COURSE SUMMARY

Overview

History 498 is a research colloquium designed as a capstone course for majors in History (although non-majors are welcome, too).  It focuses on a single theme or topic, and emphasizes the reading, research, thinking, and writing skills that are central to the study of history.  Students are expected to undertake substantial individual projects, including the writing and rewriting of research papers based in primary sources.  Final papers ought to be around 20-25 double-spaced pages of text.

HIST 498A for Summer Quarter of 2008 will examine specific aspects of the experiences of modern Washington State as it participated in global conflict during World War Two and the early Cold War.  During the first four weeks we will gain contextual information on the Pacific Northwest during World War Two and the Cold War, read and discuss two common books, and learn about Library resources.  During this time, students should work to identify topics on which they would be interested in conducting research and writing papers.  The last five weeks of the quarter will be devoted to refining the topics, in consultation with other students and the instructor; conducting research; drafting papers; giving one another feedback on rough drafts; and writing final papers.  Students will be evaluated on all aspects of their work in the course (discussions, writing assignments), with the final research paper counting for the bulk of the grade.  As a way of focusing our efforts, I ask that the papers address either the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during World War Two, or the emergence and influence of the Hanford Engineer Works (later, the Hanford Works), which produced plutonium for U.S. nuclear weapons programs.  Students are welcome to define these topics broadly.

Goals of the Course

HIST 498A aims to introduce students to the research and writing that historians do and the materials with which they do it.  Its aim is to familiarize students with the general experience of how Washington State went to war between 1940 and 1960, and then have them become specialists on specific aspects of that topic through their own research and writing projects on either the incarceration of people of Japanese descent or the emergence of Hanford.  To do this work successfully, students need to examine and critique the interpretations offered by the extant scholarship; define their own research topics; propose and refine their own interpretations of the subject matter; do a substantial amount of research in primary sources; think critically about evidence and interpretations; and write and rewrite their papers. In-class discussions—including critiquing one another’s drafts—will help achieve these goals, and so will one short writing assignment during the first few weeks.

Although HIST 498A focuses on one topic and is organized around a research paper, it requires many of the same skills one would use in any history course, and in many courses in the humanities and social sciences.  Students are expected to read and think critically about the past, and to write about and discuss primary sources and secondary works thoughtfully and carefully.  Another major goal of HIST 498A, then, is to improve students’ abilities to read and think critically, and to write about and discuss history thoughtfully and precisely.  As in all History courses, still another goal is to improve students’ abilities to think historically—about the impact of war on Washington and its peoples, and perhaps about the impact of war on other societies.  Historical thinking entails the recognition of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty in human affairs; the development of a critical—and often skeptical—attitude toward sources of information; and the understanding that events occur sequentially and that the sequence matters.  Historical thinking also requires that one try to understand the past from the different points of view of people living at that time, and to recognize that those points of view usually differ from our own.  Students will be expected to demonstrate historical thinking in their writing and in discussions.

Finally, HIST 498H aspires to improve students’ ability to think conceptually.  Coming to terms with the past requires that one impose some intellectual order on the numerous, diverse, sometimes chaotic facts from previous times, to make connections between different trends and events and persons and viewpoints.  By working carefully with concepts, we can identify patterns in historical development, and link different events and trends together.  In HIST 498A, for example, conceptual thinking might help us discern the enormous growth of federal power over Washington state between 1940-1960, or it could help us detect how people the Evergreen State enjoyed increasing success at persuading federal authorities to do Washington’s bidding.  Conceptual thinking, in other words, permits us to pull together selectively a variety of issues, sources, and events into explanations of the past.  Students are expected to demonstrate conceptual thinking in papers and discussion.

Students are required to read and discuss together two books—Alice Yang Murray, ed., What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? and S.L. Sanger, Working on the Bomb:  An Oral History of WWII Hanford.  They are available for purchase in the University Book Store, and the Sanger book is available in Special Collections.  For their papers, students will consult secondary works and primary sources.  The University of Washington Library has tremendous holdings on our subjects.  On-line resources are also growing daily.  See, for instance, the Denshō Website concerning the incarceration of people of Japanese descent, and the Hanford Declassified Document Retrieval System Website for digitized materials concerning Hanford.

