His 505-1 Historiography of United
States History through Reconstruction
Professor John Neff
4:00 TH
Bishop 333
This course is designed to introduce graduate students
to some of the central historical questions and interpretations
of American history from roughly 1600-1877. In addition,
our exploration of historical literature and scholarship
is designed to shed light on the processes through which
historians interpret the past as well as engage each
other in debate. Weekly reading assignments will offer
students an opportunity to sample from a variety of
topics, methodologies and analytical approaches. Topics
will include Native Americans and European Contact,
Religion, Slavery, the American Revolution, the emergence
of American Nationalism, the Market Transformation and
the National Economy, Gender and Sexuality, Political
Participation and Behavior, Labor, Family History and
Demography, Sectionalism and Reconstruction.
Students are required to do the assigned readings thoughtfully
and diligently, and to contribute their findings to
our scintillating weekly meetings. In addition, students
will write and submit a number of cogent and insightful
papers. The papers will increase in complexity and difficulty
and will consist of short analytical papers focusing
on assessment, comparisons and criticism. The final
paper will conclude the semester with an historiographic
review of a particular topic not covered in detail by
the class, chosen by the student in collaboration with
the instructor. The first papers should be considered
as training for the last, which should be approximately
18-20 pages in length.
His 550-1 Methods, Theories, and Practices of
History
Professor Lester Field
1:00 W
Bishop 326
Course Description
This seminar examines the methods employed by historians
as they practice their craft. In this respect, theoretical
foundations as well as practical applications of methodologies
that shape history and historiography receive special
attention. In each meeting, a guest historian will present
methodological issues especially pertinent to his or
her own expertise and based on readings assigned in
the seminar’s syllabus. The course culminates
in research paper that treats the theory or practice
of a particular method employed by historians, whether
past or present. The instructor of record will guide
and grade the progress of these papers.
His 652-1 Total War, Modern War: The Historiography
of the
Two World Wars
Professor Susan Grayzel
1:00 T
TBA
As pivotal moments in twentieth-century history, the
First and Second World Wars have provoked scholarly
debate about everything from their origins to their
legacies. In this class, we will examine scholarship
that takes the cultural and social history of these
wars as their focus alongside works that concentrate
on more traditional strategic, political and military
aspects. While primarily looking at these conflicts
from a European perspective, we will also engage with
studies that place them in a comparative, global and
especially imperial context.
Students will have the opportunity to participate in
vigorous class discussion of texts and write several
historiographic essays while acquiring a command of
the literature on this subject.
Selected Readings may be drawn from among the following
books as well as articles:
Bartov, Omer. Hitler’s Army
Browning, Christopher. Ordinary Men
Davis, Tami Biddle. Rhetoric and Reality in Air
Warfare
Gullace, Nicoletta. The Blood of Our Sons: Men,
Women and the Renegotiation of Citizenship during the
Great War
Healy, Maureen. Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg
Empire
Horne, John (ed). State Society and Mobilization
in Europe during the First World War
Hull, Isabel V. Absolute Destruction: Military Culture
and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany
Kramer, Alan. Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and
Mass Killing in the First World War
Liulevicius, Vejas. War Land on the Eastern Front:
Culture, National Identity and German Occupation in
World War I.
Lunn, Joe. Memoirs of the Maelstrom: A Senegalese
Oral History of the First World War
Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism
Rose, Sonya O. Which People’s War? National
Identity and Citizenship in Britain, 1939-1945
Weitz, Margaret Collins. Sisters in the Resistance
His 691-1 Latin American Labor History
Professor Oliver Dinius
4:00 TH
TBA
This course has two main goals:
1) To critically investigate the approaches that historians
have taken in their writing about labor. These methodological
considerations apply to other parts of the world as
much as to Latin America.
2) To familiarize ourselves with the literature on labor
history in Latin America more specifically. This will
include some coverage of the pre-industrial period,
most importantly slave labor, but the main focus will
be on industrial labor (broadly defined).
Labor history can be written as economic, political,
social, or cultural history, and the major shift in
recent decades was from a socio-political to a socio-cultural
history of labor. This course aims to equip students
with the skills to place those histories firmly in the
context of the underlying economic system, namely ‘industrial
capitalism,’ and to think about how that may enrich
the currently dominant approach(es). The history of
labor movements, strikes, and working-class communities
will receive their due attention, as will the everyday
experience of work, technological change, and the (increasingly
bureaucratized) management of labor.
In order to understand the work experience in the terms
of the historical actors (as much as possible without
working a shift in a [historical] factory), students
will complete two research assignments on work and technology
in an industry of their choice. Other course requirements
include regular short essays on the common readings,
discussion leading, a final (largely historiographical)
paper, and of course class participation.
His 693-1 African-American Women’s History
Professor Hornsby-Gutting
4:00 M
Bishop 333
This course examines the epistemology of the field
in addition to published scholarship on a range of nineteenth
and twentieth century subjects. Through articles and
monographs, students will study African-American women’s
history in-depth, assessing its importance and how it
complements or is distinctive from other fields of history.
Course participants will be responsible for weekly
response papers, and will lead a class discussion during
the semester. Submission of a major research (30-35
pgs) or historiographical paper addressing conceptual/theoretical
issues within the field is also required.
His 702-1
Professor Charles Wilson
1:00 T
Bryant 06
The goal of History 702 is to produce a 30-page research
paper based on primary sources. If a student is working
on a doctoral dissertation or a master’s thesis,
then that project should shape the form of the paper.
You could also aim to produce a paper that would be
worthy of submission to a scholarly journal.
Class will meet a few times as a group, but students
will work much of the semester researching and writing.
When we do meet as a group, we will discuss models of
doing scholarly research, focusing on historiography,
interpretation, use of primary sources, issues of evidence,
and writing. We will examine issues in the cultural
history of the American South in order to understand
current themes in that area of scholarship but also
to think about how authors deal with evidence, historiography,
theory, and writing. Readings will consist of selected
journal articles and two monographs.
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