DIVISION OF SOCIAL STUDIES

HISTORY

HIST 105 Introduction to Chinese Civilization

Professor: L. Raphals

CRN: 91658 Distribution: C

Time: Tue Th 10:30 am ­ 12:00 pm OLIN 203

Cross-listed: Asian Studies

This course provides a thematic introduction to Chinese civilization. According to one of the Chinese classics, ritual and warfare are the fundamental activities of the state. We begin with several topics on the origins of Chinese civilization: ritual, divination, and the nature and origins of the Chinese language. From there we move to questions of family, state and society. We explore the role of the family in Chinese culture: the classes of traditional Chinese society, problems of social mobility, war and peace, and relations between family, dynasty and state. We study Chinese literary and popular culture through a variety of its expressions, including legends and festivals, food, and poetry and music. Finally, we consider Chinese contacts with the outside world, and the social, political, religious and technological challenges they created for a country that viewed itself as "the Central Kingdom." Materials will be drawn from a variety of periods and genres, including film.

HIST 111 The High Middle Ages

Professor: A. Stroup

CRN: 91659 Distribution: C

Time: Tue Th 9:00 am ­ 10:20 am OLIN 205

Cross-listed: French Studies, Medieval Studies

The rise of towns is one of many changes that transformed Europe after 1000. The High Middle Ages is an era of cultural flowering, population growth, and political consolidation, occurring between the two cataclysms of Viking invasions and bubonic plague. Primary sources and monographs help us understand this intriguing and foreign world. We will read modern analyses of medieval inventions, heretics in Southern France, the plague, and women's work. We will also examine medieval texts--including anticlerical stories, epic poetry, and political diatribes--to get a contemporary perspective on values and issues.

HIST 115B African­American Experience II

Professor: M. Armstead

CRN: 91742 Distribution: C

Time: M W 8:50 am ­ 10:20 am OLIN 203

Cross-listed: American Studies, MES

This is the second part of a two-part survey of African-American history in the United States, but may be taken independently. It begins with the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and considers pertinent late nineteenth- and twentieth-century developments to the present. Major topics include the Jim Crow Era, urbanization and the Great Migration, the rise of black protest in various forms (Garveyism, NAACP, Civil Rights Movement, nationalism, electoral politics), and the rise of the contemporary black underclass and black middle class.

HIST 121 A Multicultural History of the U.S.

Professor: G. Chun

CRN: 91657 Distribution: A/C

Time: Tue Th 1:20 pm ­ 2:40 pm OLIN 202

Cross-listed: American Studies, MES

An inter­disciplinary and comparative approach to the history and critical theories of "race" and multiculturalism in the United States. Particular focus will be placed on the Native American, the African American, and the Latina/o, Asian American, Jewish American, and Irish American experience. By way of comparison the U.S. context, we will also touch on race relations in South Africa and Europe. This is the "core" course in Multicultural and Ethnic Studies.

HIST 125 The Making of Europe: the Roman Empire to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Part 1

Professor: T. Dandelet

CRN: 91661 Distribution: A/C

Time: M W 10:30 am ­ 11:50 am OLIN 204

Cross-listed: Medieval Studies

of related interest: German Studies

The goals of this course are twofold: to attain a panoramic view of some of the major tasks and themes in the history of Europe from antiquity to the high middle ages, and to read some of the most recent accounts of how the idea of a common European history and culture has been constructed from the fragments of so many diverse peoples. We will be reading texts by some of the best European scholars of our time including Umberto Eco on "The Search for a Perfect Language," Peter Brown on the Rise of the Idea of Christendom, Werner Rosner on the European Peasantry, Leonardo Benevolo on the European City, and Massimo Montanari on The Culture of Food.

