HSTY 225 Course Schedule

NOTE: All dates and assignments are subject to change. Please be aware of any announcements made in class or via the course website.

Readings available in Canvas are labeled with “C.” Those you can find through Whittemore Library databases are labeled “WL.”

Last updated: August 23, 2021

Unit 1: What is History?

  Topic To Read Before Class To Do Before Class
Fri., Sept. 3 Introduction: Why study history?
  • Maza, Thinking About History, introduction
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Tues. Sept. 7 Historical Actors
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 1
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Sept. 10 Historians in Conversation
  • Kenneth Lockridge, A New England Town: The First Hundred Years: Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1970), introduction, ch. 7. (C)
  • Jane Kamensky, Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), ch. 3. (WL)
 Submit one scholarly source analysis
Tues., Sept. 14 Historical Spaces
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 2
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Sept. 17 How to Read for Argument
  • Lisa Brooks, “Awikhigawôgan Ta Pildowi Ôjmowôgan: Mapping a New History,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 75, no. 2 (2018): 259–94. (WL)
  • Andrew C. Lipman, “Murder on the Saltwater Frontier: The Death of John Oldham,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 9, no. 2 (Spring 2011): 268–94. (WL)
 Submit one scholarly source analysis
Tues., Sept. 21 Topics of Inquiry
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 3
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Sept. 24 Journals, Books, and Databases
  • Meet in Whittemore Library Instruction Room
  • Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), ch. 4. (C)
 Submit one scholarly source analysis
Tues., Sept. 28 History, but in Popular Form
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 4
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Oct. 1 Historical Media  
Tues., Oct. 5 Historical Revision
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 5
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Oct. 8 Reframing the Scholarly Conversation
  • Jean M. O’Brien, Dispossession by Degrees: Indian Land and Identity in Natick, Massachusetts, 1650-1790 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), ch. 4. (C)
 Submit one scholarly source analysis
Tues., Oct. 12 The “So What?” Question
  • Maza, Thinking About History, ch. 6
 Submit notes on Maza reading
Fri., Oct. 15 Careers for History Majors
  • Visit by Emily Abel, Career Services & Employer Relations
  • Caitlin Galante-DeAngelis Hopkins, “The New England Primer: An African-American Artifact?,” in Schooldays in New England, 1650-1900, ed. Peter Benes and Jane Montague Benes, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife Annual Proceedings 2015 (Deerfield, MA: Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 2018), 114–25. (C)
 Submit one scholarly source analysis

Unit 2: The Academic Monograph

  Topic To Read Before Class To Do Before Class
Tues., Oct. 19 How to Read a Book Submit notes on Warren reading
Fri., Oct. 22 How to Prepare for a Book Discussion
  • Warren, New England Bound, chs. 1-2
 Submit notes on Warren reading
Tues., Oct. 26 The Research and Writing Process
  • Warren, New England Bound, chs. 3-4
 Submit notes on Warren reading
Fri., Oct. 29 Citation: Showing Your Work
  • Warren, New England Bound, chs. 5-6
 Submit notes on Warren reading
Tues., Nov. 2 General Book Discussion
  • Warren, New England Bound, ch. 7, epilogue
 Submit notes on Warren reading
Fri., Nov. 5 How to Read a Book Review
  • Review by Antonio T. Bly, African American Review 50, no. 3 (2017): 336–39. (WL)
  • Christopher L. Brown, “In America’s Long History of Slavery, New England Shares the Guilt,” New York Times, July 1, 2016.
  • Review by Simon P. Newman, Slavery & Abolition 40, no. 1 (2019): 204–205. (WL)
  • Review by Justin Roberts, American Historical Review 124, no. 3 (2019): 1063–1064. (WL)
 Submit proposal and bibliography for review essay

Unit 3: Writing a Historiographical Essay

  Topic To Read Before Class To Do Before Class
Tues., Nov. 9 How to Make an Oral Presentation   Submit reflection on Warren, New England Bound
Fri., Nov. 12 Anatomy of a Review Essay
  • Jenny Hale Pulsipher, “Puritans on Trial,” Reviews in American History 48, no. 3 (2020): 367–75. (WL)
  
Tues., Nov. 16 Review Essays and Scholarly Engagement    
Fri., Nov. 19 Historiography and Recent Scholarship Presentations  
Tues., Nov. 23 Historiography and Recent Scholarship Presentations  
Fri., Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Recess No class meeting  
Tues., Nov. 30 Editing and Revision No class meeting
  • Submit early draft by Mon., Nov. 29
  • Schedule individual meeting
Fri., Dec. 3 Historiography and Recent Scholarship TBD  
Tues., Dec. 7 Laboratory Day TBD  
Fri., Dec. 10 Writing Workshop   Bring complete draft of essay to class