Europe 1900-1945: This is the undergrad class that I am taking as a graduate student. I think it's going to be really enlightening. I am really enjoying our "textbook"- it goes through the time period in a simple but yet detailed manner without being dry or boring. Additionally, it is arranged topically, instead of chronologically and each section is written by a leader in the field, so the economics section is written by an economic history and the society section is written by a social history, etc. That way, there is no agenda or axe to grind and each historian can focus on their speciality. We're also reading four very unique memoirs, including a George Orwell (love his books), one by a Soviet teacher who was purged during the Stalinist era and one about the commandant of Treblinka. There are a few short response papers, two open-note, take-home finals/midterms and then a research paper. I'm not constrained by page length for this and, after talking to Dr. Klein, I think I"m going to write about what the 1920s and 1930s were like, to set the stage for my thesis.
Speaking of my thesis, I'm getting closer to what I want to study. I think I'm going to be looking at the decline of the aristocracy in the inter-war period and why they decided to turn to communism, fascism, socialism, Nazism, etc. as a way to compensate for their decline. That way, I can look at the lovely Mitfords as a microcosm of what the rest of the aristocracy was doing.
Back to Europe- I'm not super keen on being with a bunch of undergrads, especially because they don't seem very into discussion yet. I I miss grad class discussions. But it is still the first week. There are some super pretentious kids who I think will drive me nuts but it's OK- I can handle it for 15 weeks.
History 501- History of Religion- oh man, LOTS of reading for this class. Twelve books and articles each week, plus response papers for each. We are allowed to pick two weeks to not write the paper, which is nice, but still a lot of reading. Some of the books are nearly, if not over, 400 pages and that's without the articles. Many of them seem really interesting- I'm leading the discussion on a book about Homosexuality and the Christian Church and one about the Shtetl and Jewish life in Eastern Europe. We also have to do a (groan) historiography again, this time about something religious. No idea what I'm going to do for that- no idea at all... On the plus side, the class is essentially 500, minus Bryan, plus a guy named Sam. It's like the whole crew is back again.
One word on the first book we have to read- it's called "Did the Greeks Believe In Their Myths". Sounds fascinating, right? WRONG. It's awful! It's so pedantic and doesn't make a lick of sense and is written like it was published in the 1920s or something. So dry, doesn't make a point, jumps around to all these philosophers and historians and stories, it's so bad. I can't stand it. And then the article is Wittgenstein's response to Frazer's "Golden Bough". It also doesn't make a lick of sense so I thought I'd real "Golden Bought". Yeah, it's 69 chapters long. That won't be happening. I hope this doesn't set the tone for the entire semester... it could be a long one if it is.
History 585- History and Memory: This class should be fascinating as well. The professor is a little out there but most of my friends (no Pete :( ) are in the class. Half of it is our cohort and half is the year ahead cohort. They don't seem like much fun. Hopefully they will start to speak up. They might just be burned out but they don't even seem to hang out with each other at all- I hope we're not like that next year when we're thesis-writing and stressed out. I don't know what I'd do without my crew. Anyway, lots of compelling books and articles, it looks like, and only two response papers on books we will be leading discussions on, and then a research paper with the emphasis on history and memory, obviously. I'm thinking of doing a comparison of the autobiographies of the Mitford sisters and the biographies written about them- how do the stories change depending on the author, objectivity, memory, emotion, etc. I don't know if that will work but it's an option. And we have a couple of days off during the semester for meetings and writing and that's always a plus.
I know it's only the first week, but I'm sticking to my reading schedule pretty well. I'm ahead of the game with my Euro reading, excited to read Orwell next since I've already read this one before, trying not to stab my eyes out while reading about the Greeks and praying that I can write a somewhat coherent response paper so she doesn't think I'm a moron. I need to get the article for H&M but the theory of history and memory will be something new and therefore enlightening. I just keep my fingers crossed that I can keep the momentum going and not burn out. On the plus side, Spring Break comes after week 10, so only 5 more weeks after break. We can do this.... May 9th, here I come! You're only 111 days away!
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