DOCSLIB.ORG

Book Spring 2006.Qxd

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Book Spring 2006.Qxd Anthony Grafton History’s postmodern fates As the twenty-½rst century begins, his- in the mid-1980s to almost one thousand tory occupies a unique, but not an envi- now. But the vision of a rise in the num- able, position among the humanistic dis- ber of tenure-track jobs that William ciplines in the United States. Every time Bowen and others evoked, and that lured Clio examines her reflection in the mag- many young men and women into grad- ic mirror of public opinion, more voices uate school in the 1990s, has never mate- ring out, shouting that she is the ugliest rialized in history. The market, accord- Muse of all. High school students rate ingly, seems out of joint–almost as bad- history their most boring subject. Un- ly so as in the years around 1970, when dergraduates have fled the ½eld with production of Ph.D.s ½rst reached one the enthusiasm of rats leaving a sinking thousand or more per year just as univer- ship. Thirty years ago, some 5 percent sities and colleges went into economic of all undergraduates majored in histo- crisis. Many unemployed holders of doc- ry. Nowadays, around 2 percent do so. torates in history hold their teachers and Numbers of new Ph.D.s have risen, from universities responsible for years of op- a low of just under ½ve hundred per year pression, misery, and wasted effort that cannot be usefully reapplied in other careers.1 Anthony Grafton, a Fellow of the American Acad- Those who succeed in obtaining ten- emy since 2002, is Henry Putnam University Pro- ure-track positions, moreover, may still fessor of History at Princeton University and ½nd themselves walking a stony path. chair of the Council of the Humanities. He is the Historians’ salaries, like most of those author of eleven books, including “Defenders of in the humanities, are low. So, more sur- the Text” (1991), “Commerce with the Classics” prisingly, are history book sales–except (1997), and “Bring Out Your Dead” (2001). in some favored ½elds, like Holocaust Grafton has received numerous honors, among studies. Some university presses have cut them the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the back in ½elds of history vital not only to Balzan Prize for History of Humanities, and the scholarship but also to American nation- Mellon Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement 1 Thomas Bender, Philip Katz, and Colin Palm- Award. er, The Education of Historians for the Twenty- First Century (Urbana and Chicago: Published © 2006 by the American Academy of Arts for the American Historical Association by the & Sciences University of Illinois Press, 2004). 54 Dædalus Spring 2006 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed.2006.135.2.54 by guest on 28 September 2021 al interests–the history of Latin Ameri- times, and they have elaborated a set History’s ca, for example–because even the best of narratives that more or less explains postmodern fates monographs sell barely a hundred copies the general conditions I have described. and thus fail to cover their costs. Very Professional history in America, they strong books, it seems, still ½nd publish- say, came into being in the late nine- ers even when sales will be low. But the teenth century under the zodiacal sign general picture is dark. of Leopold von Ranke, as historians like Even our annual convention is cele- Herbert Baxter Adams and Frederick brated only for its dullness. At an Amer- Jackson Turner appropriated his meth- ican Historical Association opening ses- ods of archival scholarship and source sion in January 2004 devoted to “War criticism in order to situate the United in a Democratic Age,” renowned histori- States in world history. They established ans rose in Washington to discuss “may- seminars: not classes, originally, but hem, mass destruction, and total anni- special classrooms equipped with cata- hilation.” These subjects of undoubted logs, collections of primary sources, and contemporary relevance have played a journals. Here students could learn to central role in the historical tradition wield the tools of their trade–to estab- in the West from the days of Herodotus lish bibliographies, work through pri- and Thucydides to those of the History mary and secondary sources, and com- Channel. Yet neither the big questions pose reports, which they read aloud to nor the deep thinkers who addressed their teachers and colleagues. At the them proved capable of touching off same time, the Masters of this new dis- intense discussions. Instead, the audi- ciplinary universe devised elaborate, ence “evaporated” as speaker after powerful courses, organized around speaker offered “a classic academic clear theses. History excavated the ori- combination of insight and obscurity, gins of American freedom–depending thoughtful analysis and mind-numbing on whether one listened to Adams or delivery, and by the time the question Turner–in the traditions of self-govern- period ½nally rolled around, even the ment nourished deep in the Germanic aha’s president, James McPherson, forests or in the geographical openness was ready to head for the door.” “I can and rich resources of the North Ameri- see,” cracked Charles Maier of Harvard, can continent. Students often found it “we’ve conducted a war of attrition.” dif½cult to see the connection between It all seems very sad: Clio’s grand disci- the narrowly de½ned exercises they car- pline, for millennia the school of poli- ried out and the grand syntheses that tics, has transformed itself into a science their teachers presented in their lectures so dismal that even its practitioners do and textbooks. But the new professional not want to hear about it.2 history proved attractive to many young men and the smaller number of young Historians