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.
Rozenblit MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
History of the Jews in America from colonial times to the present. Emphasis on the waves of migration from Germany and Eastern Europe; the changing nature of the American Jewish community and its participation in American social, economic and political life.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
Holum MW 12:00pm-12:50pm and discussion
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)
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Rutenburg TuTh 12:00pm-12:50pm and discussion
The development of Europe in the Middle Ages; the role of religious values in shaping new social, economic, and political institutions; medieval views of history and history-writing; medieval literature; the development of the "medieval synthesis" of Classical, Christian, and Barbarian cultures; the ideals and realities of medieval leaders. This course introduces students to historical methodology including interdisciplinary approaches, analysis of primary sources, and historical writing.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
Herf TuTh 10:00am-10:50am and discussion
A survey of political, intellectual and international history of Europe since the Enlightenment and the French and Industrial Revolutions. Themes and events also include: Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna; German nationalism; political and economic liberalism; Marx and Marxism; social democracy; conservatism; religion, civil religion and political religion in secularizing Europe; imperialism, race thinking, and anti-imperialism; World War I; totalitarianism and radicalization of European politics; Marxism-Leninism and the Soviet regime; European Communism; Mussolini and Italian fascism; Great Depression; Hitler and National Socialism in Germany; Stalin and Stalinism; appeasement to Churchill and the finest hour; World War II; the Holocaust; Allied victory and the Nuremberg Trials; the Cold War; de-radicalization, liberal revival and the politics of memory after 1945; economic recovery and Americanization in the West; postwar Stalinism; upheaval in 1968; Cold War disputes and collapse of Communism; the revolutions of 1989 and German unification; debates over citizenship, immigration, globalization and security since 1989. Class format: two lectures, one discussion section per week. Readings include core text and selected readings of primary sources by prominent thinkers and political leaders. Active participation in discussion sections forms important component of the grade.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Grimsted MW 10:00am-10:50am and discussion
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)
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Bradbury TuTh 9:00am-9:50am and discussion
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)
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Smead MW 11:00am-11:50am
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)
USP Distributive Studies, Area D
McNeilly MW 2:00pm-2:50pm
The United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Economic, social, intellectual, and political developments. Rise of industry and emergence of the United States as a world power.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
USP Distributive Studies, Area D
Sicilia TuTh 1:00pm-1:50pm
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.
Schmitt M 12:00pm-2:00pm or F 10:00am-12:00pm
The founding of the United Nations after World War II was a landmark event in the establishment of universal norms for human rights. Since 1945, nations, NGOs, and individual advocates have debated which rights are deserved by all throughout the world, as well as the most efficacious means by which these rights may be instilled and preserved. As recent events have demonstrated, the debate over human rights is by no means settled. In particular, the West, which has long considered itself as the originator of universal human values, has sometimes not lived up to the standards it professes. This course proposes to introduce students to some of the historical issues that have significantly impacted the debate on human rights, and ask that the students complete a research paper on a specific issue. Students will become familiar with the various methods available on campus to locate both primary and secondary sources, as well as how to define a specific topic and set realistic objectives in conducting this research.
Halperin M 2:00pm-4:00pm or W 1:00pm-3:00pm
This course will introduce students to the historical literature related to film, culture, and politics during the Cold War and teach them basic skills in designing and carrying out a historical research project. Through the study of Cold War visual culture and film, students will select research topics focused on understanding identity politics in film such as representations of race, class, and gender. Student research papers will examine the relationship between representations and the social and political movements of the Cold War, and the differences and convergences between the US and Latin American films and culture. The topic encourages students to learn and demonstrate the basic skills of historical research by familiarizing them with using visual sources to produce a historical research paper. Students will be introduced to theoretical concepts related to representation and visual culture that provides a common framework for the course and the research papers, and will facilitate class discussions and peer critiques of the research projects.
