Course Offerings for First Year Students


If you would like to view the syllabus for a course listed below, click on the title or request it by emailing the professor or by contacting the Academic Coordinator at jjohnso2@bowdoin.edu.

Fall 2012

FIRST YEAR SEMINARS

012 {1014} (M/W 1:00-2:25) c. Utopia: Intentional Communities in America, 1630–1997. Sarah McMahon.

An examination of the evolution of utopian visions and utopian experiments that begins in 1630 with John Winthrop’s “City upon a Hill,” explores the proliferation of both religious and secular communal ventures between 1780 and 1920, and concludes with an examination of twentieth-century counterculture communes, intentional communities, and dystopian separatists. Readings include primary source accounts by members (letters, diaries, essays, etc.), “community” histories and apostate exposés, utopian fiction, and scholarly historical analyses. Discussions and essays focus on teaching students how to subject primary and secondary source materials to critical analysis.

018 {1008} c.  (M/W 1:00-2:25) New Worlds, New Goods: Consumerism in Early Modern Europe. Meghan Roberts.

Examines the social, cultural, and political dimensions of consumerism in the early modern Atlantic world, from the discovery of the New World through the French Revolution. Considers how material objects like tulips, coffee, clothing, and furniture provide a lens through which we can study topics such as imperialism, gender, class, and national identity.

020 {1010} c. (T/Th 10:00-11:25) In Sickness and in Health: Public Health in Europe and the United States. Susan Tananbaum.

Introduces a variety of historical perspectives on illness and health. Considers the development of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and economic forces that have influenced public health policy. Topics include epidemics, maternal and child welfare, AIDS, and national health care. (Same as Gender and Women’s Studies 20 {1020}.)

026 {1038} c. (M/W 2:30-3:55) Globalizing India. Rachel Sturman.

Interrogates contemporary globalization by examining how Indians have interacted with and been shaped by the broader world since the early modern era, with a focus on the last two centuries. Topics include the place of India in the European imagination and vice versa; India’s role in the rise of modern global capitalism and imperialism; and the distinctive features of contemporary globalization. (Same as Asian Studies 26 {1035}.)

027 {1032} c. (T/Th 11:30-12:55) The Sexual Life of Colonialism. Durba Mitra.

Explores histories of state control of sexuality and intimacy in the non-Western world in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Addresses different forms of sexuality including interracial relationships between colonizers and the colonized, queer and same-sex desires, sexual outcasts like prostitutes, and the lives of transgender individuals. Readings cover histories of gender and sexuality in the Arab-Islamic world, colonial South Asia, and colonial sub-Saharan Africa. (Same as Gay and Lesbian Studies 017 {1017}, Gender and Women Studies 016 {1016})

INTRODUCTORY-LEVEL LECTURE COURSES (1100-1999)

125 {1180} c. - ESD, IP. (T/Th 1:00-2:25) Entering Modernity: European Jewry. Susan L. Tananbaum.

Explores Jewish life through the lenses of history, religion, and ethnicity and examines the processes by which governments and sections of the Jewish community attempted to incorporate Jews and Judaism into European society. Surveys social and economic transformations of Jews, cultural challenges of modernity, varieties of modern Jewish religious expression, political ideologies, the Holocaust, establishment of Israel, and American Jewry through primary and secondary sources, lectures, films, and class discussions. (Same as Religion 125 {1125})

139 {1241} c. (M/W 11:30-12:55)The Civil War Era. Patrick Rael.

Examines the coming of the Civil War and the war itself in all its aspects. Considers the impact of changes in American society, the sectional crisis and breakdown of the party system, the practice of Civil War warfare, and social ramifications of the conflict. Includes readings of novels and viewing of films. Students are expected to enter with a basic knowledge of American history, and a commitment to participating in large class discussions. (Same as Africana Studies 139 {1241}.)

 

INTERMEDIATE LECTURE & SURVEY COURSES (2000-2499)

202 {2002} c. (M/W 2:30-3:55) Ancient Rome.  Robert Sobak.

Surveys the history of Rome from its beginnings to the fourth century A.D. Considers the political, economic, religious, social, and cultural developments of the Romans in the context of Rome’s growth from a small settlement in central Italy to the dominant power in the Mediterranean world. Special attention is given to such topics as urbanism, imperialism, the influence of Greek culture and law, and multiculturalism. Introduces different types of sources—literary, epigraphical, archaeological, etc.—for use as historical documents. (Same as Classics 212 {2212}.)

215 {2105} c - ESD. (M/W 2:30-3:55) The Paradox of Progress: Europe and the Experience of Modernity, 1815-1918 The Making of Modern Europe, 1815–1918. Page Herrlinger.

Survey course of the “long nineteenth century” in Europe, from 1815 to the end of the First World War, with an emphasis on the social, cultural, and political impact of industrial and technological “progress.” Explores the way people lived and thought about the world around them as Europe industrialized, as well as the ambivalence that many Europeans came to attach to “modernity” by the end of the Great War in 1918.

