HIS 5060: The Historical Experience

“Running Assignment”

 

 

For each historical book we read (not including Appleby or Turabian), you will need to complete the following three tasks as part of the “HIS 5060 Running Assignment”:

 

I.  Primary Source Assignment

II.  Secondary Source Assignment

III.  Book Review (Argument, Contribution, and Method Summary)

 

At the end of the semester, you will compile all of these assignments in a portfolio.  See “Final Projects” for details.

 

I.  PRIMARY SOURCE ASSIGNMENT:

 

  1. Locate 1-3 primary sources that pertain (generally) to the book in question.
  2. Copy the first/cover page and an interesting highlight from this document.  Include in your portfolio.   
  3. By the end of the semester, you should have found at least one primary source from each of the following categories:
    1. Government document
    2. Formerly-classified (Secret, Top Secret) government document
    3. Periodical – magazine
    4. Periodical – newspaper, national prominence (Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.)
    5. Periodical – newspaper, regional or specialized (San Diego Union-Tribune, Miami Herald, Chicago Defender, etc.) 
    6. Artistic or Literary source (story, novel, poem, painting, etc.)
    7. Non-textual source (cartoon, photograph, map, architectural source, etc.)
    8. “Everyday Life” or “social history” source – something that provides a window into lives of ordinary people
    9. Economic source
    10. Diary entry or private papers
    11. Reference for archival source (e.g. locate relevant archive and/or collection that you could consult by traveling to that archive; you need not supply an actual document from that archive, but you should get as much information as possible)
    12. Source located on Microfilm
    13. Source acquired through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) (Note; this takes awhile, so plan this one early).
  4. On one page: (1) Include a heading that identifies which category (above) it fulfills and for which week of the course it was submitted; (2) Type a stylistically correct citation for use in footnotes/endnotes; (3) Explain, in a sentence or two, how you found this source.

 

NOTE:  No more than three of these sources can come from the Internet.  You must find at least one source for each relevant week, but generally you will need to find about two sources per week so that by the end of the semester you must have sources from all thirteen categories. 

 

II.  SECONDARY SOURCE ASSIGNMENT:

 

  1. For each book we read, locate one relevant secondary source either published after the book in question or just plain not cited by the author.  (Think to yourself, “If the author was going to publish a ‘revised edition,’ what might the author want to consult and include in a revised bibliography?”) Copy the title page.  Include in your portfolio.    
  2. By the end of the semester, you should have found at least one secondary source from each of the following categories:
    1. Dissertation
    2. Article in “field” journal (American Historical Review, Journal of American History)
    3. Article in “subfield” journal (e.g. Diplomatic History, Journal of Southern History, etc.)
    4. Article not acquired through online database (e.g. JSTOR, Ingenta, etc.)
    5. Article in edited book
    6. Dissertation
    7. Book – monograph
    8. Book – synthesis
    9. Book—edited collection
    10. Historiographical essay / Review essay
  3. On one page: (1) Include a heading that identifies which category (above) it fulfills and for which week of the course it was submitted; (2) Type a stylistically correct citation for use in a bibliography; (3) Explain, in a sentence or two, how you found this source; (4) Prepare a very brief abstract of the source, summarizing, in no more than six sentences: the nature of the source, what problems it addresses, what argument it makes, and how it would be relevant to the reading.

 

 

III. BOOK REVIEW (ARGUMENT, CONTRIBUTION, AND METHOD SUMMARY):

 

For each book we read, write a short book review (500-600 words). Do the following on one page:

 

A.     Title the page with a stylistically correct citation of the book.

B.     Make sure your review addresses at least the following three points:

1.      What is the author’s main argument? (summarize as succinctly as possible -- as in an abstract -- a couple of sentences max.)

2.      What historiographical contribution does the author make?  (summarize as succinctly as possible what broader debate, interpretative issue, gap in the historical literature, etc. the author is addressing)

3.      What sources and methods does the author use?  (summarize methodological approach, main types of sources used)

C.     Note: We will be discussing book reviews during Week 4, but you might want to read the articles from that week on book reviewing earlier for guidance on the components of good reviews.

 

 

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