MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY
Department of History
History 100-01 Professor
Pastor
The Study of History Spring
2009
pastorp@mail.montclair.edu DI
421
Office Hours: M, W, 2:30-3:45 973-655-7564
SYLLABUS
The texts used for this course are :
Carr, E. H., What Is History? (Vintage)
Brown, Callum G., Post Modernism for Historians (Pearson-Longman)
Davis, N. Z., The Return of Martin Guerre (Harvard)
Benjamin, J. R., A
Student’s Guide to History, 10th ed. (
The books listed above are available in paperback editions. In addition to the reading assignments from these books, the student will also be responsible for the readings attached to the syllabus, and for the duplicated material that may be distributed throughout the semester. There will be a mid-semester exam, and a final exam on the assigned reading, videos, and library exercises.
Date of mid-term exam:
Due date of the final exam: May 11,
Date of make-up exam: Same date and time as the final exam, or May. 11,
10:15 am-12:15 pm, in DI 172
During the semester the student will be instructed to do historical research and writing. Historical research will include library exercises (failure to submit exercise will lead to a reduction of the term-paper grade by half of a grade). Writing will include the drafting of a word processed research proposal with a hypothesis and an annotated bibliography. It will also include the submission of a research paper of 10-12 pages (250 words/page), double spaced with 10-12 pitch fonts, and word processed (40% of the final grade).
Due date for the research-paper proposal: March 4, 2009.
Due date for the final draft of the paper: May 11, 2009, at the time of the final exam.
The part of the first draft of the student’s paper will be read by the class and discussed at scheduled dates during the last eight classes of the semester (21-28).
Late first draft and/or final
draft will be penalized by a half of a grade given for the paper. The failure
to submit a research proposal, or the first draft, will be penalized by one
half of a grade of the final grade. No
student can pass the course without passing at least one of the two exams, and
receive a passing grade for the paper.
Please refrain from eating or drinking in class, and turn off your cell
phone and laptop.
TOPICS
AND
1. Introduction.
2. The Historian and Facts
Readings: Carr, pp. 3-35 (Chap.
1); Benjamin, v-viii, xvii, 1-43, 77-81; Brown, 1-33; T. Judt,
the Lipstadt
letter, Benhold, Weiser,
Dobbs, Nasar,
and NYT editorial, “Exit,…” in the syllabus.
Video: The History Detective
3. Library Lecture, and Discussion of
Library Exercise # 1,
Jan. 28, 2009
Sprague
Library, Conference Room, no. 110.
4. Society and the Individual
5. Library Exercise # 2 (hand in # 1)
Video: Facts versus Interpretations, VT 3941, and Reexamining History, VT 3883.
6. History, Science, and Morality
7. Library Exercise #3 (hand in # 2).
With ex. #2 completed, start reading and taking research notes from the selected
monographs
(Benjamin, pp. 107-115). Brown, pp. 33-74; Rothstein, and outline of the video
lecture in the syllabus
Video: Science Wars: Kuhn’s Revolutionary Image, and Objectivity under Attack
8. Causation in History
9. Library Exercise #4 (hand in # 3). With ex. 3 completed, start reading and taking research notes from
the selected articles.
Video: Bill Moyers’s Conversation with Hugh Trevor-Roper, VT 201.
10. Mid-Term Exam,
11. Video: Search for a Meaningful Past, Lesson Sixteen, VT 2974
12. History as Progress
Library
Exercise # 5 (hand in # 4).
13. Video: Peter Charles Hoffer, Past Imperfect, VT
6188
Due date for the Research Proposal (March
4). For Instructions, see syllabus.
14. The Mechanics of a Term Paper (
with you as it is needed for
the discussion. Library Exercise #
6 (hand in # 5).
15. Video: Search for a Meaningful Past, Lesson
14: Hayden White…VT 2974.
16. Widening Horizons: The
Duplicated
material on the Annales and Braudel
in the syllabus. Hand in ex. # 6.
17. Video: Search for a Meaningful Past, Lesson Thirteen, VT 2974
18. The Film as History
Video: The Return of Martin Guerre
19. Video:
The Return of Martin Guerre (Continued)
20. The
Return of Martin Guerre as a
Monograph
Start of the discussion of the
first drafts.
21-28.
Discussion of First Drafts.
April 8-May 4
First drafts prepared and
distributed by the student via e-mail to the instructor and
to the
student in the designated group. See handout: “Schedule of Reports.”