Upper School History

The History Department’s curriculum is designed to help the MacDuffie student to think not only about events of the past, but, more importantly, about the world today. Our history classes systematically develop the student’s ability to evaluate various kinds of information in a sophisticated and critical way, draw relevant conclusions from that information, and to put those conclusions on paper effectively and convincingly.

The History Department works in close cooperation with other departments, most notably English, in building these skills which every informed and educated individual needs.

When studying history, the MacDuffie student engages in a wide variety of activities and assignments. Examples from recent years include:

• Creating a cultural self-portrait.
• Writing an op-ed piece about the war in Iraq.
• Volunteering in the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen.
• Going on a field trip to Historic Deerfield.
• Writing a research paper on the Armenian genocide.
• Visiting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
• Participating in a mid-18th century roundtable on the question of independence for the American colonies.
• Cooking a Nigerian-style meal.
• Composing a newspaper voicing the ideas of national awakening in 19th-century Italy.
• Putting Herbert Hoover on trial, with the charge of causing the Great Depression.
• Writing a critical essay on Andrzej Wajda’s film Danton.
• Completing a major independent research project on the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
• Visiting the Women's Rights National Historical Park and the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton at Seneca Falls.
• Watching an arraignment at the Springfield Court House.
• Simulating Martin Luther in a role play on the Reformation.

Course Offerings

• Global Studies
• Modern European History
• AP Modern European History
• U.S. History
• AP U.S. History
• Peace Studies
• Western Philosophy
• 20th Century Conflict
• The Age of Totalitarianism