Independent Topic Research for the Historiographical Essay.
Overview:
The research for this essay will be limited to reading done in about 500 pages from the work of six different historians
on one common topic. For this purpose, students may read scholarly books (monographs, not textbooks) or articles
from scholarly journals (e.g., The Hispanic American Historical Review, The Journal for Latin American Studies, The Latin American
Research Review, The American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, etc.). In an effort to provide
students with a solid head start in selecting their topics and mastering basic research skills, the instructor is setting aside
special time early on in the semester. During the period of 10-17 September, there will be no lectures and the
instructor’s office hours will be suspended. With the exception of the map examination and, possibly, a make-up
examination for those failing it,1 students are expected to use sessions’ time to try to select a topic and works by at least
three historians associated with it, in order to consult with the instructor after 17 September with something in hand.
While they are not obliged to stick with the topic or the three works they select during this period, students
who do pick a practical topic and suitable works will obviously be better prepared than those who do not. Students,
particularly non-majors, should consider consulting with the instructor during his office hours the first two weeks of the
semester to discuss any of this or what follows that they find puzzling. Everyone, of course, is expected to consult with
him afterward. This exercise is worthwhile to the student only if it is taken seriously. At a minimum, it will provide all
students with basic research skills, some idea of campus resources for Latin American history, and some idea of the
possibilities for topics. Even if the student cannot decide upon a topic, or find works by three historians, as expected,
s/he should show up to office hours after 17 September to discuss what the difficulties were and to take guidance from
the instructor.
Selecting a topic:
Students may choose a topic about any country in Latin America or the Caribbean, so long as its time-frame fits between
the dates of the course (1750-1880). They may also choose a thematic topic that crosses borders between these
countries. Students often note that this is their first course about Latin America, and that they have no idea of what
would be a good topic. In this exercise, a good topic is something that interests you. History majors might think of a
topic they enjoyed reading about in the area they normally study (the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia) and see if
something comparable turns up in Latin American history. Non-majors might think of a topic that they enjoy reading
about in their free time or about a topic related to why they chose the course or a topic related to their own major.
Researching a topic:
Some topics are simply too difficult to work up in the published history of Latin America. The only way to find out,
though, is to try. Students will not have a lot of time, and many students will have no idea about how to undertake the
research. Thus, I am simplifying matters: Use the most prestigious journal in the field, the Hispanic American Historical
Review [HAHR]. If a topic shows up there in articles by three historians, it is very likely a practical choice; if there are at
least three articles in the HAHR, it should be possible to find the works by three other historians necessary for the essay
(remember, students need 500 pages of reading from six different historians, so the way to manage this is likely a
combination of articles and books or parts of books).
The HAHR itself is available online (see the JSTOR instructions, below) or in the Latin American Collection
on campus.2 It might be easier, though, to use the one of the journal’s three published guides or its indexes. The third
guide, by Stanley R. Ross, covers the years 1956-1976 and is easily accessible on line; search using Google, for Stanley R.
Ross, Guide to the Hispanic American Historical Review. A version of the book will appear in the Google drop-down list (use
the one with the last line books.google.com/books?isbn=0822304295...). Click on “Contents,” and you will see that the guide
organizes the articles by country and by period. Each article has a brief abstract, so you know what it is about.
For guides to the years after 1976, use the “database” option at the Smathers Library website to access JSTOR.
JSTOR will allow you direct access to the online site of the HAHR, so that you can get to the indexes and to the articles
themselves. Click on JSTOR (not JSTOR Article Locator), then click on “Browse” and choose “Browse by Title,”
which will display a list of journal titles. Go to Hispanic American Historical Review, click on it, and you have access to all
volumes and articles from 1918 to 2009. Two volumes of the HAHR offer indexes to the periods 1976-1985 and 19861995. Use the JSTOR route just explained and, after accessing the HAHR, access February 1986 (66:1) for 1976-1985
1
On 10 September, all students will take the map examination, with the teaching assistant administering it in the classroom. Class will then be
dismissed. Those who failed the examination will be advised by 15 September. On 17 September, those who must make up the examination will have
an opportunity to do so, with the teaching assistant administering it in the classroom, again.
