Monthly Archives: September 2014

Reading Questions for October 1

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Be sure that you scroll down and read the post on the Two Topics Memo, and don’t forget to submit that by email and bring a copy with you to class on Wednesday.

In addition to discussing these memos, we will also be talking about the assigned readings from Kanter. Please write a comment on this post about these readings. You may choose to discuss ways the readings might relate to the topics you are considering for your paper, or you can respond to one of the following questions:

  1. Do you agree with the way that Kanter defines a "successful" community? What counts, for her, as success? Why select this criterion or these criteria?
  2. Are "commitment mechanisms" a good way to measure success even on Kanter’s own terms?
  3. Underlying Kanter’s work is the assumption that internal dynamics affect a community more than external ones: do our past readings on other communities confirm that assumption or challenge it?
  4. Do we get a clearer view from these pages of what makes Kanter’s a "sociological perspective" on communes rather than an exclusively historical one? Point specifically to the things that you think distinguish her work from, say, Brundage’s, Foster’s, or Turner’s.

See you on Wednesday!

Two Topics Memo

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How do you know when you’ve written a good history paper—a work of original scholarship that contributes to the field?

In this brief chart, Dr. William J. Turkel imagines what it would be like to answer that question in retrospect, after the paper is finished. Of a "better than average" paper, you’d be able to say "you began thinking about it right away, and you’ve been mulling it over constantly ever since," whereas a "worse than average" paper would be one where "you didn’t have time to think about it until the week it was due."

Similarly, a "better than average" paper would be one where you did so much research, that you "discovered (and read through) a lot more sources than you could cite." A "worse than average" paper is one in which "you cited everything you found" because there was little to find.

We are starting our "benchmark assignments" this week because starting this early is the best way to put you in position to write a "better than average" paper. With these assignments, you’ll be able to get feedback all along the way about the research project. But the principles outlined in that chart apply to these assignments as well: a "better than average" assignment is one that selects the best of the work you’ve done, rather than presenting all of what you’ve done, while an acceptable assignment is one that meets the minimum requirements.

Put another way, the more that you give us in the benchmark assignments, the more feedback we (I and your fellow classmates) will be able to give you. The path to a "better than average" end product begins now, even with this first assignment.

The requirements for this "two topics memo" are listed on the assignments page: "a short, one-page list of two potential research topics, along with at least two primary sources and two secondary sources you have identified on each topic."

The "at least" in this description is included intentionally in the spirit of Turkel’s recommendations. The more you can find on each topic, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Conversely, if you have difficulty finding sources at this stage, that could indicate a need to rethink your topic.

That said, the "two primary and two secondary source" minimum is provided as a threshold, because it could be that there are more sources than you’re aware of—sources that I can help you locate as part of the feedback on your memo. The more you can tell us about what you’ve done within the confines of about one page, the more we can help you move to the next stage. But if all you’ve been able to find are two sources, we need to know that, too, so we can help you evaluate the likelihood that enough sources will be available to you to answer an historiographically significant question.

To sum up, the exact format and requirements of the "benchmark assignments" are less important than the general principles outlined by Turkel: the more you accomplish at each of these early stages, the more likely you’ll be able to look back at the end of the semester and tell that you’ve written the best paper you can write.

Please send me your memo by email by noon on Wednesday, and bring a copy with you to class.

Reading Questions for September 24

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This week’s readings take slightly opposing positions on the gender ideals of two utopian communities: Oneida and The Farm. Now that you’ve spent several weeks talking and responding to my questions, I’d like to give you the opportunity to comment broadly on these readings, but I do want you to make a concerted effort to evaluate the articles and evidence as an historian would. That means, for example, judging the gendered organization of work in these communities in relation to the societies of which they were a part, rather than in relation to your own beliefs (shaped by our contemporary moment) about what is "normal" and what is "weird." When possible, I’d also like you to take a clear position on the issues at stake in these articles; which author(s) more closely represent(s) your own view of the evidence, and why?

You can also make sure your comment is historical by thinking about these readings in terms of some of the overarching questions we’ve discussed this semester, such as whether there is a continuous tradition of utopian communalism in American history, and whether and why utopian radicals are worth studying.

So, in short, this is an open comment thread, but it’s an open comment thread for working historians: engage with the readings as historians and then let us know what’s on your mind.

Reading Questions for September 17

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Next week, we’ll be discussing Fitzhugh Brundage’s book, A Socialist Utopia in the New South. I’ve posted some reading tips that may be useful to you.

