2016-2017 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Courses
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HIST 116 - Pre-Colonial African History
This introductory course presents a brief overview of the history of Africa and its peoples–from the earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century. The class will introduce intellectual tools to students for them to intelligently explore key events in African history. In the course, there will be an examination of various aspects of African life, with an emphasis on cultural, societal and demographic themes. It explores the African past through a combination of presentations, texts (“primary” and “secondary” sources), films, arts, and music.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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HIST 118 - Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1918
This course examines the history of Europe between the French Revolution in 1789 and the end of World War I in 1918 and the destruction of European monarchies and empires. It will cover all regional parts of Europe but focus on France, England, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia. Rather than following a chronological narrative, the course will explore specific topics and thus explain major political, social, economic and cultural transformations such as industrialization, urbanization, nation-building, imperialism, the eugenic movement, the rise of the working class and of socialism, the change of the gender order, and other. Each of them will cover one week, usually by providing a survey at the first weekly meeting and by discussing a related special aspect or a document at the second meeting of that week.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 120 - Writing History
Introduces students to the discipline of history, with emphasis on the different types of historical writing and on the issues involved in the research and writing of historical studies.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester
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HIST 128 - History of Modern Israel
This course surveys the history of modern Israel, from its roots in the Hebrew revival of the late nineteenth century to the contemporary fate and future of Jewish statehood in its immediate Middle Eastern setting. Looking at literature, journalism and historical writing, we will examine the development of the Jewish national idea as a source of social criticism, the basis for collective action and personal discipline as well as the inspiration for religious and artistic innovation. Focusing salient political events, conflicts and personalities and on the evolution of political culture in the modern Jewish state, the course will address the values, concerns and ideals that continue animate and inform the Jewish national ethos as a source of meaning for Israeli Jews at home and abroad.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered bi-annually
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HIST 130 - Introduction to History of Genocide
In this course, we will provide students with a comparative perspective that highlights both theory and concrete examples of genocide. After surveying different approaches to genocide, we will explore different cases of mass killing that took place over the course of centuries and across several continents: 1) Genocide in early history, 2) Genocide in modern time before Holocaust - Colonial Genocide, 3) Ottoman Genocide, 4) the destruction of European Jewry during the Holocaust, 5) Yugoslavia, 6) Cambodia, 7) Africa, Great Lake Region with a focus on Rwanda Darfur and Congo. Finally, we will discuss the problem of prevention of Genocide.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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HIST 133 - Women during the Holocaust
The aim of this introductory level course is to familiarize students with the history of the Holocaust by analyzing the experiences of women. Women are often viewed as the objects of history - things happen to them; they don’t make things happen. Certainly, the application of Nazi policy, derived and carried out primarily by men inside Germany and throughout occupied Europe, falls into this category. Nazi policy affected various groups of women in diverse ways. But always, women crafted their lives in response to Nazi policy: some embraced it, others rejected it outright, and many did whatever they could just to get by. In this course, students will analyze women’s agency within varying degrees of constraint and why women’s experiences are important. Students will read a variety of texts that explore the experiences of women as victims, perpetrators, rescuers and resisters. Lecture/Discussion
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually Fall and/or Spring
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HIST 135 - History of Armenia
Introduces the history of Armenia from antiquity to the modern times. Examines the formation of the Armenian state as an independent entity, the role of the major powers (eg, Byzantium, Persia), and the social and political institutions under the Armenian monarchies (eg, Bagratuni, Cilicia). Covers the history of modern Armenia from the late-18th to the 20th century, including the development of modern Armenian culture and political life in Ottoman and Russian Armenia. The course examines the emergence of the Armenian national movements, the events leading to the genocide, and the creation of the Republic of Armenia, Soviet Armenia, the re-emergence of the Republic of Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the current issues confronting the Republic.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 145 - U.S. History Through the Novel
Introduces American history with a distinctive and unconventional approach, resting on the assumption that we can gain access to the past by reading fiction. Students learn how to approach imaginative literature from an historical perspective and to appreciate the historical insight of writers who were keen observers of aspects of the making of modern America. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 152 - Jews in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
Between ca. 1400 and ca. 1800, the rights of most European Jews were severely restricted. Their story can only be told if we take into account the actions and measures of “gentiles” vis-a-vis the Jews. Having established what these conditions were, we will direct our attention to Jewish cultural and religious practices. The course starts with late medieval Christian myths and stories about Jews, scapegoating mechanisms and outright persecution. The course will end with the extension of greater freedom to the Jews in the Age of Democratic Revolutions, which made the question of assimilation an important issue.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 153 - Europe in the Age of Extremes: the 20th Century
This course serves as an introduction into the political, social and cultural history of Europe from the beginning to the end of the 20th century. The survey is concerned with World War I and World War II, and with the nature of postwar stabilization and recovery. It focuses on the rise of dictatorships and the radicalization of mass violence during the first half of the century, as well as on the developments toward democracy, peace and civil society since 1950. The course will conclude with an evaluation of the remaking of Eastern and Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, the return of war and genocide to Europe, and present debates on the future of Europe.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 162 - The History of the Modern Middle East
This course will explore the history of the Middle East from the decline of the Ottoman Empire during the twilight of the 19th century through the rise of radical Islam at the dawn of the new millennium. Although the course will focus on political and diplomatic affairs, there will also be coverage of some important social and cultural developments. Major themes include the emergence of revolutionary nationalism among Arabs, Kurds, and Iranians after World War I, the rise of Zionism and the ensuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict after World War II, and “the Clash of Civilizations” during the Cold War and beyond. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.
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HIST 164 - History of Nationalism: Europe and Beyond
The nation is one of the most powerful social ideas of the modern era. But what are the nations? Are they the eternally constant, fixed entities we often imagine them to be? This course accepts as its point of departure the proposition that nations are not fixed, but rather the contingent and fluid product off specific historical developments in the modern era. The goal is thus to analyze the rise of nations and the rapid spread of nationalist ideologies that espoused them. Particular attention will be given to the historical construction of constitutive components of nationalism, including the political limits of the nation, as well as arguments on ethnic and civic parameters. Instead of focusing on a specific region or chronological period, this course will pursue three goals organized around the common theme of nationalism: First, students will develop a satisfactory definition of “nations” and “nationalism.” Second, they will receive an overview of the historiography of nationalism that introduces relevant theoretical issues and historical debates. Third, it will allow students a glimpse into the processes and phenomena that have shaped modern history from a broader trans-national and even global perspective. Although our “case studies” will mostly cover the European continent, the global context of nationalism will become a primary focus during the final weeks of the course.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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HIST 165 - Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
Introduces students to the rise, the fabric, and the fall of the “Third Reich.” It starts with an investigation in how the Nazis came into power and why the first German democracy failed. The course then focuses on two related issues. Both are revolving around the success and the impact of Nazi politics in Germany and in Europe: How could Hitler and the Nazi Party establish its power in a country which was seen as a heart of Western culture? And: Why did so few Germans oppose Hitler and his racially based, terrorist regime?
