Attention: This schedule is subject to change. Before registering for classes, check the on-line schedule of classes to confirm course numbers, times, and availability.
History Department Course List Main Page
Hist 110: Ancient World
TuTh 11-11:50 & Discussion section 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)
Hist 111: Medieval World
MW 1-1:50 & Discussion section Rutenberg
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 Social or Political History (SH)
Hist 113: Modern Europe, 1789-present
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion section K. David-Fox
Major topics: French Revolution and Industrial Revolution; modern political ideologies (liberalism, conservatism, socialism); twentieth-century challenges to democracy (Stalinism: Italian fascism; Nazism); Europe during the Cold War; Revolutions of 1989. Class Format: two lectures, one discussion section per week. Assignments and weekly discussions are designed to teach students to interpret primary sources and discuss historical issues. Active participation in discussion forms major component of the grade.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
Hist 120: Islamic Civilization
TuTh 9-9:50 & Discussion section Wien
The fast spread of Arab political rule and Arab culture after the emergence of Islam is one of the most astonishing developments of human history. The course covers the history of the Islamic civilization from this initiating moment to the present. We will take a social and cultural approach to outline the different histories of Islamic societies. There will be a balance between an outline of political history and long term social and cultural transformations, as well as an introduction to the main elements of Islamic religion and the culture and practices of the societies it shaped and continues to shape.
CORE Social & Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 122: African Civilization to 1800
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion section Landau
African societies, politics and economies, adaptations to ecologies, systems of trade; Egypt, Nubia, and the Bantu expansion; Muslim travel accounts (Ibn Battuta); African oral epics (Sundiata, Mwindo); Sahelian empires and Islam; Christian Ethiopia; savannah and forest kingdoms (Kongo, Tio, Kuba, Rwanda, Zimbabwe); indigenous manufacture and trade (iron, copper, gold, fabric, salt, and slaves); the Swahili; pre-1800 African diasporic societies (African Krio, S. Amer. Saramaka, Malagasy); and the rise of gun-era states, east and west.
CORE Social & Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 156 (01): History of the United States to 1865
MW 9-9:50 & Discussion section Berlin
If you want to know what makes an American an American, this is it. History 156 provides a broad overview of the making of American society between the initial European and African settlement and the American Civil War. While introductory, the course requires a general understanding of the American past, its chronology and its character. The course focuses on critical questions of political legitimacy, state creation, economic development and--most critically--identity formation. Emphasis is given to the role of slavery in the making and unmaking of American society, and to why the Civil War was fought.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
EDCI 288X: Special Topics in Teacher Education: An Introduction to Teaching History
Instructor: Dr. Bruce VanSledright
Head, History/Social Studies Teacher Education Program
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
1 Credit; co-requisite: HIST 156, sections 0101 through 0112 (taught by Prof. Berlin); or permission from the instructor.
This course is designed to provide an initial exploration of teaching for history majors who may be interested in a teaching career. The course dovetails directly with the experiences and lectures offered in HIST 156.
The goal of the course is to assist those interested in a history-teaching career with learning how to transform the substantive content of HIST 156 into ideas and practices suitable for application in high school and middle school history classrooms. That transformation will be supported by what has been learned from the research in history education over the past three decades. Specifically, enrollees in EDCI 288x will learn how to use the historical content of HIST 156 to teach secondary students to think historically in order to deepen those students’ historical understandings.
Typically, history majors who wish to become history teachers wait until their junior year (when they formally enter the Teacher Education program) in order to get initial exposure in learning to teach history. The EDCI 288x course experience offered in conjunction with HIST 156 will accelerate opportunities for prospective history teachers to understand history teaching, and learn powerful research-based practices. This acceleration is designed (a) to give History Majors an opportunity to consider history teaching before committing to the Teacher Education Program, (b) to introduce enrollees’ to knowledge of history teaching earlier in their collegiate experience, (c) to help enrollees begin thinking about effective teaching practices, and therefore (d) enhance their preparation for success in a future teaching career.
This course is listed under EDCI: Curriculum and Instruction (Education).
