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Letter from the Editorial Board

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present the second issue of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Undergraduate History Journal. This year’s issue is the product of an undergraduate journal growing in exciting and new ways. For the first time, submission to the journal was opened to all students within the College of the Humanities and Fine Arts, allowing students of academically diverse backgrounds the opportunity to present their works of historical scholarship. Not only is this year’s journal the first to be compiled into a complete issue, but it is also the first to be printed - available for circulation within and beyond the History Department.

This second volume of the History Journal brings together ten unique works of historical research produced by talented writers across different years and focuses. Transcending different genres, themes, and geographic areas, the following essays range from an analysis of political dynasties in the modern era, to a comparison between the ideologies of Liberal and Marxist revolutionaires, to the journal’s first fiction piece, following the story of Suyin, a young woman experiecing the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s first hand.

We are grateful to have served as editors for this year’s Journal. With three out of four members of the editorial board graduating this year, this experience has been as gratifying as it has been bittersweet. It has been our pleasure taking part in an effort which allows our peers to present the best historical research and works of literature they have produced, and are excited to see what the future holds for this growing, undergraduate-run publication.