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 175 - Holocaust: Agency and Action
This course is an introductory, gateway course to the history of the Holocaust. It aims to provide a foundation for more specialized seminars and lecture courses in this field (many of which are offered by the History Department), and is required for the concentration in Holocaust and genocide studies. The Holocaust was not a natural disaster, nor is history predetermined. Looking at a range of people, from national leaders to army generals to local religious figures to student activists, to victims, we will examine the choices they confronted and the actions they took. This course spans many centuries and covers the continent of Europe. Our primary focus, however, is the National Socialist era and the Holocaust.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: VP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 181 - Chinese Civilization
Focuses on Chinese life, institutions and culture from the earliest times through the mid-19th century. Creative literature, philosophical writings and selected primary documents supplement information presented in interpretive texts and lectures. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 182 - Modern China
Introduces events, personalities and concepts of importance for understanding China’s history from the early-19th century to the present. Readings that present the Chinese view of events supplement interpretative studies by Western scholars. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 185 - The Russian Revolution, 1890-1938
In the twentieth century, the Russian Revolution shook the world; the reverberations of the cataclysm of 1917 continue to be felt in our own time. What were the roots of the political, cultural, social and economic crisis that brought the Russian monarchy to an end and swept the party known as the Bolsheviks into power? Who were the Bolsheviks? What did they want? How did popular conceptions of direct democracy evolve into a dictatorship and why did so many revolutionaries end up as victims of the system they created? How did the new state mobilize the conscience of so many people, including the members of different national and religious communities? Looking at the long history of 1917 from a variety of perspectives – including that of the leaders, as well as those of ordinary men and women, soldiers, peasants, intellectuals and artists – this course will examine the breathtaking events that radically transformed the fate of the world’s largest country from the end of the tsarist empire to the creation of the Soviet Union. Course assignments will include Boris Pasternak’s master-novel of the revolution, DR.ZHIVAGO(to be read over the course of the entire semester) as well as very short (1-5 pp.) weekly readings drawn from primary sources in translation. Fulfills the Historical Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually
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HIST 191 - Pirates and Smugglers in the Atlantic World
This course examines piracy and its cousin, privateering - - vital weapons of the latecomers in the Atlantic world. The French, English, and Dutch relentlessly targeted Iberian ships, hoping to harm the enemy and receive a share of the riches shipped from the New World. Privateering was also successfully practiced by the Barbary states of North Africa, which captured many European ships and enslaved their crews. In Atlantic waters, especially the Caribbean, the scope for both piracy and smuggling was much wider than in Europe. Even more pervasive than piracy, smuggling was initially an alternative way for the northern Europeans to get hold of American crops and precious metals. Eventually, it gave rise to a distinct way of life in vast parts of the Americas.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually
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HIST 201 - Era of the American Revolution
Studies the origins, character and consequences of the American Revolution, from the erosion of imperial authority in the 1760s and 1770s to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Emphasizes relation of ideology and political ideas to social development.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 202 - The Early American Republic
Studies formation and testing of the early United States from the adoption of the Constitution through the Jacksonian era. Emphasizes ideology, public policy and the problem of national integration during an age of extraordinary territorial and economic expansion.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 204 - Special Topics in American History
Content varies with the interest of the instructor. This course explores the way that race and ethnicity was “made” and “unmade” over the course of the nineteenth century and the consequences of those constructions. This seminar aims to expose you to the variety of ways that historians have approcahed this topic.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 205 - Renaissance and Reformation
Charts the course of European history from ca.1300 to 1600. Reviews the devastation caused by the plague and examines the rise of the city-states in Italy. Deals with successful reformers (Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin), as well as the more short-lived radical currents such as the Anabaptists of Munster, who declared property to be in common, outlawed the use of money, and made polygamy compulsory. The course will also introduce the Spanish Inquisition and discuss everyday violence between Calvinists and Catholics in France.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 210 - Research Seminar
Spring 2016 Topic: American Race & Ethnicity in the 19th Century
This course invites students to undertake the study of 19th Century American Race & Ethnicity by designing individual research projects on a specific topic in the field. The emphasis of the course will be on that individual work within a classroom community with considerable attention paid to the research process and the fostering of productive and respectful critique.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 211 - American Consumer Culture
Investigates the nature and meaning of the consumer experience in American history. Draws upon studies of advertising, domestic life and urban institutions, and examines the varied ways in which historians have defined and interpreted the importance of consumption within American life. Introduces students to the process of primary historical research.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 212 - History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present
Covers the history of sexuality from the Enlightenment to the present focusing on Western Europe. Students will examine how different societies in different times determined what was licit and what was illicit sexual behavior. Considers the efforts of governments, religious bodies, moralists, the medical profession and interest groups to regulate, repress or indeed encourage certain behaviors and attitudes. Specific topics include marriage, prostitution, birth control, the emergence of homosexual subcultures, and sexuality as identity.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 213 - Gender and the American City
This course considers how the experiences and spaces of nineteenth-century urban life were shaped by and, in turn, shaped gendered assumptions about men and women. How did men and women experience the city differently? What aspects of urban life defined or reinforced gender differences? Did city life create opportunities to transform gender roles? How did city dwellers use their gendered values and concerns to shape the city through reform, leisure, or work? Specific topics for discussion will include: gendered spaces in the city, the symbolic role of gender in the urban landscape, the interaction of sexual and racial identities with the city’s gendered terrain, and the place of gender in urban leisure and cultural institutions.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 214 - The American Civil War
Examines events and trends precipitating the single greatest crisis in American history, the Civil War of 1861-65. Includes consideration of the behavior and experience of Americans during the war itself.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 215 - The Age of Lincoln
This seminar will focus on an extraordinary individual and his times. In terms of his personal character, his public vision, and his influence on American history, Abraham Lincoln deserves our closest scrutiny. Put simply, had he never lived and acted as he did, our world today would surely be quite different. As we attempt to take the measure of this man and his lasting significance, we will place appropriate emphasis on biography, and on the relationship between the private and the public in Lincoln’s life and career.
