All information on this page subject to change without advanced notice.
HIST 401 Hist. of the Indian Ocean World
(WI Focus)
TR 0130-0245p Bertz, Ned
CONTENT: This upper-level collaborative seminar will revolve around the idea that the Indian Ocean world, through interactions and imagination, constitutes a coherent unit of historical analysis. The class will examine the Indian Ocean world through the sweep of global history, sailing across time in a thematic fashion. We will focus on the western Indian Ocean and how contacts between places like India, Arabia, and eastern Africa have shaped the lives of people who live near the sea and whose existence is affected by the rhythms of the monsoon. Topics to be covered include the role of religion and especially Islam in connecting the region; the collision between indigenous structures and the intrusion of European imperialism; the lives of individual actors such as slaves, sailors, pirates, merchants, and women; port towns as nodes of cosmopolitan contact; travel, trade, and the scattering of Indian, Arab, and African diasporas around the oceanic rim; literature, film, and other aspects of Indian Ocean world cultures; nationalism, race, and identity; sexuality and gender; nation-states and globalization in the future of the Indian Ocean world.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Pearson, The Indian Ocean; Ghosh, In an Antique Land; Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall; and a course reader.
HIST 411 Local History of Late Imp. China
(WI Focus)
MWF 1030-1120a Wang, Wensheng
CONTENT: This upper division course provides a broad survey of Chinese local history over the long period from the Tang-Song transition (ca. 800) to the collapse of Qing rule (1911). The focus will be on the late imperial period (1550-1911)—from mid-Ming to the end of Qing dynasties. Topics include family and lineage structure, gender roles, patterns of work and leisure, religious activities and their meanings, class relations, changes in basic demographic patterns (birth and death rates, migration, marriage patterns, etc.), patterns of violence, protest movements, and relations among different ethnic groups.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China; Mann, Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century; Kuhn, Soulstealers: the Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768; Spence, Death of Woman Wang
HIST 422 Tokugawa Japan
(WI Focus)
TR 0900-1015a McNally, Mark
CONTENT: This course will focus on Japan's early modern period, otherwise known as the Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1867). It will cover all major aspects of historical change for the period, with an emphasis on cultural, intellectual, social, political, and diplomatic history. Some of the themes that will be covered: the structure of the Edo bakufu; urbanization; urban society; the development of the Tokugawa economy; rural society; Confucianism; Kokugaku; Shinto and Buddhism; the arrival of the Americans and the end of isolation; bakumatsu politics; the Meiji Restoration.
REQUIREMENTS: Three 5-7 page papers; a final examination; class participation.
REQUIRED TEXTS: McNally, Proving the Way; Ooms, Tokugawa Ideology; Vlastos, Peasant Protests and Uprisings in Tokugawa Japan; Ikegami, Bonds of Civility; Totman, Early Modern Japan; Nenzi, Excursions in Identity
HIST 424 Twentieth Century Japan
TR 0130-0245p Totani, Yuma
CONTENT: This course will explore facets of Japan’s political, economic, and social development since the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) to the present. This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. Classroom meetings do not only involve formal lectures but also extensive training in source analysis, writing, and composition. No prior knowledge of the Japanese history or language is required. English translation will be provided for all Japanese-language primary sources.
REQUIREMENTS: Regular attendance; weekly readings and source analyses; classroom discussions; midterm and final exams; one essay.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Course Reader; Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
HIST 433 Medieval Cultures
W 0130-0400 Jolly, Karen
CONTENT: This topical course examines the lives of women in Europe and beyond during the period 500-1500. The class includes examination of primary sources by and about women as well as theoretical issues surrounding the study of gender and sexuality in the Middle Ages. This course meets the world/comparative category in the History major, so we will be examining European women in cross-cultural perspective, including Jewish and Islamic women interacting with “Christendom” in the Mediterranean, as well as comparison with women’s lives in other parts of the world during this period.
