HIST 2275/01 Local History Research

HIST 2275/01 – Local History Research #10345 – Summer 2005 Instructor: Dr. Thomas A. Scott TuTh 2:00-4:45 – SS 226

Office: Pilcher 255

Office Hours: MTWT 1-2, immediately after class, or by appointment. I will be in my office most of the day everyday. Please call for an appointment.

Phone: 770-423-6254 FAX: 770-423-6432 e-mail: [email protected] Website: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tscott/

Books:

Davidson, James West, and Mark Hamilton Lytle. After the Fact: the Art of Historical Detection, 5th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2005.

Marius, Richard, and Melvin E. Page. A Short Guide to Writing About History, 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.

Purpose:

This is a “how-to-do-it” course, designed to teach how historians think, conduct research, and write. If the class is successful, you should acquire skills and perspectives that will be helpful in any history class. The first half of the course will focus on what history is and the different ways that historians view the past. We will also discuss such practical matters as the proper style for footnotes and how to prepare a bibliography. In the first half of the course we will also visit museums, libraries, archives, and government agencies to familiarize you with some of the resources available in this area.

During the second half of the course we will not meet every class period, so that you have time to research and write your paper. This is the part of the course where you will have to exercise self-discipline to stay on schedule. Even though you will be on your own to some extent, please don’t hesitate to call on me for help on anything related to your work in the course. It’s my job to assist you at all stages of the project.

Grading:

All work will be graded on a scale of A = 90-100, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, D = 60- 69, and F = 0-59. The final grade will be determined in the following manner: 1. Quizzes – 25 percent: Expect a fill-in-the-blank quiz every day over the current reading assignment. Unexcused absences will count as zeroes, but you may be excused from or allowed to make up an occasional quiz for good reason. Let me know as early as possible if you are ill or have an emergency. 2. Field trips – 5 percent: Attend all field trips with the class. If you have an excused absence you can make up a field trip by attending on your own and writing a paper of about 250 words, where you describe and critique the site. There is no grading scale on the field trips. If you attend all of them, you will receive the full 5 points. We have 4 trips scheduled, so the grade will drop in proportion to how many trips you miss and don’t make up. 3. Library/Internet Assignments – 5 percent. If you complete them all, you will receive the full 5 points. 4. Preliminary bibliography – 10 percent. Please see the daily class schedule for April 1 for a description of what is expected. 5. Rough draft of three pages – 10 percent. Please see the daily class schedule for April 15 for a description of what is expected. 6. Term paper – 30 percent. Please see below for a description of what is expected. 7. Class presentation – 5 percent. You will have about 10 minutes to tell the class about the primary sources you used to write your paper and about your argument and major findings. Hopefully, this will be a time we can all enjoy. If you do a reasonably good job, and if you are present to hear everyone else’s presentation, you will receive the full 5 points. 8. Final exam – 10 percent. Review your readings, class discussions, and your term paper. The final will cover the really big themes from the course.

Term Papers:

The term paper should be at least fifteen (15) pages of text plus an annotated bibliography. Use footnotes to cite your sources. It’s never too early to begin thinking about a topic. Start with general subjects that interest you (such as women’s history, business history, African-American history, history of education, military history, sports history, church history, etc.) Then discuss with me how you could narrow down that interest to something on the local level that could be exhausted in a fifteen-page paper. Sometimes, the best papers are of a particular institution, individual, or court case. Below are a few examples of papers written by students in this class in previous semesters [with the location of the main primary sources in brackets]:

1. “ ‘Satan Was the First Scab’: Boliden Intertrade AG and the Copper Hill Strike” [oral histories, newspapers, census and court records] 2. “History of Cherokee County Libraries and the Sequoyah Regional Library System [library board and county commission minutes, interviews, newspapers, census records] 3. “Share Magazine Controversy of 1994: Test of 1st Amendment Rights at Kennesaw State” [records of the director of Studetn Life; the Sentinel; interviews] 4. “The Old Lost Mountain Store: History and Preservation of a Cobb County Landmark” [Cobb Historic Preservation Commission records; oral histories]

2 5. “An Old Unsolved Story in Smyrna, Georgia: The 1923 Assault and Battery of Bertha Mae Holcombe and Stephen Martin” [court records, newspapers, interviews] 6. “Cobb County Policewomen: An Unknown History” [records of Cobb Co. Police Dept.] 7. “Tragedy of Errors: The Matthews Murder Investigation and Trials” [Clerk’s Office, Cobb Superior Court] 8. “Youth Baseball Dynasty: East Cobb Youth Baseball Program” [oral histories, private papers] 9. “Rich v. Poor: Power Struggle in Government Housing in Marietta” [Clerk’s Office, City of Marietta] 10. “McNeel Marble Company: A Name Written in Stone” [company and family records] 11. “My Brother’s Keeper: Acworth United Methodist Church in the Community” [church records, oral histories] 12. “Robert deTreville Lawrence I: Memories of [Civil] War [Lawrence Papers, Bentley Rare Book Gallery, KSU] 13. “Diaspora in Dixie: Cobb County Jews in the Twentieth Century” [oral history interviews, Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta demographic studies] 14. “Mayor Mary McCall: Her Vision for a Small Town” [Acworth city council minutes] 15. “Mayor Lorena Pace Pruitt: A Woman Ahead of Her Times” [Smyrna city council minutes, records at Smyrna History Museum] 16. “East Cobb Civic Association: How Homeowners Used Compromise to Maintain Their Property Values and Quality of Life” [oral history interviews, association minutes and papers] 17. “Cobb County Airport, McCollum Field: Flying Through Time” [papers and reports in archive collection at office of airport manager] 18. “History of the Burnap House” [Cobb deed and probate records, newspapers, oral history interviews] 19. “A Sensible Moment: The Desegregation of Saint Joseph’s Catholic School of Marietta, Georgia” [school records, oral histories] 20. “Early Production of the C-130 in Marietta by Lockheed Georgia Corporation” [Lockheed technical reports, interviews]