Our attention will hardly be limited to this single individual, however, since any informed assessment of Lincoln must place him firmly in a number of relevant and precise historical contexts. To this extent we will also be using our focus on Lincoln as a vehicle for understanding better the distinctive shape and character-and hence the central problems and concerns–of American society, culture, and politics from approximately 1815 through the Civil War. Given Lincoln’s significance to the single greatest crisis in American national history, our ultimate focus will be on the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the crisis of the Union, and the ensuing war for American nationality. And given the timeless moral issues at stake in that national project, we will surely want to engage even larger concerns and questions. What is the relationship between private character and public leadership? Can politics and morality, especially in the context of war, be effectively conjoined? What constitutes responsible leadership in a democracy? Can Lincoln’s leadership enlighten and even inspire Americans (and others) in the twenty-first century as we confront our own challenges and crises?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 216 - Special Topics: African American Internationalism
Content and topics vary with instructor’s interests. A reading and discussion course exploring the advantages of taking a comparative approach to selected key themes and issues in the history of the United States.
Prerequisites: Jrs/Srs only
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 217 - Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, 1865-1877
Examines American history in the post-Civil War period, from 1865 to 1877, a period of national redefinition and political and social experimentation. Explores how Americans struggled with the consequences of the Civil War and emancipation. Grounds students in the historical literature of the Reconstruction era while emphasizing original student research in local sources.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 218 - London and Paris: the Making of the Modern City
London and Paris are two of the great cities of the world. This class will explore the foundation and development of these capitals as they grew from small medieval centers to the vast metropolises that they are today. We will consider major events (the Black Death, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the World Wars); the development of urban culture and politics; and the everyday life of ordinary Londoners and Parisians. You will hear from writers from Geoffrey Chaucer to Gertrude Stein; you will see works of art from Abbot Suger to Banksy; you will hear music from Gregorian chant to the Clash. From the London Bridge to the Eiffel Tower, from Notre Dame to the London Eye, we will explore the making of the modern city through the stories and perspectives of these great cities.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 219 - History of American Women
This course moves through the chronology of American history to examine the broad themes that have shaped women’s lives in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 222 - History of the American South
Explores the history of the South from the colonial period to the present, focusing on how the South developed as a distinctive region of the United States. Examines development of slavery; impact of slavery on the economy, politics and culture of the South; race, class and gender in the Old and New South; myth and reality of the New South; the South in the 20th century.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 223 - The Civil Rights Movement
Examines roots and evolution of the civil-rights movement from the 1930s to the present. Includes civil rights as a grassroots movement; the New Deal, World War II and civil rights; emergence of Martin Luther King; women and the civil-rights movement; black power; the disintegration of the movement; the meaning of civil rights today.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 224 - Russian Visual Culture
Eisenstein, Malevich, Chagall. Every movie buff and every student of modern art is familiar with these Russian names and their contribution to the great twentieth-century upheaval in visual culture that transformed the way we look at images today. How did Russia–which had no tradition of painting comparable to Italy and France–come to be associated with radical innovation in painting, photography, film, book illustration, and lithography? This course examines the history of Russian visual culture against the background of Russian history. We will discuss the role that images play in Russian Orthodoxy; the impact of Western regimes of representation on the native tradition of image making; the secularization of painting in the nineteenth century and the search for authenticity in pictorial styles; the role of revolutionary politics and Bolshevik ideology in the creation of still and moving images; the connection between the avant-garde theory of world creation and totalitarian art; and, finally, the emergence of non-conformist art in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, and its relationship to post-modernism.
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HIST 226 - Comparative Colonialism
Seeks to examine the ways in which Spanish, Dutch and English societies evolved in the New World from 1492 to 1824. Topics include the motives and backgrounds of settlers, encounters with natives, syncretism, the search for crops and precious metals, contacts with the mother countries, the contributions of Africans, and the revolutions that made an end to the mainland empires.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 228 - Early Modern Britain
This course will cover the major political, economic, cultural, social, religious and intellectual developments in Britain from rise of the Tudor dynasty in the fifteenth century through the eighteenth century, at which time the British Empire dominated world politics. We will pay particular attention to the emergence of modern monarchy, the Protestant Reformations, the English Civil War, the Financial Revolution, and the beginnings of empire. We will examine how the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland came to be Britain and how a British identity emerged. We will also examine the relationships between major events and shifts in English society and culture, including the changing roles of women, the increasing dominance of the middle class and its affect on elite society and culture.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 230 - History of the Armenian Genocide
The course will discuss some of the distinctive features of the Armenian Genocide and compare it to other genocides. Some of the topics to be reviewed include the following: The origin of the Armenian “question”; Armenian attempts at reform and its relation to genocide; the massacres of 1894-96, 1909 and 1915-7; Great Power policies during the Genocide; humanitarian intervention and relief efforts during Genocide; gender; the experience of concentration camps during the Armenian genocide in comparison with other cases; Armenian Revolutionary Movements and resistance; victims as agents and the genocidal process; the legal process of economic plunder and confiscation of Armenian properties; the American response to Armenian Genocide in the post-genocidal period; and, finally the denial of genocide by successive Turkish governments and societies, and the question of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Each case will be discussed in a comparative perspective.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 231 - Origins of Modern America, 1877-1914 (formerly America in the Gilded Age)
Focuses on a especially volatile era, encompassing Gilded Age excess and Progressive Era reforms, that gave birth to modern America. Among the many topics explored are the nation’s emergence as a world power, the rise of industrial capitalism, immigration, urbanization, Populism, popular culture, and trans-Atlantic reform movements.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 232 - Judaism and the Origins of Christianity
Most people think of Christianity as having descended from Judaism. In this course, we will see that what we know as Judaism and Christianity both claimed ownership of the same textual tradition. Both developed within the same political and religious landscape of the eastern Mediterranean in the first century CE and both drew heavily on contemporary Greek philosophy and literature. Through close readings of the principal sources of Christian literature, such as Paul’s letters to the first communities of Christian believers and the Gospel accounts of the life and death of Jesus, we will examine how Christianity first came to claim the title of “New Israel” and how its controversial messianic interpretation of ancient Israelite prophecy shaped the evolution of rabbinic Judaism. Focusing on the historical context of the original Jewish-Christian rivalry, we will see how their momentous split continues to shape our own social commitments, perceptions of divine and human justice, and attitudes toward family, community and self.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 233 - Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: Intellectual History of China
Explores the three major intellectual traditions of China, with special emphasis on the ethical values of each tradition and their historical and contemporary relevance. Fulfills the Values Perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: VP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.
