Course Listing: CHST 1805, Sec. 1, Seq. 9: Approaches to History
Spring 1995: Tuesday, Friday: 10:30 AM; Wednesday: 4:05 PM.
Class meets in Room 411 EL
Instructor: John Saltmarsh

"I believe once more that history is of educative value in so far as it presents phases of social life and growth. It must be controlled by reference to social life. When taken simply as history it is thrown into the distant past and becomes dead and inert. Taken as the record of man's social life and progress it becomes full of meaning."

John Dewey, "My Pedagogic Creed" (1897)

Course Description: This course will explore the historical meanings of individualism and community in American culture, focusing on the relationship of the self to the larger community of others and institutions, examining the historical dimensions of the tensions between the individual and society in light of the consequences for a democratic political culture.

In analyzing various approaches to historical study, the course has three components:

1) analysis of primary and secondary source material to explore the traditions that define the tensions between individual aspirations and community values and assess how these have changed over time and in different cultural settings;

2) analysis of readings to focus discussion on questions of method, theory, and evidence and the interpretation/analysis/writing of history in the exploration of the theme of the course; and

3) service activity and reflection that will focus our discussion on approaching the contemporary context of our historical understanding, making connections between ideas and experience to integrate others' observations and interpretations with our own, to bring a certain immediacy to the readings.

Teaching Methodology: Seminar. Discussion/dialogue will 1) focus on common readings to explore the traditions surrounding the theme of the course and to provide the social context for the students' community service activity, and 2) consist of reflection on experience of involvement in the community and the relationship between their experience and the readings/ideas of the course.

Service Experience: A requirement of this course is that students will engage in community service activity for at least two hours each week (20 hours over the course of the quarter). Service assignments can be arranged by the instructor in collaboration with 1) the Tobin School in the Mission Hill Neighborhood next to Northeastern University or 2) with the John Shelburne Community Center in Roxbury. The Tobin School in situated in one of Boston's poorest neighborhoods and is part of the Boston Public School System. It is the only kindergarten through eighth grade school in the Boston Public School System and serves a predominantly Latino and African American student body. The Shelburne Community Center is the only community center in Roxbury and for twenty-five years has focused its services to the ethnic and economic diversity of the residents of the area neighborhoods who utilize the Shelburne as a safe haven for their children.

Required Readings:
Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (19 10)
Robert Bellah, et al, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985)
Thomas Bender, Community and Social Change in America (1978)
Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism (1978)
Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown: A Study of Contemporary American Culture (1929)
David Reisman, The Lonely Crowd (1961)
Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835/1840)
Also: Classpack at Gnomon Copy

Course Schedule:
Week 1: April 5, 7 and Week 2: April 11, 12, 14: Traditions and Definitions, Approaches to History: Method, Theory, and Evidence.
Bellah and Bender

Christianity and Republicanism
Bellah and Bender

Week 4: April 25, 26, 28:
Democracy and America in the early 19th Century
Tocqueville

Week 5: May 2, 3, 5:
Industrial Capitalism: Challenges to Individualism and Democracy
Addams

Week 6: May 9,10,12:
The Self and Community in a Consumer Culture
Lynds

Week 7: May 16, 17, 19:
Post- War America: The Quest for Individuality in a Mass Society
Reisman

Week 8: May 23, 25, 26: The Personal and the Political: Community Lost and Found: Approaching the Past and the Future
Lasch

Week 9: May 30, 3 1, June 2:
(last week for Seniors)
Presentations of Final Papers

Week 10: June 6, 7, 9:
Presentations of Final papers

Week 11: June 12-16: Exam Week

"Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community. " (1927)

"Regarded as an idea, democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the ideal of the community itself." (1927)

"Individuality cannot be opposed to association. It is through association that man has acquired his individuality and it is through association that he exercises it. [Individuality means] performance of a special service without which the social whole is defective" (1891)

"Information is an undigested burden unless it is understood. It is knowledge only as its material is comprehended. And understanding, comprehension, means that the various parts of the information acquired are grasped in their relation to one another – a result that is attained only when acquisition is accompanied by constant reflection upon the meaning of what is studied." (1933)
- John Dewey

Classpack
Table of Contents
The Individual and Society in Democratic America
CHST 1805

Robert Coles, Community Service Work
Robert Coles, Putting Head and Heart on the Line
C. Blake and C. Phelps, History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch
John Dewey, The Democratic Conception in Education
John Dewey, The Search for the Great Community
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Bell hooks, Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education
Bell Hooks, Representing the Poor
Michael Ignatieff, The Needs of Strangers
William James, The Moral Equivalent of War
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letterfrom Birmingham Jail
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
Staughton Lynd, The Historian as Participant
Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau, Journal
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
Ellen Goodman, "Mentoring Kids in Crisis"

Required written work and presentations:

1) A Reflective Journal: The journal will focus on the community service activity and reflections on the experience and the connections between that experience and the literature of the course. You will be asked to keep a journal during the quarter. The journals are a reflection tool that will be shared periodically. There is the minimum expectation of weekly entries. Journals will be turned in for review the last day of class (and will be returned).

2) A review of Habits of the Heart. The review/analysis should focus on the approach the authors took to creating historical understanding. What methodology(ies) do they employ? What theory guides their interpretation? What evidence do they turn to? Who are the authors (provide a cultural profile of the authors)? Be sure to incorporate at least two published reviews of the book in your essay and cite them properly. 3-5 pages minimum, typed, double-spaced. Due May 2.

3) A small group presentation and short paper of one of the assigned books in the class. The small group will present together and may collaborate on the written work, but each student will turn in a paper. The presentation and the paper will focus on

the way in which the author(s) addressed the issues of individualism, community, and democracy in the particular book
the author(s) approach (methods, theory, evidence) to the subject

3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced. Papers are due two weeks after presentation. Presentation: ( %) Paper: ( %)

4) A final paper due at the end of the course will consist of an analysis of the service experience in the community, placing that analysis in a larger context drawn from the readings from the course and seminar discussions, integrating the students' own interpretations with those from the literature of the course. Your paper should integrate your experience in the community with the readings from the class to answer the question, "what is the relationship between my approach to the present and my approach to the past." 8-12 pages, typed, double-spaced. Papers are due for presentation during the last two weeks of the course, to be turned in on the last day of class. Presentation: ( %) Paper: ( %)

5) Class Participation.

6) Class Attendance.

7) Community Service