First floor-east).

Schedule of Discussions, Readings, and Assignments:
Week
1   January 28  Introduction.
 
2 February 4 Beginnings of the American historical profession
   Readings:  Novick, That Noble Dream, 1-205; Davies, Empiricism, read 1-9, 25-42, skim 10-24

3 February 11 Development of a profession
   Readings:     Novick, 206-411; Davies, 43-92

             Analysis of a journal article due
 

4 February 18 Theories, politics, and practices of social history
   Readings:       Novick, 415-521
   Fernand Braudel, On History, 25-54 [R]
   Peter Burke, “The Annales in Global Context,” International Review of Social History  35(1990), 421-432 [R]
   Charles Wetherell, “Historical Social Network Analysis,” International Review of Social History 43(1998), 125-144 [R]
   “Social History and the American Political Culture,” Journal of Social History 29(1995):
      Peter Stearns, “Uncivil War: Current American Conservatives and Social History,” 7-15
            Gary Nash, “The History Standards Controversy and Social History,” 39-49
              Jürgen Kocka, “What is Leftist About Social History Today?”  67-71
             Roy Rosenzweig, “The Best of Times, The Worst of Times,” 99-107 [all in Journal of Social History (1995)]
 Tamara K. Hareven, “What Difference Does It Make?”  Social Science History 20(1996), 317-344 [R]
 Edward T. Linenthal, “Struggling with History and Memory,” Journal of American History 82(1995), 1094-1101 [R]
    Also: Americanists should read 20-25 pages of Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (on reserve in the library);
            those specializing in other fields should read 20-25 pages of one chapter of one of the following works:
              Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life or The Wheels of Commerce  (on reserve)
 
              Analysis of a journal review article due

February 25 Postmodernism, poststructuralism, and the politics of history
   Readings:    Novick, 522-572; Davies, 110-129
     C. Jencks, “The Postmodern Agenda,” in Jencks, ed., The Postmodern Reader, 10-23, 31-39
     Patricia O’Brien, “Michel Foucault’s History of Culture,” in Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History, 25-46 [R]
  Perez Zagorin, “History, The Referent, and Narrative: Reflections on Postmodernism Now,” History and Theory 38(1999), 1-24 [R]
  Michael Confino, “Some Random Thoughts on History’s Recent Past,” 29-55 [R]
  Adrian Jones, “Word and Deed: Why a Post-Structural History is Needed and How it Might Look,” The Historical Journal 43(2000), 517-541 [R]
  David Wishart, “The selectivity of historical representation,” Journal of Historical Geography  23(1997), 111-118 [R]
 
       A one-page discussion of possible research topic due
 
March 3  The Cultural Turn
   Readings:    Novick, 573-629
   Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” The Interpretation of Cultures, 3-30 [R]
   Paula Fass, “The Cultural Turn,” Journal of Social History (2003) [R]
     Kerwin Lee Klein, “On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse,” Representations  69(2000), 127-150 [R]
        Bryan Palmer, “Old Positions, New Necessities,” in Ellen Meiksins Wood and John Bellamy Foster, eds., In Defense of History, 65-73 [R]
    “Roundtable: What Social History Can Learn from Postmodernism, and Vice Versa? -- Or, Social Science Historians and Postmodernists Can Be
            Friends,” Social Science History 22(1998), 1-45 [R]
     Lawrence Levine, “William Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation,” American Historical Review 89(1984), 34-66 [R]
     Robin D.G. Kelley, Yo’ Mama’s DisFUNKtional!  (1997), 15-77 [R]

March 10 Innovation in historical practice I: Space and Representation in History
   Readings:     Glenn Deane, E.M. Beck, and Stewart E. Tolnay, “Incorporating Space into Social Histories: How Spatial Processes Operate and How we
                            Observe Them,” IRSH, (1998), 57-80 [R]
     Randolph Starn, “Seeing Culture in a Room for a Renaissance Prince,” in Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History, 205-232
     David Delaney, “Running with the land: legal-historical imagination and the spaces of modernity,” Journal of Historical Geography 27(2001), 493-506
     Michael Wintle, “Renaissance maps and the construction of the idea of Europe,” JHG    25(1999), 137-165
     Jeremy Black, “Remembered Histories,” in Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past, 173-203
     MadeleineHurd, “Class, Masculinity, Manners and Mores: Public Space and Public Sphere in 19th Century Europe,” Social Science History
                24(2000), 75-110
    Stephen P. Hanna, “Representation and the Reproduction of Appalachian Space: A History  Of Contested Signs and Meanings,” Historical Geography
                28(2000), 179-207
    Barbara Tversky, “Structures of Mental Spaces: How People think about Space,” Environment and Behavior 35(2003), 66-80
 

March 17    Innovation in historical practice II: The History of Emotions
     Readings:     Stearns and Stearns, “Emotionology: clarifying the History of Emotions and Emotional Standards,” American Historical Review 1985, 813-836
    Kenneth Gergen, “History and Psychology: Conflict and Communion,” in Social Construction in Context (2001)
      Veena Das, “Language and Body: Transactions in the Construction of Pain,” in Social  Suffering, 67-91
      Kleinman and Kleinman, “Suffering and its Professional Transformation,” CMP 15(1991)
      M. T. Blauvelt, “The Work of the Heart,” Journal of Social History 35(2002), 577-592
      John Harcourt, “The Whipping of Richard Moore,” JSH 36(2002-03)
      Jeffrey Adler, “‘We’ve Got a Right to Fight; We’re Married’”: Domestic Homicide in Chicago, 1875-1920,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History
            34(2003), 27-48
      Steele, Diner, White and Stearns articles in Emotions in the U.S.
 
    Paper comparing ideologies and themes of two historical journals due

9 March 24   Historiographic Approaches and Framing the “historical problem”
 
  Bibliography of primary sources due

 
10 March 31  Cesar Chavez Day.  No Class
   April 5-9: Spring Recess

11 April 14  Research questions: The problem of sources

 
12 April 21  Discussion of research topics -- methodologies and histoiographies
        Short historiographic essay due
 
13   April 28  Writing the draft -- conceptualization issues
     Rough draft of research paper due
 
 
14 May 5    Discussion of research papers

15 May 12  Discussion of research papers

 
          Final paper due by 8 p.m. Thursday, May 19, in my office