History 387: Practice and Theory of History Spring 2014

Tuesday 1:10 – 4:00p Timberlake House 4

Prof. Andrew Ross Department of History Kenyon College Seitz House 3 E-mail: rossa@kenyon.edu Office Hours: W-Th, 1-3:30, and by appointment Course Website: http://www.andrewisraelross.com/s14pt Course Description: This course introduces history majors to the methodological and theoretical questions that animate the practice of history. How do professional historians work? What is their goal? How do they locate and analyze source materials? What kinds of arguments do historians try to make? How, ultimately, is history produced? This seminar will begin to answer these questions as students undertake a significant research project. The theme of this seminar is “History and the Popular.” First, we will ask how historians have studied popular culture and its relationship to political, social, and economic history. In particular, we will ask how (or whether) historians' particular sources – and their location in the archives – can give voice to ordinary people. What does the category of “the popular” include? How does the study of “the people” differ from the study of “the political?” What is the former's relationship to the latter? What, in other words, is the importance of popular culture to our understanding of history in the larger sense? Second, we will explore “professional” historians' relationship to contemporary popular culture by investigating the relationship between academic and popular history. How has modern technology – whether film or the internet – changed the way historians work and address their audience? What is the relationship between a community's memory of a historical event and the work of professional historians? By addressing the topic of “History and the Popular” from these two sides, we will work to understand the sheer variety of topics that fall under the purview of the historian as well as well as the multitude of ways of addressing them. Course Objectives: By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

• Identify arguments in historical work • Critique evidence used in support of arguments • Locate and differentiate between primary and secondary sources • Interpret primary sources and place them within their proper historical context • Integrate secondary sources into their own original narratives • Distinguish between different kinds of history • Complete their own historical projects

Required Texts: Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Eighth

Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2013. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston:

Beacon Press, 1995. Robb, Graham. The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography. New York: W.W. Norton,

2007. Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. Boston: Mariner Books, 2011. Please ensure you purchase the correct edition of the text by Turabian. Ebook editions are acceptable to use. We will also watch one film outside of class. The film is a required course text and will be placed on reserve in the library. All other readings will be available online. Course Format: Class will meet once a week. Most class meetings will be discussion format where active participation is required. We will also have several research and workshopping sessions in our seminar room and in the library. Your full attention to the task at hand is expected. Normally, library sessions will last half a class period; the rest of the period will be devoted to individual work and consultations with me. Course Requirements:

Attendance and Participation: Attendance in class is a requirement in order to pass this course and role will be taken everyday. You are permitted to miss one class before your grade begins to suffer. Because this is a seminar class, active participation is also a requirement and will form the primary basis for this grade. You will also be graded on how you spend your in-class library time. This grade includes evaluations of how productive you are during this time and any grades you receive on the various exercises assigned during this time. Discussion Questions: Every student will submit at least three discussion questions for two sets of readings using a Google Document accessible to the entire class. Discussions will begin with these questions. Questions are due by Monday at 1:10 each week.

Readings: All readings are due the day for which they are listed on the syllabus. Film viewings will be scheduled outside of class; if you are unable to attend, then the film is also due the day for which they are listed on the syllabus.

Final Paper: All students will complete a research paper of about fifteen pages on a topic of their choice. Through the course of the semester, will work on the various stages of the writing process together. Graded parts of this project include a research proposal and bibliography, a literature review, a first draft, workshopping, and the final paper. You

have two options for your final research paper:

Option 1: Compose a well-organized essay that employs evidence from primary sources to make a clearly stated historical argument about a particular event, phenomena, or issue related to popular culture from a period and location of your choice.

Option 2: Historicize a recent or contemporary artifact of popular culture by utilizing primary sources to trace the origins of its particular valences. Your essay must include a clearly-stated argument that treats your chosen topic historically.

In order to pass this course you MUST complete all course requirements. Grade Breakdown: Attendance and Participation: 20% Discussion Questions: 5% Research Proposal and Bibliography: 10% Historiography: 15% First Draft: 20% Workshopping and Comments: 5% Final Paper: 25% Grade Appeals: There are no grade appeals! I’m more than happy to talk to you about your grade and how you can improve your work (in fact, I highly encourage you to do so), but please do not ask me to change your grade. Late Assignments: Late assignments will be deducted one grade for each day late. If I have not received your essay after four days you will automatically fail the assignment. If I never receive an assignment you will automatically fail the course. Paperless Grading: In an effort to both save trees and improve the quality of my comments to you, your assignments MUST be turned in electronically. You will do so via e-mail, with a subject heading “Practice and Theory ASSIGNMENT from YOUR NAME.” Accepted file formats are doc and and .docx. Depending on the assignment, I may convert the assignments to .pdfs before grading them. I will e-mail you your paper directly after all assignments have been graded. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy. Contacting Me: The best way to get in touch with me is through e-mail. Please allow 24 hours for a response; if you have not heard from me in that time, do not hesitate to send another note. My office hours are at the top of this syllabus; if those times are not convenient for you I am happy to make other arrangements. I hope you will all come by my office at some point during the semester. Please check your Kenyon e-mail regularly and please keep apprised of materials available on the class website. Online Resources: The course website can be found at http://www.andrewisraelross.com/f14pt.

