Category Archives: Announcements

This week’s class

Posted on by

Don’t forget to bring a new chunk of your paper (3 to 7 pages) to class this Wednesday. If possible, I would like for at least part of this chunk to discuss the existing historiography on your topic and show where and to what extent your thesis challenges or extends earlier scholarship.

If you’ve sent me your earlier chunk and I haven’t yet replied, I will get back to you ASAP.

Memoranda

Posted on by

A few quick notes and links:

  1. Bill sent along the news that Fox has cancelled its utopian reality show. As Bill put it on Twitter, "I wonder how Kanter would explain this."
  2. Last week in class, I mentioned an interesting essay I had read on bias in historical sources and what it means to say that a source is "biased." I highly recommend that you read it, especially as you begin writing your papers.
  3. Speaking of your papers, and memoranda in general, don’t forget to bring three to seven pages of your paper to class next week in hard copy form. These do not need to be the first three to seven pages; you can choose a different part of your outline to begin writing from. You should give thought to citation style and the kinds of questions posed on the rubric distributed in class, but the most important thing here is to BEGIN WRITING!

Next Week’s Entry Tickets

Posted on by

As mentioned today in class, you need to bring two things with you to class next Wednesday. We will be spending time working with these in class, so you should consider them your tickets to entry into the discussion.

First, you need to bring an outline of your paper that begins with a thesis paragraph and then offers an outline of how you plan to make your argument. I have posted some sample outlines from a previous class on OWL-Space.

You should also bring your Primary Source Memo to class, as described below:

  1. Three paper copies of one primary source (a source produced during the time and/or by the actors you are researching) that you believe is especially pertinent to your research question. The source can be a document (like a newspaper editorial, speech, or letter) or a different sort of source (like a visual image), but it should fit on one sheet of paper. You can bring more than one source so long as you condense them so that they fit on one side of one sheet of paper.
  2. A "memo" of no more than one typed, single-spaced page, with paragraphs that complete the following sentences to the best of your ability:

The creator of this primary source was …

The primary audience for whom this source was intended at the time was …

This source was created because …

This source is evidence that …

Schedule Change

Posted on by

I’ve decided to make a slight change to the schedule for this week. You should still read the assigned readings for Wednesday, and I will also be putting up a post for you to leave a comment on.

However, the outlines for your papers (which were originally going to be due this week) will instead by due on November 5 at noon. This will allow us to talk about the outlines in class this Wednesday, and will give you a chance to do some more research on your papers before outlining.

Be sure that you are working intensively this week on the feedback you received on your proposals. If you’re unclear on what you should be doing at this stage, please let me know.

Blog Comment Reports

Posted on by

I have read through all the comments that have been posted so far, and sent reports out indicating ways that you might improve your comments. If you did not receive a report from me, you can assume that your current grade on the comments stands at an "A," as defined by the rubric on the assignments page.

I will say, in general, that I noticed two features that consistently appeared in the best comments:

  • Specific citations from the readings that supported specific points.
  • Reflections that pointed back to other readings or class discussions (on "lumping" versus "splitting" and models of influence, for example, or applying one author’s theories to a different reading) while discussing the reading at hand.

If you have further questions about the comments, let me know.

Welcome!

Posted on by

This is the course website for HIST 423, “American Radicals and Reformers,” which will be focusing on utopian communities in the Fall 2014 semester. You can download a PDF version of the syllabus, but you should also make a habit of checking this website for the latest updates about the class. One of your assignments will require regular commenting on posts to this blog.