Carnegie
Mellon University
Instructor: David Wolcott, Ph.D.
Spring 2001
Office: Baker 240F
Credit: 12.0 Units
Office phone: 412-268-6871
Meetings: TTh, 12:00 - 1:20
Email: dw4m@andrew.cmu.edu
Location: CFA 102
Office Hours: Monday 11:00-12:00
Tuesday, Thursday 10-11:00
OverviewCourse
Materials Research Project
Links Calendar
Final Paper Specifications
This is a course in the craft of
being an historian. Probably unlike most history courses that you have
taken, its
main goal is not to master content
ó a specific body of historical knowledge. Instead, its goal is to acquaint
students with historical methods
ó the behind-the-scenes activity which goes into producing historical
scholarship ó and to help students
acquire the skills required of budding historians. Students will learns
how
to pose researchable questions,
how to do the detective work necessary to gather evidence, and how present
their findings clearly and persuasively.
This course adopts a simultaneous
two-track approach. As a group, we will study together a series of readings
and perform a series of exercises
designed to introduce historical methods. As individuals, students will
explore primary sources, develop
their own topics, and develop a research paper according to a schedule
designed by the professor. We will
also be touring libraries, archives, and computer centers for hands-on
experience to the raw material with
which historians work.
Attendance at each class meeting
and each site visit is mandatory. Students must attend class fully versant
in
the assigned readings and prepared
to contribute to class discussion. The final grade will take into account
attendance, classroom participation,
a research log, a series of short exercises, and the research paper.
Course Materials Top
I. Books available for purchase at CMU Bookstore
Davidson, James West and Mark Hamilton
Lytle. After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection. 4th ed.
Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Hallstern, Mark, Gregory M. Scott,
and Stephen M. Garrison. The History Student Writerís Manuel. Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall
1998.
II. Photocopies on reserve at
Hunt Library Circulation Desk or on-line
The Research Project Top
This course is about learning by
doing and, to that end, you will be doing a research project. The ultimate
goal
is to produce a 12-to-15 page historical
research paper based on primary sources. However, the purpose of
this project is to teach you historical
thinking and historical research methods, so the process of doing the
paper is just as important as the
result.
We will approach the research process
from two different angles. On one hand, you may begin the process by
choosing a topic that you would
like to explore. From there, you try to narrow the topic into a researchable
set of questions and to find appropriate
sources. On the other hand, you can also begin by looking at primary
sources and developing research
questions from them. To that end, I have identified a number of primary
source collections in the Pittsburgh
area that should be useful for an introductory research project. In the
early
part of the semester, I would like
you to experiment with both approaches so that a project emerges
organically. You will be expected
to maintain a research log documenting your progress. As the project
emerges, I will ask you to do a
number of assignments that will serve as stepping stones along the way
to a
final paper.
These assignments are:
1. A preliminary idea for a
research topic. This short, one page statement should indicate what questions
youíd like to ask and what primary
sources youíd hope to encounter.
Due January 30.
2. Documentary analysis exercise.
After examining a set of primary sources, write a one-page statement
indicating what researchable questions
you could pursue based upon them.
Due February 20
3. A preliminary list of secondary
and background works relevant to topic you wish to pursue
Due February 27.
4. A formal paper proposal.
This should indicate your topic, your researchable questions, your primary
sources, your preliminary hypotheses,
and why your project is interesting.
Due March 6.
5. Research log.
Due twice, on March 6 (with the
paper proposal) and on May 9 (with the final draft).
6. Outline of the paper, due April 10.
7. Rough draft of the paper, due May 1.
8. Final draft of the paper,
due May 9. Specifications
Links to archives and to primary documents on-line Top
Hunt Library History Research Guide
University of Pittsburgh Archives Services Center
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Department
Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center Library & Archives
Library of Congress American Memory
National Archives [NARA Archival Information Locator / NAIL]
The Valley of the Shadow Project
Selected Archival Collections in the Pittsburgh Area
Museum
of the City of New York
Calendar Top
Introduction
Tuesday, January 16 - Introduction
Thursday, January 18 - What is history?
Reading:
After the Fact, ix-xxxiii
(Preface, Intro, Prologue)
Writerís Manual, ch. 1, "The
Discipline of History"
Tuesday, January 23 - In-class writing
workshop: Defining a topic
Reading:
Writerís Manual, 11-36
Thursday, January 25 - SITE VISIT:
Hunt
Library
Reading:
Writerís Manual, 135-153
* Meet in the Hunt Reference Instruction
Room in Hunt Library (across from the reference desk) at
12:00 sharp.
