Professor: Brian Vick
CRN: 92692
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 11:00 am - 12:20 pm OLIN 205
This discussion-oriented survey course offers an introduction to the formative and fascinating world of early modern Europe as well as to the historical discipline that seeks to understand it. The course provides a general narrative framework of historically significant people, events, trends, and ideas, while covering such specific topics as the Renaissance, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, the growth of European states and colonial empires, and the period's underlying structural relationships of class and gender. Through the readings, students will have the opportunity to explore both the variety of contemporary sources on which historical knowledge is based as well as the diversity of interpretive perspectives historians have brought to bear upon these documents and images.
Professor: M. Armstead
CRN: 92369
Distribution: C
Time: M W 8:50 am - 10:20 am OLIN 203
Cross-listed: American Studies
of related
interest: MES
This is a foundational course in the history of the United States from the
start of the colonial period, 1607, through the Gilded Age, roughly 1890. We will focus on the
following themes: the emergence of a national idea and tensions within it, industrialization and
the emergence of the middle class, the reform/perfectionist impulse in American life, the evolution
of ethnicity and race as socio-economic categories, and developing American imperatives in
foreign relations.
Professor: L. Raphals
CRN: 92370
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 11:50 am OLIN 204
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.
Professor: A. Stroup
CRN: 92371
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 9:00 am - 10:20 am OLIN 205
Cross-listed: Medieval Studies
The
European "middle ages" -originally so called as a term of derision are 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.
Professor: M. Armstead
CRN: 92372
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 8:50 am - 10:20 am OLIN 203
Core Course: MES
Cross-listed: AADS, American Studies
This course will survey the experience of black
Americans in the United States from 1619, the arrival of the first shipload of Africans in British
colonial America, to 1877--the end of the Reconstruction Era. Major issues to be explored
include the slave trade, slavery--its rise as a labor system, its maintenance as a social system, its
varied impact on slaves by gender and geographic location, its supporters, its varied opponents,
and its political demise; free blacks, north and south; colonization, abolition, and other political
strategies advocated by antebellum blacks; blacks in the Civil War; and the goals and limited
achievements of Reconstruction.
Professor: E. Orlin
CRN: 92368
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 3:40 pm - 5:00 pm OLIN 303
Cross-listed: Classical Studies, Italian
Studies
This course offers an introduction to the world of the Romans during the years
of their rise to world empire, from 753 to 31 BCE. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched
from Britain to North Africa and from Persia to Spain. The Romans were a people of intense
contradictions. Although they built the largest empire in the Mediterranean world, they did not
view themselves as expansionist. Although their society was very hierarchical with the upper
classes holding the power, revolutionary movements originated from those same upper classes.
Although they were fiercely conservative, they readily adopted foreign influences and new ideas.
Although they were extremely religious, they were accustomed to read the will of the gods in the
entrails of animals and the flight of birds. This course will attempt to understand the nature of
Roman society and the changes that affected it by a close reading of primary texts - histories,
drama, philosophical texts, and letters written by the Romans - and through an analysis of the
archaeological remains of the ancient Roman world.
Professor: M. Lytle
CRN: 92373
Distribution: A/C
Time: Tu 3:40 pm - 5:30 pm LC 115 Screening
Cross-listed: American Studies,
Film
Through weekly screenings and lectures, the course will offer an in-depth
examination of one of the richest of American film genres, the Western. The films, which make up
the central focus of the course, will be studied from a number of perspectives, as characteristic
examples of popular narrative cinema and as attempts to understand the complex dynamic of this
country's westward expansion in the nineteenth century, the actual history of which will serve as a
background for viewing the films. At its best, popular culture serves as a means for society to
explain itself to itself. By tracing a number of recurring elements (e.g. the heroic individual, the
Western landscape), an attempt will be made to find the redeeming quality of these essentially
commercial films, in their ability to forge a national myth and in their unique handling of the
contradictions within a democratic society. We will also examine how some of the films use the
West as a metaphor to address contemporary political and social issues, as well as compare the
filmic treatment of the West with similar themes as evidenced in painting and literature. Though
the familiar Hollywood genre film will comprise the bulk of the course, most notably the films of
John Ford (Stagecoach, The Searchers, etc.) also included are films from the American
avant-garde (those of Bruce Baillie), documentaries, and possibly two short films made by Native
Americans. For credit in either Social Studies or Arts division.
Professor: A. Stroup
CRN: 92640
Distribution: C
Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 203
Cross-listed: French Studies
In 1989,
France celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution, which was a political
and cultural watershed in history. What led to it? We will start by considering some theories about
the causes and course of political revolutions and by reading about the French Revolution itself.
We will then examine 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, we will study religious and intellectual controversy.
Although the readings will emphasize secondary sources, the works of Enlightenment authors will
be included. May be taken as a Major Conference with the instructor's permission.
Professor: G. Shkliarevsky
CRN: 92376
Distribution: C/D
Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 107
Cross-listed: MES, 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 which 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, et cetera. Course materials will
include scholarly texts, original documents, works of fiction, and films. No
prerequisites.
Professor: A. Stroup
CRN: 92374
Distribution: C
Time: M 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm OLIN 303
The existence of an invisible world has long been a postulate of European thought; at issue was the nature of that realm. In the seventeenth century, the newly invented microscope seemed to unveil the mysterious dispositions of matter as well as the secret structures and processes that ordered motion or life and death. Yet every discovery--from Robert Hooke's eye of the fly to Anthony van Leeuwenhoek's animalcules--prompted disbelief and dispute over interpretation. This course examines early microscopy in philosophical context, paying special attention to theories of reproduction. We will examine Hooke's Micrographia, van Leeuwenhoek's letters, and other documents from the golden age of microscopy, putting these into a philosophical context to be understood in large part from the treatises of Aristotle, Lucretius, and Descartes.