227 {2005} c - IP. (M/W 11:30-12:55) City and Landscape in Modern Europe. Fall 2012. Jill Pearlman.

Explores the evolution of the built environment in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Focusing on significant moments in the history of these cities, considers a variety of factors as determinants of urban form, including technological developments, industrialization, politics, economics, culture and design. Topics include the creation of capital cities, natural and public spaces, streets, housing, suburbanization, environmental problems, and current schemes for a sustainable urbanism. (Same as Environmental Studies 227 {2427}.)

248 {2128} c - ESD. (T/Th 11:30-12:55) Family and Community in American History, 1600–1900. Sarah McMahon.

Examines the social, economic, and cultural history of American families from 1600 to 1900, and the changing relationship between families and their kinship networks, communities, and the larger society. Topics include gender relationships; racial, ethnic, cultural, and class variations in family and community ideals, structures, and functions; the purpose and expectations of marriage; philosophies of child-rearing; organization of work and leisure time; and the effects of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and social and geographic mobility on patterns of family life and community organization. (Same as Gender and Women’s Studies 248 {2248}.)

252 {2401} c - IP. (T/Th 10:00-11:25) Colonial Latin America. Elizabeth Shesko.

Introduces students to the history of Latin America from pre-Columbian times to about 1825. Traces developments fundamental to the establishment of colonial rule, drawing out regional comparisons of indigenous resistance and accommodation. Topics include the nature of indigenous societies encountered by Europeans; exploitation of African and Indian labor; evangelization and the role of the church; the evolution of race, gender, and class hierarchies in colonial society; and the origins of independence in Spanish America and Brazil. (Same as Latin American Studies 252 {2401}.)

257 {2016} c. (M/W/F 9:30-10:25) Age of Reform: The Long Progressive Movement in United States History 1890–1940. W. Thomas Okie.

Investigates the history of reform in the United States. Examines episodes from the late nineteenth-century farmers’ and workers’ movements through the New Deal reforms of the 1930s, but focuses on the so-called “progressive movement” around the turn of the century, including urban reform, the social gospel, conservation and rural development, segregation and eugenics, and progressive politics.

261 {2342} c - ESD, IP (M/W 11:30-12:55) The Making of Modern India. Rachel Sturman.

Traces the history of India from the rise of British imperial power in the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Topics include the formation of a colonial economy and society; religious and social reform; the emergence of anti-colonial nationalism; the road to independence and partition; and issues of secularism, democracy, and inequality that have shaped post-colonial Indian society. (Same as Asian Studies 256 {2581}.)

265 {2365} c - IP. (T/Th 1:00-2:25) Mogadishu to Madagascar: East African History. David Gordon.

Examines the history of East Africa with a special focus on the interactions between east Africans and the Indian Ocean World. Considers African societies prior to Portuguese conquest, continues through Omani colonialism, and the spread of slavery across East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar and Mauritius; the onset of British, Italian, and German colonialism, rebellions against colonialism including Mau Mau in Kenya, and post-colonial conflicts including the Zanzibar revolution of 1964; the rise of independent Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Somalia, and challenges to their sovereignty by present-day Indian Ocean rebels, such as the Somali pirates. (Same as Africana Studies 268 {2365}.)

271 {2061} c - ESD. (M/W 8:00– 9:30) Culture Wars in the Age of Enlightenment. Meghan Roberts.

Examines a series of intellectual, political, and cultural feuds in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” during which thinkers aspired to implement sweeping changes in politics and society. Topics include the debate over who had the right to engage in intellectual work, the rise of atheistic thinking and the efforts of religious groups to combat it, the development of new scientific methods, and discussions of government, gender, and race.

275 {2320} c. (M/W  11:30-12:55) History of China I: Antiquity and Late Antiquity (2000 B.C.E. to 800 C.E.). Leah Zuo.

First installment of a three-part introduction to Chinese history. Explores the origins and foundations of Chinese civilization. Prominent themes include the inception of the imperial system, the intellectual fluorescence in classical China, the introduction and assimilation of Buddhism, the development of Chinese cosmology, and the interactions between early China and neighboring regions. Class discussion of historical writings complemented with literary works and selected pieces of the visual arts. (Same as Asian Studies 275 {2010}.)

283 {2300} c. (T/Th 10:00-11:25) The Origins of Japanese Culture and Civilization. Thomas Conlan.

How do a culture, a state, and a society develop? Designed to introduce the culture and history of Japan by exploring how “Japan” came into existence, and to chart how patterns of Japanese civilization shifted through time. Attempts to reconstruct the tenor of life through translations of primary sources, and to lead to a greater appreciation of the unique and lasting cultural and political monuments of Japanese civilization. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors.  (Same as Asian Studies 283 {2250}.)