Catalogue 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
History Department
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Chair: Lydia Murdoch;
Professors: Nancy Bisaha, Robert K. Brigham, Sumita Choudhury, Miriam Cohen, Rebecca Edwards, Maria Höhn, James Merrell, Lydia Murdoch, Ismail O. D. Rashid, Joshua Schreier;
Associate Professors: Quincy T. Millsab, Leslie Scott Offuttab, Michaela Pohl;
Assistant Professor: Wayne Soona.
a On leave 2019/20, first semester
ab On leave 2019/20
Advisers: The department.
Major
Correlate Sequence in History
History: I. Introductory
History: II. Intermediate
The prerequisite for courses at the 200-level is ordinarily 1 unit in history. -
HIST 202 - Business and the State in East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 202 ) This course examines the relationship between business, culture, and society in twentieth-century East Asia, with a focus on the ways in which the state has shaped business practices and ideas. We investigate the varying role of governments in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria in enabling and restricting the growth of enterprises in the region, mediated by colonialism, imperialism, Western competition, and globalization. We examine how the development of new business practices changed the interaction between labor and employers in the region. Case studies are drawn from the medical, education, electronics, retail sectors, etc. This class uses historical sources such as memoirs, oral histories, case studies, and newspaper reports to understand the nature of contingencies in doing business in the region. In so doing, students gain the tools to critically examine the notions of the “Developmental State,” and “Confucian Capitalism” in explaining the rise and fall of businesses in East Asia.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 208 - Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy Since 1945
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 208 ) This course examines U.S. National Security issues through the prism of human rights, weaving humanitarian concerns into the fabric of traditional security studies. We survey the most important literature and debates concerning the concepts of human rights and the U.S. national interest. We also use case studies to explore the intersection of human rights, economic aims, strategic concerns, and peace building. In addition, we test the consistency of U.S. guiding principles, the influence of non-state actors on policy formation, and the strength of the international human rights regime. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 214 - The Roots of the Palestine-Israel Conflict Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 214 ) An examination of the deep historical sources of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The course begins some two centuries ago when changes in the world economy and emerging nationalist ideologies altered the political and economic landscapes of the region. It then traces the development of both Jewish and Arab nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before exploring how the Arab and Jewish populations fought—and cooperated—on a variety of economic, political, and ideological fronts. It concludes by considering how this contest led to the development of two separate, hostile national identities. Joshua Schreier.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 216 - History of the Ancient Greeks
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 216 ) This course examines the history and culture of the ancient Greeks from the emergence of the city-state in the eighth century BCE to the conquests of Alexander the Great in 335 BCE. In addition to an outline of the political and social history of the Greeks, the course examines several historical, cultural, and methodological topics in depth, including the emergence of writing, Greek colonialism and imperialism, ancient democracy, polytheism, the social structures of Athenian society, and the relationship between Greeks and other Mediterranean cultures. Students both read primary sources (for example, Sappho, Tyrtaios, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, and Plato) and examine sites and artifacts recovered through archaeology; the development of students’ critical abilities to evaluate and use these sources for the study of history is a primary goal of the class. Barbara Olsen.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 217 - History of the Ancient Romans Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 217 ) This course examines the history of the ancient Romans from the foundation of their city around the eighth century BCE to the collapse of their Mediterranean Empire in the fifth century CE. The course offers a broad historical outline of Roman history, but focuses on significant topics and moments in Roman history, including the Republican aristocracy, the civil and slave wars of the Late Republic, the foundation of the Empire by Caesar Augustus, urbanism, the place of public entertainments (gladiatorial combats, Roman hunts, chariot races, and theater) in society, the rise of Christianity, the processes of Romanization, and barbarization, and the political decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Students read primary sources such as Plautus, Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius, and secondary accounts dealing with important issues such as slavery, religious persecution and multiculturalism. Students also examine important archaeological sites and artifacts. The development of students’ critical abilities to evaluate and use these sources for the study of history is a primary goal of the class. J. Bert Lott.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 225 - Renaissance Italy
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 225 ) This course examines the history of Italy between 1300 and 1565. Italian intellectual, political, and religious history is emphasized, but some attention is also given to cross-cultural, gender, and social history. Looking beyond Italy, we also consider developments in Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and their impact on Italy and Europe. Topics to be covered include the Black Death, the rise of humanism, the Renaissance papacy, and the Catholic Reformation. Finally, throughout the course, we question the meaning of the term “Renaissance”: is it a distinct period, a cultural movement, or an insufficient label altogether? Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 226 - Northern Europe in the Renaissance, c. 1300-1550 Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
As a famous scholar has argued, the north witnessed a long “autumn of the Middle Ages,” holding tightly to medieval ideals of chivalry, pageantry, and piety – precisely at the same time Italy seemed to be forging ahead into modernity. Yet by the end of the period, Northern states overshadowed Italy politically, economically and, increasingly, culturally. This course examines Northern Europe during this remarkable period of transformation. The Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Tudors, French and German state building and court life, and urban society in Flanders, are addressed along with the poetry of Chaucer, the humanism of More and Erasmus, and the doctrine of Luther. In turn, we examine the complex meanings of the terms “Renaissance” and “Reformation” and the relationship between them. Nancy Bisaha.
Two 75-minute periods.