Hist 156 (02): History of the United States to 1865
TuTh 10-10:50 & 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)
Hist 157 (01): History of the United States since 1865
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion section Freund
A lecture and discussion course introducing participants to major developments and themes in U.S. history from 1865 to the present. Readings include an engaging text and numerous “primary” sources (documents, oral histories, images, film, etc.). Lectures and readings also explore a central thematic question: Why have the meanings of “freedom” and “Americanism” been contested and how have they changed throughout modern U.S. history?
CORE Distributive Studies, Social or Political History (SH)
Hist 157 (02): 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)
Hist 157 (03): History of the United States since 1865
TuTh 1-1:50 & Discussion section McNeilly
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)
Hist 175: Science and Technology in Western Civilization
MW 2-2:50 & Discussion section Friedel
An overview of the development of both science and technology in the West since Classical Times. Particular attention is given to the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions and to the Twentieth Century.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
Hist 208W: Historical Research & Methods Seminar: Women, Revolution, and Authoritarianism in 20th-Century Latin America
M 12-2 or F 12-2 Acerbi
This course focuses on the history of women in Latin American revolutions and authoritarian regimes of the twentieth century. Students will be introduced to the revolutionary roles of women in Mexico, Cuba, and Central America, and to female resistance during military rule in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. We will also explore patriarchal/masculinist tendencies in liberation movements and dictatorships in Latin America. The primary objective of this course will be for each student to design and write an original historical research paper through a close reading of primary sources, some of which may include testimonial literature, fiction, and film.
Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
Hist 208X: Historical Research & Methods Seminar: Eastern Europe and the Cold War Superpowers, 1945-1989
Tu 9:30-11:30 or Tu 12:30-2:30 Kullaa
This research seminar will familiarize students with some of the main historiographical debates of the Cold War in Europe from the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe in 1989. The issues clearly defined in these debates include: the postwar settlements in Eastern Europe; the devolution of the Soviet-American wartime alliance into mutual opposition and rivalry; the anatomy of the Soviet takeovers in individual states; population expulsions and emigration; economic and military integration; the role of ethnicity in communist states; civic resistance and dictatorship; intellectual and cultural responses to the Cold War; détente in Soviet –American relations and the dissolution of the Communist bloc in Europe. Exposure to these debates in the early weeks of the seminar will give students a wealth of topics from which to choose a focus for a historical research paper. A major aim of the seminar will be to provide students with the basic tools needed for writing such papers focusing on the close reading of primary sources. In selecting topics, students will be expected to engage an issue relevant to a debate in the existing historical literature.
Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
Hist 208Y: Historical Research & Methods Seminar: Women in the Nineteenth-Century U.S. South
W 11-1 or Th 11-1 Welch
This course will have two primary goals: to acquaint students with the historical literature on southern women in the nineteenth-century U.S. as well as to teach them the skills of crafting a research paper based on primary and secondary sources. The course examines a variety of topics on women's history in the South during the nineteenth-century, including women's participation in antebellum politics and reform efforts, the effects of the expansion of the cotton kingdom in the early nineteenth-century on Native American and enslaved women, enslaved women's experiences in antebellum slavery, freedwomen's activism in the Reconstruction and New South eras, yeoman and elite white women's participation in the Civil War effort, and the expansion of women's work outside the home in the postwar era. The main focus of the class will be on research. Students will learn to identify a viable topic, perform the necessary archival research, and create and build an argument. They will then write (and re-write) a polished, properly cited 10-15 page paper, participate in peer reviews, and present their research to the class conference-style at the end of the semester. Some possible topics students might examine include: women’s experiences in slavery, the Civil War, or Reconstruction; women’s benevolent reform, labor activism, or battles for and against suffrage; education, marriage and family, divorce, domestic violence, or sexuality and sexual stereotypes.
Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
Hist 208Z: Historical Research & Methods Seminar: War, the University of Maryland, and Twentieth-Century America
M 10-12 or Th 1-3 Rutenberg
This course will look at the effects of America’s involvement in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War through the lens of war-related activities at the University of Maryland. Special attention will be given to issues of race, gender, voluntarism, citizenship, propaganda, and protest. The focus of the course will be on how to design and carry out a primary research project. Using the university archives, students will conduct original research into war mobilization, participation, and protest at the University of Maryland and contextualize their findings using the existing body of historical literature on home front activities.
