91906

HIST 101

Europe from 1350-1815

Alice Stroup

T Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 107

HIST

Who made "Europe?" How did power, wealth, and literacy spread north- and westward from the ancient near eastern and Mediterranean worlds? How did two new religions, Christianity and Islam, become established politically? How did ideology and power play out in medieval and early modern times? How did Jews, Christians, and Muslims reconcile monotheism to ancient philosophy? How, despite recurring famines and epidemics, did the "Little Ice Age" (1300-1815) yield the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment? What is the connection between the Atlantic Slave Trade (1500-1800) and the Industrial Revolution? We will read historians and historical sources to debate answers to these questions. Class size: 18

92111

HIST 110

Colonial Latin America since conquest

Miles Rodriguez

T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 203

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Latin American Studies This is an introductory survey of the history of Colonial Latin America since Conquest. It traces the complex processes of conquest, empire building, and the creation of many diverse, complex, and dynamic communities, societies, and cultures from the convergence of Native, European, African, and Asian peoples. The course considers peoples in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of North and South America in three centuries, from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth century, starting with the first native settlements and indigenous societies. Focusing primarily on the Conquest of Mexico, empire and indigenous society in Mesoamerica, and African slavery in Brazil, the class is based mainly on original sources like codices, native language writings, and documents on the history of Brazilian slavery. It will reflect on the peoples, places,

events, as well as beliefs, cultures, and conflicts of a world different from our own to understand the historical legacies of the colonial period in contemporary Latin America. LAIS Core Course. Class size: 22

91905

HIST 123

the WiNdow at Montgomery Place in the nineteenth century

Myra Armstead

T 4:45 pm-6:05 pm

HEG 204

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies 2 credits In 1802, when widow Janet Montgomery (1743-1824) acquired a 380-acre property on the Hudson River, she began the process of converting the landscape from a "wilderness" into a "pleasure ground." This transformation was a physical one, reflecting prevailing ideas about the ideal, aesthetic relationship between humans and "nature" as well as emerging notions regarding scientific agriculture. After her death, her successors continued this task. Additionally, the creation and development of Montgomery Place mirrored contemporary social relations and cultural conventions, along with shifts in these realities at the national level. As it was populated by indentured servants, tenants, slaves, free workers, and elites, Montgomery Place will be approached as a historical laboratory for understanding social hierarchies, social roles, cultural practices, and the evolving visions of the nation and "place" that both sustained and challenged these things during the nineteenth century in the United States.

Class size: 22

91838

HIST 130

Origins of American Citizen

Christian Crouch

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 202

HIST

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; 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

92113

HIST 134

the Ottomans and the Last Islamic Empire

Omar Cheta

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 203

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies In the aftermath of World War I, the Ottoman Empire disappeared from the world scene. In its place arose numerous states, which today make up the Middle East and significant parts of Eastern Europe. In all of these “post-Ottoman” states, the memory of the Ottoman Empire is well and alive. For example, it is in relation to the Ottoman legacy that modern Middle Eastern and East European national identities were constructed and claims to national borders settled (or not). This course is a general historical survey of Ottoman history from the founding of the empire around 1300 until its collapse in the aftermath of World War I. The course covers major topics in Ottoman history, including the empire’s origins, its Islamic and European identities, everyday life under the Ottomans, inter-communal relations, the challenge of separatist movements (Balkan, Greek, Arab) and the emergence of modern Turkish nationalism. Class size: 22

91867

HIST 159

Modern France

Tabetha Ewing

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 202

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: French Studies; Human Rights The French nation gave birth to itself in 1789 but would be reborn as demographic and economic changes brought about through colonial relations forced new ideas about the progress of its political identity. This is a survey of French politics, society, and economy in the 19th and 20th centuries: from the French and Haitian Revolutions to the imperialist “civilizing mission especially in West Africa to the fall of France in Indochina up to the Algerian War. Special attention will be given to France in Southeast Asia. Making France modern (and anti-modern and colonial modern) would involve far more than a republican legacy and industrialization. The rise of the French intellectual, the reformulation of gender roles, the invention of race, and revolution and resistance in overseas territories contributed somehow to give France the most strongly articulated modern identity in Europe. First year students are encouraged. Class size: 20

