Expanded Course Descriptions - Spring 2010
Spring 2010
HIS 300-01 RESEARCH SEMINAR
Professor Douglas Chambers
Reg. Code 1880
MW 2:00-3:15
The course considers the nature of historical research, the job of historians, and the materials at their disposal. We will study and put into practice a number of different historical techniques and make use of a number of different source materials, including journal articles, oral history, and film. Students will produce a significant piece of research that will make use of the skills they have learnt over the semester.
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HIS 300-02 RESEARCH SEMINAR
Professor Kyle Zelner
Reg. Code 3060
TT 1:00-2:15
A required course for History majors, this course will teach the basic skills of “doing history”—critical reading, writing historical prose, formulating a research topic, rigorous research in primary and secondary sources, writing a major research paper, redrafting, and presenting your findings in oral presentations. We will also attempt to come to grips with the question of why history is important.
Students will write a book review, a major research paper (at least 12 pages long), a redraft of the major paper after instructor comments, and research exercises. Students will also give oral presentations. Participation in class discussions will also make up a part of the final grade.
The tentative texts for the class include (but are not limited to):
John J. Arnold. History: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford, 2000.
Mignon Fogarty. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. New York: Henry Holt, 2008.
Conal Furay and Michael J. Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide. 2nd ed.Wheeling, ILL:Harlan Davidson; January 2000. *Note: Do not buy this book used as it is a workbook.
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Wayne G. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, eds. 7th ed. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2007.
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HIS 300-03 RESEARCH SEMINAR
Professor Ruth Percy
Reg. Code 11488
TT 8:00-9:15
The course considers the nature of historical research, the job of historians, and the materials at their disposal. We will study and put into practice a number of different historical techniques and make use of a number of different source materials, including journal articles, oral history, and film. Students will produce a significant piece of research that will make use of the skills they have learnt over the semester.
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HIS 310-01 SURVEY LATIN AMERICA
Professor Sarah Franklin
Reg. Code 18348
TT 11:00-12:15
This class serves as an introduction to the history of Latin America. Through lecture, discussions, readings, and multimedia, this course will explore themes in Latin American history. We will specifically examine Contact, Colonial Latin America, Independence, Revolution, and modern Latin America. Moreover, we will examine race, class, and gender in order to understand better the Latin American experience. This course will strengthen your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, and provide a foundation for understanding Latin America today. Students will complete two exams, read three historical texts, and write three papers on the assigned texts.
Books for this course include:
Martin, Cheryl E. and Mark Wasserman. Latin America and Its Peoples. Combined volume. 2nd edition. New York: Pearson, 2008.
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1972.
Lauderdale Graham, Sandra. Caetana Says No: Women’s Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Paperback.
Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchú. Edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. New York: Verso, 1984.
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HIS 331-01 LATER MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Professor Phyllis Jestice
Reg. Code 37911
MWF 9:00-9:50
This course examines the development of European states and society in the second half of the Middle Ages (c. 1050–c. 1500). The single most dominant theme of the course is “who’s in charge?”—the struggle of kings and emperors to assert sovereignty, of nobles to resist that tendency, of townsmen claiming a role in political life, and of the papacy to assert an overarching dominion over European affairs.
Readings for the course:
Aberth, John. The Black Death. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.
Duby, Georges. William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry. Pantheon, 1987.
Guibert of Nogent. A Monk’s Confession: The Memoirs of Guibert of Nogent, trans. Paul Archambault. Penn State University Press, 1995.
Pernoud, Régine. Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses. Scarborough House, 1969.
Tierney, Brian, ed. and trans. The Crisis of Church and State 1050–1300. University of Toronto Press, 1988.
Course requirements: There will be a midterm and a final exam, besides regular quizzes on the readings. Students will also have a choice between writing two short (4-5 page) essays based on course readings or a longer (10-12 page) research paper on a topic to be decided in consultation with the instructor.
