CIS 672 SEMINAR IN COMMUNICATION HISTORY
TOPIC: HISTORICAL RESEARCH METHODS IN COMMUNICATION
1.
Weeks 2-3: Each week, read one of the books on the attached list and prepare
a report of approximately five typewritten, double-spaced pages. Make an extra
copy for each member of the class.
2.
Week 4: read Gottschalk, Understanding History.
3.
Week 5: read Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher.
4.
Weeks 6-7: Design an ideal, “perfect” historical research project, including the
items indicated on the attached “Prospectus.”
5.
Weeks 8-16: Conduct a historical research project, approaching as best as can
be done the “perfect” project designed in assignment #4. “Drafts” will be due during
week 15. Revisions can then be made before December 4.
Final exam period: Public presentation on research project.
Readings
Standard Works
Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. The Modern Researcher. 5th ed. New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Wm. David Sloan and Michael Stamm, Historical Methods in Communication, 3d ed.
Northport, Ala.: Vision Press, 2010. This book is available in our College’s Reading
Room at one-half the retail price. The Reading Room keeps all proceeds.
The Study of History
Appleby, Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob. Telling the Truth About History. New
York: W. W. Norton, 1994.
Butterfield, Herbert. The Origins of History. New York: Basic Books, 1981 (reprint).
Carr, Edward Hallett. What is History? New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
Conkin, Paul K., and Roland N. Stromberg. The Heritage and Challenge of History. New
York: Dodd Mead & Company, 1971. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Davidson, James West, and Mark Hamilton Lytle. After the Fact: The Art of Historical
Detection. 2nd ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
Elton, G.R. The Practice of History. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1967.
Evans, Richard. In Defense of History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999.
Goldstein, Leon J. Historical Knowing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976. NOT IN
UA LIBRARY
Goldstein, Leon J. What and the Why of History. New York: E.J. Brill, 1996.
Guinsburg, Thomas N., ed. The Dimensions of History. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1971.
NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Gustavson, Carl G. The Mansion of History. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1976. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Handlin, Oscar. Truth in History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.
Hexter, Jack H. Doing History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971.
Himmelfarb, Gertrude. The New History and the Old. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1987.
Hobsbawn, Eric. On History. New York: The New Press, 1997.
Lewis, Bernard. History Remembered, Recovered, Invented. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1975. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Marwick, Arthur. The Nature of History. London: Macmillan, 1970.
Murphey, Murray G. Our Knowledge of the Historical Past. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1973.
Nash, Gary B., Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn. History on Trial: Culture Wars and
the Teaching of the Past. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Smith, Page. The Historian and History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.
Stephens, Lester D. Probing the Past: A Guide to the Study and Teaching of History. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1974. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Vaughn, Stephen. The Vital Past: Writings on the Uses of History. Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1985.
Windschuttle, Keith. The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists Are
Murdering Our Past. New York: The Free Press, 1997. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Conducting Historical Research
Aydelotte, William O., Allan G. Bogue, and Robert W. Fogel, eds. The Dimensions of
Quantitative Research in History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Barzun, Jacques. Clio and the Doctors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Benson, Lee. Toward the Scientific Study of History. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972.
Cantor, N.F., and R.I. Schneider. How To Study History. Northbrook, Ill.: AHM
Publishing Corp., 1970.
Clark, G. Kitson. The Critical Historian. New York: Basic Books, 1967.
Daniels, Robert V. Studying History: How and Why. 3d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1981.
Dollar, Charles M., and Richard J. Jensen. Historian's Guide to Statistics: Quantitative
Analysis and Historical Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Elton, G.R. Political History: Principles and Practice. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1970.
Felt, Thomas E. Researching, Writing, and Publishing Local History. Nashville: American
Association for State and Local History, 1981.
Fischer, David Hackett. Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New
York: Harper & Row, 1970.
Fling, Fred M. Outline of Historical Method. New York: B. Franklin, 1971. NOT IN UA
LIBRARY
Gottschalk, Louis. Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method. 2nd ed. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969.
Heller, Louis G. Communicational Analysis and Methodology for Historians. New York:
New York University Press, 1971. NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Hexter, Jack H. The History Primer. New York: Basic Books, 1971.
Hockett, Homer Carey. The Critical Method in Historical Research and Writing. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977 (reprint).
Isenberg, Michael T. Puzzles of the Past: An Introduction to Thinking About History. College
Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1985.
Landes, David S., and Charles Tilley, eds. History as Social Science. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
McClellan, Peter D. Causal Explanation and Model Building in History, Economics, and the
New Economic History. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1975.
Mahoney, James. Local History: A Guide for Research and Writing. Washington: National
Education Association, 1981.
Nevins, Allan. The Gateway to History. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962.
Salmon, Lucy Maynard. The Newspaper and the Historian. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1923.
Sanderlin, David. Writing the History Paper: How to Select, Collect, Interpret, Organize, and
Write Your Term Paper. New York: Barron's Education Series, 1975.
Shafer, Robert J., et. al., eds. A Guide to Historical Method. 3rd ed. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey
Press, 1980.
Small, Melvin, ed. Public Opinion and Historians: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 1970.
Smith, Paul. The Historian and Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Stoffle, Carla J., and Simon Carter. Materials and Methods for History Research. New York:
Libraryworks, 1979.
Taft, William H. Newspapers as Tools for Historians. Columbia, Mo.: Lucas Brothers, 1970.
NOT IN UA LIBRARY
Taylor, Robert M. Jr., and Ralph J. Crandall., eds. Generations and Change: Genealogical
Perspectives in Social History. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1986.
Tholfsen, Trygve R. Historical Thinking: An Introduction. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
Thompson, Paul. Voice of the Past: Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press,
1978.
Tosh, John. The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of
Modern History. London: Longman, 1986.
Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition as History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Winks, Robin W., ed. The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence. New York: Harper
and Row, 1969.