The Historian’s Craft
HIST 400W Spring 2014
Historiography of Mexican Economic and Social History
Tuesday/Thursday 11:00-12:15 PSFA 113
Professor Thomas Passananti
Office: Arts and Letters 573
Office Hours: W, 9-12 pm;
Email: tpassana@mail.sdsu.edu
Required Reading:
Paul Sullivan, Xuxub Must Die
Paul Garner, Porfirio Diaz
Blackboard and JSTOR readings (see below).
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance, preparation, and contribution to discussion. (10 percent)
2. 4 short essays, (4 pages each), in-class assignments, and library/bibliography
assignments. (40 percent)
3. Bibliography and prospectus, due March 25 (5 percent)
4. Draft of historiographic essay (5 pages), due April 10. (5 percent)
5. Oral presentation of historiography project. May 1 or May 6. (5 percent)
6. Historiographic essay, 12 pages, typed and double spaced,
due May 12 at my office. (35 percent)
History 400W is the gateway course for the major in history at San Diego State
University. The course is designed to introduce majors to historical methods, theory and
historiography through an examination of one area of historical inquiry. This semester, the
course will focus on Mexican economic and social history. Among the topics covered in the
course are the nature of historical truth; the formulation of research questions and the variety of
methods used to answer questions, bibliographic and citation standards; modes of historical
thinking; the evolving types and uses of evidence; and interpretation and debate within the
discipline. Students will consider these issues in class and in their readings, and they will also
grapple with pratical problems by researching and writing a 12-page essay that surveys and
assesses a current historiographical problem in Mexican economic and social history. Each
student will identify her/his unique problem to investigate, in consultation with me.
The course is divided into three parts. In the first month, largely through reading works in
Modern Mexican history we will examine the nature of historical truth, the types of questions
posed, the sorts of evidence used to support interpretative answers, and the apparatus used to
document the research trail, to wit, bibliographic and citation standards. We will also discuss the
issue of academic honesty and integrity. Over the next month and a half, we will read recent
scholarship of Mexican social and economic history, concerning the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Those fluent in Spanish may have the opportunity to read articles and essays produced
in Mexico. We will read for interpretive distinctions, but we will stress how the historians did
what they did. In short we will reflect on the questions posed, the types of sources used, both
primary and secondary, the inherent biases that each contain (and how to control for them), as
well as why historians disagree and debate historical questions. We will also attempt to examine
the rhetoric and writing of historians. What is more (or less) effective)? Why? Does good
writing make arguments more persuasive? What is good writing? Writing assignments will
challenge students to think critically about the writing of history, historiography, research
methods, and uses of evidence. The final five weeks will be devoted to students’ historiographic
essays. Students will submit a proposal and annotated bibliography for their final paper on
March 25. Students will submit a five page draft of their work on April 10 and meet
individually with the instructor, the weeks of April 14 and 21 . We will reconvene as a group to
make and discuss individual oral presentations on May 1 and May 6 and May 8 if needed.
Students will submit final historiographic essays on Monday, May 12.
The Course:
Week 1:
Jan 23
Introduction to the Course
Week 2:
What is History? What are Social and Economic History?
Jan 28/30
Reading:
John Coatsworth, “Welfare” American Historical Review (1996) JSTOR
Paul Sullivan, Xuxub Must Die
Week 3:
February 4 Reading: Finish Xuxub
February 6 In-class assignment: library scavenger hunt
Week 4:
On Plagiarism, Intellectual Misconduct, and threats to intellectual freedom
February 11
Reading: Find and read articles on plagiarism and academic misconduct;
For Stephen Ambrose and Joseph Ellis
see HistoryNewsNetwork.org and other sources. Do Research!
February 13
Reading: the controversy surrounding the scholarship of David Abraham, discussed
extensively in: American Historical Review pp 1143-49 (1983) and especially Central European
History V. 17 1984 pp 159-293; and you may find other discussions in Time magazine, New
York Times, and elsewhere.
And Michael Bellesiles—see the William and Mary Quarterly 2002, and James Lindgren’s
review-essay in The Yale Law Journal.
*****Assignment #1 Write a four-page synopsis summarizing the issues, claims and counterclaims involved in the readings for Feb 11 and Feb 13. Due February 18
Week 5: Academic Integrity
Feb 18 Discussion of last week’s readings
Feb 20 In-class assignment: Paraphrasing and Plagiarizing
Bring Porfirio Diaz, Paul Garner and be prepared to summarize chapter one of the book
in class.
Week 6:
Choosing an historical problem in a haystack
Feb 25/27
Reading:
Porfirio Diaz, by Paul Garner: Preface, Chapters 1, 4, 5
Reading: Porfirio Diaz: Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9
In class assignment: Pick a historical theme from one of the chapters 4-9 that interests you.
Write a page in-class about the questions that interest you.
Week 7:
March 4
Reading:
Porfirian Mexico: State and Business Relations
John Hart, Porfirian Mexico BB
Holden, Robert H. “Priorities of the State in the Survey of the Public
Land in Mexico, 1876—1911.” Hispanic American Historical
Review 70:4 (1990] Read on JSTOR
*****Assignment 2 due: Review Holden, “Priorities of the State”
Week 8:
March 11
Reading:
March 13
Reading:
Haber, Maurer, Razo, “Sustaining Economic Performance under Political
Instability” BB
Mark Wasserman, “Elite, Foreigners, and Government in Mexico, 18771940” BB
*****Assignment 3 due: Review essay: Holden and Haber, Maurer, Razo
Week 9:
March 18
Historiography and History
Reading: Benjamin, Thomas, and Marcial Ocasio-Meléndez. "Organizing the Memory of
Modern Mexico: Porfirian Historiography in Perspective, 1880s-1980s," Hispanic American
Historical Review (1984) 64#2 pp. 323–364 in JSTOR
March 20
Reading:
Thomas Passananti, “Nada de Papuluchos: Managing Globalization in
Porfirian Mexico," Latin American Research Review, Vol. 42, no. 3, pp.
101-28. JSTOR
Week 10:
Recent Historiography in Porfirian Political and Economic History
March 25/27
Reading:
Find and read three recent historiographies; you may choose these three:
1)John Coatsworth, “Inequality, Institutions and Economic Growth in
Latin America” BB
2)Paolo Riguzzi, “From Globalization to Revolution? The Porfirian
Political Economy: An Essay on Issues and Interpretations” BB
******Assignment 4: Write a review essay that analyzes three historiographical essays
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++SPRING BREAK++++++++++++++++
Historiography proposal and annotated bibliography due, in class.
Week 11:
April 8/10
Individual Meetings with Instructor
(Sign up sheet on my office door, AL 573)
Week 12:
April 15/17
Individual Meetings with Instructor
(Mon. and Tues.)
(Sign up sheet on my office door, AL 573)
(Sign up for In-Class Presentations)
Draft historiography due (5 pages).
Week 13:
April 22/24
In-Class Presentations of Historiographic Essays
(Sign up sheet for presentation times on my office door)
Week 14:
In-Class Presentations of Historiographic Essays
April 29/May 1 (Sign up sheet for presentation times on my office door)
Week 15:
May 6/8
In-Class Presentations of Historiographic Essays
(Sign up sheet for presentation times on my office door)
Historiographic essays due, Monday, May 12, under my
office door (AL 573) before 2:00pm.