HIST 396-30-03H, Fall 1999, 238 Dumbach
Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Associate Professor of American History
(773) 508-2232
Office hours: Monday, 8 a.m. - Noon
"There are few subjects that interest us more generally than the adventures of robbers and banditi." Charles Macfarlane, 1833
"Violence is American as apple pie." H. Rap Brown
Crime and violence fascinate. Yet, despite widespread occurrence and attention, serious historical study of criminal and "deviant" behavior is comparatively recent. This honors colloquium introduces students to the major historical questions concerning the cultures of crime in the Anglo-American world. Specific themes include the changing definitions of "deviancy" from the eighteenth century to the present, evolving perceptions of violent behavior and criminal activity, and social policies to counteract antisocial and deviant behavior. In the broadest sense, the class will explore historical meaning of good and evil.
The course requirements include one 15-20 page typewritten essay (50%), weekly one-page, typewritten reactions to the assigned reading (25%), and class participation (25%). Essay guidelines can be found at the end of this syllabus. The primary responsibility of students is to complete the weekly reading before the date of the scheduled class and contribute their thoughtful, reflective opinions in class discussion. The readings can be interpreted in a variety of ways and students should formulate some initial positions and questions to offer in the class discussion. For every article or book, students should be prepared to answer all of the questions found in the "Critical Reading" section of the syllabus below. All required readings may be purchased at Beck's Bookstore in the Granada Center on Sheridan Road. Students are not obligated to purchase any of the books since each one has been placed on reserve at Cudahy Library.
Students who are
disabled or impaired should meet with the professor within the first two weeks of the
semester to discuss the need for any special arrangements.
Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History (New York: Basic Books, 1993).
16 Sept.: MIDNIGHT BIKE RIDE - American History and Crime in Chicago (Rain Date: 23 Sept.)
Preliminary bibliography due.
Marcus Rediker, "'Under the Banner of King Death": The Social World of American Pirates, 1716-726," William and Mary Quarterly, 3:38 (1981), 203-37.
Alex Lichtenstein, "'That Disposition To Theft, With Which They Have Been Branded': Moral Economy, Slave Management, and the Law," Journal of Social History, 21 (1988), 413-40.
David T. Courtwright, Violent Land: Single Men and Social Disorder From the Frontier to the Inner City (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1996).
Richard White, "Outlaw Gangs of the Middle Border: American Social Bandits," Western Historical Quarterly, 12 (1981), 387-408.
Elliott J. Gorn, "'Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch': The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry," The American Historical Review, 90 (1985), 18-43.
Linda Gordon, "Family Violence, Feminism and Social Control," Feminist Studies, 12 (1986), 452-78.
Timothy J. Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).
David Rothman, "Perfecting the Prison: United States, 1789-1865."
Edgardo Rotman, "The Failure of Reform: United States, 1865-1965."
Norval Morris, "The Contemporary Prison, 1965-Present."
Sean McConville, "Local Justice: The Jail." All in The Oxford History of the
Prison, eds. Norval Morris and David Rothman (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995).
Larry Goldsmith, "History from the Inside Out: Prison Life in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts," Journal of Social History, 31 (1997), 109-25.
"The Autobiography of George Appo" (1916).
First Draft of Paper Due
Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone (New York: William Morrow, 1992)Œ
Laurence Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994).
Jack Katz, Seductions of Crime (New York: Basic Books, 1988)
Gertrude Himmelfarb, The New History and the Old: Critical Essays and Reappraisals (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1987), 13-46.
Final Papers Due
Discussion and class participation is a very important part of your grade (25 percent). Incisive, imaginative and thoughtful comments that generate and facilitate discussion are weighed heavily in final grades. Asking questions, responding to student questions and contributing to an ongoing discussion are a necessary part of the learning experience. Failure to speak in class will only lower a student's final grade. Discussions are scheduled for 10 class periods, each worth 3 "points." Students will receive 1 point for attendance, 2 points for minimal participation, and 3 points for active participation. Students who raise questions that generate discussion in other classes will earn extra points.
