Courses
Fall 2024 Offerings Spring 2025 Offerings Course Info on SIS Archives
Course Descriptions
The list below includes descriptions of all undergraduate and graduate courses offered by the Department of History, though some courses may be taught more often than others. Descriptions for special topics seminars are updated each semester.
Visit the undergraduate and graduate pages for course requirements for specific programs. For up-to-date information on course offerings, schedules, room locations and registration, please visit the Student Information System (SIS).
Survey Courses
World and Transregional
HIST 0001 International Relations: Historical Perspective. A general introduction to the theory and practice of International Relations, as viewed from the discipline of History. States and empires in Europe and beyond from the ancient world to the present; how wars begin and end; sovereignty in a world of superpower hegemony and NGOs; how historical, cultural and sociological approaches to the field of international relations may challenge aspects of formal IR theory.
HIST 0002 Globalization. Five centuries of globalization, including the age of reconnaissance, the Columbian Exchange, the industrial revolution, and the globalization of economies, technologies, war, politics, and popular culture in the 20th century. Includes resistance and alternatives to globalization.
HIST 0003 World in Motion. Examination of migration as a factor in historical studies. The role of migrations in empires, frontiers and borderlands, slavery and indentured labor, oceanic history, industrialization, urbanization, intra-state conflict, and globalization. Ueda
HIST 0004 Empires and Nations. Empires and nations in world history. Forms of empires, the relationship between empires and nations, historical contextualization of the recent emergence of nation states. Strategies of rule in empires and nations, imperial and national ideologies; exploration of sovereignty, autonomy, and minority perspectives within empires and nations. Foster
HIST 0005 History of Consumption. The socio-political history of the use made of goods, food, and energy by different groups through an analysis of class, race, and gender. The course examines economic factors through social and cultural history in order to understand consumption within a global economy. Analysis of social structures in the Americas, China, Europe, India, and the Ottoman Empire, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Baghdiantz-McCabe
HIST 0006 World Trade, 1000-2000. Worldwide cross-cultural trade as the roots of today's global economy. Merchant communities, trade diaspora, and trade routes. From silk roads to oil tankers; commercial networks from medieval merchants to e-commerce. An exploration of the ties between trade and civilization, capitalism, nationalism, and state-building. Emphasis on the early modern and modern periods. Baghdiantz-McCabe
HIST 0007 History of Public Health. The development of public health systems from the Middle Ages through modern times. State involvement in public health measures; changing theories of disease causation and their influence on public health; reactions to epidemic diseases, from the plague to modern times; persuasion and forced compliance in attempts at disease prevention and eradication; public heath and the stigmatization of diseases, including leprosy and AIDS; the development of a transnational public health infrastructure.
HIST 0008 U.S. Imperialism in Asia. Theories of imperialism and comparative perspectives on British, Japanese, and U.S. imperialisms. From the attack on Kuala Batu, Sumatra in 1832 to the current U.S. involvement in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. Leupp
HIST 0009 A Global History of Christianity to the Middle Ages. (Cross-listed as REL 36). Development of Christianity as a world movement from antiquity through the medieval period. Study of key figures, events, and issues that helped shape Christian traditions in a variety of cultural, social and historical contexts. Curtis
HIST 0010 Colonialism in Global Perspective. Introduction to basic themes, contexts and sites in the study of colonialism across the Americas, Africa and Asia from 1490 to the present. Topics include militarization, indigenous dispossession, slavery, settler colonialism, cultural domination, labor regimes and migration, environmental extractivism, and geopolitical strategy. Manjapra
HIST 0011 Worlds to Make: The Global History of International Development. Historical exploration of the global evolution of the concept of international development from the 19th century to the present. A core theme will be an examination how the concept has been used by colonial powers, nation states, newly independent nations, and nongovernmental actors to further their agendas. Focus will be placed on the ideologies that often drove development projects and how development could often be a means for powers to compete with each other and extend their influence. Discuss multiple approaches to development and that it was a site of contestation for those subject to development agendas. Attention will also be placed on the unintended consequences of development as well as the environmental, social, and cultural. Ekbladh
HIST 0012 Global History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. A broad survey of the history of science from the ancient world to the 20th century. The course places a particular emphasis on the wider context of global trade, knowledge sharing, and colonialism throughout the development of what many now consider “western” science. Topics and themes include: science in ancient Greece, India, and the Mayan peninsula; Chinese science in the Ming dynasty; Islamic science and its influence on medieval Europe; conceptual and philosophical changes of the "Scientific Revolution"; globalization and colonialism; Darwin and human evolution; race, science, and eugenics; science and warfare. Students will be challenged to consider the processes involved in the development of scientific theories and the ways in which global developments affected (and continue to affect) scientific thought. Rankin
Africa
HIST 0013 Africa to 1800. (Cross-listed w/AFR 13) African history from the earliest times to the end of the 18th century. Themes may include state formation; the development of iron working; local, regional, and transcontinental trade networks; African responses to the spread of Christianity and Islam; and African encounters with Arabs, Asians, and Europeans.
HIST 0014 Historical Perspectives On Contemporary Crises In Africa Since 1850. (Cross-listed w/ AFR 14) African history and culture from the nineteenth century to the present, relating environmental, technical, and social innovations and constraints to change through time. Themes include intensified contact between Africans and Europeans, conquest, colonial experiences, African strategies to reclaim authority and the developing role of women and youth in shaping production, investment, and social choices in contemporary Africa.
HIST 0015 Global History of Christianity since the Middle Ages. (Cross listed w/ CST 37 and REL 37) Development of Christianity as a world movement from the early modern period to the present. Major themes include Protestant Reformations; expansions of Christianity through exploration, trade, conquest and mission; diversity and transformations of Christian traditions in colonial and post-colonial societies; global spread of evangelicalism and pentecostalism.
HIST 0016 - Law and Rights in the Ancient World. (Cross-listed w/ CLS 73 & CLS 173) Introduction to the complex and intersecting practices of law and conceptions of personal rights in the ancient world from the organization of states in the Near East to the end of antiquity: c. 3,200 BCE to 800 CE; exploration of the role of social ideology and religion in recursively shaping how the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese and others negotiated the formulation and practice of law and concepts of social rights: status, morality, social duty, religion, gender, and civic/personal identity. Extensive and intensive examination of primary evidence and secondary scholarship involving the close reading of ancient texts and material culture to investigate the role of law and rights in the ancient world: civil law, customary law, contract law, statutory law and decrees, constitutions, criminal process, treaties, oratory, and legal training. No prerequisite. Cross-listed as HIST 0016. Lower level of dual level course.
Latin America
HIST 0017 The Americas. Latin America and the Caribbean from the colonial period to the contemporary era. A multimedia, interdisciplinary introduction focusing on nation-building, migration, race relations, women's roles, political economy, sovereignty, religion, culture, revolutionary movements, and Latino communities in the United States.
HIST 0018 Colonial Latin America. The indigenous and European backgrounds of Latin American history, the encounter and the conquest, Iberian colonial systems, economy and religion, society and sexuality, reform and rebellion.
HIST 0019 Modern Latin America. Latin America from its struggle for independence to the present day. Nationalism and authoritarian rule, export economies and industrial growth, social structure and social change, reform and revolution, democracy and international relations.
North America
HIST 0022 The Changing American Nation: 19th & 20th Centuries. Population, society, and politics in U.S. History. Evolution from a former colony in the Atlantic World to a transcontinental industrialized urban nation - a globalized country on the Pacific Rim. Ueda
HIST 0023 Colonial North America & the Atlantic World to 1763. European imperialism and the creation of colonial societies in North America. Transatlantic perspective on religious, economic, and political forces joining Europe, Africa, and America. American society's emergence within Spanish, French, Dutch, and British empires. Trade, slavery, race, and ethnicity; family and community; work and economy; politics and war. Rice
HIST 0024 Revolutionary America, 1763-1815. Creation of a new, republican nation out of a monarchical empire. American society's place within the British Empire. Western expansion and the Seven Years War. Political origins of revolution; social effects of resistance and war; loyalism, slavery, international diplomacy; radical and conservative aspects of revolution; the Articles of Confederation; post-revolutionary political struggles and social change; origins of the Federal Constitution. Rice
HIST 0025 Antebellum and Civil War America, 1815-1877. This course begins with the so-called "Era of Good Feelings" in American history and chronicles the decidedly bitter feelings that followed. Through lectures and discussions, we will explore the Jacksonian Era and democratic politics, westward expansion and sectional tensions, religious and cultural developments, the issue of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Students will engage both primary and secondary sources and take a field trip during the semester. Rice
HIST 0026 - Religion And U.S. Politics. (Cross-listed as REL 42, AMER 15, & CVS 33). The role of religion in shaping American civic engagement and political activity from the seventeenth century to the present, putting contemporary events in broader historical context. Topics and themes may include: the relationship between church and state in the colonial period; faith and the founders; religion and social activism in the antebellum era (especially anti-slavery and women's rights); religion, race and Civil Rights; religious "outsiders" and American politics; spirituality and social protest in the 20th century; the rise of the religious right; religion and American politics post-9/11.
HIST 0027 Modern American Society. The absolute, moralistic ideals of Victorian-American culture in collision with the scientific principles of objectivity, empiricism, and relativism. Topics include: Darwin's challenge to religious thought, changes in approaches to health and medicine and to the doctrines and practice of the law, the rise of the social sciences and the modern university, the shift from patriarchal to companionate marriages, the rise of a meritocracy and the promise of racial and sexual equality. Drachman
HIST 0028 U.S. Foreign Relations to 1900. The arrival of the United States as the most powerful nation-state on the North American continent by 1900 was the product of much international interaction. This course explores the foreign relations of the United States by viewing this emergence in a broader international and historical frame. The course's major topics explore the migratory, political, diplomatic and intellectual currents linking the United States to Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. Particular focus is given to the influence of the international system--ranging from European conflict and revolution to the slave trade--on the evolution of the diplomacy as well as the domestic politics, commerce, and society of the United States. Ekbladh
HIST 0029 U.S. Foreign Relations since 1900. The rise of the United States to global pre-eminence over the course of the twentieth century is a fundamental element of recent international history. This transition had a profound impact on global life as well as the United States itself. This course will trace those changes. Ekbladh
HIST 0031 Rise of the Modern Woman. Women’s struggles for equality in American society from the 19th century through World War II. Examination of women’s drive for suffrage and political rights, access to higher education, and entry into medicine, law, and business. Focus on the tension between equality and equity and origins of tension between private and public life. Attention to diversity, including race, class, and ethnicity, in women’s experiences. Drachman
HIST 0032 Women in America since the 1950's. Examination of the progress and challenges in women’s lives since the 1950s. An examination of the rise and decline of second-wave feminism, the enduring challenge of juggling women’s public lives with domesticity, and the tension between equality and difference in advancing women’s lives. Attention to diversity, including race, class, and sexual preference, in women’s experiences. Drachman
HIST 0033 African Americans in U.S. History to 1865. African Americans in the U.S. from the colonial period through the Civil War. Topics include the transformation of African identities in North America; the trans Atlantic slave trade; slavery, capitalism, and U.S. expansion; enslaved women, families, and kinship; free black communities; resistance, abolitionism, and colonization; emancipation and the transition from slavery to freedom. Field
HIST 0034 African Americans in U.S. History Since 1865. (Cross-listed as AMER 96.) The history of African Americans from the end of the Civil War to the present. Special attention is devoted to African-American social, political, and economic life during Reconstruction; late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century protest efforts; the civil rights movement and concurrent manifestations of black nationalism and self-determination. Staff
HIST 0035 - African Americans In The Post Civil Rights Era. Examines African American history since 1975, paying particular attention to the social, political, economic, and cultural transformations blacks have made since the passage of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Topics include debates over Affirmative Action; the rise of black elected officials; the impact of Hip Hop; black urban crime and the prison industrial complex; the resurgence of black nationalism in black film and culture; the election of Barack Obama.
HIST 0036 Communities and Diversity in U. S. National History. The historical construction of U. S. democratic pluralism in a civil society of diverse communities including comparisons with pluralism in other countries. Ethnicity, class, gender, race, nationalism, regionalism, religion, consumerism, and popular media in this process. Ueda
HIST 0037 Civil War, Race, and Reconstruction. Explores the Civil War and Reconstruction Era and its centrality to U.S., African-American, and global history. Topics include race, slavery, and resistance in the causes and consequences of the war; black, white, and indigenous military participation; the transition from slavery to freedom for men, women, and children; race, labor, and global capitalism; gender, kinship, and the transformation of plantation households; representations of the era in literature, film, and popular culture. Field
East Asia
HIST 0040 History of Pre-Modern China. An introduction to aspects of the traditional society and culture of China from its mythological and archaeological origins to the end of the 16th century, examining important and fascinating developments in Chinese history, literature, philosophy, religion, and culture. An emphasis on learning how to read critically primary texts as well as visual and material sources. Xu
HIST 0041 Modern Chinese History. The history of modern China from the dynamic seventeenth-century of the Ming Dynasty to the social backlash against market economic reforms of the 1980s. Lectures and discussions provide a big picture survey of historical chronology and important historiographical debates in Chinese history, as well as opportunities for in-depth investigation into selected materials and topics that illuminate the everyday lives of Chinese people. Xu
HIST 0042 Japan to 1868. Prehistoric times to the eve of the Meiji Restoration. Emphasis on early continental ties; Shinto, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions; Japanese feudalism; struggles for control of land and peasants; the changing composition of the ruling class; incipient capitalism of the Tokugawa period; breakdown of the Tokugawa order. Primary materials used in translation. Leupp
HIST 0043 Japan since 1868. From the eve of the Meiji Restoration to the twentieth century. Topics include the unequal treaties with Western powers, the Meiji Restoration, early industrialization, growth of the imperialist state, fascism, war, defeat, recovery, and recent role as a member of the Western camp. Leupp
South Asia
HIST 0046 Modern South Asia. Society, economy, and politics in South Asia (mainly present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) from c. 1000 to c. 2000. India's ancient heritage, Indo-Islamic society and culture, the Mughal empire, eighteenth-century regional states, the establishment of British dominion, social and religious reforms, nationalism before and after Gandhi, and partition of India and recent developments. Significant use of audio visual material. Jalal
HIST 0047 South Asia in the Twentieth Century. A comparative historical analysis of state structures and political processes in late-colonial and postcolonial South Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Themes include the reasons for the partition of 1947, the nature of the colonial legacy, the origins of democracy and military authoritarianism, the history of development, the shifting balance between central and regional power, and the ongoing clash between so-called secular and religiously informed ideologies. Manjapra
HIST 0048 South Asia & the World. How has modern globalization impacted South Asian culture, society and economy in the colonial and post-colonial periods? How have South Asians influenced other societies through their travels and migrations? Major themes include colonial capitalism, indentured labor, and exploitation, migrations to East Africa, the West Indies, North America and Europe and immigrant identities. Exploration of global South Asian intellectual and business networks, internationalism and NGOs, Third Worldism, Bollywood and new media cultures. Manjapra
Europe
HIST 0049 The Rome of Augustus. (Cross-listed w/ CLS 34) How Augustus repaired a society fragmented by years of civil wars; the nature of Augustus’ new political construct, the so-called ‘Augustan Principate.’ History, literature, coinage, art, architecture, religion, economy of this key moment in Roman civilization. The reception of the period; how the ‘Augustan Age’ becomes an ideological construct in later Western history. Primary readings include Augustus’ own account of his rule, Roman historians, Vergil, Ovid, Horace, inscriptions illustrating Roman life in Rome and the provinces.
HIST 0050 History of Ancient Greece. (Cross-listed as CLS 37) The historical development of ancient Greece and the interaction of society, politics, and culture in Greek civilization, from the Mycenaean civilization commemorated by Homer to the conquests of Alexander the Great and the diffusion of the Greek way of life in the succeeding Hellenistic Age. Special attention given to the relationship of the Greeks to other peoples of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and to examination of literary and documentary sources. Hirsch
HIST 0051 History of Ancient Rome. (Cross-listed as CLS 38) The history of ancient Rome, tracing Rome's rise from an insignificant Italian community to the ruler of the Mediterranean world, and ending with the transfer of the imperial capital to Constantinople in A.D. 330. Emphasis on the interaction of Rome with various foreign peoples, and examination of literary and documentary sources. Hitchner
HIST 0053 Europe to 1815. Eastern and Western Europe from the decline of the Roman Empire in the West through the medieval era into early modern times, ending with a thorough examination of the background of the French Revolution and Napoleon. The religious, secular, economic, social, political, and diplomatic processes which have had a lasting impact on modern European institutions and developments. Proctor
HIST 0054 Europe since 1815. The forces that shaped and characterized the history of Eastern and Western Europe from the Congress of Vienna into the contemporary era. Topics include nationalism, ethnic consciousness, the Industrial Revolution, political ideologies, the development of nation-states, Great Power diplomacy, the impact of the "Eastern Question," the disruptions of the First and Second World Wars, and the current conditions of the European states. Proctor
HIST 0055 Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Western Europe and the Mediterranean world from the late Roman Empire to the middle of the eleventh century. The decline of classical society and the emergence of a distinctively medieval world. Topics: the propagation of Christianity, the appearance and early transformation of Western European kingship, the spread of manorialism and the development of a feudal system, the creation of knighthood and serfdom, the flowering of monasticism, and the production of early medieval art and literature.
HIST 0056 Europe in the High Middle Ages. Western Europe from the middle of the eleventh to the beginning of the fifteenth century, the period of the flowering and decline of medieval culture and society. Topics include the economic revolution of the twelfth century, the growth of towns and development of urban culture, the reform of the church, the challenge of heresy and the emergence of popular religion, the consolidation of knighthood and the creation of an ideal of chivalry, Scholasticism and vernacular literature, Romanesque and Gothic art and architecture, and the social and cultural crisis of the fourteenth century.
HIST 0057 Renaissance & Reformation. Social and cultural developments in Europe from about 1350 to 1648. Topics include the development of humanism, the growth of courts and the city-state, innovations in arts and letters, the prominence of the bourgeoisie, Protestant revolution and Catholic reformation, the wars of religion, the discovery of the New World and the expansion of Europe, and the rise of nation-states. Rankin
HIST 0058 The Byzantines and Their World. (Cross-listed as CLS 39) Examination of the history of the Byzantine Empire with emphasis on Byzantine interaction with and influence on the civilizations of Western, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Armenia and the Middle East. Special attention to the influence of religion, art and ideas of political authority in the development of Byzantine civilization and the continuation of the Empire's legacy. Proctor
HIST 0059 Continent in Conflict, Europe 1914-2000. European society and politics in the turbulent twentieth century, 1914-2000. Primary source readings privilege eyewitness accounts of the world wars, fascism, Stalinism, the Holocaust, life in the communist bloc, European withdrawal from overseas empires, the revolutions of 1989, tensions over immigration and migration, emergence of the European Union. Foster
HIST 0060 - World Revolution: Global Communism. Examination of the development of communism as an ideological doctrine, a form of state power, and a lived experience from the mid-19th century until the present. Topics include Karl Marx and the origins of modern communism in the mid-19th century; the Soviet Union; the postwar extension of communism to Eastern Europe; communism in China; the Cuban Revolution of 1959; African experiments with socialism in the 1960s; and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s. Applebaum
HIST 0061 Icons and Tsars: Medieval, Early Modern, and Imperial Russia. An introduction to Russian history from Kievan Rus to the mid-19th century. Topics to be covered include the Mongol invasion, the rule of Ivan the Terrible, the Time of Troubles, the role of the Orthodox church, Westernization under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, the formation and expansion of the Russian Empire, Russia’s role in international relations, the everyday life of serfs and the nobility, and the development of Russian culture. Students will be exposed to a wide range of primary sources, including icons, maps, architecture, etiquette manual, government documents, memoirs, poetry, and fiction. Applebaum
HIST 0062 Reform & Revolution: Late Imperial Russia & the Soviet Union. An introduction to modern Russia from the “great reforms” of the mid-19th century until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Topics to be covered include the emancipation of the serfs; late imperial society, politics, and culture; revolutionary movements; national minorities and nationalities policy in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union; the Russian Revolution and Civil War; Stalinism; World War II and the Holocaust on Soviet territory; the Cold War; de-Stalinization and the Thaw; the impact of Western culture on Soviet society; Soviet engagement with the Third World; Brezhnev and the era of stagnation; perestroika and the end of the Communist system. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of primary sources, including government documents, fiction, diaries, propaganda posters, and films. Applebaum
HIST 0063 Modern Germany. Germany since the 1840s, from unification to unification. Bismarck's Germany. World policy and world war. Weimar democracy. The National Socialist dictatorship and another war. Defeat and reconstruction. The two Germanies. A new Germany in a new Europe? Manjapra
HIST 0064 Modern France & the French Empire. Introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of modern France, beginning with the French Revolution. The course privileges primary source readings in its exploration of the central themes of French experience in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These include revolution and reaction, social change, church and state conflict, colonization, urbanization, industrialization, victory and defeat in war, decolonization, immigration, and the legacies of empire building. Foster
HIST 0065 Great Britain and the British Empire. The growth of British world power after the loss of America in the late 18th century, and its domestic social, economic, and political context. War, patriotism, and the popular culture of imperialism. Decolonization, immigration, and the search for a post-imperial identity after the Second World War. Staff
HIST 0066 Spain and Its Empire. Spanish history from late middle ages to mid-eighteenth century. Major topics include religious pluralism and religious conflict in Spain, the era of overseas expansion, indigenous resistance and adaptation to conquest, American silver and early globalization, slavery and freedom in the Americas, and Spain’s era of imperial decline and resurgence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Readings include primary sources and scholarly studies. Staff
HIST 0067 Modern Spain: Global Empire to European Union. Spain's uneven transition from global empire to member of European Union. Topics include Spain's War of Independence (1808-1814), domestic revolutions and constitutions, colonial wars and decolonization, economic and social changes, Spanish Civil War, Francoist dictatorship, and transition to democracy. Sources include scholarly studies, literature, and film. Staff
HIST 0068 Modern European Intellectual History. A survey of European Intellectual History from the late 19th century to the late 20th century, providing a comprehensive introduction to major landmarks in Continental philosophy and social theory. Consideration of the influence of social and political contexts, such as war, colonialism and internationalism on European thought. Beginning with Nietzsche, the course is divided into five units, devoting special attention to psychoanalysis, critical theory, existentialism, structuralism and post-modernism. Readings include Freud, Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Levi-Strauss, Sartre, Fanon, Foucault and Derrida. We also consider the intersection of European discourses with movements of the colonial and post-colonial world. Manjapra
HIST 0069 Enlightenment and Empire. Milestones in European intellectual history from the 17th to 19th centuries, studied in global context. Focus on relationship between Western thought and rise of modern European imperialism. Main developments in Western Enlightenment, Orientalism and history of science considered. German Idealism, Romanticism and the rise of Marxism. Race theories, Self versus Other and ideologies of colonial rule. Attention to philosophical significance of, political implications of and non-Western reactions to Enlightenment thought. Manjapra
Middle East
HIST 0070 Middle East to World War I. The Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire from the late eighteenth century until the eve of World War I, with focus on Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. The political and socioeconomic characteristics of the Middle East prior to the nineteenth century and their transformation in the nineteenth century under new worldwide regional circumstances; the impact of modern Europe in the age of multinational empires. Roberts
HIST 0071 Middle East and North Africa since WWI. Introduction to the politics, society, and culture of the Middle East and North Africa. The transformations that occurred during and following WWI and WWII, the rise of anti-colonial nationalism and Islamism, the emergence of nation states, the creation of the state of Israel, and the evolution of the Arab-Israel conflict. The impact of globalization, the development of democratic, feminist, minority rights, and Islamist movements, the dynamics and evolution of the "Arab Spring," and the current crisis of the Middle East and North Africa region. Roberts
HIST 0072 World of Islam. Formation and spread of Islamic civilization from the prophet Muhammad to present. Founding of Islam, formation of Islamic institutions and culture. Spread of Islam through conquest and trade. Islamic communities and states in Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Europe, and America. Manz
HIST 0073 - History of Iran. Emphasis on the modern period. Iran within the Muslim world, its emergence as a separate entity, the introduction of Shi'ism as a state religion. Western influences, modernization, the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic. Manz
HIST 0074 Modern Armenia. The uses of history in the formation of Armenian identity, nation, and nationalism. The Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, Iran, India, and other host societies. A comparative study of the ideas of nationality and ethnicity, with a focus on revolution, ideology, and identity. Linkages between the massacre of Armenian people in 1915 and other mass killings and genocide in the twentieth century (examples extend to Kosovo in 1999). Baghdiantz- McCabe
HIST 0075 Caucasus and Armenia. The Soviet regime and its effects on ethnic identity and national sentiment in the Caucasus. Stalin's ideas and policies on nationality in the region. A diplomatic, economic, and sociocultural history of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and their neighbors. Emphasis on ethnic conflict, nationalism, and nation-building in independent Armenia 1918-1920 and in post-Soviet Armenia, and on the international ramifications. Baghdiantz-McCabe
HIST 0076 Ancient Egypt. (Cross-listed as ARCH 26 and CLS 26) This survey course will focus on roughly 3, 000 years of ancient Egyptian pharaonic civilization (3,000-332 B.C.). The emphasis will be on the material culture discovered along the banks of the Nile: ancient Egyptian pyramids, temples, tombs, settlements and cities, art masterpieces and artifacts. The course will follow a chronological path at least through the New Kingdom (1050 B.C.), with many excursions into Egyptian art, history, politics, hieroglyphs, and the development of the discipline of modern Egyptology. Several field trips to the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts will be included. Final paper topics may include opportunities to contribute to the MFA's new Giza Archives Project, creating on-line access to the archives from its excavations at the Giza Pyramids (1902-1942). Harrington
HIST 0077 Egypt since 1952. Egyptian history since the Free Officers' coup in 1952. The social, economic, cultural and religious as well as political and diplomatic history of Egypt under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak as well as the dynamics of the major crises - Suez, the Six-Day War in 1967, the War of October 1973, and the 2011 revolution. The Muslim Brothers and other currents of Islamic activism, the evolution of the Coptic community since 1952, the emergence of new opposition currents since 2002, and the development of the revolution since the fall of Mubarak. Roberts
Special Topics
HIST 0080 - Special Topics, World/transregional
HIST 0081 - Special Topics: Africa
HIST 0082 - Special Topics, Latin America
HIST 0083 - Special Topics, North America
HIST 0084 - Special Topics, East Asia
HIST 0085 - Special Topics, South Asia
HIST 0086 - Special Topics, Europe
HIST 0087 - Special Topics: Middle East/Central Asia
HIST 0088 - Special Topics: Study Abroad
Foundation Seminars
HIST 0090 Foundation Seminars, World/Transregional
HIST 0091 Foundation Seminars, Africa
HIST 0092 Foundation Seminars, Latin America
HIST 0093 Foundation Seminars, North America
HIST 0094 Foundation Seminars, East Asia
HIST 0095 Foundation Seminars, South Asia
HIST 0096 Foundation Seminars, Europe
HIST 0097 Foundation Seminars, Middle East/Central Asia
Thematic Courses
World and Transregional
HIST 0101 Alexander the Great: History, Myth, Legend, and Legacy. (Cross-listed as CLS 0108) Examination of the life, myth, legend, and legacy of Alexander the Great. Focus on ancient, medieval, and modern accounts in an effort to understand perspectives on Alexander in his own time and how he becomes a heroic figure in variety of different religious traditions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Discussion of his broader historical impact and the realities of the empire he created including forms of political organization, issues of security, and perceptions of identity. Investigation of how the historical Alexander relates to the Alexander of legend and myth.
HIST 0102 - Global Environmental History. (Cross-listed w/ ENV 111) Exploration on a global scale of how physical environments have shaped human history and how humans have thought about and reshaped their natural surroundings. Particular focus on climate, food systems, energy use, sustainability, urbanization, politics, and social and economic structures.
HIST 0103 Consumption, Power, and Identity: Food and Clothing in Modern Times. A socioeconomic history of the use of luxury goods and staples from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Coffee, tea, sugar, spices, opium, silk, cotton, potatoes, and rice. National and social identity through commodities, culinary traditions, and clothing fashions. Consumerism and daily life in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. The importance of exports from Asia and the Americas to Europe and of manufactured exports from Europe to Asia and the Americas. Addresses problems of globalization and ecology. Baghdiantz-McCabe
HIST 0104 Gender, Travel & Imperialism. Female pirates, prisoners and slaves, missionaries, aristocrats, ambassadors' wives, and tourists from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. The domestication of empire, the transformation of gender, race, class, and family in expatriate life, and the construction of new social roles in exile. Women as "honorary males," cross-dressing, the female gaze, and views of race and identity in travel writing by women. The role of European women in producing imperial discourse and in building empire. Baghdiantz-McCabe
HIST 0105 Greece, Rome, and China. (Cross-listed as CLS 47/147) Exploration of both the surprisingly strong parallels and equally telling differences between the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean-Greece and Rome- and ancient China, producing, in the long run, two quite different cultural and political legacies that have continued to shape the societies of Europe and East Asia into our times. Emphasis on early periods (Shang and Zhou China, Mycenaean, Archaic and Classical Greece) of political fragmentation and frequent warfare that were enormously productive culturally, indeed led to the formation of fundamental belief systems, social values, and literary and artistic genres; and on the undeniably strong parallels between the Han Chinese and Roman Empires, two imperial centers, roughly contemporary in time, that (essentially independently) discovered many similar solutions to the problems of governing vast and diverse territories. Close attention to ancient sources in translation, such as the Chinese Book of Odes, the Analects of Confucius, Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Greek Lyric Poetry, the Socratic dialogues of Plato, and the histories of Herodotus and Tacitus. Hirsch
HIST 0106 Cosmopolitanism and Colonialism. What is cosmopolitanism, and how does it relate to the history of nationalism? What significance did cosmopolitanism have for individuals and groups in the colonized world in the modern period? This course offers comparative and connective study of the transnational resistance movements of the Global South from the early to mid-20th century, including Pan-Asianism, Pan-Africanism, International Communism and Islamic Universalism. Students will critically engage with current theoretical debates on cosmopolitanism, decolonization and the postcolonial nation-state. Manjapra
SOUTH ASIA
HIST 0107 Islam on the Indian Ocean Rim. Survey of scholarship on Islam in South Asia and along the Indian Ocean rim. Coverage of pre-modern, early modern, colonial, postcolonial and contemporary periods (c.1000 to present). Themes include cosmopolitanism in Islamic empires, anti-colonialism, Islamic universalism and decolonization. Special attention to comparative study of politics and culture in the Indus valley and the Gangetic delta, with focus on Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Effects of globalization and contemporary policy implications in the age of "global terror" addressed. Jalal, Manjapra
HIST 0108 Decolonization in Asia. Comparative historical study of the processes of decolonization in Asia with particular reference to the end of the British Raj in South Asia. The independence and partition of India will be compared to British withdrawal from Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Burma, and Malaya. Jalal HIST 0109 - Decolonization and Postcolonial Thought (cross-listed Eng. 192) Third World and postcolonial theorists, including Guha, Spivak, Said, Gramsci, Hall, Chatterjee, Mohanty. Study of structures of colonialism, modes of resistance, and the processes of creative response among the colonized. Analysis of large-scale developments in the rise of modern global empires. Study of local and transnational social and cultural forces that critique, resist or counteract imperialism. Close reading of works by Marx, Fanon and Foucault. Analysis of capital and power. Attention to gender and sexuality, ideas about selfhood and subjectivity, forms of subordination. Manjapra
AFRICA
HIST 0110 Race, Class, and Power in Southern Africa. Continuity and change in Southern African history from the mineral revolution of the late nineteenth century to the present. Themes include regional struggles for land, labor, and political authority within the developing regional economy; strategies to shape the migrant labor system; patterns of urbanization and dispossession; political articulation and recent dismantling of racial segregation and apartheid in the region's core; interrelated experiences of war, exile, refugee status; commitments to political reconciliation; and the issue of economic redistribution.
HIST 0111 Africa and the Diaspora to the Americas. The roots of African origin populations in the Americas. Introduction to major West African political and social groups and their involvement in the Atlantic system; exploration of the historical demography of African diaspora to the Americas. Themes include the changing nature of slavery and dependent labor; the development of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-Latino cultures; Pan-Africanist history; contemporary bonds among Africans and people of African origin in the Americas.
HIST 0112 Angola and Mozambique: From Liberation to Humanitarian Crises. Southern African settler colonies moved slowly to self-determination. The transition in Portugal's colonies of Angola and Mozambique was especially difficult. Both areas experienced a generation of fighting for independence, and subsequently fractured into intractable insurgencies. This course grounds a broader study of decolonization, sovereignty, social authority, and governance in a case study of Angola and Mozambique from the 1890s to the early twenty-first century.
HIST 0113 - Pan-Africanism: Origins and Development. History of Pan-Africanism from the early 19th century to the present. Themes may include the resettlement of emancipated African Americans in West Africa; European colonialism in Africa; Ethiopianism; Pan-African Congresses; Garveyism; Négritude; African nationalism and decolonization; African feminisms; political and socioeconomic cooperation in independent Africa; the anti-Apartheid struggle; and Pan-African protest movements in the age of social media.
LATIN AMERICA
HIST 0115 Revolution In Latin America: Mexico and Cuba. Twentieth-century Latin America's paradigmatic revolutions in comparative historical perspective. Exploration of the roots, unfolding, and aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the 1959 Cuban Revolution, as well as the establishment of revolutionary states and cultural traditions, such as Mexican muralism and Cuban cinema, in each country.
HIST 0116 Revolution in Central and South America. A comparative study in historical perspective of the causes, course, and consequences of revolution and counterrevolution in twentieth-century Central and South America.
North America
HIST 0121 Courtship in Modern America. Exploration of the evolution of dating in the 20th century. Topics include calling at the turn of the 20th century, rise of dating in urban centers, challenges of courtship in World War II, going steady in the 1950s, the sexual revolution, and the persistence of the double standard. Attention to impact of diversity, including class, ethnicity, and sexual preference, on courtship patterns. Drachman
HIST 0122 America and the National Pastime. (Cross-listed as AMER 88.) From the end of the Civil War to the present, baseball has reflected the evolution of urbanization, immigration, segregation, the rise of labor, entrepreneurial capitalism, crime, corruption, and legal precedents that reached to the Supreme Court. We will examine "The National Pastime" both inside and outside the lines, how it was played, and the place of this children's game in the American psyche.
HIST 0123 Industrial America and Urban Society: The Progressive Era to the Great Depression. The nation's transformation: industrial and urban growth after Reconstruction, public debate over the country's destiny, responses to inequality, social change, mass culture, and the politics of reform and renewal. Ueda
HIST 0124 Sickness and Health in America. Medical and cultural attitudes toward sickness and health in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Attention to the impact of race, class, and gender on medical beliefs and practice. Topics include epidemics in social context, the popular health movement, rise of the modern medical profession, decline of midwifery and rise of obstetrics, women's health and women's rights, Tuskegee syphilis study, eating disorders. Drachman
HIST 0125 Women and Religion in America, 1900 to Present. (Cross-listed as REL 101) History of the significance of women's presence in American religion from the 17th century to the present. Explores the role of religion in shaping, upholding, resisting and transforming gender norms in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Draws upon diverse primary sources and important secondary works in women's history, and asks how participants in diverse religious traditions have understood women's "nature," defined their roles in society, and debated their "calling" to religious leadership. Curtis
HIST 0127 Religion, Race and Nation in American History. (Cross-listed as REL 102) How the categories of race, religion, and nation have been imagined in light of each other throughout American history from the colonial period through contemporary US debates involving many groups. The social, cultural, and political circumstances that have shaped the meaning of these concepts and perceived relationships among them in various settings. Focus on the role of religions in structuring racial identities and related ideas about American civilization and citizenship. Curtis
HIST 0128 The Civil Rights Movement. (Cross-listed as PJS 128) Examines the modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States and its impact on race relations, politics, society, and culture. Topics discussed during the semester include debates over non-violence vs. self-defense; integration vs. separatism; protest vs. politics; Martin Luther King vs. Malcolm X. The movement's geographic, racial, and ideological diversity will also be explored, as will the evolution from civil rights to Black Power.
HIST 0129 Black Political Thought in the Twentieth Century. Examines black political thought in the twentieth century. Topics include the debates over "Negro rights" between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington; the New Negro political radicalism of Marcus Garvey and Hubert Harrison; black feminism from Ida B. Wells to Shirley Chisholm; debates over race and American democracy that pivoted around civil rights and Black Power leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; black politicians from Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama.