REQUIREMENTS: The class will be conducted primarily as a seminar-style discussion, so students are expected to complete the assigned reading prior to class and be prepared for in-class quizzes on the reading, as well as review papers on the readings. The final project is a biography, researched using primary source materials.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Bitel, Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100; Ward, Women in Medieval Europe: 1200-1500; Amt, ed., Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook; Internet Medieval Sourcebook (excerpts); various articles
HIST 440 20th Century Europe
TR 1030-1145a Ziegler, Herb
CONTENT: This course does not attempt to survey the entire history of twentieth century Europe. Although the course outline conforms more or less to chronological conventions, emphasis is placed on the examination of selected topics that represent pivotal points in the historical development of twentieth-century Europe. Among the topics to be included are the legacies of imperialism, the trauma and transformations wrought by the two world wars and economic depressions, the disenchantment with traditional liberalism, the challenges posed by the political Left and Right, the main currents of intellectual and cultural disquiet, the cold war, European integration, and the politics of gender and class.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century; Enzensberger, Europe, Europe: Forays into a Continent; Camus, The Stranger; Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Levi, Survival in Auschwitz; Solzhenitsyn, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
HIST 443 Nazi Germany
TR 0130-0245p Ziegler, Herb
CONTENT: The aim of this course is to provide a coherent and comprehensive narrative of the causes, collapse, and consequences of National Socialism (Nazism). The scope is broad as the Third Reich and its social and political structures as well as its domestic and foreign policies will be presented in all their complex aspects. Chronologically, the course is not limited to covering just the years of the Nazi rise to power during the Weimar Republic or the era of the Third Reich. Rather, it places the National Socialist experience into a broader historical context that covers nineteenth-century social, political, and ideological antecedents as well as the post-World War II impact of Nazism.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Caplan ed., Nazi Germany; Kershaw, Hitler: A biography
HIST 451E History & Literature: World/Comp.
TR 1200-0115p Njoroge, Njoroge
CONTENT: This course uses literature to broadly survey some of the central and salient topics in the history of the African diaspora. The course examines the interrelationships between history and literature, including how literature reflects and shapes society, the effects of history on literature, and the effects of literature on historical memory. The course moves chronologically as well as geographically and will examine perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic. Beginning with the early encounters with Europe on the African continent, we will trace the “roots and routes” of African experiences in the Americas from the Atlantic slave trade, European expansion, colonialism and the development of capitalism to the overlapping diasporas in the Caribbean, Latin America, the North American mainland and beyond.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: To be announced.
HIST 454 Tsarist Russia
(OC Focus)
MWF 1230-0120p Romaniello, Matt
CONTENT: The history of Tsarist Russia conjures images of its famous rulers - Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great. We will explore not only these famous men and women but also the formation of the Russian Empire, as the state struggled to accommodate multiple ethno-linguistic groups, religions, and lifestyles. "Tsarist Russia" refers to the era of its dynamic tsars but also the ages in which the East Slavs positioned themselves as the leaders of the world's largest continuous empire. Its land and people spanned the Eurasian steppe and eventually Poland, Ukraine, Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. We will pay particular attention to the role of the disempowered groups of the empire: women, peasants, and ethno-linguistic minorities as their responses to the pressure of state authority. Finally, every student will have an opportunity to reflect upon the reigns of Ivan, Peter, and Catherine, as they attempted to control a diverse (and unruly) population.
REQUIREMENTS: As an oral-focus course, much of the work this semester will be based on four oral presentations to the class. The first three will be short (5-minute) presentations on three important issues in Tsarist Russia: 1) the reign of Ivan the Terrible; 2) the impact of Peter the Great's revolution; and 3) the role of women in Russian society. The final one will be a formal presentation of work completed for a research paper, concerning the development of serfdom in Russia. In addition, there will be a final exam.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Perrie and Pavlov, Ivan the Terrible; Cracraft, The Revolution of Peter the Great; Labzina, Days of a Russian Noblewoman; Nikitenko, Up from Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804-1824
HIST 460 Native American History
TR 0130-0245p Daniel, Marcus
CONTENT: Lecture/discussion on the history of North American Indians from the seventeenth century to the present.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: To be announced.
HIST 462 The Early American History
TR 1030-1145a Daniel, Marcus
CONTENT: Lecture/discussion on the Constitution, the growth of partisan politics, the market revolution, religious revivalism, abolitionism and the expansion of slavery in the U.S. during the age of Jefferson and Jackson.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: To be announced.
