LOST ROCKS | history-with-hagan

STUDY GUIDE: THE LOST ROCKS

History books aren’t like other books. This is a weird field. There are a bunch of different types of history books, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a short list:

Biography – a study of someone’s life. There’s a danger the biographer will either really like or really hate the person being researched. That can alter the nature of the biography.

General Monograph - a non-fiction treatment of something in the past. These are often your “tell a story” books. These are easily the most common type of history book. You can find them anywhere.

Thesis Monograph – a very precise and thorough treatment of one element of history that is designed to make an argument. These books are often written by scholars for other scholars. You generally won’t find these in bookstores.

Autobiography – someone’s description of his/her own life.

Survey – books that cover centuries or decades, looking at an era rather than a specific event. In US history, there are a bunch of these about the decades before the Revolution, the decades before the Civil War, the colonial era, etc.

Scholarly Articles – extremely dense pieces of writing that might as well count as books because they’re so packed with information you’ll probably spend as much time figuring them out as you will reading a book. These beasts are usually aimed at other scholars.

FOR THIS TEST, you’ll be asked to be a content reader and reviewer. There will be questions about fact and analysis. This pretty much reflects how you should approach history in general. With every history book you read, you should come away with two things:

1. A full understanding of the content

2. A book-review level of understanding about the work itself.

If you follow these steps, you will get a good grade on the test and become an informed reader.

FIRST STEP:

Read the book and figure out what category it’s in. Is this a survey book, a general monograph, a biography? This matters A LOT because there are different approaches for each type. The kind of study you conduct for general monograph won’t work for an autobiography.

***With THE LOST ROCKS, we’re going to call it a GENERAL MONOGRAPH. That’s the most common type of history book, found throughout bookstores/grocery stores/ Walmart. Therefore, what follows below is a guide to learning/understanding a general monograph.***

READ THE BOOK.

When you read, engage the book with what we call “ACTIVE READING.”

Active reading means underlining, taking margin notes, writing A LOT in the book.

When I read a history book, every time something important happens or every time I need a reminder about what is taking place, who is doing something, or when something is occurring, I write it in the margins. If it’s a really complex book, I start summarizing every paragraph and keeping track of the timeline in the margins. Some of my books get covered with notes.

And when I go back to those books five years later, I can usually recall immediately what they were about by looking at the notes.

Let’s go to The Lost Rocks, chapter one, page one. After you read the page, what do you have written and underlined? I’ve got these things underlined:

Louis Hammond
August, 1937
Edenton, North Carolina
Chowan River

And I’ve got this written in the margin – Hammond - California. Traveling during Depression. Near Edenton, NC.

1937.

It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when I come back to this book to update my tests, the information will be right there, easy to remember and access.

SECOND STEP:

Now that you’ve read the book, learn the content. You won’t be able to review and analyze unless you’ve got a firm grasp of the information in the book.

You’ll remember content better if you take your study of the content into what is called “higher-order” thinking, which involves analysis, evaluation, and creativity.

The test will ask content questions from all levels of thinking – from basic memorization (the lowest) to creativity (the highest). Higher-order thinking will be required on the essay. Start on the bottom by learning the general information from this list:

General information you need to know. Help yourself memorize through active reading:

The Author and the book:

Know the author and his background.
Know what lead him to this topic.
Evaluate if you can trust what the author says by looking at his research and notes.
Know what the author is arguing. All history books have an argument.
Know the publisher, publication date, and be familiar with what's in the book - pictures, maps, etc.
Know how the research is presented and the types of sources consulted by the author.

There is more on how to evaluate the author and the book in the Book Review section at the bottom of this page.

The Content:

There are two stories in this book, so you have to study them both.

The most fundamental information you need to know involves dates and locations:

When did the Lost Colony story take place? During what time period?
When did the Dare Stones story take place? During what time period?

You will also need to know the basic narrative of both stories:

What happened to the Lost Colony? (As it, what is the history, not what is the solution to the mystery.)
What is the basic story over the Dare stones?

Then turn to the major players in each story.

FOR THE LOST COLONY, THIS INCLUDES:

John White
Sir Walter Raleigh and his fate
Captain Spicer
Captain Fernandez
Eleanor Dare
Virginia Dare
The 1587 colonists
Algonquians and Wingina
Ralph Lane
Roanoke Island
CROATOAN
Sir Walter Raleigh
Captain John Smith and what he learned about the Lost Colony.
Hints here and there that some colonists might have still been alive when Jamestown was settled
William Strachey and what he learned.
Powhatan
John Lawson's discovery
Lumbee tribe
The reasons why the colonists didn't stay on Croatoan Island.
What most people believed about the fate of the colony as of the late 1800s.

