1 HIS 4930 Sec 2: PUBLIC HISTORY THEORY AND METHODS Florida State University, Fall 2008 Tuesdays 2:00-4:45pm Room: Bellamy 001 Instructor: Prof. Jennifer Koslow Email: [email protected] (emails will be answered 8am-5pm Monday - Friday) Class website: http://campus.fsu.edu/ Office: Bellamy 409 Phone: 644-4086 Office Hours: Tuesday 10:00-12:00 COURSE DESCRIPTION: When you aren’t in class, where do you seek out history? Is it staring up at the ceiling of the old Florida State Capitol? At a rest stop along I-10? At the Smithsonian? At a movie theater? At a family gathering? This course introduces students to the field of public history. We will study how, why, where, and who produces history outside of universities. Central to these inquiries will be investigations into four major themes in the practice of public history: uncovering hidden histories, constructing interpretations, creating a sense of place, and negotiating contested memories. In addition to these discussions, we will examine several different types of public history specialties: oral history, archives management, historic preservation, and museum administration. Please be aware that as an upper-division level history course this class is reading and writing intensive. COURSE OBJECTIVES: 1. The student will be able to identify the different specialties of public history; 2. The student will be able to state the history of the historic preservation movement in the United States, archives, history museums, and oral history; 3. The student will be able to describe and analyze different types of public commemoration; 4. The student will be able to describe and analyze presentations of history that use new media 5. The student will be able to generate an historical interpretation based on primary and secondary sources; 6. The student will choose to cite all sources in writing an expository paper REQUIRED READINGS: • Packet from Target Copy • Antoinette Burton, Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History (2005) • Sanford Levinson Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (1998) • Edward Linenthal, Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum (2001) • Studs Terkel, Touch and Go: A Memoir (2007) • Dwight Young, Road Trips through History: A Collection of Essays from Preservation Magazine (2003) • Articles on blackboard (e-reserve or course library): • John Bodnar, “The Memory Debate: An Introduction,” “the Construction of Ethnic Memory,” and Celebrating the Nation, 1961-1976” in Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (1992) • Joshua Brown, "History and the Web, From the Illustrated Newspaper to Cyberspace: Visual Technologies and Interaction in the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries," June 2004 http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/29 • Daniel J. Cohen, "History and the Second Decade of the Web," June 2004: http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/34 and "The Future of Preserving the Past," June 2005: http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/39 • Katharine T. Corbett and Howard S. (Dick) Miller, “A Shared Inquiry into Shared Inquiry,” The Public Historian 28.1 (2006): 15-38 • Natalie Zemon Davis, “Movie or Monograph? A Historian/Filmaker’s Perspective,” Public Historian 25 (2003): 45-482 • National Council on Public History, “What is Public History?” http://www.ncph.org/WhatisPublicHistory/tabid/282/Default.aspx • Steven C. Dubin, ”Introduction: Museums as Contested Sites,” “Battle Royal: The Final Mission of the Enola Gay,” and “The Postmodern Exhibition: Cut on the Bias, or Is Enola Gay a Verb?” in Displays of Power: Controversy in the American Museum from the Enola Gay to Sensation (1999) • Michael Frisch, “Oral History, Documentary, and the Mystification of Power: A Critique of Vietnam: A Television History,” in A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History (1990) • Vivien Ellen Rose and Julie Corley, “A Trademark Approach to the Past: Ken Burns, the Historical Profession, and Assessing Popular Presentations of the Past,” Public Historian 25 (2003): 49-59 • Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, “The Presence of the Past: Patterns of Popular Historymaking,” in The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (1998): 15-36. • Robert Brent Toplin, “Cinematic History: Where do We Go From Here?,” Public Historian 25 (2003): 79-91 CLASS SCHEDULE: (Aug 26) Week 1: Introductions (Sept 2) Week 2: What is Public History? Quiz #1 Reading: National Council on Public History, Corbett and Miller, Rosenzweig and Thelen (Sept 9) Week 3: History Museums: Foundations Quiz #2 Reading: Linenthal pages 1-166 (Sept 16) Week 4: History Museums: Transformations Quiz #3 Reading: Linenthal pages 167-272 (Sept 23) Week 5: Curatorial Crises of the late 20th century Quiz #4 Due: Reaction Paper #1 Reading: Dubin (Sept 30) Week 6: Historic Preservation: Beginnings Quiz #5 Reading: Young, Voyages (Oct 7) Week 7: Cultural Resources Management in the 20th Century Quiz #6 Due: Reaction Paper #2 Reading: Young, Guides & Fellow Travelers and Destinations (Oct 14) Week 8: Midterm (Oct 21) Week 9: Preserving History: Archives Quiz #7 Reading: Burton, TBA3 (Oct 28) Week 10: Public Displays of History: Monuments Quiz #8 Due: Reaction Paper #3 Reading: Levinson, entire (Nov 4) Week 11: Public Displays of History: Pageantry Quiz #9 Due: Primary Source Paper Reading: Bodnar (Nov 11) Week 12: No Class: Veteran’s Day (Nov 18) Week 13: Creating Sources: Oral History Quiz #10 Due: Reaction Paper #4 Reading: Terkel (Nov 25) Week 14: History & Hollywood Quiz #11 Reading: Corley, Davis, Frisch, Toplin (Dec 2) Week 15: Public History & New Media Quiz #12 Due: Reaction Paper #5 Reading: Cohen (2 articles) and Brown (Dec 9) Week 16: Final Exam Final Exam: Tuesday December 9, 5:30-7:30pm ASSIGNMENTS: Grade Breakdown Requirement % final gradeMidterm 15Final 20Primary Source Paper 20Reading Quizzes 25Reaction Papers 10Attendance 10Total 100 • Exams: Midterm (15%) 10/14/08: Essay format, bring blue book Final (20%) 12/9/08: Essay format, bring blue book The exams will be based on the readings and lecture. They will consist of questions that will ask you to make a historical argument. Your grade will be based on the quality of your argument, your use of specific examples as