History 304: Historiography and Advanced Methods
Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
Spring 2011
Denny 112
Tue / Thu 130-245pm
“History is ultimately a moral art, and it is about values. It is not merely about the collection of facts. It is about the way we put those facts together and the meaning we give them. Arguments about facts are arguments about meaning.”
–John Mack Faragher, quoted in New York Times, June 20, 2002
Required Books
Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.
Available at the Whistlestop Bookshop and on library reserve
Journal Articles
Berlin, Ira. “American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice. Journal of American History 90 (March 2004): 1251-1268. [JSTOR]
Blight, David W. “For Something beyond the Battlefield”: Frederick Douglass and the Struggle for the Memory of the Civil War,” Journal of American History 75 (March 1989): 1156-1178. [JSTOR]
Cronon, William. “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative.” Journal of American History 78 (March 1992): 1347-1376. [JSTOR]
Howe, Daniel Walker. “The Evangelical Movement and the Political Culture in the North During the Second Party System.” Journal of American History 77 (March 1991): 1216-39 [JSTOR]
Kerber, Linda K. “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History.” Journal of American 75 (June 1988): 9-39. [JSTOR]
Lepore, Jill. “Historians Who Love Too Much: Reflections on Microhistory and Biography.” Journal of American History 88 (June 2001): 129-144. [JSTOR]
“Lincoln Studies at the Bicentennial: A Round Table.” Journal of American History 96 (Sep. 2009): 417-461. http://journalofamericanhistory.org/projects/lincoln/index.html
Ogude, S.E. “Equiano’s Narrative Reconsidered.” Research in African Literatures 13 (Spring 1982): 31-43 [JSTOR]
Rodgers, Daniel T. “Republicanism: The Career of a Concept.” Journal of American History 79 (June 1992): 11-38. [JSTOR]
“Textbooks and Teaching.” Journal of American History 91 (Mar. 2005):1380-1415. [JSTOR]
Featured Websites
Center for History and New Media http://chnm.gmu.edu/
Dickinson History Delicious Bookmarks www.delicious.com/dickinsonhistory
Historical Thinking Matters http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/
History News Network http://hnn.us/
House Divided Project http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites
Osborne Center for Historical Methods http://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-center
Teaching History http://teachinghistory.org/
Attendance and Participation
Under ordinary circumstances, more than two unexcused absences will result in a serious (and escalating) grade reduction. Students are also evaluated for participation. Good participation means contributing in the following ways: (1) Providing creative and well-designed presentations during our lab sessions on Tuesdays and (2) Offering thoughtful comments and questions during historiography discussions on Thursdays.
Research Project
Students will conduct advanced archival and digital research in association with the events of the House Divided launch / Civil War 150th weekend in mid-April. They will select a topic from a list of six possibilities (all within Carlisle) and will then catalogue their research efforts in a series of regular entries at the course blog. Each student will have to search at least five different types of sources: (1) manuscript collections in archives, (2) image collections in archives, (3) newspapers on microfilm, (4) newspapers (or other primary sources) in databases, and (5) relevant published sources. Each blog entry (250-500 words) will describe the research process and append relevant materials. The research project will begin on February 1 and must be completed by Friday, March 11.
Video Project
Students will submit a documentary short video (approx. 1 or 2 minutes) by Friday, April 1. The video project should be conceived as a “trailer” for ONE of the six stops in the Carlisle Civil War tour. The trailers will serve as short overviews for the stories associated with each stop. Students should use images from the House Divided Flickr photostream for their video trailers and text or context for their material from the mobile tour demonstration site. The video trailers might have music and sound effects but audio narration is optional. Instead, students should use short text combined with pan-and-zoom still images to create a video trailer. Video documentaries should be produced in software such as iMovie, Moviemaker or Photostory 3 and will use still images only. For advice on how to create videos in these programs and where to find music and other practical details, go to the Video FAQs section of House Divided’s index page. Students must work on the trailers by themselves. Late videos will be penalized by five points per day.
Bibliography and Book Review
On April 29, students will submit an annotated bibliography of at least six scholarly books on a single theme or topic from any era in world history up to 2001. The bibliographies must be prepared in Chicago-style and each entry should contain descriptive annotations of about 250 words that summarize information on factors such as author, subject, argument, evidence and significance. Students should also prepare a 750-word book review of at least one additional scholarly book on the same theme or topic. Late submissions will be penalized 5 points per day.