Professor: G. Shkliarevsky
CRN: 92379
Distribution: C/D
Time: M W 1:20 pm - 2:40 pm OLIN 202
Cross-listed: MES, Russian and Eurasian
Studies
East Central Europe is in many respects one of the most intriguing parts of the
world. Culturally and geographically positioned between the West and Russia, this ethnically
diverse region has experienced in the course of the twentieth century a very dramatic and
paradoxical evolution. After a brief summary of the history of the region prior to and during
WWII, we will concentrate on its history since the war and particularly on those events and
developments which reflect its paradoxical evolution. Using a comparative approach, we will
examine a variety of specific topics including political systems, economic organization, ethnic
conflicts, and gender relations. In our examination of the history of the region we will use original
sources, films, works of fiction, as well as scholarly studies. No prerequisites.
Professor: M. Lytle
CRN: 92380
Distribution: C
Time: W F 10:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 205
Cross-listed: American Studies,
CRES
Through much of Western Civilization humans have assumed that God created
nature for their purposes. That has led to a drastic alteration of the environment to the detriment
of many species. American society has in turn been driven by the assumption that humans can
improve on nature. We will look at the past and potential future costs of that assumption. In
addition, wilderness and civilization blend a complex web of positive and negative associations
often in dialectical opposition. As civilization advances and wilderness retreats we have come to
question more the former and worship more the latter. What would it mean to humans in both
material and spiritual terms if this defining dialectic were destroyed by the obliteration of
wilderness and the values it engenders? This course will look at scientific, philosophical, and
artistic systems that have challenged anthropocentric views of the world.
Professor: M. Lytle
CRN: 92381
Distribution: C
Time: W 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm OLIN 303
Cross-listed: American Studies
This
course covers the period of Roosevelt's 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 will not be limited to Roosevelt and
public politics, but will extend to other major public figures, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry
Hopkins, and many New Deal figures, and to relevant topics in cultural, social, military, and other
fields of history.
Professor: M. Armstead
CRN: 92382
Distribution: C
Time: M 10:30 am - 12:30 pm OLIN 304
Cross-listed: Victorian Studies
This
course deals generally with the changing values and culture associated with work and the resulting
patterns and issues in worker-employee relations in the history of the United States. The point of
departure will be the new ethic of discipline, sobriety, and regularity in the American worker that
accompanied 19th-century industrialization. We will concern ourselves with the preindustrial
work culture that preceded this ethic, persistent agrarian rhythms that counterpoised the emerging
ethic, and contemporary challenges to the continuation of the ethic.
Professor: L. Raphals
CRN: 92383
Distribution: A/C/D
Time: Tu 2:50 pm - 4:50 pm OLIN 301
Cross-listed: Asian Studies
of related interest: 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 self-serving, have also questioned the universality of what they consider a distinctly
"Western" notion, and continue to seek distinctly Chinese formulations for social well-being.
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-rights-China-related 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.
Professor: G. Shkliarevsky
CRN: 92385
Distribution: C
Time: Tu 3:40 pm - 5:40 pm OLIN 307
Cross-listed: Russian and Eurasian
Studies
The reign of Nicholas II straddles two centuries--the end of the nineteenth and
the beginning of the twentieth. It was a period of profound transformation of Russia. The
country experienced a rapid, economic expansion, momentous social changes, and a literal surge
of new trends in literature, poetry, and the arts. New values and conceptions which invaded
Russian society clashed with the traditional Russian culture. For many Russians, regardless of
their social position, this clash represented a very traumatic experience. One could characterize
the reign of Nicholas II as a period of intense cultural anxiety when Russians struggled to make
sense of the new world rapidly emerging around them. After discussing the changes which
occurred in Russia under the last tsar, the course will focus on numerous clashes between
modernity and tradition as they transpired in such disparate phenomena as the relationship
between the government and Russian society, relations between the upper and the lower social
strata, the debates on abortion and the position of women, as well as controversies surrounding
various intellectual issues, including those related to new aesthetic sensibilities and the role of
literature and the arts. Readings will include primary sources and works of fiction, as well as
contemporary scholarly studies. Some prior familiarity with the history of the period will be
helpful.
Professor: L. Raphals
CRN: 92653
Distribution: C/D
Time: Tu Th 1:20 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 308
Cross-listed: Asian Studies
Classical
Chinese, the literary language that took stable form in China about 500-200 B.C.E., is the
language in which the foundations of Chinese civilizations were first articulated. It is the language
of China's first moralists, philosophers, and mystics, its greatest poets, and much of its historical
and literary traditions. Like classical Greek in Western Europe, it has been the foundation of a
pan-Asiatic (and now increasingly global) cultural tradition which continues to the present day;
its relative stability has been an important unifying factor in the development of Chinese culture
over a broad geographical area and historical time span. This course introduces students to the
Classical Chinese language through reading of selections from major texts, mostly from the
Warring States period and the Han and Tang dynasties, ranging in genre from philosophy and
history to narrative and poetry. Examples include works of Confucius, Mencius, Chuang Tzu, Lao
Tzu, Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the so-called Grand Historian of China, and some of the great Tang poets.
Texts are chosen for both their historical importance and their aptness in illustrating fundamental
problems in reading. Prerequisite for this course is two years of Mandarin Chinese or permission
of the instructor.