Northeastern University

Department of History

HIST 5101 Historical Methodology Fall 2018

Professor Laura L. Frader

221 Meserve Hall
617-373-4442
[email protected]

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 3-4 and by appointment

This course examines the theoretical or analytical frameworks, paradigms, and resources
of historical research and writing. We pay particular attention to the ways that historians
draw on the methods and analytical paradigms of other disciplines such as sociology,
political science, economics, anthropology, literary theory, feminist theory and cultural
studies. It is not intended as a review of historiography, although some discussion of the
literatures of a field inevitably enters into our consideration of methodology. Everyone
will be responsible for analyzing the core readings of the course in each class meeting
and for several writing assignments (outlined below).

Students will be able to:

• Evaluate major theoretical concepts and analytical approaches in historical

research and writing

• Identify the principal methodological approaches of selected historical works

• Identify the main arguments of historical works

• Evaluate a body of literature with particular attention to the theoretical and

methodological tools historians use to analyze historical problems

• Understand how theoretical approaches inform public representations of the past

The following texts are REQUIRED and available for purchase in the bookstore:

Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution (University of
California, 2004).
Elisa Camiscioli, Reproducing the French Race (Duke, 2008)
Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the Global Color Line (Cambridge, 2008).
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vol.1 (Vintage, 1990).
Sonya O.Rose, Limited Livelihoods (University of California Press, 1993)
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REQUIRED E-books available through CUP or Snell Library:

Jo Guldi and David Armitage, The History Manifesto (Cambridge, 2014). Available at:
http://historymanifesto.cambridge.org

Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia University Press, 1988) SNELL
Laura L. Downs, Manufacturing Inequality (Cornell, 1995) SNELL
Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, The Communist Manifesto. SNELL

Additional REQUIRED readings will be posted on Blackboard and/or will be available in

journals through J-STOR.

Writing Assignments:

(1) Weekly Critical Essays: each week all students will submit a one-page single-spaced
analysis of the readings for each week. Critical essays should focus on the following:
What is the principal argument of the book or article? What are the principal sources
used? What is the methodology (or methodologies) the author uses to analyze and make
sense of the sources?

(2) A literature review on a topic relevant to your current interests. Instructions to be

provided.

PRESENTATIONS: Each week one of you will present the readings for the week, using
your one-page critical essays as a guide, and raising questions for discussion from the
readings.

GRADING: Short essays: 30 points (3 points each), Presentations/Class Participation: 25

points, Literature Review: 45 points

It is your responsibility to keep up with the weekly reading and participate in class
discussions. Please raise questions about and/or criticisms of the readings in class. They
will undoubtedly be interesting for all of us.

Academic Integrity:

Your instructor and Northeastern University are intolerant of any form of academic
dishonesty. Cheating or plagiarism of any kind will result in an automatic F for the
course. Students who cheat will immediately be referred to the Office of Student
Conduct and Conflict Resolution and will receive the maximum university discipline
possible. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the University’s Academic
Integrity Policy: http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academic-integrity-policy/.
At the beginning of the semester, we will discuss what constitutes plagiarism and how to
avoid it. Students may also find the following link from Snell Library on how to avoid
plagiarism useful: http://library.northeastern.edu/get-help/research-tutorials/avoid-
plagiarism.
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Reasonable Accommodation:
Students with documented learning disabilities will receive reasonable
accommodation in this class, in accordance with Northeastern University policy
(https://www.northeastern.edu/policies/pdfs/Policy_on_Reasonable_Accommodati
on.pdf). If you have a learning disability, please see me so that we can work out the
details. To contact and register with Northeastern’s Disability Resource Center, go to
20 Dodge Hall or http://www.northeastern.edu/drc/, or call 373-4428.

Title IX:
Northeastern’s Title IX Policy prohibits discrimination based on gender, which
includes sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship or domestic violence, and
stalking (for more information, see the website for the Office for University Equity
and Compliance at https://www.northeastern.edu/ouec/) . The Title IX Policy
applies to the entire community, including male, female, transgender students, and
faculty and staff. If you or someone you know has been harassed or
assaulted, confidential support and guidance can be found through University
Health and Counseling Services staff (http://www.northeastern.edu/uhcs/) and
the Center for Spiritual Dialogue and Service clergy
members (http://www.northeastern.edu/spirituallife/). By law, those employees
are not required to report allegations of sex or gender-based discrimination to the
University. Alleged violations can be reported non-confidentially to the Title IX
Coordinator within The Office for Gender Equity and Compliance at:
[email protected] and/or through NUPD (Emergency 617.373.3333; Non-
Emergency 617.373.2121). Reporting Prohibited Offenses to NUPD
does NOT commit the victim/affected party to future legal action.

Week I: September 10 Introduction to the course. What’s methodology? What’s the

difference between methodology and method? Why theory?

Week II September 17 Culture and Politics/Politics and Culture

Reading: Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution (California,
1984).

Please make notes on the following questions and be prepared to discuss in class: What
question or questions is Hunt trying to answer? What sources does she use and on what
theoretical foundations does she rely? How would you describe the two methodological
approaches she takes to answer this question? How does Hunt analyze material culture?
How are the two parts of the book linked? Are there any problems with her assumptions
in either part of the book? Critique? How might you apply these methodological
approaches to your own work?

Critical essay due on Hunt.

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Week III: September 24 Marxism and the Study of Class

Reading: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto. E-Book at Snell.
Please use the 2012 Yale University Press edition; read pp. 73-102 (obviously can read
other material in this edition, but this is the core of the Manifesto).

James E. Cronin, “Labor Insurgency and Class Formation: Comparative Perspectives on

the Crisis of 1917-1920 in Europe,” in James E. Cronin and Carmen Siriani, eds., Work,
Community, and Power. The Experience of Labor in Europe and America 1900-1925
Philadelphia: Temple, 1983), 20-48. ON BLACKBOARD.

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital (1975), Introduction, Chapters 1 and 3.

BLACKBOARD

Critical essay due on Marx and Engels, Cronin and Hobsbawm.

Week IV: Monday October 1 Gender as an Analytical Lens and as Subject of

Analysis

Readings: Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History Revised Edition (Columbia,
1999), Preface to the Revised Edition, Introduction and Chapter 2, “Gender as a Useful
Category of Historical Analysis,” E-Book in Snell

John Tosh, “Hegemonic Masculinity and Gender History,” in Stefan Dudink, Karen
Hagemann, and John Tosh, eds., Masculinities in Politics and War (Manchester
University Press, 2004). BLACKBOARD.

Michael Roper, “Maternal Relations: Moral Manliness and Emotional Survival in Letters
Home During the First World War,” in Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann, and John Tosh,
eds., Masculinities in Politics and War (Manchester University Press, 2004).
BLACKBOARD.

Kathleen Canning, “Social Politics, Body Politics: Recasting the Social Question in
Germany 1875-1900,” in Canning, Gender Theory in Practice Historical Perspectives on
Bodies, Class, and Citizenship (Cornell, 2006), 139-167. BLACKBOARD.

How is the use of gender as a category of historical analysis and as a subject of historical
analysis different from the study of women? What are the most important elements of
Scott’s theory? What does Tosh add to the study of gender? What is hegemonic
masculinity and how does Tosh critique it? How does Roper use gender to analyze the
experience of soldiers during World War I? How does Canning use the notion of gender
to analyze German social policy in the late 19th century?” How might you apply a gender
analysis to your own work?
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Critical essay due on Scott, Tosh, Roper, and Canning.

Week V October 8 NO CLASS: Columbus Day Holiday

Week VI October 15 Race as an Analytical Category

Readings: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, “African American Women’s History and the
Meta-language of Race,” Signs: Journal of Women, Culture, and Society 17:2 (Winter
1992): 251-174. J-STOR.

Elisa Camiscioli, Reproducing the French Race (Duke, 2008).

In what sense is race a “meta-language?” What is Brooks Higginbotham’s argument

about the power of racial thinking? What kinds of evidence does she use? How does she
see the relationship between theory and evidence? How does Camiscioli understand
“race?” How did ideas about racial and ethnic difference shape French labor and social
policy? What evidence shapes her conclusions? How might the analysis of race or ethnic
difference apply to your own work?

Critical essay due on Brooks Higginbotham and Camiscioli.

Week VII October 15 International History

Reading: Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the Global Color Line. White
Men’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (Cambridge, 2008).

What analytical concepts shape Lake’s and Reynolds’ study of the racial dimensions of
international history? What assumptions do they make about racial politics? What
international connections do they identify? What is their evidence? Could this type of
analysis be applied in other contexts?

Critical essay due on Lake and Reynolds.

Week VIII October 22 Post-Marxist Social History

Readings: Excerpts from Edward P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working
Class (Harmondsworth, 1963). BLACKBOARD.

