Instructions
Listen to some further instructions for this assignment as a Realaudio file (no longer available) or as a wav file (no longer available). You can also read the instructions as a txt file (no longer available).
Journal locations
I have listed below the holdings of the various NVCC campus libraries with regard to the journals suggested for this assignment. Because of constantly changing policies, please contact a reference librarian about specific campus library holdings. Please note that History Today is not an acceptable source of articles, nor is African Studies Quarterly. (Also, you may NOT do the "Jack the Ripper" article from Essays in History.) All students within the VCCS have access to VIVA and other Electronic Library resources, including online databases such as InfoTrac Onefile, ProQuest Magazines and JSTOR. These databases provide a full-text capability for finding journal articles for the abstract assignment. Please note that the directions for remote access to these databases and VIVA resources have changed recently, so be sure to check for specific information with IT.
For example, to look for an article in JSTOR at the Loudoun campus
- Go to the NVCC library home page.
- Select Magazines.
- Select SearchBank.
- Select Select JSTOR--History; InfoTrac Onefile; or ProQuest--Magazines.
- Select either refereed publications (or peer reviewed in InfoTrac and ProQuest).
- Make sure a selected article is acceptable for this assignment.
- Full text articles (DO NOT SELECT ABSTRACT OPTION) may be e-mailed, downloaded or printed (cost of $.20 per page)
If you have a question about a possible journal or a specific article, please contact your instructor.
Some library subscriptions (back issues are on the shelf or in microfilm), that I know about are, although these can change quickly:
Alexandria: American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History
Annandale: American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History
Loudoun: American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History
Manassas: American Historical Review.
Woodbridge: Journal of Modern History, Journal of World History
You might also wish to check your local university library or possibly the county library.
Required Abstract Style Considerations
The article abstract requires some very specific writing requirements (abridged from the ABC-CLIO Abstractor's Handbook).
- The abstract is a single, unindented, double-spaced paragraph not to exceed one page.
- Use complete sentences, although the first sentence of your abstract may be a phrase assuming the article as a subject, e.g., "Discusses the impact of the war."
- Omit such circumlocutions as "argues that," "states that" or "concludes that."
- The author's argument and conclusions are already the substance of the abstract. Avoid such phrases as "the author feels" or "he thinks."
- Do not repeat the author's name in the body of the abstract.
- Avoid the passive voice and use direct (not rhetorical) statements.
- Do not use any quotations from the article.
Required Abstract Bibliographic Information
- At the top left of your abstract, you must include the following information: your name and date, the author's full name, exact title of the article, volume number of the journal, year of publication and complete page numbers (see examples below).
- If you find your article online, then there is some additional URL information that you need to include with your abstract (in the top left corner): the URL of the page that gives you the article information and the URL of an existing online abstract of the article.
Please consult Charlie's History Writing Center for further information on the writing requirements of this course.
Sample article abstracts
Lee W. Eysturlid, "Where Everything Is Weighed in the Scales of Material Interest: Anglo-Turkish Trade, Piracy and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean during the Jacobean Period." Journal of European Economic History, 22 (1993): 613-26.
Relations between England and the Ottoman Empire expanded in the latter half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603),partly due to the Mediterranean grain crisis of the 1560s which provided England with the opportunity to increase its shipment of grain to the area. In 1580 the Porte and England signed a trade agreement and, soon afterward, English merchants formed the Levant Company to promote trade in Istanbul. When James I (1603-1625) assumed the throne, the relationship between the English and Turks changed. James, a Catholic, launched a verbal anti-Turk crusade; however, trade continued to expand. Despite a lengthy debate over a new charter for the Levant Company at the start of the reign, the charter was renewed in 1605. The new century saw a rapid boom in commerce, especially in textiles. Between 1609 and 1619, the export of cloth to the Turks increased from 46 to 79 percent of total cloth exports. In general, trade proved very lucrative, with profits of 300% not being unusual. One obstacle to this trade was piracy, which continued under private control, no longer sanctioned by the English crown.
Paolo M. Piergiovanni. "Technological Typologies and Economic Organisation of Silk Workers in Italy from the XIVth to the XVIIIth Centuries." Journal of European Economic History, 22 (1993): 543-64.
The organization of the silk industry in Italy from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries remained basically stable, exhibiting only minor variations on the putting-out system. Though the manufacture of silk began in Italy as early as the ninth century, weavers, the first group of silk workers to organize, only formed guilds in Venice and Genoa in the 1200s. By the mid-fourteenth century, the silk trade had organized in the cities with a distinct division of labor: winders, spinners, dyers, warpers and weavers. Each specialized group had its own bargaining power versus the merchants, and each had its own peculiar problems. The extent and formality of organization also differed from city to city. In general, the silk industry was extremely important to the economy of many cities. For example, in the sixteenth century, Lucca had about 12,000 people employed in the silk industry; while in Milan and Bologna about forty-two percent of the population and in Genoa and Naples sixty percent were silk workers. Because of this, cities often intervened to provide economic aid during lean times. Until the 1700s, production, based on an integrated putting-out cycle, did not change much, but, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, gradually weaving shifted to France with raw silk production remaining in Italy.
Michael D. Gordin. "Measure of All the Russias: Metrology and Governance in the Russian Empire." Kritika, 4 (Fall 2003): 783-815.
Dmitrii Mendeleev (1834-1907), the Russian chemist who developed the periodic table of the elements, was a key figure in the development of a regularized system of Russian weights and measures. Previous efforts at standardization in Russia had occurred in 1799 and 1835. Under Paul I, a 1799 law emphasized policing the empire to enforce previously-decreed standards. Then in 1835, under Nicholas I, a series of administrative edicts provided new, more detailed standards. The need for more precise standards was a result of the expansion of railroads in Russia and the emergence of a growing science-technology community. It was Mendeleev, in the 1890s, who began the final push for a rationalized system of Russian weights and measures. In this case a major impetus was electrification of the country, since all electrical devices at the time were calibrated in metric units. The 1899 standardization laws focused on precision measurement. Mendeleev first sought to have all Russian standards properly recalibrated for accuracy before proceeding on any conversion to the metric system. As Mendeleev's second step, he attempted to set up, not very successfully, a system of local verification stations.