Hist 911: Historical Approaches to Security Studies
Military, International, and Diplomatic History

Mondays, 7:00PM to 9:50PM

Professor David Stone            Office: Eisenhower 318
email: stone@ksu.edu            Phone: (785) 532-2978

Office hours: Wednesday 1:30-2:20 and Friday 3:30-5:00

The goal of this course is to introduce Ph.D students in security studies to a broad range of approaches to military, international, and strategic history, as means of thinking about the kind of work they may undertake for a dissertation.  While it is specifically intended and designed for doctoral students in security studies, it may prove useful to masters students or history graduate students.

I have chosen the books with this goal in mind.  Most are revised dissertations; most are winners of major prizes; most are quite recent.  They should give you a sense of the scope and possibilities of what top-quality dissertations can be.

While we will spend some time on content, our major concern is with approach and methodology.  As a result, while you should pay attention to the historical content of the works we cover, our major focus will be on approach, philosophy, and methodology.  Over the course of the semester, the works we read will range from traditional military and diplomatic history to quite unorthodox approaches to give a sense for the enormous range of work being done applying history to problems of international security.

Since this is designed for those who already have a masters degree, the course and its readings will presume a strong knowledge of the history of international affairs.  Ignorance of the topic of each week's particular reading is no excuse for poor preparation.

REQUIREMENTS:

I.  Attendance and participation.  Obviously, you can't intelligently discuss the issues we'll be wrestling with if you're not here.  Also, it is not enough to passively absorb the debates in the readings and in class.  Your ideas will not be fully tested and refined until you express them.

II.  Preparation.  All members of the class are responsible for the main reading every week.  In addition, from week to week you may be responsible for additional duties as outlined below.

III.  Formal responses.  Each of you will serve once during the semester as a rapporteur, assessing the contributions and methodology of the main reading, and once as a devil's advocate, preparing and delivering an oral critique of the methodology and approach of the week's main reading.  While the rapporteur and devil’s advocate will kick off our discussions, all class members are responsible for participating.

In addition, once during the semester you are responsible for preparing a review for distribution to the class of an outside books related to the week's topic (to be chosen from options supplied by the instructor).  You will comment briefly on your book’s relation to the issue at hand.

That will make three presentations per person: once as rapporteur, once as devil’s advocate, once as reviewer of an outside book.

No one will serve these roles for the first three class sessions (Intro, Jeremy Black, Patrick Finney).  Over that time, we will distribute assignments.

IV.  Writing assignments.

There are two kinds of writing assignments for this class.  First, you will prepare for distribution to your classmates one brief book review as explained above.

The major writing assignment is a draft dissertation prospectus and historiographical essay.  You will select in consultation with me and, ideally, your dissertation committee a research topic, ideally one the same as or closely related to your planned dissertation topic.  While your dissertation in security studies is intended to incorporate both history and political science, the draft you produce for this class should focus on historical aspects of your topic.

For this prospectus, I expect a 10-page sketch of the topic, along with its importance and relevance to major issues.  Be sure this answers the "So what?" and "Who cares?" questions.  Part of this sketch should include the methodologies and approaches discussed over the semester that you found most relevant.

I also expect a survey of the relevant literature on your topic.  Here I am less interested in the available secondary sources than in the primary sources that should serve as the basis for your research.  So, in addition to your 5-7 page discussion of your topic, I also want lists of:

Relevant bibliographies (at least five)
Relevant memoirs (at least ten)
Relevant published or microfilm primary sources (at least ten)
Relevant archival collections (at least ten, from at least two archives)
Most important secondary literature (at least ten titles with brief annotation)

You should let me know as soon as possible about your potential topic, and no later than the end of September.

Books for purchase:
Jeremy Black, Rethinking Military History
Patrick Finney, Palgrave Approaches to International History
Joel Hayward, Stopped at Stalingrad
Geoffrey Megargee, Hitler’s High Command
Mark Lawrence, Assuming the Burden
Fred Logevall, Choosing War
John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife
Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution
Marc Trachtenberg, A Constructed Peace
EITHER Rhoads Murphey, Ottoman Warfare OR John Haldon, Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World
Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces
Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest
EITHER Emily Rosenberg, Financial Missionaries to the World OR Andrew Rotter, Comrades at Odds
EITHER Craig Cameron, American Samurai OR Vejas Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front


CALENDAR:

The Basics of Historical Approaches to Security Studies

August 20. Introduction to Class.

August 27.  Military History as a Discipline.  Reading: Jeremy Black, Rethinking Military History; Center of Military History, Guide to the Study and Use of Military History, pp. 3-88.

September 3.  LABOR DAY.  NO CLASS.
September 10. International History as a Discipline.  Reading: Patrick Finney, ed., Palgrave Approaches to International History.


Exemplars of Traditional Military and Diplomatic History

September 17.  Traditional Approaches: Campaign History.  Reading: Joel Hayward, Stopped at Stalingrad

September 24. Traditional Approaches: Military Institutions.  Reading: Geoffrey Megargee, Hitler’s High Command

October 1.  FALL BREAK. NO CLASS.

October 8.  Origins of the Contemporary World: Vietnam, pt. I.  Reading: Mark Lawrence, Assuming the Burden AND Fred Logevall, Choosing War.

October 15.  Origins of the Contemporary World: Vietnam, pt. II.  John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife.

October 22. Origins of the Contemporary World: Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era.

October 29. Traditional Approaches: Marc Trachtenberg, A Constructed Peace.  


New and Non-Traditional Approaches to Military and Diplomatic History

November 5. Avoiding Eurocentrism.  Reading: EITHER Murphey, Ottoman Warfare OR Haldon, Byzantine Warfare

November 12. Ideas and International Security.  Reading: Matthew Evangelista, Unarmed Forces.  

November 19.  Social Movements and Foreign Policy.  Reading: Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest

November 26.  Economics, Culture, and Diplomacy.  Reading: EITHER Emily Rosenberg, Financial Missionaries to the World OR Andrew Rotter, Comrades at Odds: The US and India, 1947-1964.  

December 3.  Culture and War.  Reading: EITHER Craig Cameron, American Samurai OR Vejas Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front.

Dissertation prospectus due Monday, December 10.