Richard
C.Kagan
Professor of East Asian Studies, Hamline University
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History
3000
MTWR 8:30-10:30 a.m. Robbins Science Room 10
Workshop in History
Instructor: Richard C. Kagan
Ph. 523-2433; e-mail: rckagan@hamline.edu
Fax. 523-646-0034
Web page http://web.hamline.edu/~rkagan
Check this site Frequently: Minnesota Historical Society
The
purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the field
of public history. This introduction will be accomplished by
visits to the Minnesota Historical Society, readings in Historiography,
and a public history project. The text by Wilson is an introduction
to the nature of historical writing. The Zeldin book is a fine
example of the post-structuralist school. The student will be
expected to purchase a book on public history at the History
Society bookstore, and the student is urged to join the Historical
Society. The student should read journals such as : The Public
Historian; American Heritage; and The American Historical Review.
July
3. Introduction. What is History? What is Public History?
What are some of the major Historical Fallacies?
The
meaning of time vs. space; history and ritual; the power of
historical myth.
July
5. Read all the assignments before class. Wilson. Chs. 1-2
Choose
the sentence or sentences which best answer the question "What
is History?"
Memorize
the subject headings for the six reasons on pp. 4-6.
What
is meant by the term "teleology"? Can you give an
example of teleological history? Make one up if you have to.
Is
the past unpredictable? Can you give an example?
Historicism:
a self-indulgent view that history is the most important form
of knowledge. The individual must be put into social and chronological
context. Review Ranke's contribution: p. 15. Hermeneutic, historicist-depicting
the present as distinct from the past but a necessary component
to understanding the present, not teleological-no agenda, broad
in scope, yet focused on culture, and the nation-state.
Austinianism:
the state, its leaders, their ideologies, and their policies
(institutional, diplomatic, and economic).
Burckhardt:
history as art. Replaces diachronic with synchronic analysis.
The
rush toward universal laws-stages: technological, metaphysical
and scientific. Positivism-quantifiable issues-geography, climate,
food. E.g. Jared Diamond-Geographical Axis, and domestication
of animals and plants.
Trevelyan:
history is great literature. The art of the narrative. (See
Spence) (See many "conservative writers" when you
think of T's reasons for writing history-to educate the mind.
P. 19.)
How
does Wilson conclude chapter one?
Chapter
2.
Outline
the approach of an historicist and a presentist. Apply these
approaches to the War in Kosovo. Does either provide more freedom
of thought? How do you balance subjectivism (presentism) with
objectivity (historicism)?
The
perils of nominalism. Hermeneutics and judgement. No division
between history and fiction; description and fantasy. No teleology,
no coherent subject, no meaningful text (Derrida). No need for
footnotes.
Moral
issues: judgements.
The
quarrels of historians: Re. The historical meaning of the
Nazis. P. 37. Intentionaliists vs. functionalists, German special
path vs. patterns of development, and high politics vs. everyday
history.
Goldhagen's
"simple thesis" reduces most of the theories to one
conclusion-everyone was guilty. Shoddy but popular. Why? History
reflects the political and cultural will.
Public
history: propaganda or liberation?
July
6.
Chapter 3.
Cliometrics:
quantitative methods applied to history. 
Little
evidence of free will. Democratization of history-study the
masses, not the great leaders.
Use
of models. Counter-factual-what would happen if you eliminate
railroad from history. Amoral or immoral-Time on the Cross.
Quantitative evidence showed that slavery was a profitable investment
for slave holders.
Economics:
modes of production. Marxian economic history. Base: economy:
superstructure-society, poli. Culture, art. Class conflict-key
to history. French Rev., Meiji Rev. Or struggles within a class:
State dept. and the Vietnam War.
Sociology:
mid-level generalizations plus historical specificity
Anthropology:
action and change occur because of certain natural needs and
wants. The needs become institutionalized. Geertz: "Thick
description" field studies which look at every manifestation
of culture in a single action. This becomes the exemplary center-explains
the larger issues of meaning, power, and relationships. The
anthropologist and sociologist are not helpful in understanding
change, causation, and the peculiarity of the culture in time.
They seek for continuity and "centers" that do not
dissolve over time or between cultures.
The
weekend: I urge all of you to visit the History Center on Sunday.
There is always a community event. You should look up their
web page to see what events are scheduled. You should also visit
the Science Museum or the Children's Museum to observer inter-active
exhibits and displays. If you cannot do it this weekend, plan
for a trip during the second or third weekend of the course.
July
10. Chapter 4. Early Annales:
Marginalization
of political history. Problem oriented. Not limited to a national
field or specific period. Multi disciplinary. Attempted to be
scientific.
Braudel:
events and ind. time, conjuncture (social time of intermediate
duration), structural and geographic time. See again Jared Diamond.
History
from the Bottom: Worker's history. Riffraff? Or heroes? Often
politicized.
The
role of the peasant. The bottom historian rarely reflects the
whole.
Micro
history. "Forgotten peoples" of history. Not quantitative
or "scientific" Death of Woman Wang. Examine brief
dramatic events often involving heretics in order to test the
abstractions of social thought.