There you will find a copy of the syllabus and other resources relevant to the course, as well as research assignments. Technology in the Classroom: Please feel free to use your laptops, netbooks or tablets for taking notes and reading texts in class. Plagiarism and Academic Honesty: All students must follow the College’s policies regarding academic honesty as outlined in the Kenyon College Catalog. It is the responsibility of each student to learn and practice the proper ways of documenting and acknowledging those whose ideas and words they have drawn upon (see Academic Honesty and Questions of Plagiarism in the Course Catalog). Ignorance and carelessness are not excuses for academic dishonesty. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please consult with me before submitting work. Disabilities: If you have a hidden or visible disability that may require classroom or test accommodations, please see me privately as soon as possible during a scheduled office hour. If you have not already done so, you must register with the Coordinator of Disability Services, Erin Salva, salvae@kenyon.edu, or x5145, who is the individual responsible for coordinating accommodations and services for students with disabilities. All information and documentation of disabilities are strictly confidential. No accommodations will be granted in this course without notification from the Office of Disability Services. Course Schedule: Week 1: January 14: Introductions: History and the “Popular” Saturday, January 19: Senior History Major Conference, SMA 3:00p – 7:40p Week 2: January 21: Library Session: Locating Sources Reading: Turabian, chaps 3-4. Week 3: January 28: Library Session: Developing a Research Topic Reading: Turabian, chaps 1-2, 5. Week 4: February 4: Defining History Readings: Trouillot, chapters 1 and 2; Norman J. Wilson, History in Crisis? Recent Directions in Historiography, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005), chaps 1 and 2 (eres) Research proposal and preliminary bibliography due February 7 at 5:00p Week 5: February 11: Historicizing Popular Culture Readings: Forum on popular culture in the American Historical Review (1992): Levine, Lawrence W. “The Folklore of Industrial Society: Popular Culture and Its Audiences.” The American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1, 1992): 1369–1399, http://0-www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/2165941; Kelley, Robin D. G. “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Folk’.” The American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1, 1992): 1400–1408, http://0-www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/2165942; Natalie Zemon

Davis. “Toward Mixtures and Margins.” The American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1, 1992): 1409–1416, http://0-www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/2165943; T. J. Jackson Lears. “Making Fun of Popular Culture.” The American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1, 1992): 1417–1426, http://0-www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/2165944; Levine, Lawrence W. “Levine Responds.” The American Historical Review 97, no. 5 (December 1, 1992): 1427–1430, http://0-www.jstor.org.dewey2.library.denison.edu/stable/2165945. Week 6: February 18: Locating the Popular Readings: Arlette Farge, “Introduction” and “Concerning Parents and Children” in Fragile Lives: Violence, Power and Solidarity in Eighteenth-Century Paris, trans. Carol Shelton (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993) (eres). Week 7: February 25: Memory, Commemoration, and Silence Readings: Trouillot (finish) Historiographical Essay due February 28 at 5:00p Spring Break Week 8: March 18: Popular History Reading: Robb, The Discovery of France; Bell, David A. “Bicycle History,” The New Republic (13 February 2008), http://www.tnr.com/article/books/bicycle-history. Film Screening of Flags of Our Fathers Thursday March 20, 4:00p (tentative) Week 9: March 25: History and the Visual Film Screening: Flags of Our Fathers (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2006) Reading: Mary Louise Roberts, “The Myth of the Manly GI,” in What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013). Week 10: April 1: Library Session: Documentation, Footnotes, and Special Collections Reading: Turabian, chaps. 6-7, 15. Week 11: April 8: Digital History Readings: Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, “Introduction” and “Exploring the History Web,” in Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/book.php; Timothy Messer-Kruse, “The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (12 Feburary 2012), http://chronicle.com/article/The-Undue-Weight-of-Truth-on/130704/. First Draft Due April 11 at 5:00p Week 12: April 15: Oral History Readings: Alessandro Portelli, “What Makes Oral History Different,” in Oral History, Oral

Culture, and Italian Americans (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009), 21-30 (eres); Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, “Telling Tales: Oral History and the Construction of Pre-Stonewall Lesbian History,” Radical History Review 62 (1995): 58-79 (eres); Linda Shopes, “Making Sense of Oral History,” Oral History in the Digital Age, http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/08/making-sense-of-oral-history/ Week 13: April 22: Workshopping Reading: Turabian, chaps. 9-12. Week 14: April 29: Alternate Histories Reading: Dick, The Man in the High Castle Final Draft Due Monday, May 5, 2014 at 5:00pm