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HIS 334-01 EUROPE IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Professor Ruth Percy
Reg. Code 38071
TT 2:25-3:40
This course explores the history of twentieth-century Europe. It surveys the watersheds of the last century in Europe, from the Russian Revolution to the two world wars, to the rise of the European Union. It will also trace the equally important undercurrents of a series of social and cultural themes, including gender, cultures, minorities, and decolonization. A number of case studies and problems will be broached in lectures and through discussion. Students will learn about more than just the history of “great people,” and will leave the course with a greater understanding of some of the underlying themes of the twentieth century.
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HIS 351-01 THEMES IN US MILITARY HISTORY
Professor Kevin Dougherty
Reg. Code 37909
TT 9:30-10:45
HIS 351, Themes in American Military History, is repeatable for up to six credit hours. This semester’s course will focus on American military leadership during the 19th century with emphasis on the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the reforms initiated at the end of the century. Students should leave the course with not just an improved understanding of the historical aspects of military leadership in the 19th century, but also practical knowledge of general leadership principles as well. The course will require three books:
The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848
The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers
Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience
Students will be required to write a 1,000- to 1,500-word paper analyzing some aspect of American military leadership in the 19th century. They will also be required to lead a classroom discussion of one of the book chapters.
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HIS 370-01 MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
Professor Max Grivno
Reg. Code 3066
TT 2:25-3:40
This course offers a broad overview of Mississippi’s history from the period before European settlement to the present. The class is divided chronologically, with the first third examining the cultures of Mississippi’s indigenous peoples, European exploration and colonization, the arrival of African slaves, and the creation of Mississippi territory. The middle section of the course examines the creation of an economic and political system dominated by slaveholding planters. Among the major issues addressed in this section are slavery, secession, the Civil War and its aftermath, and the overthrow of the state’s Reconstruction government. The final section of the course begins in the 1870s and continues to the present. Topics discussed include the disenfranchisement of black voters, the rise of Jim Crow, the Progressive Era, World War I, the 1927 Mississippi Flood, the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and the resurgence of the state’s Republican Party.
Required Readings: In addition to various primary sources and journal articles that will be available through electronic reserves, there are four required texts for this course.
Carson, James Taylor. Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from
Prehistory to Removal. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Davis, Edwin Adams and William Ransom Hogan. The Barber of Natchez. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
Helferich, Gerard. High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta. New York: Counterpoint, 2007.
Oshinsky, David M. “Worse Than Slavery”: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. New York: Free Press, 1996.
Grading: There will be several quizzes on the readings, three formal essays (each three to four pages in length), and two examinations (a midterm and a final).
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HIS 400-01 SR HISTORY SEMINAR
Professor Louis Kyriakoudes
Reg. Code 11564
TT 9:30-10:45
The Cigarette in American Life: History and the North American Origins of the Global Tobacco Epidemic
The human toll of cigarette smoking is enormous: one in five deaths in the United States is caused by tobacco-related disease. At one time, the majority of Americans smoked. Tobacco use has played a central role in American history. The cigarette industry spearheaded of modern advertising and it played a central role in popular culture and entertainment. The scientific quest to understand the causes of smoking-related diseases transformed medical research. Finally, the issue of smoking and health played a significant role in the emergence of modern public health activism. As smoking declines in western industrialized nations, the tobacco industry has turned it sights to the developing world.
This course will explore the phenomenon of the cigarette in American society over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will view it from multiple perspectives: popular culture, the economy, politics, consumerism, public health, and the history of science. We will read Allan Brandt’s Cigarette Century and other materials. Each student will also produce a seminar paper based upon primary sources and will give two oral presentations.
