I recently got back in touch with a very good friend of mine from high school. We used to work at the local Market Basket. Good times. He is now a PhD student working on his dissertation and was recently published. I am very proud of him! I have not read the article yet but thought I would share it with you. Some of you mentioned interest in environmental history.
http://envhis.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/07/07/envhis.emq058.full.pdf?ijkey=rxcaOxvzTvt4PQa&keytype=ref
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Westerns Worth Watching
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Stagecoach (1939)
Dodge City (1939)
Jesse James (1939)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Red River (1948)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Gunfighter (1950)
Winchester ‘73 (1950)
Rio Grande (1950)
High Noon (1952)
Shane (1953)
Vera Cruz (1954)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
The Searchers (1956)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Ride the High Country (1962)
McLintock (1963)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Little Big Man (1970)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Three Amigos (1986)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
City Slickers (1991)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
Tombstone (1993)
Maverick (1994)
Dead Man (1995)
Lone Star (1996)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
3:20 to Yuma (2007)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Anthropolgy of YouTube Link
This is the link I mentioned a few weeks back. I dreaded having to watch it but found it extremely interesting. It is worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU
Monday, October 25, 2010
Online Resources for Creative Nonfiction
Defining it, discussing how to write it, warning what not to do when attempting to write interesting, true feature stories.
A University of Idaho definition of creative non-fiction and guidelines for writing it.
A collection of online research sources for historical storytelling.
A master writer of literary nonfiction on how to write it.
A warning about getting TOO creative, quoted below, but found here:
Writers are warned to not be too creative with weaving their stories, however. If you add characters, dialogue, invent scenes and alter facts, you moved to the realm of historical fiction, a noble genre but still, fiction.
Reynolds cautions writers to be wary of being too creative. "The author who does not treat the genre with respect can easily convey erroneous impressions. Creative nonfiction requires even more careful research than straight exposition, as so much more information is being conveyed. It is the small details that the creative writer adds that bring texture and drama to an event, but it is not come by easily."
"If characters are added, scenes are imagined, dialogue is invented, this is now a fictional story based on real events, and as a reader, I want to know what actually happened and what may have happened," says O'Malley. "For me the cardinal rule is, 'Never lie: If you made up some of the elements, bring your reader into that process: Use an author's note to explain clearly what, why, and where,"
According to Yoder, “The problems that writers run into is when style overcomes everything else—and the story or theme suffers. You've painted a beautiful picture, but there's no real substance. This is especially true with history writing. Context and background suffer and the reader has no firm grounding,"
"One of the hardest things for many writers to do," says Simonsen, "seems to be getting the emotional aspects of a nonfiction topic across successfully. I've noticed that many authors try to carry the emotion with anthropomorphism or an abundance of exclamation points, rather than building the story in such a way that the natural drama of it comes through. Sometimes, the descriptive language is not as strong as it could be. I've found that nonfiction authors are more likely to use a simple, somewhat familiar description rather than searching for a more evocative, unique way of saying the same thing."
Yoder adds, "Creative nonfiction lets the author come out. I want to see the author. I want to follow where the author is leading me. So many times with history writing, the author feels that he or she has to be quiet, has to rely on the facts. The great history writer analyzes the facts, picks the rich anecdotes and details, and paints a picture. That's why I always ask authors to rely on the best resources, whether primary or secondary. Rich research can only lead to rich writing. It's as simple as that."
A University of Idaho definition of creative non-fiction and guidelines for writing it.
A collection of online research sources for historical storytelling.
A master writer of literary nonfiction on how to write it.
A warning about getting TOO creative, quoted below, but found here:
Writers are warned to not be too creative with weaving their stories, however. If you add characters, dialogue, invent scenes and alter facts, you moved to the realm of historical fiction, a noble genre but still, fiction.
Reynolds cautions writers to be wary of being too creative. "The author who does not treat the genre with respect can easily convey erroneous impressions. Creative nonfiction requires even more careful research than straight exposition, as so much more information is being conveyed. It is the small details that the creative writer adds that bring texture and drama to an event, but it is not come by easily."