share the obsession with women who gained access to it. Its prod- navel gazing that has infected a number ucts ½lled the history departments that of the humanistic disciplines in recent took shape at the end of the nineteenth century, as an elective system replaced the uniform curriculum of the old col- 2 Bob Thompson, “Lessons We May Be Doomed To Repeat: American Historians Talk leges and a historical narrative of the About War, But Is Anyone Listening?” Wash- winning of freedoms, rooted in the ington Post, January 11, 2004, D01. Magna Carta and the rise of the British Dædalus Spring 2006 55 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed.2006.135.2.54 by guest on 28 September 2021 Anthony House of Commons, became a central veau fresco of the Masque of History– Grafton curriculum subject.3 one in which clothed and digni½ed Eu- on the humanities By the early decades of the twentieth ropeans brought sweetness, light, and century, however, professional histori- civilization to the nude and grateful ans inhabited more than one mansion. inhabitants of the Americas and oth- The New History that James Harvey er peripheral continents–was slowly Robinson, Carl Becker, and others de- whitewashed and replaced by a mod- veloped after World War I challenged ernist panorama with more varied par- the founders’ emphasis on politics and ticipants. Even the most technically dif- institutions, and insisted on the central ½cult ½elds, like Chinese history, began importance of ideas. The revisionism of to attract a few young scholars, some of Charles Beard, who deconstructed ideal- them the children of missionaries. istic accounts of the Founding Fathers Diversi½cation led to struggle. Ugly and World War I, also attracted some flowers of discord began to pop up, here younger scholars. The great regional and there, as historians sharply debated and historical diversity of the American the theses of skeptics and revisionists universities encouraged the emergence and even more sharply debated which of new sub½elds–½elds that the found- pieces of historical turf deserved more ing generation, for whom Europe was intensive cultivation by students and still the biggest thing in America, saw faculty. On the whole, however, histo- as lying outside true history. When the rians–so the usual story goes–retained young Elizabeth Wallace asked the re- a considerable degree of comity. All cently arrived head professor of histo- agreed that those who occupied the pin- ry at Chicago, Hermann von Holst, for nacle of the ½eld were the great political guidance in Latin American history, he historians, especially those at Harvard– exploded: “Vy did you come to me? I the department that, until World War know notings von tose countries. For II, boasted an unmatched array of star me tey do not exist. Tey are tead!” Yet historians, from Turner and Roger Mer- William Rainey Harper, the university’s riman, author of a massive study of the president, encouraged Wallace to devel- Spanish Empire, to Arthur Schlesinger, op a course of her own in the ½eld.4 At the great historian of the Age of Jackson. Wisconsin and Berkeley in the same All agreed that Harvard and a few oth- years, the history of Latin America and er schools–Johns Hopkins, Columbia, the American borderlands became popu- Cornell, Chicago, and Wisconsin–of- lar subjects for courses and for research. fered the best graduate programs. Al- The great, Politically Incorrect art nou- most all agreed, ½nally, that historians everywhere had two primary tasks: car- rying out their own research and offer- 3 John Higham, History: Professional Scholarship ing civic education for young men and in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer- sity Press, 1983); and, above all, Peter Novick, women, especially in the form of sur- That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and veys of Western civilization and Amer- the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: ican history. Some of the prestige that Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Book Spring 2006.Qxd
    Anthony Grafton History’s postmodern fates Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/2/54/1829123/daed.2006.135.2.54.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 As the twenty-½rst century begins, his- in the mid-1980s to almost one thousand tory occupies a unique, but not an envi- now. But the vision of a rise in the num- able, position among the humanistic dis- ber of tenure-track jobs that William ciplines in the United States. Every time Bowen and others evoked, and that lured Clio examines her reflection in the mag- many young men and women into grad- ic mirror of public opinion, more voices uate school in the 1990s, has never mate- ring out, shouting that she is the ugliest rialized in history. The market, accord- Muse of all. High school students rate ingly, seems out of joint–almost as bad- history their most boring subject. Un- ly so as in the years around 1970, when dergraduates have fled the ½eld with production of Ph.D.s ½rst reached one the enthusiasm of rats leaving a sinking thousand or more per year just as univer- ship. Thirty years ago, some 5 percent sities and colleges went into economic of all undergraduates majored in histo- crisis. Many unemployed holders of doc- ry. Nowadays, around 2 percent do so. torates in history hold their teachers and Numbers of new Ph.D.s have risen, from universities responsible for years of op- a low of just under ½ve hundred per year pression, misery, and wasted effort that cannot be usefully reapplied in other careers.1 Anthony Grafton, a Fellow of the American Acad- Those who succeed in obtaining ten- emy since 2002, is Henry Putnam University Pro- ure-track positions, moreover, may still fessor of History at Princeton University and ½nd themselves walking a stony path.
