History and Literature - Harvard University

History and Literature from Harvard University is a Campus Bachelor History degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. History and Literature is one of Harvard's most individual and challenging concentrations. It is also the oldest. Founded in 1906 as an alternative to President Eliot's pleasantly anarchic "free elective system," it predated by thirteen years the establishment of a College-wide concentration system. Each year the concentration sends graduates to careers in media, law, business, banking, consulting, medicine, government, public policy, the arts, and academia. History and Literature teaches skills invaluable to any profession: the craft of writing and the art of close and critical reading. Each concentrator in History and Literature must choose a special field. These fields are defined either by nation or by period. Some fields cover the history and literature of one country or region since about 1500 (with some variation from field to field); others the history and literature of two nations since about 1750; others, finally, a period of time across two or three countries. Single-country fields include America, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia. Latin America, an enormously diverse region, is another field defined from 1500 to the present. Two-nation fields provide a comparative perspective on two linked nations in the modern period (Britain and France, France and Germany, Britain and Germany, Britain and Russia, Russia and Germany, Russia and America, France and America). Britain and America is an especially challenging two-nation field because it covers the period from 1600 to the present. Latin America/North America is an equally challenging field that covers the period from 1492 to the present. Finally, the fields defined by time period are the Middle Ages (c. 400-1500) and Europe from c.1300 to c.1750. We do not expect students entering non-Anglophone fields to be fluent readers of the required language(s), though when you join the concentration we expect you to start working on becoming proficient and to take literature courses in the language(s) by the end of your junior year. Students in Anglophone fields are expected to take a course in the literature of a foreign language by the end of the junior year. You will take many of your concentration courses in the History department and the relevant literature departments for your field (English, Romance Languages, German, or Slavic, as well as Literature and Comparative Literature). But we strongly encourage you to explore other course offerings as well. A student in the Middle Ages field, for example, might take a Religion course on the medieval Christian church, or a Fine Arts course on medieval maps. A student in the Europe from c.1300 to c.1750 field could study all the permutations of the Enlightenment--the "Rights of Man," and those of women, too--while also taking a Government course on Hobbes, or a Fine Arts course on Michelangelo, or a History of Science course on Copernicus and Kepler. Courses offered by many other programs--including Women's and Gender Studies, Afro-American Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology--count for credit in a number of fields. Our concentration is truly interdisciplinary in that our students do not need to confine their interests to written texts. A text need not be composed of words; it might be a cultural production of another sort: a cartoon, a painting, a poster, an advertisement, a symphony, a song, a film, a building. In the year-long tutorials, we work with you to integrate your courses in literature and history. Sophomore tutorial is a group enterprise, a small seminar led by two tutors. Junior tutorial allows you to collaborate on a syllabus with your tutor, with whom you meet weekly for one-on-one discussions. The senior thesis is the focus of the senior tutorial. Both junior and senior tutorials offer you an unusual degree of control over the individual direction of your study. View more details on Harvard University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related History courses.