True confession: the smell of old books kind of makes me go crazy. A GOOD crazy, however. Having grown up watching history channel, Fool’s Gold (great Kate Hudson Movie), and all of the Indiana Jones’ many a times, I always have been so fascinated with history. And what fuels this passion of mine even more is the negativeness about learning history that I heard on my high school quad everyday.
“Zomg why do we even have to learn about the past, it already happened” and comments like that usually made me think one of three things: 1) wow I am scared for our future 2) history repeats itself, and have you ever learned from one of your past mistakes?! and 3) Lara Croft Tomb Raider? Indiana Jones? National Treasure? Your local librarian? Do know know how much fun people have going on hunts – big or small – to piece together our INCREDIBLE past that made the world we live in today.
I also occasionally think, “well great, when I become an anthropologist/archeologist I won’t have much job competition! But, besides all that rumble-jumble, you can tell I love history, and more specifically little histories about maybe even not-so-significant people (the yearbooks and memory books made that my favorite class day I’ve ever had at SCU), and the fact that I am learning to do archival research makes me kind of super really a lot extremely excited.
So, what areas do I think I want to focus on while at the archives tomorrow morning?
1) How has the surrounding areas changed? (neighborhoods? orchards?) – I loved finding this stuff about Disneyland, so why not research about it when it comes to Santa Clara?
2) What was the school like during the Cold War/ Red Scare(s)? – The watergate scandal was most likely one of my most interesting classes I took while at Menlo.
3)SCU’s relation to Stanford (competition, rivalry, etc.) – Has there ever even been a rivalry? I not only live right next to Stanford, but my best friend’s mom (also my best friend) went to Santa Clara and Stanford in the 80s, so I could get some first hand accounts!
4) I am a sucker for love letters, so somehow I would love to know more about specific relationships of the old older alumni while they were at Santa Clara, did any important alumni meet here?
Source: Giphy
Now that I am exciting we are funneling into things (I feel I always need to clarify when I use that word: think we are taking a broad perspective and getting through and honing in on a few things) I want to lay out the kind of ground things I need to constantly be thinking about so that I can write my paper, and use the readings we have been going over the past two weeks!
The following information I got from readings, and I want to give credit to the authors: Gaillet and Tirabassi and in class sources.
PICKING YOUR SOURCE: an investment of time on your life
- be selective
- human error, bias, do you judge a book by its cover?
- cross reference
- read those who support, read those who disagree, read those who most likely tried to throw a rock at the author! – in this way you create a conversation with your pieces
- know where this goes in your big picture process
- search key words, dates, the author
- know when to stop
- have a check off list so you know when you have completed sufficient research, understand there is no way for you to know everything!!
STEP INTO THEIR SHOES: Think about how this person wrote/made this, who the audience was/is (Greene)
- Argument as conversation – dialogue between your sources – and what do I add to the conversation of the already started conversation (context!)
- Steps – identify issue, situation that calls for a response (who needs to hear about this, why), identify a question (audience!)
- Framing your argument – the way you see an issue -> you’re choosing what to represent and what to exclude, is the author bias!? :0
- Research as an inquiry rather than just looking for information – “source things” – what is the conversation, what are people saying? – was there backlash to this piece? Why did he/she write it anyways?
WHILE READING:
First Reading: Context
Why does this matter? Why is the person significant? Why is the date or period significant? Why is the place significant? Why is the context significant? What background information do I know about any of these?
Second Reading: Why did this person write this? *Queue time machine*
Is it a persuasive speech, a private letter, or a newspaper article? In terms of content, is it clear or confusing? Were there many vocabulary words or historical references that students found difficult or skipped over? Who is the intended audience for the document?
Third Reading: Argument / rhetorical things!
How is the argument constructed? What assertions, evidence, or examples are used to support or give credibility to the author’s argument? Is it logical and believable? Does it contradict other evidence that the students have read? OR How is the image or artifact designed? What does it emphasize? What are the effects of the visual elements?
Fourth Reading: Put it all together and poof you’re a scholar!
Given the author of the document, what bias or perspective might be expressed? How does that shape our understanding of the argument? Given the date of the document, what is the document responding to or in dialogue with? Given the place and audience of the document, how is the argument shaped to be effective?
Would the argument in the document have convinced its audience? Who might have disagreed or had a different perspective? What facts did the author leave out and why? What questions are unanswered by the document?
Is this primary document significant? Did it have an impact within its historical context? Did it express the view of an important group? How does it fit within debates taking place within that historical period?
… and most importantly: What does it make you wonder or want to know?
Last little thing to add on – we have not discussed Gaillet in class yet, but a few things stood out to me, personally, that I really want to emphasize.
- “‘History is not, and never has been, systematic or scientific.'”
- Use online tools in your spare time! or as Gaillet says “conduct preliminary investigation online.” Even though you might not get all the really great parts of having a physical copy (order, stationary, etc) you can still get important information and do some background research!
- categorization!!! make a list and obtain necessary documents – this is important for closure too
- contact librarians before, during, and after research. It is their job and they love to actually help people!
- While examining…
- determine your questions
- describe EVERYTHING (watermarks, handwriting, marginalia, etc
- categorize
- “couch” (I loved that this word was used) your materials within political, social, economic, education, religious, or institutional histories of time – context!
- corroborate your assumptions and claims – confirm and cross reference
- understand the author – what was his or her motives to write?
- ** investigate contemporary reception of the work… this will help you with the so what, and why do we care now questions we must answer!
- research reactions to the materials – what was the reputation?
- decide how to tell your story (I especially love how this point really makes the move onto you, because in the end you could and can affect how this material is received in history.)
This post was a bit longer and scholarly, for that I say your welcome but also apologize… I owe you a funny one in the future! Good luck to everyone!