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HIST 229 - Paris and London: Society and Culture in the Early Modern City, 1500-1800 Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 229 ) Between 1500-1800 European society experienced upheavals caused by cataclysmic events such as the Reformation and major shifts in economic and political organization. And it was Europeans living in urban areas – Europeans of different social status, faith, and ethnicities – who experienced these changes most intensely. This course investigates how two of the most dynamic cities in early modern Europe, London and Paris, changed from essentially medieval cities to urban metropolises. We look at the changing material, religious, and political conditions of London and Paris over two centuries and explore how the peoples of these two cities articulated and made sense of such changes. The central focus of the class will be examining how the identities of Parisians and Londoners as urban dwellers underwent transformations during this period. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 230 - From Tyranny to Terror: The Old Regime and the French Revolution
1 unit(s)
Eighteenth-century France was a society in transition, a society in which social and cultural ideals and realities were increasingly at odds. The tensions within society and the state finally erupted into the cataclysmic French Revolution, which paved the way for modern political life. Using primary and secondary sources, this course focuses on topics such as the social structure of the Old Regime, the Enlightenment, and the volatile political climate preceding the revolution. We examine different interpretations of what caused the French Revolution as well as the dynamics of the Revolution itself between 1789 and 1799. Sumita Choudhury.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 231 - Algeria/France:Race, Religion & Citizenship Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 231 ) Since the early modern era, slavery, colonialism, commerce, piracy, and migration have woven the Mediterranean together in both peace and in horrifying violence. This broad, multipolar web of conflict and communication has served as the context in which multiple French and Algerian identities have careened into modernity. Constant references to local and cross-Mediterranean “others” have shaped the very meanings of such key terms as “emancipation,” “republic,” “Islam,” “progress,” and “civilization.” Even today, debates on issues ranging from women’s clothing to secularism to immigration to anti-Semitism echo with this long and contested history. Joshua Schreier.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 235 - Ending Deadly Conflict Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 235 ) This course uses historical case studies to identify practical ways to end conflict and build sustainable peace. It is concerned with the vulnerability of the weak, failed and collapsed states, with post conflict periods that have reignited into violence, and problems of mediating conflicts that are unusually resistant to resolution. Of particular interest will be the role that third party intermediaries and global governance institutions have played in bringing about a negotiated end to violence. Major topics may include: the Paris Peace Accords, South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commissions, the Good Friday Agreement, Israel-Palestine negotiations, the Dayton Peace Accords ending the Balkans wars, and negotiations to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 236 - Germany, 1740-1918
1 unit(s)
This course covers the history of the German lands from 1740 to the end of World War I. Aside from providing a chronological political narrative, assigned readings focus in greater detail on a number of themes to illuminate the specific character of German history. Topics include: the demise of the universalist idea of the Holy Roman Empire; the German Enlightenment and the legacy of enlightened absolutism on state/society relations; the impact of the Napoleonic revolution; the failures of 1848; the Prussian-led unification; the legacy of Bismarck’s domestic policies on German political culture and social life; German imperialism and World War I. Maria Höhn.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 237 - Germany, 1918-1990
1 unit(s)
This course covers German history from the end of World War I to the 1990 unification that ended the post–World War II split of German society into East and West. Aside from familiarizing you with a narrative of German political, social, and cultural history, the readings also explore some of the so-called “peculiarities” of German history. Did Bismarck’s unification from above and the pseudo-constitutional character of the Second Reich create a political culture that set the country on a Sonderweg (special path) of modernization ending in the catastrophe of Auschwitz? Why did Weimar, Germany’s first experiment with democracy, fail, and why is Bonn not Weimar? Finally, what road will the new Germany take within Europe and the world? Maria Höhn.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 242 - The Russian Empire to 1812 Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces major events and issues in the history of the Russians and their neighbors to the South and East. The main themes each week include the formation of Russia’s autocracy and nobility, Eurasian family/clan politics and cultural practices, and the connection between expansion and repression. Topics include the great steppe empires, Russia as part of the Golden Horde (1240-1480), the era of Ivan the Terrible and his conquest of the Tatars of the Volga, the Time of Troubles, the conquest of Siberia, the imposition of serfdom, westernization and globalization of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great, relations with the Ottoman Empire under Russia’s female tsarinas, the conquest of the Caucasus, and the history of the Cossacks. Michaela Pohl.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 243 - Russia and the Soviet Union, 1861-2000 Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course explores how Russians and their neighbors (Ukrainians, Poles, Kazakhs, and others) collectively encountered the age of revolutions and socialism. The beginning and the end of the Soviet Union in 1917 and in 1991 pitted national dreams against socialist ideology and Western-style shock therapy, and both were followed by decades of economic troubles and political chaos. Topics include the emancipation from serfdom, the Bolshevik revolution, Stalinism, the Communist Party and the purges, the victory over the Nazis in World War II, reforms under Khrushchev and Gorbachev, the fall of communism, oligarchic politics, and the rebirth of Russia and the war in Chechnya under Yeltsin and Putin. Michaela Pohl.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 245 - Medicine, Health and Diseases in East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 245 and STS 245 ) From the globalization of acupuncture to the proliferation of biobanks to the fight against the deadly SARS virus, the history of East Asian medicine and society has been marked by promises and perils. Through examining the ways in which East Asians conceptualized medicine and the body in their fight against diseases from a myriad of sources, this course critically examines the persistence, transformation, and globalization of both “traditional medicine” and biomedicine in East Asia. Topics covered include the knowledge of nature as embedded in the changing categorization of pharmaceuticals, the contestation over vaccination and the definition of diseases, the construction of gender and sexuality in medicine, the importance of religion in healing, the legacies of colonialism in biopolitics and biotechnology, the development of healthcare systems, and the imaginations of Asian medicine in the West. Wayne Soon.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 246 - World War II in East Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 246 ) The Second World War was transformative for Japan and China. At the height of its conquest, the Japanese Empire ruled over more than 130 million people, even as it struggled to deal with controversies and scarcity. China became one of the Big Four Allied Powers as state building and resistance persisted in unoccupied areas. This class examines how the Second World War shaped the everyday lives of East Asians and foreigners through speeches, memoirs, fiction, oral histories, documents, and films. In addition, this course explores the contexts, contingencies, and legacies of wartime events and issues. This includes the Nanjing massacre, the Chinese, Koreans, and Taiwanese resistance to and collaboration with the Japanese, Japan’s wartime mobilization, the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States, the role of wartime science and technology, the gendered and racial underpinnings of wartime labor, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, and the U.S. government’s decision to release atomic bombs in Japan.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 247 - Albert Einstein
