History Undergraduate Courses and Descriptions-Fall 2024

HST 101: American History to 1865

*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.

This introductory course will survey American history from the pre-colonial era to the Civil War. We will approach this period of history through a discussion of three themes. The first covers the period from the founding down to the middle of the eighteenth century and focuses on how Europeans became Americans. The second theme explores the political, social and economic impact the Revolution had upon American society. And finally, we will focus on the modernization of American society in the nineteenth century and how that modernization was a major factor in causing the sectional crisis.

In addition to the two lecture classes a week, you will attend a small discussion class taught by one of the teaching assistants once each week.

Concentration: U.S. / Period: Pre-Modern

HST 111: Early Modern Europe

*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.

This course covers the history of Europe from the Black Death, which marked the end of the Middle Ages, to the French Revolution – the beginning of the modern world. While it will cover the major events of the period – the Renaissance, the Reformation, the English, French and scientific revolutions, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the growth of the modern state – the emphasis will be on changes in the lives of ordinary men and women. There will be a midsemester, a final, and two short (c. 5 page) papers.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern

HST 121: Global History until 1750

*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.

This course introduces students to global history from the thirteenth century through 1750 by focusing on social, economic, political, intellectual, and religious developments in major regions of the world: Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Beginning with the Mongol’s Eurasian empire, their transformation of the continent, and the spread of Islamic empires from Central Asia to the Atlantic, it traces the historical patterns of different world regions in the fifteenth century through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and European imperialism.  What types of exchanges were facilitated by maritime trade and trade diasporas? How were human interactions with their environment circumscribed by climate change and disease? The latter part of the course looks at global connections and local particularities facilitated by the spread of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Course themes include empire, disease, environment, slavery, religion, state-formation, and the rise of global trade. Topics will be covered thematically in general chronological order. Lectures will be supplemented by maps, visual materials, music, documentaries and films. All students are required to attend lectures and one discussion a week.

Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern

HST 122: Global History Since 1750

The course introduces students to global history since 1750. Beginning with the Age of Enlightenment, the course will trace the development of agricultural and industrial revolutions across the world , as well as the age nineteenth century modern empires and of nation-states, scientific ideas and political ideologies , rise of socialism, nationalism, Marxism, fascism, corporatism, World Wars, Cold War, decolonization, and globalization during the twentieth century. Topics are covered thematically in general chronological order. Although the course is a basic survey course, it also calls upon the student to critically think and analyze the historical developments examined.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

This course is an introductory survey of Middle East history from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to 1900. There are no pre-requisites, and no prior knowledge of the Middle East is expected. We will discuss the origins of Islam, and aspects of major Islamic empires such as the Umayyads (7th-8th centuries), the Abbasids (8th-13th centuries), the Fatimids (10th-12th centuries) with greater focus on the Ottomans (14th-20th centuries). In approaching this long history, which unfolded over a vast geography from the Iberian Peninsula and West Africa to Central and South Asia, we will not confine our study to high politics but will also explore intellectual, cultural and social issues such as gender relations, sectarianism, consumerism (coffee, tulips!), gossip and disease. We will also learn how to critically read documentary and material historical traces in order to understand how historical knowledge is constructed as well as the tensions between popular memory and written history. 

Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern

HST 210: The Ancient World

*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.

This course surveys the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and explores the classical roots of modern civilization. We will begin with the first civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the roots of western religion in ancient Israel; then proceed through Bronze Age, archaic and classical Greece, the Persian wars, the trial of Socrates, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic world, the rise of Rome, and end with the fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity. The course will treat political, social, cultural, religious and intellectual history. We will focus on issues that the ancients themselves considered important – good and bad government, the duties of citizens and the powers of kings and tyrants – but we will also examine those who were marginalized by the Greeks and Romans: women, slaves, so-called "barbarians." The course will emphasize reading and discussion of primary sources, in order to provide a window into the thought-worlds and value systems of past societies.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern

HST 210: The Ancient World

This course surveys the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and explores the classical roots of modern civilization. We will begin with the first civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the roots of western religion in ancient Israel; then proceed through Bronze Age, archaic and classical Greece, the Persian wars, the trial of Socrates, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic world, the rise of Rome, and end with the fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity. The course will treat political, social, cultural, religious and intellectual history. We will focus on issues that the ancients themselves considered important – good and bad government, the duties of citizens and the powers of kings and tyrants – but we will also examine those who were marginalized by the Greeks and Romans: women, slaves, so-called "barbarians." The course will emphasize reading and discussion of primary sources, in order to provide a window into the thought-worlds and value systems of past societies.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern

This course is a survey of pre-modern African history, presenting an overview of the main themes and chronology of the development of African culture and society. It provides an exposition of the regional and continental diversity and unity in African political, economic, social and cultural histories with special emphasis on major African civilizations, processes of state formation, encounters with the Euro-Asia world, Africa’s role in the international Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean and Atlantic trades, ecology, and urbanization.

Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern

This course is a history of Palestine and Palestinians from the nineteenth century to the present. It begins with Palestinian urban experiences, village histories, and family life in the late Ottoman era. We will then turn to labor organizing, nationalist movements, and anti-colonial resistance under the British Mandate before covering Palestinian histories over the remainder of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. This will include the experiences of Palestinians with occupation whether in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian refugees, Palestinians living inside the Green Line, and in the diaspora. Themes and topics include women and gender, human rights and international law, radio, poetry, fiction, and film. The title of this course “Absent Presence” refers to a book by the acclaimed Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. It signals the importance of writing and culture in narrating history and understanding historical experiences.

Concentration: Global  / Period: Modern

HST 300/HNR 360, M002, Whose Middle Ages?

This course examines two concurrent developments in medieval history and historiography. The first is scholarship reevaluating race (and ideas about race) in the European Middle Ages. Second is how ideas about race continue to frame discussions about the Middle Ages today, both in aca-demia and in the broader culture. Examples include debates among medievalists about the study of race, and the misappropriation and misrepresentation of the Middle Ages by white surprema-cists. By discovering that medieval Europe was more diverse than is generally assumed and that ideas about race go further back than most historical accounts recognize, students will better un-derstand how the medieval era shaped the present and is being distorted in the present.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern

This course explores cultural history through selected sports films, including documentaries, game reportage, and feature films, connecting filmic sources with readings in history, theory, and literature on the cultural meaning of sports and games. The course involves close-readings of primary and secondary sources, understanding and discussion of differing perspectives and ideas, and reading and writing intensive assignments.

Concentration: US/Europe / Period: Modern

This course is part one of the Native North American Survey. Spanning from the pre-colonial era to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this course will take a chronological approach to Native North America to understand how major historical events and themes connect the past to the present. This is mostly a discussion-based course with major topics including Native sovereignty and self-determination, cultural conflict, the Doctrine of Discovery, international/inter-imperial warfare, settler colonialism, Native survivance, and other forms of Native resistance and cultural perseverance.

Concentration: US / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern

HST 300, M005: Native America and the World

This course is a study of Native America in an international context. Organized thematically, this course will begin with a discussion of the 2007 United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the issues faced by Native Americans in the present day. We will then touch on critical points in the history of North America that place Native Americans in contact/conflict with other nations from across the world. This course is an even split of lectures and discussions with major topics ranging from colonialism to migration to the global whaling industry to the sport of Lacrosse to environmental activism and justice.

Concentration: US/Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern 

This course is about the history of development in Modern Africa from the nineteenth century to recent decades. Development here is defined as the quest for progress/improvement in human economic and social conditions. Focus is on the origin, meaning, implementation of development as an idea and practice in modern Africa over the last century and a half, and African responses to different development initiatives.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

As A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) has exploded into contemporary consciousness and its uses in everyday life have expanded exponentially (ChatGPT, for example), it is vital to pause to reflect on its potential impact on nearly every realm, from education, jobs, popular culture, and entertainment to how we think of ourselves as human beings, form relationships, interact with others, and navigate other aspects of our public and private lives. In this course, we will explore AI as a cultural phenomenon through its history, imaginative portrayals in film and the arts, and current debates over its pros and cons, with special attention to the impact of the virtual world of computer technology, social media, the internet, and now AI, on the self. Comparison with earlier concepts of the self, emotion, and thought in intellectual history and cultural criticism of technology and media—with their visions of what the human person is and might strive to be—can help us assess what might be different in emerging concepts and practices.

