Introduction to aims and methods of historical thinking. Through concentrated exploration of a particular historical issue, students develop their understanding of the nature and limits of historical evidence, various legitimate ways of approaching it, and the art of making persuasive claims about it. Students may take no more than two History 100 courses. Each course must be on a different topic.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Additional Information: 

The purpose of this course is not to cover a certain amount of ground, but to introduce students to the nature of historical interpretation. To do that, individual instructors will chose a topic that will show students the various ways historians interpret their evidence and allow them to practice interpretation on their own. Whatever the topic, the central aim is for students to come away from the course with a better understanding of the nature and limits of historical evidence, the various legitimate ways of approaching it, and the art of making persuasive claims about it.

The individual course titles for the fall 2009 semester are:

• Churchill. An exploration through primary, secondary, and film sources of the life, career, and significance of Winston Churchill—world statesman, British war-time leader, soldier, journalist, historian, and orator—within the context of his times (l874-l965).
  
  
• The Cold War. An introduction to varieties of historical interpretation associated with the origins and course of the Cold War, focusing on the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.
  
  
• The Crusades. An examination of the roots of the Crusading Movement in Western Christian societies; the ways the crusades brought three world cultures (The West, Byzantium, Islam) into contact and confrontation; the vitality of the crusading idea in Western Europe; the different perspectives on the crusades found in contemporary sources; and the movement of crusade history from a very Christian-centered view to one taking into account the experiences of non-Christians encountering the crusaders.
  
  
• The Invention of Political Parties in the U.S. An examination of post-revolutionary America’s first political parties and party systems, addressing questions about party formation and political culture from the 1790s through the 1840s.
  
  
• Lincoln. A study of Abraham Lincoln’s life in the broader historical perspective of the western movement, social mobility, party politics, the legal profession, the sectional crisis and the Civil War. Roughly equal time is devoted to Lincoln’s pre-presidential and Civil War years.
  
  
• Natives and Newcomers in Early America. Following Carlos Fuentes’ observation that: "No culture retains its identity in isolation; identity is attained in contact, in contrast, in breakthrough," an exploration of the cultural negotiation that occurred when natives in the Americas met various newcomers, from the initial contacts to the 1830s.
  
  
• Slavery in the United States. An exercise in ways of understanding the United States’ “peculiar institution” through examination of extant records of and some secondary sources about early American slavery.
  
  
• Technology in American History. An exploration of technology’s role in American life, focusing on such topics as the growth of large-scale systems; the unforeseen impacts of new technologies upon everyday life; and the relations of technological change to federal policies, national defense, public health and notions of “the good life.”
  
  
• The World of Abigail Adams. Abigail Adams as a window into the many worlds in which she moved, including political and diplomatic circles, trans-Atlantic scientific and trading communities, and gendered kinship networks. Students will compare biographies of Adams and her contemporaries and then try their own hands at a new technique called “microhistory.”

Topical study of western heritage from Classical Greece through Reformation.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Topical study of western heritage from rise of modern political concepts in 17th century to present.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Analysis of American history in precolonial, colonial, revolutionary, early national, antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Analysis of American history in post-Reconstruction, progressive, interwar, World War II, and post-World War II periods.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Survey of traditional East Asian thought, institutions, and culture in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

Unit(s):  1

Colonial history from earliest British settlements to the end of French and Indian War in 1763.

Unit(s):  1

War of Independence and formation of the Republic, 1763-1788.

Unit(s):  1

Introduction to experience of women in history of America from colonial times to present.

Unit(s):  1

Focus on slavery and sectional controversy, secession and the war; political, economic, and social problems of Reconstruction.

Unit(s):  1

Analysis of African-American experience from pre-colonial African roots through U.S. colonial, revolutionary, and Civil War eras with particular attention to slavery, abolitionism, development of African-American cultural practices, and African American participation in the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

Unit(s):  1

Analysis of African-American history after the Civil War with particular attention to work, culture, family, and achievement; and to the impact of the Great Migration, Great Depression, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Unit(s):  1

Examination of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., especially its social origins and consequences and implications. Topics include sit-ins, mass protest, freedom rides, the voting rights campaign, the black power movement, and radical and reform organizations and leaders.

