DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
TRENT UNIVERSITY
HIST-CAST 3030/4030Y:
HISTORY OF THE NIGHT:
“DARK” AND TRANSGRESSIVE CULTURES THROUGHOUT WORLD
HISTORY, FROM MEDIEVAL TO MODERN TIMES
“They wore black costumes to symbolize the only thing that belonged to
them in their disinheritance: the Night.”
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
“You work nine to five and somehow you survive ‘till the Night.”
Bruce Springsteen, “Night” (1975)
FW 2015-2016 Oshawa Campus
Instructor: Brian Thorn E-Mail (preferred method of contact): brianthorn@trentu.ca Office
Phone #: 905-435-5100 Cell: (if extremely urgent) 1-705-313-4041
Office: Trent Oshawa Faculty Wing Cubicles # 145
Office Hours: Tuesdays 5:00-6:20 or by appointment.
Other times can be arranged if these hours are not convenient. I encourage historical
discussion inside and outside of class and am always pleased to see, talk, and/or email with you.
Class Meeting Times: Seminar: Tuesdays 6:30-9:20 PM Location: Oshawa Campus,
Room 109
Please Check:
http://www.trentu.ca/admin/mytrent/Timetable/OshawaFWTimetable/TimeTableGen0.ht
m to confirm times and room location.
Administrative Contacts: Trent University Oshawa Phone #: 905-435-5100 E-Mail Address:
oshawa@trentu.ca
Supervisor, Campus Operations: Amber Ashton, Phone #: 905-435-5102, ext. 5005. E-Mail:
alashton@trentu.ca
Administrative SecretaryJoan Sirtonski, joansirtonski@trentu.ca (These are your contacts for
day-to-day administrative questions in Oshawa).
Liaison: Anastasia Pheakos, Phone # 905-435-5102, ext. 5006, E-Mail:
anastasiapheakos@trentu.ca
Peterborough: History Department Administrator: Trisha Pearce, Office: LEC 101S
Telephone: 705-748-1011, ext. 7706
E-Mail Address: history@trentu.ca
Note: This syllabus is final and cannot be changed.
What is the “Night”? How do we understand night or darkness as a symbol in history?
What kinds of people and groups used the idea of “Night” or darkness in their ideologies and
lives? Why have some people and groups been attracted to idea of the “Night” in history? What
kinds of people have gone outside of the “norms” of their societies? What different kinds of
cultural artifacts (films, plays, novels, music, entertainment) are created with “Night” or darkness
as their main theme? Why did their authors and composers choose this theme?
Night is a time of pleasure and danger, a time of shadows and dreams. During the daytime,
people work, send their children to school, and live often conventional lives. During the night,
however, people do different things, and their lives are shaped outside of the conventional frames
of reference. Darkness corrodes the structures of routine existence, and permits alternative ways
of understanding and being in the world. Places and locations – bars and pubs, alleyways, pirate
ships, pool halls, homes, street corners – take on different meanings at Night, usually associated
with pleasure or danger.
HIST 3030/4030Y will study the idea of “Night” as a concept in world history (we will
focus on Europe and North America, with occasional excursions to Latin America and the
“Third World” nations) from medieval times to the present. We will focus on social and
cultural history as a way of understanding people and groups who transgressed
conventional behavior, and went against the “norms” of their time period. We will also
discuss films, books, music, commercial entertainment, and different kinds of sexualities
that used the themes of Night and darkness. We will focus on the idea of Night as time – a
period when marginalized people partake in actions that fall outside of the “norm.” We
will also look at the Night in a broader sense, as an idea that demonstrates aspects of all
darker sides of human existence. We will look at society, the study of people as groups and
individuals, and culture, in the sense that people organize existence in particular ways. We
will exam music, art, and films that use the theme of Night, but also at how people create
and sustain meanings in their lives. Meaning is not natural, obvious, or “given.” It is a
human creation, communicated in many different ways, and continually contested by
different groups. This course is intended to allow us to study different “Dark” aspects of
the human society and culture. Some of the specific topics that we will look at are: peasant
culture, witches in Europe and North America, pirates, libertines and pornography,
conspiracies, monsters and horror fiction, workers and unions, crime, slavery and racism,
tavern and bar culture, homosexual and lesbian cultures, fascism, jazz and blues, heavy
metal, bohemia, film noir, and race riots. In the second term, especially, students will focus
on producing their own term paper on a topic of their choice related to histories of the
night, and using primary and/or secondary sources.
