Seminar in Historical Methods

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Seminar in Historical Methods posted by member150_php on 2/12/2009

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Spring 2004

Artist's rendering of a medieval aura, originally from NASA's Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

Course Highlights

This course features examples of student work and videos from two class sessions: one featuring a discussion of "The Middle Ages as Fantasy," and another on "The MIT Mix - or How Does a History Department Work?"

Course Description

This course is designed to acquaint students with a variety of approaches to the past used by historians writing in the twentieth century. The books we read have all made significant contributions to their respective sub-fields and have been selected to give as wide a coverage in both field and methodology as possible in one semester's worth of reading. We examine how historians conceive of their object of study, how they use primary sources as a basis for their accounts, how they structure the narrative and analytic discussion of their topic, and what are the advantages and drawbacks of their various approaches.

Special Features

Sample video lectures

Technical Requirements

RealOne™ Player software is required to run the .rm files found on this course site.

Syllabus

Subject Description

This course is designed to acquaint you with a variety of approaches to the past used by historians writing in the twentieth century. The books we will read have all made significant contributions to their respective sub-fields and have been selected to give as wide a coverage in both field and methodology as possible in one semester's worth of reading. We will examine how historians conceive of their object of study, how they use primary sources as a basis for their accounts, how they structure the narrative and analytic discussion of their topic, and what are the advantages and drawbacks of their various approaches.

Assignments and Grading

The main written assignment for this course is a substantial research paper, on any reasonable subject of interest to you. These papers should be between 15-20 pages long, and should explore the given topic in substantial depth. History majors may use this paper to explore a possible thesis topic. The paper will be produced in the following stages:

SES #	KEY DATES
4	Statement of topic interest and research proposal
6	Annotated bibliography
Before SES #10	Draft
13	Final draft and class presentations

You will also be expected to bring to class each week a brief (and informal) commentary on the assigned reading. Each week one student will use his or her commentary as the basis for introducing the class discussion.

Class attendance is an essential component of this course. And participation in class discussion is an important part of the work for the course. Always bring your copy of the reading with you to class so that you can participate fully.

All written work should represent original and individual work. Cases of plagiarism will be investigated fully and reported to the Committee on Discipline at MIT. Plagiarized work will also receive the grade of F.

Grades will be assigned as follows:

ACTIVITIES	PERCENTAGES
Research Paper	50%
Weekly Response Papers	20%
Seminar Participation	30%

Calendar

SES #	TOPICS
1	Introduction
2	Narrative and History
3	Narrative and History (cont.)
4	The Annales School
	Individual meetings to review research proposals
5	Gender and History
6	The Middle Ages as Fantasy
7	The MIT Mix - Or How Does a History Department Work?
8	Thinking About Doing History
9	Environment and History
	Drafts due
10	Sunday Field Trip
11	Demography and History
12	Culture and History
13	Class Presentations

Readings

Required Texts

Bynum, Caroline Walker. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780520063297.

Davis, Natalie. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780674766914.

Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1995. ISBN: 9780679759614.

Hunt, Lynn, et al. Telling the Truth About History. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 1995. ISBN: 9780393312867.

Lee, James Z., and Wang Feng. One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780674007093.

Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780521477352.

Krech, Shepard. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. ISBN: 9780393321005.

Readings by Class Session

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction	A Midwife's Tale. (The film version.)
2	Narrative and History	The Return of Martin Guerre.
3	Narrative and History (cont.)	The Unredeemed Captive.
4	The Annales School	Braudel, Fernand. Mediterranean. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1992. ISBN: 9780060159580. (selections) Hexter, J. H. "Fernand Braudel and the Monde Braudellien." Journal of Modern History 44 (1972): 480-539. Extra Reading if Interested Hufton, Olwen. "Fernand Braudel." Past and Present no. 112 (August, 1986): 208-213.
	Individual meetings to review research proposals	none
5	Gender and History	Holy Feast, Holy Fast. pp. 1-186 (and distribute part III amongst the class).
6	The Middle Ages as Fantasy	The Discarded Image. Cantor, Norman. "The Oxford Fantasists." In Inventing the Middle Ages. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Selections from Tolkien, J. R. R. "Beowulf and the Critics." (Manuscript dating early 1930s.)
7	The MIT Mix - Or How Does a History Department Work?	Dower, John. "Race, Language, and War in Two Cultures." In Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays. New York: New Press, 1993. Jacobs, Meg. "How About Some Meat?: The Office of Price Administration, Consumption Politics, and State Building from the Bottom Up, 1941-1946." Journal of American History 84, no. 3 (1997). McCants, Anne. "The Not-So-Merry Widows of Amsterdam, 1740-1782." Journal of Family History 24, no. 4 (1999). Perdue, Peter. "Empire and Nation in Comparative Perspective: Frontier Administration in 18th c China."Journal of Early Modern History 5, no. 4 (2001). Ravel, Jeff. "The Coachman's Bare Rump: an 18th French Cover-up." Unpublished manuscript, 2003. Ritvo, Harriet. "Race, Breed, and Myths of Origin: Chillingham Cattle as Ancient Britons." Representations 39 (Summer, 1992).
8	Thinking About Doing History	Telling the Truth About History. Tilly, Charles. "How (and What) are Historians Doing?" In American Behavioral Scientist , July–August 1990. pp. 685-711.
9	Environment and History	The Ecological Indian. pp. 9-104, and 145-189.
	Drafts Due
10	Sunday Field Trip	Excursion to Peabody-Essex Museum to tour the Chinese Merchant's House .
11	Demography and History	One Quarter of Humanity.
12	Culture and History	Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1985. ISBN: 9780394729275. Mah, Harold. "Suppressing the Text: The Metaphysics of Ethnographic History in Darnton's Great Cat Massacre." History Workshop 31 (Spring, 1991).
13	Class Presentations