HIST 130 Archaic and Classical Greece

Professor: E. Orlin

CRN: 91754 Distribution: B/C

Time: T Th 1:20 pm - 2:40 pm LC 208

Cross-listed: Classical Studies

This course is the first part of a two-semester (divisible) survey of ancient Greek history; this half will cover events from prehistoric times to the end of the Great Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE. After considering the period of the Trojan War and the use of Homer as a historical source, we will examine the origins and development of the Greek city-state. Special attention will be given to the two most important states: Sparta, whose system was much admired by the Greeks for its stability, and Athens, whose invention of democracy has had a more lasting impact on the Western world. Other topics to be explored include the conflict between the Greeks and the Persian Empire and the development of the Athenian empire, which provided the means for her great cultural achievements of the fifth century. We will conclude by investigating the causes and the course of the Great Peloponnesian War which broke out between Athens and Sparta at the end of the fifth century. This war had disastrous effects for winner and loser alike, and set the stage for the chaotic events of the fourth century. To gain a complete picture of this society, we will use slides of Athenian monuments and readings from Athenian drama, in addition to the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides. All readings will be in translation.

HIST 140 The Land of the Golden Cockerel: Introduction to Russian Civilization

Professor: G. Shkliarevsky

CRN: 91664 Distribution: C

Time: Tue Th 10:30 am ­ 11:50 am OLIN 307

Cross-listed: Russian/Eurasian Studies

This course will examine the origin and evolution of Russian civilization from the founding of the first Eastern Slavic state through the eighteenth century when Russia began to modernize by extensively borrowing from Western culture. After discussing the origin of Kievan Rus and its people, we will move to broad issues dealing with Russian culture, state, social organization, and private life. Among the topics to be considered will be the development of the state and legal institutions, the relationship between kinship and politics, the role of religion in public and private sphere, economic organization, social institutions, family, gender relations, sexuality, and popular culture. We will also consider the impact of the outside world, both the Orient and the Occident, upon Russian society. The sources will include a variety of Russian cultural expressions (folk tales, literature, art, film, and music), as well as original documents and scholarly texts.

HIST 204 Poets, Painters, Princes, and Prostitutes: European Renaissance 1350­1600

Professor: T. Dandelet

CRN: 91662 Distribution: A/C

Time: M W 2:50 pm ­ 4:10 pm OLIN 204

Cross-listed: Italian Studies

This course will examine the various cultural, political, economic, artistic, and intellectual developments that generally emerged in the Italian peninsula in the fourteenth century and spread throughout the rest of Western Europe in varying degrees over the next two centuries. Often thought of collectively as "the Renaissance," these developments will be approached in this course as numerous renaissances that took on a different character from region to region and from century to century. Primary readings from poets, painters, princes, political theorists, popes, and others will complement secondary readings from major contemporary scholars. Requirements will include a midterm exam, a final exam, and a bibliographical essay.

HIST 220 The Ancient Greek City

Professor: E. Orlin

CRN: 91755 Distribution: B/C

Time: W F 10:30 am - 11:50 am LC 118

Cross-listed: Classical Studies

This course will provide an in-depth exploration of the Greek city-state. We will examine the Greek city from a variety of perspectives--economic, social, political, and sexual--by utilizing both written and visual evidence. It will become clear that the polis was the central institution of Greek civilization and thus the fountainhead of classical culture. Topics to be explored include Greek city-planning and the basic elements of a Greek city; the ancient economy and the relationship of the city to the surrounding countryside; the role of the individual in relation to the broader community; and ancient ideas on what constituted the ideal city. To illuminate these issues, we will employ readings drawn from ancient philosophers, historians, and poets in translation, as well as models drawn from modern social theories and anthropology. No previous knowledge of Greek history is required.

HIST 236 Sun King: Absolutism and its Discontents

Professor: A. Stroup

CRN: 91660 Distribution: C

Time: Tue Th 10:30 am ­ 12:00 pm OLIN 205

Cross-listed: French Studies

As king of France from 1643 to 1715, Louis XIV was the Sun-King. He built Versailles, extended French territory through war and diplomacy, encouraged the arts and sciences, and protected the Catholic faith. That was the carefully cultivated public image. Behind the scenes, famine, war, censorship, and religious repression made the populace restive and undermined the monarchy, domestically and internationally, for generations to come. In this course, we will investigate both image and reality, drawing on documents, literature, and iconographic sources.

N.B.: Students who have moderated in Historical Studies or French Studies may take this course as MC 301, with permission of the instructor; a major research paper will be required of students who choose that option.