Daily Class Schedule:

Thur., June 2. Introduction and overview of Cobb County and North Georgia history

Tues., June 7. 1) Turn in Library Exercise 1. 2) Read After the Fact, Prologue, “The Strange Death of Silas Deane.” 3) Read A Short Guide, Chap. 1, “Writing and History.”

Thur., June 9. Field Trip # 1. Tour of Kenan Research Center, McElreath Hall, Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, conducted by Michael Brubaker (404-814-4040). The tour will begin promptly at 2:30 P.M. Bring with you Library Exercise 2. For directions to the Atlanta History Center, go to their website, click on “Plan Your Visit,” and then click on “Directions.”: www.atlantahistorycenter.com/ The tour should last about an hour. That’s all we are doing on this day.

Tues., June 14. 1) Turn in Library Exercise 3. 2) Read After the Fact, Chap. Two, “The Visible and Invisible Worlds of Salem.” 3) Read A Short Guide, Chap. 2,

3 “Thinking About History.” At 3 PM today we are meeting with Dr. Tamara Isenhour, Director of Archives, Kennesaw State University. This will count as Field Trip # 2. She can be reached at 770-423-6289 or [email protected] The Website address is www.kennesaw.edu/archives/

Thur., June 16. Field Trip # 3. Tour of the Marietta Museum of History, conducted by Dan Cox (770-528-0431). Bring with you Library Exercise 4. The tour will begin promptly at 2:30 P.M. It will last about an hour. Then, we are going by the Georgia Room, Main Cobb County Public Library. The head of this research room is Carolyn Crawford. She will speak briefly about the holdings of her facility. The number for the Georgia Room is 770-528-2333. She should be finished no later than 4:20.

Sat., June 18. New Interpretations of the Civil War Symposium – Up to two (2) extra points added to your final grade for attending the full symposium (9 AM to 1 PM) and for writing a 300-word paper on what you learned. Partial credit for attending part of the program. Please click on the following to view the agenda:

Tues., June 21. 1) Turn in Library Exercise 5. 2) Read After the Fact, Chap. Four, “Material Witness: Hearth and Home in the Material Culture of a Market Economy.” 3) Read A Short Guide, Chap. 3, “Modes of Historical Writing.”

Thur., June 23. Field Trip # 4. Tour of Clerk’s Office, Cobb Superior Court, 5th floor of Superior Court Building, 32 Waddell Street, conducted by Superior Court Clerk, Jay Stephenson (770-528-1300). The tour will begin promptly at 2:30 P.M. After we finish at Superior Court, we will go downstairs to the Probate Court, where April Davis (770-528-1900) will talk about probate records. We should be finished by 4:00 P.M.

Tues., June 28. 1) Turn in Library Exercise 6. 2) Read After the Fact, Chap. Five, “Jackson’s Frontier—and Turner’s: History and Grand Theory.” 3) Read A Short Guide, Chaps. 4 & 5, “Gathering Information” and “Taking Notes and Writing Drafts.”

Wed., June 29 is the last day to withdraw without academic penalty.

Thur., June 30. 1) Turn in Library Exercise 7. 2) Read After the Fact, Chap. Eight, “The View from the Bottom Rail: Oral History and the Freedpeople.” 3) Read A Short Guide, Chaps. 6 & 7, “Writing in an Electronic Environment” and “Writing Conventions and Style.”

Tues., July 5. 1) Read A Short Guide, Chap. 8, “Documenting Sources.” We won’t have a quiz today. We will spend the whole time talking about footnoting and preparing bibliographies.

4 Thur., July 7. No class. Work on your bibliography. Preliminary annotated bibliography due by Friday, July 8 at 5 P.M. You may send it as a Word document attached to an email message to [email protected] . It should consist of at least fifteen (15) citations, including both primary and secondary sources pertaining to your paper. At least eight of the sources should be secondary. Separate the list into Primary Sources and Secondary Sources. In identifying secondary sources, look for broad topics that will provide background for understanding your topic. Include books, journal articles, newspapers, and dissertations. In the bibliography you do not need to cite every newspaper article you intend to use. One citation to all the articles will be sufficient. Give a citation such as, Marietta Daily Journal, 1941-45. The footnotes are the proper places to give specific data on the name of reporters, article titles, page numbers, etc.

July 12-14: no classes; work on your paper

Tues., July 19: no class, but rough draft due. Turn in today at least three pages of your paper with footnotes in proper style at the bottom. You can drop it by my office or send it as a Word attachment to an e-mail message.

Thur., July 21. No class.

Tues., July 26. Presentations. You will have about ten (10) minutes to tell the class about the major findings in your paper and your sources.

Thur., July 28. All term papers are due in today. You may send your paper as a Word attachment to an email message. As soon as I have graded your paper, I will contact you by email or by WebCT to tell you how you did and when you can pick it up.