Social and Cultural History of Europe

Archives Nationales de France

Welcome!  This Library Research Guide was created for Prof. Elizabeth Terry-Roisin's Junior Seminar: Social and Cultural History of Europe to provide the resources to help you create your archive plan and write your review essay.  Please find information for both of your assignments below. 

Review Essay 

Requirements/Citations

Prompt

Pick your own topic and write a review essay on the state of the field on that question. This is the state of the field today, referring to scholarship in the 20th-21st century. You may go back to the 19th century if you like but you do not need to go any further back. Pick a question that intrigues you. They may include, but are not limited to the topics listed below. You may choose to follow up on a topic that the historian you already wrote about pursued in their research. Some of our historians included: Max Weber, Karl Marx, Johan Huizinga, Jacob Burckhardt, Peter Burke, Martha Howell, Walter Prevenier, Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, Fernand Braudel, Jeroen Duindam, Sharon Farmer, Thomas J. Dandelet, John Bossy, William Sewell, Miri Rubin, Richard Kaeuper, Carlo Ginsburg, etc. The goal of this paper is not for you to solve any of these big topics or problems, or do any primary source research, but rather, read a bunch of secondary sources, and tell me what historians have said on these issues thus far, the “state of the question.” Do you see a lot of cultural histories on this subject in our library catalog? Or social? Which methods are people using right now, and what sorts of things are they saying? Paper can be limited to cultural or social history, or can be broader and show a transition from one to the other within the historiography.

Requirements/Citations

• This assignment is worth 450 pts - 45% of your grade in HIS 3051
• Checking out physical books from our library or any other is not required but there are a number of e-books available from the library.
• Use a minimum of 2 books, ebooks, books on Google Play, etc. and 4 scholarly articles
  • Tip: Look on JSTOR for Review Articles other historians have written, like “the Economic Crisis of the Seventeenth Century after 50 years,” or “Spanish Humanism 35 Years Later.” You are writing in this same genre!
  • You may use and include any of the books or articles I’ve assigned you this semester in your list of sources.
  • You may choose to analyze some of the same secondary sources that you used in your other historian paper. Just don’t copy and paste what you wrote, but if you want to analyze the same quotes or connect to your first paper that is fine.
• 6-8 pages double spaced, less than six full pages loses points
• Standard formatting: 1 inch margins, Times New Roman, 12pt font
• Footnotes according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
• If you are making extensive use of notes you took during our class discussion, provide this footnote where you use the material.
• If you know that you are quoting my words, feel free to quote me. But I hope you will be telling me what you think!
• Bibliography at the end, with sources cited according to the Chicago Manual of Style

The Courts of Philip III and IV in Madrid

Archive Plan

Requirements/Citations

• This assignment is worth 50 pts-5% of your grade in HIS 3051
• Pick a European city where you will be researching this topic, and tell me which libraries or archives there you will visit and what you plan to read there.
• Checking out physical books from our library or any other is not required.
• 1-2 pages double spaced
• Standard formatting: 1 inch margins, Times New Roman, 12pt font
• Footnotes according to the Chicago Manual of Style.[1]
• Bibliography at the end, with sources cited according to the Chicago Manual of Style

Research Tips

• You do need to use the internet to visit library websites and archive websites to plan out what you hope to see in your future research trip. Even if their buildings are currently closed, you can still access catalogs on their website which will tell you what they have.

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