I. June 25 

Introduction to course; lecture on the Pacific Northwest during World War Two

II.  July 2 

Discuss Alice Yang Murray, ed., What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? (Boston:  Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000), entire.

Assignment 1:  At the start of class, submit a one-page paper answering this question:  How and why did historical accounts of “internment” change over time during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s?

III.  July 9

Meet with UW librarians

IV.  July 16 

Discuss S.L. Sanger, Working on the Bomb:  An Oral History of WWII Hanford (Portland:  Continuing Education Press, Portland State University, 1995), entire.  One key question is the reliability of oral history as a source of information.

V.  July 23

No class meeting (professor available for consultation)

VI.  July 30

Discuss research projects

Assignment 2:  Give a brief oral presentation summarizing your project (key questions, historiographical issues, primary sources and their problems) and receive feedback.

VII.  August 6

No class meeting (professor available for consultation)

Assignment 3:  Rough drafts due by 12:00 noon on Friday August 8, to be circulated and discussed in small groups the week of August 11-15.

VIII.  August 11-15

Class meetings schedule to discuss rough drafts, to be determined.

IX.  August 20

Final class meeting

Assignment 4:  Final drafts due by 12:00 noon on Friday August 22.

GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS

            Assignment 1 is a short "response paper" to Murray, ed., What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean?.  It should be no longer than one side of one sheet of paper (although you may use a small font, single-spaced text, and narrow margins).  The aim is to explain why historians' accounts changed over time—in areas of focus, types of sources, topics selected, tone and terminology, and so on.  Note that selections in the book are not necessarily presented in chronological order.  The paper is worth 7.5% of the course grade.

            Assignment 2 is an oral presentation depicting your project to others in HIST 498A.  Among other things, you ought to identify the key questions being asked, explain how your topic relates to what other historians have found and said, and discuss both the kinds of primary sources on which you are relying and the problems you foresee in using them.  This will be graded on a Satisfactory/Non-Satisfactory basis, with Satisfactory meaning that you get the equivalent of a 4.0 for the assignment.  The presentation is worth 7.5% of the course grade.

            Assignment 3 is a rough draft of your research paper, submitted for discussion in small groups the week of August 11-15.  The essay will likely not be complete at this stage (you might aim for having it two-thirds done), but readers ought to get from this draft a clear sense of the argument, a comprehensive look at the kinds of evidence you are using (including a satisfactory system of footnotes), and relatively polished prose.  The rough draft will not be graded in and of itself, unless it is either late or never submitted.  If the rough draft is late, there will be an appropriate deduction from the grade of your final essay.  Failure to submit a rough draft means you will not pass the course.

            Assignment 4 is the final draft of your research paper.  The final essay is worth 70% of the course grade.

            Discussion is another required element in the grading for HIST 498A.  Students are expected to attend the class regularly, to prepare by completing the reading assignments on time, and to participate in an informed and thoughtful fashion in discussion.  Responding to one another's rough drafts during Week VIII counts as part of the discussion grade.  Discussion is worth 15% of the course grade.

Assignment 1 (short paper)                   =   7.5% of course grade

Assignment 2 (oral presentation)           =   7.5% of course grade

Assignment 3 (rough draft)

Assignment 4 (final draft)                      =   70%  of course grade

Discussion                                            = _15%_ of course grade

                                                                100%

•   Students must complete all assignments in HIST 498A in order to pass the course. 

•   Late work will be penalized at a rate of 0.4 per day (for instance, a paper that is five days late would be penalized by a total of 2.0 grade points, so that a B paper would become a D, falling from 3.0 to 1.0).  Exceptions can be made for illness or other urgent circumstances—consult with the professor.

•   University policies regarding plagiarism will be strictly observed.