East Asia
HIST 0132 Religion in Japanese History. (Cross-listed as REL 136) Traces development of religious ideas and institutions from prehistory to the present, stressing connections to broad socioeconomic and cultural trends. Topics include Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, Christian missions, and new religions. Leupp
HIST 0133 Japanese History through Literature. Reading and discussion of primary sources with both historical and literary interest, including representative samples of chronicles, courtly diaries, war tales, novels, and kabuki dramas. Leupp
HIST 0134 Tokugawa Japan. Japanese history from 1603 to 1868. Emphasis on the Tokugawa legacy to modern Japan. Topics include commercial growth, the urban tradition, feudal-bureaucratic rule, philosophical and religious thought, education, gender and sexuality, and peasant rebellions. Leupp
HIST 0135 Gender and Sexuality in Japanese History. Discussion of ancient matriarchy, marriage customs, the status of women in ancient courtly and medieval military society, female samurai, childhood, initiation rites, monastic and samurai homosexuality, male and female prostitution, ruling-class "deployment" of sexuality, and the appeal of androgyny in theatre and other arts. Leupp
HIST 0136 - Hawai'i between US and Japan. Hawai’i from ca. 1100 to the 1960s. Relationship with the United States since the arrival of New England missionaries in 1820. The Hawaiian kingdom as a site of inter-imperialist (British, French, Russian, U.S., and Japanese) contention into the 1890s. Relationship between Meiji Japan and Hawai’i and the arrival of Japanese workers in large numbers from 1885. Evolution of the monocrop economy worked by native, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, and Filipino workers. Development of a multiethnic Labor movement fueled by the U.S., Australian, and Japanese communist movements in the 1920s through 1950s. Impact of the Pearl Harbor attack and Pacific War on Hawai’i. Post-war strikes, ILWU organizing and the McCarthyite crackdown on communists. Tourism and the world economy. Considerable attention to Polynesian culture, canoe crops, and pan-Pacific commonalities. Comparative attention to sugar colonies elsewhere in the Pacific, Caribbean, and Atlantic islands. Issues of historical identity, racism, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. Leupp
HIST 0137 - Material Culture in Chin. Interdisciplinary study of material culture and everyday life in Chinese history. Examination of how political, ethnic, religious, and gender identities have been constructed and shaped by the production and consumption of material artifacts ranging from household goods and tomb objects to built forms and bodily dispositions. Case studies include food, tea culture, textiles, clothing and fashion, urban space, architecture and gardens, furniture, vernacular painting, printing and publishing, and burial. Xu
HIST 0138 - Confucianism from China to the Modern World. An interdisciplinary study of Confucianism from its ambiguous and complex origin to the twenty-first century. Ancient Confucian philosophy and Neo-Confucianism in China, East Asia, and the world from the perspectives of intellectual, social and cultural history. Confucianism and family structure, gender, capitalism, modernity, and globalization. Xu
HIST 0139 - Women and Gender in East Asian Tradition.(Cross-listed w/WGSS 141) How women made history and how history made women. An international and comparative study of women and gender in traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean societies from the seventh to the nineteenth centuries. Women’s multiple roles in political, economic, legal, social, intellectual, and literary history. Xu
SOUTH ASIA
HIST 0140 - Nationalism And Its Critics In South Asia. South Asian nationalisms in a theoretical and comparative context. This course reassesses the equation between anticolonialism and nationalism as well as the binary opposition between secular nationalism and religious communalism.
HIST 0141 Religion, Law and Misplaced Secularity in South Asia. (Cross-listed as REL 140.) The historical relationship between religion and law in the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods. A reconceptualization of the separation of public and private, secular and religious. How Indian self-perceptions of religiously informed identities were shaped by the challenge of colonial modernity, and their influence upon anticolonial nationalism and postcolonial national ideologies. Jalal
HIST 0142 Islam in South Asia. (Cross-listed as REL 138.) Social and political conflict and cultural and political accommodation in the history of South Asian Islam, spanning the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods. The question of Muslim identity and the politics of coexistence with members of other religious communities, especially Hindus and Sikhs. The multiple and shifting affiliations of Muslims as individuals to the community of Islam, as well as to the linguistic groups, economic classes, and modern nations. Jalal
HIST 0143 South Asian Urban History. South Asian urbanization during in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries up to the present. Study of Calcutta, Dacca, Bombay and Lahore. Themes include history of colonial and postcolonial architecture and public works, shifting relationships between Hindu and Muslim communities in urban contexts, connections between urban centers and hinterlands, port cities and trade, poverty and privilege, the new middle classes, and problems of mass population migrations due to partitions and internal displacement. Literary and cultural texts also used to explore the meaning of the South Asian city. Manjapra
HIST 0144 South Asia and the World. A consideration of the global arenas of South Asian history from the precolonial to the post-colonial period. We study how textual practices, economic systems and political action produced linkages and travel patterns connecting South Asia to the world, c. 1500-present. Orientalism, imperial economies and diaspora are among the major themes considered. Manjapra
HIST 0146 Bay of Bengal: Flows of Change. Explores the connected history of population change, economic activity, and ecological transformation across the Bay of Bengal. Continuities and change from ancient to modern times. Migration, history of exchange, rise of nationalism, and globalization in the eastern Indian Ocean world, including India, Bangladesh, China and Southeast Asia. Environmental history and women’s history. Manjapra
HIST 0147 - Islam and the West. (Cross-listed w/DHP P260) Going beyond the simplistic notion of a great civilization divide, this course puts the categories ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’ under the spotlight of historical and comparative analysis. After providing some essential background, the course concentrates on the colonial and postcolonial encounter between Muslim and Western societies and polities with special, but not exclusive reference to the South Asian subcontinent. Organized along historical and thematic lines, the course focuses on the overlapping domains of culture and politics, thought and practice, to elucidate aspects of dialogue, tension, and confrontation between the worlds of Islam and the West. Jalal
Europe
HIST 0148 The Rise of the Greeks. (Cross-listed as CLS 142) Examination of the formation and development of the characteristic institutions, practices and values of Greek civilization during the Archaic Period, approximately 800 to 500 B.C., beginning with the emergence of the Greeks from the centuries-long isolation of the Dark Age and the resumption of contact and commerce with other peoples of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Exposure to original sources, including Homer, Hesiod, lyric poetry, Herodotus and Aristotle, and attention to the fragmentary nature of the evidence for this period-archaeological, literary and historical-and some useful interpretative approaches. Topics to include agriculture, colonization, origins of the polis, tyranny, hoplite warfare, the social and political evolution of Sparta and Athens, religion, orality and writing, lyric poetry, presocratic philosophy, and the origins of historical writing. Hirsch
HIST 0149 Greeks and Barbarians. (Cross-listed as CLS 143) Exploration of the unsettling and stimulating cross-cultural encounters of Greeks with other peoples of the ancient world, leading both to the Greeks' discovery of themselves-the formulation of a Greek "cultural identity"-and to expanding knowledge of the wider world. Attention to contacts and conflicts with Cretans, Trojans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Romans, with emphasis on the seminal, two-century-long, encounter of the Greek city-states with the mighty Persian Empire. Sources include the accounts of Greek poets, historians, explorers, and playwrights, documents from the Persian Empire, and images of ancient artifacts and sites such as Athens, Persepolis, and Alexandria. Hirsch Recommendations: CLS 31 or 37.
HIST 0150 Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine. (Cross-listed as CLS 146) The historical development of ancient Greek and Roman medicine with emphasis on methodology and sources; an assessment of the influence of ancient medicine on the development of modern clinical medicine. Topics covered include ancient views and practices with regard to anatomy, physiology, surgery, pharmacology, the etiology of disease, and medical deontology. A case study of an assigned hypothetical Greek patient to be treated according to Hippocratic theory and therapeutics is a required project. Philips
HIST 0151 Athens: Marathon to Socrates. (Cross-listed as CLS 144). Investigation of Athens in the period of her greatest power, prosperity and cultural achievement. Consideration of the methods by which Athens acquired and maintained an empire, the internal workings of the Athenian democracy, the economy of the Athenian state, the conditions of life for citizens, women, slaves and foreigners, the intellectual renaissance which made Athens into "the School of Hellas," and the contribution of outstanding individuals, among them Themistocles, Cimon, Pericles, Alcibiades, and Socrates. Frequent reference to ancient documents and works of literature in translation, and images of archaeological sites and objects. Hirsch
HIST 0152 Religious and Spiritual Map of Europe, 300-1500. (Cross-listed as REL 113) The encounter between Christianity and Roman, Celtic, and German paganism; resistance to established Christianity among the common people; spread of Judaism and changing relations between Christians and Jews; coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Spain. Focus on cultural history and development of institutions such as monasticism, a clerical hierarchy, and rabbinical communities, with attention as well to evolution of spiritual practices in the three "religions of the book": Judaism, Christianity and, for southern Europe, Islam.
