You should all receive an email from me shortly. The email will contain some important pieces of information, including (a) who your “peer reviewer” will be; (b) the rough draft that you will be reviewing; and (c) some questions you should consider while giving this rough draft a first read.

On Tuesday we will be meeting as a group at our regular time, and I will be giving you some final instructions about peer review. But you and your partner should also sign up now for a meeting with me on Wednesday or Thursday using this Google doc.

Next week I would like to meet with each of you to talk about your papers. Please use this Google Doc to pick a time for meeting, and let me know if none of the available times work.

Since we will not be meeting on Thursday, I need to hear from each of you this week by email. What I’d like is a brief email that responds to these questions:

1. Briefly, how much work have you put in to your paper so far?

2. What steps have you taken so far to find primary sources, and what have you found?

3. What are the major arguments of other historians who discuss the question you’re interested in?

4. How would you fill in the blanks today? I’m writing about because I want to know why/when/where/how/whether/who so that I can argue .

Please send me these emails by the end of the day Friday–the sooner the better, though, because I can give you feedback that may help you before then.

Here is a link to the outline we made in class for Chapter 4 of Contentious Liberties. Please take a look at it and bring your books back to class on Tuesday. Don’t forget, too, that your primary source memo will be due in class on Tuesday.

Please don’t forget that your proposals are due tonight by midnight in my email inbox. Also, once you have turned in your proposal (or even before), please go to this link to sign up for a time to meet with me to talk about it. Remember, we will be having one-on-one meetings in lieu of our regular class meeting this Tuesday, but we will meet as usual on Thursday to talk about Gale Kenny’s book.

This week you’re reading a book that makes extensive use of photographs as historical sources in one of the chapters. So you may be interested to know about a talk tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. that also covers this subject. This talk would be especially relevant if you are contemplating a research topic that involves the use of visual images or the subjects of race and gender.

Don’t forget that today our class will be meeting in Fondren Library, room B39 in the basement, to talk about using library materials for your research.

This week you have a brief article to read before class tomorrow, but you should also get started on the Oakes book and plan to have it finished by our class on Thursday. This book is lengthier than our earlier assignments, but I have written up some tips to help you manage the reading load in an essay called How to Read for History. See you tomorrow!

Welcome to the course website for HIST 423. Take a look around at the course information, assignments, and schedule, or download a PDF version of the syllabus.