Grading: NB: There are higher expectations for fourth-year students in
this course.
Participation: 20% Based on attendance in seminar and oral contributions to
seminar discussions.
Short Review Essay (c. 5-6 pages for third-year students, 7-8 pages for fourth year
students): 20% Due Tues., Nov. 3rd, 2015 .
Presentation and Notes for Presentation (lead discussion for roughly ½ hour-45
minutes for third years, 45-50 min. for fourth years) 15% Variable Dates beginning on
October 6th. I will pass around a sign-up sheet in the first two weeks of class.
Proposal for Term Paper (c. 3-4 pages for third-year students, 5 pages for fourthyear students) 10%. Due Tuesday, December 8th, 2015.
Research Essay on Topic of Student’s Choice: 35% (c. 20-25 pages for third year students, 25-30
pages for fourth-year students) Due Tuesday, April 12th, 2015.
Required Texts: (available through Follett at Trent University Oshawa): NB: The Palmer
text and the Coursepack are the most important texts for the course as well as the
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair book, Whiteout. For the other texts, we will use
them for two-three class meetings only and for the book review essay. I do not expect you to
buy all of the texts. The most important texts to buy are the Palmer text, the Coursepack,
Whiteout, and possibly one other for the book review!
Canadian Scholars Press, Coursepack of Readings chosen by Instructor. Required.
Bryan D. Palmer, Cultures of Darkness: Night Travels in the Histories of Transgression [From
Medieval to Modern]. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000. Required.
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press. New York:
Verso, 2014. Required.
Roger A. Ekirch, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2006.
Recommended.
C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution,
Second Revised Edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Recommended.
Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in
19th-Century America, Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Recommended.
Grading:
NB: I will let you know of 25% of your final grade (review essay, proposal for term paper,
participation so far, and presentation if you have completed yours) by the time of the
January review (January 15, 2016).
Participation: 20% This is based on attendance as well as your oral contributions in
seminar. We will have open discussions where the instructor will present questions to the class,
as well as debates, group work, and other activities designed to encourage interaction among
members of the class and with the instructor. I do take attendance and you will receive a grade
on participation each week (excepting the first week of classes). Students who feel
uncomfortable speaking in class are welcome to discuss their participation grade with the
instructor.
Short Review Assignment: 20% This will be due on Tuesday, November 3rd (5-6 pages
for third year students, 7-8 pages for fourth-year students) and involves you choosing one of the
course texts (Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, Roger Ekirch,
At Day’s End, Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias, or select two or three
chapters of Palmer, Cultures of Darkness or two or three articles in our coursepack) and writing
a critical review of the book. Your paper should indicate the thesis of the book, explain its wider
historiographical context (ie. what other historians have said about the topic in the book), and
assess its contribution to scholarship by discussing its strengths and weaknesses. Your thesis for
this paper could simply be something like “x text provides a strong/weak/groundbreaking/repetitive contribution to x field of history for x reasons.”
You will need at least two (2) sources outside of the main text that you use for this paper for
third year students and at least three (3) outside sources for fourth-year students. Feel free to
come and see me or email me if you have trouble finding other sources. You could also consult
the footnotes of the text that you choose for suggestions for sources. As with the proposal and
final paper, the criteria for marking the essay will be: a strong argument/thesis statement, 2 or 3
points to back up your main argument, and good, clear writing, including good grammar,
spelling, and organization. You will need footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. We will
discuss this further in class.
Presentation and Notes for Presentation 15% I will pass around a sign-up sheet for this early
on in the course. We will begin these on October 6th. You will choose a week/topic that interests
you and then lead the discussion for 30-45 minutes (approx.) of class for third-year students and
45-50 minutes for fourth-year students. We want these presentations to be respectful, lively,
informative, and interesting! This is not to be a lecture so do not talk “at” the class! Assume
that everyone has done the readings for your chosen week. Come up with a list of questions
for the class to discuss and perhaps do something interesting or creative (show part of a video,
play a musical selection, engage the class in group work et al.) I will need your notes for the
presentation (hand written and/or point form is fine) so that there is a written record of it. Please
do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions and/or concerns about the
presentation or any other aspect of the course! You may do the presentation in groups of two or
three (or more, if necessary) if you wish.
