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. Prerequisite requirements are strictly enforced. Please take note that many upper-level history courses have prerequisites. If you have not met the prerequisite, you may be dropped from the course.
History Department Course List Main Page
Hist110: The Ancient World
MW 11-11:50 & Discussion Holum
Interpretation of select literature and art of the ancient Mediterranean world with a view to illuminating the antecedents of modern culture: religion and myth in the ancient Near East; Greek philosophical, artistic, scientific, and literary invention; and the Roman tradition in politics and administration.
CORE Humanities (HO)
Hist111: Medieval World
MW 1-1:50 & Discussion section Wasilewski
The Middle Ages saw the evolution of the Europe we know today—geographically, socially, and culturally. This course explores Europe’s roots in the Roman Empire; the formation of new kingdoms and new identities in the wake of the empire’s disintegration; the emergence of the classically “medieval” culture of knighthood and courtly love; the many roles of religion; and the repeated crises that threatened to destroy medieval innovations. How did the small and struggling kingdoms that succeeded Roman imperial power in Western Europe transform themselves, over the course of a millennium, into a group of coherent nations on the brink of world domination? What does modern culture owe to the medieval world? CORE Social or Political History (SH)
Hist112: The Rise of the West: 1500-1789
MW 10-11:15 Sutherland
The principal themes of the course are starvation, poverty and death; the transition from a religion of gestures to one of conscience and its relation to the Reformation; the European contact with indigenous peoples, trade, and subjugation; warfare and its relation to structures of states; Enlightenment, the scientific revolution and the stirrings of liberty.
CORE Humanities (HO) Course.
Hist123: Sub-Saharan Africa since 1800
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion Landau
Surveys the social and political history of Sub-Saharan Africa over the past two centuries. Topics include the military and social re-organization of African societies, the effects of the slave trade in Africa, colonial conquest and resistance, systems of rule, racism and colonial ideology, anticolonial warfare, the image of Africa, the use and misuse of African bodies, and the postcolonial state.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist156 (01): History of the United States to 1865
MW 1-1:50 & Discussion section Grimsted
This course explores the early history of the United States and of those colonies that came to make it up, through the Civil War. Students will read primary sources through which people in the “new world” defined their struggles, hopes, fears, and society. Themes concern the mingled motives of religion and money in the European settlement, the blending of European, Native American and African cultures, and the long and never completed struggle to define a more humane society where people were in some sense to be equal, within the cauldron of developing democracy, capitalism and slavery.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
Hist156 (02): History of the United States to 1865
TuTh 10-10:50 & Discussion Bradbury
The United States from colonial times to the end of the Civil War. Establishment and development of American institutions.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course
Hist157 (01): History of the United States since 1865
MW 12-12:50 & Discussion section Smead
This course surveys the history of America from the end of the Civil War through the 1970s and beyond. We explore the forces that shaped modern-day America, including the role of industrialization, technology, the impact of race and ethnicity, and the changing role of the federal government in the lives of American citizens. The goal is to figure out why we are the way we are.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History (SH)
Hist157 (02): History of the United States since 1865
TuTh 12-12:50 & Discussion section Sicilia
This course surveys United States history from the end of the Civil War to the present. Since we cannot cover this broad subject comprehensively in a single term, we will focus on several key events and themes in the evolution of American institutions, culture, economy, politics, and values since 1865. These will include: cultural pluralism and the definition of American identity; the organization of American society into hierarchical institutions; urbanization and rural-urban conflict; the rise and decline of the United States as a global economic and political power; and the development of major political and social reform movements such as Progressivism, the New Deal, Civil Rights, environmentalism, and neo-conservatism.
This course is designed to help students: 1) gain a basic factual knowledge of this historical period; 2) develop the ability to assess and think critically about historical issues and about how people interpret those issues; and 3) develop some skills in analyzing historical data and reaching informed conclusions about those data.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History (SH)
Hist174: Introduction to the History of Science
TuTh 9-9:50 & Discussion Milam
This course provides an introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of science. We will investigate the individual and social identities of the people investigating the order of nature, the places in which they conducted their research, the practice of science, and the public perception of the philosophers, naturalists, and experimenters engaged in these activities. Beginning with the medical and physical ideas of the ancient Greeks, we will trace the appropriation of this knowledge in the medieval and early modern periods, the Enlightenment valorization of reason and knowledge, the eventual association of the scientific enterprise with the idea of progress, and the slow transformation into what we now call modern science.
HIST 208J: Historical Research and Methods Seminar: Black Crosscultural Politics in the Americas in the Twentieth Century
Section 0101: M 12-2 Cohen, T.
Section 0102: F 10-12 Cohen, T.
HIST 208K: Historical Research and Methods Seminar: The Road to (Culture) War: Cultural Politics in the Twentieth-Century United States
Section 0101: M 2-4 Christiansen, E.
Section 0102: W 1-3 (transfer students only); Christiansen, E.
Permission Required; Open only to History Majors. Allowing for a wide range of cultural and political history projects, this course coalesces around the idea of “culture war” in the mid- to late-20th century United States, referring to the idea that issues that play out on the political stage may have roots traceable to differences in social background and "values." By this idea the culture – how people understand the world, what their ideas are based upon, what they find acceptable and what is beyond the pale – interacts with and influences political discourse. As a research seminar, students will be asked to develop projects which look historically at some of the topics that now are generally thought of as culture war issues and to consider whether their research supports or refutes this widely accepted explanatory model. Students will be especially encouraged to pursue projects on the state, local, and campus level, which would be situated within (and perhaps contribute to) the existing historiography. These might include library censorship; racism, minority and women’s rights and issues; political activism on the right and the left; and the shifting political allegiances of particular populations and organizations over time. The result will be a 10-15 page primary source based paper.
HIST 208M: Historical Research and Methods Seminar: Gender and Popular Culture in Twentieth-Century America
Section 0101: W 9-11 Larocco, C.
Section 0102: Tu 9-11 Larocco, C.
Permission required; Open only to history majors. If Carrie Meeber, the protagonist of Theodore Dreiser’s moralistic 1900 novel Sister Carrie, were to trade lives with the twenty-first century Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, the two would likely be lost. Similarly, the late twentieth-century hero of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers, would barely recognize the early twentieth-century world of Tarzan of the Apes, one in which women were the rescued, not the rescuers. Over the course of the twentieth century, Americans vastly renegotiated their understandings of gender. This research- and skills-based class will ask students to explore what looking at popular culture can tell us about how this occurred.
