History 681—Topics in European History: Problems with Historical Texts
Professor William A. Percy, III Spring 2007
Class Meeting Times:Tuesday and Thursday, 7:00-8:17PM
Class Location:
Office Hours:Tuesday and Thursday, 3:55-5:25PM, or by appointment
Office Location:McCormack, 4th Floor, Room 634
Office Phone:617-287-6879
Home Phone:617-262-2101 (7:00AM-1:00PM MWF; emergency only)
E-Mail / Website: / <
Course Description & Method
Because semesters last from 13 to 15 weeks, textbooks normally divide each of the two volumes for a year's course of U.S. or Western history into 13 to 15 chapters. For this course, each student will pick one Western Civilization text and one U.S. History text for the first half of each course (age and edition do not matter and you can find cheap, used ones), and report on each Tuesday for each chapter of the U.S. text and on each Thursday for each chapter of the Western Civ text for 3 minutes each. In the first and second classes, each student will choose his or her U.S. and Western Civ text. No two may do the same edition and preferably most will not do different editions of the same text.
Their task will be to report what the text says about each group affected by affirmative action (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native American Indians, Eskimos, South Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans, and women), which began as an executive order subsequently upheld by the courts, and LGBTQ persons (gays and lesbians are protected by a little-enforced 1990 Massachusetts statue against discrimination in housing and in the workplace). Since the 1970s, as a result of the civil rights and women's rights pioneering movements the courts have introduced and expanded the concept of affirmative action and consequently of suspect groups (those suspected of having been discriminated against) and quasi-suspect groups such as females. In addition to affirmative action, Congress has passed the Americans with Disability Act, thus adding another group to the mix. If a member of any these federally-protected (except LGBTQs) groups complains of discrimination, then the burden of proof that they have not been falls on the defendant.
Textbook writers have been slower than the courts to take action, but by the 1980s some began (under intense pressure from the aforementioned groups) to include more examples of them. Insertions have been irregular and not always effective. Also they have interrupted the often little adjusted narrative and have often resulted in making texts too long, as well as poorly organized. Sometimes extremely important dead white males have been omitted to make room for the newcomers. For example, a U.S. History text included the first female pilot but not the Wright brothers.
This course will try to assess how much such groups were ignored earlier and how much has been added, if any, in more recent texts or in the more recent editions of older texts (they are normally revised every 3 to 5 years, though one still in use was first published in 1941!) to gain adoption in such key states as California and Texas. We will also look at the shift from the old-fashioned, traditional emphasis on political, constitutional, diplomatic, and military affairs to the mid-20th-century forays into social, intellectual, and economic matters (best exemplified in U.S. History by the pioneer Charles Beard), as well as to the late 20th-century reactions of texts to affirmative action.
Note: Advanced undergraduate students are eligible to enroll in the course but must seek permission from the instructor.
Grading
Students will be graded on their weekly U.S. and Western Civ class reports. In addition, students will write an approximately 20-page term paper (double-spaced). Read Strunk and White’s Elements of Style (in 78 brief and witty pages) to improve your writing. A version of the book can be found online at < There will not be a final exam. The final grade will be based on the class reports, the term paper, and extra credit for notable contributions in class, including looking up disputed points or facts arising during discussion.
About Me
I am a Southerner; an Episcopal atheist; a former Republican; a capitalist; a refugee from the Ku Klux Klan, the Southern Baptists, and other members of the fundamentalist Protestant right; and a gay activist. I am also the senior professor of history at UMB. I attended nine universities and have taught in nine. I have published 5 books, 10 articles, 100 notes (short articles), and 100 book reviews. From me you will gain a different perspective. On this overly-sensitive campus, I am diversity itself: a semi-expired white male of the old school.
Texts
Disseminating scholarship on the printed page in the twenty-first century is analogous to publishing it on manuscripts during the sixteenth century. The Internet is now no longer like Cunabula (books printed before 1500)—rare commodities even then. It is in fact now rapidly displacing print on paper. Look at what Wikipedia is doing to the Encyclopædia Britannica! Printed dictionaries and bibliographies likewise are becoming obsolete because their online counterparts are so easy to update. Expenses, delays, and storage problems are also forcing scholarly journals to go online. Why not monographs (which sell too few copies to be cost-effective), syntheses, and textbooks, as well?
Any edition of the U.S. History and Western Civ textbooks is suitable for this course. They can be found, at great discount, online on Amazon, (see used prices for each book), Ebay, and half.ebay.com. In addition, all editions (including those from 60 years ago) of The Encyclopedia of World History, whether by William L. Langer or Peter N. Stearns, are highly recommended.
Useful Links on the Internet
- The Online Library of Liberty: <oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/index.php>
- The Encyclopedia of World History by Peter N. Stearns:
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition: <encyclopedia.jrank.org>
- Elements of Style: <
Contact Policy
Although I have provided my e-mail address and home telephone number, please e-mail or call me only if you have an urgent matter to discuss with me (MWF 7AM-1PM). Understand that if you e-mail me, it may take me several days to see your e-mail as I am computer illiterate and must rely on others to access my e-mail. Therefore, call me in case of an emergency. There is, however, no need for you to e-mail or call me to let me know that you will miss or have missed a class. I fully understand that events out of your control will arise from time to time and may cause the occasional absence. So explanations are unnecessary. If you would like to find out what you missed in class while you were absent, ask a classmate.
Class # / Date / Lecture Topics / Readings1 / 30 Jan / Introduction to U.S. & Western Civ Textbooks
2 / 1 Feb / Age of Exploration / U.S. History
UMB / 5 Feb / Add/Drop Deadline
3 / 6Feb / RiverValley Civilizations / Western Civilization
4 / 8 Feb / American Settlements
5 / 13 Feb / Empires & Small Kingdoms
6 / 15 Feb / Sectional Patterns in the Colonies
7 / 20 Feb / Greece Through the Classical Period
8 / 22 Feb / Colonies Mature
9 / 27 Feb / Hellenistic Age
10 / 1 Mar / American Revolution & the Continental Congress
11 / 6Mar / RomanRepublic
12 / 8 Mar / Articles of Confederation & U.S. Constitution
13 / 13 Mar / Roman Empire
14 / 15 Mar / Early Republic: From Washington to Jefferson
17-25 March / SPRING BREAK!
15 / 27 Mar / Christianity vs. German and Arab Invaders
16 / 29 Mar / War of 1812 & Era of Good Feeling
17 / 3 Apr / Carolingians & Feudalism
18 / 5 Apr / Industrial Revolution & National Bank
19 / 10 Apr / Revival of Europe
20 / 12 Apr / Jacksonian Democracy & Trail of Tears Pass/Fail/Withdrawal Deadline
21 / 17 Apr / High Middle Ages
22 / 19 Apr / Education, Religious Revival, & Asylums
23 / 24 Apr / Age of Adversity
24 / 26 Apr / Slavery & CottonKingdom
25 / 1 May / Renaissance & Exploration
26 / 3 May / Manifest Destiny: Oregon & Mexican-American War
27 / 8 May / Reformation & Counter-Reformation
28 / 10 May / Toward Civil War: Tariffs & Abolitionists
29 / 15 May / Wars of Religion & Absolutism
21-25 May / FINALS WEEK