Proposal for Term Paper: 10% This will be due on Tuesday, December 8th, our last class of
the fall term. This should be 3-4 pages for third-year students and approximately 5 pages for
fourth-year students. Here, you simply need to tell me about the topic that you have chosen for
the major term paper that is due in April. You need to briefly explain the topic to me, perhaps
point to some of the arguments that you might use for the term paper, and then discuss two or
three of the main historians who have written on the topic. Do not stress too much about this
essay; it is meant to get you started on the term paper earlier in the course so that it is not a
surprise at the end of the class! If you are having trouble coming up with a topic for the essay,
please do not hesitate to discuss it with me, either in person or over email!
Term Paper: 35% This will be due on Tuesday, April 12th, 2016 and can be based on any
topic of your choice related to the course material! It should be roughly 20-25 double-spaced
pages (in Times New Roman, 12 pt Font preferably and using Chicago Style for
footnotes/endnotes) for third-year students and 25-30 pages for fourth-year students. As with the
review essay, it will be marked on the basis of content and style. This should be based on some
research (books, articles, online articles) outside of the course material You will need at least 12
sources outside of the course readings for this essay for third year students and 15-17 sources
minimum for fourth-year students. Your topic does not necessarily have to relate directly to
the themes of night or darkness, but it should be broadly related to the idea of
marginalized groups and cultures in society, and involve some aspect of social and/or
cultural history. Choose a topic that excites you, and one that you feel that you can write a 20
plus page paper on! If you have any problems with this, or if you need help narrowing down
what you want to write on, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me!
Suggestions for Essay Topics: (you are also free to choose your own topic, or to take these
suggestions in other directions! If in doubt, please check with me!)
1. How might we describe peasant life in medieval times? How did peasants see night or
darkness? How did peasants see religion and/or magic?
2. What were the reasons behind the witch craze in Europe and North America? Can we see
the witch craze in a feminist, Marxist, cultural (ie. pagan vs. Christian beliefs), or
conservative lens?
3. Why did piracy arise during a certain period in world history (choose one period, ie.
1400s, 1600s, 1800s)? Were pirates true outcasts within society?
4. How did a certain style of music (blues, jazz, electronic, heavy metal) become part of a
marginalized subculture?
5. How did films, television shows, computer games, novels, or plays set up marginalized
cultures (choose a kind of computer game, or genre of film, TV, or novel)?
6. How did African-Americans, slaves, and other non-white groups resist oppression and set
up their own subcultures of resistance?
7. How did workers during a certain time period (ie. 1790s-1840, 1880s, 1930s and 1940s,
1960s) set up groups that defied the established order?
8. How did women and LGBT people go against the grain during a certain time period?
9. Why and how did Beatniks, “hippies,” young people, punks and other youth subcultures
arise during a particular time?
10. How did Nazis, fascists, “blackshirts” and other right-wing movements use the idea of
Night and darkness in their ideologies and symbolism? Can the idea of Night be used to
support both left- or right-wing views?
11. How was/is imperialism and colonialism a kind of “Dark Culture”? How did
marginalized groups resist imperialism?
12. How did a particular historical or cultural figure (Bessie Smith, William Hogarth, Lorne
Harris, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Pollack, Black Sabbath, Blue
Oyster Cult, Bob Marley, H.P. Lovecraft, Georgia O’Keefe, Mary Shelley, Malcolm X,
James Baldwin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Dorothy Day) use the Night or darkness as a theme
in their writings, lives, politics, and/or activism?
13. Why does most crime occur at night? How have we seen crime and criminals in certain
historical periods? Is “crime” a historically contingent idea?
14. Why has a certain topic (of your choice: drugs, the CIA, conspiracies, crime, the Council
on Foreign Relations, assassinations) been left out of most conventional history texts?
Why have certain groups of people or individuals been “hidden from history”? What
particular political or social agenda does omitting a certain group serve?
Again, feel free to develop your own topic if you feel more comfortable! You should
clear the topic with me, either in person or via email.
Deadlines: All deadlines are final. Late Assignments will be deducted 2% per day, after the
due date. Assignments more than two weeks late will not be accepted. Extensions will be granted
only on the basis of physical, mental, or emotional affliction certified by a recognized
professional.
HIST 3030/4030Y: LECTURE, SEMINAR, AND READING SCHEDULE
Fall Term
September 15: Introduction to the Course. Past Experiences, Background, Expectations. What is
the “Night” I? Night and Darkness throughout History. No reading.
September 22: The World of the Peasant: What is the “Night” II? Material Culture, Survival,
Religion, and Poverty. Questions to Consider: How did peasants experience the “Night”? What
did darkness mean in medieval times? How did some peasants go against the established order of
church and state? Reading: Palmer, Cultures of Darkness, pp. 1-48; Roger Ekirch, At Day’s
Close, pp. 3-87.
