91328

HIST 101 The Making of Europe to 1815

Alheli Alvarado-Diaz

. T . Th .

3:10 - 4:30 pm

RKC 115

HIST

What is "Europe," and what historical processes shaped its cultures?  We will examine prehistory and antiquity, as well as medieval and early modern times, to examine cities and trade, philosophy, literature and the arts, conquests and empire building, and the changing confluence of peoples with their distinctive religions, languages, and customs.  What precedents can we moderns claim from these distant times?  Are material or cultural influences more significant in shaping European identity?  Class size: 20

91359

HIST 120 War & Peace: a History of International Relations, 1878-2001 (GCC)

Mark Lytle / Richard Aldous

M . W . .

3:10 -4:30 pm

OLINLC 115

HIST

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies (core course); Victorian Studies This global course surveys international history in the modern era, beginning in 1878 with the Congress of Berlin and a war in Afghanistan and moving chronologically towards 9/11 and another war in Afghanistan. How then has the international system changed between these two Afghan wars? We will give particular attention to the three great conflicts of the twentieth century – World War I, World War II, and the Cold War – and the shifting balance of power in Europe and Asia. We will also explore the historiographic controversies that surround these events. Special prominence is given to the policies of the Great Powers, and the major ideological forces that defined them. In that way, our survey will help you achieve an understanding of the broad sweep of international history, and to be able to differentiate among the forces—including imperialism, fascism, communism, liberal capitalism, science, and globalism—that have disturbed the peace and shaped the modern world. Class size: 44

91573

HIST / JS 120 Jewishness Beyond Religion: Defining Secular Jewish Culture

Cecile Kuznitz

. T . Th .

10:10 – 11:30 am

OLIN 303

HIST/DIFF

In the pre-modern world Jewish identity was centered on religion but expressed as well in how one made a living, what clothes one wore, and what language one spoke. In modern times Jewish culture became more voluntary and more fractured. While some focused on Judaism as (only) a religion, both the most radical and the most typical way in which Jewishness was redefined was in secular terms. In this course we will explore the intellectual, social, and political movements that led to new secular definitions of Jewish culture and identity, focusing on examples from Western and Eastern Europe and the United States. Topics will include the origins of Jewish secularization, haskalah (Jewish enlightenment) and Reform, acculturation and assimilation, modern Jewish political movements including Zionism, and Jews and the arts. In addition to secondary historical texts we will pay special attention to a wide variety of primary source documents. The class will also incorporate materials drawn from literature, film, and music. Class size: 18

91364

HIST 130 Origins of American Citizen

Christian Crouch

M . W . .

11:50 -1:10 pm

OLIN 204

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies; Human Rights The United States is often portrayed historically as emerging triumphantly in 1776 to offer inclusive citizenship and a transcendent, tolerant “American” identity to all its indigenous and immigrant residents. Yet the reality of American history belies this myth. The nation’s history is transnational and yet we focus mostly on its Anglophone roots, ignoring that the “U.S.” was carved out of the contests of many empires and grew on internationally based forced labor regimes. It is a story of individuals, alone and/or together, contesting, reacting towards, rejecting, influencing, and embracing the changing notions of what “the United States” and “America” were from the sixteenth century well into the nineteenth century. The course focuses on six moments that definitively challenged and shaped conceptions of “American identity”, “citizen”, and “the United States”: the early colonial period, the Constitutional Convention, Cherokee Removal, the era of the internal slave trade and the “Market Revolution”, the Mexican-American War, and Reconstruction. Class size: 22

91360

HIST 142 Britain since 1707

Richard Aldous

. T . Th .

3:10 -4:30 pm

RKC 101

HIST

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies; Victorian Studies ‘Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves!’ urged the patriotic song of the eighteenth century. This survey course examines three hundred years of British history - a period during which Britain did indeed ‘rule the waves’ as the world’s most powerful nation. Our survey will examine the complex and multi-layered history of Great Britain from its inception in 1707 to the modern day, asking how a small island off continental Europe spread its influence so successfully around the globe. Bringing together political, diplomatic, economic, social and cultural history, the course looks at major developments such as the growth of democracy, imperialism and decolonization, the two world wars, the expanding role of the state and the reach of institutions such as the BBC. Fully integrating England, Scotland, Wales and the Irish experience, we will survey the evolution of a nation and its people, asking to what extent Britain lived up to its aspiration to be ‘great and free, the dread and envy of them all.’ Class size: 22

91111

HIST / CLAS 157 The Athenian Century

James Romm

. T . Th .