The best ways to prepare for and contribute to class discussion are: 1) complete the reading on time, and 2) critically analyze the reading. The primary goal of critical reading is to find the author's interpretation and what evidence and influences led to that conclusion. Never assume a "passive" position when reading a text. If students ask and attempt to answer the following questions, they will more fully comprehend and understand any reading.
1. What is the thesis of the author?
2. Does the author have a particular stated or unstated point of view? How does the author construct their argument? Are the author's goals, viewpoints, or agendas revealed in the introduction or preface? Does the author provide evidence to support the argument? Is it the right evidence? In the final analysis, do you think the author proves the argument or does the author rely on preconceived views or personal ideology? Why do you think that?
3. Does the author have a moral or political posture? Is it made explicit or implicit in the way the story is told? What is the author's view of human nature? Does change come from human agency and "free will" or broad socio-economic forces?
4. What assumptions does the author hold about society? Does the author see society as hierarchical, pluralistic, democratic or elitist? Does the author present convincing evidence to support this view?
5. How is the narrative constructed or organized? Does the author present the story from the viewpoint of a certain character or group? Why does the author begin and end at certain points? Is the story one of progress or decline? Why does the author write this way?
6. What issues and events does the author ignore? Why? Can you think of alternative interpretations or stories that might present a different interpretation? Why does the author ignore certain events or facts?
The essay requirement class serves several purposes. First, good, thoughtful writing disciplines and educates the mind. To write well, one must think well. If one's writing improves, so does their thinking and intelligence. Second, students personally experience on a first-hand basis some form of historical writing. A research paper relying on primary sources exposes students to the challenges, difficulties and even contradictions of analyzing historical events. Ideally, students will think more "historically" as a result of the exercise. Third, the essay can later function as a writing sample for students applying for future employment positions as well as to graduate or professional school.
Two types of long essays are acceptable for this course: research and historiographical. Research essays analyze a specific topic using primary or original sources. Examples of primary sources include (but are not limited to) newspapers, diaries, letters, oral interviews, books published during the period under study, manuscript collections, and old maps. A research essay relies on source material produced by the subject or by institutions and individuals associated in some capacity with the subject. The use and immersion of the writer/researcher in such primary and original sources is often labelled "doing history." Most of the articles and books assigned for class discussion represent this type of historical writing.
Historiographical essays are based upon at least TEN different secondary sources, or what historians have written about a subject. Such a paper examines how historians' interpretations have differed and evolved over time regarding a specific topic or theme. The major focus of a historiographical essay are the ideas of historians, how they compare with each other and how they have changed over time. Examples and models for such essays can be found in the following collections:
Louis Masur, ed., The Challenge of American History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1999); originally Reviews in American History, vol. 26, no. 1 (March 1998).
Eric Foner, ed., The New American History (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1990), especially essays in part II.
Both types of assignments should be the length of a standard scholarly article (approximately 15-20 typewritten pages of text, plus notes). Students should select a topic as soon as possible, in consultation with the instructor. A preliminary bibliography which includes books, articles, oral interviews, or other possible sources should be completed and handed in by 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, 220 Sept. 1999.
All essays should be typed. Students who complete the essay early have the option to rewrite the paper upon its evaluation and return (remember - the only good writing is good rewriting). For students who wish to have the option of rewriting the essay, TWO copies of the first draft of the essay should be in the professor's possession by 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, 1 November 1999. All other and rewritten essays are due at the last class on 6 December 1999. On both dates, students should submit TWO copies of the essay. Students who rewrite the essay should also include the corrected first draft.
All final papers should be free of typographical errors, misspellings and grammatical miscues. For every eight such mistakes, the essay's grade will be reduced by a fraction (A to A-, A- to B+, etc.). Essays are to be written for this class ONLY. No essay used to fulfill the requirements of a past or current course may be submitted. Failure to follow this rule will result in an automatic grade of F for the assignment. Extensions are granted automatically. However, grades on essays handed in 48 hours (or more late) will be reduced by a fraction (A to A-, A- to B+, etc.). Every three days thereafter another fraction will be dropped from the paper's final grade.