Prerequisite: Permission of department. HIST majors only.
Hist 210: Women in America to 1880
MW 10-10:50 & Discussion section Lyons
Crosslisted as WMST 210. This course examines the history of American women from the era of European colonization to the eve of the modern era in 1880. It explores the experiences of Native American, colonial, African-American, immigrant, and frontier women. It examines women's social, political, economic, familial, sexual, and religious experiences, with particular attention to how time, place, race, class, and ethnicity influenced women's lives. This course also examines the social construction of gender to see how it has changed over the course of American history, and how women influenced these developments.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 219E: Special Topics: History of Ancient Egypt
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Cohen
This course will provide the student with an awareness of and appreciation for the culture of ancient Egypt, from its inception during the Neolithic period, through the great pyramid age, up until the Hellenistic period. The course will focus on its history, literature, religion, and institutions.
Crosslisted as JWST 219Q.
Hist 219G: Asian American History
MW 9-9:50 & Discussion section Shinagawa
Crosslisted as AAST 201.
Hist 224: Modern Military History, 1484-1815
TuTh 9-9:50 & Discussion section Francis
This course is a survey of the military history of Europe from 1494 to 1815. It covers the dynastic wars of the Valois and Habsburg struggle for domination in Europe through the global wars of the 18th-century and finally the national wars of the French Revolution and Empire. During this time period, warfare in Europe transformed in scale and ferocity as standing professional armies equipped with gunpowder weapons emerged on the scene. Interrelated with the creation and maintenance of these armies were changes in national economies, social structures, government, systems of international relations and technology. Although the chronology of this course is defined by wars, its focus will be upon the dynamics of military institutional developments. It will thus be necessary to present a good deal of material on European economic, social, and political history that, in turn, will provide the basis for the study of strategy, tactics, logistics, and the technology of warfare. The companion course, History 225, examines the military history of the nineteenth and twentieth century and will be given in the spring semester.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
Hist 235: History of Britain, 1461-1714
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Baron
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)
Hist 237 Russian Civilization
TuTh 11-11:50 & Discussion section Rieber
An overview of Russian history stressing the main lines of development of the Russian state and the evolution of Russian culture to the present day.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 250: Latin American History I
MW 11-11:50 & Discussion section Sartorius
Latin America from pre-Columbian Indian cultures to the beginnings of the wars for independence (ca. 1810), covering cultural, political, social, and economic developments.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 255: African-American History, 1865-present
TuTh 11-12:15 Moss
Lectures, readings, and class discussions engage the role of African Americans in the social, political, economic, cultural and artistic life of the US. Emphasis is placed on the enduring themes that have shaped the black experience in American society, and the impact of those themes on contemporary problems in race relations is examined.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 282: History of the Jewish People I
MW 11-11:50 & Discussion section Lapin
Crosslisted as JWST 234. This course surveys the history of Jews and Judaism from their origins in ancient Israel to the end of the Middle Ages, covering Israelite origins and the development of biblical literature, the development of Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, and the experiences of Jews in medieval Christian and Islamic societies of Europe and the Middle East. Assignments and discussion will address questions of evidence and historical argument. Particular emphasis throughout the course will be placed on the interrelationship of political, cultural, and social factors in shaping the experience of people.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 284: East Asian Civilization I
TuTh 2-2:50 & Discussion section Lilley
History 284 surveys the political, economic, social, and cultural histories of China, Korea, and Japan and their interactions with one another. Some attention is given to the histories of Inner Asian peoples. The time frame for the course is ca. 3000 B.C.E. to 1650 C.E.
CORE Social or Political History (SH)
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 329B: Special Topics: The Korean War in Film
TuTh 12:30-1:45 Lilley
History 329B is a history of the Korean war in film (mostly) and fiction (somewhat)with an assigned basic narrative history of the war for beginners. One of the aims of the course is to see the war from a Korean perspective. So the course will depend heavily on a body of work (mainly from the 1980s & 1990s) by some of the most imminent and contemporary Korean film makers (e.g. Im Kwontaek and others). If Korean film makers play the starring role in the course, American film makers (at least two) have offered themselves in a supporting role. In addition, selected M.A.S.H. episodes will be used. The basic question the course asks is "how do film makers, novelists, and historians go about creating a useable past"?
