Attention: This schedule is subject to change. Before registering for classes, check the on-line schedule of classes to confirm course numbers, times, and availability.
History Department Course List Main Page
Hist 319B: Special Topics: Women and the Civil Rights Movement
MTWTh 12-3:30 Barkley Brown
Cross-listed as AASP 498I and WMST 498M. This course examines the twentieth century U.S. civil rights movement from the vantage point of women, considering both women's involvement in the legal campaigns and political protests and the impact of civil rights struggles on women's condition, status, and identity. Surveying events, organizations, and personalities through the twentieth century, we will consider issues which have preoccupied social movement theorists and political activists alike: developing and sustaining social commitment, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of formal organization, raising money, maximizing political influence, and securing long-range objectives. We will also examine competing definitions of leadership; class, race, and gender dynamics within the movement; and the cultural dynamics of political organizing and social change.
Hist 319J: Special Topics: The Culture Wars: American Politics and Society, 1960-2000
MTWThF 1-4 Sullivan
In this course we will explore the intersection of electoral politics, social movements, and cultural happenings in the late 20th century. We will consider the rise of political conservatism; the short- and long-term effects of various social movements; religion in the public sphere; important Supreme Court decisions; and the changing role of the media in the circulation of ideas. We will also evaluate the usefulness of the term "Culture Wars" as we try to understand Americans and their politics.
Hist 319N: Special Topics: America in the Movies: Major Themes in 20th Century America
MTWThF 9-12:15 Malka
This course uses Hollywood films to explore some of the major themes and events in 20th century American history. Movies have played a pivotal role as one of the most influential and popular instruments of mass culture. We will view a range of movies and evaluate how they reveal, support, mold and challenge American values and beliefs. We will start with the Great Depression of the 1930s and then follow Americans as they emerged from World War II and then plunged into the Cold War. This course focuses on the second half of the twentieth century and explores, for example, the major transformations in American life with the rise of the Civil Rights movement, the New Left and the second wave of feminism. We will examine the strengths and limitations of films as they contribute to our understanding of 20th century America.
Hist 319X: Special Topics: Colonialism and Decolonialism in the 20th Century
MTWThF 1-4 Schmitt
This course will examine Europe’s colonial and postcolonial experience in the twentieth century, and the impact of European imperialism on developing societies. Relevant topics include the strategic and ideological impetus for colonialism and nation-building in the first half of the century; the causes and consequences of decolonization (including the aftereffects of World War II, the rise of third world nationalism, and the interplay of western political ideology with national movements); efforts by colonized peoples to form identity in the shadow of European imperialism; the use of torture and violence, both by European states and third world terrorist groups; and the impact of events in the third world on present day European mentalities, most notably regarding the issues of genocide, human rights, and globalization. Students will arrive at a deeper understanding of these issues through assigned readings, presentations by the instructor, in-class screenings of visual materials, and discussion with their peers.
Hist 319Y: Special Topics: High-tech or Hamburgers: Historical Perspectives on the Postwar U.S. New Economy
MTWThF 9-12 Levengood
The 1990s New Economy was heralded for its robust economic growth, IT efficiency advances, and its opportunities for the creative Knowledge Worker, but resulted in the dotcom bubble and Enron’s collapse. What of the New Economy was real and what just smoke and mirrors? This course examines the roots of the New Economy in post-WWII economic, social, and cultural shifts. We will explore theories of postwar economic change and the shift from manufacturing to a post-industrial economy. Using the New Economy as a starting point, the course explores key themes and topics in United States history from the end of World War II to the present, including: 1) postwar liberalism and the rise of the New Right; 2) development of Sunbelt and Rustbelt economies; 3) war and technology; 4) globalization, Wal-Mart, and the service economy. To help understand these larger themes, the course will focus on New Economy workers – computer geeks, burger flippers, unemployed factory workers, and rent-a-maids – and the symbolic spaces and workplaces of the post-industrial economic world, including sprawling suburbs, the mall, the decaying factory, the theme park, and the post-industrial city. Students will use primary documents, films, lectures, and secondary source readings to historicize and evaluate the impact of postwar economic change.
Hist 419A: Special Topics: The English Civil War and Beyond, 1630-1660
MTWThF 9-12 Baron
This course explores the events that rocked seventeenth-century England, Scotland, and Ireland in mid-century. These events have drawn much attention over the centuries as participants and scholars alike have tried to determine precisely what happened between 1641 and 1660. Were simultaneous outbreaks of civil unrest in three kingdoms that shared a monarch a sign of dysfunctional monarchy? Class conflict? Religious differences? The general crisis of the seventeenth century? Simple incompetence? This course will look at the lead up to war in the decade of the 1630s, the outbreak and conduct of the war, or wars, the defeat and execution of King Charles I, the experiments in government of the 1650s, and end with the restoration of Charles I's son to the throne as Charles II. Answers to the questions posed above will be explored as we try to determine how to understand what led these countries to civil war and the impacts of the experience for each of them.