History 10a and 10b, "Western Society, Politics, and Cultures"

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In life, history is the granddaddy of the humanities, the sum-total of recorded human experience; at Harvard, History is one of the most popular humanities concentrations, with over 200 concentrators total, of which half will graduate with honors. History is for the smart and the hard-working (and the good-looking); History is also a classic “gentleman’s concentration” and a popular training ground for soon-to-be law students who want more of a challenge than Government offers. Legacies abound; expect cashmere sweaters and smarty-pants final club boys in sections.

The department is saliently academically (if not politically) conservative, tending to emphasize rigorous archival research over trendy critical scholarship. The linguistic turn in the academy never fazed Harvard much, and neither will concentrators be taught by semioticians nor will an attempt at a poststructural reading of medieval history likely be well-received. (Get it?) That means hard work and leaving the theory to History & Literature (to be fair, theory is where you look for it: medieval is notoriously anti-theoretical, while the very popular Peter Gordon teaches well-regarded courses on Continental intellectual history, Heidegger, and something called an “epistemic regime”).

The simmering tension between History and Hist & Lit isn’t hard to detect. Hist & Lit deals in historicized cultural and literary theory, while History tends to substantiate its claims with specifics. If History is inadequately intellectual—the tweedy old gent; Hist and Lit is trendy, flaky, and superficial—the black turtleneck-clad beatnik intellectual poseur.

Students sometimes opt for Hist and Lit or Social Studies for their supposed prestige or novelty, but interdisciplinary study isn’t necessarily for everyone. Compared to those honors-only concentrations, History concentrators can take a wider range of classes in their field, with almost no distribution requirements. Plus, that same lack of strict distribution requirements allows students to craft their own specialized fields of study, and the department is generally accommodating in accepting classes outside the concentration for related-fields credit. Take that, Social Studies.

However, advising in History is largely left to students’ initiative. House advising is hit-or-miss, and students and professors alike seem confused by the myriad advising panels, open houses, and symposia, the presence of which at least indicate that some recognize that there is a problem. Individual professors, however, are often helpful and welcoming in office hours. The system of advising, like so much else in the department, seems to be under constant revision.

And thank God. The History tutorial program is in perpetual need of a desperate overhaul. Rumors has it that the sophomore tutorial program was designed to keep the jocks in Gov. What this means for you is a two- or three-term series of courses designed as much to break your spirits as to teach you to be a historian. Fortunately for you, the program is undergoing a massive overhaul designed to offer students more research opportunities and more exposure to senior faculty. History 97 is an awkward fusion of irrelevant book-club style discussions and dull, obscure methods tutorials consumed 15 hours per week outside of class and necessitated triweekly all-nighters. The oddly paced, team-taught, and very high-school History 10a, “Western Societies, Politics, and Cultures: From Antiquity to 1650” will no longer be mandatory this year.

In exchange for a weak tutorial system and lack of one-on-one attention, History offers more chances for interaction with senior faculty—and consequently more chances to schmooze them for letters of recommendation for grad school.

Compensating for its sadistic tutorial system, History retains its concentrators with its lecture and conference courses and its cohort-leading faculty. History professors include a dramatically ousted FAS dean, the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, the current head of Hist & Lit and former head of Social Studies, a senior advisor to the 9/11 Commission, MacArthur “genius grant” recipients, and a 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner.

International historian Charles Maier and American diplomatic historian Ernest May are very highly regarded, as are modern German historian David Blackbourn, medievalist Michael McCormick, intellectual-imperial historian David Armitage, American women’s studies historian Drew Gilpin Faust…the list goes on ad nauseum. The department also boasts hotshot Professor of History Niall Ferguson. Since he writes a groundbreaking book every year, he won’t be around very often, but he’ll say nasty things to you if you slip out of his lecture to pee.

History offers a mother load of classes—about everything from the Jews of medieval Spain to History 1948, “The Modern Girl Around the World”—few of which will be taught more than once every three years. “Transnational” history is hot these days, and Harvard is especially well-positioned, with perhaps the best international history faculty in the world. Many faculty members in American, European, and global history have transnational and transoceanic interests as well. The concentration is especially strong in international relations and American history, although the early modern and modern European, intellectual, and Latin American fields are impressive as well, and its East Asian field is growing.

During the Larry Summers brouhaha, ill-informed pundits castigated the History faculty for indifference and self-absorption for not teaching history-of-events courses on “Good American Things” like the Revolutionary or Civil Wars (the charge isn’t true: there are multiple courses on both). It would be fairer to say, however, that the concentration allows the study of interesting subjects in unconventional if not exciting ways. Recently-named University Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (who defended the department against New York Times columnist John Tierney’s pro-Summers screed) has built a formidable reputation on material history, studying colonial New England through quilts and furniture, among other things. Expect lots of “women in history” classes, and a few on well-studied historical events save through an unconventional theoretical lens.

Finally, a word of warning: James Kloppenberg’s History 1661, “Social Thought in Modern America” is reputedly the toughest humanities class at the College, combining soul-crushingly dense and difficult material with a will-breaking workload. Have fun!

CORRECTION: The 2006-2007 edition of The Crimson's 'Confi Guide' incorrectly stated that the History 97 tutorial is no longer being offered at Harvard. In fact, the course continues to be a part of the history concentration's curriculum.