1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Industrial Revolution
3. Napoleon Bonaparte
4. Isaac Newton
5. Declaration of Independence
6. Charles Darwin

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit) again, which I used as the 100% mark (which again raised everyone’s grades a lot). The median score was between B and B-. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

If you compare it to the last quiz, you can see some movement from B to A and some movement from D to C. But not much.

Context: What is the background of the author? Is their personal background relevant to the subject of the book? What is the historical context, the time period discussed by the book? What other books discuss the same kinds of things, and how does this book compare? Note that your textbook is an invaluable resource for comparisons and context.

Obviously, there are several different issues going on here, but they basically fall into two categories: Historical context and Historiographical context.

Historical context is about how the material in your book fits with the rest of what’s going on in the world at the time: if you’re writing about Japanese 19th century industrialization, for example (nobody is, unfortunately), you’d want to note that Japan was a late industrializer compared to other major industrial nations, that it was the age of unequal treaties, and that industrialization happened at the same time as the rise of nationalism, parliamentarianism, and imperialism.

Historiographical context, on the other hand, is about how the book fits with the rest of the books written on the same topic: what are the normal interpretations of this event and how does this book change that; who is this book arguing with, and why?

In both cases, your textbook is a good starting place, because it does look at the broader context, and because it represents a kind of “current consensus” on most issues. Sometimes the book itself will describe the context for you; sometimes you have to work at it a bit.

* Yes, the context assignment was supposed to be due Friday the 6th, but I forgot to mention it in class, so I’m pushing it back to Monday the 9th.

African Association
Carl Linnaeus
Encyclopedia
enlightened despots
Enlightenment
Great Trigonometrical Survey
Isaac Newton
James Cook
John Locke
Joseph Banks
laissez faire
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Philosophes
problem of longitude
René Descartes
Sir Francis Bacon Chapter 22

caudillos
Congress of Angostura
Congress of Vienna
Constitution of the United States
Declaration of Independence
George Washington
Jacobins
Joseph Brant
Louis XVI
Miguel de Hidalgo y Costilla
Napoleon Bonaparte
National Assembly
Simón Bolìvar
Third Estate
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Tupac Amaru II Chapter 23

Alexander Herzen
Charles Darwin
Crimean War
Emancipation Edict
Frankfurt Assembly
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Industrial Revolution
John Stuart Mill
Karl Marx
Louis Blanc
Louis Napoleon
Muhammad Ali
Otto Von Bismarck
The Reform Bill of 1832
Tanzimat reforms
Tsar Alexander II Chapter 24

Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Boxer Rebellion
Commodore Matthew Perry
Empress Ci Xi
Fukuzawa Yûkichi
Gopal K. Gokhale
Indian National Congress
Indian Revolt of 1857
Meiji Restoration
Partition of Bengal
Rammohun Roy
Russo-Japanese War
Self-Strengthening Movement
Sino-Japanese War
Taiping Rebellion
Treaty of Nanjing Chapter 25

Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Jackson
Benito Juàrez
Confederations of Canada
Gilded Age
Indian Removal Act
Métis Rebellion
Pauline Johnson-Tekahionwake
Porfirio Diáz
Reconstruction
responsible government
Sir John A. MacDonald
Sitting Bull
War of the Pacific
Yucatán Rebellion Chapter 26

Asante Kingdom
Berlin Conference
Cecil Rhodes
Chulalongkorn
David Livingstone
Federation of Indochina
King Khama III
King Leopold II of Belgium
The Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad
Menelik II
New Imperialism
Samori Toure
Shaka
Suez Canal
Union of South Africa
Xhosa Cattle Killing ]]> http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/2009/10/30/study-terms-for-chapters-21-through-26/feed/ 0 http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/2009/10/29/the-history-of-electric-outlets/ http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/2009/10/29/the-history-of-electric-outlets/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:03:17 +0000 jdresner http://dresnerworld.edublogs.org/2009/10/29/the-history-of-electric-outlets/ Why are there over a dozen different types of electrical appliance plugs in the world? History, of course.

The PSU Philosophical Society Annual Speaker Series

·         Friday, November 13, 2009 4:00 pm

·         Grubbs Hall Room 107

·         “Liberalism and Religious Equality”

·         Speaker ­ Dr. Jon Mahoney

The PSU Philosophical Society will proudly present a talk given by Dr. Jon Mahoney entitled, “Liberalism and Religious Equality”.  The talk will take place on Friday, November 13, 2009 in Grubbs Hall Room 107 at 4:00 pm.  Dr. Mahoney is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Kansas State University.  He earned his PhD from State University of New York ­ Binghamton.  He specializes in social and political philosophy, ethics, and philosophy of law.  He has published in numerous journals such as Law and Philosophy, Social Philosophy Today, and The Journal of Value Inquiry.  His work has also appeared in numerous collections such as The Legacy of John Rawls (Continuum, 2005), Law and Peace in Kant’s Philosophy (de Gruyter, 2008), and Pragmatic Politics and Pragmatist Culture (Cambridge, 2009).  Please contact James McBain (jmcbain-@pittstate.edu or 235-6039) for further information.

The PSU Philosophical Society Annual Speaker Series

·         Tuesday, November 17, 2009 3:30 pm

·         Russ Hall Room 409

·         “The Surprising Simple Secular Source of Morality”

·         Speaker ­ Dr. Scott Forschler

The PSU Philosophical Society will proudly present a talk given by Dr. Scott Forschler entitled “The Surprisingly Simple Secular Source of Morality” on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.  The talk will take place in Russ Hall 409 at 3:30 pm.  Dr. Forschler specializes in ethical theory.  He earned his PhD in philosophy from the University of Minnesota ­ Twin Cities and also earned MA in philosophy from Minnesota ­ Twin Cities, a MA in history from Butler University, a MLS from the University of Wisconsin ­ Madison, and a MA in English from Pittsburg State.  He has published articles in Utilitas and The Journal of Value Inquiry; and his book, The Logic of Morality, is forthcoming from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.  Please contact James McBain (jmcbain-@pittstate.edu or 235-6039) for further information.

While I didn’t require resubmission of thesis statements that missed the mark this time, I’m adding an element to the next book review assignment, the discussion of the argument and evidence of the book: you must include a clearly marked, one sentence statement indicating what you think the thesis of the work is. This is quite important for the argument and evidence discussion: if you don’t know what the author is trying to prove, you can’t evaluate the effectiveness of the argument they make or the quality of the evidence they present.

As you try to summarize and discuss your chosen books, be careful of how you use the book and any related sources you may find. Obviously, using the actual words of a source — textbook, internet or otherwise — without quotation marks or other acknowledgement is clearly and blatantly plagiarism. Weak paraphrasing can constitute plagiarism:  if you don’t thoroughly alter the language of your source, it is a form of intellectual theft. Even something fully paraphrased in your own words can be considered plagiarism if you don’t acknowledge your source(s) — this is what footnotes, endnotes and parenthetical citations with works cited pages are for. Plagiarism is academic dishonesty, theft of intellectual property, and a violation of University policy, and will not be tolerated in this course.

Finally, a little 19th century union history — the struggle between wage-earning workers and capitalist owners — in early baseball.

In other news, historical sea logs help climatologists.