FOR THE DARE STONE STORY, MAJOR PLAYERS INCLUDE:

Louis Hammond
The Chowan Stone and story it told
Emory University
The Chowan river location and its significance.
Historical hoaxes.
Dr. James Lester
Dr. Haywood Pearce
Christopher Crittenden
Brenau College
The amount of money offered for Dare stones
Tom Shallington
Bill Eberhardt
The basic story told by the Dare Stones
Stone #46
The Brenau Conference
The Saturday Evening Post
Boyden Sparks
Evidence the stone is a hoax, and evidence the stone might be real.

NOW GET INTO SOME OF THE DETAILS OF EACH STORY. FOR THE LOST COLONY, THAT MEANS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Why Britain wanted a colony in North America
What happened in the 1585 venture that caused it to fail
What Native Americans hoped to get from the English colony
What was supposed to happen on the 1587 effort vs what did happen
Why White returned to England
Raleigh's efforts to resupply the colony
What White found when he returned to the colony site in 1590
The significance of CROATAN
When England declared the colonists officially dead.
Subsequent attempts to rescue and figure out what happened to the Lost Colony in the 1600s and 1700s
Native American testimony about what happened to the colonists.
The author’s final interpretation of what might have been the fate of the colonists.

The Dare Stones Story:

Understand the general narrative of what happened
Basic information about the discovery of the Chowan Stone – how it was found, in what context
Where it was taken to be examined.
The initial examination of the Chowan Stone and its finder, and the initial reactions to the discovery
Initial suspicions about the Chowan Stone’s finder and about the stone itself
How news of the stone leaked and why reporters tended to say it was real.
What discoveries were needed to prove the authenticity of the Chowan stone in the 1930s.
The Second Stone and its significance.
Why Pearce was so convinced there were more stones and the method Pearce used to get people to search for them.
Why Pearce fell for the obvious hoax.
The nature of the subsequent Dare Stones – who found them, where they were found
The Chappell stone and its possible significance.
How the Shallington stones were discredited
The various experts brought in to examine the stones
The primary suspicions about the Dare Stones
Boyden Sparks and the exposure of the hoax
The aftermath of the hoax - what happened to the major players.
Modern scholarship about the stones - the Stephenson report.

Information about the hoax. As much of this book unfolds a massive hoax, study some of the warning signs that were missed. Chapter 14 is very useful here:

The condition of the stones
The nature of their discovery
The names on the stones
The writing and language on the stones
The linear way that the stones were discovered
The single person finding all the stones
The significance of sulfuric acid
The blackmail attempt
The reaction various skeptics had to the subsequent Dare stones after they were publicized.

That’s the basic information. Help it stick by progressing up the levels of higher-order thinking. With higher-order thinking, you pass simple memorization and move into analysis.

The first level of higher -order thinking is UNDERSTANDING.

UNDERSTANDING is accomplished through summary, description, rephrasing.

Answer these questions: (You don’t have to write full essays. You can write these up if you want to do so, of course, but just thinking these questions through or jotting down some notes can be equally useful.)

Write the story of the Chowan Stone’s discovery.
Write the story colonization on Roanoke Island before 1587.
Explain why Roanoke Island was unsuited for colonization.
What differentiates the Chowan Stone from the other Dare Stones?
Explain three things that might have indicated immediately that the Dare Stones were fakes.
Explain why the Dare Stones were called a “novel in stone.”
Describe what it must have been like for the colonists left on Roanoke Island in 1587.
Describe how Professor Pearce gradually fell for the hoax – describe how his skepticism and rigor of his analysis began to fade.
Summarize what the Dare stones said happened to the Roanoke colonists.

___________________________________________________________

Now continue on to APPLICATION, which is the act of applying content to answer questions or to understand similar situations.

Answer these questions:

Are there any other instances of hoaxes in American history – hoaxes that fooled experts like this? How are these hoaxes similar or different from this one?
How come John White didn’t search for the colonists more thoroughly in 1590? How come he was unable to return again to search for them?
What questions would you ask of Dr. Haywood Pearce and Tom Eberhardt?
Compare John Lawson’s theory about what happened to the Lost Colony with what Captain John Smith discovered.
How did Boyden Sparks’ research into the Dare stones differ from Professor Pearce’s? What did the reporter consider that the professor did not?

___________________________________________________________

ANALYSIS is next. This is when you start making arguments about the information.

Answer these questions:

What is the single most important piece of information that proved that the Dare Stones were a hoax?
Do reporters make better researchers than content experts? Always? Sometimes? Under what circumstances? And why?
Do you think John White was an effective governor/advocate for the Lost Colony? What might have happened had a different individual been in charge?
Why is Virginia Dare so often referenced in regards to the Lost Colony?
Why did Professor Pearce fall for this hoax? Was Pearce, despite his tremendous education, seriously lacking in critical thought ability? What was wrong with this guy? Or is what happened to him a lesson in getting too carried away with ones dreams, capabilities, and importance?
What factors about the Professor and Eberhardt played a role in fooling Pearce? Did class and education play a part?