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HIS 4/517-01 VIETNAM WAR
Professor Andrew Wiest
Reg. Codes 3072/3086
MWF 12:00-12:50
This course uses a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate the Vietnam War, arguably the most important event, or series of events, in the history of 20th century America. The United States entered the conflict unified behind the doctrine of the Cold War. Idealistic American youth answered the call defend their nation against Communist aggression. But by the end of the war America had suffered its first ever defeat, and its society was in turmoil. America would never be the same, or as innocent, ever again. Over 3 million Americans served in Vietnam, and over 58,000 lost their lives there in a unique national tragedy. In Vietnam itself over 2.4 million people perished in a brutal civil war that impacted society there in a way few outsiders can understand.
The course will investigate Vietnamese culture, the antecedents to the war, the Fist Indochina War, the military prosecution of the American war in Vietnam, the political battles on the American homefront and the ramifications of the US defeat in Vietnam. The course will also focus on less-known topics such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the music of the era, theories of counterinsurgency and wartime literature. The course is enriched by the participation of several Vietnam veterans. Simply put there is no better way to learn of Vietnam than through the eyes of those who participated in the conflict. Past class participants have included: Marines, helicopter pilots, nurses, CIA operatives, a contentious objector, medics, a Phoenix Program operative, South and North Vietnamese veterans, a member of the Weather Underground, pilots, POWs, a SOG operative and countless “grunts.”
Course readings will include: Wiest, Barbier and Robins – America and the Vietnam War: Re-Examining the Culture and History of a Generation (READER); Bao Ninh – The Sorrow of War; Wiest – Vietnam’s Forgotten Army; Moss – Vietnam: An American Ordeal (TEXT); Maraniss – They Marched into Sunlight.
Course participants will produce book reviews of each book, with the exception of the textbook and the reader. Students will also write a research paper (8-10 pages) on a topic of their choosing, with the agreement of the instructor. The average of the book reviews and the research paper will form 33% of the final grade. Students will also take one midterm and one final – each comprising 33% of the final grade.
Graduate Students enrolled in HIS 517 will read and report on two additional books chosen in consultation with the instructor. Graduate students will also produce a more substantial research paper (15-20 pages), based at least in part on primary source material and will take part in additional seminars with the instructor.
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HIS 4/535-01 ANCIENT GREECE
Professor Mark Clark
Reg. Codes 18424/37908
Tues. 6:30-9:15
I bet you can figure this out from the title.
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HIS 445-01 RACIAL THOUGHT IN WESTERN WORLD
Professor Douglas Chambers
Reg. Code 37918
MWF 10:00-10:50
This is an upper-division comparative history course on racial thought in Western society from the late Middle Ages through the modern period. We will consider various kinds of racism, from anti-Semitism to white supremacy, in historical context, with a focus on”what people did” rather than “what was done to people.” Students will have the opportunity to read a number of recently published books, and write short (5 pp.) response papers; class participation and discussion will be an important part of this course. Possible books include:
George M. Frederickson, Racism: A Short History (2003)
Walter Lacquer, The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism (2006)
Claudio Saunt, Black, White, and Indian (2006)
Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind (2000)
Carl Degler, Neither Black Nor White (1986)
Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (2004)
Robin D. Gill, Orientalism and Occidentalism (2004)
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HIS 4/558-01 MODERN RUSSIA
Professor Brian LaPierre
Reg. Codes 37912/37913
MWF 10:00-10:50
Course Description
For anti-capitalist intellectuals, the Soviet Union was a savior society that promised non-exploitative economic development and classless international cooperation. For its many conservative and liberal opponents, the Soviet Union was a militaristic monster that exemplified godless atheism, aggressive expansionism, social repression and brutal state terror. In this class, we will look at the Soviet Union from all its angles – both good and bad. We will look at a state that dragged Russia from rural idiocy to industrial modernity, eliminated illiteracy, equalized gender opportunities, achieved enviable scientific accomplishments and instituted a generous cradle-to-grave system of state-supported social welfare. On the other hand, we will also look at a state that slaughtered and starved to death millions of its citizens and imprisoned millions more in the service of its utopian ideological ideals. Topics to be explored include: the causes and consequences of the 1917 Revolution, Stalinism, the war of annihilation against the Nazis, the Cold War era clash of civilizations, the Gorbachev reforms and the collapse of communism.
