General CourseInformation

History 268-012
History and Memory
Spring Semester, 2001

Professor:  Anne M. Boylan  Office: 206 Munroe (831-2188) I do not have voice mail
Office Hours:  Mondays, 10:10-12; Wednesdays, 10:10-12
(and other times by appointment)|
email: aboylan@udel.edu

Course information
Description: This seminar for history majors emphasizes the skills and methods needed for doing historical research and writing.   The particular subject of the seminar, “history and memory” involves the study of how individuals and groups have created, produced, perpetuated, and contested “collective memories” of the past.   Seminar readings and discussions will focus on the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  A good deal of the seminar work will focus on problems of historical research and interpretation, and will be completed in work groups.


Objectives:
Students should finish the course with:

 **A basic knowledge of library and Internet resources for doing historical research;
 **Some basic skills at evaluating research materials, both print and on-line;
 **Some knowledge of the history of historical writing (historiography)
 **An understanding of how to read primary and secondary sources carefully and attentively;
 **An ability to develop logical historical arguments based on evidence
 **An awareness of what constitutes clear, grammatical and economical writing;
 **Some experience with speaking clearly and articulately before a group;
 **An understanding of the central concepts historians use when they analyze “collective memory”;
 **Heightened awareness of how societies memorialize their pasts, and who participates in the memorializing process.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Sanford Levinson, Written in Stone
Edward Linenthal, ed., History Wars
Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
All other readings (marked * on the syllabus) are on reserve in the library
  Recommended: Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual


COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

 1) Attendance is required at all seminar meetings.  If you will be late for class, or have a very good excuse for missing a seminar meeting, you must call me before 3:15 on the class day, or leave a message for me on e-mail or with the History Department office (831-2371).  I do not have voice mail.

 2) Written Work:  In addition to written exercises assigned in seminar, students will write two longer essays (6-12 pages), due March 21 and May 21.  Guidelines will be posted on the seminar web site.  On all written assignments, students may ask me to review a draft before handing in the assignment.

 3) Field Trips: The class will take three field trips as a group, to Morris Library on February 19 and 21, and to downtown Newark on April 2.

GRADING: All work will receive a letter grade (using pluses and minuses.)  A=90-100;  B=80-89;  C=70-79;  D=60-69;  F=10-59

 
Work not handed in will receive a grade of zero.
Each student will be graded on individual and on group projects; at the end of the semester, each student will evaluate his or her participation in the work group, and that of others.
Weekly written exercises:        30%
Work group & class participation:     25%
First essay:       20%
Second essay:        25%
(These are guidelines only; I also give credit for improvement.)


Students are expected to be familiar with the policy on academic honesty found in the Student Handbook.  If you are in doubt about any course requirement, please consult me before attempting to complete it.

 SYLLABUS


Below is a week-by-week listing of seminar topics and assignments.  It is not written in stone, however, and may be changed if necessary.

Feb. 7  Course introduction

Assignment: Form work groups & formulate group rules

Feb. 12-14 Individual & Collective Memory: introduction to issues

Monday:
Assignment: WPA interviews (handout)
*William Maxwell, "Billie Dyer" in Billie Dyer and Other Stories
Wednesday:
Assignment:  *Cecilia O’Leary, To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism, pp. 10-28
Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, chapters 1-4
Written Assignment:  Write an abstract of pp. 10-28 in To Die For.  Your abstract should provide a correct citation, in footnote form, for the chapter.
ABSTRACT DUE Wednesday


An abstract is a condensation, or re-statement of an article.  In writing it, you attempt to condense an author’s main point and subsidiary arguments down to one paragraph, avoiding terms such as “the author states” or “the author argues.”  You merely re-state the author’s points in your own words.


Recommended talk: Samuel Wineberg, University of Washington, Thursday February 15, 1 pm, Willard Hall Building.  Professor Wineberg studies how students’ formal knowledge of history differs from informal knowledge gained from movies and other non-academic sources.

Feb. 19-21 Research tools: Library Skills

Monday:  Meet at the Library, Room 056, Lower Level
Assignment:  Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing in History, pp. 1-20.
Wednesday:  Meet at the Library Reference Room, Main Level
Written Assignment: due next Monday, February 26, at 3:30:  Library search exercise handed out February 19.
LIBRARY SEARCH EXERCISE DUE MONDAY, February 26

Feb. 26-28 Research tools: Library skills & primary source analysis

Monday:  Discussion of Library search exercise
Wednesday:
Assignment: *Kirk Savage, “The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument,” in John Gillis, ed., Commemorations:
The Politics of National Identity, pp. 127-149;
*John Bodnar, Remaking America, pp. 3-9
Rampolla, Pocket Guide, 68-82
Written Assignment: Write an abstract of the Savage essay.  Your abstract should provide a correct citation, in footnote form, for the article.
ABSTRACT DUE WEDNESDAY