HIST 251 Knowledge and Society during the Scientific Revolution

Professor: A. Stroup

CRN: 91671 Distribution: C

Time: M 1:20 pm ­ 3:20 pm OLIN 309

Cross-listed: History and Philosophy of Science

of related interest: Gender Studies

The Scientific Revolution wrought a dramatic shift of thought about the universe. It also challenged traditional views about religion, society, and nature. We will examine the social impact of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on concepts of nature and genders, the conflict between Galileo and the church, and the place of science in society.

N.B.: Students who have moderated in Historical Studies or History & Philosophy of Science may take this course as MC 301, with permission of the instructor; a major research paper will be required of students who choose that option.

HIST 255B Hist of Britain & Ireland 1830­1947

Professor: J. Fout

CRN: 91667 Distribution: B/C

Time: Tue 1:20 pm ­ 3:40 pm OLIN 204

Cross-listed: Irish & Celtic Studies, Victorian Studies

Must be taken in conjunction with LIT 266B.

This course will serve, in conjunction with LIT 266B, to introduce students to the history and literature of Great Britain from the first Reform Bill to the end of World War II. This course examines the domestic history of Great Britain in the period from the late eighteenth century to the establishment of the welfare state by the Labour government immediately after World War I. A number of crucial developments will be examined that represent important changes in society in that period, including the industrial revolution, rapid urbanization, the political reforms that brought parliamentary democracy, and the crisis in gender relations evolving out of the women's movement. Changes in the class structure will also be studied, especially the rise of an industrial working class and the establishment of the British Labour Party. Finally we will examine in detail the decline of Britain's world status as a great power after World War I, the loss of empire, and the establishment of the welfare state by the Labour government immediately after World War II. This semester's offering is preceded by a set of linked courses covering the literature and history of Great Britain and Ireland, 1660-1830. Strongly recommended for Victorian Studies majors. Students may take either or both parts of the sequence of jointly offered courses (divisible by semester, but not within a term).

HIST 258 Jews in American Society

Professor: J. Perlmann

CRN: 91672 Distribution: C

Time: Th 3:40 pm - 5:40 pm OLIN 301

Cross-listed: American Studies, Jewish Studies, MES

This course will cover the history of American Jewry from the colonial era to the present, giving considerable attention to both historical and contemporary patterns--the experiences of immigrants and of their native-born descendants (down to the present) will be considered. Jewish social and cultural patterns will be examined with an eye to what is distinctive about the patterns of this group compared to the patterns of other American ethnic and religious groups, and what is shared in common with those groups. The course will consider both the internal development of American Jewish religious and ethnic culture and the evolving place of Jews in the wider economic, social, intellectual and political milieu of the United States. The course will try to strike a balance between readings from historians and social scientists, and readings from periods and people being studied.

HIST 276 Military History: the Law and Theory of War 1648-1949

Professor: P. Maguire

CRN: 91919 Distribution: C

Time: Tu Th 9:00 am ­ 10:20 am OLIN 202

This course will examine modern war from a variety of angles (legal, historical, and political). We will read war crimes cases against Andersonville commandant Henry Wirz (1865), American soldier Jacob Smith (1902), and German U-boat captain Helmut Patzig (1920). During the second half of the class we will focus on the Nurenberg trials and the American decisions to drop the atom bomb. Besides the weekly readings, each student must summarize at least one book for the class. Students have the choice of two fifteen to twenty page papers or two take home exams.

HIST 279 The Other Europe: History of East Central

Europe since WWII

Professor: G. Shkliarevsky

CRN: 91670 Distribution: C/D

Time: M W 1:20 pm ­ 2:40 pm OLIN 107

Cross-listed: Russian/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 prior and during WWII, the class will concentrate on its 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" in 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 system, economic organization, ethnic conflicts, and gender relations. Readings will include a textbook, specialized studies, original sources, and works of fiction.

HIST 295 History of Science in China

Professor: L. Raphals

CRN: 91673 Distribution: C

Time: W 1:20 pm ­ 3:20 pm OLIN 203

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, History/Philosophy of Science

This course provides a broad survey of scientific traditions in China by examining traditional Chinese ideas about nature and systematic thought about the relation of the human to the natural world. Readings will include both primary texts in translation and secondary sources, some from archives or otherwise not readily available. The grouping of materials follows the organization of the disciplines by which Chinese investigators described their own studies. Some of these correspond to branches of past or present Western scientific inquiry, for example astronomy and astrology, harmonics, mathematics, medicine, materia medica (pharmacology), and a broad group of physical studies. Others, such as alchemy and geomancy, have no familiar equivalent. In addition, we explore several important questions of social and intellectual history that relate to the development of scientific thought in China. Who were the scientists of early China, and what were their problems, origins, and interests? Who were the practitioners of medicine, divination, and alchemy? How did foreign contacts affect the history of science and technology in both China and the West? The course does not presuppose prior knowledge of China, science, or the history of science, but previous course work in one of these fields is strongly recommended. Permission of the instructor is required.

