From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Historical Research Methods Syllabus 2017 (a)

On this date on Round and Square's History 
11 January 2015—China's Lunar Calendar: 2015 01-11
11 January 2014—China's Lunar Calendar: 2014 01-11
11 January 2013—Channeling Liam: xxx
11 January 2012—xxx
11 January 2011—xxx
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
Weeks 1-8                  Weeks 9-16
[a] Land and ocean RF
Method and Theory in History
(History Workshop)
History 190
Spring 2017
Monday and Wednesday 10:15-12:05 a.m.

Robert André LaFleur                                                             Office Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 111                                                                 Monday         12:05-12:30
363-2005                                                                                                             1:30-2:00
lafleur@beloit.edu                                                                   Wednesday    12:05-1:35

Required Books           
Becker, Howard. Tricks of the Trade.
Booth, Wayne. The Craft of Research.
Duby, Georges. History Continues.
Larson, Erik. Devil in the White City. 
Presnell, Jenny. The Information-Literate Historian.
Raab, Nigel. Who is the Historian?
Richie, Donald, ed. Lafcadio Hearn's Japan.
Peacock, James. The Anthropological Lens.
                                       ***  *** 
Research notebook (preferred copies available at the bookstore)
Chicago Manual of Style Guidelines (available at the bookstore) 
Round and Square (www.robert-lafleur.blogsot.com)
The New York Review of Books (NYRB)

Readings Available in .pdf Format
Geil, William Edgar. Adventures in the African Jungle Hunting Pigmies (1917).
Geil, William Edgar. China's Sacred 5 (1926).
Geil, William Edgar. The Isle That Is Called Patmos (1896, 1904).
Stead, William T. William Edgar Geil: The Missionary Missioner (1910).
Wilson, William Whitwell. An Explorer of Changing Horizons (1927).

Reserve Books
All books are on library reserve.

Course Description  
This course acquaints students with the different approaches to writing history by providing samples of the various ways in which historians (and non-historians) have treated problems in the past. The class also aims to give students experience doing history by working with various kinds of sources. Finally, the course seeks to excite students about the field of history by addressing the issue of why someone would want to become an historian. This course is required for all history majors, who should complete it by the end of their sophomore year or before they declare a major.

Evaluation
Quizzes                                         15% 
Historical Thought Essays (3)       15% 
Exam I                                           15%
Research Proposal                        15%
5,000-word Research Paper          25%
Final exam                                     15%
Class attendance and participation is expected.  

HIST 190
Method and Theory in History (History Workshop) 
Spring 2017
Week I 
(January 16-20)
Monday, January 16
Collingwood, An Autobiography
          History as the Self-Knowledge of the Mind
Mills, The Sociological Imagination
          Appendix
Cohen, History in Three Keys
          Preface
Wednesday, January 18
Round and Square 
     Syllabic Cycles: Introduction (a-d)  Read all four posts, not just “a.”
Film: Geil of Doylestown (in-class Wednesday)
From the Geil Archive (read all nine posts)  
     Introduction 
     1-Southern Mountain Museum
     2-Sacred Mountain Map
     3-Hat and Cattle
     4-Seeking Anthropology
     5-Curly Fives
     6-How to Write the Book
     7-Mortarboard Man
     8-Orator
Friday, January 20
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive 
Explore the site for thirty minutes. Jot down a few notes.Write a short e-mail to the instructor about something you noticed and why it intrigues you.

Week II  
(January 23-27)
Monday, January 23

Wednesday, January 25
Round and Square 
Quotidian Quizzes:Introduction (a-h) Read all eight posts, not just “a.” (You may 
     skim a-d, but begin reading carefully with post "e"; your grade depends on it).
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, xv-xix, 1-51 
       Preface
       Historians and the Research Process: Getting Started
       Reference Resources 
Booth, The Craft of Research: 1-50
       Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research
       Connecting with your Reader: (Re-)Creating Yourself and Your Reader
       From Topics to Question
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
      13  Out of the Frying Pan

Friday, January 27
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive 
In place of class time today, spend a full hour looking carefully through the DHS Geil Exhibit that I sent you via Dropbox (please contact me if you don't have it or can't find it). Look carefully for historiographical themes, and see if you can see new angles that might help your own work. Ask yourself, as well, what the organization of the exhibit "says" about the curators in Doylestown. How are they presenting both Geil and themselves? Send me an e-mail of at least a few short paragraphs (not a sentence or two, but not whole screens of text..unless you want to) by 12:05 p.m. on Friday (the end of class).

Week III
(January 30-February 3)
Geil, Adventures in the African Jungle Hunting Pigmies (1917)
     Off For Mombasa
     Pigmies of Long Ago
     Approaching Africa
     Billy is Kidnapped
     The Escape From The Fort
     Donkeys and Dangers
     The Land of the Lions
     Sure-Shot, the Missionary
     Billy Outwits a Lion
     Africa's Inland Sea
     Monkeys and Sleeping Sickness
     A Human Panther
     Over the Swamps Toward Sunset
     More Hobnobbing With Royalty
     Fever in the Foothills
     Termites and Driver Ants
     Snakes and Avalanches
     A Bag of Jiggers
     A Savage Welcome
     On a Curious Lake
     A Letter From the Explorer
     African Dwarfs, and Others
     The Forest of Eternal Twilight
     Pigmies At Last
     The Haunts of the Pigmies
     Pigmy Palaver
     The Burial of a Pigmy
     Lost in the Forest of the Pigmies
     A Letter Home
     A Visit to the Jolly Pigmies
     Still More Pigmies
     Wrecked in the Rapids
     Noble Lives