HIST 465 The United States: 1920-1948
MWF 0830-0920a Nakamura, Kelli
CONTENT: The Roaring Twenties, the Depression, New Deal, coming of World War II, America during the war, origins of the Cold War.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced in class.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Gordon & Patterson, Major Problem in American History, 1920-1948; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Brokaw, The Greatest Generation; Gilmore, Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia
HIST 467 American Television History
TR 1200-0115p Henriksen, Mimi
CONTENT: American Television History is a lecture and discussion course designed to familiarize students with the history and culture of American television, as well as with the general history of the United States after World War II. Issues to be addressed include: television’s absorption into American life; television’s shaping of American culture from its inception in the 1940s to the present; the content, character, and meaning of television programming, from situation comedies and dramas to documentaries, news broadcasts, and talk shows; television’s impact on American political culture and on war in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf; television’s showcasing of the gender and ethnic divisions in America; and the meaning of postmodernism and individual, democratic identity in the contemporary era of network and cable channel proliferation and in a time of ubiquitous reality television program.
REQUIREMENTS: Students are expected to complete extensive reading assignments as well as view and analyze numerous examples of significant television programs. Written course requirements include one book review (3-4 pages), take-home quizzes on reading and/or visual assignments, and a comprehensive final examination.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Cantor, Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization; Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture; Levine, Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television; Matthews, Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America; Weinstock, ed., Taking South Park Seriously
HIST 474 The American West
W 0300-0530p Kraft, Jim
CONTENT: This course explores the historical development of the American West from its earliest societies to modern times. Although the course covers a wide range of topics and themes, it often focuses on the rise of new industries and the experiences of working people in those areas of enterprise. Students play an active role in the course by working in small groups to discuss assigned readings, documentaries, or research projects.
REQUIREMENTS: Midterm and final exams, 8-10 page research paper, and class attendance.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Eutlain, Beyond the Missouri; Minor, Butler, and Lewis, Major Problems in the History of the American West; and course packet.
HIST 481 Pacific Islands I
TR 0900-1015a Chappell, David
CONTENT: This course will survey Pacific Islands history from the earliest human settlement of Oceania to the even of colonialism in the late nineteenth century. Historiography as well as processes and events will be covered, as indigenous peoples in Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia developed their own societies, worldviews, exchange systems and leadership structures before contact with European explorers, traders, missionaries and colonists began to undermine indigenous sovereignty.
REQUIREMENTS: Two book reviews, two examinations, and active oral participation and attendance.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Most readings will be hand-outs, plus two books available for purchase in the bookstore: Osorio, Dismembering Lahui; Moon, Hone Heke.
HIST 496B Senior Tutorial: U.S.
(WI Focus)
PRE: History Major
W 0130-0400p Rosa, John
CONTENT: Analysis of sources and evaluation of methods of historical writing.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced.
REQUIRED TEXTS: To be announced.
HIST 496C Senior Tutorial: Europe
(WI Focus)
PRE: History Major
MWF 1230-0120p Hoffenberg, Peter
CONTENT: History 496C provides the opportunity to broaden and deepen one’s under-standing of European history, improve research and writing skills, and craft an extended original essay of around 25 pages on a topic of one’s own choosing. Students are encouraged to consider a topic, or question in a field that interests them, such as political history, or the history of film, or women’s’ history, and are expected to use both primary and secondary materials. Primary sources could include government records, works of art, literature, memoirs, and, among others, correspondence. Secondary sources are interpretations of such primary materials by others, most likely historians. The interpretation and use of primary and secondary materials are the heart and soul of this project. As a designated “Writing Intensive” (W) seminar, please expect weekly writing assignments. Active, engaged and engaging participation at seminar meetings is also expected.
REQUIREMENTS:Short essays, presentations, and one final essay of approximately 25-30 pages.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Marius and Page, A Short Guide to Writing About History, 4th ed., ed. The Oxford History of Modern Europe; Turabian, Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
HIST 496E Senior Tutorial: Comp./World
(WI Focus)
PRE: History Major
TR 1200-0115p Schwartz, Saundra
CONTENT: Comparisons of historical phenomena across time or space require an ability to see commonalities in disconnected events and to balance differing cultural perspectives. This senior tutorial will give students the opportunity to explore an original topic in World or Comparative History, and learn more about it while writing a sustained historical argument. We will begin by reading a sample historical narrative to examine how historians interpret historical evidence and use techniques of storytelling such as description, perspective, and “arc” to guide their audiences through the journey into the worlds of the past. Research methods, note-taking techniques, writing style, and citation and bibliographic format will be covered.
REQUIREMENTS: Short weekly writing assignments (1-3 pages) for the first two-thirds of the semester, culminating in a final research paper of 20 pages at the end of the term.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Holt, Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan; Marius and Page, A Short Guide to Writing About History, 7th edition