Carole Shammas                                                          Robert Ritchie                

History Department SOS 265                                      Director of Research,

740-1671, shammas@mizar.usc.edu                           Huntington Library, 626-405-2194

spring 2001                                                                   ritchie@huntington.org

class 2-5 Wednesday, Taper Hall 111

office hours 11-12 MW & by appt.

                                                     HISTORY 673

 RESEARCH SEMINAR IN EARLY NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY

 The  purpose of this course is to assist you in writing a research paper that incorporates primary sources and has the potential to be published in a history journal.  We will be working on bibliographic skills including those on the Internet, identifying primary sources available at USC and at the Huntington Library, discussing the problems working with different kinds of primary sources, developing a research design suited to the research question and the primary sources, and honing our analytical skills. We will be doing some reading a group of articles/book chapters using different kinds of primary sources and dealing with a variety of research issues -- not so much for the substance of the articles or chapters, but to study the approach, research design, and analysis of sources. The emphasis is on newer work. Very few classic articles will be included.

             Throughout the semester we will discuss what a good research paper includes. 90% of the class grade will be based upon the research paper, according to the following division: one third on the posing of the question and presentation of the existing secondary literature relating to the question; one third on the extent and scope of the primary research undertaken; and one third on the analysis and conclusion. Oral discussion of the reading and your papers will constitute the remaining 10% of the grade.

.                                              ASSIGNMENTS

Reading assignments are due on the date where they are listed.

Written assignments during the semester:  Feb. 7 a short paper (5-6 pages) framing a research question and reviewing relevant literature; March 21 , another 5-6 page paper will be due, describing primary sources and research design. Final research papers of about 20-25 pages including notes will be due on May 2 and discussed on May 4

                                                  SCHEDULE

  Jan 10  Introductory meeting – current trends in the doctoral research of early   

              Americanists; individual research interests

              Locating secondary sources in early American history

 Jan 17 Meeting at the Huntington 3pm

           Secondary sources       

 Jan 24 Framing a research question, finding the relevant secondary literature and

              reviewing the state of the question

              Discussion of synthetic, review of literature, and research articles chosen from

              The William and Mary Quarterly.

   Jan 31  Meeting at the Huntington 3 pm

            Huntington – Literary and Intellectual History and the rare book collection

             Reading: Cathy Davidson, Revolution and the Word  pp. 3-37 and 263-268; JGA
           Pocock, Barbarism and Religion pp.369-402; Alan Greer, “Colonial
           Saints: Gender, Race, and Hagiography in New France,” WMQ 3d ser. 57 (2000)
           323-348; .

 Feb  7 Locating early American primary sources at USC

           Legal history and legal history sources

           reading: Holly Brewer ch. from dissertation; Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s

           Tale (1990), Ch. 3 “ Mrs. Foster Has Sworn a Rape…”

           short paper due – framing a research question and reviewing major relevant     

           literature

 Feb 14 Guides to archival material in U.S. archives 

           Household relations and family papers

           Reading:  Richard Grassby, Kinship and Capitalism: Marriage,

          Family, and Business in the English-Speaking World, 1580-1740 pp. 1-84, 453-454
          Philip Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, Ch 3. Fieldwork pp.146-203;
          Ronald Hoffman, Princes of Ireland… “Chapter 9 A Broader  Allegiance: The
          American Revolution;” 

 Feb 21  Meeting at the Huntington 3 pm

            Manuscript sources, using family papers

 Feb 28  Material culture and research designs linking artifacts and behavior – probate

             inventories

             Reading: Michael A. Bellesiles, “The Origins of Gun Culture in the United States

            1760-1865,” JAH  83 (1996), 425-455 Shammas, “Chapter 6: Housing,
            Consumer Durables, and the Domestic environment,” in Pre-Industrial Consumer

 March 7  Meeting at the Huntington 3 pm

              Landscape, built environment and spatial analysis -- Maps

               Reading: Diane Shaw, “Building an Urban Identity: The Clustered Spires of

              Frederick Md.,” in Elizabeth Collins Cromley and Carter L. Hudgins eds.
              Gender, Class, and Shelter; Mary M. Schweitzer, “The Spatial Organization of

              Federalist Philadelphia,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24 (1993), 31-59.

 March 21  second paper due

                Health, disease, and demographic history – research design and sources 

                Elizabeth Fenn, “Pox Americana:The Great North American Smallpox
                Epidemic of 1775-1783  Chapter 7 Surrender; Susan E. Klepp, “Lost, Hidden,
                Obstructed,  and  Repressed: Contraceptive and Abortive Technology in the
                Early Delaware Valley,” in  Early American Technology edited by Judith A.
                McGaw pp. 68-113; Daniel Scott Smith, “All in Some Degree Related to Each
               Other” American Historical Review 94 (1989), 44-79.

 March 28  Local records, community history, and beyond

                 Edward M. Cook, Fathers of the Town Ch. 5 Town and Church pp. 119-141;

 April    4  Huntington meeting 3 p.m. art gallery and library

               Visual representation – analysis of paintings and art

                Margaretta M. Lovell, “Reading 18^th-c. American Family Portraits: Social
               Images and Self Images,” Winterthur Portfolio 22 (1987), 243-264.

 April   11 Imperial history and colonial office records

                John J. McCusker, “New Guides to Primary Sources on the History of Early

                British America,” WMQ 3d ser. 41 (1984),277-295;

IK. Steele, “Time, Communications, and Society: The English Atlantic, 1702,”

                 American Studies 8 (197  ), 1-21.

 April   18   Strategies for discovering the history of those missed in the historical record

                Louise M. Burkhart,”The Native Translator as Critic: A Nahua Playwright’s
                Interpretive Practice,” in Robert Blair St. George ed. Possible Pasts: Becoming
                Colonial in Early America pp. 73-87; John K. Thornton, “War the State and
                Religious Norms in Coromantee Thought” in Ibid. pp. 1801-200topic open

 April   25 no class, individual meetings

May 2 discussion of papers   papers due April 30