Intellectual
History:
Ideas.
The Great Chain of Being. Lovejoy. Western thought. See Western
civ. Timeless Western truths. See Bill Bennett, or Bloom.
The
contextualists: the ideas are only significant in a social context
and in specific action. Second rate thinkers are more emblematic
(i.e. identifying) of their cultures' basic ideas than are the
so-called great figures of intellectual history. E.g. harlequin
novels.
New
Intellectual History: histories of the ideas, attitudes and
opinions of the common person. Looked at unspoken assumptions
as revealed in legal cases, crimes, bizarre actions. These cases
filter between high and low culture. No longer emphasizing the
great books.
Cultural
History:
Materialists:
economy, geography, clothes
Non-materialists:
concepts of culture-e.g. madness, gender
Subjects:
high and low cultures: civilization vs. folktale: painting vs.
doll making
Psycho
history: Id, ego, and superego. Childhood, child rearing, family
conflict.
Comparative
history: requires choosing meaningful comparisons and historical
specificity.
July
11. Tentative: We will visit the History Society. Here we
will be introduced to the principles of Public History. The
student should buy a book on memory. There will be volumes at
the bookstore. The Center does not open until 10:00 so we will
leave from school. Please plan to extend your day until 12:00.
We can eat at the Center-great food! Dutch treat.
Wilson.
Chs. 5-6.
By
now you have read most of the book. You can start to think of
writing your first paper. There are several approaches you can
take. First of all realize that the purpose of the assignment
is to display your understanding of the issues in contemporary
historiography. The most productive approach, in terms of a
macro-essay, would be to deal directly with Wilson's thesis:
the new post-modern criticisms of history have made the discipline
even more important and creative than before. The student can
look for scholarly articles in History journals which deal with
the future of History and can compare their conclusions with
Wilson's.
A
micro-approach would be to take one or two of Wilson's examples
(see his footnotes) and write more fully on the place of that
author in the world of historiography. The student would do
well to write about the Annales school. This pursuit could be
accomplished by reading reference works on history, journal
articles on the various historians, and original texts.
Chapter
5 addresses the issue of historical actors: the rational actor,
gender, class, and perception. You can take any of these examples
and develop their ideas in relationship to Wilson's text.
To
accomplish this assignment, be sure to ask for help from the
librarian, me, faculty members, or the Internet. You can look
up a book review on the Infotrac, for example, Braudel, and
compare it to the way that Wilson wrote about Braudel.
Remember
that you want to summarize the major theme in the Wilson book,
then focus on the sub-theme that you are addressing in your
paper. Compare that to outside materials. Reading book reviews
is a good way to warm up the mind to this task.
Chapter
5. 
Rational
Actors. Assumes people are rational, people act individually.
A theory drawn from the sciences of economics and politics.
Role of culture?
Class:
in itself, for itself, self-consciousness, spontaneity, vs.
class forces. Workers in America, capitalists' interests.
Gender
: sociobiology, vs. social mores. Problems of motive. Women
rebels. Women reactionaries. Asexuality. See Mn. Show on women
on the prairie.
Structures
of Perception . Often blamed for being amoral or without a clear
prime mover. One can be the oppressor and the oppressed. See
Foucault.
It
should be clear now that the writing of history is in fact an
exercise in philosophy and its master-epistemology. The content
of history is determined by one's perception of reality and
truth. It is not just a string of so called facts.
Chapter
6.
History
as Language. Postmodernism. "Deliberate obscurity."
History becomes literature, not philosophy. The meaning of words,
the nature of the text, the relationship between the reader
and the text.
Deconstructionism.
Derrida. Instability of meaning. Texts can be read in many different
ways. There is no standard.
Assumptions
of the New Historicist: p 119, See Lee on Hong Kong.
See
Veeser's five moments:
anecdote, outrage, resistance, containment, and autobiographical
comments. History, in this sense, contains a fictive element.
Discuss the implications of the conclusion on p. 121.
July
12. By now you have finished the book and are beginning
to ask the crucial question: to wit, what happened to my view
of history? What is history? Should a history major be in philosophy,
literature, the sciences, economics, or linguistics?
Read
Memory book and discuss your chapters in class. Draw up a few
proposals on your final project.
July
13. Read Zeldin. Chs. 1-4
Continue
to discuss your Memory book.
First
paper is due. Length: 6-8 pages.
The papers shall conform to the following style:
Pagination: Typed double spaced
Bibliography: (MLA style sheet or some reasonable system)
Footnotes: (ditto MLA style sheet)
Succinct, interesting title. Preferably in the form of a question
which will be answered by your paper.
A Clear Thesis.
A Clear Conclusion. (Do not end your paper with a quotation).
Carefully Written: Use action verbs, do not use trite
expressions, have a sense of style. Avoid the following expressions:
I think; I believe; In addition; There is; It is; In conclusion:
and etc. Do not spell "its" when you mean "it's,"
and do not ever write "its'" or "receive."
If you have trouble writing papers then follow the suggestions
below:
