The Historian's Art and Current Affairs (DHP-H205)

Fall 2025 · DHP H205 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

Through case studies, this course aims to give students the historical powers they need as they go out into the world: empathy, detachment, and relentless skepticism. The course examines the origins of World War I and the analogies the war provoked and provokes, as well as the two paradigms that come up when debating whether or not to go to war: the trouble that flowed from appeasing Nazi Germany and Japan in the run up to World War II, and the disastrous Sicilian expedition embarked on by ancient Athens. The tension between these paradigms is explored through studies of war in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. The course will also examine how different readings of history can lead to dramatically different policies; the U.S., Russia, and China tell Cold War history differently and those differences do much to explain their different world views. Armed with knowledge of the many endings of the Cold War, the course will also compare the revolutions in Europe in 1989, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, and the Arab Spring.

Course codes: DHP-H205

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