Spring 2016   Occidental College History Department              Prof. Maryanne Horowitz

History 300. Re-assessing European Global Encounters

Monday/Wednesday 8:00-9:25am  Fowler 110

The  20th-century national movements of liberation from European colonialism initiated re-assessments of the Crusades, trade on the Silk Road, piracy and kidnapping, as well as of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French trade routes and settlements on the Atlantic and Pacific Rims in the early modern period. Each student will be writing a historiographical essay revealing changing interpretations of one global encounter. Class work will enhance student skills: we shall be discussing exemplary recent historical films and histories, and we shall learn how to efficiently find diverse viewpoints through on-line and printed sources.  Prerequisite: Open to majors and minors, or may enroll with instructor's approval.  Meets CORE Requirements:  Pre-1800 and Intercultural and Global

The Hist. 300 in Occidental College History Department introduces students to the practice and writing of history through topical approaches. Students will explore methodological approaches to historical inquiry, conduct research projects, and improve their writing skills.

Office hours: Swan 314 Mon. 11:50 a.m.-12:45 p.m. and Fri. 8:00-9:25 a.m.    Contact Prof. Horowitz via email horowitz@oxy.edu.   Phone useful during office hours 323-259-2583

BOOKS

In Bookstore: John  E. Willis, Jr.,  The World from 1450 to 1700. (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Other readings are on MOODLE for student selection of one global encounter for focused research.  There are many electronic historiographical articles and chapters received via interlibrary loan, as well as books on reserve.

SCHEDULE

Common readings to start:

Week 1  Willis, Preface, Prologue, chs. 1 and 2, Chronology & Websites       Analyzing historical films as practice in analyzing historical viewpoints in secondary sources:   See on reserve before  M. Jan 25 video: The Other Conquest (in Nahuatl and Spanish; set subtitles to English) on reserve, and by America, un Mundo Nuevo  (47 minutes Spanish with English subtitles) OR an alternative is to see How tasty was my little Frenchman (Portuguese, set subtitles to English) to compare with the book on which it was based Hans Staden’s true history: an account of cannibal capitivity in Brazil

Jan. 20 Lecture on Patricia Seed, Ceremonies of Possession, on alternative national paths to dispossessing indigenous peoples

Week 2 Willis, chs. 3 and 4, and Bibliography (mark those that are primary sources)  See by Wed. Jan 27 on reserve

Mon. Powerpoint Visual Lecture “Early Modern Fourfold Division of Humanity” Focus is on personifications of America and of Africa in Title page of Ortelius (1570), Amsterdam Town Hall (1660s), and Tapestry set of late 17th century. For example, student might pick as historiography topic the visual imagery of “America” or “Africa” or “Asia” (for Europeans the reference shifted from the Near East to East Asia in 18th century).   Questions/discussion/alternate approaches.

Wed. Bring Willis to discuss; individuals will have picked specific chapters of greatest interest.  Completed chs. 1-3.

Week 3 Willis, chs. 4-7. 

Mon.  Feb. 1 Come to class prepared to practice comparative historiography on contrasting approach and interpretation of the 2 assigned films on the Spanish & the Aztecs  OR of Brazilian film on Tupinamba & 16th century travel book on which it was based. Please suggest other contrasting films ( film based on travelogue) of an encounter as films are welcome in your historiography paper. 

Workshop begins on electronic articles and chapters on reserve in MOODLE (the articles analyze books you may want to choose)

Wed.  Feb. 3 Student presentations on topics of greatest interest (preliminary oral stage of Feb. 8 assignment)

Bring Willis to discuss chs. 4-7; individuals will have picked specific chapters of greatest interest.

Week 4 Mon. Feb. 8 Submission of proposal for first comparative history book review, related to commitment to specific early modern global encounter of peoples for historiography paper.   Completion of discussion on Willis and of films.

Wed. Feb. 10 Librarian Darren Hall will supervise a workshop on finding articles through library databases.  Bring specific topics you seek, and any other research-inquiry questions.  Consider bringing a portable drive to store articles.

Further reading assignments and lectures will support the specific student interests. Students are requested to recommend for scanning/group reading contrasting articles they find on their topics.

Week 5   Monday holiday

Wed. Feb. 17  Working on chosen topic. Come with 2 copies of current bibliography of journal articles (at least 4) and at least 2 chapters from reserve historiography chapters.  Have a sentence or 2 of annotation (summing up main point of use to your topic) on at least l article and l historiography chapter.