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 247 ) This course explores the complex life and work of the iconic scientist of the 20th century. Using recent biographical studies and a wide range of original sources (in translation), Einstein’s revolutionary contributions to relativity and quantum mechanics, his role in Germany in the opposition to the rise of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism, and his work as a political and social activist in the United States are examined. Students are encouraged to make use of Vassar’s Bergreen Collection of original Einstein manuscripts. José Perillán.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 251 - A History of American Foreign Relations Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course examines the foreign relations of the United States from the 19th century to the present day emphasizing the motivations, objectives, and tactics of U.S. policy makers. The course will focus on America’s role in the Spanish-American War; its embroilment in two world wars; its Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union; its wars in Korea and Vietnam; its response to human rights abuses and mass atrocities; and its leadership in the global war on terror. Robert Brigham.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 254 - Victorian Britain Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 254 and VICT 254 ) This course examines some of the key transformations that Victorians experienced, including industrialization, the rise of a class-based society, political reform, and the women’s movement. We explore why people then, and historians since, have characterized the Victorian age as a time of progress and optimism as well as an era of anxiety and doubt. Lydia Murdoch.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 255 - The British Empire
1 unit(s)
This course is an introduction to British imperialism from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, with particular attention to Britain’s involvement in Ireland, the Caribbean, India, and Africa. We examine British motives for imperialism, the transition from trade empires to more formal political control, and the late nineteenth-century “scramble for Africa.” Other main topics include responses to colonialism, the growth of nationalism, decolonization, and the effects of an increasingly multi-cultural domestic population on Britain. Throughout the course we explore the empire as a cultural exchange: the British influenced the lives of colonial subjects, but the empire also shaped British identity at home and abroad. Lydia Murdoch.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 259 - The History of the Family in Early Modern Europe
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 259 ) This course examines the changing notions of family, marriage, and childhood between 1500 and 1800 and their ties to the larger early modern context. During this period, Europeans came to see the family less as a network of social and political relationships and more as a set of bonds based on intimacy and affection. Major topics include family and politics in the Italian city-state, the Reformation and witchcraft, absolutism, and paternal authority, and the increasing importance of the idea of the nuclear family. Sumita Choudhury.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 260 - Sex & Reproduction in 19th Century United States: Before Margaret Sanger Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 260 ) Focusing on the United States from roughly 1800 to 1900, this course explores sex and reproduction and their relationship to broader transformations in society, politics, and women’s rights. Among the issues considered are birth patterns on the frontier and in the slave South; industrialization, urbanization, and falling fertility; the rise of sex radicalism; and the emergence of “heterosexual” and “homosexual” as categories of identity. The course examines public scandals, such as the infamous Beecher-Tilton adultery trial, and the controversy over education and women’s health that was prompted by the opening of Vassar College. The course ends by tracing the complex impact of the Comstock law (1873) and the emergence of a modern movement for birth control. Rebecca Edwards.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 261 - Women in 20th Century America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 261 ) How did class, race, and ethnicity combine with gender to shape women’s lives in the twentieth century? Beginning in 1890 and ending at the turn of this century, this course looks at changes in female employment patterns, how women from different backgrounds combined work and family responsibilities and women’s leisure lives. We also study women’s activism on behalf of political rights, moral reform, racial and economic equality, and reproductive rights. Readings include memoirs, novels, government documents, and feminist political tracts. Miriam Cohen.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 262 - Contesting Colonialism: Latin America 1450 - 1750
1 unit(s)
This course examines the pre-Columbian worlds of Mesoamerica and the Andean region, then turns to a treatment of the consequences of contact between those worlds and the European. Special emphasis is placed on the examination of mindsets and motives of colonizer and colonized and the quest for identity in the American context (both issues intimately related to questions of race and ethnicity), the struggle to balance concerns for social justice against the search for profits, the evolution of systems of labor appropriation, the expansion of the mining sector, and the changing nature of land exploitation and tenure. Leslie Offutt.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 263 - From Colony to Nation: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
1 unit(s)
This course treats the transition from colony to nation in Spanish and Portuguese America. In part a thematic course treating such topics as the Liberal/Conservative struggles of the early nineteenth century, the consequences of latifundism, the abolition of slavery, and the impact of foreign economic penetration and industrialization, it also adopts a national approach, examining the particular historical experiences of selected nations. Leslie Offutt.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 264 - The Revolutionary Option? Latin America in the Twentieth Century
1 unit(s)
This course investigates why certain Latin American nations in the twentieth century opted for revolution and others adopted a more conservative course. It examines the efforts of selected Latin American nations (Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala) to address the tremendous social and economic cleavages affecting them, with special attention paid to material, political, class, and cultural structures shaping their experiences. Leslie Offutt.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 265 - Slavery and Freedom in the U.S.
