This is a reflective class that is not focused on any particular content of history (a period or subject from the past). Rather, we are examining ourselves, both our assumptions about the past and the process of doing history. If you are in this class, you are a history major, and you have some inherent interest in history as well as some training in it already. However, you may not have ever asked what it is you are doing when you do history, how you do it, and ultimately, why. That is what we will be doing this semester.
In taking history itself as our subject matter, we will also put into practice the usual tools of history: analyzing documents, interpreting evidence, and writing--in short, historical thinking. This class will thus prepare you for other history courses, particularly 496 (Senior Thesis), and also give you life-long skills in reading, thinking, and writing well.
The semester is broken into four parts, each with a content area that also builds particular skills. Part 1 examines the question of defining history, a philosophical question that will linger throughout the course, and also deals with the practical matters of information processing. Part 2 reviews the history of history, with an emphasis on world historiography compared to the western tradition. Part 3 moves into modern and post-modern historiography, in particular issues of "truth" in history. Part 4 is the concluding practical application section on "doing history" in the public.
- Wilson, Norman J., History in Crisis? Recent Directions in Historiography (1999).
- World History by the World's Historians, ed. Paul R. Spickard, James V. Spickard and Kevin M. Cragg (1998).
- Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing History, 3rd ed. (2001).
- Hacker, Diana, A Pocket Style Manual, 3rd ed. (2000).
- Handouts from instructor
- Reading Guidelines
- Internet Resources: This course has components that require Internet access, either from home or on-campus. The PC lab is in Keller 213-214; the Mac Lab is in Keller 204; CLIC lab is in Sinclair Library 128; in addition, some computers in Hamilton Library have web access. For lab hours see Information Technology Services at UH; for library hours, see UH Library welcome page. WARNING: Campus computing and library facilities are closed on Saturdays during the summer.
This course is writing intensive, which means three things:
- we will use writing as a tool for learning
- we will spend time on the processes of writing
- writing will be the primary form of graded work
The grading breaks down as follows:
- Paper 1 10% 3 pgs due 5/29
- Paper 2 15% 5 pgs due 6/12
- Paper 3 20% 7 pgs due 6/25
- Information Processing Assignment 20% due 6/29
- Paper 4 25% 9 pgs due 6/29
- Participation 10%: daily class participation (5%),
oral report on last day (5%)
Survival Tips
- Guidelines for all of the assignments.
- Summer session moves fast. I strongly recommend that you take no more than two Summer Session I courses and do not take another WI course in addition to this one.
- This course is an essential one in your history major career, but you will get out of it only as much as you put in.
- Attendance at class is absolutely essential, since most of the learning takes place through discussion of the readings and writing activities in class that cannot be reduplicated outside of class on your own or by borrowing notes. So don't miss class.
- Likewise, coming to class unprepared will leave you lost. The discussion will go nowhere if students have not done the reading. Even if the reading is difficult, make an effort and bring your questions to class so we can learn from one another.
- If you have a problem that interferes with your ability to do the assigned work or attend class, please discuss the issue with Dr. Jolly immediately, while we still have time to do something about it.
kjolly@hawaii.edu
5/15/01