Professor Laura Smoller
MW, 1:40-2:55, SH 206
http://www.ualr.edu/lasmoller/
569-8389; SH 604K
Office hours: Wednesday, 3-4 p.m.; Friday, 2-3:30 p.m.
HIST 4390.04:
The Historian's Craft
This course offers an introduction both to historical methods (how historians go about doing history) and to historiography (the study of the many ways in which historians have written about the past). That is, we will think about the way in which historians produce what may be called "true stories about the past" as well as the fact that different historians have come up with various interpretations of, focuses on, and reasons for talking about the past. And we will do so through an examination of some of the enormous body of historical scholarship about the European witch trials. Students should come away with a sense of history as a discipline and a process, as opposed to simply a set of "facts" about past times.
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Date |
Topic |
Reading |
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January 14 |
Introduction to the course |
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January 16 |
What do we think we know about the witch trials? |
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January 21 |
Martin Luther King Holiday |
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January 23 |
What are the questions? |
Arnold, pp. 1-14; Levack, pp. 1-29; choose a question for focus |
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January 28 |
Demonstration: Research tools (Karen Russ). Meet in SH 403. |
Levack, pp. 30-73 |
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January 30 |
Database searches. Meet in SH 403. |
Levack, pp. 74-108. In-class search assignment. |
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February 4 |
History has a history |
Arnold, pp. 15-57; Iggers, pp. 23-35 |
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February 6 |
Citation quiz (open book) |
Bring Galgano!!!!!! |
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February 11 |
Working with primary sources |
Arnold, pp. 58-79; Galgano, pp. 56-77; "The Persecutions at Trier" (ER); "The Persecutions at Bamberg" (ER) |
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February 13 |
Different interpretation: textbooks |
Levack, pp. 134-74; Galgano, pp. 33-46. In-class textbook analysis. |
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February 18 |
The Annales school |
Galgano, 1-16; Iggers, pp. 51-64; Febvre, "Witchcraft: Nonsense or a Mental Revolution?" (ER) |
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February 20 |
"Mining" a book or article |
Levack, 175-203.
Bring Levack AND one article on your question available full-text
on line (e.g., through JStor).
Email citation to lasmoller@ualr.edu
before class. |
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February 25 |
Looking at a "classic" |
Trevor-Roper, "The European Witch Craze" (ER) |
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February 27 |
Were there really witches? |
Murray, The Witch Cult (ER); Midelfort, "Were There Really Witches?" (ER) |
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March 3 |
Mechanisms and causes, I |
Arnold, pp. 80-93; Behringer, "Weather, Hunger and Fear" (ER) |
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March 5 |
Mechanisms and causes, II |
Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, pp. 535-69 (ER); Iggers, pp. 101-110. |
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March 10 |
Mechanisms and causes, III |
Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials (ER) |
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March 12 |
Mechanisms and causes, IV |
Larner, Enemies of God (ER) |
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March 17 |
Trolling for and evaluating arguments |
Arnold, pp. 110-123; reviews of Ginzburg, Ecstasies (ER).
Turn in list of "canon" on your question. |
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March 19 |
The historiographical essay: Gender |
Hodgkin, "Gender, Mind, and Body" (ER) |
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March 24-28 |
Spring Break |
Work on annotated bibliography |
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March 31 |
Gender, II |
Ehrenreich and English, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (ER); Harley, "Historians as Demonologists" (ER) |
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April 2 |
Gender, III |
Monter, "Toads and Eucharists" (ER); Iggers, pp. 134-40. Annotated bibliography due. |
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April 7 |
Gender, IV |
Bailey, "The Feminization of Magic" (ER) |
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April 9 |
Gender, V |
Roper, Oedipus and the Devil (ER); Iggers, pp. 118-33 |
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April 14 |
Comparative approaches |
Levack, pp. 204-52 |
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April 16 |
MentalitŽs; cognitive patterns |
Arnold, pp. 94-109; Clark, "The 'Gendering' of Witchcraft in French Demonology" (ER) |
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April 21 |
MentalitŽs; cognitive patterns, II |
Zika, "Fears of Flying: Representations of Witchcraft and Sexuality in Early
Sixteenth-Century Germany" (ER).