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 265 ) This course explores the history of American slavery and freedom from the Atlantic slave trade through Reconstruction. We examine the history of African-descended people to understand key developments and regional differences in the making of race and slavery as a commodity form and foundation of an emerging nation-state in North America, resistance movements among enslaved and free Blacks (such as rebellions and the abolitionist movement), black institutional and economic development, and the multiple ways gender, race, and slavery informed the meanings of freedom. In addition to reading secondary sources, we analyze such primary sources as slave voyage records, legal records, slave narratives, and speeches and essays from free Blacks. Quincy Mills.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 268 - Religion, Repression, and Resistance in Latin America Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 268 and HIST 268 ) What was it like to live in a society where crimes of thought and religious transgressions were prosecuted and punished? How did various populations confront and resist inquisitorial activities? What is the legacy of the Inquisition in the Americas? This course addresses these and other questions through a focus on the Latin American Inquisition and Extirpation (ecclesiastic attempts to reform or destroy Precolumbian indigenous religions). The course tracks the emergence of Inquisition tribunals in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena after 1571, and the Catholic Church’s prosecution of indigenous idolatry and sorcery. It focuses both on trends in prosecution, torture, and punishment, and on the dynamic responses of those who were either targets or collaborators: indigenous peoples, Jews, Africans, female healers, people of mixed descent, and Protestants. Towards the end of the course, based on students’ interests, we also review other select case studies of religious control and resistance in Latin America. Students proficient in Spanish or Portuguese are encouraged to work with primary sources. David Tavárez.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 270 - The Black Power Movement
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 270 ) This course examines the Black Power Movement as a burgeoning social movement in the post World War II period, while also placing it in the long traditions of black political thought and radicalism within American democracy. In addition to studying black radicalism in the early twentieth century, the course explores the philosophies and tactics of civil rights activism; questions of feminism and masculinity; radicalism and conservatism; violence, nonviolence, and self-defense; and community control, nationalism, and internationalism. Major sites of inquiry include education, arts and media, police brutality, welfare rights, electoral politics, and economic empowerment. By engaging the ideologies, politics, and culture of the Black Power Movement, we gain a deeper understanding of how people claim their rights and personhood against seemingly insurmountable odds. Quincy Mills.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 271 - Perspectives on the African Past: Africa Before 1800
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 271 ) A thematic survey of African civilizations and societies to 1800. The course examines how demographic and technological changes, warfare, religion, trade, and external relations shaped the evolution of the Nile Valley civilizations, the East African city-states, the empires of the western Sudan, and the forest kingdoms of West Africa. Some attention is devoted to the consequences of the Atlantic slave trade, which developed from Europe’s contact with Africa from the fifteenth century onwards. Ismail Rashid.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 272 - Modern African History
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 272 ) Africa has experienced profound transformations over the past two centuries. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Africans lost and regained their independence from different European colonial powers. This course explores the changing African experiences before, during, and after European colonization of their continent. Drawing on primary sources, film, memoirs, and popular novels, we look at the creative responses of African groups and individuals to the contradictory processes and legacies of colonialism. Particular attention will be paid to understanding how these responses shape the trajectories of African as well as global developments. Amongst the major themes covered by the course are: colonial ideologies, African resistance, colonial economies, gender and cultural change, African participation in the two world wars, urbanization, decolonization and African nationalism. We also reflect on some of the contemporary developmental dilemmas as well as opportunities confronting post-colonial Africa. Ismail Rashid.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 274 - Early America, 1500-1750 Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Without ignoring the Pilgrims, Pocahontas, and other popular icons of colonial times, this course puts them into a larger context of what unfolded between 1500 and 1750 when three worlds bordering the Atlantic—western Europe, west Africa, and eastern North America—first came together. The new American world that emerged from this momentous encounter was at once stranger and more interesting than conventional wisdom would have it. Slaves who became free and Indians who became Puritan, con men who tricked gullible colonists and pious folk who heckled learned ministers—these and other forgotten actors join the usual suspects (Saints and witches, John Smith and Benjamin Franklin) on a crowded colonial stage. While keeping in mind that the genesis of America today can be found in that long-ago era—the tangled roots of race relations, the curious blend of materialism and lofty ideals, the boisterous political culture, the freedom for self-fashioning—we take early America as much as possible on its own terms rather than on ours. James Merrell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 275 - Revolutionary America, 1750-1830 Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
In 1815 John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson: “Who shall write the history of the American Revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?” “Nobody,” Jefferson replied. As these two men knew, the American Revolution ranks high among history’s mysteries. Why did a prosperous people get so mad about a modest tax increase? How did a scattered, squabbling array of colonies, who felt closer to Great Britain than to one another, unite sufficiently to declare independence from the “mother country” in 1776? How did they then defeat the greatest military power of the age while also contending with dissension in their own ranks, rebellious slaves in their midst, and powerful Indian nations at their backs? How, having won independence, did the victors avoid tyranny, civil war, or re-colonization while other Americans—poor men, white women, Native peoples, the enslaved—busily tested the elasticity of the phrase “all men are created equal”? Exploring these questions, we also keep in mind a historian’s recent observation that this era “bequeathed us many of the values and institutions…that are now sites of important political, social, and ideological conflicts.” James Merrell.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 276 - Democracy in America? U.S. Politics and Power, 1828-1896
1 unit(s)
Tracing economic and political transformations in the nineteenth century United States, this course explores struggles over industrialization, sectional interests, continental conquest, and nation-building. Key topics include the “white man’s democracy” of the Jacksonian era; rise of the Republican Party; the Civil War; Emancipation and national Reconstruction; expansion and conflict in the trans-Mississippi West; the emergence of modern corporate capitalism; and labor and agrarian protest. Particular attention is given to electoral politics and public policy. Comparisons with other nineteenth-century nations and empires are made. Rebecca Edwards.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 277 - America 1890-1990 “The Rise and Fall of “The American Century”
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 277 ) In 1941, Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life magazines, proclaimed the twentieth as “America’s century.” At mid-century, many Americans agreed with Luce’s view of the US as the preeminent global power By the 1980s, however, believing their country was in decline, more and more Americans began losing confidence in America’s greatness.
Using primary sources that range from political pamphlets to Hollywood film, presidential speeches to oral interviews, this course looks at America’s rise to prominence after 1890 and the nation’s so-called decline nearly a century later. We pay particular attention to the social and political changes marking the growth of progressive reform from the 1890s to the 1970s, then trace the rise of conservatism during the final decades of “the American century.” Miriam Cohen.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 278 - Cold War America
1 unit(s)
Following the Second World War, many Americans expected the United States to create a better world abroad and a more equitable society at home. We examine those expectations along with the major social, political, cultural, and economic changes in the United States since 1945, including the dawn of the cold war, McCarthyism, surbanization, high-mass consumption, civil rights, the Vietnam War, and the environmental movement. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 279 - The Viet Nam War
1 unit(s)
An examination of the origins, course, and impact of America’s involvement in Viet Nam, emphasizing the evolution of American diplomacy, the formulation of military strategy, the domestic impact of the war, and the perspective of Vietnamese revolutionaries. Robert Brigham.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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HIST 280 - Global Powers in Taiwan Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 280 ) This intensive explores the nature of globalization through the lens of Taiwan’s experiences with colonialism and economic development from the seventeenth century to the present. The Dutch, Spanish, Qing, Japanese, Chinese Nationalists, and the United States have profoundly shaped the island and its interactions with the World. Student research projects focus on the ways in which these global powers have shaped Taiwan’s political and cultural identities as well as its international economy. Possible topics may relate to migration, empire, war developmental state, democratization, women’s activism, cross-straits relations, and Taiwanese Americans. This intensive also provides opportunities for interested students to embark on oral history research on the history of Chinese and Taiwanese Americans in Poughkeepsie and New York. Students meet several times as a group with the instructor to unpack the global history of Taiwan and discuss relevant research methodologies. Students also meet one-on-one with the instructor bi-weekly to discuss their term projects. Wayne Soon.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 281 - Fundamentals of Grantwriting Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as CLCS 281 ) Writing effective grant applications is a valuable skill in many fields, including the scholarly world, the arts, the non-profit sector, community organizing, and government. In this course students gain familiarity with tools for grants research. They study model grant applications and track current trends in government and philanthropic funding, through readings and through discussions with local leaders. Each student partners with a local agency to define needs, research funding sources, and draft and revise a grant proposal on the agency’s behalf. Rebecca Edwards.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 283 - Area Studies Intensive: Arts, Film, and Ideas in Central Asia Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive course offers an exploration of the arts, cinema, and ideas in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Muslim regions of Russia. In the first part of the semester, participants explore artists and genres and view films in their historical context. Examples include Caucasus mythology, Kyrgyz film, Uzbek textiles, topics that involve arts and ideas in the region. In the second part, integrating aspects of students’ previous studies, participants form groups to focus on themes and topics like revolution, decolonization, gender, religion, and newly emerging national identities, and work on research projects. These could involve public film showings, exhibits, travel to exhibits and festivals, and other activities, depending on the group’s unique interests and initiative. The intensive involves non-traditional, flexible scheduling and activities (painting, cooking) and offers deeper learning in parallel with ongoing courses on Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian history. This includes HIST 386 /INTL 386 Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights , HIST 242 The Russian Empire to 1812 , HIST 243 Russia and the Soviet Union, 1861-2000 , courses on Russia, and courses on Muslim cultures offered at Vassar. Michaela Pohl.
Both first and second six-week course.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 284 - Imagined Queens: Female Rulers in History & Media Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 284 ) This intensive course allows students to explore how and why queens—whether it is Elizabeth I or Elizabeth II—remain subjects of endless curiosity. How did contemporaries connect their queens to other political and culture issues? How, when and why do they draw our attention today? This intensive investigates these questions in three parts. The semester begins readings, films, documentaries, and social media to discuss women, gender, and power. There is a field trip to the Vanderbilt Mansion to see how ideas about queen ship and royalty influenced material culture. By the end of this section, each student chooses, through preliminary research and ongoing consultation with the instructor, a queen on which to focus. In the second part of the class, each student leads class on their topic. With the assistance of continued mentoring and technology workshops, students each develop a week-long syllabus providing readings and other media, such as films or even material objects, such as fashion. The last third focuses on a final research project that may be a traditional term paper, a blog combining images and text, or a creative piece. This process is facilitated through workshops that allow for students to develop research skills, peer feedback and continued one-on-one mentoring. This course combines traditional and non-traditional instructional methods, both independent and collaborative work, and flexible scheduling. This intensive aims to help students to understand the connections between teaching, learning, and research as well as providing them with different models for how to showcase these skills. Sumita Choudhury.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 286 - The Art of Conversation:Living the 18th-century Salon in the 21st-century Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The eighteenth-century salon was the center of sociability in Paris, bringing together writers and a large cross section of elites. But socializing was not an end to itself: the salon was first and foremost an engaged intellectual space that saw knowledge as a joint endeavor. For the women who organized them, many of whom lacked formal education, curated conversations with carefully phrased questions and listening skills fused together friendship and learning. The boundaries of salons were not restricted to the drawing room because participants kept the world apprised of their activities through correspondence. This course uses the model of sociability and intellectual conversation by convening every other week over lunch or tea. We converse over topics chosen by students as well as select 18th-century texts that focus on sociability and learning; in one class, we will “perform” a play, a common activity in salons. Students may also invite someone who would be interested in contributing to a conversation. The class meets every other week; in the intervening weeks, students will write letters or news items about our class and relevant events. Professor Choudhury Mita Choudhury.
This group will meet bi-weekly for a three hour period for experiential learning in various forms. Opposite weeks will be reserved for individual meetings, writing and research.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group field projects, especially in local, state, or federal history. May be taken either semester or in summer. The department.
Prerequisite(s): An appropriate course in the department.
Corequisite(s): An appropriate course in the department.
Permission required.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 297 - Readings In History
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: OTH -
HIST 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission required.