Unit(s):  1

Analysis of African-American culture from its African roots to present, focusing on the impact of slavery, racial discrimination, gender, and class on family practices, language, dress, food, religion, and artistic/intellectual production.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of the history of the United States from the end of the 19th through first half of the 20th century in transnational perspective. Students will examine how the modern United States was formed through economic, cultural, political, and military encounters with peoples, governments, and places around the world. Topics covered will include imperialism, migration, citizenship, the rise of the United States as a global power, American culture abroad, and the role of the United States in World War I and World War II.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of the history of the United States since World War II in transnational perspective. Topics will include the Cold War, the interrelationship between foreign policy and domestic politics, American involvement in the developing world, migration, citizenship, and economic and cultural globalization.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of American ideas and culture since the Civil War. Topics will include the "social questions" of the 19th century; visions of the self and society; the role of science and expertise in American life; political debates over freedom and the market; and cultural battles over pluralism and American identity.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of United States political and social development in the early 20th century. Topics include the rise of the modern American state, industrialization, the rise of American cities, the Great Depression and the response of national and local governments, the domestic impact of the World Wars, immigration, and the development of racial and ethnic identities in the modern United States.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of United States political and social development in the late 20th century. Topics include globalization, the transformation of the American labor movement, urban crises and suburbanization, post-1964 immigration (with special emphasis on Asian- and Latino-Americans), the rights revolutions, the Cold War, the career of the modern American welfare state, the rise of modern American conservatism, and the impact of September 11, 2001.

Unit(s):  1

An exploration of the connections between work and political, economic, and cultural life in America in the last century, addressing such questions as: How did the meaning of work change for Americans in the twentieth century? How did work generated protests, legislation, electoral triumphs, and political falls from grace?

Unit(s):  1

Survey of the third and second millennia B.C.E. civilizations of the Aegean Sea basin and the interconnections between them and other major civilizations of the ancient Near East Bronze Age.

Unit(s):  1

Greek history from end of the Bronze Age through career of Philip II of Macedon.

Unit(s):  1

Investigation of rise of the Roman hegemony in context of the Hellenistic Mediterranean. Special attention given to role of Hellenistic kings.

Unit(s):  1

Study of how the Romans and their Byzantine followers maintained an empire in hostile atmosphere of the first five centuries of our era.

Unit(s):  1

Introduction to the history of women in Europe from ancient times through the 19th century. Focus on continuities and changes in the female experience in such historical moments as Ancient Greece, Reformation Germany, and the French Revolution. Source material includes women's diaries, letters, speeches, and philosophical treatises.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Italy from the formation of the communes to the first stirrings of the Renaissance. Emphasis on the development of the commercial economy, differential development between North and South, the emergence of a strong Papal State, and the causes and effects of the Great Plague.

Unit(s):  1

Social and intellectual history of Europe from Late Antiquity to the 11th century. Emphasis on the birth and development of the political and institutional successors to the Roman Empire.

Unit(s):  1

Overview of some of the principal social, political, and cultural developments in Europe c. 1000-1450 with special attention to the increasing vitality of urban culture, the varying position of women, the formation of bureaucratic "states," and the emergence of such concepts as romantic love and individualism.

Unit(s):  1

Examines the evolution of the European pattern of economic life and organization from the decline of Rome through the close of the Middle Ages. The contributions of all social and economic strata -- from peasant to townsperson to clergy to aristocrat to monarch -- to the economy will be considered. Topics include the agricultural revolution, the emergence of urban life, technological advances, the trends in population including the impact of famine and pestilence, the evolution of commercial and manufacturing techniques, economic roles of women, Jewish communities within the Medieval economy, Medieval economic mentality and doctrine, the underground economy, and the merchant as adventurer.

Unit(s):  1

Examines England's history from the withdrawal of the Romans in the fifth century through the conclusion of the Wars of the Roses in 1485. Topics include the search for the historical Arthur, the Viking incursions, the Norman Conquest, the development of Common Law, the evolution of parliamentary government, English Medieval women, Anglo-Celtic and Anglo-French relations, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years' War.

