Historical Studies 498
Historical Methods and Philosophies of History
Academic Year 2008-2009, Winter 2009
Dr. Elizabeth Jameson
Office: SS 642
Office Hours: Monday, 12-2, and by appointment
Phone: 403-220-3066
email: [email protected]
Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to provide an in-depth introduction to different methodologies,
categories of analysis, and schools of historical interpretation that have characterized the practice
of history in the 20th century.
During the winter semester, we will approach these topics through documents, texts, and
practice. We will examine the analytic categories of class, race, and gender, as historians have
defined and used them. We will explore a variety of historical sources: primary texts, secondary
reports, quantitative data, oral accounts, visual documents, and physical objects. And we will
explore how historians have interpreted and reinterpreted a political and military leader (Andrew
Jackson), an event (the Cypress Hills Massacre), and a concept that figured importantly in the
national histories of Canada and the United States (the frontier).
The goal of this course is to expose students to a range of historical methodologies and
interpretive strategies, to promote reflection on how historical contexts influence historians'
questions and theoretical perspectives, and how these in turn influence research strategies,
evaluation of evidence, and historical interpretations. While the topics and sources will be
drawn largely from U.S. and Canadian histories, the skills and concepts explored are pertinent to
most historical subjects, and students will be encouraged to relate them to their own particular
interests and research topics.
Texts (available in the University of Calgary Bookstore):
Theresa Delaney & Theresa Gowanlock, Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear
Walter Hildebrandt and Brian Hosmer, The Cypress Hills: An Island By Itself
Albert Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers
John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age
Additional readings are posted on Blackboard, and are listed under Class Assignments.
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Assistance: Students are advised to visit the instructor during office hours. You may
also receive assistance from Mr. Jerremie Clyde, the History Librarian. Mr. Clyde will
hold regular office hours in the History Department this semester, Wednesday and
Thursday, 1-2:30, SS 639
Requirements:
Class Participation:
The primary requirement is regular attendance and class participation. The success of any
seminar rests on the active participation of all participants. Come to class prepared to discuss
the readings, to contribute to the discussion and to be an active and engaged listener. In general,
your grade for class participation will depend less on how much you talk than on the quality of
your comments. You are expected to participate regularly, and also to facilitate your colleagues'
participation by respectful listening and by asking good questions. Differences of opinion are
part of scholarly discourse. Such differences should be respected—and even embraced—as a
way to explore and challenge our own assumptions.
Short Papers
There are four short paper assignments.
1. Comparative Documents Paper. Locate both documents described in a) and b) below.
Make copies of the documents and bring them to class January 26. Write the paper described in
either a or b. The paper (2-4 pages) is due February 9.
a. Visit the Microform collection on the third floor of the Library Tower. Spend a little time
browsing the collection. The Library has full runs of a number of newspapers (see the list on the
chalkboard) and periodicals. Consult a popular magazine or the newspaper of your choice.
Compare the coverage of some of the events in "Eyes on the Prize" to the video. 2-4 page paper,
due February 9.
b. The week of January 19 you are required to read or listen to Barack Obama's inaugural
address, and to read at least one other inaugural address or account (see assignment, January 19,
below). Find a news account of the same inauguration. Compare the speech (or account) with
the news coverage, and evaluate how you might use them as historical sources. 2-4 page paper,
due February 9.
2. Quantitative Analysis (3-5 pages). Due March 9.
We will discuss the excerpts from The Spanish Census of 1790, Province of New Mexico and
Mexican Census, 1923, Tesuque Pueblo (available on Blackboard) in class February 2. We will
discuss these and other quantitative sources again on February 16.
Using one of the excerpts from these manuscript censuses or two pages of any manuscript census
available in the Library or electronically, do your own historical quantification project.
1. Identify the census you used.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Articulate an historical question you wish to answer from the census.
Establish the categories necessary to quantify your data.
Do the numerical calculations.
Answer the question.
Examples might be:
What are the age differences between spouses? By ethnicity? By race?
How does household structure vary by class?
Is there evidence of cross-class or cross-ethnic community?
The categories (#3) involved might then be: ethnic group; racial group; kinds of households; the
relationships of occupations to classes.
3. Sources Paper. Due March 23.
In consultation with the instructor, pick a topic. This can be a topic on which you have already
done research or with which you are already familiar. Your honours thesis would be a good
choice if you are doing one. Locate one of each of the following for your topic:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A book
An encyclopedia article
An article in a scholarly journal
An article in a popular journal
A newspaper article
A government document
A letter, diary, oral history, or other archival document
A photograph, map, or physical object
You may substitute any other source for one of the above
For each item, give a full citation of what it is and where to find it, and identify how you located
it. You must use at least three different finding aids to locate your sources. Do not use only the
library book catalogue, for instance, or only Google.
4. Interpretive Framework Paper (3-5 pages). Due April 17.
Using the same topic as for Assignment 3, discuss an interpretive framework you might choose
for this topic. Examples among those studied this semester might include, for instance, myth and
symbols analysis, class analysis, gender analysis, consensus analysis, etc. You are advised to
discuss your choice with the instructor. Discuss the sources you would use, your categories of
analysis, methodology, and interpretive framework.
Final Paper
1. Comparative Interpretation Paper (10-15 pages). Due April 22.
Compare three or more historical interpretations of the same topic, based on the assigned
readings. Select one of the three "interpretive clusters": Andrew Jackson, the frontier, or the
Cypress Hills Massacre. Compare three or more of the historical interpretations of that topic
represented in the assigned reading for this course:
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Andrew Jackson: Ward, Hofstadter, Lebowitz, Lerner
Frontier: Turner, Stanley, Pomeroy, West, Hurtado
Cypress Hills: Stanley, Sharp, Stegner, LaDow, Hildebrandt and
Hosmer
Your paper should take into account the historical contexts in which the historians wrote, their
sources, methodologies, categories of analysis, questions, evidence, and historical
interpretations.