HIST 321 Voices of Dissent: China and the Question of Human Rights

Professor: L. Raphals

CRN: 91663 Distribution: A/C/D

Time: Th 1:20 pm ­ 3:20 pm OLIN 203

Cross-listed: Asian Studies, MES

The idea that every individual has unalienable natural or human rights, by virtue of being human, is so familiar as to seem "second nature." Human rights, mostly their abuse, has also become a central and recurrent theme of contemporary U.S.­China relations. Representatives of Asian governments as diverse as Singapore and the Peoples Republic of China have criticized human rights concerns as a form of cultural imperialism. And other voices, arguably less self­serving, have also questioned the universality of what they consider a distinctly "Western" notion, and continue to seek distinctly Chinese formulations for social well­being.

In this seminar we use comparative perspective to explore the historical, philosophical and political contexts of the human-rights question as it applies to China, and the problems Chinese perspectives may pose to universalist notions of human rights. In the first part of the course, we begin by comparing democratic traditions in Europe with possible Chinese equivalents, starting with John Locke on the doctrine of the rights of man, John Stuart Mill on liberty, and a variety of early Chinese sources on concepts of self, individual and group, ideas of nature and of (hu)man(kind). We next compare Chinese and Western writings and ideas on protest and dissent. The second part of the course takes up several specifically Chinese historical topics centrally concerned with protest and dissent, and centrally informed by Western ideas and interactions: the May Fourth Movement, dissent under Mao, the Cultural Revolution, the Democracy Wall Movement, and the question of Tibet. In the third part of the course, we address contemporary philosophical attempts to create a distinctively Chinese social and political ethic. Readings will also include following human-rights­China­related developments in the press during the time of the course. Prerequisite: at least one background course in Chinese history, philosophy and/or political studies or permission of instructor.

HIST 337 Ethnicity, Gender, Race and/or Class: Understanding U.S. Labor History

Professor: Armstead

CRN: 91743 Distribution: C

Time: Tue 10:30 am ­ 12:30 pm OLIN 201

Cross-listed: American Studies, Gender Studies, LAIS, MES

This course assumes that the history of labor in America is tied to the narrative of cultural diversity and the formation of individual and group identity in this country. It therefore explores the historical construction of race, gender, class, and ethnicity by American workers as they move in and out of multiple social spaces over time.

HIST 338 The European State System (I): The Classical Period

Professor: H. Liang

CRN: 91917 Distribution: C

Time: Th 3:40 pm - 5:40 pm OLIN 304

Part one of a divisible two semester sequence.

An inquiry into Europe's political civilization from the French Revolution to the First World War, noting in particular the interrelationship of domestic and foreign affairs as reflected in the development of modern police forces and diplomatic services, and changes in international law. The focus is on Europe's five major powers - England, France, Prussia/Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia - but neutral Switzerland is also included as the fulcrum of Europe's military balance of power in the 19th century. First-year students with sufficient background welcome.

HIST 365 Unphilosophical Philosophy: Readings in Russian Intellectual History

Professor: G. Shkliarevsky

CRN: 91674 Distribution: C/D

Time: Tue 3:40 pm ­ 5:40 pm OLIN 303

Cross-listed: Russian/Eurasian Studies

Russian nineteenth-century secular thought will be the subject of this seminar. Following a brief introduction dealing with the modernization of Russia, as well as the origin of the Russian secular thought and the intelligentsia, the class will focus on the major trends and personalities in nineteenth-century Russian thought. Topics under consideration will include continuity and change in Russian culture, debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles, revolutionary populism and socialism. Extensive readings will be the basis of weekly discussions and will include works by Chaadaev, Gogol, Herzen, Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, Lenin, as well as contemporary studies of the Russian intellectual tradition.