Castillo W 9:00am-11:00am or Tu 9:00am-11:00am
The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students to historical research using primary sources. In the beginning of the term, students will learn how to differentiate between primary and secondary sources; how to identify and critique arguments in secondary works; how to conduct historical research; how to create a historical argument; and how to present that argument in a coherent essay. In Imagining Work, students will conduct their own primary research in the field of labor history, specifically seeking to understand how Americans have imagined and experienced work since 1920. This characterization may seem awkward and strange at first glance: work does not seem to lend to imagination. However, that work is a concrete and objective experience should not blind us that work also contains a subjective and ideological component defining it. The course thus seeks to explore the tension between the two and how this tension reflects power and class relations in society. Students will relate their findings to historiographical debates in the field. The combination of these two elements in historical research, primary and secondary source analysis, will lead to a final long paper. Students will also be encouraged to explore the interconnectedness between politics, economics, and culture in shaping power relationships in the polity and the workplace since the 1920s. Given the wide diversity of both workers and work, these connections are vital to understanding the nature of power. Students are urged to remember this vibrant landscape as they read the secondary literature and think about their own work.
Benmergui Th 10:00am-12:00pm or Tu 2:00pm-4:00pm
This course will introduce students to the historical literature related to urban history from the 1930s to the 1990s. In addition, it will teach and train them to develop basic skills in historical research. While studying and analyzing urbanization and urban processes with a special emphasis on a multi/trans-national conception of urban history– rural to urban migration; cold war urban demographies; suburbanization; cities, the Theory of Modernization and the “Third World”; myth and realities of squatter settlements, slums, and inner cities; urban planning/renewal; gentrification; urban youth culture; urban social movements; global cities – students will work on designing a research project, exploring catalogues and databases, and analyzing primary sources available on campus and within the DC area. Students will acquire experience and training in identifying and evaluating historical arguments within scholarly works and interpreting primary sources. Students will choose a particular problem geographically located – and not necessarily related to US national borders – to study and will share their achievements and limits in a critical manner with the help of the rest of the class and instructor.
Scala Th 11:00am-1:00pm or 2:00pm-4:00pm
This course will introduce students to the basic conventions and methods of historical research while dealing with some of the main historiographical issues of the Cold War in Europe from 1945 to 1961, including the formation of the postwar settlement in Europe, the devolution of the Soviet-American wartime alliance into mutual antagonism and distrust, expulsion and migration, the division of Germany, the establishment and maintenance of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe, intellectual, cultural, and artistic responses to the Cold War, the "Thaw" in the Soviet Union, and the diplomatic crisis surrounding the construction of the Berlin wall. The culmination of the course will be students’ writing of a work of original historical research based on a close reading of primary sources and contextualization in existing secondary literature.
Regenhardt MW 1:00pm-1:50pm and discussion
This course looks at women’s experiences (and historical interpretations of those experiences) in America across lines of race, class, sexuality, and region from 1880 to the present. Students will examine the changing roles of women within the family, in wage labor, in cultural production, and in political movements. The course also aims to help students both understand how historians work, and critically engage both historians and historical source material.
CORE: Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
CORE: Human Cultural Diversity
Grossman MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course gives students the opportunity to examine a variety of religious traditions (including, but not limited to, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism, and African religions), 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 Citation in Comparative Religious Studies, but it is open to all interested undergraduates.
CORE Humanities (HO) Course
Jones MW 1:00pm-2:15pm
Explore the history and culture of the people of West Africa. Learn about Mandinka traders, Islam in Senegal, British colonialism in Nigeria and the role of West Africans as colonial interpreters. The first third of this course will examine West Africa prior to European occupation in 1885. The remaining two thirds of the course will focus on West African responses to colonial rule, the tension between westernization and African tradition, the growth of nationalism and the emergence of independent nation states after 1960.
Lapin TuTh 9:30-10:45
No course description available.
Mar MW 9:00am-9:50am and discussion
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.
Wien MW 11:00-11:50 and discussion
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.