Tuesday, January 30 - Choosing &
Using Evidence
Reading:
After the Fact,
1-22, "Serving Time in Virginia"
Preliminary ideas for paper topics
due
Thursday, February 1 - SITE VISIT:
Sen.
John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center
* Meet on Frew Street right outside
of Baker Hall at 11:30 a.m. We will return to CMU by
2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 6 ó Example: The
Red Scare in Pittsburgh
Reading:
Steve Nelson, Steve Nelson: American
Radical, xi-xxi, 298-340 [RESERVE]
Thursday, February 8 ó SITE VISIT:
Archives
of Industrial Society
* Meet on Frew Street right
outside of Baker Hall at 11:30 a.m. We will return to CMU by
2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 13 ó Interpreting
Documents
Reading:
After the Fact, 48-70, "Declaring
Independence"
Thursday, February 15 - In-class
document exercises
Tuesday, February 20 - Analyzing
Newspapers and Multiple Sources
Reading:
Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder
of Helen Jewett (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 3-68 [RESERVE]
Out-of-class documentary analysis
exercise due
Thursday, February 22 - Doing History
on the Internet
* Meet on in Baker Hall 140E
computer cluster at 12:00
Reading:
Michael OíMalley and Roy Rosenzweig,
"Brave New World or Blind Alley? American History on the
World Wide Web,"
Journal of American
History 84 (June 1997): 132-155 [RESERVE]
Julie A. Corley, "Can the Web Really
Do It All? Perceptions of Historical Research on the Internet,"
Public Historian 20 (Winter
1998): 49-57 [RESERVE]
Tuesday, February 27 - Primary and
Secondary Sources
Reading:
Eric Monkkonen, "Municipal Reports
as an Indicator Source: The Nineteenth-Century Police." Historical
Methods 12 (Spring 1979):
57-65. [RESERVE]
Detroit Police Department, Story
of the Detroit Police Department, 1916-17; 52nd Annual Report(Detroit,
1918), 5-27, 60-65. [RESERVE]
Preliminary list of secondary
and background works due
Thursday, March 1 - In-class writing
workshop: Research Design & Outline
Reading: Writerís Manual,
123-134, 165-176
Tuesday, March 6 - Individual
meetings (REQUIRED)
Paper proposals & research
log due
Thursday, March 8 - NO CLASS; MID-SEMESTER
BREAK
Historical Tactics
Tuesday, March 13 - Arguments over
Interpretation and Fact
Reading:
"American Slavery: Benign or Malignant,"
in Interpretations of American History, ed. Gerald Grob and George
Athan Billius (New York: Free Press,
1992), 334-375. [RESERVE]
"Round Table: Cinque and the Historians:
How a Story Takes Hold," Journal of American History 87
(December 2000): 923-950. [RESERVE]
Thursday, March 15 - Microhistory
Reading:
After the Fact, 23-47, "Salem"
Elizabeth George Speare, The
Witch of Blackbird Pond (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958), 207-224.
[RESERVE]
Tuesday, March 20 - Oral History
Reading:
After the Fact, 147-177,
"View from the Bottom Rail"
Writerís Manual, 177-184
Thursday, March 22 - In-class workshop:
writing, formatting, footnoting, bibliography
Reading: Writerís Manual,
37-122 (skim 61-122)
Tuesday, March 27 - SPRING BREAK
Thursday, March 29 - SPRING BREAK
Tuesday, April 3 - Psychohistory
Reading: After the Fact,
122-146, "Madness of John Brown"
Thursday, April 5 - Individual
meetings (REQUIRED)
Tuesday, April 10 - The Uses of Quantitative
History
Reading: After the Fact,
256-283, "Dust Bowl Odyssey"
Outlines due
Thursday, April 12 - Doing Quantitative
History
Reading:
J. Trent Alexander, "The Great Migration
in Comparative Perspective: Interpreting the Urban Origins of
Southern Black Migrants to Depression-Era
Pittsburgh," Social Science History 22 (Fall 1998): 349-376. [RESERVE]
Tuesday, April 17 - Using Popular
Culture in History
Reading:
After the Fact, 312-338,
"From Rosie to Lucy"
Thursday, April 19 - In-class exercise:
Pop culture as historical source material
Tuesday, April 24 - Photographic
History
Reading: After the Fact,
178-200, "Mirror with a Memory"
Thursday, April 26 - Political History
Reading: After the Fact,
201-228, "USDA Government Inspected"
Tuesday, May 1 - Student presentations
Rough drafts due
Thursday, May 3 - Student presentations
Wednesday, May 9
Final drafts
due