Professor:

Office:

Office hours:

Phone:

E-mail:

Web page:

Paul Steege

STAUG 428

M 10-11:30am, W 1-2:30pm, or by appointment

9-6963

paul.steege@villanova.edu

http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/paul.steege/

Course

Objectives:

This course is the first half of a two-semester research seminar.  During the first semester, students will explore the methodological and historiographical issues connected to the study of the history of everyday life.  In the second semester, students will make use of this approach to craft an article-length research paper substantially based on primary sources.

Required

Materials:

*Braudel, Fernand.  Civilization and Capitalism, 15^th-18^th Century, vol. 1, The Structure of Everyday Life.  Trans. Siân Reynold.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1992.

Crew, David, ed.  Nazism and German Society 1933-1945.  London and New York:  Routledge, 1994.

*Davis, Belinda J.  Home fires burning: food, politics, and everyday life in World War I Berlin.  Chapel Hill and London:  University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Ginzburg, Carlo.  The cheese and the worms: the cosmos of a sixteenth-century miller.  Trans. John and Anne Tedeschi.  Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Harootunian, Harry.  History’s disquiet: modernity, cultural practice, and the question of everyday life.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 2002.

Iggers, Georg.  Historiography in the twentieth century: from scientific objectivity to the postmodern challenge.  Hanover and London:  Wesleyen University Press, 1996.

Lüdtke, Alf, ed.  The history of everyday life: reconstructing historical experiences and ways of life.  Trans. William Templer.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1995.

Peukert, Detlev J. K.  Inside Nazi Germany: conformity, opposition, and racism in everyday life.  Trans. Richard Deveson.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

*Thompson, E. P.  Customs in common: studies in traditional popular culture.  New York:  The New Press, 1993.

The above books are available for purchase in the Villanova University Shop in Kennedy Hall.  Starred (*) books will not be read in their entirety, although the scope of assigned material (200+ pages) means that purchasing these books might be helpful.  As much as possible, I will place copies of all books on reserve in Falvey Library.  Additional readings will be available on reserve as indicated in the schedule below.

Assignments

and Grading:

(10%) Class presentation:  Each student will introduce one of the readings for discussion.  This should take the form of a brief (5-10minute) assessment of the text’s argument and the questions/thoughts that it provoked.  DO NOT summarize the text!  Everyone will have read it.  These initial remarks should serve as the starting point for the class discussion.  Students will have the opportunity to sign up for presentations during the first class session, and I will provide some further guidelines on-line.

Click here for the presentation schedule.

(30%) 2 Discussion papers/brief reviews (3-4pp.):  Prepare a brief review of the assigned reading for two separate class sessions.  It is due at the beginning of class on the date for which the reading is assigned.  Each review should assess the argument that the book’s/article’s author is trying to make and assess the evidence provided to support that argument and discuss this success/failure in the context of the issues being explored in this course.  NOTE:  These reviews may NOT address the reading for which you are making a class presentation.  You must submit at least one of these essays before the midterm break.

For a link to the AHA Perspectives article on writing reviews, click here.

(10%) Annotated bibliography:  This preliminary compilation of literature relevant to your topic is due October 28.  It should be much more than a list assembled from the library’s online catalog of titles that might bear on your topic.  In addition to providing complete bibliographic information about each book/article, you must provide a few sentences of analysis that discuss the source and suggest what it could contribute to your project.

(50%) Literature Review and paper proposal (12-15pp.) on a topic of your choice:  This review essay should assess the state of the literature on a topic of your choice.  It is due at the beginning of the final class period (December 9).  This paper is conceived as an exercise that will lay the groundwork for a larger research paper.  This is a very short piece of writing and must be very precise and focused.  It should clearly elaborate the critical questions, which are open in the particular topic you plan to explore.  Having laid this foundation, you should sketch out your plan to address one or more of these issues, describing both your theoretical approach and the sources you plan to utilize to achieve this.

NOTE:  Late papers and missed assignments are simply unacceptable.  Late work will receive a failing grade.  Should some emergency require an extension, you must contact me before the scheduled due date.

Participation:  Regular, engaged participation in class discussions is simply assumed.  This does not mean that I anticipate that you will all have “the answer.”  A graduate seminar is a collaborative undertaking, in which we propose, examine, and critique ideas.  While our discussions must retain respect for each other and our divergent opinions, they will also allow for (and demand) rigorous, critical examination of what people have to say.