Concentration: U.S./Europe / Period: Modern

This course explores interstate systems of ancient Greece and Rome through international relations theory.  The theoretical framework is applied to two famous historical narratives: Thucydides' portrayal of the great Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, and Polybius' account of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and its arch nemesis Carthage, led by the commander Hannibal.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern

This course will examine the long history of Asians and Asian Americans in the United States, while exploring how they have narrated their experiences and histories, fought for human and civil rights, and grappled with marginalization and unbelonging. The class begins with historical overviews beginning in the mid-19th century when Asian migrants arrived on the Pacific Coast and encountered fierce nativist reactions and discriminatory laws. We look at subsequent policies (Immigration Acts of 1924, 1965, Executive Order 9066, etc) that impacted Asian and Asian-American demographics in the US. The course then focuses on various memoirs, graphic novels, and art produced by Americans of Asian descent (east, south, southeast and west Asian) across the century. Engagement with these sources will allow students to familiarize themselves with the ways Asian-Americans have experimented with narrative voice and pushed against stereotypes and myths. Readings will cover topics ranging from mental health and well-being to intergenerational trauma, memory and erasure, inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations, humor and joy. We will explore how the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, citizenship and immigration status have impacted ways of understanding and navigating identities. Students will have the opportunity to hone their own narrative voice by working on creative-non-fictional pieces.

Concentration: Global/US / Period: Modern 

Latin America is today the most urbanized region in the world, the result of massive rural to urban migrations that intensified in the middle of the twentieth century. Rapid urbanization created different challenges for Latin American elites, as well as for working men and women seeking a place of their own in the region’s booming urban centers. Urban planning and housing policies became a priority for ruling governments of diverse political tendencies, as reformers increasingly embraced ideas of development and modernization. It is widely accepted that in Latin America, one in four people lives in a poor, underserviced, legally precarious neighborhood. But in this class, we will trouble assumptions about Latin America’s inherent “informality.” This class engages global issues pertaining to urban poverty and economic and political trends, but it highlights regional dynamics that have transformed Latin American cities. The study of cities and urban space is an inherently interdisciplinary process; thus, this class will draw from history, anthropology, critical geography, and urban studies. This course proceeds chronologically and thematically and examines transformations in urban life and space throughout the twentieth century. We will look at how people experienced life in the city and how struggles over class, race, and gender have manifested themselves in urban space. We will work with maps and cartographic analysis.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

HST 300/HNR 360, M011: Politics of the 2024 Election

HONORS ONLY

This course will allow us to follow and to study the 2024 election in depth, focusing mainly on the presidency but also looking at congressional and gubernatorial contests. Special attention will be paid to new media and reasons for polarization, and on how to assess news coverage. Emphasis will be placed on reflection and discussion. The class also will enable community engagement and trans‐generational outreach because, in addition to the Honors students who are enrolled for credit, there will be 10-12 participants from “Oasis,” a cultural enrichment program for senior adults. [We will meet once a week with the Oasis members, and once a week on our own.] Because both the subject matter and the resource material for this course are new and are constantly evolving, students inevitably will help to shape some of the actual direction of our work. Additionally, given the unpredictability of electoral cycles, we will need to be open to the unexpected! In any event, it is hoped that this class will prepare participants not only to understand the transforming and transformative world of American politics, but also the challenges and consequences of using online materials in pursuing scholarly research and inquiry. Finally, we will attend to the differences between how those born in the mid-20th century and younger adults participate in the electoral process and think about citizenship.

Concentration: US / Period: Modern

This course introduces students to the surprising width and depth of medieval literature from the Mediterranean and Western Europe, debunking a great deal of commonly held assumptions, such as that these times were ’dark ages’, obsessed with life-denying religiosity, and full of valiant crusaders. Instead, we will discover the cosmopolitan nature of many texts and authors, we will engage with the political and social – at times remarkably advanced - aspects of medieval literatures, and indulge in some really great humor. 

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern

What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects. 

M/W 2:15-3:35

What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects. 

This course examines the period between 1787 and 1848 as a distinctive era in United States history.  From the adoption of the Federal constitution to the Mexican war and the Gold Rush, the early American republic offers a vivid case study in historical irony: how a revolutionary republic inched towards nationalism and imperialism; how declared principles of liberty and equality could coexist with (and occasionally create new modes of) racial, gendered, and economic oppression and inequality; how a people who praised the virtues of rural life became progressively urban and industrial.  Readings and lectures will juxtapose the traditional scholarly focus on statecraft, presidential politics, and diplomacy with more recent research in social, cultural, and economic history. 

