The overall assignment is attached, but my focus is on military history, and how over the years the study of military history has evolved from a traditionalist history of logistics, strategy, and battle formations etc to a post-modern view that incorporates social, cultural, and biographical lenses to the study of military history and to offer an explanation why and or explian the appeal to this trasnisiton with David Bell’s work (The First total war) being my post-modern example and John Keegan’s work (A history of warfare) being my traditionalist.
Final paper for this class is an historiographic study of historical writing that either redefines existing area of historical study or seeks to break new ground. This 10- to 12-page essay will allow you to go beyond the class reading to research an emerging sub-field of historical inquiry, an historians’ debate, or a specific topic that has seen substantial revision in the French Revolution, Reformation Europe, or an area of your own interest (with my permission). You are required to draw on two or three monographs to compare, one may be from the assigned monographs in the course. Depending on your topic, your research may also include review essays and on-line forums, interviews with historians, and other, more general historiographic essays that focus on new methods or theories. The fmal result will be an essay that discusses each of the following to a greater or lesser extent, depending on your topic and sources:
