History Course Descriptions

Jewish history in the last two centuries. Emphasizes Jewish development, emancipation, assimilation, identity, and changing status in Europe, America, the Islamic world, and Palestine/Israel.

Introduces first-year students to the discipline of history, particularly historical sources and methods; aims to improve critical reading, analytical, and writing skills in small group discussion.

Examines the early forms of those societies that came to dominate the European continent and explores their early expansion and influence.

Examines major themes in European history during the modern era, roughly mid-seventeenth century to the present; special attention to conflicts in economic, political, social, and intellectual life.

Examines the interaction of European cultures with other world cultures, and considers that interaction's impact both on the "West" and on those regions it sought to dominate.

This course explores the history of Latin America from European contact to present. Major themes include Latin America's position in a wider world; class, ethnic, and race relations; state-society relations; the making of regional and national identities

Traces the gradual incorporation of Africa into an expanding world economy and examines the impact of this incorporation on the development of African societies and modern nation states.

Considers the development of American society from tentative beginnings to Reconstruction. Special emphasis is given to certain critical periods including colonialism, the American Revolution, and the Civil War.

The course introduces the social, political, economic, and diplomatic forces that have shaped modern America. Special emphasis on how diverse components of the American population have interacted in American society.

The course demonstrates how literary, artistic, and/or cinematic texts, when understood in relation to the context of their production, can be used to study selected historical themes.

(Same as Jewish Studies 242.) Survey of American Jewish history from colonial period to present, Jewish immigration to the United States, patterns of religious and cultural adjustment, social relations and antisemitism, Jewish politics, the construction of Jewish identities.

(Same as Jewish Studies 100.) This course offers a general overview of the history of Jews and Judaism, beginning with the Biblical period and ending with modern times.

An introductory course on the nature and methods of history. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

Illuminates through art, literature, and archaeology the unfolding of the first European civilization, which gave rise to many enduring aspects of our world, including philosophy, natural science, urban planning, and the art of government.

History of Rome and its civilization from earliest times to the accession of Constantine. Traces Rome's evolution from small town to world empire and the development of the arts and manners of the Greco-Roman world.

History of the Byzantine Empire from Justinian to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Explores artistic, religious, and political achievements of one of the most magnificent and little-known civilizations in the Western tradition.

Analyzes transition from Greco-Roman civilization to the medieval vision of a religious society in a barbarous world. Emphasis on the barbarian invasions and the emergence of Christianity as vehicles of the transformation.

Analyzes social, cultural, and political developments in medieval western Europe from circa 1000 to circa 1350, mainly through discussion of primary sources, including poems, biographies, histories, letters, and legal documents.

History 201 recommended as background. Examines developments in politics, society, and the economy that created a new cultural style in Italy between 1350 and 1530. Students have the option of some readings in Italian.

History 201 recommended as background. Breakup of Renaissance civilization amid wars of religion, economic crises, constitutional struggles, and growing skepticism. Terminates with origins of the Enlightenment, based on new scientific and philosophical systems, and development of strong constitutional or absolutist states.

Causes, events, and consequences of the Revolution in France, and spread of the revolutionary movement through the Western world. The personality, statecraft, military triumphs and defeats, and significance of Napoleon.

Examines the growth of cities, the intensification of consumer culture among the middle classes, the revolutionary and "mass" politics of (and directed at) the working classes, anti-Semitism, imperialism, and fin-de-siécle cultural crisis.

Emphasizes social and cultural repercussions of the two world wars; origins of communism and fascism; and emergence of contemporary problems in European politics and society.

Postwar renaissance in European politics and culture; evolution of communism and social democracy; and internal and international forces for stability and change in Europe today.

Analysis of socioeconomic, political, and religious developments from 1272 to 1603. Topics include bastard feudalism, the Black Death, parliamentary government, the Reformation, Puritanism, and the Tudor state. Readings emphasize primary sources.

A survey of key social, economic, and ideological shifts between the Elizabethan era and the British Englightenment. Topics include religious dissent, the origins and effects of civil war, English hegemony in Scotland and Ireland, science, law, and the growth of an imperial outlook.

Examines the fate of the different Celtic communities of the British Isles in response to growing English influence between the Middle Ages and the turn of the nineteenth century. Topics include clanship, the encounter with Protestantism, the cooptation of elites, emigration, and changing evaluations of Celtic culture.

Traces the development of France from the Hundred Years War to the eve of the French Revolution, with emphasis on the interaction of government, society, and culture.

French history since the Revolution portrayed through feature film, with emphasis on the tensions between tradition and change in French politics and culture.

Political, intellectual, and social history of Germany since the eighteenth century. Particular emphasis on German unification, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany.

Russian history from Peter the Great to the Revolution, with emphasis distributed among political, socioeconomic, intellectual, and cultural aspects, as well as external relations.

Elements of continuity and change in twentieth century Russia. Focuses on twilight of the Old Regime; the 1917 revolution and civil war; Lenin's dictatorship and Stalin's transformation; the impact of World War II; and post-Stalin conservatism.

The Holy Roman Empire from Martin Luther to Napoleon. Topics include the Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, the rise of Prussia and Austria, and the German Enlightenment.

Examines the breakup of Christianity in sixteenth-century Europe. Analyzes political, social, and economic causes and consequences of religious change, as well as different theological viewpoints.

History of occult beliefs and practices and their role in Western civilization. Special attention given to the witch craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the tradition of learned magic, including the Faust legend; and alchemical doctrines and operations.

Russian history from its beginning to Peter the Great: first appearance of Eastern Slavs, Kievan Russia, Mongol conquest, rise of Moscow, and Muscovy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Social patterns and culture broadly interpreted, from 1607 through the Civil War. Focuses on the family, religion, and changing means of community and work in early American history.

Focuses on groups (farmers, middle class, women, ethnic, etc.) since the 1870s. Emphasizes ideas that have guided these groups in defining or redefining their place in American society.

Foundations of American social and political theory, 1600-1865. Special emphasis on puritanism, the Enlightenment, and romanticism.

American social and political theory since the Civil War. Emphasis on impact of Darwinism, pragmatism, and the rise of modern liberalism.

American diplomacy from revolution through continental expansion, Civil and Spanish wars, to world power under Wilson. Emphasizes the influence of commercial growth, political pressures, imperial ideologies, and rising national consciousness.

Traces confrontations between the United States and Wilhelmine Germany, imperial preference Britain, Japan, the Soviet Union, and revolutionary new societies. Interacting domestic and international forces are emphasized.

Examines the lives of diverse groups of women in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on race, class, ethnic, and regional differences among women.

Explores the origins, process, and consequences of industrialization in nineteenth century America. Emphasizes social and cultural developments of economic change, including shifts in the meanings of class in the nature of work and leisure.

(Same as African American Studies 338.) Examines the experiences of African Americans from the emergence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the end of the Civil War. Emphasizes social and cultural history and interpretation of race, class, and gender.

(Same as African American Studies 339.) Examines African American history from 1865 to the present. Emphasizes regional, gender, and class distinctions within black communities, and the ways in which industrial transformations shaped black life, thought, and resistance.

History of the English colonies in North America from first settlement to final independence, with emphasis on social and political development.

Examines the intellectual and social context of the American Revolution. Issues covered include the causes and development of revolutionary sentiment, the military conflict, diplomacy, economics, and American constitutional government.

Examines the South from its colonial origins to the Civil War, with emphasis on the social, political, and economic development of a slave society.

Emphasizes the causes of secession, military and social history of the war itself, and postwar attempts to reconstruct Southern society.

(Same as Environmental Studies 344.) History of the relationship between the American people, land, weather, and natural resources, with special attention to the environmental movement since 1960.

An examination of modern America as a legacy of the New Deal and World War II. Attention given to political, diplomatic, economic, and sociocultural aspects, with emphasis on reform traditions, national security concerns, and presidential leadership.

History of North American Indians from pre-Columbian times to the present, with emphasis on the interaction between Indian and Anglo-American cultures from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth.

The westward movement and its significance in American history. Topics include theories of frontier expansion, Indian-white relations, land acquisition and speculation, western communities, and the special situation of the semi-arid regions.

(Same as American Studies 348.) African Americans, Indians, Irish, and Jews in recent American history. Explores patterns of immigration and the limits of assimilation. Also treats anti-ethnic reactions such as racism and anti-Semitism.

The agrarian South and the growth of an industrial ideal, segregation, dilemmas of political reform, race and politics, assaults upon segregation and its defenders, and modernization and change.

This course examines America's longest war: its involvement in the nearly century-long struggle of the Vietnamese people for independence.

(Same as Economics 351.) Topics related to economic change outside the United States or in which the U.S. is only one area of comparison. Slave trade, global economies, economic thought, colonialism, or comparative economic systems.

(Same as Economics 352.) Economic development in the nineteenth century and the spread of a world economy; economic consequences of the world wars; economic aspects of socialism and fascism; and economic nationalism and internationalism in the twentieth century.

Analyzes the distinctive nature of early modern European society, focusing on social groups (e.g., nobles, merchants, artisans, peasants, outsiders) and on topics such as popular culture, criminality, protest, festive life, women, and family.

Examines the place and significance of law and lawyers in American history and the evolution of the Constitution from Marshall to Burger.

(Same as Economics 355.) Prerequisites: Economics 200 and 210. Economic history of the American South from the colonial era to the present. Topics include development of the antebellum economy, Reconstruction, and the twentieth-century resurgence of the Southern economy.

(Same as Economics 356.) Prerequisites: Economics 200 and 210. Examines the post- 1800 development of industrial America. Topics include the rise of manufacturing, banking, the labor movement, agriculture, and foreign trade. Special attention paid to the role of the government sector in the economy.

Examines film, television, music, and style since World War II. Themes include the cultural dimensions of domination, the rise of countercultures, and the role of mass media in shaping American perceptions of class, gender, sex, and race.

This course examines 500 plus years of Mexican history, from the Aztec Empire to today's "Narco State." Major themes include empire, colonialism, neocolonialism; class and ethnic relations; modernization; popular resistance; revolution; national identity; migration; neoliberalism; drug trafficking.

Covering the history of Brazil since Portuguese colonization, this course addresses conquest, colonial structures and legacies, questions of race and identity, political institutions, and migration. Themes include slavery, cultural diversity, economic development, and Brazil's role in the world.

Development of the major islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, from colonial times to the present. Emphasizes evolution of plantation societies, slavery and race relations, international rivalries, economic dependence, political independence, and social revolutions.

(Same as African Studies 364.) Political, social, economic, and cultural history of sub-Saharan African civilizations, from the rise of the Sudanic empires through the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Survey of the history, cultures, and religions of Afghanistan and Central Asia including Tibet from antiquity to modern times. Topics will include the Silk Road, Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic cultures of the religion, and medieval, colonial, and modern history and politics

(Same as African Studies 367.) Evolution of South Africa from a society based on the principle of systematic racial segregation to a multiracial democracy. Origins of racial segregation and apartheid, nationalist struggles, challenges of post-aparthed development.

The rise of Islam, life of Muhammad, medieval Arab dynasties, the Crusades, rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire, other European-Near Eastern contacts, and the origins of modern Arab nationalism.

Topics include the fall of the Ottoman Empire; British presence and departure from Egypt; World War I diplomacy; the rise and development of Arab nationalism; the emergence of the Arab states of Turkey, Iran, Israel, and the Arabian peninsula countries; Islamic resurgence; inter-Arab political history; oil; and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

(Same as Jewish Studies 370.) Evolution and growth of Israel. Equal emphasis on Ottoman Palestine and on the mandatory and Israeli statehood periods. Topics include Zionism, Arab-Jewish relations, the British colonial presence, Israeli domestic issues, and foreign policy.

An introductory survey of medieval and early modern Japan (1100-1850), covering the Kamakura and Muromachie shogunates, the warring states era, and the Tokugawa periods.

An introductory survey of modern Japan (1850-1950), covering the late Tokugawa shogunate, the creation of the Meiji state, and the rise and fall of the Japanese empire.

China since the Opium War. Nineteenth-century dynastic decline, Western impact, and modernization efforts; Republican, Nationalist, and Communist revolutions of the twentieth century; and the development of the People's Republic of China since 1949.

Land, sea, and air campaigns of the Japanese American conflict. Attention also given to home front factors, representative personalities, and roles of China and the British Commonwealth.

A close reading of primary texts. Topics include reactions to the French Revolution, German idealism, romanticism, English liberalism, Marxism, and the "unofficial opposition" of Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche.

A close reading of primary texts. Topics include reactions to positivism, avant-garde culture, flirtations with communism, existentialism, structuralism, feminism, and postmodernism.

Italian history since the Napoleonic occupation, with emphasis on Italy's search for national identity, its great regional differences, and its efforts to overcome corruption and to institutionalize a legitimate political system.

The history of how Britain pioneered modern industrialization, globalization, and parliamentary politics and how it coped with the forces that they unleased.

The history of Britain's pivotal role in shaping and experiencing the defining issues and events of the twentieth century: decolonization, permissive, immigration, feminism, terrorism, mass consumption, and two world wars.

Selected topics in history for advanced students. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

All history majors except those who complete the Honors Program must take two colloquia (History 487, 488, or 489). Each colloquium treats a special theme by reading, discussion, and writing of papers. Enrollment in each is limited to twelve; nonmajors are welcome within space limitations. Recent colloquia in European history include: the Americanization of Germany, Alexander the Great, Sex and the Victorians, and People and States of Former Soviet Central Asia.

(Similar in nature and format to History 487.) Recent colloquia in American history include: free blacks in antebellum U.S., Jews and other "others" in American history, American Conservatism since 1945.

(Similar in nature and format to History 487 and 488.) Recent colloquia in the area include The Palestine Mandate, Fundamentalism in East Asia, and Empires: Past and Present.

Prerequisite: prior approval of instructor. Supervised learning experience in a history related job in a state, federal, or local historical agency.

For honors students in history. Addresses historiographical and methodological issues, and offers practical guidance in thesis design and research, with details and emphases at discretion of instructor.

For honors students in history. Addresses historiographical and methodological issues, and offers practical guidance in thesis design and research, with details and emphases at discretion of instructor.

For upper-level history majors with prior approval of instructor. Intensive research that results in the writing of a research paper of 8,000-10,000 words (30-40 pages) or scholarly equivalent.

Variable credit (two to four hours). For senior history majors who have permission of instructor. May be repeated for credit.