HISTORICAL THEORY AND METHODS:
THE CONGO FREE STATE
PHILIP WHALEN, COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This seminar provides an introduction to modern historical methods, current theoretical considerations, and practical approaches pertinent to thinking and writing about history. It is designed for history majors who have completed their introductory and foundation coursework and is a prerequisite or co-requisite for all upper-level history courses. Class discussions require active student participation and familiarity with the assigned readings. We will identify and evaluate the merits of each author’s use of evidence, mode of argumentation, polemical and historiographical engagements, narrative strategy, expository style, and theoretical commitments. The course will also guide students through the steps - critical reading, analytic thinking, convincing argumentation, and clear writing - necessary to research and write an upper-level history paper.
Image collaged from The Economist (Feb., 2005) and Tintin au Congo (1931)
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
Acquire familiarity with the uses and limitations of historical comparison as an analytic tool;
Grasp temporal relationships and integrate multiple chronologies within the same analytical frame of reference;
Critically analyze narrative structures and construct narratives; demonstrate an ability to recognize and interpret multiple forms of evidence (visual, oral, statistical, artifacts from material culture); Recognize the distinction between primary and secondary sources, and understand how each are
used to make historical claims about modern history in general and the Congo Free State in particular;
Properly cite sources and documentation; and Learn to write a research paper in history.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES MEASURED
Weekly reading quizzes (worth 30% of the final grade); an annotated bibliography (worth 20% of the final grade); a 4-page comparison of two authors (worth 15% of the final grade; and a final 10 to 12-page (not including bibliography and footnotes) research paper (worth 35% of the final grade)
GRADING SCALE
A= 90-100; B+= 87-89; B= 80-86; C+= 77-79; C= 70-76; D+= 67-69; D= 60 - 66.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Jeffrey T Nealon; Susan Searls Giroux, The Theory Toolbox (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012)
2. John Trimble, Writing with Style (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000) 3. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (New York: Dover, 1990)
4. Reader: “The Congo Free State: Primary and Secondary Sources”
COURSE POLICIES
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Attendanceand class participation are necessary for you to learn; each student should arrive at class on time and remain the entire class period.
GENERAL EXPECTATIONS
To excel in this course, you should expect to do the following:
1. Make leaning your first priority;
4. Attend class each day and turn in all assigned work on time;
5. Constructive and respectful participation is expected of you in class; 6. Construct an annotated bibliography and a final research paper.
MAKE-UP WORK
Students must take all exams and hand in all assignments at the specified times and places. If this is impossible due to extraordinary circumstances, inform me before class and alternative arrangements may be possible (extraordinary circumstances include documented illness, death in the family, or institutional activities as approved by the academic deans (such as playing sports, marching in a school band). Late Essays will lose one letter grade per class.
CLASSROOM DEMEANOR
Refrain from distracting those around you during class discussions or lectures. Behavior that contributes to a negative educational environment will not be tolerated.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS
Class will typically begin with a brief overview lecture of the day’s topic or theme and then turn to the collective close reading of the assigned materials. The following is a schedule of the lecture and discussion topics in the approximate order that we will cover them during our 75-minute encounters. Remember to bring the assigned reading materials to their corresponding class. Your professor retains the right to alter the syllabus and course requirements as deemed necessary for student learning.
Week 1: Wednesday - Method, Theory, and Practice.
Read: Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 503-507; Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “History and National Stupidity,” The New York Review of Books, vol. LIII, no. 7 (April 27, 2006), 14-16; and J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, ch. 1 (“Why Theory”), 1-8.
Week 2: Monday - The Congo Free State: Brief Overview.
Wednesday - The Congo Free State: Brief Historiography.
Read: “King Leopold’s Congo” in Scott Cook, Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism
Week 3: Monday - Subjectivity and Perspective in Historical Analysis Wednesday - Citations, Bibliographies, and Plagiarism.
Read: John Trimble, “Thinking Well,” Writing with Style, 3-12; J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, chs. 3-4 (“Subjectivity” and “Culture”), 35-54; and Ellery Schempp, “Warning: Gravity is only a Theory”
Week 4: Monday - Discuss the Colonial Imagination Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Wednesday - Setting up Quotes and Making Transitions.