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HIST 234 - History of Racism in Modern Europe
The category of “race” has been used since about 1500–when Europe’s Renaissance met with the exploration of “other” human beings in different continents–to naturalize inequality among groups of people based on certain ideas of their bodies. The seminar focuses on the scientific foundation of modern racism in the Enlightenment, the origins of the cult of health and beauty at about 1900, and the globalization of western body ideals until now.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 235 - The Atlantic World
A course that deliberately moves away from the traditional focus on nation-states and continents, concentrating instead on the Atlantic world that was created in the wake of the Portuguese explorations and Columbus’ voyages. The emphasis will be on the flow of people, commodities, germs, and ideas between the Old World (Europe and Africa) and the New.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 236 - Gender, War and Genocide in 20th Century
Boys become real men through military service and by participation in war, by killing and dying for the fatherland, while giving birth to and raising children-motherhood–serves as central marker of womanhood. Gender stereotypes such as these were questioned but also reinforced throughout the wars of the 20th century. These wars mobilized men as well as women, and they increasingly blurred the boundaries between men and women. On all fronts and sites, however, concepts of masculinities and femininities structured propaganda and emotions, fighting morals and antiwar movement, the preparation of minds for mass violence, and its remembrance. We will discuss the impact of gender on mass violence and vice versa from World War I to World War II, from the Holocaust to the genocidal wars in former Yugoslavia, and from America’s “Good War” to Americans’ twisted coping with the Vietnam War to the rise of a ‘gender-neutral’ army. Focusing on European and American wars, the course includes comparative views on other regions of the world and puts emphasis on regional differences and peculiarities, such as transformation of a deeply gendered war culture in Europe into a peace culture after 1945. Special attention will be paid to various approaches to gender history, such as the analysis of discourses and images, or the analysis of gender practices. We will do this by critically analyzing scholarly work, written testimonies, literature, films, and propaganda materials.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.
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HIST 237 - The Holocaust Perpetrators
This course explores the main parts of the German and Central European society that committed the Holocaust, that is the desktop perpetrators like Adolf Eichmann, the physicians who carried used Jews for medical experiments, the concentration-camps guards, and the killing units as the hard core of the SS elite, but also “ordinary” Germans and soldiers who served in police battalions or in the drafted army, on women who served as guards or as part of the occupational regime, and not least on non-German collaborators or volunteers. The course focuses on the interrelation of individual and biographical backgrounds, mental and ideological orientations, and social and institutional arrangements: What are the reasons that made “normal” human becoming mass murderers?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually
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HIST 238 - America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1917-1991
This course will focus on the Russian-American rivalry at the center of world politics from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Major topics include the escalating nuclear arms race, recurrent crises in Vietnam, Cuba and other parts of the Third World, and important personalities from Harry Truman and Josef Stalin to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.
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HIST 239 - Special Topics Course in Global History
The content of this course will vary by instructor.
In Spring 2017, the title will be Global Africa.
This upper level course examines the diverse histories of Africa and its people – from ancient to modern times. The course explores the extent to which interaction between cultures throughout Africa and with other continents has shaped our understanding of African past and present. The early part of the class will introduce intellectual tools to students for them to intelligently explore key events in African and African descendant’s histories. The remaining time in the course will be divided into four broadly chronological segments: (1) Antiquity; (2) Middle Ages; (3) Early Modern Era; and (4) Colonial and Post-Colonial Era. Through brief surveys of these periods, the course thematically focuses on challenging preconceived notions of race but also ethnicity, gender, and religion in Africa and the African diaspora. In further emphasizing this theme, the course problematizes the concept of race and its use to connect multiple histories of Africa and the African diaspora. Overall, there will be an effort to put different texts – especially secondary and primary sources – in conversation with each other to explore the challenges and possibilities in the articulations of African and African diaspora histories.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Every other year
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HIST 243 - American Antiquarian Society Seminar in American Studies
Given at the American Antiquarian Society (about two miles from Clark); students conduct original research in the society’s unique holdings. Students apply in the spring through Professor McCoy, History Dept.
Anticipated Terms Offered: na
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HIST 245 - U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East Since 1945
This course explores America’s stormy relationship with the Middle East from World War II through 9/11 and the war in Iraq, with special emphasis on oil, the Cold War, and the rise of radical Islam. Among the key topics will be the Arab-Israeli conflict, the battle for control of the Persian Gulf, and the impact of the Middle East on American popular culture.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.
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HIST 251 - Russian Literature and Philosophy
Dostoevsky. Tolstoy. Chekhov. These names instantly evoke the golden age of Russian belles-lettres. But the masters of nineteenth-century Russian prose were not only great stylists and enthralling storytellers; they were also profound thinkers. Their work bears the imprint of an original approach to the deep-rooted contradictions that continue to bedevil the human experience: reason and faith, personal happiness and collective well-being, justice and mercy, passion and renunciation. In this seminar, we will read some of the classical treatments of these “accursed questions,” which both tormented and inspired the authors of those big Russian books that continue to challenge readers world-wide. Focusing on close readings of key texts, we will interrogate the relationship between thematic concerns and problems of style, in order to understand why and how Russian philosophy took the form of imaginative literature and to gain a deeper appreciation of the Russian contribution to European intellectual history. No background in Russian history is required; but be aware that the readings are substantial. This course may be your only opportunity to read War and Peace!
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 252 - The Holocaust Through Diaries and Letters
The aim of this course is to engage in a bifocal understanding of history: from the perspective of those who experienced events as they unfolded, and from our vantage point today. Our goal is to recognize anew the potentiality of an unfolding present when many options are available, and to analyze the factors that conduced to the decisions and choices we now know were taken.
