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History.
Adjunct Professor Dabney.
General History.—In this class, which comprises the historical work required
for the B. A. degree, great stress is laid on the view that the career
of man, as revealed in History, is not a mere jumble of disconnected dates
and facts, but a continuous stream, having its sources and tributaries in the
far-off past, its outlet in the remote future. No attempt is made, however,
to traverse in the class-room the entire length of this stream; for, although
constant efforts are made to demonstrate the vital connection of nation with
nation, of generation with generation, and of anterior with ensuing conditions
of historical development, the lectures are confined to the more important
periods, the student being required to fill the gaps by private reading,
The periods, and, therefore, the text-books studied, may be more or less
varied each year. Three lectures a week.
Text-Books.—Fisher's Outlines of Universal History; Abbott's Pericles and the
Golden Age of Athens; Froude's Cæsar; Capes's Age of the Antonines; Duruy's Middle
Ages; Seebohm's Era of the Protestant Revolution; Gardiner's Thirty Years' War;
Morris's Age of Anne; Dabney's Causes of the French Revolution; Morris's French
Revolution and First Empire.
English and American History.—In this advanced class the principles
taught in the preceding course will be applied to a more special field;
and in order that the students may be encouraged to exercise independent
thought and judgment, they will be required to write essays on assigned
topics. Moreover, it should be distinctly understood that the text-books are
by no means regarded by the professor as infallible authorities. On the contrary,
some of them contain much that is emphatically rejected by him. And
stuff him full of cut-and-dried opinions, but rather to draw forth and develop
his own judgment by presenting to his mind opinions that oppose and even
clash violently with each other. With this end in view different text-books
are studied side by side, the professor giving his own views of each and encouraging
the students also to think for themselves. Graduates in General
History will derive most benefit from this course. It may be taken, however,
by others; and, as considerable attention will be paid to constitutional development,
students intending to study Law will find the course of advantage. Candidates
for the M. A. degree selecting History as one of their four subjects
must graduate both in this course and in the preceding. Three lectures a week.
Text-Books.—Gardiner's History of England; Green's Short History of the English
People; Gardiner's Atlas of English History; Percy Greg's History of the United States;
Thwaites's Colonies; Hart's Formation of the Union; Wilson's Division and Re-union.
The Post-Graduate Course.—This course is designed for those students
who aim at the Ph. D. degree and expect to become professors of History.
A large amount of reading will be assigned, and frequent discussions of
important points will be held between student and professor. The aim will
be to cultivate the habit of original research; and, if History be the major
subject of a candidate for the doctorate, a dissertation embodying the fruits
of such research will be required.
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