Political, social and cultural history of the Graeco-Roman world from the age of heroes to the fall of the Roman Empire. (Not open to History concentrators.)
This course surveys some important issues and tendencies in the history of
Western Civilization from its origins through the early modern period,
including ancient Mesopotamia, classical Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages,
and the Renaissance. These include "civilization" and the rise of cities,
different imaginings of god(s) and humanity, evolving forms of political
organization, continuity and change in social organization and everyday
life, and the ongoing dialogue of faith and reason.
In a period of intensifying globalization a basic understanding of our world is increasingly important. The main purpose of this course is to expose students to the global processes that have shaped our modern world since roughly the year 1500. Taking on a global and comparative perspective, this course will help students to develop a topical, chronological, and geographical understanding of global history and cultures.
This class examines societies and cultures from ancient until early modern times with the underlying assumption that world history is an important conceptual tool for understanding our interdependent world. Course topics analyze the nature of the earliest human communities, the development of the first civilizations and the subsequent emergence of cultures in selected areas of Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. This course also offers a consideration of issues related to the connections and relationships that shaped civilizations as a result of migration, war, commerce, and the various cultural expressions of self, society, and the cosmos before 1500.
This course will introduce you to the study of world history, its relevance for living in the present, and the challenge to think critically about the emergence and subsequent development of the modern world since 1500. Participants in this course will examine experiences that transcend societal and cultural regions, focus on processes of cross-cultural interaction, and investigate patterns that influenced historical development and continue to impact societies on a global scale.
This course surveys United States history from the early settlement of North America through the Civil War and Reconstruction. It considers the role of the political and economic leadership in the building of the nation as well as actions of ordinary people whose energies and aspirations constitute the fabric of United States society.
This course surveys the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the present. It covers significant developments in the politics, economy, culture, and other aspects of American life during that period.
This course introduces China's interactions with the world since the 1840s. With theOpium War as the starting point, students are ushered into a traditional China whosepolitical system, cultural values, and an economic structure stood in sharp contrast to those of the outside world. The main focus of the course is to explore the process inwhich China fought for its survival as a sovereign nation and searched for its road tomodernization.
This course should help better understand in terms of economic development where this country has come from, and therefore, better understand the present. You will get to know some of the heroes and some of the rogues that make this subject so interesting. The subject of money excites some people -- and the story of the people involved makes for exciting reading as well. The causes of economic booms and busts will be covered, as well as some labor history and the role of unions, their origins and purposes.
From Confucian texts to current conditions, the course examines the evolution of Chinese women's status throughout the centuries. The course will ask questions such as whether Confucianism dictated oppression against women, what factors influenced the changes of status for women, how Western feminism is connected with Chinese women, what roles women played in transforming China, and how ordinary women lived and are still living in China.
This course surveys the Atlantic upheavals that began with the American Revolution, spread to Europe with the outbreak of the French Revolution, surged forward in the Americas with the Haitian This course surveys the Atlantic upheavals that began with the Revolution, and culminated in nineteenth century independence movements in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Columbia, and other Latin European colonies. Course assignments will compare the characteristics of the upheavals and explore the legacies of the revolutionary age.
This class examines the history of Latin America from 1492 until the early nineteenth century. After considering the rise of the Aztec and
Inca empires, we will consider how the Spanish and Portuguese were able to acquire and maintain control in the region. Topics include indigenous-European relations, slavery, economic developments, the challenges of maintaining a colonial government, and Latin American independence.
Modern Latin America, a 200-level course, surveys Latin America from independence in the early nineteenth century to the present using primary sources, a textbook, and scholarly works. It begins with an understanding of the political, social, and economic context from which ideas of independence emerged and consideres the wars for independence. We will spend a significant part of the course studying nation-building: how did the leaders of new nations define their nations and the values that would guide them? Who was included and who was excluded in the process of nation-building? The next part of the course examines the demands of groups originally excluded: the indigenous population, women, and the poor. The portion of the course covering the twentieth century emphasizes Latin America's international connections, focusing on influence from the United States and the effectds of world wars on the region. Mass politics also emerge, and are expressed in the Mexican Revolution and in Peronism. We also wiill consider the Cuban Revolution and its wider effects in the region. We will conclude our survey of the region by considering how historical trends continue to affect politics today. For example, the Bolivian political scene continues to be affected by the events and outcome of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) and by a strong indigenist movement.
This course examines the history of women in late medieval, early modern,
and modern Western Europe (ca. 1300-1900). From medieval saints and
Renaissance queens to Enlightenment Salonieres and ordinary wives and
mothers, women have played an astonishing variety of roles. We will utilize
primary and secondary sources, historical films, and works of art to
understand the contributions and challenges of women in the past.
The history of Europe in the time of transition between the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Two principle topics are the intensification of cultural change which began in Italy around 1300 and spread slowly northward and the disruption of the unity of the Western Christian Church.
This course investigates the impact of disease on human society from
ancient times to the 20th century. We explore how societies of the past
have responded to both epidemic and endemic diseases, including plague,
cholera, leprosy, influenza, syphilis, smallpox, polio, and HIV. We
also examine the history of germ theory, the development of biological
weapons, future threats to human health, and other intersections between
human society and biological forces.
This course will survey the continents history over its age of extremes in the twentieth century, moving broadly from the apogee of European global power at the turn of the century to its decline in the trauma of two world wars and decolonization, through the Cold War and post-1945 recovery and the challenges and possibilities that have arisen for Europe in the aftermath of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The recent history of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America and the comparative global processes and trends that have influenced the world since 1945.
The course will cover the wide range of causes of this major conflict, the difficulties and changing dynamics of waging this massive war and the effects of all this on both the internal political and social conditions and external consequences for the combatants with the peace settlement.
The Second World War transformed states and people from East Asia to the United States to Europe. We examine diplomatic and military aspects of the war and how it affected the lives of people in the countries involved. Topics include the prelude to the war, military campaigns in Europe and the Pacific, collaboration and resistance, the home front, the Holocaust, science and the atom bomb, and the consequences of the war.
The growth of the Russian state: Varangian origins, the Kievan state, conversion to Christianity, Mongol domination, the rise of Muscovy, Europeanization and expansion under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.
This course surveys the history of women in the British North American
colonies and United States with a special focus on social and economic
change. It examines women as a distinct group but also attends to divisions
among them, particularly those based on class, ethnicity/race, and regional
diversity. Course themes include concepts of womanhood, the development and
transgression of gender roles, unpaid work and wage labor, social reform and
women's rights activism, as well as changing ideas and practices with
respect to the female body.
This course is an overview of the history of the first peoples of North
America from pre-European contact to the present. The course will offer a general
framework for understanding indigenous Americans and their historical experiences by exploring the forces of continuity and change that have shaped Native Americans' lives through time and space. This view will stress the ongoing presence of American Indian peoples and their efforts to preserve the integrity and
viability of their dynamic, self-directed societies and cultures.
A comprehensive study of the Native Americans through historical and first-hand accounts of their lives. Designed to enlighten students and to represent fairly the Native Americans, dispelling some of the existing myths about them.
This course surveys African American history in the United States from colonization to the present. It begins with a study of life in West Africa and traces the forced migration of Africans to the Americas. It explores West African transmissions, the freedom struggle, the great migrations from the South, the Harlem Renaissance, the modern Civil Rights movement, and the continuing impact of African Americans on life in the 21st century.
This course provides a basic introduction to the history of the African continent. It will expose students to the processes and patterns that have shaped modern African history. The course examines the historical roots of the many challenges that the continent faces today. But, at the same time, it will also provide students with the knowledge to shatter the myths and stereotypes about Africa.
Although the course takes the entire United States diplomatic history as its field of historical study, its focus is on the American foreign policy in the twentieth century. The course first explores domestic and international factors that made the United States a world power by 1898. It will then consider the goals, the practices, and the results of the twentieth century American foreign policy. The course challenges students to view American diplomacy in a global context.
An introduction for the undergraduate student to the nature and principles of history. The course takes up methodology, historiography, research methods, electronic resources, bibliography, and the technical and stylistic problems involved in the presentation of research in scholarly form. Required of all history majors in the sophomore year.
No Freshman, History Majors only.
This course will examine the emergence and historical impact of consumer cultures in the modern West, from the eighteenth century through the present. Topics to be covered will include the emergence of spaces of consumption (the home, the commercial/spectacular metropolis, the department store, the shopping mall, the tourist site), changing attitudes toward shopping and spending, the construction of modern social identities of class, gender, generation and race through consumption, and political struggles over consumption.
Pre-Req: 43.106 The Modern World
Europe has been transformed in the last 250 years from an agricultural society to a post-industrial one. We study the processes by which this happened, from the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and early 19th century to the wars and depressions of the early 20th century and the collapse of the communist system and European unification in the late 20th century. Students learn basic concepts and methods of history and economics.
Level: minimum Sophomore standing
Analyzes the causes and development of attempts to control crime, ethnic conflict, radical protest movements, urban disorders, and attitude and role conflicts.
Explores the evolution of New England society from pre-Columbian to the Post-Industrial, emphasizing the ways succeeding generations of New Englanders have confronted social and economic change. Topics include: white-Indian relations, ecological change, Puritanism, the New England town, the industrial revolution, the rise of cities, immigration, ethnic and class conflict, and the distinctiveness of the region.
Explores the rise of the modern understanding of nature and the natural world as it developed in Western Europe, beginning with the establishment of universities and their elaboration of Aristotelian ideas and methods and the various institutional and cultural contexts in which they developed through the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment.
Examines the role of science in European and American society though the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course explores the development of new scientific theories in the life sciences and the physical sciences (including evolution, relativity, quantum mechanics, and genetics), addresses the institutionalization of science in Western society, and considers how science came to be applied to various social, cultural, and military concerns of the modern world.
This course investigates various aspects of common peoples lives in early America and the United States, ranging from gender roles among the Cherokee to the music preferences of late-twentieth century teenagers.
This course explores the environmental history of early America and the
United States from the end of the last ice age (c. 12,500 years ago) to the
present. It examines the role played by nature as an historical agent as
well as the relationship between human communities and the physical and
organic environment. Course themes include evolving land use, the
environmental significance of industrial capitalism, urban public health,
resource conservation and wilderness protection, the impact of ecology on
public consciousness, as well as environmentalism.
Not for Freshman level.
The course examines relations between the United States on one hand and Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines on the other in the 19th and 20th centuries. Besides political, trade, and cultural relations, there is also emphasis on American laws and practices regarding immigrants from these East Asian countries. The aim of the course is for students to gain a basic knowledge of American relations with East Asia and to develop analytical skills for sophisticated inter-national relations.
In a world in which genocide is real, the murder of six-to-eight million Jews between 1939 and 1945 remains a critical topic of inquiry. When were factories of death first conceived? What perverse rationale motivated the collaborators who built and operated the gas chambers and crematoria? This course will answer questions of this kind by examining the most respected scholars who have written on and primary sources that speak directly to the Holocaust
Chinese foreign policy since 1949 with a strong emphasis on tracing the links between historical, ideological, and cultural influences, on the one hand, and pragmatic and nationalistic considerations on the other. While tracing these links, the course explores the intricate process of policymaking in the People's Republic of China.
The concept of the Atlantic world arose to describe the interactions of the peoples of the Americas, Europe, and Africa through trade, conquest, colonialism, independence and beyond. In this class, we will consider the cultural, economic, and political relationships that are formed and change over time between these groups. We will pay special attention to historical approaches to studying and writing about the Atlantic World.
The history of the English people and nation from the Roman conquest to the end of the fourteenth century with special emphasis on the development of political and social institutions.
This course explores a number of selected topics in environmental history that transgress national boundaries or fit awkwardly within historians typical periodization of the past. The main focus is on how food production has played a central role in shaping the relationship between human beings and the environment, beginning with an examination of the Neolithic Revolution and ending with a survey of the significance of modern globalization for agriculture.
This course examines the concept of childhood in medieval and Renaissance Europe (ca. 1100-1600), with particular attention to England and Italy. There are no specific prerequisites, although some knowledge of European history (i.e., Medieval Institutions, Western Civilization, Renaissance-Reformation) will be useful. Among the topics we will consider are the following: the different stages of childhood; children's education and apprenticeship; dress, diet, and demeanor of children; orphans; royal children; Protestant and Catholic views of children; adolescent sexuality; depiction of children in art; child labor; literature for children.
Traces the transformation of England from a small island kingdom to the hub of an overseas empire. During this period the English people underwent religious upheaval and civil war, saw the rise and partial decline of the monarchy, built and rebuilt London, and enjoyed the plays of Shakespeare. Although England provides the focus for this course, the rest of the Tudor and Stuart world is included.
This course will involve students directly in critical consideration of the central events and issues of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, with an eye to their longer-term historical resonances in France, Europe and beyond. The core problems we will be discussing are ones which have remained vital in modern and even contemporary political history: the nature of liberty, the nation and national identity, equality and inequalities, violence and terror in politics, the cult of the leader, war and empire.
This course focuses on a discussion of the problems in Modern Irish History, how they became problems and what people have tried to do to resolve them. You will also learn about the nature of both history and human beings who have made history, and you will learn how to analyze historical issues, and come to some logical and defensible conclusion about the nature of those events and people. In this course, particularly, you will learn how to analyze events in terms of the challenges of economic, political and social claims by different groups with their competing values.
Following a brief introduction and an overview of the medieval Inquisition, the first few weeks of the course will be devoted to a study of the Inquisition in Spain and Italy from 1450-1650. We will also discuss the way in which the history of the Inquisition has been analyzed during the past five hundred years (what historians call "historiography"). The second half of the course will focus on student research and selected topics in Inquisition studies.
This course will offer a comparative exploration of the deep and enduring appeal of fascism and far rightist politics in twentieth century Europe. Beginning with the nationalist revival and cultural crisis of the late nineteenth century and the cataclysm of World War I, we will trace the rise of the radical right to political prominence in Europe in the 1920's and 1930's. While retaining a Europe-wide perspective throughout, we will analyze in particular detail the Fascist and National Socialist seizures of power in Italy and Germany, and examine their efforts of political, social, economic and cultural mobilization. Issues covered will include fascist political communication and governance, terror and "normality" in everyday life, labor and youth policy, racism and racial purification, and gender and reproductive politics, among others. In the final section of the course, we will contemplate the historical legacy of fascism after 1945, focusing on the politics of memory and representation in post-war Germany, Italy and Europe more generally, and assessing the recent resurgence of fascist and quasi-fascist political tendencies in the 1980's and 1990's.
Pre-Req: 43.106 The Modern World
This course takes a comparative approach to the study of plantation slavery in the Americas with special attention to developments in Virginia and Cuba. It surveys the structure of slavery in the nineteenth century United States South; slaverys legacy in the United States; and its twenty-first century reincarnation in human trafficking and forced labor around the world.
This course is a critical examination of documentary filmmaking, from the late nineteenth century to the present. It focuses largely on what was happening in the United States but also investigates innovations and developments in Russia, Britain, France, Canada, Germany, and other parts of the world.
The Cuban Revolution has been surrounded by controversy since it took power in 1959. Through readings, films, and discussions, we will examine not only the events that have occurred in Cuba over the last four decades but also the ways that they have been presened to audiences in Cuba, the United States, and elsewhere. We will carefully consider the role of perspective in academic writing and the media and how it has shaped understandings of the Castro era.
Pre-Req: 43.106 The Modern World
Emphasis is on the British North American and Caribbean colonies of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Topics include: the impact of European pandemic diseases on the native American populations, new European technologies and the transformation of the environment: contrasts between religious, social, and economic developments in New England and those in the settlements to the south; a comparative analysis of slavery; and the beginnings of modernism.
An investigation of the social, political, and economic developments in the United States from 1815 to 1848. Special emphasis is placed on the spread of capitalism, the growth of reform movements, the development of cities, and the conflict over slavery.
This course surveys the increasing political, social, and economic tensions between the North and the South during the first half of the nineteenth century; the explosion of those tensions into secession and conflict; the four years of war; and the postwar struggle to reconstruct the South and forge a new union.
Students analyze how Americans have remembered the American Civil War in the years after the war ended in 1865. By looking at novels, memoir films, National Park Service Battlefields, and monuments, students discover how remembrances are influenced by views of race, gender, patriotism, regionalism, and economic forces.
The course examines what is often referred to as the Golden Age of American Democracy. How much power did ordinary Americans have in the political system? What motivated people to participate in politics? What roles did women and racial minorities play in American politics despite not being able to vote?
Discusses Cold War politics and civil rights upheavals during the 1960's and 1970's, the decline of American economic and political power, and the resurgence of conservative politics in the 1980's.
This is a reasonably intensive reading seminar focusing on a number of important medieval institutions that have helped to influence our modern world. You will read a number of works in order to discuss them in detail in class. In addition, you will be required to write a review of one of three required books.
This course looks at the period 1933-1945 (the period of the "Third Reich") in Germany from the perspectives of economics, politics, society, and the arts. In the course, we will read preeminent historians who have written on each of these themes in order to gain a firm understanding of the historical debates that surround the period. Specific subjects include the Nazi consolidation of power, the increasingly brutal nature of anti-Semitic policies, the power struggles among chief Nazi officials, the ideologies and personae of figures like Hitler, Rosenberg, and Goebbels, the nature of "Nazi art" and cultural policies, and the path to war.
Spanning the period from the "October Revolution" of 1917 to Stalin's death in 1953, this course considers "Stalinist Russia" from the perspectives of economics, society, the arts, politics and war. In the course, we will read the preeminent historians who have written on these topics.
An exploration of the rapid growth of the American economy in the 20th century, including the evolution of the large corporation and the mass production assembly line. Particular attention is devoted to the ways in which immigrants, women, and the African Americans were affected by the rise of big business. The course also traces the decline of the traditional U.S. manufacturing base following the Second World War and the impact this had on the working class and their unions.
Provides a survey of labor history from the colonial period to the present focusing on the interrelationship between culture and work in American society and on the dynamics of technical and economic changes on the organization of work processes.
This course examines the United States during the 1960s. General themes include the stifling and freeing of dissent, the rights revolution, liberal social and economic policy, foreign policy in a bipolar world, redefinition of values and morals, changing relations between women and men, increasing concern with environmental pollution, the growing credibility gap between citizens and their government, and rise of the New Right.
Involves readings and discussions of the history of the American frontier and the place of the frontier in American society and thought.
A biographical approach to the influence of radicalism on American history with emphasis on significant and representative personalities and heir contributions.
A history of the Kennedy Presidency will first focus on how the election of 1960 set precedents relating to religion in politics, the use of television, and the importance of presidential debates. It will also compare the major policy decisions made by this administration with those of succeeding administrations from Lyndon Johnson to George Bush.
This course examines the history of the Middle East and the Islamic World from the time of Muhammad to the present. It provides an introduction to the history of this often turbulent region. It exposes students to the processes and patterns that have shaped the history of the Islamic World. The course examines the historical roots of the many challenges that the region faces today.
No Freshman, History Majors only.
Systematic research in primary and secondary sources culminating in the writing of an original research paper using proper methodological and stylistic techniques. Weekly meetings and written and oral progress reports. Students must be acquainted with word-processing techniques. Required of all History majors.
Directed study offers the student the opportunity to engage in an independent study or research project under the supervision of a department member. Working closely with the instructor, students define and investigate a research topic in an area of special interest and present the results of their investigation in a significant paper. Juniors and seniors only.
A program of on-campus and off-campus experiences for history majors only. Specific requirements vary depending upon the nature of the program undertaken by the student. The intent of the practicum experience is to provide an occasion for investigation of a community, social, cultural, or artistic area and for applying techniques of problem solving and/or skills that are appropriate to the student's major discipline. May be repeated for a maximum of nine credits. Students are graded 'satisfactory' or 'unsatisfactory.' The practicum experience may not be substituted for a required course in the major.