Sumida MW 9:00am-9:50am and discussion
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 Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
Rush TuTh 12:30pm-1:45pm and discussion
The history of Britain's imperial experience from the mid sixteenth century to the late twentieth century. The encounter between Britain and indigenous peoples in the making of the British empire is the main theme of the course. We shall begin with the buccaneers of Elizabethan England and end with the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997. We shall range across the continents where Britain implanted her empire. Topics covered will include the origins of British imperialism in Ireland and North America, the slave trade, the East India Company and India, women in Empire, transportation and the making of Australia, sex in the Empire, the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 in India, missionaries, economics and Empire, imperialism and British masculinity, racial theories and decolonization.
Baron TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
This class examines the massive changes that swept England and the British Isles between 1455 and 1714. We shall focus in particular on the political history of the period, but we will also be exploring other dimensions of English life, such as religion, culture, warfare, and everyday human existence. These years saw remarkable transformations and upheavals, including the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation, the birth of Puritanism, the Great Migration to New England, the English Revolution, the incorporation of Scotland and Ireland into an incipient “British empire,” and the so-called “commercial” and “financial” revolutions of the later seventeenth century. All of these subjects will be illuminated over the course of this semester.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Taddeo TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
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
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Lampe MW 11:00am-11:50am and discussion
This course examines Europe's twentieth century with particular attention to the connection between domestic and international politics and ideas, economic developments, cultural and social currents. Topics include the collapse and then revival of liberal democracies and market economies; the causes, nature and consequences of the two World Wars and the Cold War; radicalization of European politics and the rise of totalitarian ideologies, movements and regimes; the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union in the eras Lenin and Stalin; responses to economic and cultural modernization; the Great Depression and its consequences; Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust; justice, memory and myth in Western and Eastern Europe after World War II; the Soviet bloc and the Western Alliance during the Cold War; Western economic recovery and political consensus; movements of reform and dissent East and West; 1989, the collapse of Communism and German unification; the Balkan Wars of the 1990s; economic and political challenges and prospects for the European Union; Europe's differing lessons of the twentieth century in the age of terrorism.
Williams MW 10:00am-10:50am and discussion
History of the political economy and political culture of the Latin American republics, ca. 1810-1980s. Themes include nation-building, development and modernization, race relations, gender politics, reform and revolution, authoritarianism and democratization, labor relations and international relations.
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History
CORE Human Cultural Diversity
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Cooperman TuTh 1:00pm-1:50pm and discussion
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
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Cooperman TuTh 3:00pm-3:50pm and discussion
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. Honors section; discussion led by instructor.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D) Course
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Gao TBD
A survey of the historical development of modern Asia since 1700. 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)
USP Distributive Studies, Area A
Staff TBD
By permission of department.
Rozenblit MW 11:00am-11:50am and discussion
Formerly HIST 206. 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.
No course description available.
Lilley TuTh 12:30-1:45
Examines: (1) the impact of the “nationalist paradigm” on the arts, literature, and historical writing, and (2) the response to that impact in terms of “modern histories” of Korea and the related search for a modern Korean cultural identity.
Cohen TuTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
No course description available.
Cohen TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
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.
Eckstein TuTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
History of the Greeks 400-30 B.C.: Alexander and the changes he wrought in the Mediterranean world; the rise of monarchies and leagues; new directions in religion, art, literature, and science; and Hellenization of the Near East, including the Jews.
Soergel TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
The era of Renaissance and Reformation covers centuries of extraordinary barbarism and fruitfulness of thought. The discovery of the world and of the self coincided with the terrors of the Inquisition and the brutality of the occupation of the Western Hemisphere. The Reformation defended the principle of liberating the ordinary person from the tyranny of authority even as it imposed new, and equally tyrannical, forms of control.
Lampe MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course is an advanced survey of East European history from World War Ito 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.
Bradbury MW 12:30pm-1:45pm
The course focuses on the history of the British colonies in what became the United States of America from 1600-1760. Yet it does so in ways that place their development in a larger North American context, indeed in the context of the interactions of many nations and peoples within the Atlantic world.