    [Show full text]
  • Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History?
    Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History? Francesca Trivellato In the late 1970s and 80s, particularly after the appearance of Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms (1976) and Giovanni Levi’s Inheriting Power (1985), Italian microhistory shook the ground of established historiographical paradigms and practices. Since then, as Anthony Grafton put it, “Microhistories have captivated readers, won places on syllabi, been translated into many languages – and enraged and delighted their [the authors’] fellow professionals” (2006, 62). Are the questions that propelled Italian microhistory still significant or have they lost impetus? How has the meaning of microhistory changed over the past thirty years? And what can this approach contribute nowadays, when ‘globalization’ and ‘global’ are the dominant keywords in the humanities and the social sciences – keywords that we hardly associate with anything micro? In what follows, I wish to put forth two arguments. I suggest that the potential of a microhistorical approach for global history remains underexploited. Since the 1980s, the encounter between Italian microhistory and global history has been confined primarily to the narrative form. A host of studies of individuals whose lives traversed multiple linguistic, political, and religious boundaries has enjoyed considerable success among scholars and the broad public alike. These are predicated on the idea that a micro- and biographical scale can best portray the entanglement of cultural traditions produced by the growing contacts and clashes between different societies that followed the sixteenth- century European geographical expansion. They also reflect a greater comfort among historians and the general reader, perhaps most pronounced in Anglophone countries, with narration rather than social scientific analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • William Herle's Report of the Dutch Situation, 1573
    LIVES AND LETTERS, VOL. 1, NO. 1, SPRING 2009 Signs of Intelligence: William Herle’s Report of the Dutch Situation, 1573 On the 11 June 1573 the agent William Herle sent his patron William Cecil, Lord Burghley a lengthy intelligence report of a ‘Discourse’ held with Prince William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands.∗ Running to fourteen folio manuscript pages, the Discourse records the substance of numerous conversations between Herle and Orange and details Orange’s efforts to persuade Queen Elizabeth to come to the aid of the Dutch against Spanish Habsburg imperial rule. The main thrust of the document exhorts Elizabeth to accept the sovereignty of the Low Countries in order to protect England’s naval interests and lead a league of protestant European rulers against Spain. This essay explores the circumstances surrounding the occasion of the Discourse and the context of the text within Herle’s larger corpus of correspondence. In the process, I will consider the methods by which the study of the material features of manuscripts can lead to a wider consideration of early modern political, secretarial and archival practices. THE CONTEXT By the spring of 1573 the insurrection in the Netherlands against Spanish rule was seven years old. Elizabeth had withdrawn her covert support for the English volunteers aiding the Dutch rebels, and was busy entertaining thoughts of marriage with Henri, Duc d’Alençon, brother to the King of France. Rejecting the idea of French assistance after the massacre of protestants on St Bartholomew’s day in Paris the previous year, William of Orange was considering approaching the protestant rulers of Europe, mostly German Lutheran sovereigns, to form a strong alliance against Spanish Catholic hegemony.