Hist 329C: Special Topics: From Caliphs to Sultans: Medieval Islamic States
MW 11-12:15 STAFF
This course focuses on the formation of the Islamic state and on the various forms of government during the medieval period, from the 7th to the 13th century. The political history as well as the successive ideological frameworks and the institutions will be particularly scrutinized, from the formative period of the Prophet to the coming of the Mongols. Specific topics include: the succession to the Prophet; the Caliphate; Jihad and the state; the impact of Turkic migrations on the Caliphate; the Vizierate; Religion and State; Tribes, Nomads and State. A particular attention will be granted to at least two fundamental skills of historical inquiry: the analysis of primary sources (in translation), and the evaluation and critique of secondary scholarship.
Hist 330: Europe in the Making: The Early Medieval West (300-1000 AD)
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Wasilewski
The Middle Ages began with the decline of the Roman Empire. During the subsequent centuries, European thinkers and rulers sought to restore, or to continue, the imperial tradition. But the concept and practice of empire both changed as time passed. In this course, we will explore the ways in which new challenges and new priorities shaped early medieval people’s attempts to recover Roman imperial glory, and consider the innovations they introduced as a result.
Hist 332: Europe during the Renaissance and Reformation I
MW 12:30-1:45 Soergel
Continental Europe from 1450 to 1650: development and spread of Renaissance culture; growth in the powers of central government; economic expansion and beginnings of overseas colonization; division of Western Christendom into two rival religious camps. Particular emphasis on the Protestant and Catholic reformations and their consequences for Europe’s political, social, and cultural development. Renaissance and reformation, 1450-1555. The age of religious wars, 1555-1650.
Hist 352: America in the Colonial Era, 1600-1763
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Bradbury
Prerequisite: Hist 156, 210, 213, 254; or permission of instructor
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.
Hist 354: Antebellum America, 1815-1861
TuTh 11-12:15 McNeilly
Prerequisite: Hist 156, 210, 213, 222, 254, 275; or permission of instructor
Tracing 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.
Hist 357: Recent America, 1945-present
MW 2-3:15 Smead
Prerequisite: Hist 157, 211, 213, 222, 255, 265, or 275; or permission of instructor
This course examines 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.
Hist 375: Modern Jewish History II: World Jewry since 1870
TuTh 11-12:15 Rozenblit
Cross-listed as JWST 344. Study of the situation of Jews in Europe and America in the past
century. Focus especially on anti-Semitism and Jewish reaction to it; Zionism and the creation of the state of Israel; Jewish socialism; the impact of immigration to America; Jews in Poland, the Soviet Union and Germany in the 1920s and 30s; the Holocaust; and Jews in the world today.
Hist 376: History of Zionism and the State of Israel
MW 2-3:15 STAFF
Cross-listed as JWST 342.
Hist 386: Experiential Learning (3-6)
By arrangement.
Prerequisite: learning proposal approved by the history department internship coordinator, faculty mentor, and student's site supervisor; junior standing
Hist 395: Honors Colloquium I
M 10-12 Eckstein
Prerequisite: Permission of the department. HIST majors only.
Hist 398: Honors Thesis
M 1-3 Eckstein
Prerequisite: Permission of the department.
Hist 405: Environmental History
TuTh 2-3:15 Zeller
This course introduces one of the most exciting and active fields in history, exploring the interactions between humans and their natural environment. Beginning with a look at the biological and geophysical conditions of human existence and development, the course will quickly survey some of the writings on the environmental impact of early cultures, both Western and non-Western. The focus will then shift to the Western experience, with most of the emphasis in the latter part of the course on Europe and North America. Issues will include the interaction between technology and the environmental effects of agriculture, industry, and urbanization; the development of environmental ethics; and the shifting elements of the public debate over environmental rights and responsibilities.
Hist 406: History of Technology
MW 11-12:15 Friedel
The changing character of technology in modern history, beginning with the Middle Ages. Concentrates on the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath, the nature of technological knowledge and the sources of technological change.