Historiographical essay due. |
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April 23 |
Microhistory |
Iggers, pp. 110-117; Kunze, Highroad to the Stake (ER) |
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April 28 |
Transatlantic perspectives |
Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed (ER) |
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April 30 |
History for whose purpose? |
Barstow, Witchcraze (ER) |
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May 5 |
History for whose purpose? II |
Film: The Burning Times |
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May 9 |
Research prospectus due by 5 p.m. |
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Course requirements:
N.B.: This is a discussion-intensive course. Attendance at and active participation in all classes are both mandatory. Three unexcused absences will result in the loss of one letter grade in participation, five unexcused absences will result in no credit for participation, and eight unexcused absences will result in a failing grade for the course. If it appears that students are not doing the readings, I reserve the right to give reading quizzes without notice.
About the annotated bibliography: Your
annotated bibliography should list the most important secondary works addressing
a given question (what I am calling the "canon") and make some
meaningful comments about them (e.g., the author's argument, the type of or
approach to history used here, and how the work is viewed by other scholars). See Galgano, pp. 51-55 for more
information and Galgano's Appendix A for an example. Yours should include at least ten entries, with at least
three being books and at least three being journal articles. For each book in the annotated
bibliography, you must look at three scholarly book reviews of the book (and
include that information in the annotation). All references in this course must be in
University of Chicago Style (the "humanities style," also called
Turabian style). For a quick start, see Galgano, ch. 6, and http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.
About the historiographical essay: A historiographical essay identifies the most important scholarly work on a given topic (that is, those most influential upon and most cited by later historians; what I am calling the "canon" here) and imposes some order upon it. For example, after deciding that the most important works on the question of the end of the witchcraft trials are the books of Smith, Jones, and Doe, and the articles of Moe, Curley, and Larry, you will want to put them into categories. The most basic approach in chronological (starting with the earliest author), but you will most likely find that the works fall into camps or schools. (Smith and Moe are economic historians; Jones and Doe prefer the "linguistic turn"; Curley and Larry are microhistorians.) You may find a debate (Smith, Curley, and Doe attribute the end of witchcraft persecutions to the Scientific Revolution; Jones, Moe, and Larry, to the centralizing state). You perhaps also will find a "hole" in the literature (e.g., none of these authors considers a change in climate).
About the research prospectus: The research prospectus must include
Books to purchase:
Arnold, John H. History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-285352-3.
Galgano, Michael J., J. Chris Arndt, and Raymond M. Hyser. Doing History: Research and Writing in the Digital Age. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-534-61953-4.
Iggers, Georg G. Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge, with a New Epilogue. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0-819-567666.
Levack, Brian P. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 3rd ed. Harlow, UK, London, and NY: Pearson Longman, 2006.
Note: All
readings designated ER (electronic reserves) are available through WebCT.
Students with disabilities: It is the policy and practice of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to create inclusive learning environments. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or to accurate assessment of achievement--such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos--please notify the instructor as soon as possible. Students are also welcome to contact the Disability Resource Center, telephone 501-569-3143 (v/tty). For more information, visit the DRC website at www.ualr.edu/disability.
History department assessment
policy: The policy of the History
Department is to engage students in the process of assessing courses in the
department's curriculum. Department faculty and the UALR administration use
assessment data to monitor how well students are learning both historical
content and the skills of essay writing. At several points during the semester
you may be asked to participate in this process by writing a brief essay in
class or your instructor might submit one or more of your examinations for
review by other members of the department. All assessment activities are
conducted on an anonymous basis and any evaluations will be kept in strict
confidence. When you are asked to participate in this process please do your
best. Direct any questions regarding assessment to your instructor or the
department chairperson
Classroom etiquette: Please turn off cell phones and beepers before entering the classroom or set them to a silent alert. In the rare event you must enter late or leave class early, please let me know in advance.
Cheating and plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses and will be treated as such. ("Plagiarism" means "to adopt and reproduce as one's own, to appropriate to one's use, and incorporate in one's own work without acknowledgment the ideas of others or passages from their writings and works." See Section VI, Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Behavior, Student Handbook, p. 39. Copying directly from the textbook, the Internet, or an encyclopedia article without quotation marks or an identifying citation, for example, constitutes plagiarism.) Anyone who engages in such activities will receive no credit for that assignment and may in addition be turned over to the Academic Integrity and Grievance Committee for University disciplinary action, which may include separation from the University.