University of New
Mexico, Fall Semester 2016
History 491: Historiography
T/R:
11AM-12:15PM; in Mesa Vista Hall, 1101
Professor Enrique A. Sanabria
Office: Mesa Vista Hall, 2082
Telephone:
(505) 277-2267; Email: Sanabria@unm.edu
Office
Hours:
Mondays, 1:30-3PM;
Wednesdays, 10:30-Noon or by appt.
Course Web Page:
http://www.unm.edu/~sanabria/history491.htm
Course
Description:
This course is a
capstone seminar designed for History majors that will explore the theory of
history and how history is “done” (i.e. historical methodologies) through a
careful reading and discussion of historical documents and texts from classical
times to the present. In this seminar we will not only just look at the “history
of History”, but also explore different and influential approaches to history
as well as the philosophical underpinnings that inform our assumptions in
understanding the past, and thereby emerge with a critical understanding of the
discipline and profession of being an historian. By its very nature, a
historiography course can never be “complete,” but we will read widely across
geographical and temporal borders, sample a range of perspectives on the
writing of history, and consider a number of theoretical approaches that have
been especially influential in the field.
Capstone Student Learning
Outcomes for History 491 (Historiography)
1. By the senior year, each major
will demonstrate ethical use of sources and provide accurate and properly
formatted citations in all formal papers for either capstone course (491 or
492).
2. Each major will demonstrate in
their research project(s) for either capstone course (491 or 492) or the Honors
research semester (493) the abilities: to distinguish between primary and
secondary sources; to identify and evaluate evidence.
3. Each major will demonstrate,
in either capstone course and/or in writing the Honors thesis (494), the
ability to formulate a clear argument, support the argument with appropriate
and thorough evidence, and reach a convincing conclusion.
4. Each major will demonstrate
the ability to compare and contrast different processes, modes of thought, and
modes of expression from different historical time periods and in different
geographic areas.
5. Each major will demonstrate in
research topic choices and resulting papers the ability to recognize and
articulate the diversity of human experience, including ethnicity, race,
language, sex, gender, as well as political, economic, social, and cultural
structures over time and space.
Required Reading (available at UNM
Bookstore):
*
William Cronon, Changes in the Land
(Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2003). ISBN: 9780142002407
*Natalie
Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, MA,
1983). ISBN: 978-0-674-76691-4
*
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction (New York, ISBN: 978-0-679-72469-8
*
Sigmund Freud, Dora: Analysis of a Case
of Hysteria (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997). ISBN: 9780684829463
* Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (New York: W. W. Norton,
2011). ISBN: 9781614270539
*
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the
Past: Power and the Production of
History (Boston, 1995). ISBN: 978-0-8070-8053-5
*
Sonja O. Rose, What is Gender History
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, 2010). ISBN: 9780745646152
*
Edward Said, Orientalism (New York,
1979). ISBN: 978-0-394-74067-6
*
Carolyn Kay Steedman, Landscape for a
Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives
(New Brunswick, NJ, 1987)
* John Tosh, The Pursuit of
History: Aims, Methods and New
Directions in the Study of History, Sixth Edition (London, 2015). ISBN:
978-1-138-80808-9
* Additional Readings online (via learn.unm.edu and the
internet). I would recommend that you
either print out these readings to have during our meetings, or that you have
the readings open on your laptops or tablets so that you can refer to them as
needed.
Course
Format and Advice:
We
will meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11AM to 12:15PM in Mesa
Vista Hall, 1101. It is imperative that
you understand from the get-go, that one of the most important things I would
like to inculcate in you is that this historiography seminar will give you a
taste of how graduate school in History works, and how professors and graduate
students engage very deeply with each week’s readings. We will have a really great opportunity to
work collaboratively through the issues raised by the reading, and thus, the
success of the seminar will be dependent on the participation of all the members. I expect that
everyone will come to class having both read the material and given it some
thought.
