For Tues 9/30, we will discuss both the essays from Doing Recent History on archives, and also speculate on what could/should be added to our “Documents from Now” list – so bring your ideas.
What did I miss in the list? What would future historians love to have access to? As we “build” our own archive, how might the contemporary archival challenge raised in these essays apply to our own work?
For our discussion of George Packer’s The Unwinding on Tuesday Sept 23, please prepare by reading all the “year” pages, and the chapters covering your assigned main character (Dean Price, Jeff Connaughton, or Tammy Thomas), and then your assigned other profile (celebrity or place). Think about how the thesis posed so elegantly in the prologue plays out in these assigned sections. Pay attention not only to content but to form – i.e. not just what the story is, but how Packer tells it by what he says – and does not say. Be ready to provide a short capsule summary of your assigned sections, and to explain what we learn about the recent past from studying these places or people. Continue reading →
Thursday’s class will introduce a new book, George Packer’s The Unwinding, a literary nonfiction book about America’s recent past. He’s making an overall argument (that the American promise has begun to unwind, and that we can date the start of that process to about the late 1970s), but it’s certainly not a scholarly book. Rather, The Unwinding is written by a talented journalist (he’s a New Yorker staff writer) for a popular audience through interwoven biographies of both famous and ordinary Americans. I think Packer captures well the zeitgeist of the era and it makes for compelling reading and is a lovely model of innovative “recent history” writing; don’t just take my word for it, the book won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2013 (PS: you can also find him visiting The Daily Show and the Colbert Report to pitch the book’s release).
For Thursday 9/18, please read the Prologue, and bring the book with you to class. Continue reading →
Reading for Tuesday, Sept 16th: please read, and prepare to discuss, Potter/Romano, Doing Recent History, p. 1-44. Continue reading →
Reading for Thursday, Sept 11 = Scott McLemee, “Is It History Yet?” (a review of the Potter & Romano book, Doing Recent History). Continue reading →
Reading Link: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, “On Writing Contemporary History” The Atlantic, March 1967.
Discussion Questions
Who is this author? What’s the historical context of his essay?
How does Schlesinger answer his own question, “When do contemporary affairs become history”?
How does he explain the rise of “contemporary history” as a legitimate and respectable endeavor?
In Schlesinger’s time, how were historical sources and evidence changing?
What does Schlesinger think is the historian’s obligation to living people?
John Dewey (1859-1952) is quoted here as claiming that ALL history is “history of the present.” What did he mean?
If you could go back in time to 1967 and enlighten Schlesinger about what would, or would not, change for historians and history by 2014, what would you tell him?
For our next class meeting (Tues 9/9)- 3 Things
Read the Schlesinger essay, considering the discussion questions above (i.e. be prepared to talk about them in class)
Bring a textbook that goes past 1980 (any textbook, does not have to be college-level, and does not have to be U.S.)
*and*
Go onto the course Blackboard and take the Research Self-Assessment Survey (it should be posted by the weekend)
(optional: while you’re on the course Blackboard, enroll in one of the Teams)
Welcome to the History department capstone for Fall 2014. Continue reading →
Mon 12/9/2013 = Last day of class. WSU is delayed until 10, but that won’t affect our class. Today is the course wrap-up. Continue reading →
This unit is all about scholarly argument, storytelling, and polishing your writing – which is appropriate given you are now in revision mode. Remember you have 25 days from handing in your final draft to handing in a revised draft. As we turn to some of the scholarship and sources around McCarthyism – a key part of the 1950s, and one that (as it turns out) no one is directly addressing in their research – pay particular attention to technique, method and writing style. Continue reading →
During this (short) unit, please read and study the remainder of Storey’s book, especially as you put the final version of your paper together for its due date on Wed, Nov 6. Notice (and trust) what Storey has to say about narration, structure, and argument and the clear flow of logical thought, as well as follow his suggestions for the mechanics of citation and to observe the conventions of historical writing. Continue reading →