Grades:
Your grade for winter, 2009 will be determined as follows:
Class Participation
Short Papers:
Comparative Documents Paper
Quantitative Paper
Sources Paper
Interpretive Frameworks Paper
Final Paper:
Comparative Interpretation Paper
30 percent
10 percent
10 percent
10 percent
10 percent
30 percent
Grade Distribution:
Your grade for the course is determined by your grades in both semesters. Your grade for fall,
2008, has been assigned by Dr. Elofson. Dr. Jameson will grade your work for winter, 2009.
Your final mark will be determined by an average of these two grades. If there is any ambiguity,
the final grade will be assigned by both instructors in consultation with one another.
Deadlines:
All assignments must be completed in order to pass the course. Deadlines are firm, and late work
will be accepted without penalty only with a doctor's note or other certification of serious family
crisis. Work submitted after a deadline without such evidence or the permission of the instructor
will be penalized.
Class Assignments:
January 12:
Introduction to Course
Section One: Texts, Contexts, and Interpretations
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January 19:
Reading:
Documenting Race: Texts, Talk, and Film
Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963) and "Impasse in Race Relations"
(1967)
Stokely Carmichael, "Black Power" (1966)
Barack Obama, "Race" (2006)
View: Two episodes of "Eyes on the Prize"
January 26: Texts and Contexts, Race and Gender
Assignment: View or read Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, and read one or more of
the following:
Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, "The Inauguration of Andrew Jackson" (1829)
Jefferson Davis's Inaugural Address (1861)
Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address (1861)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address (1933)
John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (1961)
(All on Blackboard)
See the Comparative Documents Assignment (above), and bring the news documents described
to class.
Reading: Theresa Delaney & Theresa Gowanlock, Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear
Section Two: Methodology, Theory, and Interpretation
February 2: Grappling with the Categories: Class and Race
Reading:
E.P. Thompson, "Preface," The Making of the English Working Class, 1963
Joe William Trotter, "The Genesis of the Black Working Class," Coal, Class, and Color, 1990
Assignment: Bring excerpts from The Spanish Census of 1790, Province of New Mexico and
Mexican Census, 1923, Tesuque Pueblo to discuss in class (posted on Blackboard.)
February 9: Gender, Class, and Race
Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review
91, no. 5 (1986): 1053-1075
Bettina Bradbury, "Women's History and Working-Class History," Labour/Le Travail 19 (Spring
1987), 23-43
Peggy Pascoe, "Introduction: The Challenge of Writing Multicultural Women's History," and
"Race, Culture, and Intercultural Relations: The Case of Interracial Marriage," Frontiers
12:1 (1991): 1-18
Comparative Documents Paper Due
February 16: Reading Week, No Class
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February 23: Sources: Numbers and Things
Reading:
Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, "Slavery and the Cliometric Revolution," and
“Punishment, Rewards, and Expropriation," Time on the Cross, 1974
John Demos, "Forward to the First Edition" and "Part One: The Physical Setting" (Chapters 1-3),
A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, 1970
Assignment: Bring an object or a picture that you could use as a source for your research topic
(if you are doing an honours thesis), or that might serve as a source for the topic of your choice.
March 2: The Methodology and Practice of Oral History
Reading:
Alessandro Portelli, "Philosophy and the Facts: Subjectivity and Narrative Form in
Autobiography and Oral History," "Form and Meaning of Historical Representation: The
Battle of Evarts and the Battle of Crummies (Kentucky: 1931, 1941)", and "As Though It
Were a Story: Versions of Vietnam," The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art
of Dialogue, 1997
Section Three: Interpretations
March 9: Battles, Dates, and....Myths and Symbols
Reading:
John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age
Quantitative Paper Due
March 16: Andrew Jackson Interpreted (and Reinterpreted)
Reading:
Richard Hofstadter, "Andrew Jackson and the Rise of Liberal Capitalism," The American
Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, 1948
Michael A. Lebowitz, "The Jacksonians: Paradox Lost?," Barton J. Bernstein, ed., Towards a
New Past: Dissenting Essays in American History, 1967
Gerda Lerner, "The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of
Jackson," in The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1979.
March 23: Frontiers and Nations
Reading:
Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)
George F.G. Stanley, "Western Canada and the Frontier Thesis" (1940)
Earl Pomeroy, "Toward a Reorientation of Western History: Continuity and Environment,"
Mississippi Valley Historical Review 41:4 (1955): 579-600
Elliott West, "A Longer, Grimmer, But More Interesting Story," Montana: Magazine of
Western History, 1990
Sources Paper Due
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March 30: The Frontier from the Inside Out
Reading:
Albert Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers
April 6: Taming the Wild West: The Cypress Hills Massacre
Reading:
Paul F. Sharp, "Massacre at Cypress Hills" and "Law in Scarlet Tunics," Whoop-Up Country,
1955
Wallace Stegner, "The Last of the Exterminators" and "Law in a Red Coat," Wolf Willow,
1962
Beth LaDow, "The 'Melting Pot of Hell'", The Medicine Line, 2001
April 13: The Cypress Hills Revisited
Reading:
Walter Hildebrandt and Brian Hosmer, The Cypress Hills: An Island By Itself
April 17: Interpretive Framework Paper Due in the History Department by 4 P.M.
April 22: Comparative Papers Due in the History Department by 4 P.M.
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