Our
meetings also represent opportunities for you to get to know each other, and
because none of us work in isolation, the building a supportive community is a
vital part of the scholarly enterprise. Some students are more comfortable than
others at participating in discussion, but it is vital that everyone comes to
class ready to contribute and actually contributes. My role will be to facilitate the
conversation and I will offer some guidance as needed, but I will not lecture
extensively in our seminar meetings.
As
you read each week’s materials, I recommend that you consider both the big
picture (the author’s argument, or where they fit into the larger
historiographical debate or unfolding of historiography) as well as the details
that build an argument (case studies, use of evidence, language, etc.). As you
read, take lots of notes, and truly think about how each author’s arguments
relates, disputes, builds upon, etc. the work of other scholars. Doing so will
force you to think about these issues in advance of the class session, and help
you to both remember but also participate in our discussions. Always evaluate
how persuasive is an argument? And why is it persuasive? What kind of evidence does it use, and how
successfully?
I
will take attendance as both your attendance and your participation are part of
your final grade. Excused absences (religious holidays, a note from your doctor
when you get ill, for example) will not affect your participation grade, but
you must communicate with me and know that more than two unexcused absences
will affect your grade negatively since the work for this course is so focused
on discussion.
Grading:
All assignments must
be completed in order to release a grade and pass the course. Your final grade will consist of the
following:
·
Engagement/Participation
- 20%. This part of the grade is my assessment of your preparation,
involvement, and attendance in the classroom. I will randomly take roll, and
you should be aware that more than four unexcused absences will have an adverse
effect on your grade. You are expected to come to each session well prepared
and ready and willing to participate in classroom discussions.
·
Weekly
Response Papers -15%. Beginning with the Thursday of Week Two, each student is
to prepare an approximately 500-word response to each week’s reading that is to
be turned in at the end of that class. Papers are due at the end of the
meetings on Tuesday, October 13th and on Tuesday, November 22nd.
These papers are NOT meant to be summaries, but a discussion of points on
theory or method within the readings, as a foundation for what will be
discussed in class. The grade for these 15 papers will be averaged out for the
final grade.
·
Leading
Discussion -15%. Beginning with Week Three, each student will choose one of the
ELIGIBLE class sessions in which to assume the responsibility for leading that
meeting’s discussion. This task will include, of course, reading ahead of the
seminar meeting, researching and telling us a little bit about the author’s
background, and organizing the discussion for his or her chosen meeting. This
can be done in any number of ways: perhaps you can prepare and email your
classmates 7-10 questions to help get the conversation started/going; or
perhaps you want to break the seminar up into smaller discussion groups who
will discuss questions you provide each group; or perhaps, if applicable, you
can assign teams who will debate the most salient issues in your week’s
reading. You get to be the boss, and so you see why it is imperative you come
to each class ready to contribute to the discussion or activities.
·
Book Reviews (2 X 10% each=20% total). Everyone
will be expected to write two book reviews during the semester. Students will
choose the books from those texts (except for Tosh’s book) assigned for meetings
scheduled after September 29th. The reviews should be four to five
pages long and double-spaced. They should be turned in before the class
meetings in which these books will be discussed. Note that you may not review a
book that you are planning to introduce to the class. A book review should
provide a brief summary of the main themes and arguments found in your book of
choice and also give the student's opinion of its strengths and weaknesses.
·
Historiographical
Essay—30%. Students are to prepare a
10-12 page (not including notes and a bibliography), double spaced
Historiographic Essay on a topic of their choice based on the 5 to 7 of the
most important historical works (books and/or articles) on the topic. More
details on this survey of the historical literature will be forthcoming. This
assignment is due of all students on Tuesday,
13 December 2016, no later than Noon.
Late Penalties begin to accrue at Noon.
Schedule
of Topics and Readings (* denotes selection on our course Learn page
(learn.unm.edu); [JS] denotes availability on JSTOR; and E-book selections are
included in internet links:
Week One
Course and Historiography Introductions
Aug. 23: Course Introductions, What do we think
Historiography means today?, and Our Stories
Aug. 25: Some points of departure.