Students will develop a 10-15 page primary source-based research paper. These papers may focus on the gendered implications of a slice of film, television, theatre, performance art, visual art, poetry, or fiction; for example, students may formulate projects that explore representations of women and gender in a particular genre and/or time period, a gendered analysis of state-sponsored cultural products such as wartime propaganda posters or Depression-era photography or theatre, or an exploration of feminist art and theatre. Or students may choose to explore women’s engagement with the production of popular culture through, for example, an analysis of the life and writings of authors such as Katherine Anne Porter or Djuna Barnes or selected biographies of the women involved in radio, early television, and public broadcasting. Regardless of whether students choose a representation or production focus, they will work with both cultural texts and manuscript and archival sources as they keep several central questions in mind. First, what is popular culture, and what role does it play in society? Second, how does popular culture relate to “real” history? To what extent does popular culture reflect the social and political milieu from which it springs? How does it help to answer the questions historians ask about gender in a given time period?
While in the first few weeks of class students will be exposed to examples of how this has been done by historians, the bulk of the course will be devoted to the development, execution, refinement, and ultimately presentation of their own research projects. Through this process, students will develop and practice the skills necessary to conduct historical research and writing: identifying and analyzing primary source materials; contextualizing these findings within the existing scholarship on their chosen topic; and learning the basics of historical writing, including citation and argumentation.
HIST 208N: Historical Research and Methods Seminar: Eastern Europe through Western Eyes, 1821-1991
Section 0101: Th 11-12 Papaioannou, S.
Section 0102: Tu 2-4 Papaioannou, S.
Permission required; Open only to history majors. This seminar will explore how societies in the United States and Western Europe have historically perceived Eastern Europe and its inhabitants, and will direct students in writing an original research paper based on primary sources that addresses a specific topic within this overall theme. Possible topics for research projects include impressions on the part of Western tourists, journalists, government agents, and others who traveled or lived in Eastern European countries; Westerners’ contemporary observations of specific historical events in Eastern Europe; and representations of Eastern Europe in fiction or film. Students will initially become familiar with scholarly arguments relating to the historical origins of the modern notion of an East/West cultural divide within Europe; Western understanding of Eastern Europe as a deficient version of its civilization; and depictions of Eastern Europe in film and other media. Students will spend most of the semester learning the basic methods of primary historical research – posing an interesting research question, critically surveying pertinent secondary literature, and locating and critically analyzing relevant primary sources - as they prepare to write a polished 10-15 page final research paper.
HIST 208P Historical Research and Methods Seminar: Immigration and British Society, 1850-1983
Section 0101: Th 11-1 Reed, C.
Section 0102: Th 2-4 Reed. C.
Hist208T: Historical Research & Methods Seminar: Medieval Saints Lives: History and Hagiography
W 1 -3 Rutenburg
Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only. Are Saints’ lives reliable and useful historical sources? This depends on how we interpret and use them. ‘Saints lives’ refers to both the life-histories or experiences of individuals regarded as saints, and to the formal, written hagiographic records—the vitae (Lives) of holy men and women. Saints were ideal human role models, heroes, protectors, agents of justice, intercessors, and intimate friends for medieval people. Their life histories contain a wealth of detail about their societies and times. Their cults were an important part of medieval religious and social life. Hagiographic records tell us a great deal about the spirituality and beliefs of medieval people, and about the traditions of the medieval Church.
In History 208 T we shall explore and interpret these materials, searching out what they tell us about medieval society and individuals. We will look for the individual personalities of saints within formal and formulaic hagiographic records, and analyze developments and change in hagiography and the cult of saints in medieval Europe from the 3rd to the 13th centuries.
Hist211: Women in America Since 1880
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion Muncy
History 211 explores women’s participation in the major events and trends of American history since 1880. We seek to understand, for instance, the meanings of corporate capitalism, consumer culture, economic depression and war for a broad spectrum of American women. We trace and seek to explain women’s changing forms of political activism, labor market participation and family life. We study subjects that range from the victory of women’s enfranchisement to the triumph of plastic surgery.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
CORE Human Cultural Diversity
Hist212: Women in Western Europe, 1750-present (cross-listed as WMST212)
TTh 10-10:50 & discussion Gullickson
Between 1750 and 2008 women’s rights, roles, responsibilities and opportunities changed dramatically. This course examines these changes for a wide variety of women: wealthy aristocratic, poor peasant, working-class and middle-class women; radicals and conservatives; victims, villains and heroines; women who became famous and women who struggled just to survive. Topics include, the women’s suffrage movement, women and war, women and the holocaust, women’s clothing, the birth control movement, marriage and motherhood, divorce, work, and so on. Readings include women’s autobiographies, plays, political articles, speeches, and men’s writings about women.
CORE Social or Political History (SH).
CORE Diversity (D).
Hist213: History of Sexuality in America
MW 1-1:50 & Discussion Lyons
This is an introductory survey course on the history of sexuality in the United States. The course explores the social construction of sexualities from the first colonial settlement to the modern era. It focuses on the historical meanings given to sexuality and the political uses of sexuality in the past. The course will focus on the United States, but will begin with the history of sexuality in early modern Europe to facilitate our understanding of sexuality in colonial north America. Then we will proceed through the chronological development of the history of sexuality in the north American territory that becomes the United States. We will explore the dominant and alternative constructions of sexuality; trace the changing and contested meanings of sexuality; and explore the implications of these understandings of sexuality for power relations in U.S. history.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist216: Introduction to the Study of World Religions
M 1-3:30 Antoci
This course gives students the opportunity to examine a variety of religious traditions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism), in historical, cultural, and social perspective. Specific focus on some of the scholarly approaches to religion (including psychological, sociological, feminist, and phenomenological interpretations) provide students with intellectual structures for understanding religion in cross-cultural perspective. This course is required for students pursuing the minor in Comparative Religious Studies, but it is open to all interested undergraduates.
CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist219A: Special Topics: Women in Western Europe to 1750
MW 12-1:15 Baron
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist219D: Special Topics: South Asian American Communities (cross-listed as AAST298M)
Th 3:30-6 Iyer
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist219M: Special Topics: Asian American History (cross-listed as AAST201)
MW 9-9:50 & Discussion Shinagawa
This course introduces the history of Asian Americans in the United States and the Americas and the field of Asian American Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Topics include theories of race and ethnicity; Asian migration and diaspora to the Americas; Asian American work and labor issues; gender, family, and communities; nationalism and nativism, and anti-Asian movements; Asian Americans, World War II, the Cold War, and the issues in the civil rights & post-civil rights era. We will focus on the personal voices of Asian Americans as means of understanding how individuals made choices and interpreted their situations. Through personal stories, we will explore the meanings of Asian American experiences, mapping their influence within main currents in American and global history.
Because we will spend much time examining Asian Americans' stories, we will often have discussion in class. The course has a lecture and discussion section format so come prepared to read, think, write and debate. No history background is required for this course.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist219N: Special Topics: Women and Gender in Israel (cross-listed as JWST219Z)
TuTh 11-12:15 Spiegel
This course provides an introduction to the history of women and gender in Israel. By examining a broad range of topics including religion, culture, ethnicity, and politics, we will explore the breadth and diversity of a variety of women’s experiences. The course will investigate themes such as the myth of gender equality, gender and nationalism, and the impact of gender on the Arab-Israeli conflict, analyzing images and conceptions of beauty, femininity, masculinity, motherhood, work, nationality.