Unit(s):  1

Culture, politics, economics, modern science, and overseas expansion of the Renaissance.

Unit(s):  1

Constitutional, political, economic, social, and cultural developments in England, Scotland, and Ireland from accession of the Hanoverians through the Great Reform Bill.

Unit(s):  1

History of the social, political, and economic institutions that helped shape the modern French state from the Age of Absolutism through the French Revolution and rise of Napoleon.

Unit(s):  1

Political, social, diplomatic, and cultural overview of the fate of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union from the Napoleonic Wars through the end of the Cold War with special focus on nationalism, socialism, Stalinism, and the fall of the USSR.

Unit(s):  1

An examination of the world of the last generation to live under Soviet communism. What sort of people made up the last Soviet generation? Where did its sense of public conformity and private independence come from? What can explain its "apoliticism" against a background of ubiquitous propaganda? What can explain its intense individualism within a society ostensibly organized along collectivist lines? Why are terms like loyalist, timeserver, and dissident inadequate for describing members of this social cohort?

Unit(s):  1

Focus on nature and role of science, art, politics, religion, sex, emotion, and history.

Unit(s):  1

Focus on liberalism, Marxism, Freudianism, existentialism and structuralism.

Unit(s):  1

Prussia and Germany from 1848 to present. Emphasis on unification, political movements, Nazism, and origins and effects of World Wars I and II.

Unit(s):  1

Constitutional, political, economic, and social developments in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era and 20th century.

Unit(s):  1

Survey of rise and fall of Hapsburg Empire beginning with development of lands of the house of Hapsburg from Middle Ages to Napoleonic era; political, military, diplomatic, economic, social and cultural issues in Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) Empire from Congress of Vienna to end of World War I, and in the empire's successor states in Central Europe.

Unit(s):  1

Survey of Balkan history in modern times, focusing on development of Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, the Yugoslav lands, and Greece.

Unit(s):  1

Examination of Russia in revolution from the attempts at reform in 1905, through the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 and the subsequent consolidation of power under Lenin and Stalin. Special emphasis on the nature of "revolution" and questions of agency and contingency.

Unit(s):  1

Topical approach to the history of Ireland from late 17th century to present. Attention will be given to Ireland's society, economy, politics, international position, and special, often tortuous, relationship with its more powerful neighbor, the United Kingdom.

Unit(s):  1

Studies in European diplomatic history from mid-19th century to World War II.

Unit(s):  1

Overview of European political, diplomatic, military, social, economic, and cultural history since 1900.

General Education Requirement:  (FSHT)

Unit(s):  1

Explores the journeys that China, Korea, and Japan took that have resulted in the shape of East Asia as we know it today. Explores their long history of interconnection and philosophical, cultural, and political traditions. In their modern history, 1600-1960, China, Japan, and Korea were confronted with similar issues at about the same times; each responded differently, resulting in very different fates.

Unit(s):  1

Chinese history is often noted for the frequency of its revolutions -- ground shaking social and political upheavals that change the landscape and people's lives in many ways. Studies not only political revolutions but also the revolutions of the mind, thought, and experience in order to reach an understanding of some of the revolutionary events that have played important roles in shaping the China we know of today.

Unit(s):  1

Engages with the period 1900-1940, during which many aspects of the modern Chinese state and society were established. Includes the emergence of Chinese national identity, Chinese vernacular, and the political ideologies that continue to define China today. Also studies the emergence of a sophisticated urban culture in cities like Shanghai, and radical transformations in the social fabric of Chinese society. Explores this important time when many people in China were concerned with what it meant to be modern.

Unit(s):  1

Examination, using East Asia as a case, of ideologies and logics of modern empire and nation formations, and their dynamic interactions in the modern world. Topics include the collapse of the Chinese Qing Empire, the arrival of Western imperialism, the rise of the Japanese empire, and the emergence of East Asian nationalism as reactions to these developments.