What did people know, and when did they know it? What role did denial and silence play? What, if any, patterns of daily life choices emerge? Do specific human traits or values loom large when life is lived in extremis?
Prerequisites: Any HGS course
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 253 - Beauty, Gender, and Power around the World, 1800 to the Present
This course examines changing and multifaceted beauty standards around the world (Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Oceania) with the aim of deconstructing them in order to understand the power dynamics embedded in ideal appearances. Positioning beauty at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality, we will examine its construction through political and cultured readings on the meanings of body parts and body languages (i.e. hair, face, teeth, skin, smile, and feet). This course encourages students to problematize contemporary beauty templates in various countries and cultures. We will also use our examination of beauty as a way to further develop student’s skills in historical research, reasoning, and writing.
Prerequisites: Course open to junior and senior students only.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually
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HIST 254 - The Age of Atlantic Revolutions
The half-century after 1776 was a period marked by the violent pursuit of political liberty and economic opportunity on both sides of the Atlantic. In North America, the Thirteen Colonies were transformed into the United States of America informed by an Enlightenment ideology of rationalism, secularism and democracy, which had long been cultivated in Europe. Tapping the same sources, the French rebels soon saw their revolution degenerate into a bloody spectacle. Another consequence of the French Revolution was the rebellion in the Caribbean colony of St. Domingue, in the course of which slavery was abolished and independence achieved.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 256 - The British Empire
By the early 20th century, one in five people in the world lived in the British Empire, a vast territory that covered a quarter of the globe. This class will examine the evolution of this empire from the very first colonies to the present day. We will explore India and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, Canada–and, of course, the origins of the United States. In doing so, we will consider issues of immigration, emigration, settlement, race, religion, politics, revolution, violence, war, culture, literature, and just what it means to be an empire.
Anticipated Terms Offered: varies
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HIST 260 - Rescue and Resistance During the Holocaust
Investigates rescue and resistance activities during the second World War. Our aim will be to come to a critical understanding of what we mean by “rescue” and “resistance,” and to analyze how these undertakings were organized, who participated in them and why people felt compelled to do so. Looks at the role and function (if any) of age, gender, degree of religious observance, political affiliation and social class in our attempts to understand not only what activities were undertaken, but the motivation for such actions.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 262 - Genocide, Denial, Facing History and Reconciliation
After the term “Genocide” was coined for macro crimes in 1948 by the United Nations, the word became not only one of the most important legal, social and political terms, but also an important inter-disciplinary field in the Social Sciences. History, sociology, political science, international law, and psychology, among others, have developed their own fields of genocide specialization. The usage or non-usage of the term for certain macro crimes in recent years has become an important political problem of our time. Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur are only some examples. This course considers the emergence, definition and meaning of the term genocide - particularly the development of the concept of genocide in International Law and how was the term created by Raphael Lemkin. Special place is given to the discussions in the UN leading to the final adoption and definition of the UN Convention in 1948 and the problems arising from the 1948 definitions. In addition to legal concepts, the course concentrates on the different sociological concepts of genocide, taking a closer look at theoretical explanations of genocide. Other topics include: question of premeditation in decision-making process, genocide denial, prevention of genocide, and problems of the comparative approach to case studies. Finally, the course examines why societies should deal with atrocities in their past, the meaning of facing history, and the different forms of dealing with past (amnesia, retributive justice, restorative justice, truth and reconciliation committees, etc.).
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 266 - Refugees
The aim of this course will be to investigate and analyze the history of the “Refugee Question” in Europe and America, and to explore the impact of these international and national debates on the lives of the asylum seekers.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 268 - Special Topics
Advanced Special Topic Spring 2017:
SECTION 1
THE CAUCASUS - LAND OF MANY PEOPLE: ETHNO-NATIONALISM, RELIGION AND MIGRATION
The Caucasus is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse regions in the world and presents a unique opportunity to study issues of ethnicity and ethnic relations, nationalism, religion, and migration. This area has been an important bridge between continents, cultures and civilizations: between Russian and the Middle East as well as between Central Asia and Europe (through the black sea. We will discuss the Russian colonization of the area in Tsarist era; the imposition of the Soviet Communist regime in the Caucasus; and current, Post-Communist developments including the partial de-colonization in Trans-Caucasus. We will discuss the nature of Soviet nationalism policy in the Caucasus; relations between the Caucasus and the Middle East; the struggle between traditional Islam and Revivalism; the place of myth and historical memory in current politics and society; and the immigration and re-immigration of various groups (Jews, Circassians, Azeri). Special attention will be given to issues of mass violence in the Caucasus: the Circassian Genocide and forced population transfer in the 19th century; the Holocaust in the Caucasus and the ‘Stalin deportations’. We will also discuss violence and conflicts in last decades, such as the wars in Chechnya and between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
SECTION 2
JEWISH-MUSLIM RELATIONS VIEWED FROM THE MARGINS
This course examines inter-group relations between Jews and Muslims in various social and geographical settings in the Muslim world from the 19th century to the present.
We will discuss the experience of Jewish communities in several Muslim societies along the Middle-East, North Africa and Central Asia from Morocco and Libya to Kurdistan. Special focus will be given to less known setting in the margins of the Muslim World: relations between Jews and Muslim in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, especially under Soviet rule, in Kurdistan, Among Arabs and Berbers in the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, and other settings. These different settings raise important questions for the study of intergroup relations: the perceptions of the “other”; the meaning of ethnic boundaries and their maintenance; multi-ethnic networks and cooperation between groups; patron-clients and other modes of relations; the meaning of shared cultural worlds, etc. Attention will be given also to Jewish-Muslim relations in areas with Muslim majority during Nazi- German Occupation in WWII. Finally, we will examine the meaning of past experience in the Muslim world to social and cultural encounters between Jewish and Muslims citizens in present day Israel and in the west.