Hist 408B: Senior Seminar: Asia-Pacific War and the Occupation of Japan: Gender, Class, Race
Tu 10-12 Mayo
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
In addition to quizzes and reports, the major requirement is a substantial essay based on primary materials. Prior to selection of research topics, students will examine the outbreak of total war between China and Japan, 1937-45; World War II in East Asia and the Pacific, 1941-45; Japan’s total defeat in 1945 followed by the American/Allied Occupation of Japan and Japan’s return to sovereignty by 1952. There will be a special emphasis on gender, class, and race in examining battlefield and homefront experiences. Students must be willing to use one or more of the following archival sources in conducting research: microform and special collections, including the Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland Libraries; National Archives II (College Park); Center of Military History (Washington, D.C.); or Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) There are additional archival resources in the Washington metropolitan area, such as the Navy Historical Center (Navy Yard). HIST408B is a research seminar.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408C: Senior Seminar: Early American History
Tu 1-3 Bradbury
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND 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 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.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408F: Senior Seminar: 20th Century African American History
Th 1-3 Moss
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
History 408F 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.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408G: Senior Seminar: Understanding Early Modern Europe
W 3:30-5:30 Soergel
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
Using a seminar approach, this course will examine the current state of debate surrounding the social, religious, cultural, and economic forces that shaped early-modern European history. After completing common readings students will pursue their own research projects.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408M: Transnational Labor History
M 10-12 Greene
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
In our contemporary era of globalization, transnational methodologies that focus on historical interconnections across nation-state boundaries have become increasingly influential. Such approaches do not ignore the role of the nation-state, but look closely at the flow of people, commodities, ideas, capital, etc, across traditional political borders. This course will examine the burgeoning transnational scholarship with an emphasis on labor and working-class history. We will focus particularly on historical ties between the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Subjects covered will include slavery and emancipation; free and unfree labor systems; immigration and diasporic experiences; empire-building and colonialism; working-class resistance and international solidarities; the political economy of globalization; and borderlands (e.g. the U.S.-Mexico border) as sites of community, repression, and contestation. HIST 408M is a readings seminar.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408R: Senior Seminar: Race in Latin America
W 10-12 STAFF
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
In this course we will explore the diverse systems of race relations that have existed in Latin America from the late colonial era through the present. We will consider indigenous, immigrant, and Afro-Latin American experiences and how they have changed over time. To what extent have groups of African, indigenous, or immigrant ancestry been considered full members of the nation? When and why have groups identified or been identified by their race? When and why have civil rights movements emerged? What is "race"?
We will study these questions by looking at systems of racial categorization; race-mixing (or mestizaje); slavery and emancipation; labor markets; land; local and regional identities; gender and sexuality; science and the arts; nationalism; and transnationalism. Hist408R is a research seminar. CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408V: Senior Seminar: Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States
M 1-3 Mar
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
The majority of Americans trace their ancestry to other countries. Whether one's roots are European, African, Latino, Asian or Native American, the migration and meeting of diverse peoples is a central American experience. In this course, we introduce historical research methods by exploring meanings of some key social controversies related to the history of American diversity. Fundamentally, we ask, who is "ethnic" and what does it mean to be an "ethnic" American? Using personal accounts of ethnic Americans, we will explore how historical ideas about race, ethnicity and immigration contribute to debates over defining meanings of American identity. Each student also will conduct an original historical research project. Hist 408V is a research seminar.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408W: Senior Seminar: From the “Kosovo Maiden” to the Good Soldier
Svejik: War in Eastern Europe and its Representations
W 3:30-5:30 K. David-Fox
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
This seminar will introduce students to selected themes involving the East European experience of war and representations of that experience. Likely topics will include the meaning of the battle of Kosovo in Serbian culture; the depiction of Eastern Europe, or lands within it, as a Christian bulwark against incursions from the Islamic world or other non-Christian forces; the image of the multi-national army of the Habsburg Monarchy; the memories of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, and problem of classifying “bystanders” and perpetrators; and representations of the Balkans as a site of perpetual violence and cruelty. Attention will be given to representations of war both by local people and by those outside the region. Sources will include historiography, journalism, travel writing, literature and film. In consultation with the professor, students will develop an independent research topic related to the course’s theme and will complete a research paper. No knowledge of East European languages is required.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 408Z: Senior Seminar: The Atlantic World: The Invention of America
Th 2-4 STAFF
Prerequisite: Completion of Hist 208 AND permission of department. HIST majors only.
