HISTORY 7101
Historical Biography
Instructor: Dr. Charles T. Johnson Class Meeting: Tuesdays 5-7:45
Office: 202 Ashley Hall Office Hours: Tuesday 3-4:30
Phone: 333-5947 Email: ctjohnso@valdosta.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Let us contemplate the following as we journey through this course:
"We are always coming up with
the emphatic facts of history in our private experience and verifying them
here. All history becomes subjective,
in other words, there is properly no history, only biography."
Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1841)
"Biographies are but the
clothes and buttons of the man--the biography of the man himself cannot be
written."
Mark Twain (1924)
TEXTBOOKS
Brands, H.W. T.R.: The Last Romantic. Basic Books, 1998.
Malcolm X & Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books, 1992
Roosevelt, Eleanor. The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Da Capo Press, 2000 (reprint)
Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. Harper-Collins, 1992.
Trefousse, Hans. Carl Schurz: A Biography
Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. Ballantine Books, 1999.
EVALUATION
Your final grade will be determined by the following factors. In order to be eligible to pass this course you must complete ALL assignments. Failure to do so will result in a failing grade for the course.
600pts. Book Review Essays
100pts. Final
Project
50pts. Oral Presentation
200pts. Class Participation
Assignments are due on the date listed. Under no circumstances will late work be accepted. This includes computer problems or conflicts
with work. Poor time management is also
not an acceptable excuse for late work.
Papers turned in outside of class or late will receive a CR, but no
points will be assigned.
Students are expected to arrive
to class on time. Tardiness will result
in a 10 point deduction for each incident.
A deduction of 30 points will be made for each absence.
Participation does not mean just
merely showing up an occupying a chair.
You must contribute--on a regular basis--to the class discussion. This is a seminar. For it to work properly you must come to class prepared and ready
to offer your insights and observations to the class.
COURSE CALENDAR
Week One: 8/16 to 8/18 (Wed-Fri)
Week Two: 8/21 to 8/25
Introduction--The Art of Biography
Week Three: 8/28 to 9/1
Elizabeth I
Essay Due
Week Four: 9/4 to 9/8
No
Class Meeting
Week Five: 9/11 to 9/15
Edgar
A. Poe
Essay Due
Week Six: 9/18 to 9/22
No Class Meeting
Week Seven: 9/25 to 9/29
Carl Schurz
Essay Due
Week Eight: 10/2 to 10/6
No Class Meeting
Week Nine: 10/9 to 10/13
T.R.: The Last Romantic
Essay
Due
Week Ten: 10/ 16 to 10/20
No Class Meeting
Week Eleven: 10/23 to 10/27
Autobiography
of Eleanor Roosevelt
Essay Due
Week Twelve: 10/30 to 11/3
No Class Meeting
Week Thirteen: 11/ 6 to 11/10
Autobiography
of Malcolm X
Essay Due
Week Fourteen: 11/13 to 11/17
No
Class Meeting
Week Fifteen: 11/20 to 11/24
Thanksgiving Holiday
Week Sixteen: 11/27 to 12/1
FINAL
PROJECTS
Oral Presentations
Interpretive Essay Due
Week Seventeen: 12/4 to 12/6 (Monday to Wednesday)
FINAL PROJECTS
Oral Presentations
STRUCTURAL
GUIDELINES FOR ALL PAPERS
All papers must
adhere to the following structural guidelines.
Five points (for each violation) will be deducted from the final paper
for not following these simple rules:
1.
All papers must
have a cover sheet with the title centered and the author’s name underneath.
2.
Papers must be
stapled in the upper left-hand corner.
3.
All papers must
have margins of: 1 ½” Left and 1”
Right, Top and Bottom
4.
Use either
Times New Roman 12pt., CG Times 12pt., or Courier 12pt. Do not use italic print except when giving
the title of a book.
5.
You may use
either footnotes or endnotes. In either
case all citations MUST adhere to the examples given in the Chicago Manual of Style. Parenthetical notes (notes within the body
of a paper) are not acceptable and points will be deducted for their
usage.
6.
Use quotations
only when necessary. Excessive use of
quotes suggests to me that you have not mastered your material. If you do use them, follow the guidelines in
the Chicago Manual of Style. As a general rule if the quotation is longer
than 2 ½ lines it should be offset as a block quotation.
7.
In grading your
papers I will also deduct points for the following:
8.
Plagiarizing ist verboten! At
the first sign of plagiarism the student will receive an automatic “F” for the
course. I have attached a copy of the
History Department policy on plagiarism for you to read.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS
Listed below are the instructions for your book review essays. The length of your review should be a MINIMUM of six pages. It must also adhere to the basic structural guidelines which govern the writing of all papers for this class. In writing your essay you should address the following in the order presented:
1. In the first few paragraphs of the paper indicate the general scope and topics covered in the book. Do not give a detailed summary of each chapter.
2. Next comment on the extent and depth of the research, the types of source materials used and the method—traditional or unusual—utilized by the author. Here you can get help by looking at the book’s footnotes/endnotes (if any) and the bibliography. Give examples from the book in explaining your analysis.
3. A work of history is also a piece of literature; and it should be interestingly and skillfully written. Assess the strength and weakness—again, using examples—of this aspect.
4. After reading the book, go back into it and think it through, and find the overall message or thesis of the author. See if you can restate it in a sentence or two. A well-written book will often have a unified theme explicitly stated; but in some books, the theme or interpretation may be only implicit, so that the reader must identify it by careful synthesis and logic.
5. Now evaluate the above interpretation or theme. Is it convincing? Is it supported with adequate evidence? Do conclusions build upon the information, which has been supplied? Though you may feel “unqualified” to make these judgments, you can still evaluate the book based upon your reading of it as a piece of history. Remember that all books have both strengths and weaknesses. If you do not find both then you have not really read and analyzed the book.
6. Now comment on the work as a biography:
· How does the author get you to "know" the subject?
· Is the book just a biography or is there more to it. For example: Is it a history of the period?
· How do you feel about the subject after reading the book?
· What do you feel was the greatest challenge faced by the author in writing about his/her subject?
7. Find three book reviews and comment on what the reviewer thought of the book. Was he/she critical of the work in a positive way? In a negative way? Do you agree with either of the reviewers view commentary on the book? BE SURE TO INCLUDE PHOTOCOPIES OF THE BOOK REVIEW WITH YOUR PAPER.
FINAL PROJECTS AND ORAL PRESENTATION
I will hand out the instruction sheet for the final project and oral presentation during Week Seven.