91846

HIST 2014

History of New York City

Cecile Kuznitz

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 203

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

91868

HIST 2112

The Invention of Politics

Tabetha Ewing

T Th 4:40 pm-6:00 pm

OLIN 205

HIST

Cross-listed: Human Rights Individuals and groups spoke, wrote, and fought to make their claims to public power in the period between 1500 and 1800 in ways that forced a reimagining of political relationships. The greatest institutions in place, particularly monarchies and the papacy, used their arsenals of words, documents, symbols, and ritual to maintain their legitimacy in the face of subtle or uproarious resistance. The tension between or, more accurately, among groups created new political vocabularies to which we, in our present, have claimed historical ownership or explicitly rejected.

Class size: 20

92107

HIST 2116

PLAGUE!

Alice Stroup

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 107

HIST

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; 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. Class size: 15

91839

HIST 2123

FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL: PhotoGRAPHY & Visual History in Africa

Drew Thompson

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 201

HIST

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Art History As technology and practice of image making, photography in Africa evolved alongside territorial imperialism and globalization. In turn, the image and its archiving were critical facets of the continent’s histories of liberation and post-independence. This survey introduces students to the historical development of photography in Africa and the historical uses of photographs in the late-nineteenth century to recent times. Divided into five parts, the course begins with different theoretical views on the relationship between photography and history. After a consideration of the photography of the royal courts in North Africa and Christian missionaries in West Africa, the class will shift to the role of photography in the making of independent African nations and their liberation struggles during and after World War II. The course concludes by considering the commodization of African photography at international biennales and its functions for single-party regimes that continue to rule across Sub-Saharan Africa. Key themes include photography’s role in shaping historical knowledge and the representation of Africa and its peoples, the appropriation of image making into African creative practices and daily life, the politics of exhibition and archiving, and the ethics of seeing war and social justice. Students will design a historical photography exhibition, and, over the course of the semester, they will also have the opportunity to interact with leading photography curators, photojournalists and art photographers who have spent time in Africa. Class size: 22

92112

HIST / JS 215

from shtetl to socialism (and beyond): East European Jewry in the modern era

Cecile Kuznitz

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 310

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & International Studies; Historical Studies; Russian Studies Eastern Europe was the largest and most vibrant center of Jewish life for almost five hundred years prior to the Holocaust. In that period East European Jewry underwent a wrenching process of modernization, creating radically new forms of community, culture, and political organization that still shape Jewish life today in the United States and Israel. We will consider topics including the rise of Hasidism and Haskalah (Enlightenment), modern Jewish political movements including Zionism, pogroms and Russian government policy towards the Jews, and the development of modern Jewish literature in Yiddish and Hebrew. Course materials will include primary and secondary historical sources as well as literature. The course will also incorporate guest lectures by faculty at Bard partners in Eastern and Central Europe. Class size: 18

91845

HIST 217

Progressive Era in US History

Myra Armstead

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 310

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies; Environmental & Urban 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: 18

92118

HIST 219

the Past and Present of Capitalism in the Middle East

Omar Cheta

T Th 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 301

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Middle Eastern Studies Capitalism is not only a Western economic system. It is a more comprehensive mode of organizing society that is being continuously adopted, modified and subverted around the globe. In this course, we will explore the multiple, and often counter-intuitive ways, in which capitalism became entrenched in the modern Middle East. Drawing on social, intellectual, environmental and business histories, we will examine how the encounter with modern capitalism shaped such pervasive political phenomena as European imperialism, post-colonial nationalism, and contemporary sectarianism. Additionally, we will dissect common modern practices, like smuggling and consumerism, to uncover how they came to define the culture of capitalism in Middle East over the past two centuries. Finally, we will consider the paradoxical place of the Middle East within the current global (capitalist) order, being at once a major exporter of oil and financial capital that power the world's most advanced economies, and a major exporter of economic migrants and refugees. Class size: 20

