'Historians are dangerous people. They are capable of upsetting everything.'
Room: A122
Winter Term: Wednesday and Friday 10-11.20 a.m.
Instructor:
Dr. A. Clendinning
Department of History
Nipissing University
Office: H 310
Telephone: 474-3450
Ext: 4405
Email: annec@nipissingu.ca
Office Hours: Wednesday 3.30-5.00 p.m. and Fridays 11.30 a.m. to 1 p.m
Or by Appointment
History 3926W introduces students to the history, theory and practice of historical research. This course has several objectives: to acquaint students with the basic techniques of the discipline, including the nature and evaluation of sources and methods of library and archival research. Secondly, the course presents a brief survey of the concepts and theories that have been used to explain historical change, primarily in the tradition of modern Western European history. Thirdly, the course introduces students to historiography by presenting a range of selected schools of thought that influence the study of history in the twentieth century. The focus here will be on the disintegration of the traditional/positivist model of historical writing, which dominated the discipline in the nineteenth-century, and the emergence of rival approaches to understanding the past.
The aim of this critical analysis of history and of historiography is practical as well as theoretical. The problems examined in this course have an immediate bearing on how one does historical research. For example, how a historian selects and interprets sources, or assigns relationships between cause and effect, or claims to be objective, are all issues faced by every researcher who ventures into the past. Lectures, in-class discussions and written assignments will assist students with problems in research and writing by stressing how the critical analysis of historical methods bears upon the practice of history.
Textbooks and Reading Material Available in the Bookstore*
Required: You need them for this course!
Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time* (this book will be in stock next week)
John Tosh, The Pursuit of History: aims, methods and new directions in the study of modern history
Mark Gilderhus, History and Historians: a historiographical introduction
Optional (if not in the bookstore, but you may find a used copy or purchase on-line)
Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, The Houses of History: a critical reader in twentieth-century history and theory (New York, 1999).
Ernest Breisach, Historiography: ancient, medieval and modern (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1994).
No assigned reading from this book, but it is a good reference text.
Web Access to the Internet History Sourcebooks : This website project designed by Professor Paul Halsall at Fordham University , New York , posts excerpts from primary source documents that we may refer to class. It is a great resource for history students, with many interesting links, dealing with a wide range of subject matter that will also be helpful in other courses.
Modern History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
Ancient History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient.asbook.html
Medieval History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook/a.html
Written assignment #1 25%
Written Assignment #2 20%
Participation 15%
Final 40%
Due the week of February 15-17, 2006 ; Value 25%
Part I: Evidence and Interpretation
In The Daughter of Time , a novel by Josephine Tey, the protagonist undertakes a bit of "academic investigating" while recovering in hospital from a broken leg. Through his reading and analysis of both primary and secondary sources, Detective Grant reopens one of the great mysteries of English history, and arrives at a revisionist interpretation. Using the novel as a starting point, students will comment on Grant's use of different modes of historical investigation, his evaluation of primary and secondary sources and his use of evidence to build his case. What does Grant's process of evidence gathering and interpretation suggest about the historian's craft?
Your answer should be in essay form, type written and double-spaced, 3 pages in length. In your answers, you are encouraged to also refer to John Tosh, The Pursuit of History , particularly chapters one to four; Mark T. Gilderhus, History and Historians may also be helpful. Students must use the correct citation style (Chicage style) for footnotes. See Rampolla.
Part II: Research Exercise
Although Tey develops a convincing argument, is she writing "good history"? Use your own research skills to track down Tey's sources and thereby indicate how you could verify her research. Provide full citations for some of the books and sources that she uses in her novel, including call numbers and/or shelf numbers.
Primary Sources: List 3 primary sources that are used in The Daughter of Time . For each one, provide a full citation that includes the author, editor, publisher, and year of publication, location and call number or shelf number.
Secondary Sources : List 1 secondary source that Tey refers to in the novel. Provide a full citation that includes the name of the author or editor, publisher, year of publication, location and call number or shelf number.
Your Sources : Provide a citation of your choice for one monograph and one scholarly article on the topic of Richard III published since 1965. Include all citation details, including location of the book and call numbers.
Print outs from library catalogues are acceptable for this portion of the test but specify which are for the primary, secondary and optional sources.
Due March 27-29, 2006 . Value 20%
Each student will write a critical summary of several primary source documents that pertain to a specific historical problem or event. The sources will be found on-line or on reserve in the Nipissing Library. Adopt a particular analytical point of view or perspective for your analysis of the documents (ie. Marxist, Whig, Annales, sociological, feminist, Marxist feminist, ethnohistorical, cultural). The above schools of thought will be discussed in class in preparation for this assignment. A list of suggested secondary readings, to be compiled by the professor, will provide examples of each type of history, and provide assistance with formulating the kinds of questions, concerns and approaches of a particular school of thought. In their critical summary, students should identify and define their analytical 'school', provide the relevant summary, and explain why their mode of analysis works with the evidence. Use secondary sources to support your ideas and guide your analysis. Length: 8 pages double spac ed.
