Meet the Majors: IHIST SNAPSHOTS:
Sarah Abdussalam Class of 2021
Majoring in International History will allow you to better understand the world we live in today, because the present is a product of each person’s collective experiences and decisions. This idea can be expanded to include communities, provinces, states, and empires across time. The study of history, and the narratives that it tells, are only as good as its sources. You will read many primary sources, written or produced by people who lived through the event. This might be a transcript of a speech by Mao Zedong, or constitutional reform documents from the Ottoman Empire. Secondary sources are written after an event has happened, and often have their own ideological or theoretical analysis. These sources must be analyzed, and the author’s intent or bias may change the way a historical narrative is presented between different secondary sources. As a history major, it is important to recognize and understand that not all sources are created equally, and analyze the theoretical and ideological biases that exist in historical writings. This becomes even more important, when you write historical papers. This is where you apply your theoretical knowledge, and attempt to do history as much justice as possible. You will engage with, and address topics that span historically significant events from a social, cultural, political, and economic perspective. This might be the importance of Nasserism as a political ideology in the early 20th century across the Middle East, or examining the historical basis of the Irish Troubles in seventeenth century English colonialism.