92117

HIST 225

Migrants and Refugees in the Americas

Miles Rodriguez

T Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 203

D+J

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies; Human Rights; Latin American Studies The Border. The Ban. The Wall. Raids. Deportations. Separation of Families. Immigrant Rights. Sanctuary. Refugee Resettlement. These words - usually confined to policy, enforcement, and activism related to migrants and refugees - have recently exploded into the public view and entered into constant use. The current political administration made migratory and refugee enforcement, and of migration more generally, a centerpiece of its electoral campaign and the subject of its first executive orders, generating broad public controversy. Most migration to the US is from Latin America, by far the largest single migrant population is from Mexico, and the rise of Central American migration has proved enduring. Focusing on south-north migration from these Latin American regions, this class argues that it is impossible to understand the current political situation in the US without studying the relatively lesser-known history of migrant and refugee human rights over the last three decades, including massive protests, movements for sanctuary, and attempts at reform and enforcement. The class takes into account shifting global demographics, changing reasons for migration, rapid legal and political changes, complex enforcement policies and practices, and powerful community movements for reform, which are often forgotten with the opening and closing of a given news cycle. The class also argues that migrant and refugee voices matter and are critical to understanding migration as an historical and current problem. The course includes migrant, refugee, and activist narratives, and an array of historical, legal, political, and other primary sources. Its goal is to create a more complete historical understanding of Latin American-origin migration in the contemporary US context. This course is part of the Liberal Arts Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education initiative. Class size: 22

92116

HIST 227

dominion: Empire and the Environment in Modern History

Holger Droessler

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

HEG 308

HIST

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies How have empires shaped the environment? And how, in turn, have human and non-human environments affected the course of empires? In this class, we will study the interplay between empire and the environment in modern history from a global perspective. Among other topics, we will explore how European settlers changed the natural environment of New England, why the Chinese government decided to build gigantic dams, and what the history of empires can tell us about contemporary debates about human-made climate change. Throughout the semester, guest speakers will join our conversations. Class size: 22

91869

HIST 2306

Gender, Sexuality and power in Modern China

Robert Culp

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 310

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Anthropology; Asian Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Human Rights This course explores the roles of gender and sexuality in the construction of social and political power in China over the last 500 years. Our point of departure will be traditional areas of focus for scholars of gender and sexuality in China: footbinding, the cloistering of women, and the masculinization of public space; the transformations of Confucian age-sex hierarchies within the family; the women’s rights movements of the early twentieth century; and the Chinese Communist revolution’s ambivalent legacy for women in the People’s Republic of China. By drawing on recent historical and anthropological literature, we will also analyze gender’s functions in many other aspects of modern Chinese life. These topics will include constructions of masculinity and male identity during China’s late imperial period (1368-1911), the role of gender categories in constructions of Han Chinese relations with both Inner Asian nomadic peoples and Euro-American imperialists, the gendering of citizenship and comradeship in twentieth century China, the impact of global capitalism on gender constructions and sexual relations in contemporary China, and the relation of China’s women’s movement to recent trends in Euro-American feminism and gender studies. This course is open to all students. Class size: 22

91841

HIST 2315

how to wage War in Colonial America

Christian Crouch

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 202

HIST

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Experimental Humanities; French Studies; Human Rights; Latin American Studies Thousands of men march in a line towards cannons and muskets at point blank range. Abenakis watch the snow accumulate around the walls of an English fort, then scale over the defenses silently in the night to attack. En route to find the "Lost City of Gold," Spanish soldiers sack Acoma Pueblo and then flee. "Coromantees" and Irish servants challenge English slaveholders' dominion in Barbados and nearly succeed. Colonial America existed in a constant state of war. This course is a close study of formal and informal military conflicts from the 16th to the early 19th centuries, looking at well-known engagements such as the so-called "French and Indian War" and lesser known episodes, like the French and Abenaki raid on Deerfield in 1704. Students will learn how European and indigenous American rules of violence developed, shifted, and adapted in response to the Columbian Exchange, and how war came to shape contemporary American identity. In addition to primary sources, we will consider literary, cinematic, and live reenactment interpretations of colonial conflicts and consider what these tell us about the relationships of history and memory. Class size: 22