Course Requirements
Three Exams
Three Papers
Course Texts
Geoffrey Hosking, The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales (New York: Penguin Classics, 1995).
Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1992).
Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary: A Journalist’s Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin’s Russia (New York: Random House, 2009).
Requirements for graduate students:
Eight Papers
Final Exam
Discussion
Course Texts
Graduate reading:
Mark D. Steinberg, Voices of Revolution, 1917 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).
Francine Hirsch, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).
Jochen Hellbeck, Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009)
Wendy Goldman, Terror and Democracy in the Age of Stalin: The Social Dynamics of Repression (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Ethan Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).
Vladislav Zubok, Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009).
Alexei Yurchak, Everything was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005).
Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment (New York: Modern Library, 2009).
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HIS 461-01 AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Professor Kyle Zelner
Reg. Code 37915
TT 11:00-12:15
The era from 1760 to 1800 is arguably the most important period in the history of the United States. Thirteen diverse colonies, with few links to each other, came together to protest their place in the growing British Empire, joined to fight a war of liberation, and forged a new country, the likes of which the world had never seen. The period of George Washington and Benedict Arnold; Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams—it is one of the most exciting periods in America’s national story. While it is a time to celebrate, it is also a period that saw great promise lost. Women, Africans, and Native Americans were participants in, but not beneficiaries of, the grand experiment in republican government that came out of the war.
This course will examine the political, military, and social aspects of the period. We will focus on the imperial crisis that leads to war, the politics of protest and nation-building, the military conflict from 1775-1783, African-Americans and women during the war, the post-war crisis in national and state governments, the writing of and ratification fight over the new Constitution, and the Federalist era. Ultimately, we will have to attempt to answer the question, “Just how revolutionary was the American Revolution?”
Tentatively, books for the class will include:
Richard D. Brown, Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791. 2nd ed. New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 1999.
Woody Holton, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1999.
Linda Kerber. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Kenneth Roberts. Rabble in Arms. Camden, Maine: Down East Books, 1996. (1933 novel—any edition is fine).
Gordon S. Wood. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1993.
Assignments: Tentatively, class requirements will include three papers, a midterm and final exam, and active participation in weekly class discussions.
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HIS 463-01 CIVIL WAR
Professor Susannah Ural
Reg. Code 18408
MWF 12:00-12:50
The U.S. Civil War Era remains one of the most popular periods in American history. Despite this interest, stubborn disagreements remain regarding the causes and consequences of the nation’s bloodiest war. This course looks at the divisions that led to the conflict, the war itself, and the difficult period of Reconstruction. Lectures and readings will focus on the defining themes of the era, while examining the impact of the war on the various peoples who comprised the Union and the Confederacy and how they, in turn, influenced the bloody conflict around them. In addition, the class will discuss how scholars have interpreted the war in the past and today. Successful students will emerge with a better understanding of the broad issues that shaped the period, the detailed experiences that defined it, and they will be conversant--in speech and in writing--on this defining American era. Assignments will include two 5-page papers, a midterm and final examination, and class participation. Readings will come from a primary textbook, a supplemental reader, and 2-3 additional books.
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HIS 469-01 NEW SOUTH
Professor Chester Morgan
Reg. Code 38070
TT 9:30-10:45
“Tell about the South,” says Quentin Compson’s Harvard roommate in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom. “What’s it like there. What do they do there? Why do they live there? Why do they live at all?” This course will explore such questions—perhaps even the last one—as they relate to the South since 1877. The major themes encompass Southern distinctiveness (they don’t teach courses on “the North,” after all), change and continuity in Southern culture, and the tensions inherent in a biracial society. Specific topics include the protracted process of, and resistance to, modernization; movements of protest and reform (populism, progressivism, and civil rights); and the rise and fall of black disfranchisement, legal segregation, and the “solid (one-party) South.”