September 29: Witches in Europe and North America: Gender and Resistance? Questions to
Consider: Can we understand the “witch craze” through a feminist, Marxist or cultural lens?
When did pagan traditions start to die out and be replaced by Christian ones? Can we understand
witches as resisting conventional, male society? Why or why not? Reading: Palmer, pp. 49-68;
Ekirch, pp. 59-154
October 6: Libertines and Pornography in History: Gender, Sexuality, and Desire. Questions to
Consider: Why did the 18th and 19th-centuries see an increase in pornographic materials? How
have attitudes toward female sexuality and pornography changed over time? How have women
often been constructed as the “other” gender in history? Reading: Palmer, pp. 71-92; Ekirch, pp.
185-226; Susan Glenn, “Nationally Advertised Legs: How Broadway Invented ‘the Girls,’”pp.
155-187 in Female Spectacle: The Theatrical Roots of Modern Feminism (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2000); Frank Mort, “Striptease: The Erotic Female Body and Live
Sexual Entertainment in Mid-Twentieth-Century London,” Social History 32:1 (Feb. 2007): 2753; Carrie Pitzulo, “Inventing the Girl-Next-Door: The Pulchritudinous Playmates,” pp. 35-70 in
Bachelors and Bunnies: The Sexual Politics of Playboy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2011) (all in Coursepack).
October 13: Conspiracy, Romanticism, and the Underworld in the 18th and 19th-Centuries.
Questions to Consider: Why did workers form political groups to combat the state and capital?
How and why did poets and popular culture support protest against early capitalism? Why did
new kinds of religious movements emerge during the 1780-1850 period? Reading: Palmer, pp.
93-116; Ekirch, pp. 227-258; Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias, pp. 3125; Alex Owen, “At Home with the Theobald Family,” pp. 75-106 in The Darkened Room:
Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1990) (in Coursepack).
October 20: Monsters In Literature and Reality: Dracula, Frankenstein, Horror Films, and the
Challenge to Realism. Halloween. Questions to Consider: Why have writers, musicians, and
filmmakers worked on monster and horror films? Why did these novels, films, and music emerge
during certain time periods? Why have some groups of people been attracted to “Dark” and
negative themes? Reading: Palmer, pp. 117-136; Johnson and Wilentz, pp. 127-179; C.L.R.
James, The Black Jacobins, pp. 3-117.
October 27: Fall Study Week. No class or readings. Review Paper Due on Nov 3rd!
November 3: Work, Empire, and Race During the 19th-century. Crime in History. Questions to
Consider: How did labour and issues related to work change during the mid-late 19th-century?
Why did different modes of sexuality emerge during this period? Who were Arthur Munby and
Hannah Culwick? How might we see empire and imperialism as part of the histories of the
Night? Why does most crime occur at night? How have concepts of crime and criminals changed
through history? Reading: Palmer, pp. 139-181; Ekirch, pp. 155-184; C.L.R. James, The Black
Jacobins, pp. 117-223; Michael Ayers Trotti, “Sensational Crime Comes of Age: The Cluverius
Case of 1885,” pp. 43-77 in The Body in the Reservoir: Murder and Sensationalism in the South
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008) (in Coursepack).
November 10: Piracy and Maroons: Primitive Rebels in the Night. Questions to Consider: How
has piracy been perceived in history? Were pirates connected to empire and imperialism or can
we see them as rebels against the established order and established governments? Who were
“Maroons”? How did they resist oppression? Reading: Palmer, pp. 182-206; James, The Black
Jacobins, pp. 224-377.
November 17: Taverns, Bars, Pubs, Public Spaces, and the Night: Sociability and New Meanings
in Darkness. Questions to Consider: Why and how do different places take on different meanings
at night? How did bar culture become a key part of the “Night Culture”? Was/is there a political
element to pub and bar culture? How does gender and sexuality play a role in bar culture?
Reading: Palmer, pp. 209-231; Burton W. Peretti, “The 1920s New York Nightclub: A Modern
Institution, pp. 1-27 in Nightclub City: Politics and Amusement in Manhattan (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 2007); Judith Walkowitz, “The Shady Nightclub,” pp. 209-252 in
Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012) (in
Coursepack).
November 24: The Working Class in Europe, North America, and the “Third World”: Nights of
the “Bomb Throwers”! Questions to Consider: How and why have workers and radical workingclass movements been seen as subversive in history? How has the economic system treated
workers in the “West” (Europe and North America) and in Latin America and Asia? Why was
the Knights of Labor (KOL) an important organization in the context of histories of the “Night”?