Hist219W: Special Topics: Middle East and North Africa in the 20th Century
MW 9-9:50 & Discussion Wien
The course offers an introduction to the social and political dynamics of change in the Middle East and North Africa in the 20th century. The main focus will be on the Arab lands. Next to political and socio-economic trends, we will look at the transformation of elite structures and of national and religious identities.
Hist219Z: Special Topics: The Conflict of Church and State in the Middle Ages
TuTh 11-12:15 Rutenburg
The shifting interactions of spiritual and secular powers, of Church and state, papacy and empire, shaped institutions, political theories, and the conception of world order of the medieval west. From cooperation to outright conflict and war, these interactions gave rise to movements of reform, assertions of theocracy, and they influenced political and juridical theories of monarchical authority along with the policies of medieval rulers.
In History 219 Z we shall study these interactions and traditions they produced, from the period of the early Church in the Roman empire to the emergence of the two world powers in the Latin west of the 13th century. Did Christ triumph over Caesar? Or was it the other way around?
Hist225: Modern Military History, 1815-Present
TuTh 9-9:50 & Discussion Sumida
The military history of Europe through an examination of the economic, financial, strategic, tactical, and technological aspects of the development of military institutions and warfare from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the present.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course.
Hist233: Empire! The British Imperial Experience, 1558-1997
TuTh 11-11:50 & Discussion Rush
This course examines the British Empire from its origins in Elizabethan England to its symbolic end when Britain returned Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997. With an emphasis on encounter and migration (of people, goods and ideas) we will consider how the countless men and women involved in the empire story - from merchants to pirates, slaves to missionaries, soldiers to settlers, nannies to nationalists - profoundly changed Britain and the wider world. The course deals with the workings of British colonization (and de-colonization) in the Caribbean, Australia, the Mediterranean, South Asia, North America, the Middle East, Ireland and Britain itself. Topics addressed include (but are not limited to) slavery and captivity, sea power, identity, trade and settlement, liberty and civil rights, humanitarianism and violence.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist236 History of Britain: 1688-Present
MW 3:30-4:45 Taddeo
British history from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the present. The revolution of 1688; the structure of 18th-century society and politics; economic and social change in the industrial revolution; 19th and 20th-century political and social reform; imperialism; the impact of the First and Second World Wars on British society.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
Hist251: Latin American History II
TuTh 12-12:50 & Discussion Rosemblatt
Did you know that the wars of independence in Latin America were won thanks to the participation of thousands of indigenous and Afro-Latin American soldiers? In this course we'll discover whether those soldiers' origins reaped the economic and political rewards they had been offered by the leaders of the independence struggles. Were you aware that slavery prospered in Cuba until 1886? In this class you'll learn why. And, you'll find out how the slaves themselves responded to their inhuman working and living conditions. Did you know that when he took power in 1959 Fidel Castro refused to identify himself as a communist? In this class we'll explore why Castro steered the Cuban Revolution toward socialism and the consequences of that decision. Were you aware that in the 1980s organized women played an important role in bringing down military dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile? This class will help you understand why and how. In History 251 you'll study these and other topics as we
survey 19th and 20th century Latin American history.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist283: History of the Jewish People II (cross-listed as Jwst 235)
TuTh 1-1:50 & Discussion Cooperman
Political, economic, social and cultural development within Jewish history from the end of Middle Ages to the present. Special attention to twentieth century developments including the Nazi holocaust and its aftermath, the Zionist movement and the creation of the State of Israel; rise of the contemporary American Jewish community.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) CORE Diversity (D) Course
Hist285: East Asian Civilization II
TuTh 1-1:50 & Discussion Gao
A survey of the historical development of modern Asia since 1800. Primarily focuses on East Asian responses to sustained internal crises, the equally sustained quests for resolution, and the divergent paths along which their quests carried them. A secondary focus is the nineteenth-century convergence of Asian crises and Western "intrusion" and how the convergence complicated Asians' search for solutions.
CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. USP Distributive Studies Area A: Cultural and Historical Course.
Hist299C: Directed Research: Modern Jewish History in Film (1 credit)
Th 3:30-6:30 Cooperman
Corequisite: Hist 283 or Hist 283H This one-credit course is available to students registered for History 283 (or JWST 235) or with the written permission of the instructor. Class meets once a week to view a film that explores major themes in modern Jewish history. Students are required to complete a short essay assignment for ten of the approximately thirteen films shown.
Hist306: History of Religion in America
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Bradbury
Prerequisite: Hist 156, 157, 210, 211, 213, 216, 254, or 255; or permission of instructor.
A history of religion, religious movements, and churches in America from the early colonial period to the present, with special attention to the relation of church and society.
Hist307: The Holocaust of European Jewry (cross-listed as JWST345)
MW 11-11:50 & Discussion Rozenblit
Roots of Nazi Jewish policy in the 1930s and during World War II: the process of destruction and the implementation of the "final solution of the Jewish problem" in Europe, and the responses made by the Jews to their concentration and annihilation.
Hist319L: Special Topics: Asian Age in World History
TuTh 2-3:15 Lilley
Guiding themes to the “Asian Age”: (1) Steppe nomads as empire builders; (2) their interactions with and conquests of settled regions in East Asia, South Asia, and Southwest Asia; (3) Mongols and Turks as dynamic forces in world history; (4) the post-1700 Russian-Manchu struggle for dominance of Inner Asia; (5) “Asian Age” as an alternative narrative of to a Europe-centered world history.
Hist319N: Special Topics: A Modern History of Korea
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Lilley
Begins with a brief examination of the nationalist historical narratives and their impact on the writing of Korean history. This first segment of the course also includes excursions into relevant twentieth century literature and film. The second segment of the course is a "modern" reconstruction of Korea's past since the 10th century C.E.
Hist319P: Special Topics: In Search of the Religions of Ancient Israel (cross-listed as JWST319P)
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Cohen
Hist321: Biblical History and Culture(Cross-listed as Jwst 324)
TuTh 11-12:15 Cohen
Study of the political, social and religious development of the Jewish nation from its inception to its return from exile in Babylonia around 536 BCE. Focus on biblical texts, archaeological finds, and source materials from neighboring cultures to reconstruct political history and the development of religious concepts.
Hist329E: Special Topics: Black Women in United States History (cross-listed as AASP313 and WMST314)
W 3:30-6 Barkley-Brown
This course will introduce students to the historical experiences of black women in the United States. In the process students should gain a more complete understanding of African American, United States, and women's history by reconsidering these from the vantage point of black women's experiences. We will focus on black women's experiences in their families, in the work force, and in their communities, and explore elements of black female culture. Comparing black women's own self-perceptions and behavior with the social norms and ideals about both African Americans and women, we will examine the racial/sexual politics of black women's lives. Throughout the course, we will be concerned with differences across class and region and with the various theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding African American women's lives.
Sophomore standing. Credit will only be granted for one of the following: AASP498W, AASP313, HIST329E, WMST314, or WMST498N. Formerly WMST498N.
Hist329I: Special Topics: Cultural History of New Orleans: Colonial to Katrina
ThTh 11-12:15 Landau
This course will begin with the French colonial period in the eighteenth century and extend through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005, and its continuing impact on the city. The focus will be on the culture of New Orleans, the (mis)perceptions of the city, and the important place New Orleans occupies in American history‹in fact as well as in the imagination. We will cover the things that have made New Orleans famous and infamous: music, food, prostitution, slavery, hurricanes, literature, and of course Mardi Gras.There will be a mid-term, a final, and a paper.
Hist331: Europe in the High Middle Ages
TuTH 9:30-10:45 Wasilewski
Between the years 1000 and 1500, Europe transformed itself from a crowd of struggling and mutually hostile lordships into a group of coherent nations on the brink of world empire. We will identify the reasons for these changes, with particular attention to Europe’s evolving perceptions of itself. How did ideas such as monarchy, family, faith, and wealth develop in the consciousness of medieval Europeans? How were the geographical and cultural borders of Europe defined, and with what consequences?
Hist333: Europe During the Renaissance and Reformation II (continuation of HIST332)
MW 12-1:15 Soergel
Prerequisite: HIST111, HIST112, or permission of instructor. Examination of developments in European religion between 1450 and 1700; the late-medieval Church and its critics; rise of Protestant thought in Germany and its spread throughout Europe; reform efforts in the Catholic Church; religious wars and violence and their impact on state and society; consequences of religious reform in society and its impact on the family and women.
Hist340: Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe
MW 2-3:15 K. David-Fox
This course is an advanced survey of East European history from World War I to the post-communist era. It will emphasize the competing ideologies that shaped the region's history in the twentieth century, as well as the responses to those ideologies. It will explore the effects of the two World Wars; the challenges posed by nationality conflict in the interwar period; the rise of right-wing and communist movements; the political culture of the communist regimes and the growth of civil societies and dissident movements;
gender and Communism; the demise of the communist regimes in 1989; and the
resurgence of nationalism in the Yugoslav War. The course will focus on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, their constituent nationalities, and their successor states. Students will read primary as well as secondary texts, and will become acquainted with aspects of East European culture through literature and film.
Hist355: Civil War and the Rise of Industrialization, 1860-1900
MW 2-3:15 McNeilly
Prerequisite: HIST156, HIST157, HISt210, HIST213, HIST222, HIST254, HIST255, or HIST275; or permission of instructor. Credit will only be granted for one of the following: HIST355 or HIST364. HIST 355 is a detailed examination of American history from 1860 to 1900. It covers the Civil War and Reconstruction, the emergence of the “New South,” the final conquest of the native Americans and the “true” story of the Wild West of American lore and myth, the industrialization of the American economy and its spectacular transformation of American society, the politics of the “Gilded Age,” and America’s emergence as an imperial power. Readings are extensive in both primary and secondary sources. An in-depth research paper is required.
Hist356: Emergence of Modern America, 1900-1945
MW 12-1:15 McNeilly
Prerequisite: HIST157, HIST211, HIST213, HIST222, HIST255, HIST265, or HIST275; or permission of instructor.
Hist357: Recent America, 1945-Present
MW 2-3:15 Smead
Prerequisite: HIST157, HIST211, HIST213, HIST222, HISt255, HIST265, HIST275; or permission of instructor. This course examines the major trends and events that have shaped America since World War II. Focus is on the consequences of the Cold War on domestic America and the causes and implications of the cultural and political upheavals that characterized and followed the Sixties Era. Specific attention will be paid to Civil Rights, certain presidencies, liberalism, conservatism, and the Vietnam War.
Hist386: Experimental Learning (PermReq)
Individual Instruction Course: contact department or instructor to obtain section number.
Prerequisite: permission of department. Junior standing. The Histor Department’s Internship Program. Pre-professional experience in historical research, analysis and writing in a variety of work settings.
Hist396: Honors Colloquium II (PermReq) – CORE Capstone (CS) Course
Tu 3-5 Michel
Prerequisite: HIST395 or permission of instructor. For HIST majors only. Among its many distinctions, the twentieth century has become known as the century of “total war,” conflicts in which battlefront and homefront became blurred and all members of society, civilians as well as soldiers, children as well as adults, women as well as men, became involved, whether as fighters or as victims. The devastating effects of modern weaponry, coupled with the advances of modern medicine, meant that the impact of these wars extended well beyond the period between declarations of war and the signing of peace treaties. This course will examine war and society in the 20th century in the United States and in comparative and transnational perspective, focusing primarily on World Wars I and II and the war in Vietnam. We will look at a variety of primary sources, including firsthand accounts, novels, and films in addition to historical studies, and consider questions such as:
perspective?
political opportunities?
Assignments will include one or two short papers and a longer paper based on primary research. Students may work on the U.S. and/or another society involved in any of the conflicts of the twentieth century.
Hist398: Honors Thesis
M 1-3 Eckstein
Prerequisite: permission of department.
Hist404: History of Modern Biology
TuTh 11-12:15 Milam
Jean Baptiste Lamarck coined the word “biologie” in 1800, to describe a science of life that would be more than mere natural history—a science that would unite the living world into a single scheme, and define humanity’s place in this natural order. The quest to understand how humans were simultaneously part of nature and yet unique among living species has continued to plague biologists. Similar desires inspired Enlightenment efforts to produce a natural system of classification, the cell theory, Darwinian evolution, the theory of the gene, the modern evolutionary synthesis, DNA and molecular biology, the rise of ecosystem ecology, sociobiology, genomics, and the newest synthesis, evolutionary-developmental biology. In this course we not only study scientific attempts to bring order to the natural world, we also grapple with enduring philosophical, analytical and methodological convictions that continue to demarcate disciplinary divides in the modern life sciences: from reductionism, holism, and levels of biological organization, to different modes of scientific practice (fieldwork, lab work, theorizing).
Hist 404: History of Modern Biology
TuTh 9-10:15; Note: Shady Grove campus Parascandola
This course deals with the development of biology in the 19th and 20th centuries. The course focuses on three themes: evolution; genetics; and molecular biology and biomedical science. Social and cultural issues related to these scientific fields (e.g., creationism versus evolution, eugenics, genetic engineering) will also be discussed. Readings include both primary and secondary historical sources, including Peter Bowler's "Evolution: The History of an Idea," excerpts from Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" and "Origin of Species," and James Watson's "The Double Helix."
This course is appropriate for history majors with an interest in the history of science, biology and related science majors, science journalists, and biology teachers. The 400 level is especially appropriate to satisfy the CORE Advanced Studies requirement for science majors.
Hist407: Technology and Social Change in History
TuTh 11-12:15 Friedel
Students with HIST407 prior to Fall Semester 1989 must have permission of department to enroll in this course. This course uses a series of case studies, beginning in the European Middle Ages and extending to the beginning of the 21st century, to explore the relationship between technological and social change in history. That technologies are powerful agents of change from the beginning of organized society has become a truism, but the mechanisms by which technologies effect change are often, when looked at closely, not as clear as they first appear to be. This course will stress careful analysis as well as understanding the nature of historical argument and evidence.
Hist408A: Senior Seminar: War and Society in Eastern Europe
W 11-1 K. David-Fox
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of Department. HIST majors only.
This course will be a seminar for advanced history majors focusing on war and its effects on East European societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will consider primarily how historians have treated and debated the major questions surrounding East European civilian populations during and in the aftermath of wars. The class will also consider examples of memoirs and historical films. Major topics will include propaganda, gender and class relations on the home front and in occupied territories; ideological change during wartime; and partisan activity, ethnic violence and ethnic cleansing during and after wars. Examples will be drawn from the Habsburg Monarchy and its successor states, the Balkans, and Germany. Students will be required to write two short papers on assigned topics and one longer paper analyzing the historiography on a topic of their own choosing. HIST408A is a reading seminar
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist408D: Senior Seminar: Mythologies of the City: Moscow and Petersburg in Russian Culture
Tu 11-1 M. David-Fox
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of Department. HIST majors only.
At the end of the 17th century Peter the Great began building his new Northern capital city of St. Petersburg on a swampy marsh next to the Neva River. During the three centuries that followed, the relationship between Peter’s "window on the West" and the old Russian metropolis of Moscow became decisive for Russian politics and culture. The reputations, images, stereotypes, and cultural representations surrounding the two cities fluctuated over time; but they were always linked, as the two centers were measured against one another and alternated as the seats of power (Petersburg in the imperial period, Moscow in the Soviet era). At various times, these two most important Russian urban centers were compared as symbols of the traditional and modern, Russian and European, Eastern and Western, central and provincial, secular and sacred, orthodox and oppositionist. These mythologies" of the city played a large part in the development of Russian national identity and the ways Russians, especially the political and intellectual elites concentrated in the two cities, viewed the world. They also developed in the midst of some of the most wrenching and rapid developments in modern history in the region: urbanization, peasant in-migration, unprecedentedly large demographic shifts, a series of city-centered political revolutions, all capped by Soviet-style centralization and the building of a new "socialist city."
The goal of this course is threefold: to explore the symbolism surrounding Moscow and Petersburg that developed in Russian history and culture; to examine the role of the two cities within the broader context of the history of Russian and Soviet culture; and to relate both to the historical transformation of the two cities from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The stereotypes and images at times reflected historical developments, at times shaped them, and at times obscured them. Students will thus explore the role of myth in history and history in myth.
The course will draw on many different sources, texts and disciplines, including literature, poetry, social history, architecture, intellectual history, cultural studies, and possibly film. History 408D is a research seminar.
Hist408E: Senior Seminar: War and Individual Liberty, from the American Revolution to the War on Terror
Th 10-12 Ridgway
This course will examine the impact of war on individual liberty from the American Revolution through the War on Terror. Some argue that the erosion of individual liberty during war time is a small price to pay for collective security; others assert that individual liberties must be jealously guarded at all times, especially in time of war.
Students will be asked to research and write a research paper in one of six general war time periods: the Revolution and its immediate aftermath; the Quasi-War with France; the Civil War; World War I and its immediate aftermath, World War II, and the modern War on Terror. Paper topics might include, but not be limited to: freedom of speech and of the press; treason; the use of military commissions; rights due aliens v. rights due citizens; 4th Amendment protections of search and seizure; or Executive authority in war time. Another topic could be the definition of citizenship during a period of civil war (the American Revolution as well as the Civil War). One might also consider doing a comparative examination of a theme between two or more periods.
In addition to a twenty page research paper, students will be asked to write several shorter papers on class readings, and they will be graded on their class participation
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of Department. HIST majors only.
Hist408I: Senior Seminar: Women in the 20th Century US
M 12-2 Muncy
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of Department. HIST majors only.
This course allows history majors to pursue independent research in twentieth-century US women’s history. Building on the skills developed in HIST 208, this course will guide students toward completion of an original historical essay of 15-20 pages. The course will review the process of research and writing: how to generate a fruitful question for research; how to develop an efficient research strategy; how to craft a compelling essay. For the first two weeks, students will discuss common readings. Work in these weeks is designed simply to suggest issues and research strategies in twentieth-century US women’s history and to remind students how best to structure an historical essay. After that, the course makes room for students to design their own research projects, pursue their own research, and make sense of their findings. History 408I is a research course.
Hist408J: Senior Seminar: The Modern Babylon: A Cultural History of the 19th Century London
M 1-3 Taddeo
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of Department. HIST majors only. This course will use a variety of primary and secondary sources to explore 19th century London. More than a backdrop, the city is its own character, often described as a “modern Babylon”-- dangerous yet irresistibly exciting. We will examine the urban scene as the site of distinctly gendered spaces, including its interiors as well as exteriors, from parlors to sewers, from the East End to the West End. Along the way, we’ll meet prostitutes, lady shoppers, the Queen, criminals, radical activists, and the urban anthropologists, novelists, and journalists transfixed by the city’s inhabitants. Some of the issues to be addressed include the policing of urban sexuality, the social impact of liberal reform legislation, class, gender, and race relations within the city, and the cultural relationship between London and the British Empire. This is a readings seminar.
Hist408K: Senior Seminar: Early American History
Tu 2-4 Bradbury
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
The course examines the literature of Early American History, 1600-1800, through class discussion and independent reading. On the basis of that examination, students will be expected to prepare a 15-20 page research paper on some aspect of Early American History. Much of the research for the paper will be done in primary sources. Attendance in class is an important part of the work of the course. Hist 408K is a research seminar.
Hist408N: Senior Seminar: History and Memory in Medieval Islam
W 10-12 Borrut
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
This course focuses on remembrance and historical writing in the medieval Islamic world. Islam was born in the early 7th century CE but our knowledge of the first centuries of Islam is largely dependent upon Muslim narrative sources composed from the late 9th century onward. How did the Muslims of the ‘classical’ period (9th-10th c.) define their relationship with the Islamic past, between memory and history? How did they build an agreed upon version of this past? Why were the effects of this construction so broad and long-lasting, determining in a fundamental way the access that all future generations (including us) would have to “alternative pasts”?
Specific topics include: History and memory; Quran and history; Modern historiographical approaches of the problem; Oral and written transmission; Sacred tradition vs. history; the Abbasid making of the past; Historians at work; the use of Non-Muslim sources; Comparative historiography; History and society.
Hist 408N is a readings seminar.
Hist408P: Senior Seminar: Writing the History of American Film
Th 1-3 Giovacchini
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
This senior seminar will offer students the opportunity to write a research paper on a particular aspect of the history of American film. We shall begin our seminar with 4/6 weeks of introductory readings focusing on historiographical and methodological issues. We shall then get to the nuts and bolts of writing a publishable research essay as well as to the techniques of clearly and effectively presenting one's work in public. Hist408P is a research seminar.
Hist408Q: Senior Seminar: Chinese City and Frontiers
TH 10-12 Gao
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of the Department. HIST majors only.
Hist408X: Senior Seminar: Transnational Environmental History
Tu 3-5 Friedel
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of the Department. HIST majors only.
This Capstone History course gives history majors the opportunity to develop a research topic and write an substantial paper using original sources. The thematic emphasis of the course will be on topics from environmental history, particularly those that are not constrained by national boundaries. Examples include the exploration of ideas about
nature, pollution, preservation, and conservation, particularly as exemplified in European and American experiences. History 408X is a research seminar.
Hist408Y: Senior Seminar: Jewish Women Confront Modernity
W 4-6 Rozenblit
Core Capstone (CS) Course. Prerequisite: Permission of the Department. HIST majors only.
Hist419D: Special Topics: Islam in Europe
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Zilfi
The course looks at the historical experiences and impacts of the Muslim presence in Eastern and Western Europe before and since the mass migrations of the twentieth century. The course introduces conceptual and practical issues in Islam-Europe studies, and then considers the varied and complex relationships of historical and contemporary Muslim communities and immigrant groups to their European political and civilization environment. Although the course begins with an examination of Muslims in Eastern Europe in the era of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, the focus is on the twentieth century, Western Europe, and Muslims as non-governing minorities. Readings and discussions encourage students to understand the ethnic, cultural, and experiential diversity of Europe’s Muslim populations, the nation-specific responses to their presence, and the multiplicity of accommodations, conflicts, and trends in the meeting between Islam and Europe.
Hist419M: Special Topics: Postwar Japan Through Film and Fiction
Tu 2-4, Th 2-3:15 Mayo/Kerkham
Also offered as ARHU308A and JAPN418B. A critical and interdisciplinary review, using historical writing, literature, and film of Japan’s defeat in World War II, 1945, postwar trauma as an occupied country, and ultimate reconstruction as an economic superpower and major influence in global popular culture. We ask what changed, what continued, and how and why in post 1945 Japanese politics, economy, international relations, educational and value system, visual and performing arts, and family and society. Specific themes and topics include: psychology of defeat and war responsibility; ground zero experience of fire bombs and atomic bombs; demilitarization and democratization under foreign occupation; resumption of sovereignty and Cold War politics and culture; urbanization and industrial pollution; corporate life and changing labor force; education, high technology and science; pacifism, security and rearmament debates; women’s movements; graying of society; and comics (manga) and animated film (anime) in the domestic and global marketplace.
Hist419Q: Special Topics: Jews of Eastern Europe, 1500-1939 (cross-listed as JWST419E)
MW 2-3 Manekin.
We will discuss different aspects of the history, culture, politics and religious life of the Jews in Eastern Europe from the 17th century to the eve of the Holocaust. The course will also discuss some of the myths connected with Jewish life in Eastern Europe as evident in literature and the cinema. The readings for the class include secondary sources as well as primary sources, such as government laws and statutes, political declarations, ideological manifestos, memoirs, and literary works.
Hist419W: Special Topics: Cinema and Colonialism
MW 12:30-1:45 Landau
This course is about the relationship between cinema and the history of colonialism worldwide. We will not attempt to be comprehensive, but instead take several different eras and regions and explore. Each week the class will view a movie at Hornbake, and read historical writing about the subject of the film (ranging from the Zulu conquest to the Vietnam war) and the larger framework of historical trends reflected therein. Students will learn about visual representation, narrative conventions, and the history of colonialism in the US, Africa and Asia.
Hist419Y: Special Topics: History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa
TuTh 2-3:15 Jones
What did slavery mean in African societies? How did a trade in slaves develop and what impact did participation in the slave trade have on African states, societies and economies? This course investigates the history of slavery and the slave trade in Africa. You will learn about the meaning of slavery in Africa, local uses of slavery in Africa and Africa’s connection to the Trans-Saharan, Red Sea and Trans-Atlantic slave trades. This class involves an equal amount of lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be based on exams, essays, quizzes and discussion assignments. Readings include monographs by historians of slavery and the slave trade in Africa, primary source documents and analytical essays.
Hist419Z: Special Topics: United States-East Asian Relations from Pearl Harbor to Vietnam
MW 1-2:15 Zhang
A special topic lecture/research class for history seniors. Aiming to probe into the insights of how Washington perceived threats, defined security interests, formulated strategies, and evaluated actual policies toward East Asia (China, Japan and Korea) during the Cold War period. Consisting of lectures and archival research.
Hist428C: Selected Topics: Riot, Law and Justice in European History
M 1-3 Sutherland
Hist428I: Selected Topics: Poverty and Social Policy in the U.S.
TuTh 11-12:15 Michel
Americans have been concerned about poverty and the poor since the earliest days of settlement in North America. The identity of the poor, the causes of poverty, and appropriate remedies for it, have all been matters of ongoing debate. This course will examine changing definitions of poverty and attitudes toward the poor from the seventeenth century to the present, tracing the development of poverty policy from the colonial period, when the poor were “auctioned off” to the lowest bidder, through the poorhouses and asylums of the nineteenth century, to the debates over welfare and workfare in the twentieth century. We will look at private charity and public laws and institutions, with particular attention to the ways in which race, ethnicity, gender, (dis)ability, and sexuality have affected perceptions of the poor in different times and places. We will consider poverty and social policy not as isolated phenomena but as an integral part of American political development, and a key determinant of what constitutes social citizenship in the U.S.
The course will be based on a lecture-discussion format. Readings will include historical studies and a selection of primary sources. There will be a take-home midterm examination, a term paper, and a final examination.
Hist428J: Selected Topics: Antisemitism and Jewish Response (cross-listed as JWST419N)
TuTH 9:30-10:45 Cooperman
Anti-Semitism has often been understood as a single, ongoing phenomenon that has led to endless suffering for Jews in era after era and place after place. It is, as one television documentary put it, "the longest hatred." But does it make historical sense to link together religious conflict, economic rivalry, and national combat? Can we explain the Nazi Holocaust by reference to Christian myth, or Arab anti-Israeli rhetoric by reference to the medieval blood libel? This course will use a series of historical case studies drawn from the classical, medieval and modern periods in order to explore two related themes: (a) the way in which historians have constructed the complex meaning of an apparently simple term; and (b) the ways in which anti-Semitism has been understood and combated by Jews, whether individually or collectively.
Hist428L: Selected Topics: Women and Gender in Africa
Tu 10-12:30 Jones
Across time, women occupy an important place in African societies, states and economies. This class delves into the role of women in the family and as leaders, traders, workers and intellectuals in African history. It pays particular attention to gender relations and the ways in which gender shaped historical change in Africa. This course covers social and economic change in the nineteenth century and the impact of colonial rule in the twentieth century. Students will learn from lectures on key themes and participate in discussion of critical issues. Readings include life histories of African women, select primary sources, novels and works by historians. Evaluation will be based on exams, essays and quizzes.
Hist428M: Selected Topics: Immigration History
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Greene
This course will examine the history of immigration in the United States with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Human migration and immigration provide some of the most constant and fascinating stories in world history. This course will focus on the causes behind the various waves of immigration in U.S. history, as well as their basic character and impact, the role played by ethnic communities, the labor movement, the government, and the law, and the causes and impact of different waves of anti-immigrant sentiment, politics, and social movements.
Hist428N: Selected Topics: Communication in Early America
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Bell
As men took arms against each other in the revolutionary war, a quieter revolution was already well underway. The communications revolution, which began with the introduction of the first printing press to America in 1638 and reached its maturity with the invention of the telegraph in the early nineteenth century, brought with it changes to the patterns of Americans’ daily life unparalleled until the coming of the internet. This upper-division lecture and discussion course will introduce students with some background in American history to the history of print culture by using the arrival of pamphlets, newspapers, and novels – three of the many new print technologies that turned early Americans’ oral world into a textual one – as case studies. Did literacy drive the American Revolution? Did democracy depend on Americans’ shared ability to read and write? Did the proliferation of print create an imagined (republican) community? Students will explore how print influenced the ways that Americans, including women, Indians, and African Americans, communicated and how that communication shaped American history before the Civil War.
Hist428Q: Selected Topics: Victorian Women
TuTh 2-3:15 Gullickson
This course examines what it meant to be a woman during the Victorian era in England, France and the United States. It compares the experiences of aristocratic, bourgeois, and working-class women, ideas about women, and changes in women’s lives during the course of the nineteenth century. Topics include childhood, education, religious experiences, courtship, marriage, motherhood, friendship, jobs, political activism, prostitution, and female criminals. Organized as a seminar, students will read and discuss women’s diaries, letters, and autobiographies; etiquette manuals; debates about women’s rights; and descriptions of women’s work.
Hist428R: Selected Topics: Transition to Islam
MW 2-3:15 Borrut
This course focuses on the conditions of emergence and the subsequent elaboration of Islam from the 6th century CE to the ‘classical’ Abbasid period (9-10th c.). The question of the relationship between Islam and Late Antiquity will be particularly scrutinized, as well as the making of a Muslim identity.
Specific topics include: Arabia and the Arabs before Islam; Late Antique Near East; Bible and Quran; The Prophet Muhammad; The Rise of Islam; The Islamic Caliphate; Elites old and new; Art and the élite; Society and the Holy; Modern Approaches of Early Islam.
Hist428T: Selected Topics: Wealth and Poverty in the Modern U.S.
MW 10-11:15 Freund
Since the United States recovered from the Great Depression in the 1940s, it has been home to both spectacular wealth and persistent poverty. Why did the economy grow, who benefited, and why did poverty persist (and even expand)? What roles have public policy, political protest, technological change, social science, and popular ideology played in shaping Americans’ economic fortunes and opportunities? Why have racial minorities and women of all backgrounds been consistently overrepresented among the nation’s poor? This lecture and discussion course will take us from the “Affluent Society” and the growth of post-war suburbs, to the Civil Rights movement and War on Poverty, to the “long” Reagan-revolution, and finally to the economic crisis of 2008.
Hist428V: Selected Topics: Eastern European History
Tu 3:30-6 Lampe
Hist428W: Selected Topics: Public Culture in Israel
TuTh 2-3:15 Spiegel
This course will examine the fabric and texture of public culture in Israel, investigating the ways in which history, politics, religion, gender and ethnicity operate in the public arena. By tracing the development of Jewish national culture from its origins in Zionist thought to the contemporary period and analyzing physical, material, and performed culture of Israeli life, this course will uncover the role of myth and memory and the intertwining of history and politics in the Israeli public sphere.
Hist428Y: Selected Topics: Colonial Encounters: Natives, Spaniards, and Africans in the New World
MW 11-12:15 Cañeque
This course focuses on two main themes. The first one explores the discourses and practices of the Spanish colonial project in the New World and the ways in which Indians and Blacks were incorporated into or excluded from that project. The second theme examines native and African resistance and adaptation to Spanish rule, and the process of transformation and hybridization of Spanish, native and African cultures in Spanish America. This course also places a strong emphasis in the analysis of recent historiographical developments that have profoundly changed our understanding of the Spanish conquest and colonization of the New World. For example, the first theme will allow students to become familiarized with the methods of cultural history and colonial discourse analysis. The second theme will serve as an introduction to the ethnohistorical approach, offering students the opportunity to confront the methodological difficulties which historians have to face when studying indigenous societies under colonial rule.
Hist429L: Special Topics: Knowing Our History: African American Slavery and the University of Maryland II
MW 10-11:15 Brewer/Berlin
Permission Required. Continuation of HIST429I.
Hist431: Stuart England
MW-9-10:15 Baron
This class examines the history of England from the accession of King James I (1603) to the death of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs in 1714. This period witnessed a series of political upheavals, ideological developments, social changes, and economic transformations that are crucial to understanding how the modern world came into being. Many ideas and values that now reign supreme in the Anglo-American world – including representative democracy, popular political sovereignty and religious toleration – first emerged in the crucible of seventeenth century English society. In addition, by the end of the period, England was well along the path towards a modern market economy, paving the way both for the “industrial revolution” and for later English colonial/military domination. All of these changes and processes will be examined in detail over the course of this semester.