Students in search of a paper topic can begin their investigation with a cursory reading of any published overview on the history of crime, deviancy, and violence. Examples include:
Eric H. Monkkonen, ed. Crime and Justice in American History: Historical Articles on the Origins and Evolution of American Criminal Justice (Westport, Conn.: Meckler, 1991), 11 vols.
Eric A. Johnson and Eric H. Monkkonen, eds. The Civilization of Crime: Violence in Town and Country Since the Middle Ages (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1996).
Clive Emsley and Louis A. Knafla, eds., Crime History and Histories of Crime (Westport, Conn., 1996).
Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr (eds.), The History of Violence in America (New York: Praeger, 1969), 2 vols.
Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds., History From Crime: Selections from Quaderni Storici (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1994) [European history].
The following journals are also useful: Criminal Justice History, Newsletter
of the International Association of the Association for Criminal Justice History,
Journal of Social History.
The history of piracy and pirates
Convict labor in colonial America
How historians have treated famous criminals: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Charles Manson
Slave revolts in North and South America before 1860
The history of prostitution
The history of serial killers
The creation and evolution of the police in American cities
The lynch mob and lynching in American history
The riot or the "crowd" in certain period of American history
Changing interpretation of dueling in American history
The creation and evolution of the detective in the U.S.
The history of the prison and the jail (they are different)
The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover
The history of some aspect of organized crime
Historians and the Lizzie Borden case.
Historians, journalists and the Leopold and Loeb trial.
The changing treatment of domestic violence (i.e. wife-beating and child abuse).
The history of pornography or obscenity.
The role of public executions and capital punishment.
Changing interpretations on the meaning of juvenile delinquency.
Literary critics and the detective or crime novel (Arthur Conan Doyle, Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler).
Literary critics and comic book superheroes/crime fighters (Batman, Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Captain America).
Historians and witchcraft in colonial America.
Changing interpretations regarding the history of "organized crime" and the mafia.
Compare published autobiographies of prostitutes and madams.
For a case study, choose a specific criminal trial and examine the media coverage over a certain period of time. For example, compare the coverage of the trials of John Gotti in the 1980s and 1990s with that of Lucky Luciana in the 1930s.
Compare media coverage of sex crimes in peak years 1937-39, 1949-51, and 1957-59, using New York Times Index and Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature.
Compare the various warnings and fears about crime and the underworld found in various urban guidebooks, such as the "mysteries and miseries of the city" series from the 19th century.
Changing conceptions and definitions of sexual psychopaths (rapists, homosexuals, child molesters), using a single or several medical journals (i.e. Journal of Criminal Psychopathology began in 1940, Psychoanalytic Review began in 1913, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry began in 1930, Mental Hygiene began in 1916, Journal of Social Hygiene began in 1914).
Describe and analyze the changing conceptions and meanings of eugenics and definitions of "the unfit" in the Journal of Psycho-Asthenics and the American Journal of Sociology from 1895 to 1940.
Changing definitions of mental illness regarding sex offenders - rapists, child molesters, homosexuals, etc.
History of some aspect of homosexual life in Chicago using gay publications like Windy City Times.
History of some aspect of 19th or 20th century abortion in Illinois using the Abortionists File and/or the Abortifacient File in Historical Health Fraud Collection at the American Medical Association Library in Chicago.
Compare the writings of Anthony Comstock (1870s and 1880s) and the Meese Commission Report [U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, Final Report (Washington, D.C., 1986), 2 vols.].
Changes in the debate on the social impact of pornography from 1950 to 1990.
Compare the various ideas on incarceration and prison by different 19th- and 20th-century wardens and criminologists: Enoch C. Wines, Zebulon Brockway, Richard Dugdale, Frederick H. Wines, Lewis Lawes. Identify and compare over time a series of police memoirs.