The Merrill text is the primary core text for the course. It is an excellent text book because it contains both primary and secondary sources. In this course we will look at and analyze the primary or original sources of American diplomacy and foreign policy by reading the words of the participants themselves. In addition at the end of each chapter is a collection of essays or secondary sources by experts who offer clashing analyses of the events we cover in each chapter. It will be our job to understand the reasons why different experts arrive at different conclusions when examining the same documents.
Controversy is the heart of progress in the study of history.
The improvement of society comes from the lessons of the past applied to the problems of the present. The Paterson text is a supplement textbook that will help give the student a broad historical background necessary to analyze and go into depth on the various documents and essays in the Merrill text. Weekly assignments will be made from the Paterson text that parallel the readings in the Merrill book. Taken together both texts will provide us with a complete and thorough understanding of modern American diplomacy. DE courses provide the opportunity to bring students and instructors together via the Internet.