HI 460 Cross-Cultural Encounters

In our first full week, we’re reading and discussing the lively Higham / Katerburg textbook, Conquests and Consequences. On Monday in class I described Frederick Jackson Turner as the Hogwarts “house ghost” of Western history, hovering over the field with palpable presence. You can definitely see that in the choices our authors make in retelling Western history in a deliberately non-Turner way.

Monday, Sept 12

Good discussion of chapters 1-6 of Conquests and Consequences. We discussed Turner’s thesis (see previous post). If you missed class, please come in to office hours to discuss the essay so I know you understand it. It’s essential background for this course.

I introduced how to use Library of Congress subject headings as a search tool, by using a large scholarly library’s catalog (my go-to is Harvard’s Hollis Classic). Here’s an explanation about LOC headings from a different library. Our library’s LOC subject books are the large red volumes at the LRC reference desk. Very handy!!

I handed out information about the Launch Pad books – everyone needs to choose one, and get it SOON so you can read it during September. That reading will be the basis of our class discussion on Oct 5.

I also demo’d the use of Zotero for managing research and citations.

If you haven’t taken care of it already, please email me your WordPress blog’s link and take the research self-assessment survey (see previous post).

Wednesday, Sept 14

Please prepare to discuss Chapters 7-15 of Conquests and Consequences.

Friday, Sept 16 – Journal entry #1 due

Writing prompt: History of the American West is a new topic for many of you. What have you learned about the field in our reading and discussions this week? Choose and analyze one passage from one of our readings that discusses a cross-cultural encounter. Your journal should be 600-700 words long, published on your WordPress site as a blog post.