March 5-7 Textbooks

Monday:
Assignment:  *Bessie Pierce, Public Opinion and the Teaching of History, pp. 135-205 (Group 1);  206-298 (Groups 2 & 3); 
Rampolla, Pocket Guide, pp. 83-97
Group assignment:  At Monday’s class, each group will present a typed summary of its chapter from Public Opinion and the Teaching of
History.  The summary should mention the names of all groups discussed in the chapter, the changes each group demanded, and the reasons each wanted the changes made.  The summary should use a correct citation, in bibliographical form, for the chapter.
Wednesday:
Assignment and Written Assignment: Click onto one of these sites.  Read one of the following speeches: Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Address (Group 1);  George Bush's Inaugural Address (Group 2); Jesse Jackson's "Common Ground" Speech (Group 3).  Come to class with a summary of how the speech summarizes a specific "memory" of American history.  In your summary, indicate what principle of selection the speaker used in developing his interpretation of American history.  Be sure to use a correct citation for the site you have used.

http://thisnation.com/library/index.html
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/index.htm

SUMMARY DUE WEDNESDAY

 

March 12-14 Popular Presentations of History: Radio & Film

Monday:
Assignment:  Films (in class) + *duPont "Cavalcade of America" script list (for Wednesday)

Wednesday:
Assignment: *duPont “Cavalcade of America” script list
Group written assignment:  Each group will bring to class a list of 5 themes or topics found in the duPont “Cavalcade of America”script list (that is, your group will categorize the individual scripts by type and come up with five categories).  Indicate what principle(s) of selection the group thinks underlay the decision to air programs on the "Cavalcade of America."  Please list the scripts in your categories by title, not by number.   All students are writing short essays on the "Cavalcade" program; in order to write your essay, what information do you need about the program?
LIST DUE WEDNESDAY


March 19-21 Popular Presentations of History: Radio & Film

Monday & Wednesday: discussion of duPont "Cavalcade of America" radio program

Assignment: *duPont “Cavalcade of America” script list
Rampolla, Pocket Guide, pp. 32-63
ESSAY DUE WEDNESDAY March 21


March 26-30 :  SPRING BREAK

April 2-4 Collective Memory in Newark, Delaware

Monday:  Field trip to downtown Newark; meet at class at 3:30 (rain or shine; if it’s raining, bring an umbrella)
Wednesday: Public Monuments
Assignment: Levinson, Written in Stone, pp. 38-90
Written Assignment: In one page (single-spaced), summarize Levinson’s description of the New Orleans Liberty Monument and its history, and make a reasoned argument about what the city should do with the monument.  Use a correct citation, in bibliographical form, for the reading.

ASSIGNMENT DUE WEDNESDAY


April 9-11 Public Monuments

Monday:
Assignment: Levinson, Written in Stone, pp. 90-139
  Wednesday:
   Assignment:  Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, chapter 4


April 16-18 Museums, I

Monday:
Assignment:  *Mike Wallace, “Visiting the Past: History Museums in the United States,” in Susan Porter Benson, ed., Presenting the Past, pp. 137-161
Wednesday:
Linenthal, History Wars, pp. 1-62


April 23-25 Museums, II

Monday:
Assignment:  Linenthal, History Wars, pp. 115-170
Group Written Assignment:
Wednesday:
Assignment:  Linenthal, History Wars, pp. 63-96


April 30-May 2 Re-Enactments
 

Monday & Wedmesday: Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, chapter 5-end

May 7-11 Individual Consultations on Second Essay

Assignment:  Each student will attend a 30-minute conference with me on his or her second essay project.  Guidelines will be handed out in seminar and posted on the course web page.  Come to the conference prepared to discuss your essay project, the sources you are using, and any questions you have.

May 14 Oral Presentations on final essays.

Assignment:  Prepare a polished, articulate five-minute presentation on your final paper project


May 21 SECOND ESSAY DUE to me by 5 pm.


 

The National Archives: http://www.nara.gov
The Library of Congress American Memory Collection: http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html
The National Park Service: http://www.nps.gov


University of Virginia Slave Narratives Site: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
George Mason University "History Matters" site: http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu
Tulane University project on the crisis at Fort Sumter: http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/
The University of Virginia "Valley of the Shadow" site: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2
Georgetown University's American Studies site: http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw

The Chicago Historical Society on-line exhibits: http://www.chicagohs.org
Cornell University "Triangle Shirtwaist Fire" exhibit: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/

The National Women's History Project: http://www.nwhp.org

Student feedback on instruction