History . . .

History is a subject which still puts a premium on the memory. If you have a reasonably good one, if you can read a book and digest it--history isn't an awfully hard field. The biggest thing history has to offer is considerable range and freedom of choice. Six courses are all that are needed for concentration.

Of these six, one must be a related course chosen from one of the social sciences other than history (i.e. Government, Economics, or Social Relations). A second course may be selected with the approval of the tutor or adviser from any subject closely related to the concentrator's special field. These minimum requirements allow a lot of room for what is fashionably called General Education.

Off the Map

With the demise of the traditional freshman catch-all, History 1, the field has become much more attractive. Social Sciences 1, which is designed to take the place of History 1, will center around the important elements in western civilization and will be given by two of the department's most competent men--Taylor, who used to teach History 1a, and Brinton.

The drudgery of weekly map work will not be included in Social Sciences 1. The course isn't required for concentration but one General Education course in the social sciences is urged for the freshman year and Social Sciences 1 is particularly relevant to the needs of concentrators.

Tutorial for All (Almost)

The history department is a firm believer in tutorial. Sophomores in Group IV get introductory group tutorial which consists of examinations of great historical writing. The department isn't too fussy about C's and juniors with a high Group V ranking can have full tutorial.

Junior tutorial is largely interpretation of history and senior tutorial an examination of the student's special field with reference to the student's thesis. Honors theses are graded on quality not quantity of material submitted.

The weekly or biweekly tutorial sessions are designed to round out and integrate the student's mastery of history in general and of his special field in particular. Outside reading is assigned and a certain number of special tutorial essays are due each term. The aims of the reading and essays are not only to increase factual knowledge but more particularlly to develop facility in oral and written expression and the habits of independent investigation and thought.

Here Today, Here Tomorrow

History is a moderately sized department and is not subject to such booms as some other departments endure. You won't get the individual attention you will in the classics, but then again you won't get lost in History.

All concentrators must for more intensive work select a special field from a group of 16 (sixteen). Honors candidates, who normally survive seven or eight courses in the field, take at the end of the junior year a two-part exam consisting of three questions to be chosen from four major chronological and geographical areas. True to its tradition, the department sees to it that one of the three questions must be on a pre-1700 topic. Men not attaining a satisfactory grade on this exam are dropped from the honors program.

The second part of the exam consists of one essay chosen from several options and is designed to test more particularly the student's comprehensive knowledge of history and his ability to think critically on historical generalizations. At the end of the senior year, honors men also have a special field exam and, at the option of the Examiners, an oral exam.

The same exam requirements hold for non-honors candidates, except that both the departmental and the special field tests come at the end of the senior year. An additional oral exam may also be required. Honors theses are submitted prior to the special field exams. Tutorial for credit for three half-courses is offered to juniors and seniors who are honors candidates. A knowledge of French or German is advisable for honors men.

No Kathleen Winsors

History boasts some of the finest lecturers in the College. Morison is the closest thing the department has to a romantic historian. Nobody in History is capable of writing historical fiction of the equivocal past but the men in the department don't reduce history to a recital of dates and kings enlivened occasionally by the adventures of the kings' mistresses.

Morison, Merk, and Schlesinger handle American history with authority. The American history question on the departmental exam can be answered after taking Merk's History 61a, one of the most rewarding half-courses in the department. Blake's course on the Byzantine Empire of Bruck's on Roman Law is the answer to the ancient or medieval question on the exam.

Owen, who heads this well-organized department, Jordan and Perkins (English history), Karpovich (Russian history), and Brinton (European intellectual history) combine unquestioned academic brilliance with an infectious interest in their subject. Altogether, there is an impressive enough array of professorial talent to please every intellectual taste.

She Ain't What She Used to Be

Now that the ironclad rule that History 1 be included in every concentrator's program exists no more, History is definitely one of the easier fields for the man with a pretty good memory. The exams aren't overly taxing and the field offers perhaps the greatest opportunity for rewarding scholastic effort.

The field examines man as a political animal and studies the directions of the world's historical background. You get a chance to read a lot of great classical history. History strikes a middle of the road line between retrospective sociology and a study of the uniformities of history. You can even read Toynbee. But don't contemplate going into History just because you think it's easy.