Edward Said, Orientalism. (Vintage, 1994) Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (University of California Press, 2009) Arias, ed., The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy (University of Minnesota, 2001) David Blight, Race and Reunion (Harvard, 2002) Richard Evans, In Defense of History (Norton, 2000) Assignments and Grading: Since this class is a seminar, students are expected to complete all reading assignments on time (that is, before the class for which they are listed on the schedule below) and to participate actively in discussion. The course has three writing assignments, 8–10 pages each. For the first paper, you will come up with and answer a question that treats any single week’s readings from weeks 1 through 5; you may turn it in at any time on or before October 11. For the second paper, you will do the same for the readings for weeks 6 through 9; you may turn it in at any time on or before November 15. For the third paper, you will consider the ways in which people have sought to distinguish valid from invalid claims about the past as covered in the readings from weeks 10 through 14; it is due on December 16. Your final grade will be distributed as follows: • 30% for class participation • 20% for the first paper [due by Oct. 11] • 25% for the second paper [due by Nov. 15] • 25% for the paper [due on Dec. 16] Attendance: If you must miss a class, you will be required to write a 5-7-page paper on that week’s readings, to be submitted by the beginning of the next class meeting. SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS Note: please read items in the order in which they appear below. Unit I: Historians’ Approaches Week 1, September 6 The History of History Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession whole book Week 2, September 13 Science as History Excerpts from Karl Popper, The of Scientific Discovery (New York: Basic Books, 1959) Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) Re-read Novick, That Noble Dream, 298–301 and 524–35
“Historians and Guns,” forum in William and Mary Quarterly 59, no. 1 (January 2002) Robert Gross, “Introduction,” 203–4 Jack Rakove, “Words, Deeds, and Guns: ‘Arming America’ and the Second Amendment,” 205–210 Gloria Main, “Many Things Forgotten: The Use of Probate Records in ‘Arming America,’” 211–16 Ira Gruber, “Of Arms and Men: ‘Arming America’ and Military History,” 217–22 Randolph Roth, “Guns, Gun Culture, and Homicide: The Relationship Between Firearms, the Uses of Firearms, and Interpersonal Violence,” 223–40 Michael Bellesiles, “Exploring America’s Gun Culture,” 241–68 James Lindgren, “Fall from Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal,” Yale Law Journal 111, no. 8 (June 2002): 2195–249 Jerome Sternstein, “‘Pulped’ Fiction: Michael Bellesiles and His Yellow Note Pads,” History News Network Stanley Katz, Hannah Holborn Gray, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Report of the Investigative Committee in the Matter of Professor Michael Bellesiles,” pp. 1–19 [downloaded from on 20 January 2014] Peter Charles Hoffer, Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, and Fraud—American History from Bancroft to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin (New York: Public Affairs, 2007), Chapter 5 Week 12, November 22 Thanksgiving Break--No Class Meeting Week 13, November 29 History, Memory, and the Construction of Meaning I: Central America Arturo ed., The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy [skip pp. 156-170; 251-269;309-350] Week 14, December 6 History, Memory, and the Construction of Meaning II: The Old South David Blight, Race and Reunion Week 15, December 13 Summing Up Richard Evans, In Defense of History FINAL PAPER DUE DECEMBER 16 AT 5 P.M.