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The Catholic University of America
Department of History
HISTORY 601:
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS AND METHODOLOGY
Prof. Jerry Z. Muller
Mondays, 6:10-8:00pm
McGivney Hall LL009
Fall, 2011
Office: O’Connell Hall 105
Hours: M, 4:00-5:00 pm
T, 2:15-3:00 pm
and by appointment
Phone: (202) 319-5484
e-mail: mullerj@cua.edu
This course introduces graduate students to perennial issues and contemporary
trends in the academic study of history. It examines the issues of bias and
objectivity, the relationship of ideology to social science, and the fructification of
historical writing by borrowing from other social sciences. It explores the
relationship of theory, generalization, and historical practice. It examines the use
of quantitative and qualitative historical evidence. The course aims to make its
participants more analytically acute readers and writers of historical works.
Requirements: A seminar of this type depends upon the thoughtful participation
of those involved. Each student is therefore expected to read and think about the
assigned readings before the relevant class, and to be prepared to discuss the
theses, methods, strengths and weaknesses of the assigned works.
Beginning with the class of September 26, each class will begin with one
or two students offering a ten minute presentation on the most important issues
raised by the week’s reading, as well as an evaluation of the strengths and
weaknesses of the assigned readings.
There are twelve writing assignments. Students may write from eight to
twelve of them, and the best eight grades will count toward the course grade.
Each assignment should be about three pages in length, and is due at the
beginning of the class at which the work in question is discussed. The paper
should be well structured, and clearly written and argued.
In addition, each student has the option of writing a review-essay of
approximately fifteen pages on a single historian, historiographical approach, or
substantive historical problem, drawn either from topics covered in the course or
from other topics. Topics and readings should be discussed with Dr. Muller by
November 15, and the review-essay must be handed in by December 5. This
review-essay will count in place of two writing assignments.
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There will be three departmental colloquia during the semester, on
Wednesdays from 5:15-7:00pm. All grad students are expected to attend, and to
read the papers in advance.
Grades will be based on the assignments, oral presentations, and on
contributions to class discussions.
Schedule of Classes and Readings
M August 29: Introduction:
Read in advance, Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft (written 1940), frontmatter,
pp. 3-47; 138-144 (on Blackboard)
Recommended: Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: An
Introduction to Historical Methods (2001), pp.1-79.
M Sept. 5 Labor Day – No Class
M Sept. 12: The Institutional History of Knowledge
Ian McNeelly with Lisa Wolverton, Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to
the Internet (2008)
Jerry Z. Muller, “Style is Not a Luxury: Reflections on the Prose of the Profs,”
AHA Perspectives, March, 2006, at
http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2006/0603/0603vie1.cfm
Assignment 1: What types of history (intellectual, political, religious, etc.) are
included in this account?
W Sept. 14 – Instructional session in Mullen Library on use of the WRLC system.
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M Sept. 19: The Historical Discipline as Organized Skepticism
Christopher Hill, “Protestantism and the Rise of Capitalism,” in Hill, Continuity
and Change in Seventeenth-Century England (1974) (on Blackboard)
J.H. Hexter, “The Historical Method of Christopher Hill” in his On Historians
(on Blackboard)
Peter Charles Hoffer, Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud – American History
from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis and Goodwin (2204) (on
Blackboard)
Joyce Lee Malcolm, Review of Arming America, Texas Law Review , 79 (May
2001), pp. 1657-76 (Aladin)
Assignment 2: What are Hexter’s main criticisms of Hill? How effective is his
critique?
Recommended:
Arthur O. Lovejoy, “Present Standpoints and Past History,” Journal of
Philosophy, Vol. 36, No. 18 (August, 1939), pp. 477-489.
Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (1997)
David Lowenthal, “How we know the past?” from The Past is a Foreign Country,
(Cambridge, 1985), pp.185-238
Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff, “Pattern, Bias, and the Great Systems,” from
The Modern Researcher, fourth ed. (New York, 1985), pp. 193-215.
Max Weber, "'Objectivity' in Social Science and Social Policy," in Dallmayr and
McCarthy (ed.), Understanding and Social Inquiry, pp. 24-37;
“Forum: The Iroquois Influence Thesis - Pro and Con,” William and Mary
Quarterly. 3d Series, Vol. LIII, No.3, July, 1996, pp.587-636
David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical
Thought (New York, 1970)
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory ed. Lewis Coser (Chicago, 1992)
Robert K. Merton, “The Perspectives of Insiders and Outsiders,” in Merton, The
Sociology of Science (New York, 1973), pp.99-136; slightly abridged version in
Robert K. Merton, On Social Structure and Science ed. Sztompka (Chicago,
1996), pp. 241-63;
Fritz Stern(ed.) , The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present, Revised
edition (New York, 1972)
Novick, Peter, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American
Historical Profession (Cambridge, 1988)
Hofstadter, Richard, The Progressive Historians
Updike, John, Memories of the Ford Administration (New York, 1992)
Bernstein, Michael Andre, Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History
(California, 1994), esp. ch. 1 and 2.