    [Show full text]
  • John R. Mcneill University Professor Georgetown University President of the American Historical Association, 2019 Presidential Address
    2020-President_Address.indd All Pages 14/10/19 7:31 PM John R. McNeill University Professor Georgetown University President of the American Historical Association, 2019 Presidential Address New York Hilton Trianon Ballroom New York, New York Saturday, January 4, 2020 5:30 PM John R. McNeill By George Vrtis, Carleton College In fall 1998, John McNeill addressed the Georgetown University community to help launch the university’s new capital campaign. Sharing the stage with Georgetown’s president and other dignitaries, McNeill focused his comments on the two “great things” he saw going on at Georgetown and why each merited further support. One of those focal points was teaching and the need to constantly find creative new ways to inspire, share knowledge, and build intellectual community among faculty and students. The other one centered on scholarship. Here McNeill suggested that scholars needed to move beyond the traditional confines of academic disciplines laid down in the 19th century, and engage in more innovative, imaginative, and interdisciplinary research. Our intellectual paths have been very fruitful for a long time now, McNeill observed, but diminishing returns have set in, information and methodologies have exploded, and new roads beckon. To help make his point, McNeill likened contemporary scholars to a drunk person searching for his lost keys under a lamppost, “not because he lost them there but because that is where the light is.” The drunk-swirling-around-the-lamppost metaphor was classic McNeill. Throughout his academic life, McNeill has always conveyed his ideas in clear, accessible, often memorable, and occasionally humorous language. And he has always ventured into the darkness, searchlight in hand, helping us to see and understand the world and ourselves ever more clearly with each passing year.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae (Updated August 1, 2021)
    DAVID A. BELL SIDNEY AND RUTH LAPIDUS PROFESSOR IN THE ERA OF NORTH ATLANTIC REVOLUTIONS PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Curriculum Vitae (updated August 1, 2021) Department of History Phone: (609) 258-4159 129 Dickinson Hall [email protected] Princeton University www.davidavrombell.com Princeton, NJ 08544-1017 @DavidAvromBell EMPLOYMENT Princeton University, Director, Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies (2020-24). Princeton University, Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions, Department of History (2010- ). Associated appointment in the Department of French and Italian. Johns Hopkins University, Dean of Faculty, School of Arts & Sciences (2007-10). Responsibilities included: Oversight of faculty hiring, promotion, and other employment matters; initiatives related to faculty development, and to teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences; chairing a university-wide working group for the Johns Hopkins 2008 Strategic Plan. Johns Hopkins University, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities (2005-10). Principal appointment in Department of History, with joint appointment in German and Romance Languages and Literatures. Johns Hopkins University. Professor of History (2000-5). Johns Hopkins University. Associate Professor of History (1996-2000). Yale University. Assistant Professor of History (1991-96). Yale University. Lecturer in History (1990-91). The New Republic (Washington, DC). Magazine reporter (1984-85). VISITING POSITIONS École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Visiting Professor (June, 2018) Tokyo University, Visiting Fellow (June, 2017). École Normale Supérieure (Paris), Visiting Professor (March, 2005). David A. Bell, page 1 EDUCATION Princeton University. Ph.D. in History, 1991. Thesis advisor: Prof. Robert Darnton. Thesis title: "Lawyers and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Paris (1700-1790)." Princeton University.
    [Show full text]
  • Books Added to Benner Library from Estate of Dr. William Foote
    Books added to Benner Library from estate of Dr. William Foote # CALL NUMBER TITLE Scribes and scholars : a guide to the transmission of Greek and Latin literature / by L.D. Reynolds and N.G. 1 001.2 R335s, 1991 Wilson. 2 001.2 Se15e Emerson on the scholar / Merton M. Sealts, Jr. 3 001.3 R921f Future without a past : the humanities in a technological society / John Paul Russo. 4 001.30711 G163a Academic instincts / Marjorie Garber. Book of the book : some works & projections about the book & writing / edited by Jerome Rothenberg and 5 002 B644r Steven Clay. 6 002 OL5s Smithsonian book of books / Michael Olmert. 7 002 T361g Great books and book collectors / Alan G. Thomas. 8 002.075 B29g Gentle madness : bibliophiles, bibliomanes, and the eternal passion for books / Nicholas A. Basbanes. 9 002.09 B29p Patience & fortitude : a roving chronicle of book people, book places, and book culture / Nicholas A. Basbanes. Books of the brave : being an account of books and of men in the Spanish Conquest and settlement of the 10 002.098 L552b sixteenth-century New World / Irving A. Leonard ; with a new introduction by Rolena Adorno. 11 020.973 R824f Foundations of library and information science / Richard E. Rubin. 12 021.009 J631h, 1976 History of libraries in the Western World / by Elmer D. Johnson and Michael H. Harris. 13 025.2832 B175d Double fold : libraries and the assault on paper / Nicholson Baker. London booksellers and American customers : transatlantic literary community and the Charleston Library 14 027.2 R196L Society, 1748-1811 / James Raven.
