Course Guides 1970-1979

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Course Guides 1970

• Fall 1970

Course Guides 1971

• January 1971
• Spring 1971
• Fall 1971
• Fall 1971 Supplement

Course Guides 1972

• January 1972
• Spring 1972
• Fall 1972

Course Guides 1973

• January 1973
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• Fall 1973

Course Guides 1974

• January 1974
• Spring 1974
• Fall 1974
• Project Ten 1974

Course Guides 1975

• January 1975
• Spring 1975
• Spring Supplement 1975
• Fall 1975

Course Guides 1976

• January 1976
• Spring 1976
• Spring Supplement 1976
• Fall 1976

Course Guides 1977

• January 1977
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• Spring Supplement 1977
• Fall 1977
• Fall Supplement 1977

Course Guides 1978

• January 1978
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• Spring Supplement 1978
• Fall 1978
• Fall Supplement 1978

Course Guides 1979

• January 1979
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• Spring Supplement 1979
• Fall 1979
• Fall Supplement 1979

Course Description, Fall 1975

HA 179/279                                      The Literature of Great Expeditions
(OP 179/279)                                    David Roberts

In this course we will read and discuss accounts (mostly first hand, by expedition members themselves) of some of the great expeditions undertaken in the last five centuries: voyages over land, sea and ice, whose motives ranged from conquest to science to simple curiosity. Although the course will approach each book from literary and aesthetic standpoints, its primary emphasis is on the expedition experience itself (hence the title is not "Great Literature of Expeditions," and hence the insistence on first-person accounts). The books chosen are ones especially successful at capturing the day-by-day details, the actual doing, of expeditions, as well as expressing vividly the mentalities (so different in different ages) of explorers.

Each student will be asked to do a project...In addition, the course will include field simulation of various expeditionary tasks and trials. These will range from a bivouac in a tree to a raft-building trip across the Connecticut, to an attempt to construct and haul a man-sledge like Scott's in the Antarctic, to a simulated Yeti hunt, to demonstrations of climbing and sailing technique; they may include an effort to produce expeditionary food, like pemmican, or navigating and map-reading under difficult conditions. The field exercises are an essential and integral part of the course.