This course explores how sixteenth-century Europeans, in general, and Spaniards, in particular, tried to make sense of the discovery of America. While China, Africa, and India had been slowly incorporated into the European imagination, America constituted a ‘New World’ which had to be incorporated into the Europeans’ geographical, historical, anthropological, and religious understanding. Through readings of well-known texts and the most recent historiography, we will analyze the rhetorical and iconographic strategies utilized by explorers, missionaries, and men of letters in their attempts at bringing this new world into European consciousness. We will consider, as well, how this process contributed to the formation of a Eurocentric view of the world and the role played by these texts in the history of colonialism. HIST 408Z is a research seminar. Students will develop, in consultation with the instructor, an independent research project related to the theme of the course.
CORE Capstone (CS) Course.
Hist 415: History of European Ideas II
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Herf
Prerequisite: Hist 113 or 240; or permission of instructor
This course examines a range of intellectuals whose work was and is considered influential and who wrote and spoke about political questions in the twentieth century. The term “intellectual” refers to those who lend meaning and interpretation to the world. The course focuses on the radicalization of politics to right and left following World War I; consequences in fascism, Communism and National Socialism; totalitarianism in power; anti-fascism; intellectuals in the Second World War and the Holocaust; Communism and anti-Communism in the Cold War; feminist theory; memory and politics after 1945; the 1960s in West and East Europe; 1989, collapse of European Communism; intellectuals and debates over capitalism; nationalism to post-nationalism and the European Union; intellectuals on the world outside Europe from debates over colonialism anti-colonialism, Americanism and anti-Americanism, and the challenge of the terrorism of Islamic fundamentalism.
Hist 419E: Special Topics: History of South Africa
MW 12-1:15 Landau
The material will fall into four units: Southern Africa to 1800, with an emphasis on African political traditions; the Colonial Era, South Africa 1800 - 1910; and the sharpening struggle between Apartheid and mass political movements, 1910-1994. Readings will include speeches and other primary documents, Nelson Mandela's biography, and a research paper project involving some time spent doing independent research.
Hist 419I: Special Topics: Old Regime France
MW 1-2:15 Sutherland
An examination of the stability of a regime very different from our own society: crushing poverty, stagnant growth, short longevity, legalized privilege, religious persecution, authoritarian government, cruel justice– nonetheless an unchanging monarchial system, undermined by increasingly expensive war, popularity of constitutional doctrines of liberty and property rights, and Enlightened ideals.
Hist 429A: Special Topics: Society and Culture in Victorian Britain
MW 2-3:15 Taddeo
This course examines particular aspects of the social and cultural life of Great Britain, primarily from 1830 to 1900. We will pay particular attention to the various meanings of Victorianism and the bourgeois myths of progress, morality, reform, and imperial conquest. We will focus on the "Two Nations" residing within Britain and how government and moral reformers addressed conditions of social inequality. We will also address Victorian notions of class, race, gender, and sexuality and how they were shaped by and influenced the politics and culture of everyday life. The format is both chronological and topical. Readings will be a combination of primary and secondary sources.
Hist 429B: Special Topics: Cultural History of the Chinese Revolutions
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Gao
This course is designed to present a general discussion of major issues in modern Chinese social history, including family, gender, market, social hierarchy, folk religion, and public space. It examines how a congeries of social forces--the commercialization and monetization of the economy, the spread of foreign ideas, the erosion of traditional divisions among social classes, and finally the growth of Communism--gained momentum and significantly altered the social and cultural landscape of modern China.
Hist 429C: Special Topics: The English Civil Wars, 1629-1660
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Baron
This course explores the events that rocked seventeenth-century England, Scotland, and Ireland in mid-century. These events have drawn much attention over the centuries as participants and scholars alike have tried to determine precisely what happened between 1641 and 1660. Were simultaneous outbreaks of civil unrest in three kingdoms that shared a monarch a sign of dysfunctional monarchy? Class conflict? Religious differences? The general crisis of the seventeenth century? Simple incompetence? This course will look at the lead up to war in the decade of the 1630s, the outbreak and conduct of the war, or wars, the defeat and execution of King Charles I, the experiments in government of the 1650s, and end with the restoration of Charles I's son to the throne as Charles II. Answers to the questions posed above will be explored as we try to determine how to understand what led these countries to civil war and the impacts of the experience for each of them.