______________________________________________________

EVALUATION. Use the information in this book to evaluate someone else’s argument or the information in the book.

Answer these questions:

After everything you’ve read in this book, evaluate the hoax. Was it effective or not?
Which of the interpretations in regard to the fate of the Lost Colony do you think is correct? Why?
Do you think the Chowan Stone is real? Why or why not?
After reading this book, what information do you think should always be considered before accepting a discovery or idea that sounds too good to be true?

___________________________________________________________

CREATIVITY. Come up with something original.

Draw a picture of a Dare Stone that describes what you think happened to the Lost Colony, based on what you read in this book. Try to copy the old English and language. What does this activity reveal about the nature of this hoax?
What does this book tell you about fooling the experts? What do you need to do?
The story of the Lost Colony has haunted United States and British history for centuries. Can you think of another mystery with similar staying power? Which one? And why do you think the memory of these events lingers?

__________________________________________________________

Take yourself through those layers, and you’ll have a full understanding of the content of this book. And, like I said, there will be higher-order questions on the test, particularly on the essay.

THIRD STEP: CONDUCT A BOOK REVIEW:

Now that you have the information and analysis, you have enough information to make a critique. No history book should ever escape review. NEVER just accept what an author has written without subjecting it to analysis and criticism. There will be some book review questions on the test.

Reviewing a General Monograph is really easy. Always start at the top – with the person who wrote the book.

THE AUTHOR: Ask these questions.

What is the person's background?
Is the person qualified to write about the subject?
What are the author's affiliations? To what groups does the author belong? (Sometimes the author is in a professional organization or two – like the American Association of History. All organizations are different and have different missions. Membership reveals a lot. Sometimes the author is not in a professional organization. That, too, tells you something.)
Why did the author write the book? What drew him/her to the story?

Analysis of the author ALONE goes a long way towards appreciating something critically. Background information can clue you in to hidden motivations the author might have.

Next, turn to the document/book/article itself. Ask this question:

What is the argument?

In a history book like this one, you want to figure out what the author is doing with the story. No one writes a history book just to tell a story. There’s always something else going on – some argument in there to give the story meaning. In a book, you’re going to find the argument in the introduction and again in the conclusion. Same in an article. The first and last paragraphs in an article will tell you the argument.

The argument doesn’t have to be something horribly complex. Most general monographs have simple arguments. Sometimes it’s just a matter of “I thought I could use this story to explore a lost world.” Or “I uncovered a great deal of complexity in what looks like a simple story.” Or “There are not heroes here” and its twin “There are unsung heroes here.”

The deeper you go into scholarship, the more complex the argument and the more you have to know about the subject going in. That’s why it’s useful to know if your author is a scholar or not. Books written for normal audiences often have very simple arguments.

Can you find the argument easily? No? That’s something to consider.

NEXT, CHECK THE RESEARCH.

Now, once you get the argument, start looking at the research. Historical argument rests solely on research. If it’s garbage, so is the book you’re reading. If the research is good, then you are better able to trust what’s in the book. So turn to the Bibliography and Notes sections and figure out the answers to these questions:

What sources did the author consider? Are there original sources and books written later? Does the author address the sources and discuss how they were used? Is there anything funny about the research? (Sometimes you find authors who refuse to consult books that disagree with them. That’s not good.) Did the author discover a new source? (Yes, in this case.)

You may not have full answers to all these questions, and you don’t have to memorize the sources, but be sure you know at least something about the research involved in this book.

Now consider what’s in the book – does the author back up the story with pictures? Maps? Images? Diagrams? Are they effective? Is the content sufficient?

Put everything together and run down this checklist:

Author: Scholar? Y N

Author: If a scholar, do you know his/her experience and affiliations? Y N

Author: Some experience writing? Y N

Author: Explains reason for writing? Y N

Book: Understand argument? Y N

Book: Argument easy to figure out? Y N

Book: Writing easy to follow? Y N

Book: Can you explain why the writing was easy or difficult to follow? Y N

(Cite one example.)

Book: Relevant pictures, etc. present? Y N

Book: Did pictures, etc. help? Y N

Book: Anything you don’t understand? Y N

Book: Bias evident? Y N

(Cite example.)

Research: Bibliography and notes present? Y N

Research: Bibliography and notes look solid and thorough? Y N

Research: Information cited? Y N

Research: Enough information is present in the book to back up the argument? Y N

The combinations of how you answer these questions determine how you’ll score the book.

You might get: Experienced author, bad research, incomplete treatment, unclear writing. Poor effort. Book is crap.

Or: Inexperienced author, excellent research, decent writing. Great book.

Or: Experienced author, obvious bias, membership in an extremist history group, decent research, excellent writing. Good book but not entirely trustworthy; don’t trust until findings are compared to other books on subject.

If this seems like a lot of analysis and effort, it’s not. Just conduct all this content and review evaluation as you read.

Karen Hagan, Ph.D.