Historiography

This course is an introduction to key analytical concepts, schools of historiography, and great historians through the centuries, as well as major theories, methods, and historical interpretations. We will read historians from Herodotus to current practitioners in the field with an eye towards understanding historiography in its two guises: as the philosophy of history that governs how we look at past events, and as the chronicle of the profession of historical inquiry as it has developed over time.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend class meetings, take part in discussions, and submit all written work on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. As per CSI-CUNY regulations, no student with more than two unexcused absences will receive credit for the course.

A Note About Academic Integrity: Integrity is fundamental to the academic enterprise. It is violated by acts such as borrowing or purchasing term papers, essays, reports, and other written assignments; using concealed notes or crib sheets during examinations; copying others' work and submitting it as one's own; and misappropriating the knowledge of others. The sources from which one derives one's ideas, statements, terms, and data must be fully and specifically acknowledged in the appropriate form; failure to do so, intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. Violations of academic integrity may result in failure in the course and in disciplinary actions with penalties such as suspension or dismissal from the College. For information about City University of New York policies on academic dishonesty, refer to the CUNY website at www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/2004/policies/image/policy.pdf

Assignments:

Assignments and Exercises (ongoing) (60% of course grade total)

Reading Questions (RQ) (10% of course grade total)

Class Participation/Attendance (10% of course grade)

Final Examination (20% of course grade)

Course assignments are stored at www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/300su2006assignments.html

Required Texts:

Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (University of Chicago Press, 6th Revised edition, 1996 -- ISBN: 0226816273)

Course Packet of Essays (to be handed out in class)

Course Schedule:

Monday June 5

Introduction to the Course – What is Historiography? (Pass out Syllabus and Historiographical Essays List)

	Tuesday June 6	Historiographical Lecture (RQ) – “Salem and Witchcraft” (Introduce Historiographical Essay Assignment #1; Choose Historiographical Essay)
	Readings: • Steve Smith, “Writing the History of the Russian Revolution after the Fall of Communism” (1994)

	Wednesday June 7	Classical Historiography (RQ)
	Readings: • Herodotus, The Persian Wars (430 BCE - 424 BCE) • Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War (431 BCE) • Tacitus, The Annals (109 ACE) • Procopius, The Secret History (550 CE)

	Thursday June 8	Historiography in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (RQ) – Historiographical Essay Assignment #1 Due
	Readings: • Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History (325 C.E.) • Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (413-26 C.E.) • Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah (1377 C.E.) • Niccolo Machiavelli, The History of Florence (1525) • Jean Bodin, Method for the Easy Comprehension of History (1566)

	Monday June 12	Historiography in the Enlightenment (RQ)
	Readings: • Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1725) • Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776, 1781) • mmanuel Kant, "Idea of a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View" (1784) • Leopold Von Ranke, “The Unity of Truth” (1839) • Leopold von Ranke, “Portrait of Pope Paul IV” (1847)

	Tuesday June 13	Romantic Historiography (RQ) – Historiographical Essay Assignment #2 Due
	Readings: • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, "Philosophy of History" (1830-31) • Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England (1848) • Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)

Wednesday June 14

Library Session (class meets in Library Classroom, 1L-214), with guest Professor Catherine Perkins, Library

	Thursday June 15	Modern Historiography (RQ)
	Readings: • Georgii V. Plekhanov, “ The Role of the Individual in History” (1898) • Lord Acton, “Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History” (1906) • Benedetto Croce, History as the Story of Liberty (1938) • Arnold Toynbee, "The Disintegration of Civilizations" (1934-1939) • Marc Bloch, “The Folk Memory” (1939)

	Monday June 19	The Point of Departure in Modern Historiography (RQ) – Historiographical Essay Assignment #3 Due
	Readings: • Antonio Gramsci, “Problems of Philosophy and History” (1929-35) • Antonio Gramsci, “The Rise of The Intellectual” (1932) • Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936)

	Tuesday June 20	The Linguistic Turn in Historiography (RQ)
	Readings: • Michael Roberts, “Postmodernism and the Linguistic Turn” (2004) • Fernand Saussure, A Course in General Linguistics (1915) • Roland Barthes, “The Discourse of History” (1967)

	Wednesday June 21	Postmodernism in Historiography (RQ)
	Readings: • Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) • Edward Said, Orientalism (1978) • Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture” (1973)

	Thursday June 22	Renaming the Subject: Race, Class, Gender (RQ) – Historiographical Essay Assignment #4 Due
	Readings: • David Camfield, "Re-Orienting Class Analysis” (2005) • Vicki L. Ruiz, “Morena/o, blanca/o y café con leche” (2004) • Catherine J. Lavender, “Is She Not a Man?” (2006)

	Monday June 26	Historiography in the Current Moment (RQ) – Historiographical Essay #5 Due
	Readings: • Christopher Kent, "Historiography and Postmodernism" (1999) • John Vincent, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to History (1995) • Keith Jenkins, What is History? (1995) • Keith Windshuttle, The Killing of History (1994) • Richard J. Evans, "In Defence of History" (1997) • Eric Hobsbawm, On History (1998)

Tuesday June 27

Class time devoted to preparing for the Final Examination (no meeting)

Wednesday June 28

Final Examination on Historical Approaches (in class)