McNeilly MW 11:00am-12:15pm
racing how the strong nationalism after the War of 1812 transformed into sectionalism that led to the Civil War, the course concentrates on the controversies over slavery and other issues contributing to North-South antagonism. These include Jacksonian democracy, capitalism, racism, immigration, manifest destiny and religious, social, and intellectual movements, each of which produced their social tendencies and tensions.
Smead MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course exams the political and cultural trends 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 Culture Wars that followed. Specific attention will be paid to certain presidencies, liberalism, conservatism, and the Vietnam War.
Moss TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
History 357, Recent American History, 1945 To Present, deals with major historical transformations in the United States from the close of World War II to the present, with particular emphasis on five themes: the Cold War; the mid-twentieth century Black Freedom Movement; the Women’s Liberation Movement; the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Liberation Movement; and the intersection of technological advances and consumerism. The learning format employs lectures, intensive reading, discussions, and essay examinations.
Lapin TuTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
In this course we will be studying the history of the Jewish people from the fifth century BCE to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The course is designed to survey the major aspects of the political, religious and social history of the Jews in antiquity. Along the way, we will have occasion to study Jewish sectarian movements, political and religious revolts, and the beginnings of Christianity. Attention will also be devoted to the problems of how we go about reconstructing history.
Picard TuTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
The course will offer a historical introduction accompanied by a sociological analysis of the Zionist movement, the early settlement or 'Yishuv' and the first 50 years of the State of Israel. The first part of the course will be devoted to the emergence of Zionism, the ideologies of its early leaders, and the relationship of the Yishuv to internal Zionist debates and external powers. In the second part of the course, we will discuss The creation of the State; the Arab-Israeli conflict; the political system; the mass immigration and the ethnic gap; and relations with the Arab minority and the question of Identity.
Taddeo By arrangement
Offers advanced undergraduates opportunities to pursue their historical interests in real-world educational activities. Prerequisite: learning proposal approved by the history department internship coordinator, faculty mentor, and student's site supervisor. Must have at least 60 semester hours. Non-repeatable, but may take up to 6 credits in one semester.
Sutherland Th 1:00pm-3:00pm, Discussion TBA
Permission Required. Continuation of HIST 395.
Grimsted W 11:00am-1:00pm, Discussion TBA
Permission Required. Continuation of HIST 398.
Zeller MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
This course is an introduction to the key issues that are posed by seeking to understand the historical relationship between changes in technology, on the one hand, and changes in society, on the other. It has become widely evident that technology is a key (some say the key) agent for shaping economic, political, military, and cultural life. If we are to understand the real significance of this fact, we must comprehend the extent to which technology has always played a significant role in both setting the boundaries and providing the opportunities for action by both individuals and communities. As might be imagined, there are numerous valid approaches to understanding issues this large and complex. This course is explicitly concerned with exploring and demonstrating the usefulness of the historical approach to the subject.
Moss Th 1:00pm-3:00pm
History 408 M is an upper level seminar in which students, guided and assisted by the instructor, do original research on a topic of choice dealing with any aspect of 20th century African American cultural, economic, social, political, or religious history. Throughout the semester each student, using primary sources, will work on an individual research project and serve as a peer reviewer of the research projects of other class members. The end product for each student is a completed research paper based on primary sources.
Jones W 10:00am-12:00pm
What is African Diaspora? How does this concept help us to understand the historical roots of migration, social movements and identity formation for people of African descent? In this course you will learn about the historical experiences that connect Black people in Diaspora; From Africa to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, emancipation, civil rights struggles and anti-colonialism. Our readings include comparative studies of racial identity for blacks in Europe, Caribbean and African immigrants to the U.S. and African Americans. This is course is intended for History majors. Enrollment limit is 18.
Bradbury Th 3:00pm-5:00pm
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 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.
Muncy M 12:00pm-2:00pm
HIST 408 is a capstone seminar for advanced history majors. It allows students to conduct their own research in twentieth-century U.S. women’s history. Early in the term, we will discuss important works in the field and identify the sorts of sources that students might exploit to answer questions about the history of women in the twentieth-century United States. Broad themes within which students might pursue research include the meanings of consumer culture for US women; the meaning of paid labor; changing meanings and experiences of motherhood; the meanings of women’s participation in social movements.