Reserve electronic reading  Judith C. Brown, "Courtiers and Christians: The First Japanese Emissaries to Europe," Renaissance Quarterly  47 (Dec. 1994) , 872-906

Lecture on Early Modern Policies on Ambassadors (Gift-giving enters collections)

Feb. 21 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m Bus Trip to Getty Center, especially for prof’s guided tour of Versailles tapestries of Louis XIV --- necessary to sign up ahead.

Week 6.  Jesuits

Mon. Feb. 22 Lecture on Catholic Reformation/Counter-Reformation and founding of Jesuits, the Society of Jesus

Wed. Feb. 24  Prof. Robert Ellis “Japanese and Spaniards in the Christian Century” Read ahead electronic copy on reserve ch. 1 “Japanese and Spaniards in the Christian Century” of Robert Richmond Ellis, They Need Nothing: Hispanic-Asian Encounters of the Colonial Period (book also on reserve)

Week 7 Exploration and impact on museums and botanical gardens

Mon. Feb. 29  Early Modern Botanical Gardens (Pisa, Padua) & Early Library/Museum, a “Studiolo” (Piero’s and then Lorenzo’s in Medici Palace in Florence)

Comparative book review due Mon. Feb. 29. 

Wed. March 2 Workshop on professional editing of your papers in Word: Dr. Carey Sargent, Associate Director, Instruction and Research, Center for Digital Liberal Arts.

Spring Break

Week 8  Background and context of  James Cook’s trips. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook looking at endnotes.  Report on links to Journals or Links to museums. Topic has lots of on-line resources for research.

Mon. March 14

Wed. March 16 Wed. March 16 Comparative Article Review due Wed. March 16 NOON (email as Word attachment to horowitz@oxy.edu. Students will be receive a paper via email  for trying out the professional editing learned on March 2.)

Abstract of entire paper under 150 words due Fri. March 18  by Noon via email 

Week 9 Start week 11 assignment...at least printing, reading “the problem  pp. 410-11, the method p. 416, browsing for your interests.

Mon. March 21  Meet in classroom, and then we’ll go to Special Collections at 8:25.

Wed. March 23:  Paper presentations on museums and on James Cook.   Completion of presentation on Early Modern Policies on Ambassadors: see The Requirement (required to be read by Spanish to indigenous peoples) and Machiavelli’s letter  letter to Vettori on work in study in evening with ancients and ms. of The Prince.

Recommended: I had assumed more student use of reserve readings which both provide articles and suggest articles. Please read an introductory reserve reading related to own paper topic and paper you commented upon: Under Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History:  “Museums” “Indigenous Peoples” “British East India Company ( includes British Empire)” “Global Imperialism and Gender”  Guide to Historical Literature is the model for annotated bibliographies.

Week 10 Mon.   March 28 Re-writes due of March 16 Comparative Article Review with improvements from faculty/student suggestions and any additional research. On any one article, do not devote more than one paragraph; paragraphs comparing at least two articles are better.  You may be aided by starting annotated secondary source bibliography due on March 30.

Monday March 28: Paper presentations on Europe-Japan Encounter and Spanish-Aztec Encounter

Wed. March 30 Draft of at least 10 pages with endnotes plus Bibliography (most of the secondary sources annotated in 1-3 sentences for point of view) due Wed. March 30. 

Week 11 Print and mark up with your thoughts on first item in MOODLE electronic reserve from Discovering the Global Past, 4th edition: “Cross-cultural Encounters: Travel, Religion Conquests, and Trade (14000-1700)”  This is a problem set for students to discuss.

Mon. April 4 Meet in new Career Office with Valerie Savior 8-9:20 a.m. She has received your specified interests. 

Wed. April 6  Bring your marked-up “Cross-cultural Encounters” for first analysis/discussion of documents 1-13.  Reading legal cases: Somerset v Stewart in 1772 and the Zong insurance claims case in 1783, which helped lay the groundwork for Britain's Slave Trade Act 1807.

Week 12  Analyzing particularly quantitative data in “Cross-cultural Encounters,” pp. 434-437.

Mon. April 11 Film Belle.

Wed. April 13 Last date to resubmit abstract of paper.

Film Belle  Discussion of film and of quantitative data in “Cross-cultural Encounters.”

Week 13 Read and analyze paper that won Renaissance Quarterly paper prize that year: Markey “Stradano’s Allegorical Invention of the Americas,” in electronic items top of  MOODLE.  Students to recommend articles or chapters they would recommend on early modern encounters.