Reading: Palmer, pp. 232-274; Peter DeLottinville, “Joe Beef of Montreal: Working-Class
Culture and the Tavern, 1869-1889,” Labour/Le Travailleur 8/9 (Autumn/Spring 1981/82): 9-40;
Gregory S. Kealey and Bryan D. Palmer, “The Bonds of Unity: The Knights of Labor in Ontario,
1880-1900,” pp. 205-243 in Laurel Sefton MacDowell and Ian Radforth, Eds., Canadian
Working-Class History Selected Readings (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1992) (in
Coursepack); Paul Buhle and Nicole Shulman, Eds., “Early Days,” pp. 1-48 in Wobblies! A
Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (New York: Verso, 2005) (in
Coursepack).
December 1: Sexuality, Festivals, Carnivals and Protest: Women, LGBT Issues, Leftist Protest,
and Circuses. Questions to Consider: How might we see different kinds of festivals, circuses,
magic shows, and protests as part of a tradition within histories of the Night? Why did new forms
of sexuality emerge during the 1880-1930 period? Why did left-wing protest take on a new form
during this era? Reading: Palmer, pp. 277-321; Ekirch, pp. 263-299; James W. Cook, “Modern
Magic,” pp. 163-213 in The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001); The San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History
Project, “She Even Chewed Tobacco: A Pictorial Narrative of Passing Women in America,” pp.
183-194 in Martin Duberman et al., Eds. Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian
Past (New York: Penguin Books, 1991); Becki Ross, “The House that Jill Built: Lesbian
Feminist Organizing in Toronto, 1976-1980,” Feminist Review 35 (Summer 1990): 75-91; Mary
P. Ryan, “The American Parade: Representations of the Nineteenth-Century Social Order,” pp.
131-153 in Lynn Hunt, Ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: The
University of California Press, 1989). (in Coursepack).
December 8: No formal class but Proposal for Term Paper Due Today!
Winter Term:
January 12: Nazism, Fascism, Right-Wing Movements, and The Night. Questions to Consider:
Why did the Nazis and other fascist and right-wing movements use darkness as a theme in their
ideologies? Can the “Night” be used to promote leftist and rightist views? Why or why not?
Reading: Palmer, pp. 322-339; Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA,
Drugs, and the Press, pp. 145-214; Daniel Guerin, The Brown Plague: Travels in Late Weimar
and Early Nazi Germany (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1994), pp. 132-172 (in
Coursepack).
January 19: Modern Music and the Night: Blues, Jazz, Roots, and Heavy Metal. Questions to
Consider: How did different genres of music use the “Night” as a theme? How was this
connected with race and sexuality? How was this connected with anti-drug views? Reading:
Palmer, pp. 343-369; Cockburn and St. Clair, pp. 63-114; Hazel V. Carby, “It Jus Be’s That Way
Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women’s Blues,” pp. 238-249 in Ellen Carol DuBois and
Vicki L. Ruiz, Eds., Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women’s History (New
York: Routledge, 1990).
January 26: Alternative Subcultures: Bohemia, The Beats, Urban Life, and Youth. Questions to
Consider: Why and how did subcultures like the Beatniks, “Hippies,” Goths, and Mods develop
among young people? Was youth culture truly going against the dominant system? Why or why
not? Why and how have young people developed their own kinds of cultures? Reading: Palmer,
pp. 370-386; Chad Heap, “The Search for Bohemian Thrillage,” pp. 152-188 in Slumming:
Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940 (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2009); Sean Mills, “Montreal’s Black Renaissance,” pp. 95-118 in The Empire
Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal (Montreal and
Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010); Bryan D. Palmer, “New Left Liberations:
The Poetics, Praxis, and Politics of Youth Radicalism,” pp. 245-310 in Canada’s 1960s: The
Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009). (in
Coursepack).
February 2: New Forms of Culture and Crime: Film Noir, the Cold War, Urbanization and Crime
in Modern Society. Questions to Consider: How might we see the 1950s and the Cold War as
part of histories of the Night? What did Film Noir and 1950s-era rock n’roll music mean for
young people? How were these cultural forms related to histories of the Night? How did the
“War on Drugs” change during the post-World War II period? Reading: Palmer, pp. 387-402;
Frank Mort, “Scandalous Events: Metropolitan Culture and Moral Change in Post-Second World
War London,” Representations 93 (Winter 2006): 106-137 (in Coursepack); Cockburn and St.