HIST 0153 Science, Magic, and Society, 1100-1700. Western European intellectual and cultural history from the twelfth-century Renaissance to the scientific revolution: the development of a rationalist worldview among intellectuals, the persistence of magic among the lower classes, and the phenomenon of the witch craze in the seventeenth century.
HIST 0154 Health and Healing in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Medicine in Western Europe from approximately 1100-1700. Key intellectual, social, and cultural themes and trends in pre-modern medicine. Major topics include the development of university medicine from its Greek and Arabic roots through the theoretical upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; medical practice, particularly the diverse types of healers and their relationship with patients; epidemic disease such as plague and syphilis and early public health measures formed in response; the development of hospitals and other medical institutions. Overlapping naturalistic, religious, and magical approaches to disease and healing. Rankin
HIST 0155 Gender and Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. History of gender and sexuality in Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Medical, religious, and cultural ideas about sexuality, gender roles, and concepts of sex difference. Traces the creation and perpetuation of gendered and sexual norms as well as resistance to and deviance from those norms, including homosexuality and non-binary gender identity. Examines how norms interacted with the on-the-ground social reality, including expectations of chastity, sex within marriage, sex outside of marriage, and sexual assault. Questions the extent to which gender norms established in the Middle Ages are still relevant today. Rankin
HIST 0156 - Passion, Power, & Piety: The Voices of Byzantium.(Cross-listed with CLS 109) Evolution of Byzantine history and literature through the voices of the Byzantines themselves, in their histories, novels, hagiographies, the great heroic epic Digenes Akrites (the Two-Blood Border Lord), the amusing if somewhat ribald Amazing Tale of Quadrupeds, and others, from the 4th century AD to the end of the empire. How Byzantine literature draws from Greek, Roman, Christian, Near Eastern, Islamic, and Judaic influences to construct a new identity, a world view neither "Eastern" nor "Western" but rather a complex fusion.
HIST 0157 Empresses, Saints, & Scholars: The Women of Byzantium. (Cross-listed as CLS 110) Examination of the themes of political legitimacy, spirituality, education, gender roles, the spread of Byzantine culture, and the evolution of Christian theology through a careful study of the lives of various women of the Byzantine world. This will include examination of the lives of women of the Byzantine Empire, South-eastern Europe, Russia, Western Europe, the kingdoms of Armenia and the Ottoman Empire. Proctor
HIST 0158 The Balkans since 1453. The peoples of South-eastern Europe from the Ottoman conquests in the Balkans during the fourteenth century and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the present time. Emphasis on the development of Balkan nationalism, ethnic rivalries, the role of religion, the rise of independent Balkan states, the area's role in nineteenth- and twentieth-century European diplomacy, the spread and disintegration of Communist regimes. the conflicts of the 1990s, and the role of the Balkan states today. Proctor
HIST 0159 French Revolution. The Revolution of 1789 in France and its impact in Europe and beyond, from the fall of the Old Regime to the rise of Napoleon. A critical, iconic event in world history, the French Revolution marks the birth of modern political culture and citizenship, transforming the way the French viewed themselves and their role in the world. Revolutionary debates on human rights, individual liberty, representative democracy, and social equality in the global context of revolutions in North America and Haiti. The course will make use of primary sources and engage the rich historiography of this era. Foster
HIST 0160 France & Africa since the Eighteenth Century. Encounters between France and Africa since the eighteenth century. Topics: slavery, African responses to French rule, competing conceptions of a French "civilizing mission," decolonization, relations between France and former African colonies, and the experience of African immigrants in contemporary France. Foster
HIST 0162 British Empire and American Nation, from the Revolution to Pearl Harbor. The transatlantic history of the political and cultural relations of the British Empire at the height of its global power and its one-time colony from the early American national period to the Second World War alliance. Evolving British and American views of each other; Anglophilic Boston Brahmins and Anglophobic Irish immigrants; British tourists in America and American tourists in Britain; slavery and “race” in America and the Empire; trans-Atlantic Society in the era of the steamship; American heiresses and English milords; Tommies and Doughboys in the Great War; jazz and Hollywood in Twenties London; comparative first wave feminism.
HIST 0163 - Special Relations: Britain & The U.S. From WWII to The Present. The Anglo-American relationship viewed from the British perspective. From the GI "invasion" of England in 1942 to present-day mass tourism. Political, diplomatic, and economic issues are considered, with an emphasis on issues of "Americanization" through popular culture and the media.
HIST 0164 Economics of the British Industrial Revolution. (Cross-listed as EC 87) English property rights, the demographic revolution, the agricultural revolution, the Poor Law, labor market integration, standard of living, domestic and international capital flows, foreign trade, Empire trade (India, Ireland, West Indies), and the relative retardation of France and Holland. Rothenberg Recommendations: EC 5.
Middle East
HIST 0165 Mongol Empire. The nomad empires of Eurasia, from the development of mounted nomadism to its decline in the seventeenth century. The Mongol Empire (founded by Genghis Khan) and its many successor states that lasted into the modern period. Political traditions; the relation of nomads to settled peoples; the legacy of the Mongol Empire in both settled and nomad worlds. Manz
HIST 0166 History of Afghanistan. History, society, and culture of Afghanistan. Ethnic groups and ways of life. History from Alexander the Great to the Taliban, with emphasis on modern. Formation of the Afghan state in the 18th century, 19th century imperial politics, Cold War, Soviet invasion, civil war. Manz
HIST 0167 Medieval Islam. Political, social, and intellectual history of the Middle East, 600-1400. Muhammad and the spread of Islam. The Caliphate and the formation of a distinctive Islamic culture. The role of Persians and Turks in the Islamic world. Manz
Advanced Special Topics
HIST 0170 Advanced Special Topics, World/Transregional
HIST 0171 Advanced Special Topics, Africa
HIST 0172 Advanced Special Topics, Latin America
HIST 0173 Advanced Special Topics, North America
HIST 0174 Advanced Special Topics, East Asia
HIST 0175 Advanced Special Topics, South Asia
HIST 0176 Advanced Special Topics, Europe
HIST 0177 Advanced Special Topics, Middle East/central Asia
HIST 0180 Independent Study, World/Transregional
HIST 0181 Independent Study, Africa
HIST 0182 Independent Study, Latin America
HIST 0183 Independent Study, North America
HIST 0184 Independent Study, East Asia
HIST 0185 Independent Study, South Asia
HIST 0186 Independent Study, Europe
HIST 0187 Independent Study, Middle East/Central Asia
HIST 0188 Special Topics: Study Abroad
HIST 0189 Undergraduate Internship
Research Seminars
HIST 0190 Research Seminar, World & Transregional History
HIST 0191 Research Seminar, Africa
HIST 0192 Research Seminar, Latin America
HIST 0193 Research Seminar, North America
HIST 0194 Research Seminar, East Asia
HIST 0195 Research Seminar, South Asia
HIST 0196 Research Seminar, Europe
HIST 0197 Research Seminar, Middle East/central Asia
Thesis Colloquia
HIST 0198 Senior Thesis Colloquium. Fall A A workshop in the methodological, historiographical, and practical skills involved in writing a senior honors thesis. Provides both a structure for thesis writers to make significant progress with research and writing in the fall semester and a forum for discussion of student drafts. Staff
HIST 0199 Senior Thesis – Spring B
Graduate Courses
HIST 0200 Historiography. An analysis of the nature and functions of history, its relation to other disciplines, the basic principles of historical method, bibliography, and the techniques of historical research and writing in connection with which at least one paper is prepared. Major interpretations and theories of historical change are also considered. Staff
HIST 0203 Comparative Colloquia. Graduate history colloquium. See semester course listing for description. Staff
HIST 0208 - A Century of Transformation: Western-Middle East Relations from the 1920s to the Present.(Cross-listed with DHP H262) A Century of Transformation: Western-Middle East Relations from the 1920s to the Present. Fawaz