1:30 -2:50 pm

OLIN 202

HIST

Cross-listed: Classical Studies In the fifth century BCE, Athens dramatically developed from a small, relatively unimportant city-state into a dominant power in the Aegean basin. Athenian political, artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions continue to reverberate through the world today: democracy, tragedy and comedy, rhetoric, philosophy, and history itself, as well as the classical style of sculpture and architecture stem from this remarkable culture. The course will confront some of the ambiguities and tensions (slavery, exclusion of women and non-citizens from political power), as well as the glories, of Athenian art, literature, and history during this period. We will read selections from the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, many of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the comedies of Aristophanes, and one or two dialogues of Plato. Class size: 25

91370

HIST 161 History of Technology and Economics in the Modern Period

Gregory Moynahan

. T . Th .

4:40 -6:00 pm

OLIN 202

HIST

Cross-Listed: Environmental & Urban Studies, Global & Int’l Studies; Science, Technology & Society (core course), Related interest: Human Rights This course will survey the history and historiography of technology in the late modern period. The course will begin by studying how a separate domain of technology first came to be defined, in theory and practice, during the eighteenth century within such diverse activities as agriculture, time measurement, transport, architecture, and warfare. We will then address how institutional forces such as law, academia, business and government came to define and influence technological change and scientific research during the industrial revolution. Throughout the course, we will avoid casting the history of technology solely as a history of 'things' and instead focus on technology as a process embedded within research agendas, institutions, social expectations, economics, and specific use -- and thus as part of a broader 'socio-technical system.' Case studies ranging from the bicycle and nuclear missile targeting to public health statistics and the birth control pill will allow us to develop 'internal' accounts of the development of technology and science in conjunction with 'external' accounts of the historical context of technologies. The course will conclude with an assessment of recent approaches to the history of technology, such as the influence of systems theory or actor-network theory. Authors read will include Hacking, Heidegger, Hughes, Landes, Latour, Lenoir, Luhmann, Mokyr, Spengler, and Wise. If course space is limited, preference will be given to History and History of Science concentrators. Class size: 22

91371

HIST 184 Inventing Modernity: Peasant Commune, Renaissance and Reformation in the German and Italian Worlds, 1291-1806

Gregory Moynahan

. T . Th .

1:30 -2:50 pm

OLIN 204

HIST

Cross-listed: German Studies, Italian Studies, STS Using as its starting point Jacob Burckhardt's classic account The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, this course will examine the role of the drastic upheavals of the early modern period in defining the origins of such modern institutions as capitalism, political individuality, religious freedom, democracy, and the modern military. The geographic focus will be the towns, cities, and peasant communes of the Italian and German speaking regions of Europe, particularly the Italian peninsula, Holy Roman Empire, and Switzerland.  Two apparently opposed developments will be at the center of our approach: first, the role of the autonomous peasant commune, particularly in Switzerland, as a model and spur for political forms such as democracy and anarchism; second, the development of modern capitalism and technology as they came to impinge on the traditional feudal and communal orders. The course will also address the historiography and politics -surrounding the "invention" of the Renaissance in the late nineteenth century, looking particularly at Burckhardt's relation with Ranke, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Class size: 22

91577

HIST 185 The History of the Modern Middle East

Jennifer Derr

M . W . .

3:10 -4:30 pm

RKC 115

HIST/DIFF

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Global & Int’l Studies; Human Rights; Middle East Studies; Science, Tech. & Society During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the regions of the Middle East ruled by the Ottoman Empire experienced great political transformations. This region’s historical trajectory included the imposition of European colonialism, the emergence of nationalism(s), the break-up of empire, and the eventual division of the region into individual nation-states. A series of cultural and social transformations, including shifts within political, religious, and communal identities, shaped these political moments. Beginning in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, this course critically analyzes the historical moments and trends comprising the history of the former Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Among the topics we will explore are:  Political and legal shifts in the late Ottoman Empire; the break-up of the Ottoman Empire; the legacies of WWI and WWII; the impact of French and British colonial projects; the emergence of nationalism(s) and the shape of anti-colonial movements; changing cultural and social norms, included those related to gender ; the emergence of independent nation-states and the shape of post-colonial politics; regional conflicts in the late twentieth century. Class size: 22

91573

HIST 2014 History of New York City

Cecile Kuznitz

. T . Th .

1:30 – 2:50 pm

OLIN 301

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies This course will survey the history of New York City from its founding as a Dutch colony until the present post-industrial, post-9/11 era. We will emphasize the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the city was transformed by immigration and rose to prominence as a global economic and cultural capital. We will pay particular attention to the development and use of distinct types of urban space such as housing, parks, and skyscrapers. We will also consider New York’s evolving population, including divisions of ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic class. One recurrent theme will be the various, often controversial solutions proposed to the problems of a modern metropolis, such as the need for infrastructure (water management, transportation), social and political reform (Tammany Hall, Jacob Riis), and urban planning (Robert Moses).

