Speaking of American History, 2019

Speaking of American History

Sarah McNair Vosmeier

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Course Description
Studying history provides both pleasure and practical benefits.   Reading primary sources can be like using a time machine -- it takes only a little imagination to feel like you are in another time. Analyzing primary and secondary sources also provides the practical benefits of a liberal arts education. In particular, we will learn to use historical imagination, to analyze difficult texts, and to make historical arguments. The approaches historians take for understanding the past can give you strategies for analysis in many other circumstances. At the same time, engaging in a variety of speaking tasks will help students strengthen their oral communication skills.
    Looking at a sampling of significant events in American history will allow us to discuss two main themes. The first is the history of changing attitudes about oral communication. The second is Edmund Morgan’s metaphor of “American Slavery, American Freedom,” which he uses to consider the way our highest ideals of liberty and individualism have shaped us as well as the consequences of not fully living up to those ideals.



Calculating Grades
        Informal Communication
                21%   Preparation and Participation
                15%   Prepared Interview

        Formal Communication
                12%   Historic Speech
                20%   Article Presentation

        Exams
                16%   Midterm Exam
                16%   Final Exam

Nota Bene
Our class time provides an opportunity, rare in modern life, to focus for an extended time on a single task and conversation. Please do not multitask – to avoid distraction for others and temptation for ourselves, we will not use laptops, phones, etc. during regular class time. (Laptops will be useful during scheduled workshops, however.)

Late assignments will be penalized, and in-class assignments cannot be made up. If you have an emergency and want to request an exception to this rule, contact me before the due date.

About items needed for this class
All assigned readings are available on reserve at the Duggan Library or online.   Our discussions will be based on close readings of texts, and you will need notes on the texts in the form of marginalia. Thus, you should budget appropriately for printing in addition to the books you purchase. (My class records show that the printing costs associated with marginalia pay off in significantly better grades.)

The following are available at the bookstore:
        Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom, 1975
      Chris Anderson, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, 2016.
You will also need a bound journal – choose either a good quality journal with acid-free paper or an inexpensive composition book.
    Because you will be printing out most of the readings for this class, a three-ring binder will be convenient.

About Preparation, Participation, Presentations, and Exams:

Preparation and Participation:
    We will all enjoy our time together more and find our work more rewarding if everyone prepares and participates fully. People who excel in this aspect of the class come to class with effective reading notes; they make useful comments in class or ask helpful questions, facilitating others’ learning as well as their own; and they complete brief assignments included in this portion of the grade adequately and on time.
    Occasional brief assignments (such as marginalia checks or study guide contributions) allow you to demonstrate careful preparation for class.
    Brief, informal speaking opportunities include the elevator pitch assignment, impromptu recaps of discussion or lecture details, and sharing your commonplace book entries.
    Your commonplace book (also part of this portion of your grade) will hold quotes you can use for future public speaking occasions, and it can also serve as a keepsake for this stage of your academic career.
   Note that you will need to attend events connected with the faculty search process in January (schedule t.b.a.).

Presentations:
The prepared interview is similar to the kind of speaking you will do in a job interview.
For the historic speech, you will deliver a speech from Hanover’s history.
The article presentation is similar to the presentations historians make at history conferences.

Exams:
Exams will include identifications and essay questions.

Assignments

Introduction, Definitions, and Background
Jan. 6, 2020 (Mon.)
Lecture: "Defining Terms."

Jan. 8, 2020 (Wed.))
    Lecture, Discussion, and Workshop: The commonplace book and public speaking.
    For workshop: Vosmeier, "On Marginalia," 2016 (online); “Style Guide for Chicago Manual Footnotes” (online).
    For discussion: Walker, Of Education, 1673 (excerpt online); Johnson, lecture at Google, 2010 (video online); Fleming, "Keeping a Commonplace Book," 2012 (online).

Jan. 10, 2020 (Fri.)
Meet in the Duggan Library Archives.
For discussion: Todd, Student's Manual, 1859 (excerpt online); Post, “Conversation,” 1922 (excerpt online); Anderson, TED Talks, 2016 (pp. ix-xv, 233-37, 247-52); Skipper, "How to Talk to Strangers," 2017 (online).
Lecture: "Seventeenth-Century Virginia."