Sonya O. Rose, Limited Livelihoods. Gender and Class in Nineteenth Century England
(California, 1992).

In what sense is Thompson’s analysis post-Marxist? What is the relationship between

materiality and culture, between culture and politics? What is the place of Marxist
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analysis in Rose’s work? How does she both draw upon Thompson’s important
intervention in social history and go beyond it? How does she analyze the intersection of
gender and class in the process of industrialization?

Critical essay due on Thompson and Rose.

Week IX October 29 Post-Structuralism and Sexuality; Discussion of Literature

Review

Readings: Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1 (Vintage, 1991).

Kathleen Canning, “The Body as Method: Reflections on the Place of the Body in
Gender History,” in Canning, Gender Theory in Practice Historical Perspectives on
Bodies, Class, and Citizenship (Cornell, 2006), 168-189. BLACKBOARD.

Fiona Paisley, “Race Hysteria: Darwin, 1938,” in Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette
Burton, eds., Bodies in Contact: Colonial Encounters in World History (Duke University
Press, 2005) BLACKBOARD.

What conceptual framework does Foucault use to analyze the history of sexuality? What
kinds of historical examples does he use to demonstrate his points? What does he mean
by biopower? What are the advantages and or shortcomings of Foucault’s approach?
What does Canning mean by “The Body as Method?” Is the study of the body (and the
deployment of laws, policies and discourses upon it –body politics) a methodology or a
topic of study?

Critical essay due on Foucault, Canning, and Paisley.

Week X November 5 Memory, Knowledge and Representation: Making History

Public

Reading: Michel Foucault, “Two Lectures,” in Power/Knowledge. Selected Interviews

and Other Writings 1972-197, ed. Colin Gordon (NY: Pantheon, 1980), on
BLACKBOARD

Pierre Nora, “General Introduction,” in Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, Vol. 1, trans.,
Arthur Goldhammer (NY: Columbia, 1996), 1-20. on BLACKBOARD

Michel Winock, “Joan of Arc,” in Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, Vol. 3, trans., Arthur
Goldhammer (NY: Columbia, 1996), 432-480 and 677-681 (notes).

Mary Panzer, “Panning ‘The West as America,’ or Why One Exhibition did not Strike
Gold,” Radical History Review 52 (1992): 105-113. J-STOR THROUGH SNELL.
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What are the main points of Foucault’s lectures? How does he view knowledge and the
production of knowledge? How is knowledge linked to power in his view? How is
memory different from history for Pierre Nora? What is memory? What is modern
memory and what is historicized memory? Does all history fall into the realm of lieux de
mémoire? For Winock, in what sense is the memory of Joan of Arc a “mobile memory?”
In what sense is this memory a disputed memory? How has Joan of Arc been deployed as
a political symbol? What are Panzer’s critiques of “The West as America?”

Critical essay due on Foucault, Nora, Winock, and Panzer.

This would be a good time to begin compiling texts and writing your literature
review due on December 14.

Week XI November 12 NO CLASS Veteran’s Day Holiday

Week XII November 19 Big History and its Critics

Reading: Jo Guldi and David Armitage, The History Manifesto (Cambridge, 2014).
Available through http://historymanifesto.cambridge.org

Deborah Cohen and Peter Mandler, “Critique of The History Manifesto,” American
Historical Review 120:2 (April 2015). Available through the link above or through J-
STOR or Project Muse.

Focus on the principal arguments of these works. On what does the controversy turn?
Which view of history makes sense? What critiques or questions do you have about each?

Critical essay due on Guldi and Armitage and their critics.

Week XIII November 26 The Uses of Anthropology

Reading: NOTE: Read these articles in the order in which they are listed below. Although
there is no critical essay required this week, make notes on the questions below and be
prepared to discuss them in class.

Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in

Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures. BLACKBOARD.

Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” BLACKBOARD.

Readings: Robert Darnton, “Workers Revolt: the Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-
Séverin,” in Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and other Episodes in French Cultural
History BLACKBOARD
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What is “thick description?” How does Geertz use it to analyze Balinese cultural
practices? Might it be useful as a historical methodology? How does Darnton use cultural
history to understand a social movement? Is his analysis a sort of “thick description?”

No critical essay this week.

Week XIV December 3 NO CLASS: WORK ON LITERATURE REVIEW.

CONSULTATIONS WITH ME DURING CLASS TIME AS NEEDED.

December 14 Literature Review Due. No extensions granted!