Anticipated Terms Offered: N/A
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HIST 270 - Modern Jewish Thought
This course explores the intellectual impact of modernity on Jewish ideas about God and peoplehood. Through a rigorous analysis of primary sources in philosophy, political theory, theology and ethics, we will explore how Jewish thinkers transformed the meaning of Jewish experience and self-expression in light of cataclysmic historical changes such as the coming of print culture and the scientific revolution, the rise of the modern democratic state, the spread of capitalism and the explosion of radical ideologies. The principal focus of the course will be on the roots of the contemporary tension between the conception of Judaism as a religion that entails personal commitment and the contrary claim that Jews collectively constitute a national community. Authors covered will include Baruch Spinoza, Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Hermann Cohen, Joseph Soloveitchik and Theodor Herzl.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: VP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 271 - Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Europe, 1100-1900
European Christians, Jews, and Muslims have lived alongside each other, in tension and in tolerance, for well over a millennium. Modern conflicts between these monotheistic religions dominate the European news cycle and political imagination. The recent history of the relationship between European Christians, Jews and Muslims is well-known and much discussed, both in academic and popular analyses. But what exactly are the roots of these conflicts and confluences? This class will examine the relationship between Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Europe from 1100-1900. It will explore economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and political developments during this period. In doing so, it will examine alliance and antagonism; toleration and expulsion; assimilation and separation; and the long history of contemporary issues.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Regularly
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HIST 276 - Collective Memory and Mass Violence
There is no present and no future without the past. This is true not least when it comes to mass violence: the way societies decide about whether to engage in war or even genocide depends on their collective experiences with events of mass violence in the past, and on which lessons they have drawn from these experiences. This seminar examines how societies, nations, and political movements fabricate, transmit, and consume collective memory of war, genocide, and terror. It will inquire into different theories of, and approaches to, the concept of collective memory and apply them to major events of mass violence and political terror in the 20th century, such as World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, Apartheid, and the recent wars and the genocide in former Yugoslavia. The course will explore a broad range of different dimensions, issues, and mediums of collective memory, such as war trials, traumas, memoirs and testimonies, fictional literature and popular culture, memorials and museums and other representations of collective memory. Particular attention will be paid to how national identities shape and rely on the memory of mass violence. Fulfills the historical perspective.
Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: HP
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered biannually
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HIST 277 - America’s Founding Fathers: Memory and Meaning
Using the Founding Fathers as a focus, this course explores the transmission of Revolutionary values across generations in American history, with emphasis on the early decades of the nineteenth century. Students in this proseminar will explore the world of the Founders themselves, with emphasis on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, before placing them and their families in wider social and cultural contexts, including their visible presence, individually and collectively, in the lives of later generations of Americans.
Prerequisites: Juniors or Seniors, or permission of the instructor.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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HIST 279 - Massacres, Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention: Western Powers in the Balkans and the Middle East
Course begins with a general introduction to the subject of Humanitarian Intervention and will examine the Western powers’ policy towards the Balkans and the Middle East with the establishment of the Concernt of Europe in 1815. The different case studies will be: Ottoman Greeks in 1821-33; Lebanon and Syria (1860-61); Crete (1866-69), Serbia and Bulgaria (1875-78) and Macedonia (1903-08) and analyze the different types of intervention and non-intervention policies of the Great Powers. Seminar
Prerequisites: The student should have taken at least one course in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Concentration.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring annually
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HIST 280 - Women in Chinese History, 1000 CE to Present
This course examines the history of women in China from 1000 CE to the present, with a dual emphasis on probing changes and continuities in women’s roles as defined by the ideologies of successive regimes and exploring their life experiences through ethnography, film, short stories, and women’s writings. To what extent have Chinese women conformed to their prescribed roles throughout the period under study? In what ways did they challenge these conventions? What strategies have they pursued to enhance their agency and expand their influence in the family, community, and society at large?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically
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HIST 281 - China since 1949: State, Economy and Family in the People’s Republic
This course explores China’s historical development from the founding of the People’s Republic (PRC) in 1949 through the early years of the 21st century. Rather than attempting to cover all aspects of PRC history, the course focuses on three interconnected themes: the nature of the modern state, the shift from a socialist to post-socialist economy, and the changing dynamics of family life. Topics include agrarian revolution and land reform in the 1950s, the impact of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, the economic reform program of the 1980s and 1990s, political protest, family change, and the role of migrant labor in China’s growing economy. We shall investigate these issues through a variety of sources: scholarly monographs, primary documents, fiction, ethnography, memoir, feature film, and documentaries. While there are no formal prerequisites, some background in Asian studies and/or 20th century history is highly recommended.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 284 - Voices From American Slavery in History and the Imagination
This course explores the relationship between historical interpretations of slavery and films, novels, plays that place slavery in the center of the narrative. Each week, we will explore topics and themes, such as slave rebellion, the transatlantic and transcontinental slave trade, and African cultural retentions on American plantations. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze the creative efforts of filmmakers, artists, and writers who have sought to bring the voices of slavery to life. How accurate are popular depictions of slavery? How have the content of films and novels about slavery changed over time? Through our interdisciplinary examination of slavery we will explore the voices of African descended people enslaved in the United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Seminar
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered bi-annually
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HIST 286 - The Vietnam War
Explores the Vietnam War, emphasizing American involvement in Vietnam in the decade 1965 to 1975. Includes a survey of the history and culture of Vietnam, French experience in Vietnam, and American involvement with Vietnam from World War II to the present.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 288 - Sem: Public History
The content of this Public History course can vary each time it is offered. May be repeated for credit (taken a max of 2 times).
In Spring 2017 the topic will be Public History: Race, Photography and Community. This course is devoted to research and preparation for the photography exhibition, “William Bullard: Reimagining an American Community of Color, 1897-1917,” which will be open at the Worcester Art Museum in October 2017. The exhibition will feature 80 photographs of people of color taken in Worcester. In addition to gaining hands-on experience by preparing wall text for the exhibition and contributing to an accompanying website, students will learn about the larger contexts of African American history and people of color in Worcester at the turn of the twentieth century; about nineteenth century portraiture; the use of photography by black Americans for both personal and political purposes; and the many challenges of interpreting and presenting these images to the public. Taught with Nancy Burns, Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Worcester Art Museum.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 289 - Dying for God: Martyrdom in Early Judaism & Christianity
This course examines the beginnings of martyrdom in the ancient Mediterranean, the cradle of Judaism and Christianity. Looking closely at the historical context - the intellectual, social and political developments - that gave rise to the iconic figure of the martyr in the world of late antiquity, we will explore how men and women came to embrace the opportunity of “dying for God,” and why the cult of martyrdom became a public institution. Ancient people viewed the spectacle of martyrdom with an equal measure of admiration and alarm; looking closely at evidence of their ambivalence, we will gain some perspective on our own mixed feelings about this deeply disconcerting phenomenon/
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 291 - Advanced Topics in International Relations
Special Topics Course - content varies.
