Courses

Courses

Spring 2008 Courses

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060. Introduction to Historical Writing
Patrick Rael T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
Focuses on skills necessary for analytic and critical writing, with special attention to drafting and revision of student essays. Provides practice in basic research and analytical skills required for working in history (and to a lesser degree other social sciences and humanities), and addresses basic grammar problems frequently encountered in college-level essays. Does not count toward the major or minor in history.

142. The United States since 1945
Daniel Levine T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
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
Robert Sobak M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
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 A variety of sources—literary, epigraphical, archaeological—are presented, and students learn how to use them as historical documents.

203. Religion and Modernity in South Asia and the Middle East
Mitchell Numark M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Examines the concepts of “religion” and the “religions” and their relationship to Christianity, Islam, and modernity. Focuses on the application and translation of the ideas of “religion” and the “religions” in the South Asian subcontinent. The Middle East is also explored. In particular, explores how the “religions” of South Asia (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism) were discovered, understood, contested, transformed, and institutionalized by colonial experience and the demands of modernity.

204. Science, Magic, and Religion
Dallas Denery M 9:30 - 10:25, W 9:30 - 10:25, F 9:30 - 10:25
Traces the origins of the scientific revolution through the interplay between late-antique and medieval religion, magic, and natural philosophy. Particular attention is paid to the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the meaning and function of religious miracles, the rise and persecution of witchcraft, and Renaissance hermeticism.
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208. The History of History
Dallas Denery M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
Seminar. What is history and how do we come to know it? Does history follow a plan and, if so, what sort of plan? Examines the practice of historical inquiry from the ancient world to Marx, with particular emphasis on the way in which religious thought has shaped conceptions of history. Topics include apocalyptic history, conspiracy theory, and bad history.
syllabus

219. Russia's Twentieth Century: Revolution and Beyond
Kimberly Herrlinger M 10:30 - 11:25, W 10:30 - 11:25, F 10:30 - 11:25
Examines major transformations in Russian society, culture, and politics from the Revolutions of 1917 through the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991. Topics include the building of socialist society under Lenin and Stalin, the political Terror of the 1930s and the expansion of the Gulag system, the experience of World War II, Soviet influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, attempts at de-Stalinization under Khrushchev, everyday life under “developed socialism,” the period of “glasnost” and “perestroika” under Gorbachev, and the problems of de-Sovietization in the early 1990s.

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 to be considered include the Tudor and Stuart Monarchs, the Elizabethan Settlement, the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell, and the Restoration.

230. Science and Race in Modern America
David Hecht T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
Explores the myriad ways that science has been used to construct, reinforce, or challenge notions of “race” in twentieth-century United States politics and culture. Since racial categories and divisions have been popularly presumed to have scientific basis, the politics of “race” cannot be understood apart from the histories of biology, genetics, and medicine. Examines a number of seminal moments in twentieth-century history—such as eugenics, intelligence testing, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the Bell Curve controversy, Nazi race science, and genetic engineering—to explore the variety of ways in which science variously mediated, supported, or questioned debates over race in twentieth-century America.

231. Social History of Colonial America, 1607-1763
Sarah McMahon T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
A social history of the founding and growth of the colonies in British North America. Explores the difficulties of creating a new society, economy, polity, and culture in an unfamiliar and already inhabited environment; the effects of diverse and often conflicting goals and expectations on the early settlement and development of the colonies; the gradual adaptations and changes in European, Native American, and African cultures, and their separate, combined, and often contested contributions to a new “provincial,” increasingly stratified (both socially and economically), and regionally disparate culture; and the later problems of maturity and stability as the thirteen colonies began to outgrow the British imperial system and become a new “American” society.

234. Lawn Boy Meets Valley Girl: Gender and the Suburbs
Jennifer Scanlon T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
The suburbs, where the majority of the nation’s residents live, have been alternately praised as the most visible sign of the American dream and vilified as the vapid core of homogeneous Middle America. How did the “burbs” come about, and what is their significance in American life? Begins with the history of the suburbs from the mid-nineteenth century to the post-World War II period, exploring the suburb as part of the process of national urbanization. In the second part, explores more contemporary cultural representations of the suburbs in popular television, film, and fiction. Particular attention is paid to gender, race, and consumer culture as influences in the development of suburban life.