Reading: John Tosh, The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods, and New Directions in the
Study of History (Sixth Edition), Chs. 1-3; Robert Forster, “Achievements
of the Annales School,” Journal of
Economic History, Vol. 38, no. 1 (March 1978), 58-76 [JS]
Week Two
Sources,
Facts, and History
Ancient Fathers of History
August
30: Sources,
Facts, and the limits of History
Reading: Tosh, The Pursuit of History, Chs. 4-7, and 9.
September 1: Ancient Western Histories
Reading: Homer, The
Odyssey, Books IX and XI (available as a free e-book at: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3160/pg3160-images.html
; Herodotus, The Histories, book 1,
paragraphs 1-91 (available as a free e-book at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2707
; Thucydides, History of the
Peloponnesian War, Book 2, Ch 6 (available as a free e-book at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm#link2HCH0006
Week Three
Time,
Anachronism, and History/Historicity
September
6: The Whig Interpretation of History, Part 1
Reading: Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History, (1931), Introduction, Ch. 1-4 [available
at: http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/6762/dfe3c02bc5828c9b5e619c32610a5499.pdf?sequence=1
or http://www.eliohs.unifi.it/testi/900/butterfield/index.html
September 8: The Whig
Interpretation of History, Part II and Marc Block
Reading: Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation, Chs. 5-7 [available, see above];
*Marc
Bloch, The Historian’s Craft: Reflections on the Nature and Uses of History
and the Techniques and Methods of the Men who write it , Translated by Peter Putnam (New
York, 1953), 138-189.
Week Four
Foundational
Texts of Marxism and
History
and Social Theory
September 13: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Reading:
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (available throughout the internet,
including: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
(the many international prefaces are interesting but not necessary, so read pp.
14-66, which includes the Manifesto and
other important documents; Friedrich Engels, Conditions of the Working Class in England, Chapters 2-7 (from
“Introduction to Results”, available here:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/index.htm
)
September 15:
Criticism of Marxist History (NOT ELIGIBLE FOR STUDENT LEAD)
Reading: Tosh, The Pursuit of
History, Ch. 8
Week Five
Class
and modernity
National
Identity
September 20: E.P. Thompson and the Making of the English
Working Class
Readings: *E. P. Thompson, “Preface” to The Making of the English Working Class
(New York: Vintage Books, 1963); E.P. Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline, and
Industrial Capitalism.” Past and Present
38 (Dec., 1967): 56-97 [JS]; E. P.
Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past and Present 50, 1 (1971): 76-136 [JS]
September 22: Imagined Community
Reading:
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections
on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 2006), Chs. 1-4 [available
among many places at http://rebels-library.org/files/imagined_communities.pdf
Week Six
History’s Cultural Turn
September
27: Anthropology, Clifford Geertz, and
History
Reading: Tosh, Ch. 9; Clifford Geertz, “Toward an
Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures:
Selected Essays, (available at http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/Geertz_Thick_Description.php
); Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on
the Balinese Cockfight,” Daedalus, Vol.
101, no. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp. 1-37 [JS]
September
29: More Cultural History Example (NOT
ELIGIBLE FOR STUDENT LEAD)
Reading:
*Robert
Darnton, “Workers Revolt: the Great Cat
Massacre of the Rue St.-Séverin,” in Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History
(New York, 1985), pp. 75-104.
Week Seven
Micro
History
October
4: The Case of
One Martin Guerre
Reading: Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
October 6: Reaction and Response to The Return of Martin Guerre
Reading: Robert Finlay, “The Refashioning of Martin
Guerre” American Historical Review 93, no. 3 (Jun., 1988), pp.
553-571 [JS]; and reply by Davis,
“On the Lame,” American Historical Review
93, no. 3 (June, 1988), pp. 572-603 [JS]; Carlo Ginzburg and John and Anne
Tedeschi, “Microhistory: Two or Three Things I Know about It,” Critical Inquiry 20/1 (1993): 10-35. [JS]
Week Eight
Gender
October
11: Gender as a Category of Analysis
Readings: Tosh, Ch. 10; Sonja Rose, What is Gender History and Bonnie Smith,
“Gender and the Practices of Scientific History,” American Historical Review
100:4 (October, 1995), pp. 1150-1176 [JS].
