|
91320 |
HIST / JS 101 Introduction
to Jewish Studies |
Cecile Kuznitz |
. . W . F |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLINLC 208 |
HUM/DIFF |
Cross-listed:
History, Religion This interdisciplinary course will introduce students
to major themes in the field of Jewish Studies. The primary focus will be on
the history of the Jewish people and on Judaism as a religion, but we will also
examine topics in Jewish literature, society, and politics. The course will
treat selected themes from the Biblical period to the present, but with a
greater emphasis on the medieval and especially the modern period. Among the
issues to be explored: What role has the Land of Israel played in Jewish life,
and how have Jews responded to their nearly 2,000-year experience of exile and
Diaspora? How have they negotiated both the push of antisemitism and the
pull of assimilation to maintain distinct forms of community and identity?
What role have various types of texts played in Jewish culture, and what is
their relationship to lived Jewish experience? Finally, what are the
implications of such momentous recent events as the Holocaust, the
establishment of the State of Israel, and the rise of the American Jewish
community?
Class size: 22
|
91322 |
HIST 119 Native
Americans into American Natives |
Christian Crouch |
M . W . . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 202 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: American Studies This course is designed to introduce students to the major themes and events in American history from the colonial era up until the end of the Civil War and beginning of Reconstruction. The history of colonial America and, later, the United States up through the Civil War is one of immigration, movement, and economic transformation - a history that is similar to what we are more familiar with after 1865. This course will focus on particular themes such as the definition of those "outside" of European empires, the contest over American continental "imperialism" between European and Indians, the definition and production of an "American (US)" identity, and the economic and political ramifications resulting from the transition of a household mode of production to a factory mode of production. Students will learn about both the development of American regionalism and the United States as a nation as well as the major events in American history, such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. The combination of these events will be understood in the context of changes that were shaped by the lives of everyday people and this will show the multi-textured roots of American history and of America today. Class size: 22
|
91205 |
HIST / LAIS 120 Modern
Latin America since Independence |
Miles Rodriguez |
M . W . . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLINLC 120 |
HIST |
Cross-listed:
Cross-listed: LAIS This counts as an
LAIS core course. This is an introductory survey of the history of Modern
Latin America since Independence. The course traces the process of Independence
of the Latin American nations from the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in North
and South America in the early nineteenth century, and the long-term,
contested, and often violent processes of nation-formation in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. Primary source and historical texts examine the
regions main challenges in this period, including persistent inequality,
regional disintegration, endemic violence, elite political control, revolution,
military rule, and civil reconciliation. Major historical issues and debates
for study and discussion include the meaning and uses of the idea of Latin
America, slavery and empire in nineteenth-century Brazil, and the roles of
race, religion, women, and indigenous peoples in Latin American societies. Class size: 22
|
91333 |
HIST 122 Twentieth
Century Britain |
Richard Aldous |
M . W . . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
RKC 102 |
HIST |
This introductory course offers a survey of Britain in the twentieth century. We start with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and move chronologically through the century. Particular emphasis is given to the multi-layered experience of three great conflicts - the first and second world wars and the cold war. Our examination of this dramatic period in British history will include reading seminal texts by writers such as George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, Vera Brittain, Philip Larkin and Martin Amis. Class size: 22
|
91338 |
HIST 127 Crisis & Conflict: Introduction to Modern Japanese History |
Robert Culp |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 204 |
HIST/DIFF |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies,
Gender & Sexuality Studies, Global & Intl Studies Japan in the mid-19th century was beleaguered by
British and American imperialism and rocked by domestic turmoil. How, then, did
it become an emerging world power by the early 20th century? Why did
Japans transformations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries lead to the total war of the 1930s and 1940s? And why did the
horrible destruction experienced after World War II ultimately result in rapid
economic growth and renewed global importance for Japan after the 1950s? These
questions provide the framework for our study of modern Japanese history.
Throughout the course we will focus special attention on Japans distinctive
urban culture, the changing role of women in Japanese society, the re-invention
of Japans imperial institution, the domestic and international effects of
Japanese imperialism, and the question of the United States role in Japans
post-war reconstruction. Readings of drama, fiction, satire, and memoir will
contribute to our exploration of these and other topics. No prior study of
Japan is necessary; first-year students are welcome. Class size: 22
|
91722 |
HIST 141 A Haunted
Union: Twentieth-Century Germany and the Unifications of Europe |
Gregory Moynahan |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
RKC 115 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: German Studies, Human Rights The development of the German nation-state has been at the center of nearly every dystopian reality and utopian aspiration of modern continental Europe. This course will examine the history of the German-speaking lands from Napoleon's dissolution of
the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 through the development of the German state in 1871, the cataclysmic initiation by this state of the two twentieth-century World Wars, and the creation of the new political entity of the European Union. Attention will placed throughout on the dialog of Germany and Europe in relation to regional structural issues, particularly state form and Realpolitik, capitalism and communism, the 'second-industrial revolution' and institutional development, and state control or surveillance and systems of rights. Using an array of primary documents, we will examine Germany's pivotal place in the ideological divisions, political catastrophes, and -- more optimistically -- theoretical, political, and scientific innovations of modern Europe. As a guiding theme, we will use the paradox that even as Germany is chronologically perhaps the most 'modern' of European states, its definition - and with it the identity of its citizens - has been haunted since inception by its heterogeneous past. Topics of particular importance will include: the multiple 'unifications' of Germany (as a culture, a state, a racist 'greater' Germany, a reunified power within the European Union), the role of 'German' and 'European' identity in colonial expansion and Nazi propaganda, 'scientific' racism and the Holocaust, the development of the DDR and BRD, the consolidation of the European Union since 1951, and the student protests of 1968. Class size: 22
|
91745 |
HIST 185 History of
the Modern Middle East |
Charles Anderson |
. T . Th . |
11:50 - 1:10 pm |
HEG 106 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies; Human Rights; Science, Technology and Society; Global & International Studies This introduction to the history of the Middle East covers the period from the Ottoman conquest of the Levant and North Africa until the present. Students explore the social, political, and intellectual history of the region, drawing from a multitude of sources: Sufi poetry, modern novels, memoirs of political leaders, and treaties and works of Muslim reformers. Class size: 22
|
91746 |
HIST 2018 The State
and Social Movements in the Middle East in the 20th Century |
Charles Anderson |
. T . Th . |
3:10 4:30 pm |
RKC 102 |
HIST/DIFF |
Cross-listed: Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies This course aims to introduce students to a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives on the state and popular movements in the Middle East, with a focus on the Levant, Iran and Arabia in the last century. The course begins with a brief theoretical examination of the state, exploring some central debates over its nature and character, along with a primer on social movements from the sociological literature. These readings are intended to enrich and complement the other units of the class which focus on discrete questions related to the regions history and politics and to familiarize students with a set of critical approaches with which to further engage the material in conceptual as well as substantive or historical terms. The intent of the bulk of the class is to critically examine the interrelations between state structures and projects, on one hand, and local societies, political movements, and trends, on the other. Readings begin with the colonial era that followed the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire after World War I. Class size: 22
|
91544 |
HIST / HUM 206 Global
Europe |
Gregory Moynahan / Joseph Luzzi |
. T . Th . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLIN 102 |
FLLC |
Cross-listed: Italian Studies, French Studies, German Studies, Human Rights, Spanish Studies, Irish and Celtic Studies Where does Europe begin, and how do we establish its limits, conceptual and practical? Through a policy of aggressive expansion, the nation-states of Europe controlled over 85% of the habitable land in the world by 1900 and established common military, economic, political, scientific and diplomatic systems throughout much of this vast area. Yet this same expansion led to a hybridization, and contestation, of Europe polities through other cultures ranging from French North Africa, the British Commonwealth, and Latin America. How did Europe's expansion and the postcolonial reaction to it transform European culture and sensibility? How did a region defined by a millennium of continuous conflict that culminated in two world wars of unprecedented violence come to find not only relative peace but, in the European Union, a new political form and model for global human rights? Focused as much on contemporary events and developments within Europe as on its history, this seminar will feature contributions by a range of Bard faculty and incorporate film screenings, musical performances, and public readings into the curriculum. Although we will discuss global processes, the focus will be continental Europe. A basic awareness of European history at the level of at least a full-year high school course is required, while a college-level European history survey is recommended. Class size: 36
|
91331 |
HIST 2110 The Early
Middle Ages |
Alice Stroup |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 308 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Classical Studies, Medieval Studies; related interest: French Studies The European "middle ages" -originally so called as a term of derisionare more complex and heterogeneous than is commonly thought. This course surveys seven centuries, from the Germanic invasions and dissolution of the Roman Empire to the Viking invasions and dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. Topics include early Christianity, "barbarians," Byzantine Empire, Islam, monasticism, the myth and reality of Charlemagne. Readings include documents, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, and selections from Ammianus Marcellinus's The Later Roman Empire and Gregory of Tours's History of the Franks. Open to first year students. Class size: 18
|
91318 |
HIST 2126 African
Americans and US Cities |
Myra Armstead |
. T . Th . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 201 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Africana Studies, American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies African-Americans have historically had an ambiguous relationship with American cities when compared to the generally anti-urban strain in mainstream American life. For black Americans, cities have been imagined as places of hope and opportunity to a far greater extent than for the general American populace. At the same time, the experience of blacks in American cities has been mixed-as they have been notably, if not disproportionately, salient sites of immiseration and violence. This course will consider variations in African-American urban life over time, and the reasons for such shifts. Fulfills the American Studies Junior Seminar requirement.