Required readings:
Edward L. Ayers, Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906
Wilbur J. Cash, The Mind of the South
Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men
David R. Goldfield, Black, White, and Southern: Race Relations and Southern Culture 1940 to the Present
Grades will be based on quizzes and writing assignments on the readings and three exams.
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HIS 473-01 US FOREIGN RELATIONS (8W2)
Professor Heather Stur
Reg. Code 37924
M-F 11:00-12:00
This course, offered in the second 8-week session, explores the history of U.S. foreign relations from the founding of the United States through the 21st century. In this discussion-based class, we will examine the influences of politics, culture, ideas, economics, and social concerns on American relations with the world, and we will use the past to try and come to conclusions about the state of the world today. We will explore the ways in which issues on the home front have shaped U.S. foreign relations, as well as how world events have affected Americans at home.
Grades will be based on three short papers (3-4 pages each), two exams, and class participation.
Required texts:
Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, Dennis Merrill and Thomas G. Paterson, eds.
Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy, Michael Hunt
Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, Kristin Hoganson
Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988, Brenda Gayle Plummer, ed.
The Turn: From the Cold War to a New Era, Don Oberdorfer
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HIS 479-01 TOPICS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Professor Andrew Haley
Reg. Code 37910
MW 2:00-3:15
A History of Eating in America
We all eat, but we do not all eat the same foods in the same places, and we certainly do not all share the same sense of taste. Why? This upper-level history class chronicles the development of dining in the United States, examining eating habits and culinary influences from the period of first contact between Europeans and American Indians to the emergence of the television chef. In this course we will scrutinize the role that eating has played in defining an American national identity, facilitating ethnic assimilation, spurring political reform, crafting gender roles, creating a celebrity culture, and exercising American global influence. Although the subject is fun, the course will be rigorous. During the course of the semester, we will be reading McWilliams’ A Revolution in Eating, Donna Gabaccia’s We Are What We Eat (2000), Amy Bentley’s Eating for Victory, Opie’s Hog and Hominy, and other books about food and American life. Students should be prepared to actively participate in the class, read extensively, and along with smaller assignments due throughout the semester, complete two major papers incorporating primary source material: a descriptive research paper and an argumentative research paper. [Graduate students are welcomed to take this course, but they should speak to the instructor before registering.]
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HIS 482-01 TOPICS IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Professor Jeff Bowersox
Reg. Codes 38078/38079
MWF 11:00-11:50
Topics: The Divided City: The History of Modern Berlin
This course examines an iconic city that has endured radical changes and crises, repeatedly reinventing itself to suit its times. We will trace the city's history from its classical form under Frederick the Great through the bustling modern center of the German Empire and the Weimar period to the symbol both of Hitler's megalomania and the Cold War before finally ending up as the newly reunited multicultural capital at the heart of Europe. The course combines lectures and discussions that will focus on the constant reinvention and contestation of the city with a particular emphasis on popular culture (especially film), political movements, architecture, and urban development. We will see how a city can speak in many different voices.
Students will read articles, books, and fiction that will amount to roughly 100 pages per week, will write 3 5-page essays analyzing films and novels, and will take one final exam.
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HIS 711-01 SEMINAR IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Professor Pamela Tyler
Reg. Code 3100
Tues. 6:30-9:15
HIS 711 is a continuation of the process begun in HIS 710. Building on the thesis prospectus that you designed in 710, in HIS 711 you will produce one carefully-crafted, well-organized chapter of the thesis you intend to write for your M.A. This chapter must conform to the exacting standards of our profession in clarity, organization, and style, so much of your effort in 711 will involve editing yourself and rewriting, rewriting, rewriting! We will not meet as a class every week but, when we are scheduled to meet, full attendance is required.