Unit(s):  1

Japan's response to Western pressures and rise to world power in 19th and 20th centuries.

Unit(s):  1

Uses the reign of the Meiji emperor (1868-1912), considered to be the period in which modern Japan emerges, as a loose unifying metaphor to explore the many radical shifts in Japanese society, politics, and culture that occurred in his time.

Unit(s):  1

Introductory survey of Latin American history from independence; focus on quest for political stability, economic development, and social change.

Unit(s):  1

Constructing and contesting inequality in modern Brazil, with special attention to comparative issues in the study of slavery, race, gender, and ethnicity.

Unit(s):  1

Examination of internal and external forces behind the conflicts across Latin America during the Cold War (1948-1989): revolutionary regimes, guerrilla warfare, military repression, counterinsurgency and "dirty wars," Liberation Theology, evangelical movements, land reforms, economic development, genocide, and proxy wars.

Unit(s):  1

An introduction to the major institutions that evolved under the aegis of Islamic Civilization from the advent of Islam in the early seventh century C.E. through the Mongol invasion in 1258. Since "Islam" in this context encompasses an entire cultural complex, the course will examine religious, political, economic, and social institutions.

Unit(s):  1

Survey of Middle East from last years of Ottoman Empire to present. Emphasis on culture, Zionism, Arab nationalism, diplomacy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Unit(s):  1

A survey of the history of Ottoman Turkish power from its origins as an obscure band of frontier warriors (ghazis), to when it became a world-empire and down to its collapse in the aftermath of World War I.

Unit(s):  1

Introduction to economic, social, political, and intellectual history of Africa from time of trans-Atlantic slave trade to colonial conquest.

Unit(s):  1

Introduction to economic, social, political, and intellectual history of Africa from colonial period to present.

Unit(s):  1

South Africa from precolonial period to present, with special attention to conquest, economic development, establishment of migrant labor system, segregation, and rise and fall of formal apartheid.

Unit(s):  1

British imperialism from end of American Revolution through development of the modern Commonwealth. Emphasizes Canada, India, Africa, and Australia.

Unit(s):  1

Development of Canadian society and state, emphasizing factors of geography, politics, and economics; influences from France and Great Britain; problems of regionalism and nationalism; and Canadian-American relations.

Unit(s):  1

First-time or one-time courses in regions and periods not covered or not yet covered in the history program.

Unit(s):  1

American women of all ranks and ethnicities from the transatlantic encounter in 1492 to the Seneca Falls convention of 1848. Major themes include changing constructions of gender, political struggles, and interactions among women of native, African and European origins.

Unit(s):  1

Comparison of historians' treatments of the Civil War with its portrayal in documentaries, feature films, and literature.

Unit(s):  1

(See Psychology 437.)

Unit(s):  1

Examination of major themes in African-American women's history, focusing on race, gender, and class as they affect black women's relation to family, work, activism, and other female groups.

Unit(s):  1

Explores the many changes that cities have undergone between 1945 and the present including segregation, rising crime rates, and failing schools and the responses to these pressing issues by the government, planners, and citizens. Grounded in a historical perspective on the urban crisis, this course uses tools of historical inquiry to probe the underlying causes of problems that plague urban America and to consider possible solutions.

Prerequisite(s):  Acceptance in Civic Engagement House.

Unit(s):  1

A thematic exploration of historical issues of identity development and construction in the twentieth-century United States, focusing on such questions as: What do historians mean by "identity"? How do they use categories like race, class, and gender to understand the American experience? How have they approached issues of status, power, and individuality?

Unit(s):  1

Examination of recent scholarship on the intellectual history of America, 1776-1800, focusing on the questions of whether the Constitution was a fulfillment or repudiation of Revolutionary aims and what was the meaning of Jefferson's election to the presidency in 1800.

Unit(s):  1

Historical study of world of work in early modern and modern Europe. Focus on nature of work itself, how it framed mentalities, created social classifications, informed economic thought, and shaped the political process. Topics include history of wage labor and guilds, early industry from countryside to cities, working class formation, division of labor in industry, and policing labor.