Class size: 22
|
91321 |
HIST 2137 Jewish
Women: Gender Roles and Cultural
Change |
Cecile Kuznitz |
. . W . F |
10:10 -11:30 am |
OLINLC 208 |
HIST/DIFF |
Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Jewish Studies, Religion This course will draw on both historical and memoir literature to examine the lives of Jewish women and men and their changing social, economic, and religious lives across the medieval and modern periods. We will consider the status of women in Jewish law and then look at issues including forms of womens religious expression; marriage and family patterns; the differing impact of enlightenment and secularization on women in Western and Eastern Europe; and the role of women in the Zionist and labor movements in Europe, Israel, and the United States. Among the central questions we will ask is how womens roles changed from the medieval to the modern period. Did modernity in fact herald an era of greater opportunity for Jewish women? How did their experiences differ from those of Jewish men? Class size: 22
|
91206 |
HIST / LAIS 220 Mexican
History & Culture |
Miles Rodriguez |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 205 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: LAIS There is no abstract or timeless Mexican culture. Nor does Mexican history happen independently of its changing cultural contexts. This introductory course explores the complex relationship between culture and history from Mexicos pre-conquest indigenous origins to the Mexican Revolution and the contemporary nation-state. The course begins with Mexicos most durable foundational myths, visions, and symbols, such as the image of an eagle grasping a serpent on a cactus on the Mexican flag and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Using primary sources like codices, native language writings, and visual media, as well as anthropological, historical, and literary texts, it traces the major cultural continuities and revolutions to the present. Special topics include race and racial mixture, established and popular religion, women and gender, indigenous cultures, and official versus counter-cultures. Class size: 22
|
91339 |
HIST 2302 Shanghai
and Hong Kong: Chinas Global Cities |
Robert Culp |
. T . Th . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLIN 205 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Global & Intl Studies The towering glass high-rise office buildings of Hong Kong island face the stately, colonial-era Peninsula Hotel across Victoria Harbor, and Shanghais new wealthy middle-class elite choose between coffee at Starbucks or cocktails on the verandas of Jazz-era villas. Shanghai and Hong Kong, as international industrial and business centers, and the main conduits for overseas direct investment, are Chinas global cities, but they are cities with long, cosmopolitan pasts. This course explores the history of Hong Kongs and Shanghais current economic, social, and cultural dynamism, and in doing so probes the historical roots of globalization. It analyzes how nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonialism and semi-colonialism both drove and conditioned, in somewhat different ways, the development of these two cities. It also asks how this earlier phase of integration into global networks of commerce and culture relates to the patterns of the present. Through diverse sources such as fiction, film, drama, advertisements, photography, memoirs, and comics, we will delve into how economic and cultural flows have affected politics, economics, and the culture of everyday life over the past century and a half. Central points of focus will include these cities spatial organization, infrastructure, and architecture, social organization and class relations, changing economic foundations, and patterns of consumer culture. No prior study of urban history or Chinese studies is required; first-year students are welcome. Class size: 22
|
91963 |
HIST 2311 Margaret Thatcher and Her World: Britain in the 1980s |
Richard Aldous |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
RKC 200 |
HIST |
When prime minister Margaret Thatcher was asked what she had changed about British life, she answered: "Everything." This course looks at a transformational period in British politics, culture and society, examining seminal contemporary texts by writers such as Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Nick Hornby, Alan Clark and Margaret Thatcher herself. Class size: 22
|
91319 |
HIST 232 American
Urban History |
Myra Armstead |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 204 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Africana Studies, American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies The course is a study of urbanization in America, as a social process best understood by relevant case studies. Topics will include the establishment of the nations urban network, the changing function of cities, the European roots of American city layout and governance, urban social structure, the emergence of urban culture, and American views of cities.