    [Show full text]
  • Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars 1956-57- 2016-2017 (61 Years)
    Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars 1956-57- 2016-2017 (61 years) 2016-2017 (112 visits) Adorno, Rolena Spanish/Latin American literatur Yale Bialek, William physics Princeton Ehrman, Bart D. religion, New Testament UNC-Chapel Hill Grosz, Barbara J. computer science Harvard Hochschild, Jennifer L. political science Harvard Kitcher, Philip philosophy Columbia Lester, Marsha I. chemistry Penn Morse, Nora Naranjo fine arts, poetry, sculpture Espanola, NM Rodgers, Daniel T. American history & culture Princeton Sabloff, Jeremy A. anthropology, Maya Penn Weiman, David F. economic history Barnard Wexler, Laura American studies Yale Witt, John Fabian law, American history Yale Wright, Patricia anthropology/primatology SUNY, Stony Brook Xiao, Shuhai geobiology/paleobiology Virginia Tech 2015-2016 (100 visits) Michael Bérubé English, disability studies Penn State Caroline Bruzelius art, art history Duke David K. Campbell physics, engineering Boston U. Hazel V. Carby African American studies Yale Carol Greenhouse anthropology, sociocultural Princeton David B. Grusky sociology, inequality, poverty Stanford Rigoberto Hernandez biochemistry, diversity studies Georgia Tech Mae Ngai history, Asian American studies Columbia Judith Resnik law Yale Timothy Rowe paleontology, geology UTAustin Larry A. Silver art history, Renaissance Penn Harold W. Stanley political science, elections Southern Methodist Richard Sylla American economic history NYU Blaire Van Valkenburgh vertebrate paleonbiology UCLA Vincent L. Wimbush religion Inst.SignifyingScriptures 2014-2015 (96 visits) Jeffrey C. Alexander sociology Yale William Y. Arms computer science Cornell Wendy Brown political science UCBerkeley Caroline Bruzelius art, art history Duke Philip J. Deloria history, American Indian Michigan Gerald Graff English, education Illinois at Chicago Kathleen McGarry economics, aging UCLA Gregory A. Petsko neurology, neuroscience Cornell Med.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert C. Darnton Shelby Cullom Davis ‘30 Professor of European History Princeton University
    Robert C. Darnton Shelby Cullom Davis ‘30 Professor of European History Princeton University President 1999 LIJ r t i Robert C. Darnton The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu once remarked that Robert Damton’s principal shortcoming as a scholar is that he “writes too well.” This prodigious talent, which arouses such suspicion of aristocratic pretension among social scientists in republican France, has made him nothing less than an academic folk hero in America—one who is read with equal enthusiasm and pleasure by scholars and the public at large. Darnton’ s work improbably blends a strong dose of Cartesian rationalism with healthy portions of Dickensian grit and sentiment. The result is a uniquely American synthesis of the finest traits of our British and French ancestors—a vision of the past that is at once intellectually bracing and captivatingly intimate. fascination with the making of modem Western democracies came easily to this true blue Yankee. Born in New York City on the eve of the Second World War, the son of two reporters at the New York Times, Robert Damton has always had an immediate grasp of what it means to be caught up in the fray of modem world historical events. The connection between global historical forces and the tangible lives of individuals was driven home at a early age by his father’s death in the Pacific theater during the war. Irreparable loss left him with a deep commitment to recover the experiences of people in the past. At Phillips Academy and Harvard College, his first interest was in American history.
    [Show full text]
  • AHA Colloquium
    Cover.indd 1 13/10/20 12:51 AM Thank you to our generous sponsors: Platinum Gold Bronze Cover2.indd 1 19/10/20 9:42 PM 2021 Annual Meeting Program Program Editorial Staff Debbie Ann Doyle, Editor and Meetings Manager With assistance from Victor Medina Del Toro, Liz Townsend, and Laura Ansley Program Book 2021_FM.indd 1 26/10/20 8:59 PM 400 A Street SE Washington, DC 20003-3889 202-544-2422 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.historians.org Perspectives: historians.org/perspectives Facebook: facebook.com/AHAhistorians Twitter: @AHAHistorians 2020 Elected Officers President: Mary Lindemann, University of Miami Past President: John R. McNeill, Georgetown University President-elect: Jacqueline Jones, University of Texas at Austin Vice President, Professional Division: Rita Chin, University of Michigan (2023) Vice President, Research Division: Sophia Rosenfeld, University of Pennsylvania (2021) Vice President, Teaching Division: Laura McEnaney, Whittier College (2022) 2020 Elected Councilors Research Division: Melissa Bokovoy, University of New Mexico (2021) Christopher R. Boyer, Northern Arizona University (2022) Sara Georgini, Massachusetts Historical Society (2023) Teaching Division: Craig Perrier, Fairfax County Public Schools Mary Lindemann (2021) Professor of History Alexandra Hui, Mississippi State University (2022) University of Miami Shannon Bontrager, Georgia Highlands College (2023) President of the American Historical Association Professional Division: Mary Elliott, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (2021) Nerina Rustomji, St. John’s University (2022) Reginald K. Ellis, Florida A&M University (2023) At Large: Sarah Mellors, Missouri State University (2021) 2020 Appointed Officers Executive Director: James Grossman AHR Editor: Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University, Bloomington Treasurer: William F.