Concentration: U.S. / Period: Pre-Modern

This course explores European civilization from about 800 to about 1200. We will study kings, saints, and villains; faith and violence, love and hatred; ideas and beliefs. Our questions include: how did these people make sense of their world? How did they respond to crisis and opportunity? How did their civilization work? What was life like in medie-val Europe? To answer these questions, we will mainly read primary sources that show us what medieval people themselves had to say about their world. Our goal will be to un-derstand the past on its own terms. We will also emphasize the skills of close reading, strong argumentation, and clear expression of ideas.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern

This discussion seminar focuses on European history from about 1848 to 1918 and highlights the double edge of modernization as both progressive and repressive, creative and destructive. It considers topics such as nation-building, the rise of ideologies from socialism to scientific racism, the globalization of inequality, and cultural clashes from language disputes to religious persecution.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

This course covers the major political, social, and cultural developments in Europe during the period of the two world wars. During this era, liberal democracy and capitalism failed, authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships proliferated, and, ultimately, political violence and warfare obliterated European civilization. In order to understand these developments, we will focus on themes such as political ideology, class conflict, racism, gender, the persecution of “internal enemies” and social outsiders, violence, and Europe’s general “crisis of modernity.”

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

In this course we will survey Chinese history from earliest times to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644.  This seemingly remote time witnessed the formation of a complex government and society whose influence extended to much of East Asia. Ranging over the centuries, the class will explore some of the main currents in Chinese political, cultural, social, and intellectual history. These include:  Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Legalism as competing and sometimes intersecting philosophies; the imperial system and major changes in its form over time; the changing roles of women in society; popular rebellion and heterodox religion; and the place of science and technology in the Chinese past.

We will read a variety of texts in addition to a concise textbook.

Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern

This course explores the subject of American sport as a lens through which to view race relations in U.S. History. Sports have long served as important symbolic sites of both resistance and assimilation for individuals from various racial and ethnic groups. Our readings and discussions will consider the role of individual athletes, key events, and sports as cultural and corporate institutions in an effort to understand how organized athletics have shaped racial identity and political protest in American history. Key topics will include how sport has influenced discourses of manhood/womanhood, citizenship, and power as we navigate the events, lives, and sociopolitical changes from the era of slavery to the present day.

Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern

This course analyzes the evolution of the modern presidency and its present operation. The focus of our attention will be on the years since 1960. The decision-making process and operation of presidential administrations from Nixon to Trump will be studied in particular detail. We shall consider the various roles that the president plays in government, politics, and society. We will examine the presidency as an institution and as an individual office to identify factors that have contributed to the successes and failures of particular administrations. This course also shall examine the roles and influence of unelected officials (especially senior White House staff), and popular attitudes toward both the symbolic and the practical presidency—particularly as they have been shaped by the traditional and “new” media. We will consider what lasting effects, if any, events during the past quarter century have had on the presidency as an institution. Finally, we will leave plenty of space for discussion of breaking news and unexpected developments, especially those related to the 2024 election.

Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern

Survey of ancient Greek political, economic, social and cultural history based on interpretation of primary sources, both literary and archaeological, from the Bronze Age through Alexander the Great.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern

In 1933, a radical and dictatorial regime came to power in Germany, remade the German state, and went on to orchestrate a vast program of mass murder in pursuit of a vision of biological purity and to launch a war of world conquest, ultimately killing millions. This course examines the history of German fascism, the Nazi state, and the Holocaust according to three primary lines of inquiry. In the first part of the course, we will address the question of how the Nazis came to power. What was Nazism, and why did it gain a popular following? Why did the Weimar Republic, the parliamentary democracy founded in 1918, fall (first to dictatorship and then to Nazism) in the early 1930s? In the second part of the course, we will examine the politics of Nazism in power. What was everyday life like for various Germans under the Nazi state, and why did many Germans come to support the regime? The course’s third section addresses war, genocide, and the legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust.  How did Nazi genocide policies develop, and how was it possible to implement them? What can the history of Nazi Germany teach us about other state-run mass murder programs?  How have Germans grappled with the aftermath of Nazi Germany?