Hist 429D: Special Topics: Visions of America: European Americanism and Anti-Americanism in the 20th Century
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Giovacchini
Our seminar will focus on a thematic and somewhat chronological approach to the study of Americanism and anti-Americanism in the 20th century. Since their founding, the United Stated have been involved in an intense social, economic, and cultural exchange with the rest of the world. Even though few people might have had a direct experience of them, the idea, if not the reality, of the United States was at the center of passionate debates in many parts of the globe. At the end of World War I, U.S. influence grew more and more far-reaching and these debates became even more intense. All over the world many felt the economic, cultural, and social influence of the United States in their lives. Many also saw the United States as the embodiment of what their own societies would become in the future. For some this was an enticing possibility, for others it was a dreadful prospect.
Hist 429E: Special Topics: Women and Reform Movements in 20th Century U.S.
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Muncy
US women have been involved in reform movements throughout the twentieth century. This course will focus especially on women in various movements for social justice and will ask questions about how women’s participation in such movements has been shaped by gender, race, and class positions. In each of three periods, we will study women’s participation in the labor movement, movements for racial justice, and social welfare reform. To the extent that movements for the advancement of women have existed independent of these three areas, we will examine those as well. The three periods of special focus are the Progressive Era (1890-1925); the New Deal Era (1933-45); and the Postwar Era (1945-1975).
Hist 429F: Special Topics: Religious Movements in European Jewish History
MW 11-12:15 Manekin
Cross-listed as JWST 419G.
Hist 429I: Knowing Our History: African American Slavery and the University
MW 10-11:15 Berlin/Brewer
A two semester seminar, Knowing Our History: African American Slavery and the University of Maryland will be offered in the academic year 2008-2009 to investigate the University’s connections to slavery by placing it in the larger framework of Atlantic history as well as introducing students to historical research methodologies.
The overall purpose of the seminar, which will be divided into two courses, is to explore the University’s relation to slavery in the broadest context. History 429 I, offered in the fall of 2008, will introduce the best scholarship on the institution of slavery from the standpoint of world history, and from the perspective of slavery’s long development from antiquity to the present, emphasizing slavery’s unique presence in mainland North America, then the United States, and finally Maryland. The second half of the seminar, to be offered in the spring of 2009, will allow students to conduct research and will focus attention on the development of slavery in Prince George’s County, the area that became College Park, the Calvert family and neighboring planters who owned the land, and the black men and women, free and slave, who worked it during the late antebellum decades. The research carried out by the students during the spring will form part of a report that will be submitted to the University on the links between the University and slavery.
Each course is three credits and is open to non-history majors. Enrollment will be based on competitive application and requires permission. Thinking broadly and writing well are necessary prerequisites, as is an interest in the relationship between history and public policy. Students should also understand that this is a year-long commitment, whose demands will doubtless go beyond those of the normal three credit course. Evaluations for HIST 429I will be based on class discussions, weekly short essays on the reading assignments, and an original essay on some aspect of the history of slavery.
Permission Required.
Hist 429J: Special Topics: The Atlantic World in the Early Modern Period, 1500-1800
TuTh 11-12:15 STAFF
This course will introduce students to the concept of Atlantic history, a field of study that emerged in the 1990s as an interpretive framework in which to understand early modern history in the western hemisphere. Although the histories of the peoples of Western Europe, West Africa, and the Americas became inextricably linked together after Christopher Columbus first crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, the vast majority of historians still make the nation-state the essential, often unquestioned framework of analysis. Atlantic history, however, contends that the encounters, exchanges, and clashes between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in the New World can be better understood if we study them in their Atlantic context. Some of the topics we will study are systems of conquest and colonization; the movement and mixing of peoples, plants, animals, and microbes; the Atlantic slave trade; imperial rivalries and piracy; the Atlantic economy and the development of European capitalism; religious transformations; and the persistence of native cultures after conquest and colonization.
