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.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Method and Theory in History (History Workshop)—b

On this date on Round and Square's History 

Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
HIST 190: Weeks 1-8                  HIST 190: Weeks 9-16
[a] Beguiled RF
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
HIST 190: Weeks 1-8                  HIST 190: Weeks 9-16

Method and Theory in History
(History Workshop)
History 190
Autumn 2015
TTh 12:00-1:50 p.m. 
Robert André LaFleur                                                             Office Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 111                                                                 Tuesday           2:00-3:30
363-2005                                                                                   Thursday         2:00-3:30
lafleur@beloit.edu                                                                    …or by appointment

Required Books           
Booth, Wayne. The Craft of Research.
Evans, Richard. In Defense of History.
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Landscape of History.
Larson, Erik. Devil in the White City. 
Presnell, Jenny. The Information-Literate Historian.
Richie, Donald, ed. Lafcadio Hearn's Japan.
Schama, Simon. Dead Certainties.
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. Hermit of Peking.
                                       ***  *** 
Research notebook (preferred copies 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
Landon, Brooks. Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft.
All course books are also available at the reserve desk at the library. Since there are a limited number of each book (usually one or two), please make sure that you plan ahead if you are going to read a book on reserve. Listen in class for "reserve strategies," as well.

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% 
Short writing assignments      15% 
5,000-word Research Paper  35%
Final exam                              15%
Class attendance and participation is expected.  

HIST 190
Method and Theory in History (History Workshop) 
Autumn 2015
Week IX 
(October 20, 22)
Midterm Week  
Tuesday
Richie, Lafcadio Hearn's Japan, 7-234
            Preface
            Introduction 
            Part One: The Land
            Strangeness and Charm
            The Chief City of the Province of the Gods
            In a Japanese Garden
            Three Popular Ballads
            In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts
            A Letter From Japan
            Hourai
            Part Two: The People 
            Bits of Life and Death
            Of Women's Hair
            A Street Singer
            Kimiko
            Yuko: A Reminiscence
            On a Bridge
            The Case of O-Dai
            Drifting
            Diplomacy
            A Passional Karma
            Survivals
Thursday
Discuss midterm assignment (in class review session)
 ***  ***
Week X
(October 27, 29)
Gaddis, Landscape of History
          The Landscape of History
          Time and Space
          Structure and Process
          The Interdependency of Variables
          Chaos and Complexity
          Causation, Contingency, and Counterfactuals
          Molecules with Minds of Their Own
          Seeing Like a Historian
Thursday
Explore the site for thirty minutes. Jot down notes. Spend the next half-hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS collection). Send a one-paragraph e-mail response (with analysis) to the instructor by noon (class time).

Week XI
(November 3, 5)
Evans, In Defense of History
          Introduction
          The History of History
          History, Science, and Morality 
          Historians and Their Facts
          Sources and Discourses
          Causation in History
          Society and the Individual
          Knowledge and Power
          Objectivity and Its Limits
Thursday
Explore the site for thirty minutes. Jot down notes. Spend the next half-hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS collection). Send a one-paragraph e-mail response (with analysis) to the instructor by noon (class time).
***  ***                      
Read the Research Paper Assignment
Click here to see the Late Assignment Policy for this course

Week XII
(November 10, 12)
Schama, Dead Certainties
          The Many Deaths of General Wolfe
          Death of a Harvard Man
Thursday
Explore the site for thirty minutes. Jot down notes. Spend the next half-hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS collection). Send a one-paragraph e-mail response (with analysis) to the instructor by noon (class time).
***  ***                      
Read the Research Paper Assignment
Click here to see the Late Assignment Policy for this course

Week XIII
(November 17, 19)
Trevor-Roper, Hermit of Peking
          The Wild Oats
          The Scholar
          The Historian
          Between Two Patrons
          The Benefactor—One
          The Benefactor—Two
          The Secret Agent
          The Enterepreneur
          The Diaries
          The Controversy
          The Recluse
          Dr. Hoeppli
          The Memoirs—One
          The Memoirs—Two
          The Portrait
Thursday
Explore the site for thirty minutes. Jot down notes. Spend the next half-hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS collection). Send a one-paragraph e-mail response (with analysis) to the instructor by noon (class time).
***  ***
Read the Research Paper Assignment
Click here to see the Late Assignment Policy for this course

Week XIV
(November 24)
Tuesday, November 25
Larson, Devil in the White City, 1-231
          Prologue: Aboard the Olympic
          Part I: Frozen Music
          Part II: An Awful Fight

                                                             Week XV
(December 1, 3)
Tuesday
Prepare for your final papers and the final exam (Thursday)

Thursday
Final Exam
***  ***                      
Research Paper Due by 5:00 p.m. (hard copy outside of my office) on Tuesday, December 15.

Week XVI
(December 8)
Tuesday
Larson, Devil in the White City, 233-429
          Part III: In the White City
          Part IV: Cruelty Revealed
          Epilogue: The Last Crossing
          Notes and Sources
          Bibliography
***  *** 
Research Paper* Due by 5:00 p.m. (hard copy outside of my office) on Tuesday, December 15.
*5,000 words (about fifteen pages, but write your word count).
[b] Method RF
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
HIST 190: Weeks 1-8                  HIST 190: Weeks 9-16

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