Zhang Th 3:30pm- 5:30pm
No course description available.
Taddeo M 10:00am-12:00pm
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.
Wien W 1:00-3:00
The course will examine common patterns and differences in the North
African colonial experience, with a concentration on the French colonies
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. We will start with introductory texts on
the shared historical heritage and the specific socio-political
structures of the different states, the diverse forms of interaction
between the French authorities and local societies, and the impact of
these interactions on the struggle for independence. On the basis of
independent reading and group discussion students will prepare a long
final paper based on primary and secondary sources.
Ridgway Tu 10:00am-12:00pm
Students will be asked to research and write a paper on a case or issue which has been decided by the Supreme Court. In addition to examining the legal questions before the court, you will also explore the historical background of the case from contemporary sources. There will be a series of shorter writing/research assignments.
Zilfi Th 3:30pm-6:00pm
The course focuses on the historical development of Western representations and understandings of Middle Eastern culture and Middle Eastern peoples. Readings and discussions aim to determine how knowledge about the Middle East has been constructed and how particular images relate to issues of power in the historical encounter(s) between “East” and “West.” Readings in the first week or two are concerned with establishing the terms of the "Orientalism" debate, including the charges made by Edward Said and scholars who have followed his lead, and including the counter-criticisms of scholars who have challenged those positions. For the remainder of the semester, we examine a variety of Orientalist writings (scholarly and popular, fiction and nonfiction) and visuals (films, paintings, photographs, etc.). The goal here is to evaluate recurring themes in Western representations of the Middle East (e.g., Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, women, sexuality, and masculinity, the colonial experience, violence, and others), to identify and critique dominant images, and to assess for ourselves authors' intentions and the impact of their work.
Grimsted MW 2:00pm-4:00pm
The course explores the issues and values of the two decades between World War I and World War II in the United States, using Hollywood films as the primary documents. Public issues such as politics, the Jazz Age, the Red Scare, the Great Depression, and the New Deal will be addressed, as well as the values attached to gender roles, race, ethnicity, money, success, and family. Films, to be shown once or twice a week, will represent different genres and leading directors and actors of the era. Voluntary discussion sections will be arranged, and students will be asked to write regular observations on films and a paper.
Olson MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
The course will examine the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II, with major emphasis on his personality, his ideology, his world view, and his legacy. Part of the Roosevelet legacy was the presidency of Harry Truman who attempted to continue the programs and policies of his predecessor. Finally, the course will analyze the national political scene during the election of 1952 and then review the Roosevelt legacy until the 21st century.
Zilfi TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
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 civilizational 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.
Bell TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
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 between 1600 and 1840.
Goldman Tu 12:30pm-2:30pm & Discussion TBA
This course will introduce students to the study of family, gender, and sexuality in early modern China (roughly 1000-1900). Some of the themes that will be explored include: traditional Chinese family and kinship systems, gender and the state, social constructions of gender (including femininities and masculinities), sexuality and literary representation, and the body in text and practice. The sources (in translation) that will be read for the course range from a twelfth-century ritual handbook, to plays, women’s poetry and letters, memoirs, and a seventeenth-century erotic novel. Readings for the course will be paired – at times reading historical monographs alongside historical sources, and at times contrasting different methodological approaches to a common historical subject of inquiry. The course will give equal weight to history and historiography – that is, we will try to read these texts to gain a better understanding of certain aspects of early modern Chinese conceptions and practices regarding family, gender, and sexuality, while at the same time always paying attention to the methodologies and interpretive stances of the historians behind the texts.
Mayo/Kerkham Tu 2:00pm-4:00pm, Th 2:00pm-3:15pm
No course description available.
Sá Motta TuTh 12:30pm-1:45pm
The course will consist in a comparative approach among the military dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, in which some aspects would be highlighted: dynamics of repression and censorship, the policies towards intellectuals and university institutions, a study of the social forces and their interests and values that led them to support the military power, and the different forms of transition to democracy. The main goal will be to identify the similarities and singularities among the different cases to offer a comprehensive approach of the recent authoritarian phenomenon in Latin America.