Spring 2016: This course will explore America’s uneasy encounter with the Muslim world from the late 18th century to the present, with special emphasis on the Cold War and the post-Cold War era. Among the issues to be addressed are the rise of Arab nationalism, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the emergence of Islamic radicalism. We will examine not only well publicized topics such as the Iranian Revolution and civil wars in Afghanistan but also lower profile matters such as the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah. Here is the overarching question that will preoccupy us this spring: “Is the clash between America and the Muslim world the product of fundamental ideological, strategic, and economic disagreements, or is it the result of cultural misunderstanding and mutual misperception?”
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 293 - African American Social and Political Movements
This course will examine the African American struggle against social and political oppression in America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Specifically, students in this course will explore black American involvement in the Antislavery Movement, the Women’s Club movement, the Harlem Renaissance, Anti-colonial activities, and the rise and fall of the Black Power and Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. By the end of the course, students will understand how black-led organizational efforts helped to transform America’s social and political landscape.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered bi-annually.
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HIST 295 - Dangerous Women
This course will explore the history of dangerous women from Bible through the present, concentrating most heavily on early modern Europe. We will focus primarily on England, France and Germany (though occasionally we will draw on scholarship about the U.S. and other regions). We will examine discourses of dangerous women developed in religious writings, myth, literature and fairy tales, medicine, crime reporting, social science and legal texts in order to interrogate the very concept of the dangerous woman and ask why certain women at certain times were considered dangerous. We will also look at the experiences and treatment of women labeled dangerous specifically examining saints, heretics, prostitutes, witches, step-mothers, queens, lesbians, criminals, mentally-ill women and women’s rights activists.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically.
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HIST 297 - Honors Thesis Research
Students receive variable credit for advanced research and readings in the honors program.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 298 - Internship
An Academic internship is a practical work experience with an academic component that enables a student to gain knowledge and skills within an organization, industry, or functional area that reflects the student’s academic and professional interests while earning credit. Maybe repeatable for credit.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Every Semester
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HIST 299 - Directed Study
Undergraduates, typically juniors and seniors, construct an independent study course on a topic approved and directed by a faculty member. Offered for variable credit.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.
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HIST 301 - Era of the American Revolution
Studies the origins, character and consequences of the American Revolution, from the erosion of imperial authority in the 1760s and 1770s to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Emphasizes relation of ideology and political ideas to social development.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 302 - The Early American Republic
Studies formation and testing of the early United States from the adoption of the Constitution through the Jacksonian era. Emphasizes ideology, public policy and the problem of national integration during an age of extraordinary territorial and economic expansion.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 304 - Special Topics in American History
Content varies with the interest of the instructor. This course explores the way that race and ethnicity was “made” and “unmade” over the course of the nineteenth century and the consequences of those constructions. This seminar aims to expose you to the variety of ways that historians have approached this topic.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor is required.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 305 - Renaissance and Reformation
Charts the course of European history from ca.1300 to 1600. Reviews the devastation caused by the plague and examines the rise of the city-states in Italy. Deals with successful reformers (Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin), as well as the more short-lived radical currents such as the Anabaptists of Munster, who declared property to be in common, outlawed the use of money, and made polygamy compulsory. The course will also introduce the Spanish Inquisition and discuss everyday violence between Calvinists and Catholics in France.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 308 - The Idea of History
This graduate seminar provides an advanced introduction to the development of modern historiography and its methods. Focusing on the evolution of historical writing and its contribution to the pursuit of human knowledge, the course addresses the following topics: 1) the professionalization of historical research; 2) the relationship between historical understanding and the formation of critical consciousness; 3) differences in approaches to representing the past and the attendant debate about the value of historical scholarship; 4) the impact of globalization and interdisciplinary on the subject of history; and 5) the implications of the “historical turn” in the humanities and social sciences. Students will be expected to analyze the connection between works of history and their contemporary social, political and philosophical context and to demonstrate an ability to discern and articulate the principal themes, problems and controversies which inform the field of historical study.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 310 - Research Seminar
Spring 2013 Topic: American Cultural History
This course invites students to undertake the study of American cultural history by designing individual research projects on a specific topic in the field. The emphasis of the course will be on that individual work within a classroom community with considerable attention paid to the research process and the fostering of productive and respectful critique. Students are free to choose topics from any time period in US history, but must approach their inquiry from the vantage point of cultural history. Shared readings in cultural history will help frame this approach.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 311 - American Consumer Culture
Investigates the nature and meaning of the consumer experience in American history. Draws upon studies of advertising, domestic life and urban institutions, and examines the varied ways in which historians have defined and interpreted the importance of consumption within American life. Introduces students to the process of primary historical research.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 312 - History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present
Covers the history of sexuality from the Enlightenment to the present focusing on Western Europe. Students will examine how different societies in different times determined what was licit and what was illicit sexual behavior. Considers the efforts of governments, religious bodies, moralists, the medical profession and interest groups to regulate, repress or indeed encourage certain behaviors and attitudes. Specific topics include marriage, prostitution, birth control, the emergence of homosexual subcultures, and sexuality as identity.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 313 - Gender and the American City
This course considers how the experiences and spaces of nineteenth-century urban life were shaped by and, in turn, shaped gendered assumptions about men and women. How did men and women experience the city differently? What aspects of urban life defined or reinforced gender differences? Did city life create opportunities to transform gender roles? How did city dwellers use their gendered values and concerns to shape the city through reform, leisure, or work? Specific topics for discussion will include: gendered spaces in the city, the symbolic role of gender in the urban landscape, the interaction of sexual and racial identities with the city’s gendered terrain, and the place of gender in urban leisure and cultural institutions.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 314 - The American Civil War
Examines events and trends precipitating the single greatest crisis in American history, the Civil War of 1861-65. Includes consideration of the behavior and experience of Americans during the war itself.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 315 - The Age of Lincoln
This seminar will focus on an extraordinary individual and his times. In terms of his personal character, his public vision, and his influence on American history, Abraham Lincoln deserves our closest scrutiny. Put simply, had he never lived and acted as he did, our world today would surely be quite different. As we attempt to take the measure of this man and his lasting significance, we will place appropriate emphasis on biography, and on the relationship between the private and the public in Lincoln’s life and career.