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M Sept. 26: Analytic history as integrated history
Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, Foreword, Introduction, skim 3-38, read pp.
39-92, 103-175, 219-230, 281-331, 345-58, 441-53.
Assignment 3: What are the key characteristics of the model of feudal society as
put forward by Bloch?
Recommended:
Peter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929-89,
Chapters 1-3
Bloch, French Rural History : An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics;
Bloch, The Historian’s Craft
Bloch, The Royal Touch: Monarchy and Miracles in France and England
Bloch, Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1941
For a brief biography and character sketch see Eugen Weber, “About Marc
Bloch,” in Weber, My France: Politics, Culture, Myth (Harvard, 1991), pp.244258;
Marc Bloch: A Life in History (Cambridge UP, 1991) by Carole Fink, is a more
extensive biography
Reynolds, Susan, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted
(Oxford, 1996) is an important re-examination of some of issues raised by Bloch.
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of
Philip II
M Oct. 3 The History of everyday life/Anthropological perspectives
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error
(French original, 1975)
Assignment 4: In what ways is this work continuous with Bloch’s style and
method of historical analysis and in what ways is it different?
Recommended:
John H. Arnold, What is Medieval History? (Polity, 2008. 9780745639321)
Mary Hartman, The Household and the Making of History – ch.4-5
W Oct. 5 – History Dept. Lecture by Prof. Eliot Cohen (5:15-7:00pm)
M Oct. 10: Columbus Day – No Class
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M Oct. 17: The Macro and the Micro/Historical Sociology
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process (2 volumes) (German original, 1939)
Vol. 1, The History of Manners, start with 221-223, then Preface, then pp.51-218
(in the revised edition, pp. 449-451; then Preface, then, 45-182)
Vol. 2, Power and Civility, pp.1-12, 229-250 (in the revised edition 187-194; 363381)
There is a more recent, revised edition: The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and
Psychogenetic Investigations (2000), but the differences are minor, and the print
is smaller. So feel free to use the older edition.
Assignment 5: How does Elias connect large-scale processes with the
transformation of the psyche of individuals?
Recommended:
Gorski, Philip, The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in
Early Modern Europe (2003)
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de
France 1977—1978
M Oct. 24 – Military History
Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the
West, 1500-1800 Second Edition (Cambridge UP, 1996), (skim chapters 1 and 3,
read the rest).
Assignment 6: What does Parker mean by “the military revolution”? How was it
related to major political and economic changes?
Recommended:
John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 16881783 (1989)
John Keegan, The Face of Battle (1976)
Azar Gat, War in Human Civilization (2006)
John A. Lynn, “The Embattled Future of Academic Military History” Journal of
Military History 61.4 (1997): 777-789.
Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won (1995)
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M Oct. 31 Economic History/Social History
Jan de Vries, The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the
Household Economy, 1650 to the Present
Assignment 7: What does de Vries mean by “the industrious revolution”? How
does his analysis link the history of production to the history of consumption and
the history of the household?
Recommended:
Mary S. Hartman, The Household and the Making of History: A Subversive View
of the Western Past (2004)
Thomas Rawski et al, Economics and the Historian (1996)
David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus
Victoria De Grazia, Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through 20thCentury Europe
M Nov. 7 Political Culture/ The Uses of Biography
Daniel Walker Howe, The Political Culture of the American Whigs (1979)
Assignment 8: How does Howe use biography to illuminate the political culture of
the American Whigs?
Recommended:
Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America,
1815-1848(2007)
David Armitage, The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000)
Fritz Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic
Ideology (1961)
George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third
Reich (1964)
James Sheehan, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (1978)
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M Nov. 14 Economic History/Environmental History
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991),
Preface, 1-151; 207-end
Assignment 9: In what senses is this a work of economic history? What does a
focus on the environment add to economic history? Why is a focus on economic
processes central to environmental history?
Recommended: J. D. Hughes, What is Environmental History (Polity, 2006, 780745631899)
John McNeill, “Reflections on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History”
History and Theory 42:4 (2003): 5-43.