Class size: 22

91372

HIST 2122 The Arab-Israel Conflict

Joel Perlmann

. T . Th .

4:40 -6:00 pm

OLIN 203

HIST/DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies, Human Rights, Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies This course is meant to provide students with an understanding of this conflict from its inception to the present. Considerable attention will be given to the present; nevertheless, the conflict is simply incomprehensible without a solid understanding of its evolution - incomprehensible not merely in terms of details, but in terms of broader themes and aroused passions. Among the themes to be discussed are the following. A Jewish national movement arose in the late nineteenth century to oppose the conditions of Jewish life in Europe, and an Arab national movement (as well as a specifically Palestinian movement) arose to oppose Ottoman and European rule of Arab peoples. Out of the clash of these movements emerged the State of Israel and the Palestinian refugees in 1948. The political character of the conflict has changed over the decades: first it involved competing movements (before 1948), then chiefly a conflict of national states (Israel vs. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, etc), and now it is conceived as chiefly a conflict between Israeli military rule of territories (occupied since the 1967 war) and an insurgent Palestinian independence movement. Military realities also changed greatly, as did the accusations about the role of ‘terror’ as a tactic (from the Jewish Irgun to Hamas) and the role of religion. And not least, the conflict has been shaped by strategic and economic considerations of the great powers (Ottoman, British, American/Soviet, hegemonic American) as well as by considerations of domestic political culture in Israel and in the Arab world. Class size: 22

91365

HIST 2139 Atlantic North America: 1492-1765

Christian Crouch

M . W . .

1:30 -2:50 pm

RKC 101

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies, French Studies, LAIS Taking at its starting point the "Columbian Exchange" and oceanic revolution of 1492, this course opens up the early modern history of North America.  We will trace contact between Indians, Africans, and Europeans from initial encounter through the complex enmeshed global Atlantic of the eighteenth century. What motivated migrations across the Atlantic in both directions? How did imperial aspirations shape the nature of encounters (both voluntary and forced) in North America? What is at stake in how we construct particular visions of colonial American history - who is included, who is excluded, and how our narrative changes over time? Intellectual, social, and cultural trends in various colonies will be analyzed throughout the semester, as well as considering North America as a whole. Class size: 22

91362

HIST 217 The Progressive Era in US History

Myra Armstead

. T . Th .

3:10 -4:30 pm

OLIN 201

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies This course surveys the years between 1890 and 1930 for the social and cultural politics of reform that it spawned. We will explore cross-Atlantic exchanges that informed an American Progressive consciousness, competing historical interpretations of Progressivism, and the legacy of Progressivism for later twentieth-century liberalism. In addition to the recognized reform movements of the period, we will also challenge ourselves to view other contemporary developments--e.g., the rise of educative exhibits and exhibitionism, racial accommodationism,--as reflections of Progressive thought. Class size: 22

91560

HIST/LAIS 220 Mexican History & Culture

Jose Montelongo

. T . Th .

4:40 – 6:00 pm

OLIN 101

HIST

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies; LAIS Spanning the period from the apex of the Aztec civilization before the arrival of the Spanish “conquistadores” (16^th Century) to the fall of the revolutionary ruling class in contemporary Mexico, this course focuses on the events that have changed and defined Mexican culture over the last five centuries. We will discuss the role of gender and race in colonial Mexico, the ideologies of nation-building after the War of Independence, and the representations of cultural identity that emerged from the Revolution of 1910. Primary sources will include historical and literary texts, art, music, and film. We will analyze influential artistic and intellectual voices including Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Diego Rivera, Juan Rulfo, and Octavio Paz. We will also debate social problems of present-day Mexico, such as migration, poverty, and the conflicts between indigenous communities and the liberal state. Class size: 22

91367

HIST 2301 China in the Eyes of the West

Robert Culp

. T . Th .