Course Format: OTH
History: III. Advanced
Prerequisite for advanced courses is ordinarily 2 units of 200-level work in history, or by permission of the instructor. Specific prerequisites assume the general prerequisite. -
HIST 300 - Thesis Preparation: Sources, Methods, and Interpretations Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
As a yearlong independent research project, a senior history thesis can be an exhilarating but also challenging experience. Many questions must be considered: How do I clearly define my research question? How do I locate my work within the existing scholarship in my field? Where are the most relevant sources? How do I organize and interpret the information that I have uncovered? This seminar provides the opportunity for students to grapple with these questions and to prepare for writing their senior history thesis. Through a common set of readings and workshops, students develop clear research ideas and questions, locate necessary sources, become acquainted with different historical methods, and discuss strategies for different stages of the process. The seminar also provides a community in which students share their experiences, approaches, and ideas about researching and writing their theses. The department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 300 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. The department.
Yearlong course HIST 300 -301.
Course Format: INT -
HIST 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 300 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. The department.
Same as HIST 301 , for students who are completing the thesis out of cycle. Please note that 302 cannot be taken simultaneously with HIST 300 .
Course Format: INT -
HIST 310 - Mao’s China in the World: War, Science and Legitimacy
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 310 ) This class examines the history of China’s recent past from 1949 to the present, with an emphasis on the relationship between China and the world. We explore the strategies of Mao Zedong and his comrades in winning and consolidating power, the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party in gaining global legitimacy for the People’s Republic of China vis-à-vis the Republic of China in Taiwan, the critical role of science, medicine, and technology in the Chinese economy and society, and the ways in which gender, class, and race underpinned the revolutionary experiences of the Chinese. This class also pays particular attention to Mao’s legacies on China and the world. Upon completion of the course, students gain the tools to critically examine the growth of contemporary China in the context of its dynamic past. Wayne Soon.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 312 - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 312 ) This seminar explores how members of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora maneuvered challenges of empire, colonialism, war, and revolution to thrive economically in the 19th and 20th centuries. This class also contextualizes the recent protests around the world against China’s interventions into Taiwan and Hong Kong’s autonomy within the longer histories of Taiwan and Hong Kong’s interaction with the Dutch, Japanese, and British empires, Chinese nationalism, and America’s Cold War interests. It will also examine how the Chinese diaspora have negotiated issues of identities, healthcare, and migration in their quest for autonomy. Wayne Soon
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 315 - Crusading and the Holy Land (1095-1204)
1 unit(s)
The First Crusade, called in 1095 by Pope Urban II, heralded profound changes in medieval society. The Crusades affected faith and war for Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and redefined relations in the Mediterranean. Warfare and colonization, however, also fostered productive contacts and cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia with increased trade and travel. Back in Europe it led to new theories of government, papal power, and holy war; a growth in epic poetry and romance; new styles of castle and church building; and increased urbanization. This course focuses on the first century of crusading and the establishment of Latin rule in the Holy Land. It critically engages primary sources written by Franks, Arabs, Jews, and Byzantines, as well as cutting-edge scholarship on the Crusade Era. Nancy Bisaha.
Recommended: HIST /MRST 116 or HIST /MRST 117 .
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 316 - Constantinople/Istanbul: 1453
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 316 ) This seminar examines a turning point in history-the end of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The focus is the siege of Constantinople as seen in primary accounts and modem studies. The course also looks closely at culture and society in late Byzantium and the early Ottoman Empire. Specific topics include the post-1453 Greek refugee community, the transformation of Constantinople into Istanbul, and the role of Western European powers and the papacy as allies and antagonists of both empires. Nancy Bisaha.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 326 - Machiavelli: Power and Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 326 ) This course examines the life and writings of one of the most fascinating and misunderstood thinkers of the early modern era. By situating Machiavelli (1469-1527) against the backdrop of his times, we gain insight into the Florentine Republic, Medici rule, the papacy, and devastating invasions of Italy by French, Spanish, and German armies. We also explore cultural movements like the study of antiquity by humanists and the rise of vernacular writing and bold new forms of popular expression and political discourse. Several of Machiavelli’s works are read, including his letters and plays, The Prince, The Discourses, The Art of War, and The Florentine Histories, as well as some of the major modern interpretations of Machiavelli in historiography and political thought. Nancy Bisaha.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 332 - Dangerous Ideas: Challenging Authority in Eighteenth-Century France
1 unit(s)
In the years leading up to the French Revolution, authorities were obsessed with the spread of dangerous ideas that threatened church, state and traditional social values. Seeking to overhaul society completely, a diverse group of thinkers commonly associated with the Enlightenment examined all aspects of human existence, from religion, politics, and science to crime, sex, and art. This course emphasizes primary sources, ranging from The Social Contract to Dangerous Liaisons. We consider the impact of ideas and words by examining the spaces for discussion, the dissemination of books, and reader response. Ultimately, we ask the following: What was the legacy of the various critiques for the French Revolution and, more generally, the modern era? Sumita Choudhury.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 337 - The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany
1 unit(s)
This course explores the Third Reich by locating it within the peculiar nature of German political culture resulting from late unification and rapid industrialization. Readings explore how and why the Nazis emerged as a mass party during the troubled Weimar years. The years between 1933 and 1945 are treated by focusing on Nazi domestic, foreign, and racial policies. Maria Höhn.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 236 or HIST 237 ; or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 338 - German-American Encounters since WW I
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 338 ) This seminar explores the many ways in which Germans envisioned, feared, and embraced America in the course of the twentieth century. We start our readings with WWI and its aftermath, when German society was confronted and, as some feared, overwhelmed, by an influx of American soldiers, expatriates, industry, and popular culture. The Nazi Regime promised to overcome Weimar modernity and the alleged Americanization of German society, but embraced nonetheless aspects of American modernity in its quest to dominate Europe militarily and economically. For the period after WWII, we study in depth the U.S. military occupation (1945-1955), the almost seventy-year lasting military presence in West Germany, and the political, social and cultural implications of this transatlantic relationship. Maria Höhn.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 342 - Stalinism