HIST 0209 War and Society in the Middle East in Historical Perspective. (Cross-listed as DHP H261) World War I and its settlement shaped the modern Middle East. The end of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of successor states in search of internal ideology and regional influence have characterized the region to this day. This course addresses both the Middle East and the broader topic of struggle and survival during cataclysmic events such as a world war. It is a research–based class in which students will learn how to better research conflict and how to develop a thematic approach to the study of conflict given the many perspectives of those affected by it. The course will also discuss the ways in which a conflict can transform a region. Students are expected to write a paper (20 – 25 double–spaced pages) on one example of struggle and survival. Fawaz
HIST 0210 Colloquium in World History
HIST 0211 Nationalism in Europe
HIST 0212 Colloquium in East Asian History
HIST 0215 Exhibition Planning. Learn the mechanics of exhibition production by planning and installing an exhibition from start to finish. Collectively, students determine the exhibition’s thesis, conduct research, write text, prepare objects, design the layout, and install the contents in time for a public reception at the end of the semester. Coursework addresses setting curatorial and educational goals, investigating design options, identifying audience needs and interests, and solving technical installation challenges. In addition, students select objects, arrange loans, and develop and implement marketing strategies. Guest speakers and site visits provide access to the latest trends, issues, and technological advances in exhibition design and development. Staff Prerequisites: ED/FAH/HIST0285 plus one other museum studies course”
HIST 0216 Colloquium in Latin American History
HIST 0217 Colloquium in American History
HIST 0220 Readings in World History
HIST 0221 Readings in World History
HIST 0222 Readings in World History
HIST 0223 Readings in World History
HIST 0224 Readings in World History
HIST 0225 Readings in World History
HIST 0226 Readings in World History
HIST 0227 Readings in World History
HIST 0228 Readings in World History
HIST 0229 Readings in World History
HIST 0230 Readings in European History
HIST 0231 Readings in European History
HIST 0232 Readings in European History
HIST 0233 Readings in European History
HIST 0234 Readings in European History
HIST 0235 Readings in European History
HIST 0236 Readings in European History
HIST 0237 Readings in European History
HIST 0238 Readings in European History
HIST 0239 Readings in European History
HIST 0240 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0241 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0242 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0243 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0244 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0245 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0246 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0247 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0248 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0249 Readings in East Asian History
HIST 0250 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0251 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0252 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0253 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0254 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0255 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0256 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0257 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0258 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0259 Readings in South Asian History
HIST 0261 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0262 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0263 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0264 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0265 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0266 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0267 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0268 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0269 Readings in Middle Eastern/Central Asian History
HIST 0270 Readings in African History
HIST 0271 Readings in African History
HIST 0272 Readings in African History
HIST 0273 Readings in African History
HIST 0274 Readings in African History
HIST 0275 Readings in Latin American History
HIST 0276 Readings in Latin American History
HIST 0277 Readings in Latin American History
HIST 0278 Readings in Latin American History
HIST 0279 Readings in Latin American History
HIST 0280 Readings in American History
HIST 0281 Readings in American History
HIST 0282 Readings in American History
HIST 0283 Readings in American History
HIST 0284 Readings in American History
HIST 0285 Museums Today: Mission and Function. (Cross-listed as FAH 285 and ED 285) Offered every fall for the incoming class of museum studies certificate and graduate students, Museums Today provides an introduction to museum operations and current issues. Museums in 21stcentury America are changing inside and out. New demands and expectations from various audiences-visitors, community, schools, donors-are challenging the way museums organize staff, shape collections, and create exhibitions and programs. Course topics include governance, ethics, planning, collecting, exhibitions, programming, technology, collaboration, leadership, and finances. The course also examines some of the current issues challenging the field, such as the treatment of disputed cultural property, working with communities, and dealing with controversy. Staff
HIST 0286 Readings in American History
HIST 0287 History and Museum Studies MA Capstone 1. Guided research on a topic that has been approved as a suitable subject for a History and Museum Studies capstone. Two courses. The second course will result in an exhibition plan based on the research. Please see departmental website for specific details. Staff
HIST 0288 - History and Museum Studies MA Capstone 2. Guided research on a topic that has been approved as a suitable subject for a History and Museum Studies capstone. Two courses. The second course will result in an exhibition plan based on the research. Please see departmental website for specific details. Staff
HIST 0289 - Revitalizing Historic House Museums. This course address the challenges facing historic house museums today, including declining attendance, costly maintenance problems, and inadequate resources for collections care. Students will learn about the history of the historic house movement, the value of research, and the benchmarks of sustainability. Through case studies, they will investigate new approaches that address community interests and needs, creative ways to repurpose sites, and experimental strategies for engaging visitors through new exhibit techniques. Staff
HIST 0290 Material Culture. The interpretation of past societies and cultures through artifactual material, and the problems involved in presenting these interpretations to contemporary audiences. The course draws on modes of analysis developed in social history, archaeology, anthropology, folklore, and material culture studies, with an emphasis on New England between the pre-contact period and the urban industrial present. Fall. Staff
HIST 0291 - Collections Care And Preventive Conservation.(Cross-listed as FAH 288) The chemical and physical nature of material culture, agents of deterioration, preventive conservation strategies and protocol, proper care and handling of artifacts, and the appropriate cleaning and maintenance of museum art objects and historic artifacts. Students learn to survey a collection, establish a basic Integrated Pest Management program, prepare for and respond to an emergency, execute a condition request, construct an artifact preservation plan, and establish safe exhibition and storage techniques. Trips to museums and conservation laboratories, and hands-on opportunities to learn about tools and equipment essential for documenting artifacts and monitoring the museum environment. Prerequisite: ED/FAH/HIST 285 Staff
HIST 0292 Museum Practicum. (Cross-listed as FAH 289 and ED 284.) 125-hour museum internship gives students firsthand experience in museum work. The student, in collaboration with the academic and site supervisors, arranges the internship, following the protocol described in the Museum Studies Internship Handbook. Students may not do internships where they have worked or volunteered. Prerequisites: A minimum of three Museum Studies courses, one of which must be FAH/HIST/ED0285, must be completed before beginning the internship. Staff
HIST 0293 Directed Graduate Research.
HIST 0294 Directed Graduate Research
HIST 0295 Master's Thesis. Fall A Guided research on a topic that has been approved as a suitable subject for a master's thesis. Two courses. Please see departmental website for specific details.
HIST 0296 Master's Thesis. Spring B Guided research on a topic that has been approved as a suitable subject for a master's thesis. Two courses. Please see departmental website for specific details.
HIST 0297 Doctoral Dissertation
HIST 0298 Doctoral Dissertation
HIST 0303 Foreign Program
HIST 0401 Masters Degree Continuation (part-time)
HIST 0402 Masters Continuation (full-time)
HIST 0405 Grad Teaching Assistant
HIST 0406 Grad Research Assistant
HIST 0501 Doctoral Continuation (part-time)
HIST 0502 Doctoral Continuation (full-time)