Courses

Courses

Spring 2006 Courses

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016. Global Histories
David Gordon M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
This course examines the challenge that globalization poses for the study of history. How do we write history in a trans-national world? Is there a single history relevant and applicable to all? Or does each group have their own history? Do we accept all histories as equally important and significant? How do historians write inclusive histories given past and continued global inequalities? Is the history of Africa as important as that of the Americas? What right do historians have to record and represent the histories of others? Readings will focus on related questions in the work of select historians and social theorists.
020. In Sickness and in Health: Public Health in Europe and the United States
Susan Tananbaum M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
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.
108. History of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to the Middle Ages
Nicola Denzey M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
An introductory course that focuses on the genesis, history, and interaction of three of the major �Western� religious traditions until the end of the Crusades. Attention will be paid to ideas of monotheism, gender and authority, domination and oppression, and lasting intellectual and religious legacies beyond the Middle Ages.
126. The Making of Modern Europe, 1848-1918
Kimberly Herrlinger M 10:30 - 11:25, W 10:30 - 11:25, F 10:30 - 11:25
Technological innovations of the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution brought about dramatic transformations in virtually every sphere of European life, resulting in the birth of the modern mass society in which we still live today. This survey course explores the European fascination with industrial �progress,� along with the possibilities it promised and the many new questions and problems that it raised. Concludes with an extensive examination of the First World War, which demonstrated not only the awesome power brought to man through modern technology, but also the equally awesome responsibilities that came along with it.
142. The United States since 1945
Daniel Levine T 8:30 - 9:55, TH 8:30 - 9:55
Consideration of social, intellectual, political, and international history. Topics include the Cold War; the survival of the New Deal; the changing role of organized labor; Keynesian, post-Keynesian, or anti-Keynesian economic policies; and the urban crisis. Readings common to the whole class and the opportunity for each student to read more deeply in a topic of his or her own choice.
201. History of Ancient Greece: Bronze Age to the Death of Alexander
Irene Polinskaya M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
Surveys the history of Greek-speaking peoples from the Bronze Age (c. 3000�1100 b.c.e.) to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 b.c.e. Traces the political, economic, social, religious, and cultural developments of the Greeks in the broader context of the Mediterranean world. Topics include the institution of the polis (city-state); hoplite warfare; Greek colonization; the origins of Greek �science,� philosophy, and rhetoric; and fifth-century Athenian democracy and imperialism. Necessarily focuses on Athens and Sparta, but attention is also given to the variety of social and political structures found in different Greek communities. Special attention is given to examining and attempting to understand the distinctively Greek outlook in regard to gender, the relationship between human and divine, freedom, and the divisions between Greeks and barbarians (non-Greeks). A variety of sources�literary, epigraphical, archaeological�are presented, and students learn how to use them as historical documents.
212. Women�s History from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages (200-1200 c.e.)
Nicola Denzey M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. A history of women and the private life in Western Europe, with an emphasis on Italy, France, and Germany. Studies the impact of gender on both domestic and political worlds. Explores the economic and practical options and contributions of women, the rise of women�s spirituality, and discusses the different possibilities of women according to social status and class.
213. Gender and Revolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Experience
Jill Massino T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
Examines how major upheavals such as revolution and social movements affect gender relations, roles, identity, and women's everyday lives. Explores the French Revolution, the socialist revolutions in the USSR and Eastern Europe, the American Civil Rights Movement, and the religious revolutions in Iran and Afghanistan, considering the manner in which political, social, economic, and cultural realms are gendered. Major questions to be addressed include: Why and to what extent do revolutionary ideologies appeal to women, both individually and as a group? What are the roles of women and men in revolutionary and social movements? What have been the net gains and losses for women as a consequence of revolution? Analyzes the ways in which race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect with gender and are constituted by revolutionary discourse.
215. The Red World: Socialism as Imagined and Lived in Russia, 1905-1936
Kimberly Herrlinger M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. The Russian Revolution of 1917 gave hope to socialist workers and intellectuals throughout Europe who had long dreamed of turning the modern capitalist world upside down and founding a new social order based on the equality and dignity of all working people and the elimination of private property. Looks closely at the Soviet people�s efforts to realize the imagined socialist utopia by revolutionizing all aspects of contemporary society including labor relations, family life and gender roles, the arts, the law, and education. Discussions are based on a wide range of texts and films from the 1920s and �30s.
221. History of England, 1485�1688
Susan Tananbaum T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
A survey of the political, cultural, religious, social, and economic history of early modern England, from the reign of Henry VII, the first Tudor ruler, to the outbreak of the Glorious Revolution. Topics considered include the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, the Elizabethan Settlement, the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, and the Restoration.
225. Science and Technology in the United States, 1800 to the Present
David Hecht M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
Focuses on 19th & 20th century science and technology in United States history. This course examines U.S. history, particularly the challenges and opportunities of "progress," using as touchstones a number of seminal events in the interaction between science and society, including the Industrial Revolution, military technology, scientific attempts to justify racism, the atomic bomb, the eugenics movement and changing public health concerns. Few of the many changes that science has wrought have been embraced unequivocally, and this course uses this sometimes chaotic mix of acceptance and suspicion of scientific advance to explore how Americans felt about their rapidly developing and modernizing society.