Clair, pp. 215-234.
February 9: Bandits, the Mafia, Race Riots, Drugs, and Modern Capitalism in the Modern Era.
Questions to Consider: How might we see bandits, the mafia, and gangs as part of the Night
culture? How has the state cracked down on marginalized racial and class-based groups during
the post-World War II period? Does our capitalist economic system lend itself to creating a
system of “insiders” and “outsiders” (ie. cultures of the night)? Reading: Palmer, pp. 405-424;
Cockburn and St. Clair, pp. 1-62, 235-253; Eric Hobsbawm, “Peasant Land Occupations,” pp.
223-255 in Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion, and Jazz (London: Abacus, 1999).
February 16: Winter Study Week. No classes or readings!
February 23: Racism and Violence in the North American City: The 1992 L.A. Riots, America’s
Overseas Drug War, and Resistance. Questions to Consider: Why does racism/prejudice still
continue to be an issue in the modern era? Why have recent years arguably seen an increase in
anti-black and anti-Hispanic feeling? Why are cities/urban areas places where the “Night”
culture exists? How can we connect American foreign policy to drug war and to oppression of
people of the Night? Reading: Palmer, pp. 425-450, LaKisha Michelle Simmons, “Justice
Mocked: Violence and Accountability in New Orleans,” American Quarterly 61:3 (Sept. 2009):
477-498 (in Coursepack); Cockburn and St. Clair, Whiteout, pp. 255-315.
March 1: The Night Culture: What does the Future Hold? Questions to Consider: What have we
learned from the course? Do themes like the Night help us to understand social and cultural
history? Why are so many aspects of history – such as the material discussed in the Whiteout text
– become “hidden” from public view? Reading: Palmer, pp. 453-458; Ekirch, pp. 300-339;
Cockburn and St. Clair, pp. 317-394.
March 8: Roundtable on Research Papers. Please bring an outline or rough draft/partial rough
draft of your term paper and we will discuss the essays in small groups. I will be in class to offer
advice on your term papers, if needed. No reading.
March 15, 22, 29: No formal reading but we will have one-on-one meetings to discuss your term
papers. I would like to see everyone in the class at least once during this period!
April 5: We will meet to do the course evaluation, to have a course “wrap-up” and to discuss any
final issues that you might have with the term paper!
Term Paper will be due by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, April 12th via email,
brianthorn@trentu.ca!
Learning Outcomes: As a third and fourth-year course, HIST 3030/4030Y is intended to
broaden students’ knowledge of world history and to use ideas from the history of marginalized
groups and cultures in Europe, North American, and the “Third World.” We will continue to
build on methodologies, debates, interpretations, historical approaches, and skills learned in first,
second, and third-year history courses. Students will further develop their skills in research,
analysis, interpretation, and problem solving, working with secondary sources, and critically
evaluating the ideas and arguments of major thinkers in the field of social and cultural history.
Students will be encouraged to make use of historical theories and historiography to situate their
own original arguments in the context of ongoing historical debates, and to assess evidence
critically. Students will evaluate and interpret information through seminar discussions and
debates, listening to and evaluating short lectures, and writing, exploring the relative merits of
different methodologies, interpretations, and approaches to the study of social and cultural world
history. Students should be able to use their advanced knowledge of the field and skills in critical
thinking, historical writing, historical approaches and methodologies, to research a topic in depth
(using primary and secondary sources), produce an original analytical argument based on the
evidence, and situate it in the appropriate historiographical and theoretical contexts. Students
should be able to communicate their arguments to the instructor and their peers with clarity,
accuracy, and logic through major research papers. Successful graduates of this course should
understand the conventions of historical writing, the rules of academic integrity and
professionalism, the importance of personal initiative and accountability, and the evolving nature
of historical knowledge. They should be able to evaluate historical writing effectively through
examination of sources, arguments, and methodologies.
University Policies
Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an
extremely serious academic offence and carries penalties varying from failure on an assignment
to expulsion from the University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with
plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent University’s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a
responsibility to educate yourself – unfamiliarity with the policy is not an excuse. You are
strongly encouraged to visit Trent’s Academic Integrity website to learn more:
www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.
Access to Instruction: It is Trent University’s intent to create an inclusive learning
environment. If a student has a disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may
need accomodations to succeed in this course, the student should contact the Student
Accessibility Services Office (SAS). For Trent University – Oshawa Student Accessibility Office
contact 905-435-5102, ext. 5024 or email corinnphillips@trentu.ca.