One lecture down...

Hello All,

I just finished my first lecture as a graduate student and the London School of Economics. It was interesting. It was part of my International Politics course, which is compulsory for all IR MSc students. Today we talked about what led up to the modern international system in the world today.

I am, however, a tad bit concerned about the reading. The following is the "essential reading" for week 1:


Buzan, Barry and Richard Little, Parts II and IV of International Systems in World History, Oxford, Oxford University, 2000. JX1395 B99


Jones, E.L. The European Miracle: Environment, economies and geopolitics in the history of Europea and Asia (3rd edition), Cambridge, Cambridge University, 2003. HC240 J71


Mann, Michael, Ch. 1-16, The Sources of Social Power Vol. 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760, Cambridge, Cambridge University, 1986. HN8 M28


Diamond, Jared, Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York, W.W. Norton, 1997. HM206 D53


Gellner, Ernest, Ch. 1-9, Plough, Book and Sword: The Structure of Human History, London, Paladin, 1988. D20 G31


McNeill, William H., Ch. 1-10, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, Chicago, University of Chicago, 1963. D20 M16


Tilly, Charles, Coercion, Capital and European States AD 990-1990, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1990.

Note that each one of these is a book. For one class. For one week. Oh dear. Something tells me that, unless your are a freaky genius like Siodhbhra, not all of the reading gets done.

On a separate note, I went to visit my employers on Friday. It went well; I should be starting in the next couple of weeks. While I was at the bus stop near the house, an old man (who I would learn was 92 years old) came up and said that I was "the smartest dressed young person he'd seen in a while." I explained to him that I was going to work, and he asked me about it and where I was from. He told me that during World War II, he took over one of the bases from the Americans. He also told me that a private in the British Army earned 2 shillings (around 20 pence/ 35 cents) a day. Makes me seriously less inclined to complain about my shoes giving me blisters on the way to my much better paid than that job (although they did, and it hurt).

Until Next Time (if I ever get my reading done),
Kathryn

Issues to Ponder

So, a couple of weeks back, I got a welcome letter from the International Relations people at LSE. It gave me some dates that are good to know, like when the programme starts, what courses I am going to have to take, a link to the course catalogue (which didn't work) and a link to the registration website (which also didn't work). I have to say, that I am not surprised about the whole not working website, because, quite frankly, the London School of Economics's website is the most labyrinthine, indecipherable thing on the face of the planet. Seriously. Siodhbhra and I are convinced that the step in the admissions screening process is seeing if you can navigate the website. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they keep creating new pages, and don't get rid of the old ones or forget to change all of their links.

The sunglasses are there for scale.

But I digress. In the letter, they suggested we study one of three books to prepare for our international politics course in addition, they said we should read a "selection"  of six other books. I don't really know what "selection" really means. I think it will mean, however many I have time for, probably one or two. And there would be a test in October to asses our knowledge of International Relations.

So I ordered two of the books on Amazon, and one of them, World Politics Since 1945, arrived yesterday. To use one of my favourite phrases, I was a bit disconcerted. It's bloody huge. And not only is it enormous, it is just straight text, with really long paragraphs, and almost no maps or figures or anything. I think the best way I can describe it is "dense." In every sense of the word. Now. I like to think that I am a hard working student. But I have to wonder what I am getting myself into, if this is the summer reading. 

A page, chosen at random. Note all of the black lines of words. All the pages are like this.

Adding to my consternation is the fact that the British University system is one that relies heavily on reading, rather than the more lecture/ seminar based system in the US. And that is not my strong suit. Maybe I should have thought about that before I decided to go there. Whoops. Too late now. In reality, I wasn't coming in completely blind to that information, it's just starting to hit home that I am going to have to work hard this year.

Also, the workers and the major airports in the UK (including, of course, Heathrow) are talking about striking. Oh goody. 

Kathryn