Room: South Shepler Tower, 214
Section 0519: MW, 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Instructor: Doug Catterall

Office: South Shepler Tower, 634

Office Hours: MW, 10-11 a.m., 1-2 p.m., 3:30-4:30 p.m.; TTh, 1-3 p.m.
work telephone: 581-2949
e-mail: dougc@cameron.edu

What is this Course About?

The Big Picture.
What do historians do? How do they do what they do? For what reasons do they do the things they do? These questions are at the heart of this course and by the end of the term it is my hope that each of you will have developed your own answers for each one. While not all of you plan to become professional historians, understanding and mastering for yourselves the intellectual skills that historians use will serve you well as history majors and in whatever future direction you may choose to pursue in life.

It is said that, given the current degree of flux in the economy, most of us will change jobs multiple times in the course of our lives. I would suggest to you that the person most prepared for this environment is not the person with a set of skills that is in demand now but may not be in the future. Rather, the person who is probably most prepared to meet the challenges of this world is able to define and approach problems readily, to think critically and creatively about those problems, interpret complex information in a variety of forms, write and otherwise communicate solutions clearly and with precision and detail, and is able to see the bigger picture of which his or her work is a part.  In this class you will work to improve your mastery of all of these tasks and skills. As a history major you are preparing for many futures, not just one, and after finishing this course you will be closer to having the ability to meet with confidence whatever comes your way.  This is why I am always particularly excited to be teaching this course, because it is as much about possibilities and potential and it is about intellectual endeavor.

The Nitty Gritty Stuff.
In general this will be a practical course driven by particular exercises and projects as opposed to a course whose focus is on mastering a body of knowledge about a particular time and place (e.g. the English Civil War or the Great Depression era). Having said that, I have framed the course a bit by making its theme the Atlantic world between 1400 and 1900 in order to make our work this term more manageable.

We start the term with a brief introduction to what historians do and to the Atlantic world.  Then we move on to two specific studies of different parts of the Atlantic world, Ecuador, c. 1600, and New England, c. 1700-1800.  As we come to grips with these two studies (or monographs as historians term them) we will also consider more carefully what kinds of sources there are and how to interpret and use them.  Along the way I will introduce you to the mechanics of bibliography and footnotes and give you opportunities to interpret some actual sources.  With the knowledge that you have gained from these discussions and exercises you will then write three papers: a book review, a bibliographic essay, and an analytical source essay, which are the main papers for the course.  We will then conclude the course with a unit on recent controversies in historical work and you will present the results of your final paper, the source analytical essay.  The last week of the regular term will also give you the chance to see who the other faculty are who comprise the CU History Program.  This is a sizeable amount of work, but if we work together you can all be successful.

Specific Objectives:

This course will emphasize the following two skill-sets:

I. Mastery of the Historian’s Skills

• You will learn how to analyze and evaluate historical texts in the intensive exercises that are the focal point of the first unit in the course and in the research project that is the culmination of your work in the course.
• You will practice evaluating conflicting interpretations of past events and issues in
  seminar discussions and in your written work for the course.
  
• You will gain experience in effective verbal communication through participation in seminar discussions and by presenting a research proposal and the final results of a research project to seminar participants and others.
  
• You will learn effective written communication by completing the substantial writing requirements laid out for the course as defined below in the syllabus.
  
  
II. Historical Thinking and the Historian’s Craft
• You will demonstrate your capacity for historical research in shorter analytical pieces and in two longer essays as outlined below in the syllabus; through our discussions of different historical approaches and sources you will also gain exposure to a range of approaches to historical research.
• You will gain the ability to organize the results of historical research in the analytical source essay and other writing pieces required in the course.
• You will present the results of your research in two presentations outlined below.
• In our discussions of historical research you will become familiar with the specialized terms and concepts used by historians.
• Our discussions will focus generally on thinking historically with a consistent focus on changes and the cause of change, with the concomitant ability to recognize continuities even amid change.

Required Reference Works:
Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historcial Methods (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001)

Requirements:
Course-work consists of three major elements: attendance and participation in discussion and activities, informal writings, and formal writings (i.e. papers).

Participation:

1. Attendance and Discussion (10% of the total mark): I cannot stress enough that timely attendance and regular participation in discussion and other classroom activities will count heavily in your grade and that effective participation almost always improves performance in the pressure situations. I will gauge attendance and participation on a daily basis.

2. Informal Writings (5% of the total mark): I will assign short writing exercises to help focus our discussions and to prepare you for major assignments.  The emphasis in these assignments will vary from paper to paper.  For each informal writing you can earn participation credit.  See under credit for participation for their precise value in the marking scheme.

3. In-Class Source Analytical Essays (5% of the total mark): These will serve as preparation for your bibliographic essay and your analytical source essay and will count towards your participation mark in the course.

4. Presentations (5% of the total mark): Each of you will need to make a brief five-minute presentation of your proposed research topic for the course in the twelfth week and a ten-minute presentation of the results of your work during the scheduled final examination period for this course.

5. Credit for Participation: For each day you attend class and participate you can earn up to 2 points.  You can earn 30 points for the 9 Informal Writings, 30 points for the 2 In-Class Source Analytical Essays, and 30 points for the 2 Presentations.  Thus, you have a potential for earning 150 points.  I hold you responsible for 135 points, meaning that you need at least 121.5 points for an A in participation, 108 for a B, 94.5 for a C, and 81 for a D.  Below 81 points is a failing mark in participation.

Papers:You will have to write one short and two major formal essays for this course: a book review, a bibliographic essay and an analytical source essay. All papers must be typed and the second paper will involve a rough draft.  You must turn in a rough draft that is substantially equivalent in length to the final paper you intend to turn in. The book review (2 pages) will be worth 15% of your final grade; the bibliographic paper (6-8 pages) will be worth 30% of your final grade and the analytical source essay (6-8 pages) will be 30%. Of that 30%, 5% will be given for turning in a rough draft of at least 6 full pages in length, with reductions of 1% for each page less than the full 6 pages. All papers are to be typed, double-spaced and in Times Roman or Courier font.  Due dates for the papers are listed below. General guidelines for papers are available by clicking the hypertext in this sentence. You can access specific guidelines for each of these projects by looking for the due date of each paper below, where you will find hyperlinks that will take you to a page containing additional information.

Grading Breakdown:

Component:                                Percentage:        
Participation                                              25
1 Book Review                                          15
1 Bibliographic Essay                               30                                        
1 Analytical Source Essay                        30                
Total                                                         100

Schedule of Readings, Topics, Assignments, and Activities