Unit(s):  1

An examination of Medieval frontier societies in a comparative perspective, considering such themes as political organization and allegiances, and social, economic and religious life. Consideration given to both geographic and cultural frontiers--places where movement, confrontation, and intersection among peoples occurred. Particular emphasis on the dynamic of contact and separation, cultural exchange, and resistance in Southern Italy, Spain, the Crusader States, and the British Isles.

Unit(s):  1

Exploration of individuals and socio-economic groups who lived in and helped define Britain in the reign of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901.

Unit(s):  1

Interdisciplinary course investigating the Russian Great Reforms (1861-1881) through the lens of L.N. Tolstoi's "Anna Karenina." Examines issues connected to imperial Russian literary, social, cultural, and political history, as well as the subject of gender relations.

Unit(s):  1

An exploration of approaches to and conceptions of what historians have come to call the "Enlightenment." What do they mean by "The Enlightenment?" In what ways do they seek fuller understanding of it? How and why do they disagree about its features? Although the main focus will be on secondary literature, primary texts will be read and discussed as examples of the kind of evidence scholars are trying to interpret.

Unit(s):  1

Examination of selected images China and "the West" constructed of each other in the past two and a half centuries and of the driving forces and mechanisms behind their production.

Unit(s):  1

Examines the lingering controversies surrounding the history of WWII in East Asia. It focuses on the intersections of history and memory, and explores the politics of remembering and representing difficult historical events associated with the war. Issues include the Nanjing Massacre, comfort women, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Battle of Okinawa.

Unit(s):  1

Changing conceptions and treatment of crime and punishment since independence: capital punishment, banditry, vagrancy, infanticide, prostitution, crimes of passion, theft, lynchings, subversion, death squad killings, "disappearances," human rights abuses.

Unit(s):  1

An examination of major debates in the field of Modern Middle Eastern and Islamic History, exploring what the main approaches and their critiques are, how the field (especially recently) came to be polarized and politicized, and where more fruitful middle ground might be found between these hardened categories. Topics will include Orientalism and its discontents, the rise of political Islam, nationalism, and "civilizational identities."

Unit(s):  1

Women's roles in and perspectives on some of the major issues in African history, including slavery, colonialism, and development.

Unit(s):  1

Comparative exploration of connection between food (cultivation, processing, distribution, consumption, and denial) and political legitimacy, social institutions, and individuals' identities and values in Asia and Africa from antiquity to present.

Unit(s):  1

Seminar exploring the ideas, institutions, and social networks around which movements for transnational reform have been built. Students will examine the history of four movements for transnational social reform since the early 19th century: abolitionism, women's rights, anticolonialism, and environmentalism.

Prerequisite(s):  At least one other history course.

Unit(s):  1

An investigation of the confusing theoretical terrain of nation, nationalism, and national identity through a survey of major 19th and 20th century schools of thought, culminating in students' own case studies of specific national movements.

Unit(s):  1

First-time or one-time colloquia on focused topics not covered or not yet covered in the history program.

Unit(s):  1

Required seminar for majors taken in junior or senior year. Investigation of topic of limited focus. Substantial paper based on common reading and individual research in primary and secondary materials. Topics and instructors vary. See departmental Web site for seminar topics. Enrollment limited to 12 students.

Unit(s):  1

Individually designed reading or research program conducted under faculty supervision.

Prerequisite(s):  Five courses in history and permission of department.

Unit(s):  .5-1

Practical history-related work combined with some academic study.

Prerequisite(s):  Permission of department.

Unit(s):  .5-1

Introduction to principles and practices of historical writing. Although some attention paid to the history of historical writing since classical times, focus will be on contemporary modes of historical writing.

Unit(s):  1

Preparation of research prospectus for honors research seminar under direction of appropriate faculty.

Prerequisite(s):  History 410 and admission to departmental honors program.

Unit(s):  .5

Research and writing of honors thesis in history.

Prerequisite(s):  History 410 and 411 and admission to departmental honors program. History 412 is a prerequisite to 413.

Unit(s):  1-1