"If characters are added, scenes are imagined, dialogue is invented, this is now a fictional story based on real events, and as a reader, I want to know what actually happened and what may have happened," says O'Malley. "For me the cardinal rule is, 'Never lie: If you made up some of the elements, bring your reader into that process: Use an author's note to explain clearly what, why, and where,"
According to Yoder, “The problems that writers run into is when style overcomes everything else—and the story or theme suffers. You've painted a beautiful picture, but there's no real substance. This is especially true with history writing. Context and background suffer and the reader has no firm grounding,"
"One of the hardest things for many writers to do," says Simonsen, "seems to be getting the emotional aspects of a nonfiction topic across successfully. I've noticed that many authors try to carry the emotion with anthropomorphism or an abundance of exclamation points, rather than building the story in such a way that the natural drama of it comes through. Sometimes, the descriptive language is not as strong as it could be. I've found that nonfiction authors are more likely to use a simple, somewhat familiar description rather than searching for a more evocative, unique way of saying the same thing."
Yoder adds, "Creative nonfiction lets the author come out. I want to see the author. I want to follow where the author is leading me. So many times with history writing, the author feels that he or she has to be quiet, has to rely on the facts. The great history writer analyzes the facts, picks the rich anecdotes and details, and paints a picture. That's why I always ask authors to rely on the best resources, whether primary or secondary. Rich research can only lead to rich writing. It's as simple as that."
writing/research software
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
New Yorker pieces written by a professional historian
These are written by Jill Lepore, who has written academically about King Philip's War and slavery in 18th-century Manhattan, among other topics. She started an English major, went into American studies, and is now the chair of History and Literature at Harvard. So she's as academic as you can get - but also is a great example of how historical research training can allow you to comment well on a host of other topics in the non-academic world. Note how these pieces aren't precisely history - they use history to illuminate a interesting topic.
on Tea Parties, Boston and otherwise
On writing about George Washington
On the invention of parenthood
On sex education
On children's literature
on Tea Parties, Boston and otherwise
On writing about George Washington
On the invention of parenthood
On sex education
On children's literature
Non-fiction writing
Historians, perhaps more than many kinds of academics, often find themselves in the role of public intellectual, needing to translate ideas gained from their scholarship to others. Having studied our nation's development and character, historians get asked to lend perspective on current events. Whether this happens in flagship publications or in conversations over a family BBQ, the study of history lends itself to non-academic conversation. You're likely to need to develop your skills communicating your understandings of the world with non-historians; you might even find you enjoy using your skills in this way. Many of us came to history in part because we loved the stories of our past; historians tend to love narrative. This assignment helps you retain your instincts for story - which I can tell from your writing that all of you have - while developing a skill that will increase your professional options after graduate school.
If you are interested in help improving your nonfiction, non-academic writing, I strongly recommend William Zinsser's "On Writing Well," a book that grew out of his experience teaching non-fiction writing at Yale, as well as his work as a journalist and freelance writer. I'm going to quote a couple things from him for you.
"There isn't any "right" way to do such intensely personal work. There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. ... But all [writers] are vulnerable and all of them are tense. They are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don't just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind all the tension. ...[There's a] personal transaction at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth. Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize"the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest strength and the least clutter. Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned."
He then writes the body of his book explaining the principles of good, clear writing. For example, on simplicity:
"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank."
This assignment is likely to make you uneasy precisely because you are people who have spent a lot of time gaining the education that makes you more likely to cloak your writing in caution and big words. Communicating to intelligent but ordinary people isn't what you've been trained to do. We all feel we sound more authoritative when we speak more complexly. Compare Franklin Roosevelt's government's 1942 blackout order to Roosevelt's personal advice:
"Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination."
versus
"Tell them that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows."
The first sounds official. The second we can actually bear to read. You want to communicate your ideas in direct, readable language.
To be readable, to be clear to others,
"Writers must therefore constantly ask: What am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don't know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: Have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it's not, then some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is someone clearheaded enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz. ... Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do."
As you develop your article,
-keep your writing clear and clean. Be sure you're saying what you mean. Be sure you know what you mean to say.
- write so anyone can follow, but write the piece with the energy, details, and humor that please you. You don't want to lose people with poor craftmanship; you do want to develop your own voice, and that's something not everyone will like. You want clear mechanics, and also confident self-expression. But don't drive yourself nuts over this! Your voice - the level of formality, humor, type of examples that seem most important - develops with practice. You will not achieve your final mature voice in this paper. Don't expect to yourself to. But whatever your level of practice, be yourself when you write. Being yourself doesn't mean bad mechanics or sloppy usage; it does mean, after you have good mechanics, choosing the style that suits you.
