HST 500:

"Introduction to the MA Program in History"
Thomas Luckett

Fall 2008
Mon., 5:30-9:10 PM
Cramer Hall 494


Blackboard required:  This is the public web page for this course.  The rest of the web site for this course is available only through Blackboard, and will become accessible a few days in advance of the term.  To view it, you will need to obtain an ODIN account, and enroll in the course.  Use of Blackboard is a requirement of the course.

If you are new to ODIN or Blackboard, the following links will be useful:

Course section information:
  • HST 500,  section TML,  CRN 11505.
Course description:  An introduction to the professional study of history and to the writing of the masters thesis.  Intended for new or recently entering graduate students in history.  Weekly readings (to be discussed in class) will represent a variety of historical schools of thought.  The principal writing assignment for the term will be a thesis proposal, to be presented to the class.  There will also be a series of shorter assignments focusing on research skills.

Readings:  Required readings include nine books, available through the Portland State Bookstore and on reserve at the Millar Library:

  • Fogel, Robert W., Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (Norton, 1994) [ISBN: 0-393-31219-4].
  • Geertz, Clifford, Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali (Princeton UP, 1980) [ISBN: 0-691-00778-0].
  • Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, The Peasants of Languedoc, trans. John Day (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1977) [ISBN: 0-252-00635-6].
  • Lefebvre, Georges, Coming of the French Revolution, trans. R.R. Palmer (Princeton UP, 2005) [ISBN: 0-691-12188-5].
  • McNeill, J.R., Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World  (Norton, 2000) [ISBN: 0-393-32183-5].
  • Nash, Gary B., et al., History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (NY: Knopf, 2000) [ISBN: 0-679-76750-9].
  • Pocock, J.G.A., The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, 2nd edn (Princeton UP, 2003) [ISBN: 0-691-11472-2].
  • Thompson, Edward P., Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law (NY: New Press, 1993) [ISBN: 1-56584-099-2].
  • White, Richard, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991) [ISBN: 0-521-42460-7].
Contact Prof. Thomas Luckett:
  • Office hours:  As chair of the History Department (starting 16 Sept) I have no regular office hours, but can usually be found in my office when I'm not in a meeting.  If you would like to schedule a time to meet, please speak to the department secretaries..
  • Office phone:  (503) 725-3982.
  • Email:  see faculty directory.

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08/08