UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

Department of History

Semester II, 1992-93

RESEARCH SEMINAR

History of American Capitalism

This seminar, designed with the first-year history graduate student in mind, provides a hands-on introduction to research methods. It takes as its topical focus the history of American capitalism, but the students, in choosing topics to research, are encouraged to interpret this very broadly. Since this field of study draws on a wide range of methodologies, moreover, the main thrust of the seminar concerns questions common to all fields: What does it mean to "do history" rather than social science or literature? How does one decide what kinds of sources to use? How does the choice of sources shape one's approach to a topic--perhaps even alter the topic itself?

We will proceed in four phases:

1.The first three weeks of reading offer a very brief (and necessarily cursory) introduction to historiography, which will give us an opportunity to reflect on the enterprise of history. Working in teams, the students will lead discussion during these weeks.

2.For the fourth week, students will choose a book from a list of works on the history of American capitalism, write a brief review that focuses on its methodology, and present their results to the seminar.

3.By then, the students should have settled on a general research topic, which they will proceed to explore over the next four weeks, using four major kinds of sources: newspapers and periodicals, government documents, statistical data, and manuscripts.

4.During the remainder of the semester, the seminar will function like a workshop, as the students take their own projects through the successive stages of research--prospectus, draft, revision--and present their work to the seminar at each stage.

Books marked with an asterisk are (or will be) available for purchase at the University Bookstore and have also been placed on reserve at the Historical Society. The remaining readings will be available only on reserve.

Written work: book review; brief papers on the four kinds of sources (what aspects of your topic they illuminate; what limitations they impose); research prospectus; draft of research paper; revised paper for final submission.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE

Required Reading

*Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft (New York: Vintage Books, 1953).

*Fernand Braudel, On History, trans. Sarah Matthews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).

        Required Reading

                *Fritz Stern, ed., The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present (New York: Vintage).

                *Eric Foner, ed., The New American History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).

        Suggested Reading

Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Required Reading

*David Hackett Fischer, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).

Hayden White, Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), pp.á27-100.

Nancy F. Partner, "Making Up Lost Time: Writing on the Writing of History (Review Article)," Speculum 61 (1986): 90-117.

Joan Scott, "The Evidence of Experience," Critical Inquiry 17 (Summer 1991): 773-97.

Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin, "Historical Alternatives to Mass Production: Politics, Markets and Technology in Nineteenth-Century Industrialization," Past and Present, No.á108 (August 1985): 133-76.

Required Reading

Books chosen for review from list of works on the history of American capitalism

*Francis Paul Prucha, Handbook for Research in American History: A Guide to Bibliographies and Other Reference Works (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), chapters on newspapers and periodicals.

Suggested Reading

Simon Schama, Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations) (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991).

       Reading

*Prucha, Handbook for Research, chapters on government documents.

Begin reading *Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher, 5th ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992).

        Reading

*Prucha, Handbook for Research, relevant chapters.

Continue reading Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher.

Reading

*Prucha, Handbook for Research, chapters on archival materials.

Continue reading Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher.

Reading

Finish reading Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher.

 Reading

*William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (Macmillan).

*Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, latest edition).

Reading

Prospectuses on reserve at the Historical Society

Reading

Research paper drafts on reserve at the Historical Society