History courses, focusing on military history (1 Viewer)

[aneurysm]

I've just finished the HSC and am planning to start an arts degree at either UNSW of Sydney this year. I have a lot of interest in history, but one of my main areas of interest is military history - this not only involves studying wars and conflict, but also specific armies and what life was like for those soldiers.

With this is mind, I spoke to a lecturer at Sydney on the Open Day thingy (the one on the 3rd of January) and asked him about a major in military history. He pretty much gave me a flat-out "No" in response to whether there was such a major, although he did say that a lecturer at UNSW (Peter Fisher, I think) taught a military-oriented unit, although this was only a one-semester thing.

ANYWAY, what I wanted to ask was are there subjects in the Arts faculty which focus on military history since around the 18th century (although ancient warfare is also something I wouldn't mind studying)? I'm not sure as to whether it would be my major, but I would certainly like to study it if there is something like that.

I still haven't decided on specific subjects :S ... Arts has so many possibilities.

 

[Triangulum]

I know nothing about UNSW history, but I can tell you a bit about Usyd. We don't have any specific major in military history, nor do we have any units (off the top of my head) which specifically focus on armies and soldiers. However, there are a few units about specific wars which would presumably include material on the soldiers and tactics and so on, along with the politics and the historical impact and so on, and doubtless you could do some of those and then do a military-oriented topic for honours.

The unit that immediately springs to mind is 'A House Divided', which is about the American Civil War, and would presumably contain a fair bit of content on the soldiers' experience. Usyd also has a course on the Spanish Civil War (not running this year) which apparently is excellent. The full list of history courses for 2008 is here, ancient history here.

 

[aneurysm]

Ah ok ... wow, thanks for the information.

It wasn't a particularly urgent thing - I was just looking for some courses that were more orientated towards military history, such as the events of WWI/WWII, Vietnam, etc. I didn't really explain that so well ... the experience of the soldiers is more of a side topic anyway, not something I would focus on so much.

What I'm interested in doing is something similar to the Year 12 Modern History course - I'm not sure if you did Modern History, but it basically focused on a whole range of events throughout the 20th century, and I really enjoyed it. I know that uni is very different to Year 12, though.

I think the thing is the range of possibilities - perhaps I just have to sort through all the different subjects and see which ones would suit me best.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

 

[Matt Samson]

Even if a subject isn't about military history, you'll find you can include war within your assessment items - if it fits within the question asked.

You have to wait until postgrad to focus on something like military history.