October
13: No Meeting (Fall Break)
Week Nine
Orientalism
October
18: Said’s Orientalism
Reading: Edward Said, Orientalism, Ch. 1; revisit Tosh, The Pursuit of History, Ch. 10
October
20: Said’s Orientalism, continued
Reading: Said, Orientalism,
Ch. 2
Week Ten
The Legacy
of Orientalism and Post-Colonial
Studies
October 25:
“Orientalism Now”
Reading:
Said, Ch. 3
October 27:
Re-Orientalizing Orientalism?
Reading: Graham Huggan, “(Not) Reading
“Orientalism,” Research in African Literatures 36:3 (2005):
124-36 [JS]; and Dipesh Chakrabarty,
“Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for ‘Indian’ Pasts?” Representations 37 (Winter 1992): 1-26 [JS]
Week Eleven
Psychohistory
November 1: “Dora”, Freud’s Case Study
Reading: Sigmund Freud, Fragment of Analysis of a Case of Hysteria
November 3: On Mothers, Daughters, and Class
Reading: Carolyn Kay
Steedman, Landscape for a Good
Woman: A Story of Two Lives
Week Twelve
Freud,
Foucault, and Sexuality
November 8: Freud on Sexuality
Reading: Sigmund Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex.
November 10: Michel Foucalt’s History of Sexuality
Reading: Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction
Week Thirteen
Power,
History, and the Silencing of History
November 15: Silencing the Haitian Slave Revolt, Part One
Reading: Michel-Rolph
Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Preface,
Ch. 1-3
November 17: Silencing the Haitian Slave Revolt, continued
Reading: Trouillot, Silencing the Past¸Ch. 4-5, Epilogue.
Week Fourteen
An
Introduction to Environmental History
November 22: William Cronon, Environmental History Pioneer
Reading: William Cronon, Changes in the Land
November 24: No Meeting (Thanksgiving Holiday)
Week
Fifteen
Environmental
History, continued
American
Exceptionalism
November 29: Other Environmental Studies Paths
Readings: William Cronon, “The Trouble With Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature Environmental History 1, no. 1 (Jan.,
1996): 7-28 [JS]; * Jake Kosek, “Smokey the Bear is a White Racist Pig,” Ch. 5
in Understories: the Political Life of Forests in Northern New
Mexico (Durham, NC, 2010).
December 1: Turner’s Frontier Thesis
Readings: Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance
of the Frontier in American History,” (first published in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (1893) reprinted
in F. J. Turner, The Frontier in American
History (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1921) [available at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/chapter1.html
or http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22994/22994-h/22994-h.htm
].
Week Sixteen
Historical
Fraud(?)
Decmeber 6: The Bellesiles Case
Reading: Michael A. Bellesiles, “The Origins of Gun
Culture in the United States, 1760-1866,” Journal
of American History 83, no. 2 (Sep., 1996): 425-455 [JS]; Clayton Cramer, “Fraud in Michael Bellesiles’s Arming America” http://www.claytoncramer.com/unpublished/ArmingAmericaFraud.pdf ; Eric Rentschler, “The Fascination of
a Fake: The Hitler Diaries” New German
Critique 90 (Autumn, 2003): 177-192 [JS]
December 8: Final Thoughts (NOT ELIGIBLE FOR STUDENT LEAD), Evaluations
Reading: Tosh, The Pursuit of History,
Ch. 12 and Conclusion
FINAL
PAPER IS DUE IN MY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY MAILBOX
ON
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13TH BY NOON
1.
Late Work and Make-Up Exams:
Late papers will lose 1/3 grade for every day they are late, including weekends
and holidays. Thus, a B paper one day late will become a B-. No make-up exams
will be administered unless students requesting them can produce documented
evidence of illness, disability, accident or other legitimate cause beyond
their control accounting for absence. Please keep me aware of the reasons for
your absences in order to prevent me from dropping you from the course.
2. Plagiarism:
Students are expected to submit only their work on papers and examinations.