11:50 -1:10 pm

OLIN 205

HIST/DIFF

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Global & Int’l Studies; Human Rights European Enlightenment thinkers viewed the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) as the world's most enlightened despotism, but by the turn of the twentieth century most Western thinkers considered China to be the "sick man of Asia." This course will reconstruct the visions of China formulated by Europeans and Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and explore how and why those visions changed over time. We will approach these issues with the goal of understanding how certain portrayals facilitated Western imperialism toward China, even as imperialism generated the social, cultural, and political contexts in which those portrayals were produced. We will also explore how changing relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Euro-American world during the past three decades have generated new images of China, even as images from earlier periods continue to shape popular conceptions. Shared readings in theoretical literature discussing Orientalism, cross-cultural observation, and the politics of modernization theory will provide a common framework for our work. We will analyze representations of China in a wide array of sources, including popular histories, news reports, travel writing, academic works, novels, photographic essays, documentary and feature films, websites, blogs, and list-serves. The course will culminate in individual research projects on a particular text, film, or depiction. Open to first year students. Class size: 22

91361

HIST 2307 The American Dream: History of an Idea and an Experience

Myra Armstead

M . W . .

3:10 -4:30 pm

OLIN 310

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies “But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement."  These words from James Truslow Adams summarize the optimism and sense of exceptionalism that have defined much of American experience.  In this course, we will consider the various articulations of the Dream, the ideological and structural supports for the Dream, limits of the Dream, and how these have changed over time.   We will look briefly and comparatively at alternative dreams, e.g, the, the new “European Dream,” in an effort to assess implicit understandings of the Dream's uniqueness, and critiques of the Dream within a global context. Class size: 18

91366

HIST 2308 China's Environment in Historical Perspective

Robert Culp

. T . Th .

10:10 - 11:30 am

OLIN 205

HIST

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & Int’l Studies The fate of the global environment arguably depends on how China’s environmental crisis develops over the next half century. This course will analyze the historical roots of China’s current environmental condition and confront the challenges posed to current efforts at environmental protection. We will begin by considering indigenous ideas of ecology and human action, as well as analyzing late imperial (1368-1911) patterns of political economy to assess their long-term environmental impact. During the twentieth century, Euro-American imperialism and exposure to the global economy introduced new developmental imperatives, which found expression in both state capitalism and state socialism, that we will explore in the second third of the course. The class will end by considering how China’s dynamic growth of the post-Mao Reform Era is generating new and ever more acute environmental problems, whose appearance and management are conditioned by historical legacies. In addition to regular papers, the class will work on a common group project to formulate a comprehensive environmental policy for China during the coming decade. No prior study of China or environmental studies is necessary; first-year students are welcome. Class size: 22

91373

HIST 242 History of Soviet Russia: From Communism to Nationalism

Gennady Shkliarevsky

M . W . .

3:10 -4:30 pm

RKC 111

HIST

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies, Human Rights, Russian and Eurasian Studies There has hardly been a period in Russian history which would be more abundant in upheavals and paradoxes than the country's evolution in the 20th century. In its search for an elusive balance between modernity and tradition, Russian society has experienced many radical transformations that will be the subject of this introductory survey. In addition to the discussion and analysis of the main internal and external political developments in the region, the course will also include extensive examination of different aspects of the rapidly modernizing society, such as the Soviet command economy; the construction of national identity, ethnic relations and nationalism; family, gender relations, and sexuality; the arts, etc. Course materials will include scholarly texts, original documents, works of fiction and films. Class size: 22

91369

HIST 302 World War II & The Cold War: A Research Seminar (MC)

Mark Lytle

M . . . . . . . Th .

7:00 -9:00 pm 3:10 -4:30 pm

PRE 110 OLIN 107

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies; Environmental Studies; Social Policy This major conference looks at the period from the late 1930s until the early 1950s. During this period, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States and its Allies fought and won a global war, dropped the atomic bomb and thereby launched the nuclear arms race, and finally entered into a Cold War with the Soviet Union that shaped political and cultural life at home and abroad. This course is above all a research seminar. It is designed to allow junior History, American Studies, Environmental Studies and others with appropriate needs and interests to explore such questions as “Why did the US drop the atom bomb on Japan?”, “How did the military planning for World War II shape the Cold War?”, “What role do propaganda and pop culture play in setting the national agenda?”  In doing so it takes advantage of the archival resources of the Roosevelt Library and the Cold War International history Project.  Students will select a research topic early in the semester and based on primary and secondary sources produce a journal length article. Many students will be able to use this opportunity to define or refine topics for senior project.

Class size: 15

91330

HIST 3112 PLAGUE! (MC)

Alice Stroup

M . . . .

