History 700
Fall 2006
INTRODUCTION TO THE GRADUATE STUDY OF HISTORY
Wednesday section: 10-1
Thursday section: 10-1
Prof. Benjamin Nathans
Office: 206-C College Hall
Phone: 215.898.4958
Van Pelt Library, Room 302
McNeil Building, Room 105
Office Hours: Thurs. 2-3 & by appointment
Email: bnathans@history.upenn.edu
Mail Box: 206 College Hall
This seminar explores the art and science of historical knowledge. Our goal will be to probe the
varieties of questions that historians ask, the procedures they employ to answer them, and the
nature of the conclusions they offer. Texts will advance a range of approaches toward historical
insight and discussions will focus on the possibilities and pitfalls of explaining and interpreting
the past.
During the fall semester the seminar will operate primarily as a readings course, where “reading”
is understood as a contact sport. To stimulate discussion and group learning, we will be using a
variety of seminar formats, including the infamous “Australian Rules” (see handout).
Required Texts:
The following books may be purchased at the Penn Book Center (34th and Sansom) and are also
available at Rosengarten Reserve, on the ground floor of Van Pelt library:
Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical
Profession
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
Paul Cohen, History in Three Keys: The Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience, and Myth
Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950
(second edition [2002] only)
Peter Burke, History and Social Theory
Elizabeth A. Clark, History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn
Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution
Alfred Cobban, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution
Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Thomas Bender, ed., The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism As a Problem in
Historical Interpretation
Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization
Ernest Gellner, Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History
Hist700 Syllabus/2
Written Assignments:
Each student will write two review essays. The first (maximum 7 pages) will cover the readings
in Week 6 and is due that week. The second (maximum 12 pages) will explore one book from
the syllabus together with another thematically or methodologically related book (not from the
syllabus) chosen in consultation with the instructor. The second review essay is due at the end of
term, on Dec. 14. In addition, following a series of preliminary deadlines for topic statement
(Week 8) and bibliography (Week 11), students will submit a prospectus (maximum 5 pages) for
the spring 2007 research paper, which they will present orally to the seminar in one of our final
two sessions.
Grading:
Written work will count for one half of the final grade, participation in seminar discussion for the
other.
Week 1: Sept. 6/7
Professing History
Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American
Historical Profession (chapters 5 and 7 may be skipped or skimmed)
Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation” [Wissenschaft als Beruf], in From Max Weber:
Essays in Sociology, pp.129-56; or on the web at
http://www.molsci.org/files/Max_Weber,_Science_a15767A.pdf
[Note: “Wissenschaft” could also be translated as “scholarship” or “learning”;
“habilitation” refers to the second dissertation required in the German system
before promotion to professor]
Week 2: Sept. 13/14
Microhistory (Australian rules)
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
Robert Finlay, “The Refashioning of Martin Guerre,” and Natalie Zemon Davis, “On the
Lame” in American Historical Review vol. 93, no. 3 (1988), pp. 553-603
Available on JSTOR: Library Home Page → type “American Historical Review”
→ under “E-Resources” click JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org) → click on “Search”
and enter “Refashioning of Martin Guerre”
Screening (time & place TBA):
Le retour de Martin Guerre//The Return of Martin Guerre. Directed by Daniel Vigne,
with Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, et al. (1997)
Natalie Zemon Davis, “Movie or Monograph? A Historian/Filmmaker's Perspective,”
The Public Historian vol. 25, no. 3 (Summer 2003), pp. 45-48
Library Home Page → type “Public Historian” → under “E-Resources” click
“Public Historian” → click on “Summer 2003” → scroll down & click on “PDF
file”
Hist700 Syllabus/3
Week 3: Sept. 20/21
Mobilizing the past (Australian rules)
Paul Cohen, History in Three Keys: The Boxer Rebellion as Event, Experience, and Myth
(chapter 6 may be skipped or skimmed)
Alon Confino, “Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method,”
American Historical Review vol. 102, no. 5 (1997), pp. 1386-1403 (JSTOR)
Week 4: Sept. 27/28
“Lived” religion (Australian rules)
Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem,
1880-1950 (be sure to read the introduction to the 2nd edition)
*** Thursday 9/28, noon to 1pm: Library Research Workshop with Nick Okrent
Van Pelt Library, Room 114 (Goldstein Computer Classroom)
Week 5: Oct. 4/5 Theorizing History
Peter Burke, History and Social Theory
Elizabeth A. Clark, History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn
Week 6: Oct. 11/12 After Marx (I): The French Revolution
Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution
Alfred Cobban, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution
Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (skip Part II: The
Sociology of Politics)
***
Review of the above three works due in class, 7 pages max
(12-pt. font, double spaced, pages numbered and stapled)
Week 7: Oct. 18/19 Event, structure, and the longue durée (Australian rules)
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages
(online version available)
Week 8: Oct. 25/26 Power/Knowledge (Australian rules)
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
*** One-page topic statement for spring 2007 research paper due in class
Hist700 Syllabus/4
Week 9: Nov. 1/2 After Marx (II): Abolitionism (Australian rules)
Thomas Bender, ed., The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism As a Problem
in Historical Interpretation
Week 10: Nov. 8/9 Environmental history
Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Ted Steinberg, “Down to Earth: Nature, Agency, and Power in History” American
Historical Review vol.107, no.3 (June 2002), pp.798-820. Too recent to be
included in JSTOR. Library Home Page → type “American Historical Review”
→ under “E-Resources” click “History Cooperative” → scroll down to June 2002
Week 11: Nov. 15/16
Placing history, or, is all history local?
Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization
Jochen Hellbeck and Igal Halfin, “Rethinking the Stalinist Subject: Stephen Kotkin’s
“Magnetic Mountain” and the State of Soviet Historical Studies,” Jahrbücher für
Geschichte Osteuropas vol. 44, no. 3 (1996), pp.456-463
*** Preliminary bibliography of primary and secondary sources for
spring 2007 research paper due in class (with advisor’s signature)
Thanksgiving Break
Week 12: Nov. 29/30
Macrohistory
Ernest Gellner, Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History (chapters 810 may be skipped or skimmed)
Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Introduction,” in idem., Provincializing Europe: Post-Colonial
Thought and Historical Difference
Oral presentation of prospectuses
Week 13: Dec. 6/7
Concluding session
Oral presentation of prospectuses
*** Five-page prospectus plus bibliography for spring 2007 research paper due in
class
*** Thursday Dec. 14: second review essay due by noon