The U.S. Legal History Survey Revisited: IV -- Methods of Evaluation -- Historiographical Essay

After a brief hiatus, I am returning to my series of posts on teaching the U.S. Legal History survey. (Earlier posts are here, here, and here). When I left off, I was pondering how to evaluate student learning. In retrospect, it might have been useful to find ways of evaluating the students throughout the course -- perhaps through shorter response papers or in-class exercises. (Do you all do this? What sort of assignments do you use?). This past semester, however, I based final grades entirely on a final assignment: either a ten-hour, essay-style take-home exam or a 20-25 page historiographical essay (student's choice).

The historiographical essay is an unusual assignment for a law school class, but I thought it worked well and I'll likely use it again. Here's how I introduced the assignment:

A historiographical essay is a review of the historical writings on a particular topic or field of study (for example, the law of slavery in the antebellum South or the “Constitutional Revolution” of 1937). Historiographical essays are rooted in the idea that there is no one, “true” history, but rather a set of overlapping interpretations, which are influenced by the historian’s time, place, and identity. How an historian interprets the past will be based on his or her values, education, theoretical perspective (e.g. Marxist, feminist, etc.), and social context, as well as by the primary sources that are available at the time.

A historiographical essay seeks to identify and explain change over time in how historians have approached a single topic. This requires, first, taking apart a number of books (five or six will do for this assignment). The essay should identify each book’s argument and demonstrate an understanding of how (i.e. with what evidence) the author built his or her argument. A successful historiographical essay will, second, link the books together, showing the ways in which the selected historians have built upon each other's work or are in dialogue with each other. Third, the essay should suggest productive lines for future inquiry: perhaps there is an angle that has not been explored, a theoretical perspective that scholars have yet to bring to bear on the topic, or a weakness that runs throughout the books under consideration. A historiographical essay need not be celebratory; indeed, it may be critical. What matters most is that the essay provides a thoughtful, nuanced portrait of the chosen field of scholarship.

Every student in this class is capable of producing an excellent historiographical essay, so do not be discouraged if you do not have a strong background in history. That said, this option might be particularly useful to students who have a deep interest in a particular topic and students interested in academic careers. 

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