The UI History Department The Primary Source
1 Primary Source Page 2 – The Department Page 3 – Spring 2021 Page 6 – Book Recommendations Page 5 – Movie and Television Recommendations Page 6 – Dr. Sowards on Sabbatical Page 7 – Semester in Review
Letter from Professor E. Kittell, interim chair: Welcome to the Fall 2020 issue of The Primary Source, the newsletter of the U of I’s Department of History. The pandemic continues, and our students continue to marshal their resourcefulness, resolution and creativity to bring this issue and the most recent departmental news to you. “Resilience Through Turmoil” celebrates the alternatives History faculty have used to deliver their courses to students. There are two types of courses: asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous courses, while they certainly have schedules of due dates and assignments, do not meet at a particular time, day of the week or location. Synchronous courses are assigned a time and days of the week. In-person classes are the most common synchronous course. But zoom has enabled the department to deliver courses virtually, where both students and faculty attend on zoom. The professor might lecture, or they might divide students into breakout rooms for discussions. Then there is a combination of the in-class class and the virtual course, where some students attend in person while the rest attend online. One of the most important sections of The Primary Source is thus the overview of Spring courses.
Interim Chair Dr. Ellen Kittel
Students have also provided useful reviews of books and of visual media, particularly movies and television shows. These reviews showcase the skill that our editors have in distilling the central theme and significance of book, movie or series in a few short cogent sentences. The issue wraps up with a piece by our incoming editor, Gabrielle Goodwin, which focusses on the two courses she took from our Ancient Historian, Professor Alyson Roy. This overview looks at the various (and very successful) ways Professor Roy engages student interest and attention. If you haven’t already, please check us out on Facebook and Linkedin. Again, thank you for all your support for our program. Please send us all your updates; we love hearing from you all. We’re deeply proud of all our students — Fall 2020 Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin past, present and future!
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The Department – Resilience Through Public Turmoil By Emma Williams
When looking at a job application or offer from the University of Idaho, I am sure “ability to teach through global pandemic” would be a newer addition to the requirements. When Dr. Dale Graden or Dr. Adam Sowards were first offered the job, I am sure they did not expect to have to be able to teach through contagion panic. Or have to create adaptable class mediums in case of exposure. This last semester, every history professor showed the ability to create classrooms for each student’s needs. The normal list of requirements like note takers, deadline waivers and larger font was a welcome issue compared to the need to social distance and teach students in quarantine. We also had to take time off from in person classes because of unhealthy air quality. Creating a sense of normalcy amongst absolute uncertainty became a welcome gift from our professors. I was one of several students in this semester’s capstone course, taught by Dr. Alyson Roy. Having routine meetings, we could “zoom” into, giving us research partners, and allowing for a research schedule, Dr. Roy gave us a stable environment to write our research papers. Having the library change their hours, institutions and museums around the world closing, and historians losing their jobs makes our futures very uncertain. As we move forward into the Spring semester, we do not know how the world will look. One thing is certain however, and that is the professors will continue to show up and maintain the same high level of educating. We will see a few new classes, vandal historians graduating and a virtual Phi Alpha Theta Conference. Dr. Kittell will continue to lead the department and we will see more fascinating research from her colleagues. While we did not have any undergraduate students graduating in the Fall, we look forward to several leaving us at the Spring commencement on May 15th. Congratulations to graduate student Steven Carter on finishing his Master of Arts in History with a Pre-Modern emphasis and we wish him luck on his next endeavors. He hopes to pursue a PhD to continue his studies in medieval England preferably in the UK.
Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin
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Spring 2021- What courses to look forward to. By Emma Williams
This semester we can look forward to new class options. Additions include “Food through the Ages,” “The Civil War and Reconstruction,” “US Military History,” and more. The Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, Dr. Sean M. Quinlan, will return again to the classroom to teach on “Europe in the Age of the Revolution, 1770-1880.” Our resident expert on the Middle Ages and European History, Interim Chair Dr. Ellen E. Kittell will discuss “The Medieval State: Europe in the High and Late Middle Ages.” Dr. Adam Sowards will also be introducing a newer course, “American Indian History.” We will be welcoming back associated and adjunct professors to teach as well. Dr. Jeffery W Kyong-McClain will be bringing in the history of the Asian continent with “Introduction to East Asian History.” “Food through the Ages” will investigate the affect of food on society and culture; almost looking through a historical anthropology lens to understand how it defined civilizations. The course “The Civil War and Reconstruction” should be fascinating as Dr. Fox – Amato pulls from his previous research to further describe the affects this era has on American History. These courses will continue to be flexible as the pandemic continues and accommodations need to be made. Zoom courses, online exams and hybrid style learning will go on these next few months as well as adjusted course requirements with limited research abilities. This semester we will also not have any students studying abroad or professors teaching abroad as the university is still enforcing a strong recommendation to not travel at this time. In the future studying abroad will resume and we look forward to where our vandal historians will go. Several students, along with Dr. Dale Graden, had looked forward to traveling abroad for more history opportunities, however due to the virus, the trips had to be cancelled. Dr. Graden was set to spend January 2021 in Havana, Cuba. His planned course, “Testimonial Literature in Cuba,” was going to look at works written by former slaves. We hope Dr. Graden and the students will have the opportunity to travel again in the near future.
Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin
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Book Recommendations By Gabrielle Goodwin
Thucydides on Justice, Power and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Paul Woodruff As can be guessed from the title, this volume covers many selections from Thucydides’s well-known work on the history of the Peloponnesian War with footnotes, annotations, and a really thorough and lovely introduction. The translated segments are neatly organized chronologically and by topic with a small paragraph of context placed before each. Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice by John Baines, Leonard H. Lesko, Byron E. Shafer, and David P. Silverman Divided by related subject matter and split into three main entries, each section is paired with copious amounts of visual examples to further illustrate the points made using period appropriate art and artifacts. This is an excellent source to use for Ancient Egypt religion.
The Italians by Luigi Barzini While not a comprehensive history of Italian culture and cultural identity, this book does an excellent job tracking attitudes to multiple possible historical bases. Self-described as a “portrait”, it covers many well-known people, histories, and identities that all share the great commonality of being Italian.
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler Part historical fiction, part history, and part love letter to the Byzantine empire, this book covers the Eastern Roman Empire until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 through outsiderlooking-in storytelling and a well-compiled bibliography at the end that can be used for further research. Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin
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Movie and Television Recommendations By Gabrielle Goodwin
Iphigenia -- dir. Michael Cacoyannis Directed in 1977, this film was based on a classical Greek play and produced in Greek by an all-Greek cast. It follows the original play closely -- Agamemnon, stranded on the shore due to a slighting of Artemis, is required by the goddess to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia so his army can sail. The ending, in particular, is excellent.
I, Claudius -- dir. Herbert Wise Based on the historical novel by classics scholar Robert Graves, this mini-series produced in 1976 by BBC follows the early history of Rome from the perspective and narration of Emperor Claudius from ~24 BCE to 54 CE. It is a fun and mostly historical watch!
La Rue Cases Negres -- dir. Euzhan Placy Translated from French into English, Sugar Cane Alley produced in 1983 is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel. It follows a young boy from Martinique in the 1930s as he navigates racism, education, and many other pitfalls.
Joyeux Noel -- dir. Christian Carion. A touch of the wholesome -- as wholesome as WWI, warfare, and implied death can be -- for the Christmas season. This film depicts the famous unofficial Christmas truce between the Scottish, French and German forces at the Western Front with a chilling opening, warming middle, and cold ending.
Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin
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Dr. Sowards on Sabbatical- Our resident Environmental Historian’s latest projects By Emma Williams
Dr. Sowards, a Professor and the Director of the Program in Pacific Northwest Studies, took a yearlong sabbatical during the 2019-2020 calendar. While he was out of the classroom for a while, his work continued. Last spring, he published a fourth book, An Open Pit Visible from the Moon. Sowards tells the story fought around the specifics of the Wilderness Act. Retelling the story of the Kennecott Copper company and a group of activists. Gaining national attention, the story shares the battle of the copper company’s right to extract minerals and the effort to protect a piece of environmental history. His writing did not stop there. Sowards completed a third book in December explores the control of public land, public domain, and the use of it for private gain. Dr. Sowards describes his work: “The United States federal government controls 640 million acres of public lands in national forests, parks, rangelands and refuges This book explores how Americans have loved and fought over these places that belong to the people of the nation. Wrested from Indigenous people and European empires, the United States acquired a vast public domain the nation set out with clear policies to transform into private property filled with virtuous citizens. Toward the end of the nineteenth century and increasing in the twentieth century, the nation reset their thinking about its public domain and decided to keep some of this land forever. These public lands include places inspiring like the Grand Canyon and the Everglades, landscapes worked hard to provide timber and forage, and habitat for countless species of plant and animal life. Balancing the competing purposes of these lands have tested the capacity of American resource managers in the US Forest Service, the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Over the course of American history, these public lands have been an object of intense interest. Commodity users—ranchers, miners, loggers and the companies they worked for—used these public resources for their private gain, often leaving behind environmental devastation. The public lands agencies have navigated the complicated pathway of protecting the resources and providing access to them according to the frequently changing and often contradictory policies past Congresses and presidents ordered. This book describes this complicated story where more people sat around the table to make these decisions. It shows the shifting nature of the public lands and their role in supporting the economy and identity of Americans.” Sowards is now working on a new project, researching specific species in public landscapes to investigate the predicaments faced while managing them. We are very proud to have Dr. Sowards as one of our professors and look forward to seeing what he does next!
Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin
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Semester in Review By Gabrielle Goodwin
This semester our co-editor Gabrielle Goodwin had the chance to take two courses with Dr. Alyson Roy. Next semester Goodwin will take over the Primary Source completely. History 341: Ancient Greece as taught by Dr. Roy. This course covered Ancient Greek history from the Bronze Age to the end of the Classical Period (in total, c. 2500 - 400 BCE). As someone who prefers ancient history to modern history, this class was a real treat! It was fun covering peoples and civilizations like the Hittites, Mycenaeans, and “Sea Peoples” at a college-level course -- even if the course was focused on Greece -- as they are barely covered elsewhere. Our flipgrid system worked really well in imitating a discussion as compared to written discussion posts because we were able to hear our classmates talk and chose the question they felt the most comfortable with answering. There was a section of the course at the beginning that covered misconceptions -- even if someone had to drop out for some reason related or unrelated to Covid and other difficulties, this section alone was super informative! The day-to-day lessons were interesting, informative, uploaded to BBLearn so we could double-check our notes later as occasionally the professor happily sped through sections, and punctuated with images and humor. We had the occasional Horrible Histories clip and the mocking inclusion of 300 too which was fantastic. The final project, also put on flipgrid so we could view the projects of our classmates, was done through speeches meant to be in-character and historically accurate to a Greek ‘courtroom’ argument for and against Socrates. So many people dressed up for their performances! So many fallacies! It was one of the best group projects I personally have had the pleasure of participating in. Overall, History 341 was great -- I would recommend it (for whenever it comes back on the course rotation)! History 495: Senior Capstone as overseen by Dr. Roy. As this course is very tailored to the individual student, a review of the course also becomes fairly individualized. In an effort to keep this more general, I have advice instead. This class is required for the major and can be very difficult if you do not follow the suggested writing schedule. No one enjoys wringing out 8+ pages for a peer draft, 10+ pages for a rough draft, or 30+ pages for the final draft last minute. My personal recommendation for surviving -- and maybe even enjoying it as I did -this class is to not only choose a topic you like but choose a topic that you are more than willing to doctor. If you have only a passing interest in your topic? Not the best idea. Research boredom is the enemy for a long essay like the one required for this course. You absolutely love this topic? Probably not the best idea either. Loving the topic too much ends up as a situation where you either come to hate your paper because you no longer are focusing exactly on what you wanted -- due to a whole host of reasons -- or you end up not being able to look at an Eye of Horus pendant without a gentle shudder. If you err on the side of affection for your topic, you’ll be able to work through it fine and enjoy the course as a whole. Take this class as an opportunity to write about the obscure and/or favored historical tidbits you have always secretly wanted to take a college course on, but never had the chance to because Ancient Egyptian mythology (I would love to take a course on Egypt in general) is not offered. Choose your topic wisely and keep a firm hold on your writing schedule. If you do this, you will be placed on the path to enjoying the course. Best of luck!
Fall 2020
Chair: Dr. Ellen Kittell
Editors: Emma Williams and Gabrielle Goodwin