Strunk and White, Elements of Style
Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing in History
Packet of readings assembled by instructor, autobiographical essays by historians about their professional lives
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HIS 712-01 SEMINAR IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
Professor Pamela Tyler
Reg. Code 38067
Tues. 6:30-9:15
HIS 712 is a continuation of the process begun in HIS 710—but for Europeanists rather than Americanists. Building on the thesis prospectus that you designed in 710, in HIS 712 you will produce one carefully-crafted, well-organized chapter of the thesis you intend to write for your M.A. This chapter must conform to the exacting standards of our profession in clarity, organization, and style, so much of your effort in 712 will involve editing yourself and rewriting, rewriting, rewriting! We will not meet as a class every week but, when we are scheduled to meet, full attendance is required.
Strunk and White, Elements of Style
Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing in History
Packet of readings assembled by instructor, autobiographical essays by historians about their professional lives
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HIS 720-01 MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORIOGRAPHY
Professor Amy Milne-Smith
Reg. Code 18360
Thur. 6:30-9:15
Course description
This course is an introduction to some of the key works of modern European historiography. Each week we will look at an important historical moment (the French Revolution, 1848, the World Wars) through a different point of view (Social History, Gender, Postcolonialism). We will address the important historical and theoretical theses, getting past the jargon to the core ideas. Students will typically read one monograph per week plus an article, and are expected to come prepared to discuss readings in class.
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HIS 726-01 US HISTORIOGRAPHY II
Professor Andrew Haley
Reg. Code 3104
Wed. 6:30-9:15
U.S. Historiography II is an intensive reading, writing and discussion seminar focusing on the major scholarly controversies in modern American history. Topics will include late nineteenth century voting patterns, Populism, labor, monopoly capitalism, big government, gender and sexuality, immigration, consumerism, the New Deal, the Civil Rights Movement, American imperialism, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the New Right, and globalization. This is not a survey of American history and students are expected to have a solid understanding of the events that shaped modern American history before entering the class. Instead, the class will examine central questions in American history and how our approach to these issues have changed over time. Students will be asked to critically read, synthesize and evaluate the works of leading historians.
A partial list of course readings will likely include: McGerr, A Fierce Discontent; Leach, Land of Desire; Bodnar, The Transplanted; Chuancey, Gay New York; Cohen, Making a New Deal; Fraser and Gerstle, Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order; Perlstein, Nixonland; Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood.
Students enrolled in the course should expect to read the equivalent of one to two scholarly monographs a week, to lead three discussions, and to complete a number of argumentative essays (for an equivalent of about forty pages of written work).
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HIS 736-01 MODERN WAR & SOCIETY
Professor Michael Neiberg
Reg. Code 18580
Wed. 3:30-6:15
This course will be an introduction to the basic methods, historiography, and major works in the field of War and Society. It is not a course in military history per se nor will it cover individual wars. Instead, it will serve as an in-depth look at the ways that scholars have posed and answered questions in the War and Society field. As such it will touch on military history but it will focus as much attention on social and cultural history. Students will discuss major books and articles in the field during weekly seminars. These books will cover American, European, and non-western history. Students will also be expected to write a major historiographical essay and several book reviews as well as to participate actively in weekly discussions.
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HIS 775-01 SEMINAR SOUTHERN HISTORY
Professor William Scarborough
Reg. Code 37927
Tues. 6:30-9:15
A reading seminar in Southern history from the colonial period through Reconstruction designed to acquaint graduate students with the basic secondary works in this period of Southern history. Purposes are to prepare students for their comprehensive examinations, to encourage them to analyze critically the secondary literature to which they are exposed, and to improve oral and writing skills.
Students will read a book each week and present an analytical review of that book to other members of the seminar. These reviews will be both oral and written, alternating each week between these two formats. Written reviews of 4-5 printed pages each will be circulated beforehand to other members of the class. Oral presentations should be no more than 20 minutes in length.
Department of History
http://www.usm.edu/history
601.266.4333 • history@usm.edu