    [Show full text]
  • 1993 Spring – Desan
    History 703 Fall 1993 HISTORY AND THEORY: . RECENT APPROACHES TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IDSTORY Suzanne Desan 5124 Humanities All the books which are starred are available at University Book Store. The book chapters, as well as the main books, will all be on reserve at HC White or the State Historical Society. Articles from journals are available in a xeroxed packet in the Copy Center on 1st floor Humanities. This course will provide an introduction to several of the major recent approaches to social and cultural history, including methodologies influenced by anthropology, Marxism, feminism, or post­ structuralism (or some combination of these approaches.) Week I (9/13): INTRODUCTION Week 2 (9/20): HISTORY AS INTERPRETATION Nancy F. Partner, "Making up Lost Time: Writing on the Writing of History," Speculum 61 (1986): 90-117. Geoff Eley, "Is All the World a Text? From Social History to the History of Society Two Decades Later," Comparative Study of Social Transfonnations, working paper #55, 1990. Jane Caplan, "Postmodernism, Postructuralism, and Deconstruction: Notes for Historians," Central European History 22 (1989): 260-78. Lawrence Stone, "The Revival of Narrative: Reflections on a New Old History," Past and Present 85 (1979): 3-24. Week 3 (9/27): ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY I: CLASSSIC APPROACHES Clifford Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight," in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973), Chap. 15. Natalie Zemon Davis, "Rites of Violence: Religious Riots in Sixteenth-Century France," in Society and Culture in Earlv Modern France (Stanford, 1975), pp. 152-87; also in Past and Present 59 (1973): 51-91. Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, 1984), Intra & Chapter 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Syllabus, 21H.991J / STS.210J Theories and Methods in the Study
    Fall 2010 Instructor: Jeff Ravel T 10-1 STS 210J/21H.991J: Theories and Methods in the Study of History Overview We will doggedly ask two questions in this class: “What is history?” and “How do you do it in 2010?” In pursuit of the answers, we will survey a variety of approaches to the past used by historians writing in the last several decades. We will examine how these historians conceive of their object of study, how they use primary sources as a basis for their accounts, how they structure the narrative and analytical discussion of their topic, and the advantages and limitations of their approaches. One concern is the evolution of historical studies in the western tradition, which is not to say that the western approach is the only valid one, nor is it to suggest that we will only read histories of the west. But MIT and many of the institutions in which you will work during your careers are firmly rooted in western intellectual paradigms, and the study of times and places far removed from the western past has been deeply influenced by western historical assumptions. (And, to be honest, this is the historical tradition with which I am most familiar!) We will begin with a brief overview of the construction and deconstruction of historical thinking in the west from the beginnings of Christianity to the present. Then we will consider questions of scale, a major preoccupation of post-WWII historians. In the second half of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first, history has been written at the national, global, and micro level.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Summer 2006.Qxd
    Letters to the Editor of Dædalus On history in the twentieth The geographical expansion of histo- ry brought most of the world into his- century Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/135/3/123/1829121/daed.2006.135.3.123.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 tory courses. It also created new views May 10, 2006 of world and comparative history. World historians like William McNeill, Leftan Stavrianos, and Marshall Hodgson To the Editor: brought differing novel approaches to Anthony Grafton’s essay, “History’s many aspects of world history, a growing postmodern fates,” in the Spring 2006 ½eld that challenged the privileging of issue of Dædalus was interesting and in- the West over the rest that characterized formative, but I share neither his pessi- earlier writings and theories regarding mism about the fate of history nor his global history. Elements of Marxism limited view of important twentieth- were important in post–World War II century developments. In summarizing schools founded by social scientists but other trends among historians in the adopted by many historians–Depen- United States, I will also focus on the dency Theory, which originated in Lat- post–World War II period. More works in America, and World Systems Theory, deserve mention if readers are to avoid a which was begun by Immanuel Waller- restricted view of history in this period. stein and divided the modern world into Grafton covers major works by micro- a changing core, a semi-periphery, and historians, especially Carlo Ginzburg, a periphery, with the former exploiting Natalie Davis, and Robert Darnton, and the latter.
    [Show full text]