Read: John Trimble, “Quoting,” Writing with Style, 133-148, Heinrich Schiffers, “Stanley Tramps Through the Congo,” Quest for Africa (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1957), 196-97, Tippu Tip, “The Leopard,” in William Worger, et. al., Africa and the West (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 2001), 103-04, and start Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (New York: Dover, 1990).
Week 5: Monday - What is Historiography?
Wednesday - Discuss the Uses of Violence in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Read: The Theory Toolbox, ch. 7 and finish Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Week 6: Monday - The Role of Culture in Historical Analysis. Wednesday - Discuss “The Force Public.”
Read: J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, ch. 5 (“Culture”), 51-92; and L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, “The Force Public” in The Rulers of Belgian Africa, 1884-1914 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 52.
Week 7: Monday - The Role of Ideology in Historical Analysis Wednesday - European “Civilizing Missions”
Read: J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, ch. 6 (“Ideology”), 93-106; “The Imperial Mission” in Alice Conklin and Christopher Fletcher (eds.), European Imperialism, 1830-1930 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), 55-96.
Week 8: Monday - Using J-STOR, Project MUSE, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Wednesday - ‘The Congo Free State’: A Matter of Interpretation?
Week 9: Monday - The Use of Irony in Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy.
** Annotated Bibliography Due Today**
Wednesday - Comparing Twain and Conrad as Historical Sources.
Read: Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy (Boston: The P. R. Warren Co., 1905).
Week 10: Monday - The Insider: Discuss Roger Casement.
Wednesday - Historical Analysis as a Discipline and Tradition
Read: J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, ch. 7 (“History”), 107-120; Roger Casement’s “Letter to the Congo State” in Edmund Morel, King Leopold’s Rule in Africa
(London: William Heinemann, 1904), 390-93; and John Trimble, Writing with Style, “How to Write a Critical Analysis,” 94-98.
Week 11: Monday - The Advocate: Discuss George Williams. ** 4-Page Author Comparison due Today **
Wednesday - Institutional History: Discuss Ruth Slade
Read: George Williams, “An Open Letter to …” in Edmund Morel, King Leopold’s Rule in Africa
(London: William Heinemann, 1904), 390-93 and Ruth Slade, “The Rule of the Congo Independent State” in King Leopold’s Congo (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1961), 171-192.
Week 12: Monday - History for Hire: Discuss Henry Wrack
Wednesday - The Role of Space and Time in Historical Analysis
Read: Henry W. Wrack, “The Suppression of Slavery” and “Appendix” in Story of the Free Congo (NY: Putnam, 1905), 197-205 and 561-618; Jan-Albert Goris, “Belgian Action in Congo,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 270 (Jul., 1950): 126-132; and J. Nealon and S. Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, ch. 8 (“Space and Time”), 121-138.
Week 13: Monday - History Revisited: Discuss E. D. Morel
Wednesday - Organizing Footnotes, Bibliography, Format, and a Conclusion
Read: William Storey, “Writing History Faithfully,” Writing History (Oxford: OUP, 2008), 25-36; and Familiarize yourself with the primary sources provided in Edmund Morel, Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969 [1906]), 43-79.
Wednesday - Discuss Hochschild: Biography, Journalism or History
Read: Johannes Fabian, “Presence and Representation” in Out of our Minds (Berkley: University of California Press, 2000), 240-270 and Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa” in Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 1-20.
Week 15: Monday - The Congo after Leopold
Read: Michela Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (NY: Harper Collins, 2001), 63-85. **Final research papers are due at the scheduled final exam**
ESSAY FORMAT
All essays are to be typewritten and be formatted accordingly: 1-inch margins all around; 1 1/2 spaced, provide footnotes, use Palatino 11; Courier 10; or Times 12. You are responsible for the mechanical and organizational aspects of your essays. Remember to put your name, course number, and section number on your work.