1 unit(s)
This seminar explores the transformation of the USSR and its borderlands under Stalin, with special emphasis on the impact of terror, dislocations, and compressed economic change on specific national groups (Russians, Ukraine, Central Asia). Topics include Stalin’s ideology and vision of the Soviet people, the impact of Stalinism on politics in Europe, collectivization and industrialization, the experiences of the “enemies of the people,” resistance and dissent, and achievements and legacies. The course concludes with an examination of post-Soviet public memory and discussions of the Stalinist past. Michaela Pohl.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 351 - Problems in U.S. Foreign Policy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Using historical case studies, this seminar examines some of the major foreign affairs dilemmas U.S. policy makers have faced since 1945. Major topics include: containment; modernization; nation building; limited war; détente; human rights and humanitarian intervention; and democracy promotion. Robert Brigham.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 355 - Childhood and Children in Nineteenth-Century Britain
1 unit(s)
(Same as VICT 355 and WMST 355 ) This course examines both the social constructions of childhood and the experiences of children in Britain during the nineteenth century, a period of immense industrial and social change. We analyze the various understandings of childhood at the beginning of the century (including utilitarian, Romantic, and evangelical approaches to childhood) and explore how, by the end of the century, all social classes shared similar expectations of what it meant to be a child. Main topics include the relationships between children and parents, child labor, sexuality, education, health and welfare, abuse, delinquency, and children as imperial subjects. Lydia Murdoch.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 361 - Varieties of the Latin American Indian Experience
1 unit(s)
This course treats the Indian world of Latin America as it responded to increased European penetration in the post-1500 period. Focusing primarily on Mesoamerica and the Andean region, it examines the variety of ways indigenous peoples dealt with cultural dislocation associated with the imposition of colonial systems and the introduction of the modern state. The course treats as well the Indian policies of the state, and how those policies reflected assumptions about the role of indigenous peoples in the larger society. Throughout, emphasis is placed on the process of negotiation of identity—what it meant to be Indian in an increasingly European society, and how the interpenetration of the two worlds, and the response of one to the other, reshaped each world. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): 200-level Latin American history.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 362 - The Cuban Revolutions
1 unit(s)
Questions of sovereignty and issues of inequality have roiled the surface of the Cuban Republic since its founding in 1902; during the past century there were two major upheavals, the revolutions of 1933 and 1959. This course examines the context out of which those revolutions emerged and the manner in which post-revolutionary governments addressed (or failed to address) the concerns that prompted Cubans to choose the “revolutionary option.” We pay particular attention to the relationship between Cuba and the United States, the legacies of slavery and racism, and the shaping of Cuban society after 1959. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 .
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 363 - Revolution and Conflict in Twentieth-Century Latin America
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 363 ) Revolution has been a dominant theme in the history of Latin America since 1910. This course examines the revolutionary experiences of three nations—Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. It examines theories of revolution, then assesses the revolutions themselves—the conditions out of which each revolution developed, the conflicting ideologies at play, the nature of the struggles, and the postrevolutionary societies that emerged from the struggles. Leslie Offutt.
Prerequisite(s): HIST 264 or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 365 - Race and the History of Jim Crow Segregation
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 365 ) This seminar examines the rise of racial segregation sanctioned by law and racial custom from 1865 to 1965. Equally important, we explore the multiple ways African Americans negotiated and resisted segregation in the private and public spheres. This course aims toward an understanding of the work that race does, with or without laws, to order society based on the intersection of race, class and gender. Topics include: disfranchisement, labor and domesticity, urbanization, public space, education, housing, history and memory, and the lasting effects of sanctioned segregation. We focus on historical methods of studying larger questions of politics, resistance, privilege and oppression. We also explore interdisciplinary methods of studying race and segregation, such as critical race theory. Music and film supplement classroom discussions. Quincy Mills.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 366 - American Encounters: Natives, Newcomers, and the Contest for a Continent
1 unit(s)
Moving past today’s fixation on Pocahontas and John Smith, Squanto and the Pilgrims, this course will examine the Native response to the invasion of North America, focusing on peoples living east of the Mississippi River before the early 19th century, the era of ‘Removal’ that marked the beginning of the end of Indian Country. Confronting the challenges in the way of understanding the Native experience (lack of evidence, modern stereotypes, loaded language), we will combine scholarly works with Native writings, explorers’ accounts, treaty texts, captivity narratives, and films to consider the central arenas where Indians engaged foreigners from beyond the eastern horizon, from trade and missions through war and diplomacy to ideas of “race” and notions of gender. James Merrell.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 369 - Social Citizenship in an Urban Age
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 369 and URBS 369 ) During a 1936 campaign speech President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that in “1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy.” Since then “the age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production and mass distribution—all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem … . For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality.” Therefore, the President concluded, government must do something to “protect the citizen’s right to work and right to live.” This course looks at how Americans during the twentieth century fought to expand the meaning of citizenship to include social rights. We study efforts on behalf of labor laws, unemployment and old age insurance, and aid to poor mothers and their children. How did these programs affect Americans of different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds? How did gender shape the ways that people experienced these programs? Because many Americans believed that widening educational opportunities was essential for addressing the problems associated with the “new civilization” that Roosevelt described, we ask to what extent Americans came to believe that access to a good education is a right of citizenship. These issues and the struggles surrounding them are not only, as they say, “history.” To help us understand our times, we look at the backlash, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, against campaigns to enlarge the definition of citizenship. Miriam Cohen.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 373 - Slavery and Abolition in Africa
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 373 ) The Trans-Saharan and the Atlantic slave trade transformed African communities, social structures, and cultures. The seminar explores the development, abolition, and impact of slavery in Africa from the earliest times to the twentieth century. The major conceptual and historiographical themes include indigenous servitude, female enslavement, family strategies, slave resistance, abolition, and culture. The seminar uses specific case studies as well as a comparative framework to understand slavery in Africa. Ismail Rashid.