Hist441: Germany in the Twentieth Century, 1914-Present
MW 10-11:15 Herf
This course examines German political (domestic and international), intellectual, cultural and social history from the decade preceding World War I to the decade following the end of the Cold War. In the twentieth century, Germany experienced seven different forms of rule: the Kaiser Reich (1870-1945); Weimar Republic (1919-1933); National Socialist dictatorship (1933-1945); allied occupation (1945-1949); the Federal Republic (West Germany) (1949-1991); the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (1949-1991); and unified Germany (1991-present). We will examine this plurality of regimes with particular attention to causes of war and peace; radicalization and de-radicalization; modernization and the fundamentalist revolt; democracy and dictatorship; mass crime, memory and justice; Germany’s place in Europe during the Cold War and after German unification. Though we will examine the causes and consequences of the Nazi regime, World War II and the Holocaust, in the second half of the semester, topics include Allied occupation policy; memory and judicial reckoning; the sources of democracy and dictatorship; economics and politics in the two Germanys; the Cold War; 1960s revolt and their aftermath: long march through the institutions, cultural revolt, terrorism and the conservative reaction and the red-green synthesis; the causes of the revolution of 1989; Germany since 1991--immigration, citizenship, economic issues, trans-Atlantic strains, debates over terrorism and responses to crises in the Middle East.
social history from the decade preceding World War I to the decade following the end of the Cold War. In the twentieth century, Germany experienced seven different forms of rule: the Kaiser Reich (1870-1945); Weimar Republic (1919-1933); National Socialist dictatorship (1933-1945); allied occupation (1945-1949); the Federal Republic (West Germany) (1949-1991); the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (1949-1991); and unified Germany (1991-present). We will examine this plurality of regimes with particular attention to causes of war and peace; radicalization and de-radicalization; modernization and the fundamentalist revolt; democracy and dictatorship; mass crime, memory and justice; Germany’s place in Europe during the Cold War and after German unification. Though we will examine the causes and consequences of the Nazi regime, World War II and the Holocaust, in the second half of the semester, topics include Allied occupation policy; memory and judicial reckoning; the sources of democracy and dictatorship; economics and politics in the two Germanys; the Cold War; 1960s revolt and their aftermath: long march through the institutions, cultural revolt, terrorism and the conservative reaction and the red-green synthesis; the causes of the revolution of 1989; Germany since 1991--immigration, citizenship, economic issues, trans-Atlantic strains, debates over terrorism and responses to crises in the Middle East.
Hist453: Diplomatic History of the United States from 1914
MW 10-11:15 Zhang
American foreign relations in the twentieth century. World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the beginning of the Cold War, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the end of the Cold War. A lecture class for history seniors.
Hist457: History of American Culture and Ideas Since 1865
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Giovacchini
Prerequisites: HIST157, HIST211, HIST213, HIST222, HIST255, HIST265, or HIST275; or permission of instructor. From the end of the Civil War to the present, the United States experienced major economic depressions, was engaged in conflicts of global proportions, experimented with atomic diplomacy, and radically re-structured her political, cultural, and social foundations. More importantly the USA became a nation, possibly the first one (we’ll test a few hypotheses about this) that lived inside and outside of her boundaries.
During this period, new media were developed and, for example, the American film industry became the world leader in film production. Hollywood films and other cultural artifacts were seen by millions inside and outside of the United States influencing their lives and prompting their comments. The United States, in fact, became a nation which existed and affected reality both within and without her national boundaries. American stars became household names in most American and non American families and American military and business might was experience d everyday in most of the world. At the same time American future was at the centre of intense debates that engaged politicians, intellectuals, and ordinary people inside and outside of the United States.
This course will try and charter the course of the cultural history of the United States as a history shaped by domestic and international events and commented upon by Americans as well as by not – or not yet -- Americans. In the course of the semester we shall look at several artifacts diaries, films, radio broadcasts, and other forms of intellectual interventions which we shall consider as engaged in a tight -- though not necessarily direct or reflective -- relationship with their historical context.
Hist461: Blacks in American Life, 1865-Present
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Moss
Prerequisites: HIST157, HIST210, HIST211, HIST222, HIST254, HIST265, or HIST275; or permission of instructor. The role of blacks in America since slavery, with emphasis on developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the migration from farm to city, the growth of the civil rights movement, the race question as a national problem.
CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Hist462: The United States Civil War
MW 2-3:15 Rowland
Prerequisites: HIST156, HIST210, HIST213, HIST222, HIST254, or HIST275; or permission of instructor.
This course examines the most momentous crisis in the history of the United States. It opens with an overview of American society, North and South, in the mid-nineteenth century, followed by an examination of the growing sectional conflict and the coming of war. The second half of the course focuses on the war itself. Topics include the resources and strategies of the warring societies; mobilization for war; political, social, and economic developments on the homefront; how a war to preserve the Union became a war against slavery; and the role of slaves and ex-slaves in both the destruction of slavery and the achievement of Union victory. Although military developments receive considerable attention, little time is devoted to the tactics of particular battles. Writing assignments include three formal papers (5-6 pages each), two of which are based on primary sources. Informal, in‑class writing about the assigned readings constitutes a significant proportion of the course grade; students must therefore complete the assigned readings on schedule in order to do well in the course. Midterm and final examinations are essay in form.
Hist473: History of the Caribbean
MW 9:30-10:45 Sartorius
The Caribbean region has played a significant role in world history that belies its small size and population. From the development of colonialism and mercantile capitalism to the trans-Atlantic slave trade to emancipatory and revolutionary social movements, the history of the Caribbean sheds light on phenomena of global significance that are still in view today. This course will introduce you to that history through sustained attention to two simultaneous and related long-term developments: the maintenance of European and North American imperial enterprises and the elaboration of racial ideologies around the diversity that has characterized the island populations. Through this prism, we will be able to explore such issues as colonialism, piracy, export agriculture, slavery and emancipation, national independence movements, and tourism. The course has three sections: the early history of the Caribbean, leading up to the Haitian Revolution; nineteenth-century developments, including slave emancipation and early nationalist and independence movements; and the twentieth century, which pays particular attention to how Caribbean peoples have acted on their understandings of those two prior periods.
Hist483: History of Japan Since 1800
TuTh 11-12:15 Mayo
A survey of major events, ideas, persons, issues and institutions in Japan’s modernization and challenge to Western global dominance, 1850s to the near present, with an emphasis on the 20th century. Lectures, discussions, readings, films, and websites will be used to examine a wide variety of themes: the collapse of the regime of Tokugawa shoguns in 1868; legacy of the Meiji Restoration/Renovation; Japan’s emergence as a nation state and industrial society; family-state ideology; modern warfare and empire; new urban working and middles classes; elite and popular cultures; diasporas to colonies, Hawaii, and the Americas; militarism, total war, and war crimes; defeat and the fire and atomic bomb experience; war crimes and war responsibility; the Allied Occupation and reconstruction; post-Occupation security and pacifism; transformation into a high technology post-modern global society; and questions of gender, race, ethnicity, and human rights. We will end with a brief look at social, cultural, economic and security issues during the post-Cold war era of the 1990s and Japan’s response to post 9-11 global terrorism.
There will be special emphasis on the Asia/Pacific War, 1937-1945 and war responsibility, followed by the Allied Occupation, Japan’s role in the Cold War, memories of war in post 1945 U.S.-Japan relations, and current debates over revision of Japan’s 1947 constitution.
Hist499: Independent Study (1-3 Credits)
Permission Required. Individual instruction course: contact department or instructor to obtain section number.