Undergraduate Syllabi

Grand Strategy

This course will explore the concept of grand strategy in international relations and its implementation from the ancient Greeks to the Cold War.

Strategic Thought

This course is a reading-intensive overview of military thought from the ancient world to the present. The readings will cover major thinkers in strategy such as Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, A.T. Mahan, and B. H. Liddell Hart. Students will explore the theoretical and applicable dimensions of the concept of strategy, while understanding ideas in their historical context.

The Second World War

This course seeks to give students an in-depth understanding of the largest armed conflict in human history.

War and Society in Europe, 1450-1950

This course seeks to gain a greater understanding of human societies by exploring their relationship with warfare. Moreover, it seeks to understand how war-making and all of its composite factors (technology, culture, logistical needs, etc.) influence and change human society. Finally, it inquires into how various social and external factors help determine success or failure in warfare beyond the simple narration of tactics and command decisions.

Marlborough and the Spanish Succession

This research-oriented course will allow advanced students to study one aspect of history in depth with a view towards either graduate study or a project for the President's Academic Showcase for Undergraduate Research.

War, State, and Society in Early Modern Europe

An intensive exploration of the relationship between warfare, state formation, and societal change in Europe from c.1450-c.1800. Topics covered: the Military Revolution Debate, Absolutism, the Wars of Religion, the General Crisis of the 17th Century, Contracting and Mercenaries, the Growth of Professional Navies and Standing Armies, State Finance, and Colonization. Students will then plan an archival research trip.

War and Society from the Ice Age to the Present

This course seeks to gain a greater understanding of human societies by exploring their relationship with warfare. Moreover, it seeks to understand how war-making and all of its composite factors (technology, culture, logistical needs, etc.) influence and change human society. Finally, it inquires into how various social and external factors help determine success or failure in warfare beyond the simple narration of tactics and command decisions.