The Premodern World at War

Fulfills the Group 3 Requirement for History Majors

There are three overarching goals for this course. First, students will gain an understanding of the central role played by warfare in world history in the period up through 1600. Among the topics treated in this context are the nature of military obligation, the relationship between military service and political rights, the role of warfare in defining gender roles, the development of military technology, and the relationship between large-scale warfare and the development of governing institutions. Secondly, students will gain an understanding of the discipline of history. Important topics that students will examine in this context are the range of historical sources available for pre-modern history, and particularly for the investigation of military matters, the problems of historical epistemology, with a particular focus on source criticism, and the techniques used by historians to gain information about the past from the broad array of available source materials. Finally, this course will provide students with an opportunity to improve their critical reading skills, their writing skills, and their oral communication skills. Of these three sets of goals, improving reading, writing and speaking are the most important.