92108

HIST 3139

The Power of Print

Robert Culp

Th 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 306

HIST

Cross-listed: American Studies; Experimental Humanities This seminar explores the development of print media over the last half-millennium and their transformative impact on society, culture, and politics. Through a mix of theoretical and historical texts, we will consider how print media have fostered the development of new political communities like the nation state, generated publics and counter-publics, both created and undermined cultural authority, enabled new dynamics of knowledge production, and facilitated development of new modes of reading and interiority. Our inquiry will be global in scope, encompassing not only the Gutenberg revolution in Europe but also the diverse forms of print culture and print capitalism that developed contemporaneously in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. Analysis of the recent rise of digital media will provide critical perspective for understanding how the materiality of the printed text and its circulation through space has affected its social, cultural, and political significance. Ten weeks of the course will be dedicated to shared readings and discussion. The remainder of the semester will focus on completion of individual research projects related to the core themes of the course. History concentrators can use this course as a major conference; upper-college students from all concentration areas are welcome. Class size: 15

91857

HIST 3149

THE HISTORICAL Politics OF Africa's Civil Wars

Drew Thompson

T 10:10 am-12:30 pm

HEG 201

D+J

HIST

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights There is ongoing unrest across the African continent. Historians are perplexed because Africa’s independence and decolonization were supposed to bring peace and prosperity, and henceforth scholarship reflected this desire and promise. This seminar challenges students to move beyond the rhetoric of political conflict in Africa that extends from realities of failed states and underdevelopment and instead understand these current struggles as crises of historiography. In short, what does a contemporary history of Africa look like with the concept of civil war? Course participants will seek to understand the ongoing conflict in Central African Republic and South Sudan within a larger historical context of civil war in post-independent Africa. Through shared readings and discussions, students will use primary and secondary sources to consider possible causes for civil unrest in Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone, the actors and interests involved, proposed resolutions, and their immediate and long-term effects. By tracing a historiography of civil war in African historical and political discourse and by analyzing possible methodological complications, students will grapple with how real world experiences and acts of violence translate into historical narratives, the very politics of historical revisionism. Students will be required to develop and carry out an independent research project of their choosing. Class size: 15

92119

HIST 321

on the move: The U. S. from 1890 to present

Holger Droessler

T 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 306

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies Immigrants, workers, soldiers, suburbanites, activists. Over the last century, Americans were on the move. In this research seminar, we will take an in-depth look at the history of the United States in the long 20th century with a special emphasis on movement. Social movements to be discussed include Populism, workers’ rights, Progressivism, pacifism, indigenous rights, women's rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, religious fundamentalism, conservatism, and Black Lives Matter. We will also address movements of other sorts: colonialism, migrations, and social mobility. This course fulfills the requirement for a historical research seminar. Class size: 15

92120

HIST 3224

The Great War in World History

Wendy Urban-Mead

Th 4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 201

D+J

HIST

This seminar examines changes and trends in the research and writing of history as practiced by professional historians. After brief consideration of the origins of history as a formal academic discipline in the 19th Century, and of the transition from political to social history in the mid-twentieth century, we also consider the shift from social history to the multiplicity of approaches that came out of the "theory explosion" between the 1960s and early 2000s. This course draws from the fields of modern European, African, and World History. Course readings shall consist mostly (but not entirely) of historical writing about the Great War from a variety of historiographical points of view. Readings also include a wide range of primary materials. Conventional teaching on WWI tends to follow the diplomatic history approach, and to emphasize the war on the western front. To enlarge this view, we will read not only from the classic “causes of WWI" literature, but also from gender, cultural, and post colonial treatments of the war, and read about the impact of the war on the eastern front, on China, in Africa. Working with this diversity of texts gives us the opportunity explicitly to discuss how different historiographical approaches change how we understand “what happened." This course satisfies the historiography requirement for Historical Studies concentrators; it may also serve as a Major Conference if arranged with the instructor. Class size: 15

Cross-listed courses:

91837

AFR 101

Intro to Africana Studies

Drew Thompson

M W 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 201

D+J

SSCI

DIFF

Cross-listed: Historical Studies Class size: 22

91913

CLAS 115

The Greek World: an Introduction

Robert Cioffi

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 118

HIST

Cross-listed: Historical Studies

92112

JS 215

East European Jewry:Modern Era

Cecile Kuznitz

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 310

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & International Studies; Historical Studies; Russian Class size: 18

92260

PHIL 221

History and Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology

Michelle Hoffman

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 103

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Historical Studies; Science, Technology & Society (STS core course) Class size: 22

92094

SOC 341

Macro-Historical Sociology

Laura Ford

T 4:40 pm-7:00 pm

OLIN 309

SSCI

Cross-listed: Historical Studies; Political Studies Class size: 15