Participation: 15% This grade will be assessed based on student participation in class, including attendance, group work and interaction in discussions based on lecture material and assigned readings from our textbooks. In the interests of increasing student involvement in what is usually a lecture-based format, the class will be divided into 10 discussion groups of five students each, arranged alphabetically for simplicity. At intervals throughout the course, and particularly on Fridays, we will have in-class workshops and discussion questions where students will divide into these smaller groups to exchange ideas, and then report back to the larger class. Participation will be assessed according to one contribution to this aspect of the course.
Final Examination: 40%
Final exams are scheduled by the registrar and begin after April 7, 2006 . Until you know your final exam schedule, do not make travel arrangements or plans to leave for the holidays. Instructors have no control over the exam schedule. The exam will include short answer and essay questions that are based on assigned readings, class lectures and films shown throughout the course.
Penalties for late work
Late assignments will be deducted 2% per day , not including weekends, to a maximum penalty of 20% after which the assignment will not be accepted by the instructor . In circumstances where a student may require an extension for health reasons, the student must provide legitimate documentation to the instructor.
Academic dishonesty
By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in the scholarly community of Nipissing University . As such, everyone's academic work and behavior are held to high standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication and plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts, are all forms of academic dishonesty. Please read the Policy on Academic Dishonesty; see Nipissing University Calendar, 2003-04, under Student Policies, particularly if you have any doubts about what constitutes plagiarism. Pleading ignorance is no excuse. All references in your written work must be properly cited. There is a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism in effect in this course. Any amount of plagiarized work will result in disciplinary action: an automatic zero for the assignment and written notification to the Dean of Arts and Science for a first offence. The office of the Dean of Arts and Science deals with second offences. Written assignments may be checked by plagiarism-de tection software .
Students with special needs should contact the Special Needs Office at ext. 4235.
*are available on reserve in the NU; please read in advance of class in preparation for discussion.
WEEK 1
January 11: Introduction to History 3926W
January 13: Historical Awareness and Public Memory
Readings : Tosh, chap. 1
WEEK 2
January 18-20: Origins of Historical Consciousness and Historicism
Readings : Tosh, chap. 2; Gilderhus, chap. 2
WEEK 3
January 25-27: The Stuff of History: Materials and Sources
Readings : Tosh, chaps. 3 and 4
In class case study: diaries and journals
WEEK 4
February 1-3: con't source materials, evidence and analysis
Readings : Tey, The Daughter of Time
WEEK 5
February 8: Enlightenment and Revolution in France
February 10: Victorian Historians and the Whig Tradition of History
Readings : Gilderhus, chap. 2, 3 and 4;
Gertrude Himmelfarb, 'Who now reads Macaulay?' in The New History and the Old: Critical Essays and Reappraisals ( London : 1987), pp. 143-154.*
WEEK 6
February 15-17: German Romanticism, Leopold von Ranke and Historical Method
Written Assignment #1: The Daughter of Time and the Search for True Facts
Due the week of February 15-17.
WEEK 7
February 22-24: Study Week
WEEK 8
March 1: Karl Marx and the Primacy of Class
Readings : Tosh, chaps. 5 and 8
March 3: The British Marxist School
In class case study: E. P. Thompson
Readings : Eileen James Yeo, 'E. P. Thompson: witness against the beast', in Historical Controversies and Historians , ed. William Lamont (London: UCL Press, 1998), pp. 215-225.*
Selection from E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class *
WEEK 9
March 8: Sociology and Max Weber's Spirit of Capitalism
Readings : Richard Whatmore, 'The Weber thesis: "unproven yet unrefuted"', in Historical Controversies and Historians , ed. William Lamont (London: UCL Press, 1998), pp. 95-108.*
March 10: Annales School and Total History
Selections from Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft *
WEEK 10
March 15: Feminist Theory and Women's History
March 17: Gender History
Case Study: Do women need a separate history?
Readings : Joan Scott, 'Women's History' in New Perspectives on Historical Writing ,
ed. Peter Burke (University Park, PA: Polity Press, 1998), pp. 42-66.*
WEEK 11
March 22: : Anthropology
March 24: Ethnohistory
Readings : Tosh, chap. 10.
WEEK 12
March 29: Oral History
Readings : Tosh, chap. 11
March 31: The Future of the Past
Writing Assignment #2: Historiography and Perspectives of Analysis
Due March 29, 2006 . Value 20%
WEEK 13
April 5: Conclusion and Review
April 7: Exam preparation
Please, no switching.
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