Class size: 22
|
91336 |
HIST 241 Czarist
Russia |
Gennady Shkliarevsky |
M . W . . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 204 |
HIST |
Cross listed: Russian and Eurasian Studies A semester-long survey will explore Russian history from
Peter the Great to the 1917 revolution in a broad context of modernization and
its impact on the country. Among the
topics of special interest are: reforms
of Peter the Great and their effects; the growth of Russian absolutism; the
position of peasants and workers; the rift between the monarchy and educated
society; the Russian revolutionary movement and Russian Marxism; the overthrow
of the Russian autocracy. The readings
will include contemporary studies on Russian history and works by
nineteenth-century Russian writers. Class
size: 22
|
91323 |
HIST 2631 Capitalism
and Slavery |
Christian Crouch |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 202 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Africana Studies, American Studies, Human Rights (core course), LAIS Scholars have argued that there is an intimate relationship between the contemporary wealth of the developed world and the money generated through four hundred years of chattel slavery in the Americas and the transatlantic slave trade. Is there something essential that links capitalism, even liberal democratic capitalism, to slavery? How have struggles against slavery and for freedom and rights, dealt with this connection? This course will investigate the development of this linkage, studying areas like the gender dynamics of early modern Atlantic slavery, the correlation between coercive political and economic authority, and the financial implications of abolition and emancipation. We will focus on North America and the Caribbean from the early 17th century articulation of slavery through the staggered emancipations of the 19th century. The campaign against the slave trade has been called the first international human rights movement today does human rights discourse simply provide a human face for globalized capitalism, or offer an alternative vision to it? Questions of contemporary reparations, rising colonialism and markets of the nineteenth century, and the 'duty' of the Americas to Africa will also be considered. Readings will include foundational texts on capitalism and a variety of historical approaches to the problem of capitalism within slavery, from economic, cultural, and intellectual perspectives. There are no prerequisites, although HIST 130, 2133, or 263 all serve as introductory backgrounds. Class size: 22
|
91337 |
HIST 279 The Other
Europe: East Central Europe after World War II |
Gennady Shkliarevsky |
. T . Th . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 202 |
HIST |
Cross Listed: Global & Intl Studies; Human Rights; Russian and Eurasian Studies The course will cover the history of East Central Europe from 1945 to the present. After a brief summary of the history of the region before and during World War II, the course will concentrate on the regions evolution since the war. In addition to surveying the period and examining the turning points in its evolution (for example, the Berlin uprising of 1953, the Hungarian revolution and reforms in Poland in 1956, the "Prague spring" of 1968, the Solidarity movement in Poland, and the revolutions at the end of the 1980s), we will explore a variety of specific topics, including political systems, economic organization, ethnic conflicts, and gender relations. Readings will include a textbook, specialized studies, original sources, and works of fiction. Class size: 22
|
91329 |
HIST 280A American
Environmental History I |
Mark Lytle |
M . W . . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 201 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies; Human Rights; Social Policy Since the Old World first encountered the New, a struggle has taken place over what this new world might become. For some, it meant moral and spiritual rejuvenation. For most, it meant an opportunity to tap a natural warehouse of resources that could be turned into wealth. At no time have those two visions been compatible, despite the efforts of politicians, artists, and scientists to reconcile them. This course is about that struggle. It looks specifically at the United States from the colonial era until the early Twentieth Century--a period in which one of the worlds most abundant wildernesses was largely transformed into an urbanized, industrial landscape. We will study the costs and consequences of that transformation while listening to the voices of those who proposed alternative visions.