236. The History of African Americans, 1619-1865
Patrick Rael M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
Examines the history of African Americans from the origins of slavery in America through the death of slavery during the Civil War. Explores a wide range of topics, including the establishment of slavery in colonial America, the emergence of plantation society, control and resistance on the plantation, the culture and family structure of enslaved African Americans, free black communities, and the coming of the Civil War and the death of slavery.

240. Only a Game? Sports and Leisure in Europe and America
Susan Tananbaum M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Uses the lens of sport and leisure to analyze cultural and historical trends in modern Europe and the United States. Students read a range of primary and secondary texts exploring race, class, and gender and complete a significant research paper.

242. Environment and Culture in North American History
Matthew Klingle M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
Examines alternative ways to protect our environment. Analyzes environmental policies and the regulatory regime that has developed in the United States; new approaches such as free-market environmentalism, civic environmentalism, environmental justice, sustainable development; and environmental policies and politics in other countries, especially China.

249. History of Women's Voices in America
Sarah McMahon M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
Seminar. Examines women’s voices in America from 1650 to the twentieth century, as these emerged in private letters, journals, and autobiographies; poetry, short stories, and novels; essays, addresses, and prescriptive literature. Readings from the secondary literature provide a historical framework for examining women’s writings. Research projects focus on the form and content of women’s literature and the ways that it illuminates women’s understandings, reactions, and responses to their historical situation.

250. California Dreamin': A History of the Golden State
Connie Chiang M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Sunshine, beaches, shopping malls, and movie stars are the popular stereotypes of California, but social conflicts and environmental degradation have long tarnished the state’s golden image. Unravels the myth of the California dream by examining the state’s social and environmental history from the end of Mexican rule and the discovery of gold in 1848 to the 2003 election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Major topics include immigration and racial violence, radical and conservative politics, extractive and high tech industries, environmental disasters, urban, suburban, and rural divides, and California in American popular culture.

264. Conquest, Colonialism, and Independence: Africa since 1880
David Gordon T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
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, genocide in the Great Lakes, and the wars of Central Africa.

266. History of Mexico
Allen Wells T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
A survey of Mexican history from pre-Columbian times to the present. Topics to be examined include the evolving character of indigenous societies, the nature of the Encounter, the colonial legacy, the chaotic nineteenth century, the Mexican Revolution, and United States-Mexican relations. Contemporary problems are also addressed.

267. African Environmental History
David Gordon T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Seminar. Interrogates the myth of a pristine African environment by exploring the long history of human-environment interactions in sub-Saharan Africa. Themes include pre-colonial African environmental ideas, colonialism and the environment, controversies over conservation strategies and the establishment of “game reserves,” globalization of the African environment, African urban environments, and the rise of post-colonial African environmental movements.

276. A History of Tibet
Kidder Smith T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Examines three questions: What was old Tibet? Is Tibet part of China? What are conditions there now? Analyzes the complex interactions of politics and society with Buddhist doctrine and practice.

279. India to 1707: History of Traditional India
Mitchell Numark M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
Examines the history of the Indian subcontinent, primarily from cultural and intellectual viewpoints, beginning with its earliest roots and concluding in 1707 with the decline of the Mughal Empire. Emphasis is placed on the development of indigenous ways of looking at the world and the expression of those worldviews in the religions called Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Explores the conquest of the area by Muslims and their interaction with Hindu India, with particular stress on the period of the Great Mughals (1526–1707). Readings will be largely primary sources in translation.

311. Experiments in Totalitarianism: Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
Kimberly Herrlinger W 1:00 - 3:55
Compares and contrasts the nature of society and culture under two of this century’s most “totalitarian” regimes—fascism under the Nazis in Germany, and socialism under the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union. Prior course work in either modern Germany or Russia is strongly recommended, and students may focus their research project on either country, or a comparison of both.

334. Activism in America: Politics and Social Change in Twentieth-Century United States History
David Hecht T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Examines the history of activism in twentieth-century America. The first half of the course explores a wide range of social and political issues—civil rights, feminism, environmental concerns and gay rights, as well as scientific and religious activism. Examples drawn from these areas will be used to explore the nature, formation, and reception of activist goals and visions in modern American history. The second half of the course follows a workshop format, in which students each develop and write a substantial research paper of their own design.

356. The Cuban Revolution
Allen Wells TH 1:00 - 3:55
The Cuban Revolution recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary. Offers a retrospective of a revolution entering “middle age” and its prospects for the future. Topics include United States–Cuban relations, economic and social justice versus political liberty, gender and race relations, and literature and film in a socialist society.