Wednesday, February 1
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, 52-103 
            Finding Monographs and Using Catalogs
            Finding Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers: Using Indexes 
Booth, The Craft of Research: 51-101
            From Questions to a Problem
            From Problems to Sources
            Engaging Sources 
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
           15  Stamps of Approval
           17 Jack of All Trades
           18  Don't Call Me Reverend 

Friday, February 3
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive 
In place of class time today, spend a full hour looking carefully through the DHS Online Archive. Look carefully for specific items relating to your research, historiographical themes, and see if you can see new angles that might help your own work. Send me an e-mail of at least a few short paragraphs (not a sentence or two, but not whole screens of text..unless you want to) by 12:05 p.m. on Friday (the end of class).

Week IV
(February 6-10)
Geil, The Isle That Is Called Patmos
     Carefully read all front matter...in detail.
     Examine all photographs carefully and study the book's organization     
            A Trip to Patmos
            The Monastery of St. John
            Persecutions
            John and the Revelation
            The Geography of Patmos
            Georgirene's Description of Patmos
            St. John's Visit to Patmos
            Patmos in Classical History
            The Re-Inhabiting of the Island
            The Female Monastery
            Home Life on Patmos
            Mount St. Elias
            Prochorus
            Hermits of Patmos
            The Monastery of the Apocalypse
            A Meditation

Wednesday, February 8
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, 104-167 
            Evaluating Your Sources
            The Thrill of Discovery: Primary Sources
Booth, The Craft of Research: 103-151
     Making Good Arguments: An Overview
     Making Claims
     Assembling Reasons and Evidence 
     Acknowledgments and Responses
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
    23  Geil, An Intellectual Bricoleur

Friday, February 10
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive 
In place of class time today, spend a full hour looking carefully through the DHS Online Archive. Look carefully for specific items relating to your research, historiographical themes, and see if you can see new angles that might help your own work. Send me an e-mail of at least a few short paragraphs (not a sentence or two, but not whole screens of text..unless you want to) by 12:05 p.m. on Friday (the end of class).


Week V
(February 13-17)
Geil, The Sacred 5 of China (1926)
     Carefully read all front matter...in detail, especially "The Magic of 5" (xv-xix)
     Examine all photographs carefully and study the book's organization
 
Wednesday, February 15
Geil, The Sacred 5 of China (1926)
            Sung Shan, Yellow Peak of the Centre
            Hua Shan, White Peak of the West
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, 168-214 
            History and the Internet
            Maps: From Simple to Geographic Information Systems  
Booth, The Craft of Research, 153-202
     Warrants
     Planning
     Drafting Your Report
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
    28  The Perfect 2

Friday, February 17
In place of class time today, spend a full hour looking carefully through the DHS Online Archive. Look carefully for specific items relating to your research, historiographical themes, and see if you can see new angles that might help your own work. Send me an e-mail of at least a few short paragraphs (not a sentence or two, but not whole screens of text..unless you want to) by 12:05 p.m. on Friday (the end of class).

Week VI
(February 20-24)
Monday, February 20
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 19-97
     The First Book: Apprenticeship
          The Horizons
          His Inheritance
          The Struggles of a Student
          The Objective
          Towards the Sun
          The Twilight of Old Turkey
          The Island of Saints
          The Seven Lamps
          The Arming of Europe 
Wednesday, February 22
William T. Stead, "Missionary Missioner," 1-62
     The Man and His Methods
     Round the World after Missionaries
     The Great Melbourne Mission
     Across China and Darkest Africa
     In Defence of Missions
     A Missioner for the Missions
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, 215-284 
            Beyond the Written Word...
            Statistics: Quantifying History  
Booth, The Craft of Research, 203-248
     Revising Your Organization and Argument
     Communicating Evidence Visually
     Introductions and Conclusions
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
    32  The Sarawak Museum

Friday, February 24
In place of class time today, spend a full hour looking carefully through the DHS Online Archive. Look carefully for specific items relating to your research, historiographical themes, and see if you can see new angles that might help your own work. Send me an e-mail of at least a few short paragraphs (not a sentence or two, but not whole screens of text..unless you want to) by 12:05 p.m. on Friday (the end of class).

Week VII
(February 27-March 3)
Presnell, The Information Literate Historian, 285-321 
            Presenting Your Research
Booth, The Craft of Research: 249-276
     Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly
     Some Last Considerations
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 101-271
     The Second Book: Achievement
          The Enquiry
          Salt of the South Seas
          Savor of the Salt
          Thresholds of China
          Yankee on the Yangtze
          From Burmah to Bombay
          Across Africa
          The Pigmies
          The Great Wall 
Wednesday, March 1
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 275-372
     The Third Book: Association
          A Layman's Use of the Bible
          The Forest and the Pagoda
          Changes in Changeless China
          The Mind of China
          The Soul Within the Mind
          The Book That Never Was Written
          The Final Victory
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
Friday, March 3
Work on your research proposals!
Research Proposal Due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 17
Send as a .pdf file to lafleur@beloit.edu

Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
Weeks 1-8                  Weeks 9-16
[b] Secrets RF
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