Class size: 22
|
91335 |
HIST 300 Creating
History |
Carolyn Dewald |
. T . . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Classical Studies The word history comes from the first sentence of the Histories of Herodotus, the Greek father of history, writing in the fifth century B.C.E. This course looks closely at how history as a field of inquiry came about and the way that the early Greek historians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, shaped its identity. We will consider how the first historians thought about such things as data (when is it trustworthy?), narrative structure (does it inevitably distort data?), depiction of character (what role does the individual play in shaping events?), and the usefulness of the discipline that the early historians invented (do they tell a true story?). Some theoretical readings, both traditional and poststructuralist, will be used to help us begin to answer these questions. About halfway through the semester, students will be encouraged to pick a historian not in the original triad (either ancient -- Polybius, Tacitus, Livy are possible choices -- or more recent, writing in a period germane to the student's senior project interests) to study in detail, using the same criteria that we have used to consider Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Two papers will be required; all required reading will be in English. Class size: 15
|
91328 |
HIST 301 The Age
of the Roosevelts |
Mark Lytle |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 310 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies The course covers the period of Franklin Roosevelts public life, with special emphasis on the Depression era and World War II. It is designed to allow students to take advantage of the rich body of private papers and public documents in the Roosevelt Library in nearby Hyde Park and to learn how to do basic research in a presidential archive. Research topics are not limited to Roosevelt and public politics, but extend to other major public figures, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, and New Deal figures, and to relevant topics in cultural, social, military, and other fields of history. Fulfills the American Studies Junior Seminar requirement. Class size: 15
|
91736 |
HIST 3109 Dewey and
His Contemporaries |
Ellen Lagemann |
. T . . . |
4:40
7:00 pm |
OLIN
205 |
HIST |
In this class, we will deal with the social history of ideas at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, mostly in the United States. We will focus on the emergence of progressivism in politics, social policy, the arts, and education. To do that, we will explore the lives and ideas of such significant American social thinkers as Jane Addams, John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, William James, and George Herbert Mead. There will be common readings, several short papers, and one longer research paper. Class size: 15
|
91747 |
HIST 3136 Capitalism, Rural Society and Peasant Rebellions in the Arab World,
1800-1939 |
Charles Anderson |
. . W . . |
4:40 7:00 pm |
OLIN 201 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies Until quite recently, the majority of the population of the Middle East lived as agriculturalists, surviving mostly off the land and trade in agricultural commodities. The increasing importance of international trade and European imperial expansion helped foster a set of complex transformations in the social, economic and political organization of the Middle East, and introduced new pressures on peasants and agrarian-based socio-economic systems. Throughout the nineteenth century and beyond, the reorganization of the world of peasant production and livelihood had uneven effects on local societies and spurred a variety of responses, including both direct and indirect forms of rebellion, which themselves have had important consequences. What do peasant rebellions and their recurrence tell us about local societies and politics in the Middle East? What do they share in common and what distinguishes them from one another? How have peasants represented their interests and how have they been represented by empires, states or other political forces? How did the emergence of modern state structures and growing reach of capitalism affect the regions peasantries? Class size: 15
|
91330 |
HIST 324 Race,
Ethnicity, and Assimilation In American Thought |
Joel Perlmann |
. . W . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
HIST/DIFF |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Human Rights, Sociology We use these three terms as though they are clear and unchanging. But the use of concepts usually has a history of change, and these three surely do. How have the understandings of groups and group differences evolved? At one time race differences was thought to capture differences in values and abilities among groups, differences found in the blood; not so today. Also, race has referred to a different range of groups at different times first and foremost the color races black, white, yellow, and red. But for decades the term was also used to include European immigrant groups, as in "the Irish race", the Hebrew race or the Southern Italian race. And how does contemporary usage of 'race' differ from ethnicity? Indeed, how did our concept ethnicity -- unknown in 1930 -- even come into being? Finally, how do groups undergo assimilation? Different concepts of assimilation have implied different views of the American future. This course falls between cultural history and social theory; it deals with changing American classifications of groups in social theory as well as in law, politics, literature, and popular cultural understandings. It will concentrate on the century and a half from the Civil War to the present, and rest heavily on primary sources. An extended term paper working with such sources will be the major writing assignment. Class size: 15
|
92006 |
HIST 3236 The History
of American Horticulture for Non-Gardeners |
Myra Armstead |
M . . . . |
3:10 -5:30 pm |
OLIN 309 |
HIST |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Science, Technology & Society Horticultural history provides a unique lens for learning much about British North American and United States history. To study it is to learn about the history of science/agriculture, aesthetics, a particular economic vision for the country, labor relations, the gendering of avocations, a particular version of western imperial hegemonies, and the cultural dimensions of all of these thingsespecially when considered in a broadly Anglo-American Atlantic context. This course will explore each of these subtopics in colonial American and U.S. history with particular emphasis on the period from 1700 to 1900 by reading from and about agricultural innovations, landscape aesthetics and practices, the rise of botanical societies, horticultural communities and their shifting memberships, poetry and fiction, horticultural workers, and horticultural exchanges. Class size: 15
|
91325 |
HIST 327 The French
Revolution |
Alice Stroup |
M . . . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 308 |
|
Cross-listed: French Studies; Human Rights This course begins by considering some theories about the causes and course of political revolutions and by reading about the French Revolution itself. It then examines French history during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. After focusing on shifting social structures, economic problems, and the development of both royal absolutism and opposition to it, it examines religious and intellectual controversy. Although the readings emphasize secondary sources, works by Enlightenment authors are included.
Class size: 14