Mon. April 18  Discuss advantages and disadvantages of film Belle vs. reading the 3 legal documents assigned for April 6. Bring “Cross-cultural encounters”--discuss quantitative date in “Cross-cultural Encounters” and discuss whether any item from quantitative date or fact list of use in your historiography paper. Are there some “facts” on your topic that are not interpretation?  Bring to discuss Markey’s article for use of visual and textual primary sources and arguments with other historians.

Wed. April 20 Final paper (2 stapled copies) due Wed. April 20 at beginning of class. Follow format specified below.  Workshop on papers.

Week 14 Discussion of recommended articles and chapters. 

Mon. April 25 Student Evaluations of course at computers. Discussion of recommended articles and chapters.  

   Tues. April 26 Hist. Dept. Party

Wed. April 27 Last class: papers passed in on-time returned.

..........................

Special Events:    

Mon. March 21 After 20 minutes in class, we have a hands-on exhibition in Special Collections in the Library. You are encouraged to request additional items ahead.

Meeting in new Careers office to discuss career planning: April 4.

.........................

Grading:   25% Class participation including some writing in response to faculty and student presentations

Pass in 2 complete copies of paper progress assignments on due dates (l is for student reading and response):

25% 2 Comparative reviews with some assessment of use of some shared primary sources. First requires a minimum of 2 history books (footnoted or endnoted monographs, not textbooks).  Second requires a minimum of 6 journal articles or chapters in edited books.  Write 4 pages each plus minimal endnotes as needed.  Condensations or sections of these reviews may appear in your historiography paper later. First due Mon. Feb. 29.  Second due Wed. March 16.

50% Final paper due Wed. April 20.

 FORMAT: Include marked up copies of March 30 draft and any later drafts commented on by Prof.  Paper should have a title page with your name and course.
Then place abstract, then text of paper starting on new page, then endnotes starting on new page, then primary and secondary source bibliography starting on new page. If you have a figure list and figures, put that in Appendix after the bibliography. Whole paper should be proofread for accuracy and  numbered consecutively (fine by hand starting 1 at text of paper. title page and abstract do not need a page number.).   Staple entire final paper in top left corner.  Earlier drafts are separate. 

15-page carefully researched historiography paper with Univ. of Chicago Endnotes. In addition, a Bibliography divided into Primary (the first accounts of an encounter translated into English) and Secondary Sources.  Abstract of entire paper under 150 words due Fri. March 18 to Swan 314 office hours.   Draft of at least 10 pages with endnotes plus Bibliography (most of the secondary sources annotated for point of view) due Wed. March 30.  Resubmit Abstract by April 13 the latest.   Final paper due Wed. April 20.

Main class task is to write an excellent Historiography Paper.  Reference notes are to follow University of Chicago format. Latest edition is 16th edition (2010). Prepare papers on a wordprocessing program for easy revision. Regularly backup. Keep a hardcopy and computer backup at least until final grades are received. Times Roman, 12 point, 1 inch margins, 2-sided acceptable. Endnotes and Bibliography for historians accord with Chicago Manual of Style.  Hacker, A Writer’s Reference (6th edition) discusses The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition, 2010) on pp. 510-537:  follow no. 4 for citing work by multiple authors and follow no. 13 for citing work in an anthology as for a specific document  in Bartlett, Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (on reserve). 7th edition of Hacker has The Chicago Manual of Style on pp. 498-540. While a bibliography is alphabetized by last name, an endnote should always begin with the first name and then the last name of the author of the sentences quoted or paraphrased. You may cite a student or faculty comment with approximate date (such as from a student report showing student's interpretation with which you agree or disagree).  The first name that appears in an endnote is the author you are citing: examples include an author of an article in an edited book or an author of a primary source quoted by a secondary source, or a student who expressed an interesting viewpoint in Hist 300, Occidental College, on a specific date in spring 2016.

................................

Course Objectives:

To read academic writing critically and to analyze historical debate.

To expand skills in writing about historians’ arguments and their interpretation of sources (whether expressed in film, museum exhibit/catalogue, book or article)

To develop understanding of diverse subfields of historical writing and of the challenges of taking a global and comprehensive view of a topic

To meet Junior year college writing requirement, and to be better prepared for a Senior thesis.

....................................

Links to College Policies:

College Policy on Academic Honesty:

http://www.oxy.edu/student-handbook/academic-ethics/academic-ethics

College Policy on Disabilities: 

http://www.oxy.edu/disability-services/accommodations/policies-procedures/disability-services-class-absence-policy