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history
HISTORY 346. (3) SAMURAI CULTURE IN JAPANESE HISTORY. This course traces the rise and fall of the samurai in Japan, as well as the distinct impact these warriors left on Japanese and global culture. Although we will primarily focus on history and historiography, we will also draw from theatre studies, religion, literature, and political philosophy. In the first half of the semester, we will study the historical transformation of the samurai from looselyknit bands of provincial warriors to a powerful and mythologized political elite. In the second half, we will examine the Tokugawa shogunate, the transformation of samurai from warriors to bureaucrats, and the demise of samurai society after the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Through these in-depth explorations, we will develop a culturally and historically sophisticated view of the samurai. HISTORY 377. (3) WAR, SOCIETY, AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Employing classic works on warfare and military history by theorists such as Thucydides, Sun Tzu, and Clausewitz, the course examines warfare from antiquity to the present with special attention to the relationship of military tactics and strategies to the evolution of technological, bureaucratic, and social organizations. Prerequisite: none. Offered: fall semester. HISTORY 410. (3) TOPICS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY. A seminar focusing on selected topics in modern European history such as the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Concert of Europe, the Second Empire, Bismarck’s Germany, the Belle Epoque, or Imperialism, using primary and secondary readings, class presentations, and discussion. Prerequisites: History 101-102. HISTORY 412. (3) TOPICS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. A seminar investigating selected topics in twentieth-century American life and politics, utilizing readings, student papers, and class discussions. Prerequisite: senior or junior status. HISTORY 420. (3) TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE HISTORY. A seminar investigating selected topics in cross-societal, historical studies. Topics to be offered may include comparative revolutions; colonialism; the transAtlantic slave trade; or themes in European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin-American development. Prerequisite: consent of the instructor.
HISTORY 499. (3) COLLOQUIUM. This course is devoted to close study of selected secondary studies and primary sources for a particular thematic or chronological topic in Asian, European, or American history. Students are expected to participate regularly in class discussions of assigned readings, to make occasional oral reports on specific topics, and to write a number of analytical essays of short-to- moderate length. Each colloquium is intended to provide the student with a solid grounding in both the history and historiography of a particular era or subject, and also to prepare the capable and interested student to undertake advanced research for a senior thesis (History 500). Normally, two colloquia—one American, one non-American—are offered each semester. Enrollment in a colloquium is limited to 10 students, and preference is given to senior and junior History majors. Prerequisite: completion of History 299. HISTORY 500. (3) SENIOR THESIS. An exercise in research and advanced composition, to be written in the spring semester of the senior year. The thesis investigates in detail some historical topic of interest to the student. The student works under the guidance of a member of the history department in selecting, researching, and writing his essay. Prerequisite: History 499. DEPARTMENTAL DISTINCTION IN HISTORY To be eligible for Departmental Distinction in History, the student must normally have a 3.3 average for his History courses and a 3.0 GPA overall. By the end of his junior year he must have taken at least one 300- or 400-level History course. After taking History 499 by the fall of his senior year and receiving a grade no lower than B+, he enrolls in History 500. The history department must approve the student’s proposal for a project resulting in a thesis on which he must receive no less than B+. At the end of the spring semester, he must defend his thesis orally before a committee consisting of two professors from the history department and a third professor chosen from another department by the student with the advice of his advisor. All three examiners must be satisfied with the student’s defense of his thesis in order to warrant his receiving Distinction in History.