William Cronon (ed.), Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (1996)
Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism
Londa Schiebinger, Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic
World (2005)
Redcliffe Salaman, The History and Social Influence of the Potato (1949, 2nd ed.
2010)
Mark, Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (1997)
David Blackbourn, The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making
of Modern Germany (2006)
John McNeill, Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean,
1620-1914 (2010)
M Nov. 21 Marxism
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Preamble and Part I
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire (1987), Preface, pp. 1-218; 302-40
Assignment 10: Based upon this book, what are the strengths and weaknesses
of Marxist historiography?
Recommended:
Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the
Third World (2001)
Walter L. Adamson, “Marxism and Historical Thought” in A Companion to
Western Historical Thought, ed. Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza
*“Marx and History,” in Eric Hobsbawm, On History (London, 1997); as well as
the rest of the volume
Harvey J. Kaye, The British Marxist Historians (Polity Press, 1984), chapter five a sympathetic study;
Gertrude Himmelfarb, “The ‘Group’: British Marxist Historians,” in her The New
History and the Old (Harvard UP, 1987), pp.70-93- an unsympathetic study
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M Nov. 28 International Relations/ Structures and Individuals
James Joll, “Politicians and the Freedom to Choose” in A. Ryan ed.
The Idea of Freedom (1979) (Blackboard)
No written assignment for this week. But think about how Joll’s account of the
origins of the First World War compare to Hobsbawm’s account.
M Dec. 5 Comparative, Transnational, History/Catholic History
Christopher Clark, “The New Catholicism and the European Culture Wars,” and
Wolfram Kaiser, “’Clericalism—that is our enemy!’: European anticlericalism and
the culture wars,” both in Clark and Kaiser (ed.), Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic
Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe (2003)
John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom (2003), Introduction and
chapter 4, “The Nation,” (=pp.7-15; 91-126, 301-4, 332-46). (all on Blackboard)
Assignment 11: How would McGreevy’s account and interpretation differ had he
employed a more comparative perspective?
Recommended:
Marc Bloch, “Toward a Comparative History of European Societies” (1928)
Frederic Lane (ed.), Enterprise and Secular Change: Readings in Economic
History (1953), in pp.494-521 (Blackboard)
Deborah Cohen, “Comparative History: Buyer Beware”
http://www.ghi-dc.org/publications/ghipubs/bu/bulletinF01/29.23-33.pdf
Deborah Cohen and Maura O’Connor (ed.), Comparison and History: Europe in
Cross-National Perspective (Routledge, 2004)
Look through the journal Comparative Studies in Society and History on JSTOR
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M Dec. 12 Intellectual History
Carl Degler, In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism
in American Social Thought (1991), pp.1-244.
Assignment 12: How does Degler explain the decline of biologistic modes of
explanation in American thought in the middle years of the twentieth century?
What does his account teach us about the roles of politics and ideology in the
development of the social sciences?
Recommended:
Quentin Skinner, “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas” History
and Theory 8 (1969), pp. 3-53
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for
Capitalism before Its Triumph
Jerry Z. Muller, The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European
Thought
Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (1936)
J.G.A. Pocock, Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method
(2009)
Carl Schorske, Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture
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The following required books are recommended for purchase, and should be
available in the CUA bookstore. They may also be borrowed from the WRLC
library system.
(note: with the exception of the Parker book, any edition of the following will do)
Bloch, The Historian’s Craft
McNeely, Reinventing Knowledge
Bloch, Feudal Society (2 volumes)
Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error
Elias, The Civilizing Process
Parker, The Military Revolution 2nd ed.
De Vries, The Industrious Revolution
Howe, Political Culture of the American Whigs
Degler, In Search of Human Nature
Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis
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Journals that deal frequently with historiographical issues include:
American Historical Review
Comparative Studies in Society and History
Historically Speaking
History and Theory
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Two non-professional journals that publish historical reviews of a high order are The
New York Review of Books and The New Republic.
Stimulating works which touch upon a variety of issues dealt with in this course
are Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History; David Hackett Fischer,
Historians' Fallacies (New York, 1970); Oscar Handlin, Truth in History (Cambridge, MA,
1979); J. H. Hexter, On Historians: Reappraisals of some the masters of modern history
(Cambridge, MA, 1979); Gertrude Himmelfarb, The New History and the Old
(Cambridge, MA, 1987); Lawrence Stone, The Past and the Present, Peter Novick, That
Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession
(Cambridge, 1988); Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth
Century Europe (1975); Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt and Margaret Jacobs, Telling the
Truth about History (New York, 1994).