2
The Latin American Collection is in Smathers Library (often called Library East or Special Collections), fourth floor. There is more than one bound
set of the HAHR there, as well as the books you will most likely end up using.
or access February 1996 (76:1) for 1986-1995. You will see that each index organizes articles in different ways; you will
learn to work with both.
An example of independent research:
I have picked a real example of how such research might go, using a country that is not in our reading and a topic which
is not central to the course lectures. I have not tried either the country or the topic before; I am going in “blind” to
enact the student’s experience.
Imagine that you are a business major of Colombian descent who has never taken a history course before.
You might decide you would like to work on a topic having to do with Colombian commerce in the LAH3100 era.
First, you go to Ross. You select Spanish South America and the Guianas in the colonial period on the “Contents”
page, and click on it, which brings you to that section. Unhappily, you find nothing, except something on wars with the
native population. You go back to the “Contents” page, select the Revolutionary period, click on it, and find item 186,
dealing with the arms trade between the United States and Gran Colombia. You have one article dealing with
commerce, but it is obviously a bit off-topic, as the focus seems to be more on the politics involved. You return to
“Contents” for the Modern Period and select Venezuela, Colombia, etc., click on it, and find nothing on economic
concerns, but two or three items on political issues. You have a choice. You can change topic to explore Colombian
political history or you can proceed to the HAHR indexes to see if you have better luck. Let us imagine you go on to
the HAHR indexes.
In the 1986 index under the topic “Business and Economics,” you find an article by Twinam on elite
entrepreneurs in eighteenth-century Medellín (54:44, meaning in volume 54, starting on page 444), another by Hyland on
credit and agriculture in the nineteenth century, giving you two of your needed three articles. You proceed to the 1996
index. Unhappily, this index does not have a topical organization scheme; it merely lists the contents of each volume.
Undaunted, you proceed. You find an article by David Sowell on nineteenth-century labor organization in Bogotá, a
piece by Jiménez on the Colombian coffee estates after 1900, and another by Gudmundson on coffee farming 18501950. Clearly, the Jiménez piece is out of period for you; however, the Gudmundson is at least partly in the period, so it
is legitimate. However, it says nothing about whether the coffee farming is in Colombia; let us check. You go back to
the HAHR site and look it up (the index states it was in 69:2 [May 1989]). We access the article itself by clicking on the
“PDF” option under the article’s title. Upon skimming the article, we find it focuses upon Costa Rica. That leaves us
with the Sowell piece, but, really, it is on labor organization rather than business or commerce. It seems a bit off-topic.
Back to the index. We find another article by Sowell on working-class credit and development. This seems close
enough to the topic, since development is in there. You could include the earlier Sowell piece, too, if you choose;
however, remember that both count as one historian. That is, if we have Twinam, Hyland, and the two by Sowell, we
have three of the six historians required by the syllabus. In terms of the independent research assignment, however,
that is neither here nor there. You are nearly done; if you read the articles, and find them interesting enough to continue
with the topic, you can go forward. You have three historians and can proceed to meet with the instructor to discuss the
topic and how to acquire the remaining three historians.
Let us continue with this example in order to discuss other possibilities. What if things did not go well? If you
had found only two historians on topic and in the period, for example? If you read the articles and really find them
interesting, you could risk a slow start, and wait to talk to the instructor in the hope that he could do better and find you
four historians quickly. You might also choose to move forward, avoiding that risk, and shift topic to politics in
Colombia, where there were easily three historians working. You might also have noted, in skimming the contents in
the two indexes, that there were historians dealing with Colombian Indians in both the colonial period and the national
period, and switch topics to that. In sum, this independent research exercise can help you in more than one way to find
your path towards the historiographic essay and the research skills it involves.