1:30 -3:50 pm

OLIN 308

HIST

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & Int’l Studies; Human Rights; Medieval Studies The cry “Plague!” has struck fear among people around the world, from antiquity to the present. What is plague? How has it changed history? Starting with Camus’ metaphorical evocation of plague in a modern North African city, we will examine the historical impact of plague on society. Our focus will be bubonic plague, which was epidemic throughout the Mediterranean and European worlds for four hundred years, and which remains a risk in many parts of the world (including the southwestern United States) to this day. Topics include: a natural history of plague; impact of plague on mortality and socio-economic structures; effects on art and literature; early epidemiology and public health; explanations and cures; the contemporary presence of bubonic plague and fears about “new plagues.” Readings include: literary works by Camus, Boccaccio, Manzoni, and Defoe; historical and philosophical analyses by ancients Thucydides and Lucretius; contemporary literature on history, biology, and public health. Upper College Seminar: open to fifteen moderated students. Class size: 15

91574

HIST 3133 Resistance and Collaboration (MC)

Cecile Kuznitz

M . . . .

4:40 – 7:00 pm

OLIN 107

HIST

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; German Studies; Human Rights This course will consider the concepts of resistance and collaboration, in particular as they apply to the actions of victims and bystanders during the Holocaust. We will examine patterns of reaction variously termed passive, armed, cultural and spiritual resistance. We will also look at the range of behaviors among bystander groups including collaboration, inaction, and rescue. By reading a number of scholars with widely varying views, including Hannah Arendt, Yehuda Bauer, and Isaiah Trunk, we will grapple with the issues raised on several levels: Theoretically, what are the most useful definitions of these terms? Empirically, how can we assess the extent of resistance and collaboration that took place historically? Ethically, what types of behavior are “reasonable” or morally justified in such extreme circumstances? Students will write a research paper considering these questions as they apply to a particular event or group during the Holocaust; if they wish they may choose another historical case study for their own research. Class size: 15

91368

HIST 315 Education and Social Policy in the US, 1954-2002 (MC)

Ellen Lagemann

. T . . .

1:30 -3:50 pm

HEG 200

HIST

Cross-listed: Sociology; Social Policy In this seminar, we will explore the history of education and social policy in the United States from Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to passage of No Child Left Behind (2002). We will be concerned with the roles of institutions (notably, research and advocacy organizations, think tanks, and philanthropic foundation), social movements and political parties, the mass media of communication, and individual men and women in the shaping of public policy. All students will be expected to complete weekly reading assignments and to be active participants in every class. There will be several short response papers and each student will write a major research paper on a topic of his or her choosing. Class size: 15

91576

HIST 3237 Making Space in the Colonial and Post-Colonial World (MC)

Jennifer Derr

M . . . .

4:40 – 7:00 pm

HEG 308

HIST/DIFF

Cross-listed: Anthropology, Africana Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Global & Int’l Studies; Human Rights, Middle Eastern Studies This course explores the production and experience of new forms of space in the colonial and post colonial world, with an emphasis on the Middle East and Africa. In the past two centuries, rapid urbanization, post-colonial development projects, and dramatic shifts in agriculture have radically transformed the spaces that we now consider the post-colonial world. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, European colonial projects produced culturally diverse, yet spatially segregated cities. In the post-colonial period, the growth of state-centered economies and their replacement by neoliberal development schemes and international N.G.Os reconfigured the spaces of city as well as the relationship of these spaces to more rural areas. More recently, a wave of revolutions are transforming the political spaces of the Middle East. In addition to a rigorous engagement with historical, political, and anthropological case studies, this course possesses a strong theoretical element as it critically examines a body of theory associated with the production of space. Prior exposure to this body of theoretical work is neither required nor expected. This is a major conference course. Class size: 15

91374

HIST 365 Russian Intellectual History (MC)

Gennady Shkliarevsky

. . . Th .

4:40 -7:00 pm

OLIN 301

HIST

Cross-listed: Russian and Eurasian Studies Russia’s modernization generated many dramatic conflicts in Russian society and culture. Few of them could rival those associated with the growing awareness of autonomy and agency. This awareness undermined the familiar notions of universal truth and challenged many traditional values. Russian 19th century secular thought became the scene of intense debates centered around this modern predicament, as well as tensions that it generated in the spheres of morality, social justice, aesthetics, to name just a few. Following a brief introduction dealing with the modernization of Russia, as well as the origins of Russian secular thought and intelligentsia’the social group which was the carrier of the secular intellectual tradition’the class will focus on major trends and personalities in 19th century Russian thought. Topics under consideration will include: continuity and change in Russian culture, debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles, the relationship between art and reality, revolutionary populism and socialism. Extensive readings will be the basis of weekly discussions and will include works by Chaadaev, Gogol, Herzen, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, as well as contemporary studies on Russian intellectual history. The requirements include a research paper, a presentation, and participation in weekly discussions. Class size: 15