Picard TuTh 3:30pm-6:00pm
The course will survey and analyze the interaction and the relation between the varied Jewish ethnic groups and Israel immigration policy: the root of the ethnic groups, the influences of modernity and enlightenment, immigration policy during the mandate time and the dilemmas regarding immigration. The main part of the course will deal with the Zionist attitude of Diaspora integration and the state era ‘mass immigration’ policy: The melting pot approach, the ‘Mizrachi’ protest, the identity struggle, ethnic politics and the recent Russian immigration
Adler TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
Beginning with the rabbinic period and continuing up to the present, this course will use both primary and secondary sources to explore the history and development of Jewish education over time. As a class we will delve into such topics as the heder, the yeshiva, schools for Jewish girls and the Jewish summer camp experience. Students will also have the opportunity to pursue independent research. Our study will illuminate not only the contours of Jewish education, but also how educational development has influenced other historical movements.
Zhang TuTh 2:30pm-1:45pm
Sutherland TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
The causes and course of the French Revolution with emphasis on the struggle among elites, popular intervention, the spread of counterrevolution, the Terror as repression and popular government, the near collapse of the Republic, and the establishment and defeat of dictatorship.
Gelb TuTh 6:30pm-7:45pm
This course considers the entire lifetime of the Soviet Union, from its revolutionary birth in 1917 to its sudden breakup in 1991. Those seven decades of communist rule that had such a decisive effect on the twentieth century will be considered from various analytical angles and on the basis of a variety of historical materials. Major themes of the course include the dynamics of the Russian Revolution; political, social and cultural dimensions to the upheaval; the ideologies and practices of Leninism, Stalinism, and Soviet communism; non-Russians and nationalities policy; cycles of reform in the post-Stalinist system from Khrushchev to Gorbachev. The course closes by considering the great debate over why and how the system collapsed and the legacy of the experience for the region's new regimes.
Powell TuTh 12:30pm- 1:45pm
American public law and government, with emphasis on the interaction of government, law, and politics. Emphasis on the political-constitutional system as a whole, rather than simply the development of constitutional law by the Supreme Court. Major crises in American government and politics such as Civil War, Reconstruction, the 1890s, the New Deal era, the civil disorders of the 1960s.
Giovacchini TuTh 2:00pm-3:15pm
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.
Fiorucci W 3:30pm-6:00pm
This course explores the history of Argentina since the construction of the state in the early 19th Century up to the recent economic and political crisis that hit the country in 2001. This wide-ranging and topical course discusses selected questions and historiography debates on social, political, economic and cultural developments in the country. Some themes included are: the institutional weakness of Argentine democracy; the enduring influence of Peronism, the cultural identity of Argentina and the impact and causes of the 2001 crisis.
The classes will consist of a lecture, followed by a seminar discussion. Students will be asked to write a final essay on a chosen topic.
Vaughan TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
History of modern Mexico from independence in 1821 to the present. The course focuses on the dilemmas and achievements of nation and state formation in a stratified, dispersed multi-ethnic society vulnerable to foreign pressures and domination. A centerpiece of the course is the Mexican Revolution of 1910, out of which emerged a vibrant and strong national identity as well as the twentieth century's longest ruling authoritarian party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Special attention is given to questions of ethnicity, race, and gender, as well as class.
Goldman TuTh 9:30am-10:45am
China from earliest times to 1644 A.D. Emphasis on the development of traditional Chinese culture, society, and government.
Mayo TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm
A survey of Japan's emergence as a modern nation-state and industrial society. Lectures, discussions, and readings will emphasize modern Japan's intellectual, social, religious, and cultural life and its changing role in East Asian and international power politics. The course will end with an inquiry into Japan's post-World War II recovery, its development as global economic giant, and its transition from modernism to postmodernism.
Staff To Be Arranged
By permission of department. Repeatable to 6 credits.