HISTORY 500:  HISTORIOGRAPHY (3887)

 

INSTRUCTOR: JASON M. KELLY

OFFICE: CA 504B

OFFICE HOURS: R 5:45-8:25

OFFICE PHONE: 317.274.1689

EMAIL: JASKELLY@IUPUI.EDU

WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.ONCOURSE.IU.EDU

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

H500 is a reading intensive graduate seminar that focuses on the evolution of historical thought.  Posing important questions about the purpose and philosophy of history, students will analyze how history writing has developed against a background of social, cultural, and political events. 

 

The first third of the course traces history writing from the ancient world to its development as an academic and “scientific” discipline in the nineteenth century.  The second third of the course studies the shifting scope of historical inquiry after WWI, especially focusing on the various forms of “social history.”  The final portion of the course introduces students to the “postmodern” challenge and new directions for historical inquiry at the beginning of the 21st century. 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course will challenge you on many levels.  The assignments will encourage you to improve your ability to communicate effectively through writing and speech, to critically think about the course material, and to integrate and apply your knowledge to the topic of historiography.  You will refine your understanding of the history, methodologies, and expectations of the historical profession.  As such, this course conforms to IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning.  For more information, please see http://www.iupui.edu/~history/ugmain.html.

 

REQUIRED READINGS

·        See me before you purchase any books.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

You are responsible for all announcements that I make during the lectures. If there is any adjustment to the syllabus, I will announce it in class. If for any reason you do not attend the entire lecture, you are still responsible for any announcements that I make. Be sure to contact a fellow student who is responsible and can relay you the information. You may email me or come to my office hours for any announcements you missed.

 


GRADING

The grade breakdown is as follows:

 

PARTICIPATION AND PRESENTATIONS:                                       25%

WEEKLY PRECIS:                                                                                 25%

HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY (4000-6000 WORDS):                     50%

 

Scale: A=90-100, B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, F=0-59

 

This course only meets once a week.  Attendance is mandatory.  I expect you to be prepared to discuss the course themes and readings during every lecture.

 

If you desire to dispute a grade, you may submit an explanation to me in writing. State your points of contention and your reasons for them.  If you are not in class on the day I give back your assignment, make sure to get your grade from me promptly.

 

At IUPUI, Adaptive Educational Services (AES) works to make campus life and learning accessible for students with disabilities. AES assists students in achieving their educational goals through such services as note taking, interpreting, and test proctoring.  Visit the AES webpage at: http://life.iupui.edu/aes/ or call them at 317.274.3241.

 

 

PLAGIARISM/CHEATING

I will not tolerate either of these. Cheating includes copying answers from another student or bringing notes to an exam. Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another person in your work and presenting them as your own. I will fail you for either of these. Additionally, I will report you to the Dean of Student Affairs. If you have any questions as to what constitutes plagiarism or cheating, see me or see the “Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct” online at http://www.hoosiers.iupui.edu/studcode/stucode.htm.

 

 

 


LECTURES

 

WEEK 1

Introduction: What is Historiography?

 

WEEK 2

Class Presentations: Ancient World to Middle Ages

Select readings from the following: Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Plutarch, Appian of Alexandria, Einhard, Bede, Joinville, Ibn Khaldun

 

WEEK 3

Class Presentations: Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Select readings from the following: Christine de Pizan, Leonardo Bruni, Guicciardini, Paolo Sarpi, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Edward Gibbon

 

WEEK 4

Class Presentations: Nineteenth Century

Select readings from the following: Leopold von Ranke, Jules Michelet, Friedrich Engels, Jacob Burckhardt, Arnold Toynbee, Henri Pirenne

 

WEEK 5

The Annales School

Fernand Braudel. “History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Durée.” On History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 25-54.

 

Lynn Hunt, “French History in the Last Twenty Years: The Rise and Fall of the Annales Paradigm,” Journal of Contemporary History, 21:2 (1986): 209-224.

 

WEEK 6

Social History

E.P. Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Customs in Common (London: Penguin, 1993), 185-258.

 

Alfred F. Young, “English Plebeian Culture and Eighteenth-Century American Radicalism,” The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism, ed. Margaret C. Jacob and James R. Jacob (London, 1984),  185–212.

 

William Pencak, “Introduction: A Historical Perspective.” Riot and Revelry in Early America. Edited by William Pencak, Matthew Dennis and Simon P. Newman

 

WEEK 7

Class Presentations: Cultural History and Microhistory

Select readings from the following: Guido Ruggiero, Natalie Zemon Davis, Mona Ozouf, John Brewer

 


WEEK 8

Deep Play

Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures; Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), first half

 

WEEK 9

Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures; Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), second half

 

WEEK 10

Power/Knowledge

Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).

 

WEEK 11

Gender

Joan Landes, Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988).

 

or

 

Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (New York: Owl Books, 1999)

 

WEEK 12

Post/colonialism

Eric Wolf, Europe and the People Without History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), first half.

 

WEEK 13

Eric Wolf. Europe and the People Without History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), second half.

 

WEEK 14

Race/Ethnicity

Gilroy, Paul, 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack': The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

 

or

 

David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, rev. ed. (Verso, 1999)

 

WEEK 15

New Directions

Marshall Sahlins, Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).