239. Civil War and Reconstruction
Thomas Desjardin T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
What were the true causes of the war? Why did soldiers on both sides fight? What kind of leader was Abraham Lincoln? How did the war change the lives and roles of women? How did the post-war period affect race relations in the United States? Explores these and other questions in order to give students a background of knowledge and analystical skill about this critical period in United States history. Also examines the perceptions of the Civil War that have become part of our popular culture, and how historians, artists, novelists, and others have helped create these perceptions.
240. Motown to Hip Hop: Black Culture and Society in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Randolph Stakeman T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
A look at the relationship between music and social conditions from the apex of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 to the present. Considers both the political economy of music production and the cultural meanings of the music and its relation to social conditions.
241. Violence and Memory in Twentieth-Century India
Rachel Sturman T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Examines narratives of violence and remembrance across literary, historical, filmic, and other genres to consider the ways in which people have attempted to come to terms with, and create a language and a history for, the experience of violence in modern India. Key issues include: Gandhi�s efforts to develop a theory and practice of non-violence; the experience of massive religious violence, often considered ethnic cleansing or genocide, that accompanied the end of British colonial rule and the partition of the subcontinent to form the independent nations of India and Pakistan in 1947; and the recent proliferation of religious violence and caste- and gender-based atrocities, as well as state-sponsored violence in the post-colonial era.
242. Environment and Culture in North American History
Matthew Klingle M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
Explores relationships between ideas of nature, human transformations of the environment, and the effect of the physical environment upon humans through time in North America. Topics include the �Columbian exchange� and colonialism; links between ecological change and race, class, and gender relations; the role of science and technology; literary and artistic perspectives of �nature�; agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization; and the rise of modern environmentalism. Assignments include a research-based service learning term project.
258. Latin American Revolutions
Allen Wells T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Examines revolutionary change in Latin America from a historical perspective, concentrating on four cases of attempted revolutionary change�Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Popular images and orthodox interpretations are challenged and new propositions about these processes are tested. External and internal dimensions of each of these social movements are analyzed and each revolution is discussed in the full context of the country�s historical development.
263. Politics and Popular Culture in Twentieth-Century India
Rachel Sturman T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Examines the new forms of politics and of popular culture that shaped twentieth-century modernity in India. Topics include the emergence of mass politics, ideologies of nationalism and communalism, the partition of the subcontinent and communities of violence, urbanization and the creation of new publics, modern visual culture, democracy, caste, gender and social movements, and the politics of development. Focuses on the relationship between new socio-political forms and new technologies of representation and communication.
264. Conquest, Colonialism, and Independence: Africa since 1880
David Gordon M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Focuses on conquest, colonialism, and its legacies in sub-Saharan Africa � the violent process of colonial �pacification,� examined from European and African perspectives; the different ways of consolidating colonial rule and African resistance to colonial rule, from Maji Maji to Mau Mau; and African nationalism and independence, as experienced by Africa�s nationalist leaders, from Kwame Nkrumah to Jomo Kenyatta, and their critics. Concludes with the limits of independence � mass disenchantment, the rise of the �predatory� post-colonial state, and the wars of the Great Lakes and Sudan.
266. American Athens: 19th-Century Boston
None None M 6:30 - 9:25
Seminar. An interdisciplinary study of Boston's rise and reputed decline in the 19th century. While primarily an exercise in intellectual history, the seminar draws upon such disciplines as politics, religion, architecture, urbanism, and the history of the book. A final research paper based on primary sources is required.
284. The Emergence of Modern Japan
Thomas Conlan T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
What constitutes a modern state? How durable are cultures and civilizations? Examines the patterns of culture in a state that managed to expel European missionaries in the seventeenth century, and came to embrace all things Western as being �civilized� in the mid-nineteenth century. Compares the unique and vibrant culture of Tokugawa Japan with the rapid program of industrialization in the late nineteenth century, which resulted in imperialism, international wars, and ultimately, the postwar recovery.
329. The Growth of the Welfare State in Britain and America: 1834 to the Present
Daniel Levine T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
A study in the comparative history of the ideology and institutions of the welfare state in two countries that are similar in some ways but quite different in others. Readings in laws, legislative debates, ideological statements, and economic and sociological analysis. A research paper from primary documents is required.
351. The Mexican Revolution
Allen Wells TH 1:00 - 3:55
An examination of the Mexican Revolution (1910�1920) and its impact on modern Mexican society. Topics include the role of state formation since the revolution, agrarian reform, U.S.-Mexican relations, immigration and other border issues.
380. The Warrior Culture of Japan
Thomas Conlan M 1:00 - 3:55
Explores the �rise� of the warrior culture of Japan. In addition to providing a better understanding of the judicial and military underpinnings of Japan�s military �rule� and the nature of medieval Japanese warfare, shows how warriors have been perceived as a dominant force in Japanese history. Culminates in an extended research paper.

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