Hist 437: Modern France from Napoleon to DeGaulle
MW 9-10:15 Sutherland
An examination of why liberal democracy was so hard to establish in France and why it remained contested for so long : the legacy of Revolution; the insurrections of the Hundred Days, 1830-32, 1848-52, and 1870-1; anti-clericalism, Legitimism and Bonapartism; the appeal of anti-semitism and violent socialist revolution; the stale victory of 1918.
Hist 442: Twentieth Century Russia
TuTh 11-12:15 M. David-Fox
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.
Hist 443: Modern Balkan History
MW 11-12:15 Lampe
Prerequisite: Hist 113 or 240; or permission of instructor
A political, socio-economic, and cultural history of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and the former Yugoslavia from the breakdown of Ottoman domination to the present. Emphasis is on movements for national liberation during the nineteenth century and on war, ethnic conflict and state-building through the twentieth century to the collapse of Communist regimes and the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Hist 451: Economic History of the United States after 1865
TuTh 11-12:15 Sicilia
Prerequisite: Hist 157, 211, 213, 222, 255, 265, 275; or permission of instructor
How did the United States build the world's largest economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How have the pieces of this giant pie been distributed? Why did the United States slip as a global competitor in the 1970s and 1980s? How new is the "New Economy"? How have economists understood these changes? This course will explore these and related questions by examining the evolution of the United States economy from the end of the Civil War to the present. Along with macroeconomic trends (employment, consumption, money supply, inflations, and so on), we will study microeconomic changes within regions, sectors, industries, and firms. We will give special emphasis to the roles of key institutions in business, government, and organized labor, and to the spread of economic globalism in the twentieth century. The course also will investigate leading economic theories, theorists, and methodologies.
Hist 457: History of American Culture and Ideas since 1865
MW 11-12:15 Gilbert
Prerequisite: Hist 157, 211, 213, 222, 255, 265, or 275; or permission of instructor
Hist 471: History of Brazil
MW 12-1:15 Williams
Prerequisite: Hist 250, Hist 251, Lasc 234, or Lasc 235; or permission of instructor
Examines the history of Brazil from independence through the 1980s. The course will begin with seven weeks dedicated to the political economy of the Empire and Republic. The second half of the course is built around several case studies which deal with issues related to political culture in modern Brazil. Special emphasis will be placed on the contested formulation of a political economy and a national cultural identity out of a context of sharp regional, racial, and socio-economic differences. Recurrent themes include political nationalism, identity formation, economic modernization, authoritarianism and redemocratization, social organization, cultural production, and race relations.
Hist 481: History of Modern China
TuTh 2-3:15 Gao
Modern China from 1800 through the People's Republic of China. A China-centered history with a primary emphasis on politics and foreign relations, and a secondary emphasis on cultural movements and social change. The spectacular but often painful change from a traditional China to a modern China will be closely studied in time sequence.
Hist 482: History of Japan to 1800
TuTh 2-3:15 Mayo
This course has been newly revised to embrace primarily the study of early modern Japan, 1550s to 1860s. It will begin with the century of warfare int eh 16th century and the first appearance of European merchants and missionaries in Japan. The prime focus will be on the largely peaceful 250 year history of early modern Japan or the Tokugawa period, 1603-1868. It will examine political and social systems and ideology, the taming of the warrior class, commercialization of agriculture, achievements in technology, the rise of the merchant class, intellectual and religious currents, education and literacy, material culture and family life, and urban popular culture and the classical arts. The course will end with renewed and expanded contacts with the Euro-American world and systemic challenges to the existing social and political system. The course will draw on readings, documents, and films.
Hist 491: History of the Ottoman Empire
TuTh 9:30-10:45 Zilfi
Critical survey of major issues in the rise and rule of the Ottoman Empire as the largest and longest-lived Islamic state in history. The course combines readings, extended discussions and lectures to explore the formation of the imperial state; conflicts and tensions in the empire’s ethnically and religiously pluralistic environment; encounters with the West; nationalism and ethnic identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the “women question” and the discourse on rights; slavery and abolition; World War I and the Turkish war of independence.
CORE Diversity (D)
Hist 499: Independent Study (1-3 credits)
Independently arranged. TBD
Prerequisite: By permission of department. Repeatable to 6 credits.