HIST 200
Introduction to History

Clio (Nuremberg, 1514)

The point of this class it for you to learn to think like a historian. All of you are interested in history, and all of you have chosen to become historians and spend your life doing history. This class will help you figure out if you have made the right choice and to understand how history is done. We will look at the types of questions historians ask, what sorts of sources we base our answers on, how these answers are constructed, and what sorts of things historians produce. Once you are done with this class you will be able to understand better what is going on in your history classes and in all the books, articles and other things you will be reading. You will also be in a position to start working as a historian yourself.

Professor Alan Baumler 216 Keith phone phone 7-4066  E-mail baumler@iup.edu Office Hours Office Hours MWF 10:30-11:30, TR 11:30-12:30  and by appointment.
 http://www.chss.iup.edu/baumler/index.html

Books

E.H. Carr What is History?
Paul Cohen History in Three Keys: The Boxers and Event, Experience and Myth  Columbia U.P. 1997
Amitov Ghosh In An Antique Land. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Jules Benjamin A Student's Guide to History. Bedford St. Martins 2004.


 8/30 What history is and why people do it

 Thucydides and Ssu-ma Ch'ien and Saburo Ienaga . The things that history does.

-Historians assignment 

9/6 The library. Types of sources and types of products
Introduction to the IUP library. The internet and other libraries. Primary and secondary sources and the types of things that historians produce. Monographs, articles and historical markers.

9/13 History of the profession, Historians and their facts
    Where historians come from. Turning a fact into a historical fact. Using historical facts to make an interpretation.

-Read Carr, chapters 1-2

9/20 More Carr
     You lucky people.

-Read Carr, 3-4
-one Chapter analysis

9/27 Working with secondary sources-Article review
What an article is, how they are produced, and what you can do with them.
How to do an Article review
Articles for article review

10/4 Using primary sources
Finding primary sources in Indiana PA. What do do with them and how to analyze them.

-One primary source analysis-guidelines for a source analysis
  Internet History Sourcebook

10/11 Creating a professional product
Footnotes! How historians create an argument. Doing research and writing about it.

Read Benjamin
Research assignment

10/18 Dissecting a professional product
The Boxers and and the Historians.

Read first two sections of Cohen

10/25 No Class, Fall Break
 
10/27Writing a book review
Uses of history. Assessing other people's work. The book review.

Read final section of Cohen

-Turn in your book review

11/8 What can and can't be said. Ghosh
Types of questions historians should ask. What to do with evidence and the lack of it.

read Ghosh In An Antique Land

11/15 Historians, anthropologists and storytelling

-one Chapter analysis

11/29 How historians make big bucks
Careers in history. Teaching and otherwise. Public history, popular history, and academic history. The CIA.

Raid on Deerfield
Public History assignment

 12/6 Finalizing research
 Research papers and what they should look like. Revising your work. Throwing stuff away. salvaging a project and improving a project.

Grades
All work is due on the date announced in class. Late assignments will be graded down 5% a day and are not eligible for revision. The book review, the article reviews and the source readings can all be revised after you receive your first grade.

1000 total points
Book review 200 points
Research assignment 200 points
2 Chapter reviews 100 points each
Article review, 100 points
Source paper 100 points
Historians assignment and Public History assignment, 100 points each

900-1000 pts A
800-899 pts B
700-799 pts C
600-699 pts D
500-599 pts F

-Attendance policy-- You should come to class every day, but the point is not just to come to class, but to come having done your reading and being ready to talk about it.

-Academic dishonesty-- All students are required to abide by the University's policies on Academic Integrity, as found in the catalogue.

INTASC standards

    In addition to your grades, those of you in Social Studies Ed will also be assessed on your mastery of the INTASC standards. I will assess 2 of your assignments and record (on a special web page in URSA provided for this purpose) if you have not met, met or exceeded expectations for the standard.  These assessments will not effect your GPA, your graduation or your certification.

Fall 2005