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Syllabus

Fall 2023 |Class No. 6987
Tuesday, 7-10 pm | 402 Bentley Annex
Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej
435 Bentley Annex
barr-mel@ohio.edu
Office Hours By Appointment

Description

This seminar’s purpose is to introduce beginning graduate students to historiographical propositions and currents—methodological avenues, analytical and interpretive innovations, etc.—in twentieth-century historiography, with greater focus on the second half of the century. How have historians gone about the craft? What frameworks and perspectives have
informed their approaches? Is “objective history” possible? What is historical materialism? What is post-modernism? Our seminar will explore these, and other important questions related to historical inquiry and interpretation to prepare students for the subsequent CHI seminar and graduate work in history and/or related disciplines. The course’s main paper assignment, which is tailored to the individual student’s historical interests, will focus on contemporary history as well as historiography.

Outcomes

Upon completing this seminar, students will have the necessary tools to:

1. Recognize and debate influential perspectives and problems in the “making of history” since the nineteenth century; 
2. Think historically, critically, analytically, and theoretically; and 
3. Compose a clear, concise, and intellectually robust historiographical paper.

Expectations

Seminar participants are expected to engage the readings thoroughly and critically, prepare short written responses to the readings, present and discuss the readings, and submit a final historiographical paper. (Keep in mind that CH 6010 is a colloquium and not a research seminar, with the latter intended to produce a paper or papers based on archival documentation, newspaper research, oral history, and so forth.) One or more seminar participants will open our weekly meetings with brief reviews of the readings and will offer questions to stimulate discussion. A schedule will be created during our first meeting. Overall, the seminar’s ultimate success or failure depends on the participation of its students. Navigating the choppy waters of historiography requires enthusiasm and effort. It may also require some gentle prodding.

Readings

The books listed below are available (ostensibly) at College Bookstore. Marx’s works are easily found on the Internet at no cost. The professor will provide the remaining readings in PDF format.

Books

• Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism (Oxford, 2002).
• Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish (Vintage Books, 1995).
• Hunt, Lynn. The New Cultural History (UC Press, 1989).
• Iggers, Georg G. Historiography in the Twentieth Century (Wesleyan, 2005).
• Jenkins, Keith. The Postmodern History Reader (Routledge, 1997).
• Novick, Peter. That Noble Dream (Cambridge, 1988).
• Said, Edward. Orientalism (Vintage Books, 1979).
• Scott, Joan Wallach. Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia. 1999).
• Thompson, E.P. The Essential EP Thompson (The New Press, 2001).

Other Readings

• De Leon, “The Eighteenth Brumaire,” The People (New York), Sept. 12, 1897.
• Chakrabarty, “Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Historiography,” Nepantla 1:1 (2000).
• Haber, “Anything Goes: Mexico’s ‘New Cultural History’,” HAHR 79:2 (1999).
• Hawley, “Antonio Gramsci’s Marxism: Class, State, and Work,” Social Problems 27:5 (1980).
• Hobsbawm, “Asking the Big Questions. History: A New Age of Reason,” Le Monde diplomatique (Dec. 2004).
• Hobsbawm, “Karl Marx’s Contribution to Historiography,” Diogenes 16:64 (1968).
• Lilla, “Michel Foucault,” in The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals and Politics (New York: NY Review of Books, 2001).
• Mallon, “The Promise and Dilemma of Subaltern Studies,” The American Historical Review 99:5 (1994).
• Márkus, “Marxist Humanism,” Science & Society 30:3 (1966).
• Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
• Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
• Megill, “The Reception of Foucault by Historians,” Journal of the History of Ideas 48:1 (1987). 
• Patterson, “Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism: Implications for Historians,” Social History 14:1 (1989)
• Suny, "Back and beyond: Reversing the cultural turn?," The American Historical Review 107.5 (2002)
• Tompkins, “A Short Course in Post-Structuralism,” College English 50:7 (1988).

Written Work

Participants will prepare weekly “responses” to the readings, each one (1) page in length, double-spaced, and with normal formatting. These will be very brief critical analyses of the readings and will pose questions that shall contribute to seminar discussion. (More information is forthcoming.) Do not mistakenly equate weekly “responses” and seminar participation, the latter of which entails the verbal exchange of ideas during our weekly meetings. Seminar students also will compose a final historiographical paper due during finals week. That paper—some 10-12 pages in length—will examine one book of your choice or four journal articles on some aspect of contemporary history. The paper must be anchored in our seminar’s foci as well as in your personal thematic, national/regional, and temporal interests. (With the professor’s consent, the student may select the book or articles from a reading list in another graduate-level course in which the student is currently enrolled— but the resulting CHI paper must be very different from written work assigned in the other course.) Moreover, seminarians will present preliminary paper proposals—as oral presentations—at one of our final seminar meetings. More specific information on the historiographical paper is forthcoming.

Grading

Discussion participation will constitute one-third of the course grade, “response” papers one-third, and the final paper one-third. Written work will be evaluated on the basis of effectiveness of one’s argument, the presence and quality of supporting information, clarity, cohesion, conciseness, and quality of writing. 

Plagiarism

Academic misconduct will not be tolerated. It is the student’s responsibility to understand what constitutes plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct. For a tutorial on plagiarism, see . For important information on academic misconduct, see Academic Misconduct.

Accommodations

Any student with special learning needs should consult with the professor during the first week of the semester and should provide the professor official documentation from the appropriate University office: Accessibility Services. 

Civility

The professor expects that seminar participants will treat each other with respect, just as they will respect the professor. Our hours together pass quickly, so the professor asks that students be punctual and arrive prepared.

Schedule

Aug. 29 Introductions

Sept. 5 Foundations Iggers, Introduction and Part I

Novick, Introduction and Chs. 1-5

Sept. 12 Early Challenges Novick, Chs. 5-9

Sept. 19 Marx Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto

Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire

De Leon, “The Eighteenth Brumaire”

Sept. 26 Contours of Marxist Iggers, Part II

Historiography Hobsbawm, “Karl Marx’s Contribution to Historiography”

Márkus, “Marxist Humanism”

Oct. 3 E.P. Thompson Hawley, “Antonio Gramsci’s Marxism.”

Thompson, Introduction and pp. 3-8; 30-72; 445-495; 316-377

Oct. 10 Postmodernism Iggers, Part III

Butler, all

Oct. 17 Into an Abyss? Jenkins, Intro and Chs. 1-10, 21-27

Oct. 24 Post-Structuralism Tompkins, “A Short Course…”

Patterson, “Post-Structuralism…”

Hobsbawm, “Asking the Big Questions.”

(Begin Foucault)

Oct. 31 Deconstructing Foucault Foucault, all

Megill, “The Reception of Foucault…”

Lilla, “Michel Foucault”

Jenkins, Ch. 12

Nov. 7 Language, Culture, Gender Scott, selections TBD

Hunt, selections TBD

Nov. 14 Postcoloniality and the Subaltern Said, all

Mallon, “The Promise…”

Chakrabarty, “Subaltern Studies…”

Haber, “Anything Goes…”

Nov. 21 AUTUMN BREAK

Nov. 28 Objectivity’s Fate? Novick, Chs. 10-16

Suny, “Back and Beyond…”

Dec. 5 Presentations of Proposed Papers

Dec. 15 Papers Due, 5 pm