High quality participation will have a significant, positive impact on borderline grades.  In the same way, the failure to participate will negatively impact borderline grades.  Ultimately, the seminar’s success depends on your commitment and engagement.

Academic

Integrity:

Plagiarism or cheating on any coursework will not be tolerated.  Any case of academic fraud (copying of another student’s work, failure to acknowledge sources, etc.) will automatically result in a failing grade for the course.  If you have any questions about documenting sources or what constitutes academic fraud, please speak to me.

Citations:  All citations must be made as footnotes according to the guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style.  No other style will be accepted.

Disabilities:

Students with disabilities who may need academic accommodations are encouraged to discuss options with me after class or during my office hours during the first two weeks of class.

One final note:  This syllabus makes every effort to be thorough and complete.  However, it remains a flexible document.  Based on the course of our discussions, it may be necessary to alter the schedule and/or assignments slightly.  Please bear that in mind.  For those who might be interested, I will add a variety of suggested (optional) readings to the on-line version of the syllabus.  At any point, if you have any questions about any aspect of the course, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Class/Reading Schedule

Unless otherwise indicated, you are to read the entire book.  Read materials prior to the class for which they are assigned.  Bring your book to class.

Mon., Aug. 26

Introduction

Mon., Sept. 2

NO CLASS—LABOR DAY

Mon., Sept. 9

The historiographical context
Iggers
Follow-up:  New York Times article on the place of scientific methods in the humanities/social sciences.

Mon., Sept. 16

The longue durée
Braudel, introduction and ch. 1-3

Mon., Sept. 23

Popular Culture and Custom
Thompson, introduction and ch. 4-6
Optional reading:  E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class [on reserve in Falvey Library]

Mon., Sept. 30

Microhistory
Ginzburg
Optional reading:  Giovanni Levi, "On Microhistory," in Peter Burke, ed., New Perspectives on Historical Writing and
Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, Microhistory and the Lost People of Europe: Selections from Quaderni Storici [both on reserve in Falvey Library].

Mon., Oct. 7

Historical Anthropology

Lüdtke, pp. 41-71

Clifford Geertz, ch. 1-4 of Works and lives: the anthropologist as author [on reserve in Falvey Library]

Possible film:  Berlin-symphony of a great city (1927)

Last date to hand in first review essay

Oct. 14-18

FALL BREAK

Mon., Oct. 21

Alltagsgeschichte

Geoff Eley, “Labor History, Social History, Alltagsgeschichte: Experience, Culture, and the Politics of the Everyday -- a New Direction for German Social History?” Journal of Modern History 61, no. 2 (1989): 297-343.

Lüdtke, pp. 1-40, 72-197

Mon., Oct. 28

Telling a “working class” story
Lüdtke, pp. 198-311

Jürgen Kocka, "Problems of Working-Class Formation in Germany: The Early Years 1800-1875," in Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth-Century Patterns in Western Europe and the Unied States, ed. Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1986), 279-351 [On reserve in Falvey Library].

OPTIONAL:  Kathleen Canning, "Gender and the Politics of Class Formation: Rethinking German Labor History," AHR 97, no. 3 (June 1992), 736-768.

Annotated bibliography due

Mon., Nov. 4

Integrating everyday life and the state
Belinda Davis

Mon., Nov. 11

Theorizing the everyday
Harootunian

Mon., Nov. 18

Everyday Life in Nazi Germany I
Peukert

Mon., Nov. 25

Everyday Life in Nazi Germany II
Crew

Nov. 27-29

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Mon., Dec. 2

Critiquing an Alltagsgeschichte of Nazi Germany

Robert Braun , “The Holocaust and Problems of Historical Representation,” History and Theory 33, no. 2. (May, 1994), pp. 172-197.

Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: problems and perspectives of interpretation, 4^th ed. (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), ch. 8-10 [on reserve].

Broszat and Saul Friedländer, ‘A Controversy about the Historicisation of National Socialism’, in New German Critique, 44 (1988) p. 109 [on reserve].

Saul Friedländer, ‘Some Reflections on the Historicisation of National Socialism’, in Peter Baldwin (ed), Reworking the Past. Hitler p. 88-101.

Hans-Ulrich Wehler interview

Conference report: Remapping the German Past: Grand Narrative, Causality, and Postmodernism

H-Net discussion threads

Additional readings TBA.

Mon., Dec. 9

Final discussion

Literature review/paper proposal due