Zinsser covers style, tone, audience, usage, briefly and with humor, but at too great a length for me to summarize here. But his book is also worthwhile because it has chapters on writing about people, writing about places, writing about sports, technology, business, writing humor, memoir, and criticism. And he ends by telling you that while you need to write and rewrite to develop your skill, you need to remember writing is part entertainment. Use humor, anecdote, paradox, unexpected quotations, powerful facts, outlandish detail, circuitous approaches, elegant arrangement of words...what methods you choose become your style. But choosing an author to read is like choosing a traveling companion, and most of us prefer the person who tries to brighten the journey.
If you are interested in help improving your nonfiction, non-academic writing, I strongly recommend William Zinsser's "On Writing Well," a book that grew out of his experience teaching non-fiction writing at Yale, as well as his work as a journalist and freelance writer. I'm going to quote a couple things from him for you.
"There isn't any "right" way to do such intensely personal work. There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. ... But all [writers] are vulnerable and all of them are tense. They are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don't just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind all the tension. ...[There's a] personal transaction at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth. Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize"the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest strength and the least clutter. Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned."
He then writes the body of his book explaining the principles of good, clear writing. For example, on simplicity:
"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank."
This assignment is likely to make you uneasy precisely because you are people who have spent a lot of time gaining the education that makes you more likely to cloak your writing in caution and big words. Communicating to intelligent but ordinary people isn't what you've been trained to do. We all feel we sound more authoritative when we speak more complexly. Compare Franklin Roosevelt's government's 1942 blackout order to Roosevelt's personal advice:
"Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination."
versus
"Tell them that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows."
The first sounds official. The second we can actually bear to read. You want to communicate your ideas in direct, readable language.
To be readable, to be clear to others,
"Writers must therefore constantly ask: What am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don't know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: Have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it's not, then some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is someone clearheaded enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz. ... Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do."
As you develop your article,
-keep your writing clear and clean. Be sure you're saying what you mean. Be sure you know what you mean to say.
- write so anyone can follow, but write the piece with the energy, details, and humor that please you. You don't want to lose people with poor craftmanship; you do want to develop your own voice, and that's something not everyone will like. You want clear mechanics, and also confident self-expression. But don't drive yourself nuts over this! Your voice - the level of formality, humor, type of examples that seem most important - develops with practice. You will not achieve your final mature voice in this paper. Don't expect to yourself to. But whatever your level of practice, be yourself when you write. Being yourself doesn't mean bad mechanics or sloppy usage; it does mean, after you have good mechanics, choosing the style that suits you.
Zinsser covers style, tone, audience, usage, briefly and with humor, but at too great a length for me to summarize here. But his book is also worthwhile because it has chapters on writing about people, writing about places, writing about sports, technology, business, writing humor, memoir, and criticism. And he ends by telling you that while you need to write and rewrite to develop your skill, you need to remember writing is part entertainment. Use humor, anecdote, paradox, unexpected quotations, powerful facts, outlandish detail, circuitous approaches, elegant arrangement of words...what methods you choose become your style. But choosing an author to read is like choosing a traveling companion, and most of us prefer the person who tries to brighten the journey.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Schedule
Here's our schedule for the rest of term:
Oct. 18: George and Jane, article presentations; George drinks, Chris B snacks.
Oct. 25: Ben, article; Jeff, drinks and snacks.
Nov. 1: Jeff, article; Shawn drinks, Jane snacks.
Nov. 8: Chris B and Chris F, articles; Chris B drinks, George, snacks. Outlines due.
Nov. 15: Shawn and John, articles; Janine, drinks, Shawn snacks.
Nov. 22: Kaitlin, article; Chris F, drinks and snacks. Paper due.
Nov. 29: Shana article; Ben drinks and snacks.
Dec. 6: Kaitlin, drinks and snacks
Dec. 13: John, drinks, Janine, snacks. Paper due.
Oct. 18: George and Jane, article presentations; George drinks, Chris B snacks.
Oct. 25: Ben, article; Jeff, drinks and snacks.
Nov. 1: Jeff, article; Shawn drinks, Jane snacks.
Nov. 8: Chris B and Chris F, articles; Chris B drinks, George, snacks. Outlines due.
Nov. 15: Shawn and John, articles; Janine, drinks, Shawn snacks.
Nov. 22: Kaitlin, article; Chris F, drinks and snacks. Paper due.
Nov. 29: Shana article; Ben drinks and snacks.
Dec. 6: Kaitlin, drinks and snacks
Dec. 13: John, drinks, Janine, snacks. Paper due.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
New Yorker Article example
Although you can browse around in the reporting and essays section for more examples of the kind of article we're talking about, this week's essay by Malcolm Gladwell uses history to ask questions about modern social activism, Facebook, and Twitter.
