Senior Seminar
Course Information and Web Links

Professor: Robert W. Brown

History 451 focuses on two separate but closely related topics. It deals first with methods of historical research, the critical evaluation of sources, primary as well as secondary, and the writing of an historical essay. Accordingly, one major course requirement will be a research paper. Because the process of historical research is as important as the research product, this paper will be the culmination of a series of steps (completed both within and outside the classroom) designed to help each student master the basic elements of research and effective written and oral presentation. Required also is an analysis of an historical document (a primary source) and a critical review of a scholarly work (a secondary source) on the topic of the research paper. At the end of the semester, each student will make an oral presentation summarizing the results of his/her research.  This presentation should be done using PowerPoint.

The second component of History 451 is a study of the western historiographical tradition. It surveys the writing of History from the earliest time to the present, and it investigates the nature of History, philosophies of History, and the various types of historical writing.

Voice of the Shuttle (Excellent Collection of Links)
http://vos.ucsb.edu/

A Student's Guide to the Study of History
http://www.historyguide.org/guide/guide.html

Guide to Writing History Essays (Excellent Resource)
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/

Public Broadcasting Web Site for History
http://www.pbs.org/history/

Avalon Project at Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm

The Medieval Source Book
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

Christus Rex et Redemptor Mundi
(Catholic Site with Excellent Links)
http://www.christusrex.org/

Achtung Panzer!
http://www.achtungpanzer.com

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/

Rome Resources Homepage
http://www.dalton.org/groups/rome/

Amiens Cathedral
http://www.learn.columbia.edu/Mcahweb/Amiens.html

The Abbey Church at Conques (Medieval Pilgrimage Church)
http://www.conques.com/index1.htm

The French Revolution (Multimedia)
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/

Library of Congress Homepage
http://www.loc.gov/

State Library of North Carolina
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NCSLHOME.HTM

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
http://jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU/vshadow2/

The National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
http://www.nga.gov/home.htm

The Christian Catacombs of Rome
http://www.catacombe.roma.it/index.html

The Ecole Initiative: Early Church History
http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/

Duke University: Rare Books and Manuscripts
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/

Documenting the American South (UNC Chapel Hill Library)
http://docsouth.unc.edu

The Internet Modern History Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html

Eurodocs: Western European Primary Historical Documents
http://eudocs.lib.byu.ed/index.php/Main_Page

World War I (Trenches on the Web)
http://www.worldwar1.com/

The World War I Document Archive
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/

Links are checked frequently; if you find one that does not work, please send an email.

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