Syllabus
(Fall 2007)
Mondays, 7:10-10:00 pm,
AH 105
Instructor:
Dr. Kenneth Osgood
Office:
Office Hours: Thursday’s, 9:00-11:00am (and by appointment)
Phone: (561) 297-2816
Email: kosgood@fau.edu
Instructor’s
Web Site: http://www.fau.edu/~kosgood
Course Web
Site: http://wise.fau.edu/~kosgood/1950/home
Welcome to boot-camp for
historians! The Historical Experience,
HIS 5060, is one of the most important and demanding courses you will take in
graduate school. You will have to do
more reading, writing, and researching than you ever imagined. You will spend hours in the library. You will spend many late nights cowering
before a reading lamp. You will
groan. You may want to quit. You may even complain to the History
Department Chair. But you will
succeed. And by the end of the course,
you will have a better idea of what it means to be a historian. And you will be better equipped to read,
research, write, and
– indeed – think like a historian.
HIS 5060 is designed to
introduce you to the historical profession.
Whether you intend to pursue a Ph.D. in history, embark on a lifetime of
work as a public historian, teach history to students of any level, or abandon
the historical profession for a more lucrative trade (i.e. just about
everything else), you will develop skills in this course that will make you
more successful at what you do. You will
never look at history the same way again.
You will never read the same way again.
And, perhaps, you may never look at the world at large in quite the same
way again.
Try as you might, you
will not be able to “cram” for this course.
To do well, you will have to have a disciplined schedule that allows you
to complete the reading and many assignments prior to class. You will have to work consistently over the
entire semester. Time management, critical
thinking, practical research, and cogent writing skills all will be tested and
strengthened in HIS 5060.
OVERARCHING TASKS:
As the course progresses,
you will need to focus especially on three overarching tasks:
(1) weekly readings,
averaging a book plus articles every week;
(2) weekly research/writing assignments, including a “running assignment” and
several hours of writing and researching per week;
(3) long-term
assignments, specifically the following:
a.
portfolio, due at the end of the term (12/13)
b.
prospectus, for potential research project, due at the end
of the term (12/13)
c.
presentations, of research prospectus (12/3 and possibly
12/10)
For these long-term
assignments, you will not be able to wait until the last minute. You will need to work as the semester
progresses, and I strongly suggest getting started early.
NOTE:
The research prospectus especially will require advance research,
writing, and planning on your part. The
portfolio will require consistent effort throughout the semester.
OPTIONAL BOOKS:
Chicago Manual of Style,
15th edition, ISBN: 0226104036.
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th Rev edition (1996),
ISBN: 0226816273.
NOTE: You may choose to
use either the
REQUIRED BOOKS:
Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt,
and Margaret Jacob, Telling the Truth About History
(1995), ISBN: 0393312860.
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the
Ecology of
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A
Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on
Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1991), ISBN: 0679733760.
Robert William Fogel and
James McPherson, For
Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1998), ISBN:
0195124995.
Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins Of
The Urban Crisis: Race And Inequality In Postwar
Nancy F. Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation
(2002), ISBN: 0674008758.
Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution:
ARTICLES AND OTHER
Listed on the schedule
are additional articles and other readings.
Most are available online via FAU library; others will be posted on
Blackboard or MyFAU.
Details TBA.
ABOUT THE
Most of the readings were
selected because of the unique, innovative, or representative methodology
employed by the authors. They were also
selected to provide a broad chronological sweep of topics in American history
(though you will notice that many, many topics were left out!) When reading these books, focus your
attention on three core areas: (1) the
overarching argument of the author; (2) the book’s contribution to the
historical literature and engagement with the historiography; and (3) the
sources used and methodology employed.
See the section and handout on “running assignment” for more
details.
“HIS 5060 RUNNING ASSIGNMENT” AND OTHER
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:
For most secondary source
readings, you will have to complete a cumulative research and writing “running
assignment.” It is designed to help you
develop your research skills, and to apply those skills to critical analysis of
the readings we will be doing. This
assignment is explained here.
Other supplementary assignments are noted in the course schedule. Please be advised that some of these
assignments will require a lot of advance preparation. Read the syllabus carefully and consult it
often, or you may risk falling hopelessly behind!
A NOTE ON STYLE:
You are expected to know
– or to learn quickly and on your own – the rules of style. Most historians follow the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), and Kate
L. Turabian’s manual is a short guide to this
format. For footnotes and other
references required in the weekly assignments, you must consult either Turabian or CMS.
(FYI, generally historians do not use parenthetical
references.)
A NOTE ON CLASS SHARING:
Periodically, you will be
asked to copy your work to share with other students. Please plan accordingly and make enough
copies for all students in the course (and me!). Also, please be open to, and positive about,
hearing constructive criticism of your work.
DISCUSSION LEADER:
At least once during the
semester, you will serve as one of the discussion leaders for the day. On this day, you should give a five-minute
commentary on the reading. Your job is to be “provocateur”: to comment and to
criticize so as to initiate discussion.
You may base your remarks on the weekly “running assignment” for that
day, but you should not read verbatim.
COURSE GRADE:
Your final course grade
will be based on class participation, the consistency of your effort, and your
final portfolio. You will be held to a
high standard.
Generally the grade
breakdown is as follows:
Weekly Participation
(including attendance and oral evidence that readings have been read carefully
and thoughtfully): 30%
Portfolio (including
original and revised weekly assignments): 40%
Research Prospectus and
Class Presentation: 30%
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