Historiography Essay
On Monday, May 16, students will submit a 15-20 page historiography essay that builds upon the corrected Bibliography and Book Review assignment. The essay should contain a creative argument and demonstrate both careful analysis and clear prose while analyzing at least seven scholarly sources that address a major subject of historiographical concern. Late essays will be penalized 5 points per day.
Grade Distribution and Learning Objectives
Participation 30 percent
Research Project 20 percent
Video Project 10 percent
Bibliography & Book Review 10 percent
Historiography Essay 30 percent
In this class, students will learn about: 1) Developing historical perspectives; 2) Expressing themselves clearly; 3) Locating relevant information; 4) Identifying key historical issues and debates; and 5) Supporting plausible historical arguments.
Class Schedule (History 304)
| Day | Date | Discussion Topic | Reading Assignment |
| Tuesday | 1/25 | Methods & Expectations | — |
| Thursday | 1/27 | Introduction to Historical Thinking | Wineburg, 3-27 (chap. 1) |
| Tuesday | 2/1 | LAB / Genealogy
Research Project topic selection |
Ancestry.com |
| Thursday | 2/3 | NO CLASS | |
| Tuesday | 2/8 | LAB / Visualizing Records | Slavevoyages.org |
| Thursday | 2/10 | The Case of Equiano | Ogude article |
| Tuesday | 2/15 | GUEST / Pawley | Cronon article |
| Thursday | 2/17 | Between Text and Context | Wineburg, 63-112 (chap. 3-4) |
| Tuesday | 2/22 | GUEST / Soll | Mosquito Empires Roundtable (see esp. pp. 2-3, 5-8, 9-13, 17-22) |
| Wednesday | 2/23 | Bell Lecture by Regina Sweeney | Denny 317, 430pm |
| Thursday | 2/24 | Republicanism | Rodgers article |
| Tuesday | 3/1 | LAB / Behind the Image | Photo / Illustration handouts |
| Thursday | 3/3 | Women’s History | Kerber article |
| Tuesday | 3/8 | LAB / Mapping, Part 1 | GIS webserver |
| Thursday | 3/10 | Evangelicals and Politics | Howe article |
| Friday | 3/11 | Research Project due | Blog posts complete by noon |
| Spring Break (May 11 -21) | |||
| Tuesday | 3/22 | LAB / Blogging | Historically Correct blog |
| Thursday | 3/24 | Slavery | Berlin article |
| Tuesday | 3/29 | LAB / Reading Online | Wordle and Google Books |
| Thursday | 3/31 | Exploring the Lincoln Theme | Lincoln Studies Round Table |
| Tuesday | 4/5 | LAB / Mapping
Videos due in class |
Google Maps / GIS |
| Thursday | 4/7 | Memory & Meaning | Wineburg, 217-231 (chap. 9)
Blight article |
| Tuesday | 4/12 | NO CLASS | |
| Thursday | 4/14 | NO CLASS | |
| Friday | 4/15 | Civil War 150 / House Divided Film Festival | Carlisle Theatre, 7-9pm |
| Saturday | 4/16 | Civil War 150 / House Divided launch
Teacher workshop / Walking Tours / Lecture by David Blight |
Denny 317, 9am –noon,
Courthouse, 1-3pm / ATS, 7-9pm |
| Tuesday | 4/19 | LAB / Reviewing Books | Journal issues |
| Thursday | 4/21 | Writing Lives & Narrative | Lepore article
Cronon article |
| Tuesday | 4/26 | LAB / Film & Video | American History In Video |
| Thursday | 4/28 | History and Multi-Media | Wineburg, 232-255 (chap. 10) |
| Friday | 4/29 | Annotated Bibliography and Book Review due | Via email, By noon |
| Tuesday | 5/3 | LAB / Teaching | Textbooks |
| Thursday | 5/5 | On Textbooks | Textbooks & Teaching issue
Wineburg,117-72 (chap. 5-7) |
| Monday | 5/16 | Historiography Essay due | Via email, By noon |