Our attention will hardly be limited to this single individual, however, since any informed assessment of Lincoln must place him firmly in a number of relevant and precise historical contexts. To this extent we will also be using our focus on Lincoln as a vehicle for understanding better the distinctive shape and character-and hence the central problems and concerns–of American society, culture, and politics from approximately 1815 through the Civil War. Given Lincoln’s significance to the single greatest crisis in American national history, our ultimate focus will be on the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the crisis of the Union, and the ensuing war for American nationality. And given the timeless moral issues at stake in that national project, we will surely want to engage even larger concerns and questions. What is the relationship between private character and public leadership? Can politics and morality, especially in the context of war, be effectively conjoined? What constitutes responsible leadership in a democracy? Can Lincoln’s leadership enlighten and even inspire Americans (and others) in the twenty-first century as we confront our own challenges and crises?
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 316 - Special Topics: African-American Internationalism
Content and topics vary with instructor’s interests. A reading and discussion course exploring the advantages of taking a comparative approach to selected key themes and issues in the history of the United States.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor is required.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 317 - Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, 1865-1877
Examines American history in the post-Civil War period, from 1865 to 1877, a period of national redefinition and political and social experimentation. Explores how Americans struggled with the consequences of the Civil War and emancipation. Grounds students in the historical literature of the Reconstruction era while emphasizing original student research in local sources.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 318 - London and Paris: the Making of the Modern City
London and Paris are two of the great cities of the world. This class will explore the foundation and development of these capitals as they grew from small medieval centers to the vast metropolises that they are today. Along the way we will consider major events (the Black Death, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the World Wars); the development of urban culture and politics; and the everyday life of ordinary Londoners and Parisians. You will hear from writers from Geoffrey Chaucer to Gertrude Stein; you will see works of art from Abbot Suger to Banksy; you will hear music from Gregorian chant to the Clash. From the London Bridge to the Eiffel Tower, from Notre Dame to the London Eye, we will explore the making of the modern city through the stories and perspectives of these great cities.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually
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HIST 319 - History of American Women
This course moves through the chronology of American history to examine the broad themes that have shaped women’s lives in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While tracing larger trends and identifying common experiences, we will also pay close attention to the specific experiences of individual women in order to shed light on the differences and divisions among them. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year
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HIST 322 - History of the American South
Explores the history of the South from the colonial period to the present, focusing on how the South developed as a distinctive region of the United States. Examines development of slavery; impact of slavery on the economy, politics and culture of the South; race, class and gender in the Old and New South; myth and reality of the New South; the South in the 20th century.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 323 - The Civil Rights Movement
Examines roots and evolution of the civil-rights movement from the 1930s to the present. Includes civil rights as a grassroots movement; the New Deal, World War II and civil rights; emergence of Martin Luther King; women and the civil-rights movement; black power; the disintegration of the movement; the meaning of civil rights today.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other year
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HIST 324 - Russian Visual Culture
Eisenstein, Malevich, Chagall. Every movie buff and every student of modern art is familiar with these Russian names and their contribution to the great twentieth-century upheaval in visual culture that transformed the way we look at images today. How did Russia–which had no tradition of painting comparable to Italy and France–come to be associated with radical innovation in painting, photography, film, book illustration, and lithography? This course examines the history of Russian visual culture against the background of Russian history. We will discuss the role that images play in Russian Orthodoxy; the impact of Western regimes of representation on the native tradition of image making; the secularization of painting in the nineteenth century and the search for authenticity in pictorial styles; the role of revolutionary politics and Bolshevik ideology in the creation of still and moving images; the connection between the avant-garde theory of world creation and totalitarian art; and, finally, the emergence of non-conformist art in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, and its relationship to post-modernism.
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HIST 326 - Comparative Colonialism
Seeks to examine the ways in which Spanish, Dutch and English societies evolved in the New World from 1492 to 1824. Topics include the motives and backgrounds of settlers, encounters with natives, syncretism, the search for crops and precious metals, contacts with the mother countries, the contributions of Africans, and the revolutions that made an end to the mainland empires.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 328 - Early Modern Britain
This course will cover the major political, economic, cultural, social, religious and intellectual developments in Britain from rise of the Tudor dynasty in the fifteenth century through the eighteenth century, at which time the British Empire dominated world politics. We will pay particular attention to the emergence of modern monarchy, the Protestant Reformations, the English Civil War, the Financial Revolution, and the beginnings of empire. We will examine how the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland came to be Britain and how a British identity emerged. We will also examine the relationships between major events and shifts in English society and culture, including the changing roles of women, the increasing dominance of the middle class and its affect on elite society and culture.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 330 - History of the Armenian Genocide
This course will discuss some of the distinctive features of the Armenian Genocide and compare it to other genocides. Some of the topics to be reviewed include the following: the origin of the Armenian “question”; Armenian attempts at reform and its relation to genocide; the massacres of 1894-96, 1909 and 1915-7; Great Power policies during the Genocide; humanitarian intervention and relief efforts during Genocide; gender; the experience of concentration camps during the Armenian genocide in comparison with other cases; Armenian Revolutionary Movements and resistance; victims as agents and the genocidal process; the legal process of economic plunder and confiscation of Armenian properties; the American response to Armenian Genocide in the post-genocidal period; and, finally, the denial of genocide by successive Turkish governments and societies, and the question of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Each case will be discussed in a comparative perspective.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 331 - Origins of Modern America, 1877-1914 (formerly America in the Gilded Age)
Focuses on a especially volatile era, encompassing Gilded Age excess and Progressive Era reforms, that gave birth to modern America. Among the many topics explored are the nation’s emergence as a world power, the rise of industrial capitalism, immigration, urbanization, Populism, popular culture, and trans-Atlantic reform movements.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically
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HIST 332 - Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: Intellectual History of China
Explores the three major intellectual traditions of China, with special emphasis on the ethical values of each tradition and their historical and contemporary relevance. Fulfills the Values Perspective.
Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.
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HIST 334 - History of Racism in Modern Europe
The category of “race” has been used since about 1500–when Europe’s Renaissance met with the exploration of “other” human beings in different continents–to naturalize inequality among groups of people based on certain ideas of their bodies. The seminar focuses on the scientific foundation of modern racism in the Enlightenment, the origins of the cult of health and beauty at about 1900, and the globalization of western body ideals until now.
Anticipated Terms Offered: -
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