Reading and composition courses based upon primary historical documents and secondary historical scholarship. These courses provide an introduction to core issues in the interpretation of historical texts and introduce students to the distinctive ways of reading primary and secondary sources. Courses focus on specific historical topics but address general issues of how historians read and write. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Whether the fictional exploits of James Bond, George Smiley, and Kim, or the lived experiences of Robert Baden-Powell, Sidney Reilly, and T.E. Lawrence, spies and the stories told about them have done much to define the legacy of the British Empire. Beginning with the French Revolution and continuing to the never-ending ‘War on Terror,’ this class will explore the paranoid world of imperial intelligence networks to better understand how the largest empire in history tried to make sense of the places and the peoples it sought to rule. We will trace the imperial roots of the modern civilian intelligence agency and examine the political, racial, gendered, and cultural biases which shaped how intelligence was analyzed. Our readings will help us to tease out the complex motivations which compelled colonized peoples to furnish their would-be rulers with intelligence, or to deceive them instead. We will even examine ‘the spy’ in the popular imaginary, sometimes a romantic and daring hero, sometimes a cowardly snitch. Along the way we will meet informants, bandits, interrogators, explorers, journalists, freedom fighters, and even boy scouts, all to better contextualize how espionage, surveillance, and suspicion shaped the lives of millions of British subjects. This class satisfies the second half of the Reading & Composition requirement, and so will focus on developing your skills as a critical reader and a persuasive writer.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills