History 300 Independent Dissertation

1
History 300Independent Dissertation

• Dr Mike Winstanley
• Course Convenor
• Dr Thomas Dixon

2
Four Introductory Lectures

• Wk 6 General introduction choosing a topic and
  sources available (MW)
• Wk 7 Different kinds of history finding and
  using secondary sources (TD)
• Wk 8 Identifying, examining and interpreting
  primary sources university, local and national
  resources (MW)
• Wk 9 Researching Medieval and Early Modern
  topics

3
Whats a Dissertation?

• Independent Study with individual supervisions
• Choice of topic/subject area
• 8-10,000 words with footnotes and bibliography
• Uses Secondary AND PRIMARY sources

4
How the course is organised

• You submit three possible topics in order of
  preference by Friday WEEK 9 of this term
• Early Summer Term we try to match topics with
  supervisors
• Late Summer Term you will have initial meetings
  with your allocated supervisor (after 2nd year
  exams are over)
• Year 3 individual supervisions and occasional
  lectures and workshops
• Deadline for submissions WEEK 10 of Lent Term
  2008

5
Deciding on a Dissertation

• Do something that interests you but is feasible
• Methods of choosing
• Think of a Subject Area
• Pose a Question(s)
• Find Source(s) which interests you
• Develop an approach case study of source,
  place, person etc debate
• You can start with any one of these eg. build a
  dissertation around a source or a case study,
  pose a generic/specific question and then relate
  it to a field of study or broader subject area
  but a really successful dissertation has elements
  of all of them

6
Subjects Broad and Narrow

• An individual
• An organisation
• An artefact
• A place
• An event
• A theme or topic
• A concept or ideology
• A particular period
• A debate
• A series of linked events

7
Posing Questions

• Not just descriptive ie Who? What? Where? When?
  
• More analytical questions better -
• Why?
• What? ie significance
• How?
• Question can be new or borrowed ie one which
  others have addressed in secondary sources
• Question has to be capable of being explored in
  the time available and from the sources available

8
Secondary Sources

• Uses
• Background Information
• Historical Context
• References to Original Material
• Debates and Questions

• Nature
• Interpretations of the past by other people,
  usually other academic historians eg monographs,
  textbooks, articles in journals or edited
  collections etc

9
Finding Secondary Sources(more in week 2)

• Course reading lists
• Library Catalogue and ejournals
• Other Online Catalogues
• METALIB
• JSTOR (recently expanded)
• Royal Historical Society Bibliography (British
  History books and articles)
• Historical Abstracts (World History since 1450
  abstracts of articles)
• America History and Life (North American History
  abstracts of articles)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

10
Primary Sources
Nature Original materials whether diaries,
letters, debates, charters, books, buildings,
paintings, poems, statistics, reports, films,
photographs, or whatever initially produced
during, or close to, the period you are studying

• Uses
• The building blocks of History
• Illustrative Material
• Supporting evidence for your argument
• Prompting Enquiry

11
Primary SourcesMore guidance in lecture 3

• Reproductions of primary sources (eg in print or
  on web)
• Original Sources
• Your own records
• University Library
• Accessible from Lancaster (inc. digital)
• Locally archives near you wherever you live..
  A2A (Access to Archives website)

12
Primary Sources

• Can I get to them?
• Can I read them?
• Are they manageable?
• When do I want to do most of my research?
• Where do I want to do most of my research?
• What can I use?

13
Manuscript Sources Medieval
Furness AbbeyCartulary (National Archives, Kew)
Web site on cartularies http//paleo.anglo-norman.
org/cart.htmlsource
14
Manuscript Sources Early Modern
Chancery Court Documentation Dispute over the
proceeds of the voyage St George 1744 to
Africa/West Indies National Archives,Kew
______________
15
Manuscript Sources 18th century
Carlisle Local Record Office Cumbria Inventory of
Negroes, Cattle, Horses etc, 1766, on Sir James
Lowthers West Indian estate
16
Manuscript Sources 19th Century
Census Enumerators Books for GB 1841-1901 Univer
sity Library/Local/ Ancestry.com
17
Printed/Published SourcesAll English Books
pre-1800 Available through METALIB
EEBO 1476-1700 ECCO 18th-century books
18
All British Government Reports and Enquiries for
the 19th century- covering virtually every aspect
of British and Imperial History Available and
searchable through METALIB
Hansard House of Common Debates available on
ground floor of library
19
Journals and Newspapers
The Coffin Ships Deportation of Paupers from
Ireland during the Famine Illustrated London News
University Library/Web
20
Cartoons
Illustrated JacobitesZulu WarsHitler and
BismarckHarold Wilson (various sources including
Punch and Kent Univ Cartoon Centre
21
Photographic and Film
Film and Sound Online (Metalib) Pathe News
Online British Film Institute and Regional Film
Archives
Jack Hylton Band playing in Berlin,
1936 University Special Collections
22
Sources in Translation foreign and medieval
GERMAN DESERTER'S WAR EXPERIENCE TRANSLATED BY
J. KOETTGENNEW YORKB. W. HUEBSCHMCMXVII From
WW1 On line Archive Memoirs and Recollections
Medieval Bestiary
f11r The beaver. Illustration The beaver is a
gentle animal whose testicles have a medicinal
value. When hunted, the beaver escapes with his
life by biting off his testicles. If he is hunted
for a second time he shows his incompleteness and
is spared. From University of Aberdeen website
23
Reproductions Library and On Line
MU5 (B Floor) Tudor and Stuart State Papers
(Domestic, Colonial etc) Acts of the Privy Council
Old Bailey On Line 18th century trials
24
Halsall Internet Source BooksInternet African
History Sourcebook Internet East Asian History
Sourcebook Internet Global History Sourcebook
Internet Indian History Sourcebook Internet
Islamic History Sourcebook Internet Jewish
History Sourcebook Internet History of Science
Sourcebook Internet Women's History Sourcebook
People With a History An Online Guide to
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans History
Reproductions and Collections On Line
25
Artefacts, Places, Monuments and Buildings
Westfield Memorial VillageWest Road, Lancaster
26
Artefacts, Places, Monuments and Buildings
Lancaster Castle/Prison
27
Artefacts, Places, Monuments and Buildings
Memorial outside Grizedale Bar Murder, Gender,
Policing and Press
28
The University Archivesand History Project
History of Lancaster University History
Students Website Accessed from University Home
Page Vice Chancellors Welcome
29
Summing Up

