Archive for category: History

This assignment is known as a comparative book review or a historiographical paper. The goal of the assignment is to help you further develop your critical analysis skills by exploring key arguments and ideas in 2 different books, and then link those books together to discuss how they provide new insights on a given topic. We also want you to engage with the idea that books on the same broad topic sometimes focus on different issues; that authors often disagree with each other; that they believe that one reason over another is more important in proving their argument; that they may reach quite different conclusions about the same material; and that taken together, they provide many specific insights that allow us to understand historical events.

How to write a historiography paper: What to keep in mind
1. Do not simply regurgitate facts from the author
2. Begin and end each discussion of the book with transition sentences
3. Identify key overlapping themes between the works
4. Identify the argument of each work
5. Make connections between arguments where relevant
6. Note where arguments differ where relevant
7. Identify sources used
8. Refer to the author by their last name
• If you mention their full name in the introduction (i.e Bob Smith) you would refer to them as Smith onwards
9. Argument, argument, argument

Topic: Everyday life under dictatorships

Book 1: Orlando Figes, Private Life in Stalin’s Russia

Book 2: Detlev Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life

Paper Breakdown
• Length: 8-10 pages double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman, 1 inch margin
• Length does not include title page & bibliography
• Citation style: Chicago (footnotes)
• Paper style: historiographic

Basic Structure
• Introduction + strong concluding sentence to set-up agenda of paper
o General Statements
o Thesis Statement
o Outline of main points

• Main body paragraphs
o Topic Sentence
o Support 1 with evidence and examples
o Support 2 with evidence and examples
o Support 3 with evidence and examples

• Conclusion + clear reiteration of main argument
o Restate thesis
o Summary of main points
o Final Comment

• Bibliography

Introduction
• Outline the scope of your paper and your ‘plan of attack’ for discussing the two sources
• Identify the two sources you will use
• What topics do your books cover? (i.e. author 1 examines the family in Canada and author 2 explores legislation in Toronto)
• You can briefly discuss their methods and approach
• Combined together, what do these two sources accomplish?
• A clear, impactful concluding sentence
• Avoid first person/reflection language

Main Body Paragraphs
• Make sure each paragraph has a ‘point’
• If you only had this one paragraph to read…Does it make sense? Does it make a claim? Does it provide evidence for that claim? Does the paragraph drop off suddenly?
• Use introductory and concluding sentences to transition from point to point
• Transition sentences will help the flow of your paper
• Ideally, each body paragraph should have one overarching idea that relates to your main argument
• There can be ”sub” ideas to the main idea or there can be one big idea and multiple forms of “evidence” to support the idea
• The more evidence, the stronger the idea
• A weak idea would be to argue that the sky is blue without providing evidence and explanation for this claim

Conclusion
• Restate your main argument
• Summarize the main ideas of your paper
• Restate the two authors you’ve used – what are their conclusions
• A conclusion should reaffirm information you have already discussed vs. new information
• Avoid first person/reflection language
• End with a strong concluding sentence

Bibliography
• Must have!
• Organize in alphabetical order by last name
• Remember formatting is different than footnote citations

Analyzing Book 1 & Book 2
• What is the main argument of the book?
• What is their approach/methodology? How do they structure their argument? What is their main focus?
• Use your ~evidence & explanations~ to highlight the main points of the book
• What sources does the author use?
• Go beyond just saying primary and secondary – be specific and elaborate on how these sources help the argument and the authors approach
• How do these sources help the author make their argument and conclusions
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book?
o This could include sources, approach, perspective, bias, conclusions

Analyzing Book 1 & 2 together
• What are the differences and similarities of the approaches, arguments, sources, and conclusions
• Continue to follow the same ‘system’ of evidence and explanation
• This should be the longest part of your paper
• Highlight in a separate paragraph what the collective contribution of these two books to your chosen topic
o (i.e.) how have book 1 and book 2 have contributed to the historiography of decolonization?
o Continue to write assertively – avoid first person/reflection language

Final Paper Structure
• Introduction (~100-250 words)
• Analyze book 1 (~2 pages)
• Analyze book 2 (~2 pages)
• Analyze both books together (~3/3.5 pages)
• Conclusion (~100-150 words)
• Bibliography

Keep in mind…
• Remember this is a historiography paper not a research paper: focus on the argument, approach, sources, and conclusions
• Be sure you remain focused on the arguments and sources of the two authors and how they approach X vs. a research paper which answers, ‘what was X?’
• Make sure you use key cases, provide evidence in your final paper, and a strong concluding sentence at the end of your introduction
• Be sure to elaborate on the sources each author uses – go beyond saying ‘primary and secondary’ and explore what they used, how they used it, and how it helps/hinders their overall argument
• Format footnotes correctly in Chicago style citation (do not forget page numbers!)
• This section is worth 5 points and can make the difference between a letter grade – don’t lose marks where you don’t need to
• https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
• These are books not ‘novels’
• Do not use first person language “I will discuss…as you can see…what this tells us…”
• Spell the authors names correctly
• Italicize book titles