While you may discuss the assignments with your colleagues, papers should be
based entirely on your own study of the assigned material. The use of secondary
material, such as Cliff’s Notes or encyclopedias, is not encouraged. If
you copy information from a web page or even retype information from a web
site, you will get caught; past students of mine have been, and been given an
automatic F for the assignment. In
addition, the Dean of Students shall be notified. If you do use any outside material, you must
explicitly acknowledge your debt to those sources in the notes (i.e. endnotes
or footnotes or parenthetical notations).
Turning
in someone else’s work as if it were your own constitutes plagiarism, which is
an act of intellectual fraud. The academic consequences of plagiarism range
from failure for the tainted assignment to failure for the course, depending on
the seriousness of the offense(s).
Examples
of plagiarism include, but are not limited to the following: turning in another
student’s paper as if it were your own; copying of a part or the whole of
another person’s ideas, words or syntax; and quoting, paraphrasing, or
borrowing ideas from published or unpublished material written by someone other
than yourself, without specific acknowledgment of the source. If you ever have
any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, you should consult with your
professor. While we will discuss Academic Dishonesty in the course, please
study and/or refer to the Department’s policy on the matter: http://history.unm.edu/common/documents/policies/GuidelinesonAcademicDishonesty_002.pdf
3. Responsibility and Courtesy to Others:
Students are expected to be prepared for class, to be on time and not disrupt
the sessions by arriving late. Be
attentive and ready to participate in class. Please do not use the class
session to listen to your media players, read the newspaper, take a nap, and
make or receive cell phone calls. You can read all about the UNM Student
Code of Conduct in the appendix to your Pathfinder.
4. Documentation Style
Because
this is an upper division History course, I would be remiss if I didn’t require
you to document your sources using the style used by the historians’
profession: Chicago Manual of Style footnotes or endnotes. In general, the first citation of a book or
article should be complete. For example:
5 Richard Herr, An
Historical Essay on Modern Spain (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1971), p. 47.
Subsequent
references to that book can look like this:
6 Herr, 112.
Here’s
an example of an article citation:
13
Bruce
Lincoln, “Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain, July 1936,” in Comparative
Studies in Society and History, 27, no. 2 (April 1985): 241-260.
Any
library reference section should have a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style
for you to consult, or check out the Quick Guide:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
5.
Paper and Grades
I
have been tickled pink that one of the consistent critiques of my lower
division courses is that I care about expression, grammar, forrmat, etc. on
papers as “if this were an English class.”
Well I don’t believe good grammar and expression should be limited to
your English classes and you would do well to visit the web pages (http://www.unm.edu/~sanabria/writingtips.htm and http://www.unm.edu/~sanabria/grading.htm ) for tips on writing papers and read about
what constitutes an ‘A’ paper compared to ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. papers. History is not only about facts and
memorization! History is the art of
gathering and analyzing a great deal of information, and generating a
convincing, articulate, argument based on the evidence accumulated.
6. SNOW DAYS
You are responsible
for attending classes or discussion sections whenever the UNM is open. In the event of inclement weather you should
call 277-SNOW to determine the Opened, delayed, or shut down status of UNM. I and our graduate assistants will only
cancel or delay classes according to the official determinations of the UNM.
7. Important Dates:
In addition to the due dates for assignments noted above, you should be aware
of important University/Registrar dates:
The last day to add this course via LoboWeb: September
2nd
The last day to change your grading option
is: September 2nd
The
last day to drop a course without a grade is: September 9th
The last day to drop without the Dean’s approval
is: November 11th
The
last day to drop with the Dean’s approval is: December 9th
It
is important to remember that if you must drop this course, you would be well‑served
to do so within the first three weeks of the semester, as no grade will be
assigned. If you decide to drop this course during and after the fourth week or
later, I must assign you a grade of either a WP (Withdrew Passing) or WF
(Withdrew Failing) . WF grades are included as failing
grades in your GPA so please be responsible about withdrawing if that
unfortunate situation presents itself.
|
Qualified students with disabilities needing appropriate academic
adjustments should contact me as soon as possible to ensure your needs are met
in a timely manner. Handouts are
available in alternative accessible formats upon request.