• Choose something which interests you
• Be realistic in your ambitions dont try to do
  too much FOCUS
• Use primary sources find something in
  university library, local to you, or on the web
  - enjoy the search!
• Be prepared to change subject/approach depending
  on what you find once you start researching

• Link your material to
• Subjects/Debates
• Questions
• Sources

30
What Next?

• Next three lectures will provide you with case
  studies and guidance on
• Approaches to different kinds of History
• How to locate secondary materials of potential
  use to you
• More advice on looking for primary sources on
  campus, elsewhere in GB, on line
• What particular issues are raised by studying
  medieval or early modern subjects.

Your Task will be to start thinking and
exploring.Have fun AND SEE or CONTACT ME if you
think you might be interested in University
History Project
31
Ancient and Medieval

• various aspects of crusading, inc. individual
  crusades, generic issues of crusading ideology,
  attitudes to Islam, Military Orders (but no more
  Dan Browns, please!), military strategy
• western Europeans and 'others' (e.g. Muslims,
  Byzantines, Mongols)
• papal ideologies
• noble family/regional history c.1050-1500,
  England/Scotland/Wales
• studies of monarchy, government, etc - esp.
  Britain
• heresy, dissent etc
• literary cultures (epic to romance, chivalry,
  Arthuran stuff, erotic/romantic poetry)
• visual culture (inc. art as ideology of power,
  'propaganda', etc - western or eastern)
• monks, nuns, hermits monastic practices and
  ideals
• women - either individual notable women or
  general studies of women (as pilgrims as
  writers as mystics as rulers etc)
• hagiography, cults of saints, relics, devotional
  practices, pilgrimage, etc

32
Ancient and Medieval

• Sources available
• narrative chronicles in translation (these range
  very widely in period and geography, but can be
  studied in isolation or in groups, depending on
  topic)
• saints' lives (a lot of incidental descriptive
  material of a general socio-cultural type can be
  found in these)
• pilgrimage/travel accounts (ditto)
• governmental records (e.g. Close Rolls, Patent
  Rolls, Liberate Rolls, Inquisitions post mortem,
  etc - admin. documents recording to land holding,
  treasury activities, royal household management,
  etc)
• letter collections (correspondence dealing with
  friendships, political relationships, church
  business, theology etc)
• art - vast range here, from monumental art,
  sculpture, architecture, to manuscript painting,
  icons, decorative arts -

33
Early Modern (c1450-1700)
Many of the approaches valid for Medieval also
appropriate here, especially through EEBO which
opens up enormous opportunities

• Comparative studies of contemporary authors
  looking at eg witchcraft, religion, monarchy,
  art, science
• Studies of individual writers poets,
  playwrights, philosophers, scientists
• Studies of specific events or periods eg Civil
  War, Glorious Revolution

34
Modern Previous Examples (1)sources used and
where primarily undertaken

• Angelas Ashes.. (novel, newspapers on line,
  secondary sources) LANCASTER
• Herberts War ( family diary, secondary sources,
  web) FAMILY
• Sylvia Pankhurst and the Soviet Union (book,
  journal, secondary) SALFORD/LANCASTER
• Caribbean migrants in post-war London (oral,
  images, secondary) LONDON
• Anti-Suffragists (journal, secondary) YORK
• British Fascism and Spanish Civil War (journal,
  secondary) SHEFFIELD

35
Modern Previous Examples (2)

• After the apprentices Styal Mill (census,
  maps, images, secondary) STOCKPORT
• Children under the Poor Law (poor law records,
  secondary) BATH
• Child emigration (PRO, secondary) LONDON
• Remembrance US WW2 airforce memorials (sites,
  web, oral) E ANGLIA
• Remembrance Westfield Village, Lancaster (sites,
  newspapers, journals) LIBRARY AND LANCASTER
• Victorian Institutions (lunatic asylums, prisons,
  workhouses registers, census, journals)
  LANCASHIRE RECORD OFFICE BUT AVAILABLE
  EVERYWHERE..
• Irish transportees to Australia (web database,
  parliamentary papers, secondary) LIBRARY AND WEB