Article on Colorado River Drying Up
A seven-state negotiation will decide if Arizona and Nevada get even less of the water still left.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28mead.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28mead.html?_r=1&hp
Monday, September 27, 2010
Article on Mexican Immigration Reactions
George, or anyone interested in SW immigration, there's an article in the NYTimes today on the practice of leaving water for immigrants crossing through the Arizona desert, and how the state/border patrol is reacting to it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27water.html?hp
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27water.html?hp
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Paper Topics
Here you guys should post your ideas for your papers, so we will know your interests and be able to post links to anything relevant we run across in the course of the semester. I'm not sure if the group blog format will let you edit this post and just include the information here. If it does, great. Otherwise, put your plans in the comment thread.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Background reading
Taking a course in regional history can be tough if you don't have a strong undergrad background in US history. If you don't, or you just want a quick refresher, here are some suggestions:
-- for a good grasp of the major events and peoples in American history, taking a look at a balanced survey textbook like Out of Many is a good idea. Read through the table of contents. Do you remember most of it? If there's an area that seems unfamiliar, read that section. If you plan to continue studying American history, or teach it, having a textbook on hand is very useful. Everyone forgets what, say, the Lecompton Constitution was from time to time, and having a reference to go to will help with your work in many classes. If you can't find one in the library (try asking the reference librarians) I will have them buy one and put it on reserve.
-- if you didn't have the American West as an undergrad, you'll probably benefit from an overview text. This reading seminar can't possible teach all the events and themes you'd have had from a lecture course, and you'll have an easier time placing readings in context with something like the Oxford History of the American West or Major Problems in the History of the American West on hand. I note that Amazon currently has several copies of the Oxford history in hardcover for about $2. If you're at all serious about pursuing study of the west, this a major steal and you all should jump on it.
-- finally, if you could use a stronger understanding of the major interpretative debates American historians engage in, I advise checking out Interpretations of American History, volumes I and II, or perhaps the Major Problems in American History series, (three volumes - I've linked to the first here). Interpretations is much more current; Major Problems combines analytic essays with documents.
If you are interested in some of these but reluctant to buy, let me know and I'll get the library to buy anything we need that they may not have.
-- for a good grasp of the major events and peoples in American history, taking a look at a balanced survey textbook like Out of Many is a good idea. Read through the table of contents. Do you remember most of it? If there's an area that seems unfamiliar, read that section. If you plan to continue studying American history, or teach it, having a textbook on hand is very useful. Everyone forgets what, say, the Lecompton Constitution was from time to time, and having a reference to go to will help with your work in many classes. If you can't find one in the library (try asking the reference librarians) I will have them buy one and put it on reserve.
-- if you didn't have the American West as an undergrad, you'll probably benefit from an overview text. This reading seminar can't possible teach all the events and themes you'd have had from a lecture course, and you'll have an easier time placing readings in context with something like the Oxford History of the American West or Major Problems in the History of the American West on hand. I note that Amazon currently has several copies of the Oxford history in hardcover for about $2. If you're at all serious about pursuing study of the west, this a major steal and you all should jump on it.
-- finally, if you could use a stronger understanding of the major interpretative debates American historians engage in, I advise checking out Interpretations of American History, volumes I and II, or perhaps the Major Problems in American History series, (three volumes - I've linked to the first here). Interpretations is much more current; Major Problems combines analytic essays with documents.
If you are interested in some of these but reluctant to buy, let me know and I'll get the library to buy anything we need that they may not have.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Welcome!
Welcome, everyone. I've thrown up some pages with useful or interesting links; I'll add more as I get time. You all should be able to add things to pages or write posts with thoughts you have or interesting resources or events you've run across. Let me know if you're having any trouble - I'm not a blogger expert by any means but I've been able to figure things out so far.
There are explicit teaching resources in the centers and primary sources pages, and resources like videos and art are obviously useful for teaching...it might be worth putting up a separate teaching resource page and copying those over there, if enough of you intend to use them and would find it easier to navigate with them together.
There are explicit teaching resources in the centers and primary sources pages, and resources like videos and art are obviously useful for teaching...it might be worth putting up a separate teaching resource page and copying those over there, if enough of you intend to use them and would find it easier to navigate with them together.
This space - like our class discussions - will be what you make of it. A reason I chose to put it on Blogger instead of waiting to get inside the UMB system was the hope that, if it turned out to be a useful resource, it could remain something you have access to after you graduate.
The blog itself is set up to be public, but commenting is restricted to members.
What suggestions do you all have for making this space a good resource?
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