By noon before class, you should also write a comment on this post that answers one of the following questions:

  1. Like other communes we’ve considered, the Ruskin colony was a small group that represented a "marginal" group of radicals. How would Brundage answer a reader who asks, "So what? Why should we study this group?" Does his answer hinge on their influence, or on some other reason?
  2. In our last class, Becca raised the question of whether communalists still betrayed parts of the "American dream." A slightly different version of that question is often raised in discussions of the history of socialism; cholars were once impressed by the fact that there seemed to be less socialism in the United States than in other countries. Does Brundage’s account of Ruskin offer some explanation for "why there is no (or little) socialism in America?"
  3. You might also consider a related question of why socialism has come to be seen by so many people today as un-American. Does the Ruskin colony complicate that notion? Does its experience explain why the notion retains power?
  4. Last week’s readings from Kanter distinguished between communes that had "weak" boundaries and communes that had "strong" ones. Which kind was Ruskin, and why? Do the attributes that Kanter attributes to communities in the weak/strong category apply to Ruskin?
  5. What did "socialism" mean for the Ruskinites?

While your comment should focus on one of these questions, please work to consider all of them as you read. You are responsible for being able to comment specifically and in an informed way on the entire book, not just the part you choose to write about.

Demonstrating Influence

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Yesterday in class, we talked a lot about how historians think about and demonstrate causal influence. I took some photos of notes that we assembled on the chalkboard.

First, we discussed what makes an article persuasive. Persuasiveness includes things like the clarity and rhetorical style of the article, but we also discussed why the soundness of the argument and the use of evidence are the most important criteria for historians in deciding whether an article makes a good case. These two areas will be the most heavily weighted assessments on your final research paper.

We then put on our “lumper” hats and talked about various ways that utopian communities might influence the culture outside their boundaries:

Of course, all of these are hypothetical ways that a community “A” might influence “B.” To actually demonstrate such influence, a historian has to show a number of things using specific evidence. We can’t assume a priori that influence did or did not occur in a certain way, and we can’t assume that “B” was influenced by “A” just because it came after the fact. (That would be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.) Demonstrating influence isn’t a simple matter, and it involves at least the following steps:

Finally, we briefly discussed how different scholars of communes think about what happens when a commune dissolves. Some think of the end of a commune’s life in terms of success or failure and try to figure out why the community failed. Others, like Pitzer, believe the dissolution of the community might be evidence of its success.

These points may be worth revisiting later in the semester, especially if you want to make an argument about influence in your paper.

Utopia: Viewer Discretion Advised?

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Fox's Utopia

One of you alerted me to the fact that Fox apparently premiered a new reality show called Utopia last night. They claim it is a social experiment about how to create a society from scratch. I didn’t see the premiere, but initial reviews appear skeptical.

If the show has any relevance to our class, though, perhaps it does raise the question of whether utopian communities are always "reality shows" to some extent—that is, performances designed to be "watched" by the outside world. Gardner suggested as much about Drop City in last week’s readings, when he argued that the Droppers were artists in search of publicity above all.

If one question raised last week is whether utopias always become dystopian, maybe this new show raises the question of whether utopians are not unlike publicity-hungry reality show cast members.

Or maybe those are the same question …

Notes from September 3

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You can see the notes from our discussion yesterday in this Google Doc. The Google doc is also editable, so if you see anything you wish to add, please feel free to do so.

Some of the topics covered in these notes are:

  • What is the definition of a utopian community? Different categories of communities?
  • Different scholarly approaches of "lumping" and "splitting"
  • What is the difference (if there is one) between a "sociological perspective" on utopias and a historical one?
  • What are some scholarly questions about utopian communities where there might be disagreements?

These topics might be useful for you to return to in later weeks as you begin planning your research paper.

Readings for September 10

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Before next class, remember that you should do some exploring online and in the library catalog about communities or topics that may interest you for your research topic.

You should also complete the readings for September 10 and then write a comment on this post that responds to ONE of the following questions:

  1. Based on the pages you read from Kanter, how much influence did nineteenth-century communes have on twentieth-century communes? If there influence was slight, why was this the case?
  2. Kanter writes that "American communes have not done much to change the society at large" (p. 225). What are her reasons for making this claim, and do you agree with her based on the other readings you’ve done so far?
  3. In contrast to Kanter’s claim above, Fred Turner and Donald Pitzer believe that utopian communities have been influential, yet their arguments for the kind of influence communes had are different. Is one of these articles more persuasive than the other, and if so, why?

Remember the tips shared in class yesterday about how to ensure that WordPress recognizes paragraph breaks in your comments: be sure to put a blank line between each paragraph.

See you next week!