Prerequisite(s): Standard department prerequisites or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
-
HIST 374 - The African Diaspora Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 374 ) This seminar investigates the social origins, philosophical and cultural ideas, and the political forms of Pan-Africanism from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It explores how disaffection and resistance against slavery, racism and colonial domination in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, and Africa led to the development of a global movement for the emancipation of peoples of African descent from 1900 onwards. The seminar examines the different ideological, cultural, and organizational manifestations of Pan-Africanism as well as the scholarly debates on development of the movement. Readings include the ideas and works of Edward Blyden, Alexander Crummell, W. E. B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, C.L.R. James, and Kwame Nkmmah. Ismail Rashid.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instrcutor.
-
HIST 375 - Years of Disunion: The U.S. Civil War Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course considers the Civil War as a political, military, social, and cultural watershed in American history. Topics covered include the secession crisis and the political transformation wrought by the Republican Party; events on the battlefield and on the Union and Confederate home fronts; the gradual unfolding of Emancipation as a Union war aim, and its results; human responses to the war’s grim toll of death and destruction; and the conflict’s long-term legacies. Readings include recent works of scholarship as well as eyewitness accounts and works of fiction. Rebecca Edwards.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 382 - Marie-Antoinette Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 382 ) More than 200 years after her death, Marie-Antoinette continues to be an object of fascination because of her supposed excesses and her death at the guillotine. For her contemporaries, Marie-Antoinette often symbolized all that was wrong in French body politic. Through the life of Marie-Antoinette, we investigate the changing political and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century France including the French Revolution. Topics include women and power, political scandal and public opinion, fashion and self-representation, motherhood and domesticity, and revolution and gender iconography. Throughout the course, we explore the changing nature of the biographical narrative. The course also considers the legacy of Marie Antoinette as martyr and fetish object in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and her continuing relevance today. Sumita Choudhury.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 385 - Colonialism, Nationalism, and Social Identities in the Modern Middle East Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course explores how social sciences, colonialism, and nationalism have shaped identities in the modern Middle East. The course begins with a brief survey of older, foundational scholarship on “The Orient” in order to map out how scholars understood the non-European world, including regions later labeled “The Middle East.” We then discuss how these European mythologies, as well as imperial interventions, international institutions, and post-colonial nationalisms nurtured new differences, leading to violence along sectarian, racial, ethnic, or national lines. We focus particularly on the question of how Middle Eastern and North African societies have come to be seen as divided between religious “minorities” and “majorities.” Joshua Schreier.
Recommended: HIST 174 or HIST 214 or HIST 255 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 386 - Central Asia and the Caucasus: Nation Building and Human Rights Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as INTL 386 ) The Muslim regions between Russia and China are becoming more populated, prosperous, and connected. The Caspian Sea region is booming with new oil and gas wealth. A wave of democracy movements swept newly independent states but oligarchs and long-term autocratic presidents dominate politics and business. An Islamic revival after the fall of communism has brought a crisis of political Islam, including problems like terrorism, re-veiling campaigns, and bride-kidnappings. Chechnya and the North Caucasus became magnets for violence, while Tatarstan has seen a quiet renaissance of liberal Russian Islam. This cross-listed seminar explores nation building, human rights, and spiritual life in Central Asia and the Caucasus from a historical perspective. Topics include the legacies of Mongol and Tatar power verticals, the impact of communism on Central Asia, the war in Chechnya and its effect on human rights in the region, the history of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, and daily life and politics since independence in 1991. Michaela Pohl.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 387 - Modern China: Wealth, Power and Revolution Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 387 ) The search for wealth and power in China has been profoundly shaped by the country’s twentieth-century revolutionary experiences. In contextualizing China’s ambitions from its history from the eighteenth century to the present, this seminar critically explores the rise and fall of an expansive Qing Empire, debates the vibrancy of Republican-era Chinese society, and investigates the contingencies and legacies of the communist revolution. In addition, we explore the multifaceted experiences of intellectuals, cadres, diplomats,politicians, businessmen, scientists, artists, students, workers, and peasants living in the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan through the lens of gender, ethnicity, work, diaspora, and ideology. Students understand the rise of China today within the context of its dynamic recent past.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 388 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as POLI 388 ) This seminar explores strategic thinking to attain large ends with limited means. We examine a historical set of instances in which individuals, groups, and/or nations have attempted to harness political, military, diplomatic, economic, environmental, legal, and scientific resources to advance national and global interests. Because strategic thinking requires the art of reconciling ends and means, we also examine how a range of people and groups with various levels of power balance what they think and want with the constraints that they face. Elizabeth Bradley and Robert Brigham.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 391 - Independent Study - Thesis Preparation and Methodology Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
As a yearlong independent research project, a senior history thesis can be an exhilarating but also challenging experience. Many questions must be considered: How do I clearly define my research question? How do I locate my work within the existing scholarship in my field? Where are the most relevant sources? How do I organize and interpret the information that I have uncovered? This seminar provides the opportunity for students to grapple with these questions and to prepare for writing their senior history thesis. Students develop clear research ideas and questions, locate necessary sources, become acquainted with different historical methods, and discuss strategies for different stages of the process. Rebecca Edwards.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: CLS -
HIST 392 - Independent Study - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This 1-unit course, which builds on the work done in HIST 391 , culminates in the completion and submission of a thesis that is approximately 10,000 words long. James Merrell.
One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: OTH -
HIST 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission required.
Course Format: OTH
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