THE UNIVERSITY POLICY ON
PLAGIARISM
APPLIES
Plagiarism is the use of another’s work and the presentation of it as one’s own. Plagiarism is a serious violation of the ethics of scholarship and undermines the credibility of academic inquiry. Plagiarism takes many forms. The clearest abuse is the use of another's language or written work without quotation marks and citation (even if it is in one's own words). Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to: any limited borrowing, without attribution, of another person's research findings, hypotheses, data, theories, rhetorical strategies, interpretations; the submission of laboratory reports, research papers, computer programs, etc., not authored by the student; and the submission of material copied from any published source without attribution (including the Internet). More subtle abuses include the appropriation of concepts, data, or notes all disguised in newly crafted sentences, or reference to a borrowed work in an early note and then extensive further use without attribution. Note that the resubmission of a student’s previously submitted laboratory reports, research papers, computer programs, etc., without the instructor’s approval constitutes cheating.
THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
After your topic has been defined and before you begin serious reading, you should first prepare a Working Bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Compile a Working Bibliography by following these steps:
facts, events, names, along with questions that occur to you. Scan the author's notes and bibliography; write down the titles that appear useful.
B. Using your list of facts, events, names, etc. and your bibliographic entries, go to the library. Locate each book or article and skim it. Then, ask yourself: Does this source help me with my topic? If so, write a brief annotation summarizing the content of the source, its bibliographic citation, and indicate what it will contribute to your research.
C. When you have completed your search and have located the required primary (at least 10) and secondary sources, prepare your working annotated bibliography. It should include at least 10 primary sources (produced during the period under consideration) and 10 secondary sources (scholarly books and articles in scholarly journals (like The American Historical Review or The Journal of Modern History
found via internet resources such as: J-STOR, Science Direct, Google Scholar, or Project Muse.
For a sample research paper with citations, consider: Penny Sonnenburg, “Sample Student Research Paper,” in Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing about History (New York: Longman, 2007), 109-135.
Format for Footnotes (using the Chicago Manual of Style) in Final Paper:
A book: Philip Whalen, Gaston Roupnel: âme paysanne et sciences humaines (Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, 2001).
An edited book: Philip Daileader and Philip Whalen (eds.), French Historians, 1900-2000: New Historical Writing in Twentieth-Century France (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
An article in a journal: Philip Whalen, “From ‘bat-filled slimy ruins’ to ‘gastronomic delights’: Mapping Tourist Itineraries in Early Twentieth-Century Burgundy,” Environment, Space, Place
3.1 (2011): 99-139.
An article from the Internet: Philip Whalen, “Burgundian Regionalism and French Republican Commercial Culture at the 1937 Paris International Exposition,” Cultural Analysis 6 (2007): 31-62, <http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/volume6/vol6_article2.html> (last accessed on 9/1/12).
A chapter in a book: Philip Whalen, “‘Food palaces built of sausages [and] great ships of lamb chops,’” in Jan Davidson and Philip Scranton, eds., The Business of Tourism (PA: University of Penn. Press, 2006), 56-82.
FINAL RESEARCH ESSAYS
You should limit your analysis to one theme – such as the nature and extent of colonial violence, the organization and goals of colonial administration(s), the ideological content of European “civilizing missions,” or another topic selected in consultation with me – that will best allow you to discuss all the authors listed above. Also identify and discuss how each author handles the concepts of authority, ideology, subjectivity, culture, history, space/time/ and difference. These are discussed in the Theory Toolbox.
Papers are due on the last day of scheduled class. Late papers will lose 5 points per calendar day. When editing your writing, focus on the following five objectives: set the right tone; make it easy to read; cut out unnecessary language; conform to common-sense rules of grammar; and cite your sources to be fair.
ESSAY GRADING
A: This paper is insightful. It addresses the assignment in a way that indicates your comprehension of and control over the assignment itself as well as an understanding of the underlying issues and information. The message is communicated clearly, concisely, and directly. There is confidence in this writing.
B: This paper meets and, at times, exceeds the basic requirements of the assignment. The paper indicates that you are beginning, at times, to think through and deal with major ideas in the assignment. The message is communicated with generally effective clarity, directness, and conciseness. Some
unevenness in writing may be apparent.
C: While the paper offers little insight into the greater issues of the assignment, it meets the basic requirements. The message, for the most part, is reasonably clear, concise, and direct, although there may be unevenness in the writing.
D: The basic requirements of the assignment are partially met; however, additional revision is necessary if you are to communicate the message clearly. There is considerable unevenness in the writing.
F: The assignment’s basic requirements are met only marginally or are not met at all. The writing is neither clear, concise, nor direct.
