HIST 4661 - [Contested Continents: The Great War for Empire in North America and Beyond, 1754-1763]

(crosslisted) AMST 4661
(HB) (HA-AS)

Spring. Next offered 2018-2019. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

J. Parmenter.

This senior research seminar offers students the opportunity to engage the vibrant history of the Great War for Empire (also known as the Seven Year’s War, and the French and Indian War) from multiple perspectives. In addition to the national and imperial categories traditionally employed in studies of the conflict, the course will also attend to its transnational character. How did a war originating in a border dispute in what is now western Pennsylvania ultimately result in nearly one million battlefield deaths on four continents and in three oceans? Should this be understood as the first “world war?” What was the impact of the war on the subsequent history of North America and the wider world? Students will approach such questions from a variety of disciplinary approaches, including military history, the mobilization of economic resources, center-periphery political relations, and the involvement of indigenous nations - with an eye toward assessing the long-term consequences of the war and its enduring, complex, and contested legacy in popular memory (particularly the recently-completed 250th anniversary commemoration). The course will emphasize critical interpretation of a rich array of primary documents and published scholarship, and each student will complete an independent research essay based on original sources. (HPE)