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

The Russian Empire emerged relatively late in the modern era, but it quickly rose to dizzying heights of military power, cultural prestige, and influence on international politics. Powerful rulers like Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, literary giants like Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoevsky, radical socialists like Alexander Herzen and Vladimir  Lenin – these figures placed Russia at the center of trends that transformed European society for five hundred years. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire was in the midst of a period of precipitous decline, which led to the collapse of the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty during the First World War. This course examines the history of Russia from the emergence of the Tsarist autocratic system in the 1400s to the revolutions of 1917, focusing on the Russian state, serfdom, the Russian intellectual tradition, Russia’s imperial policies, and nineteenth-century working-class activism. We will also examine the lived experiences of various social groups within the Empire, including peasants, urban women, ethnic minorities, factory workers, and the intelligentsia.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

Caste, an institution unique to South Asia, is a highly visible but not easily understood aspect of Indian society. This course examines caste in modern India, paying particular attention to society and politics in the twentieth century. Drawing upon a wide range of primary and secondary sources including autobiographies, poems, films, and historical texts, we will attempt to understand what it means to belong to the lower castes in modern Indian society or to be considered “untouchable” – in short, to study politics at the margins. Themes that will be explored include the place of caste in Indian society; constructing colonial knowledge of caste; experiencing “impure” personhood; critiques of caste hierarchies; the relationship between caste and gender; segregation of rural and urban spaces; subversion of social norms through literature and landscapes; policing and violence on the lower-caste body; affirmative action and state policy; and the role of caste in democratizing postcolonial politics.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

This course explores the centrality of gender (ideas about what it means to be a man or woman, how masculinity and femininity are defined and expressed) and race (whether biological, cultural or otherwise) in France, England and their colonial empires. Looking in particular at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we will examine the gender and racial hierarchies and presumptions that justified colonial occupation, domination, and exploitation, and the ways they infused not only politics, but science, literature, and the arts (though not without significant and sustained resistance). How did race and gender – or racism and gender biases – contribute to European expansion? What are the legacies or continues shaping race and inequality today?

Examples extend from the Caribbean to South Asia with attention towards the impact of colonialism on Europe and Europeans as well as US empire, and race and gender in the US today. This course is about the making of the modern world, and the centrality of inequalities (based on race and gender) to nation building over the past 200 years no matter how liberal, republican, or democratic. We alternate between the historical contexts of colonialism and their relevance today with readings from disciplines including anthropology, literature, feminist theory, and cultural studies.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

This course examines political, economic and social history from the middle of the nineteenth century until today.  Topics range from traditional Korea, colonialism and colonial modernity, national division, Cold War politics and the Korean War to nation building and nationalism, economic and social development, South Korean democratization, North Korean culture and society, inter-Korean affairs, the nuclear issue and security, the Korean diaspora and the “Korea Wave.”  Although we focus on Korea, discussions must also include other players in Korean affairs (i.e. the U.S., China, Japan and Russia).  By contextualizing Korea in East Asia and the world, students will have a deeper understanding of the internal and external forces that have shaped Korea and the impact Korea has had on its neighbors and beyond.  The course will rely on translations of primary sources, secondary scholarship, films and short story translations.  Requirements include weekly reading assignments, informal reaction papers, class discussions, a midterm, a final exam and a paper assignment.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

The goal of this seminar is to produce a research paper (20-25 pp.) that explores one topic related to the history of genocide in the modern world. The term genocide initially referred to the Nazi massacre of millions of European Jews during WWII. Since the defeat of Nazism, the term has been applied to many instances of mass killing that occurred before and after the Holocaust. This course seeks to answer several important questions about genocide. What constitutes genocide? Why does genocide happen? Why do ordinary people kill? Finally, can genocide be prevented? If so, how? During roughly the first half of the semester, the seminar will examine readings that explore these issues. After the sixth or seventh week, members of the seminar will work exclusively on conducting research, giving presentations, and writing their final papers.

Concentration: Europe/Global

This course examines the history of Western attitudes towards China.  In particular, we will focus on experts: the relatively small group of individuals we have relied upon for our knowledge of China. Among their numbers have been journalists, historians, missionaries, fiction writers, poets, and philosophers. Some have been famous, such as Pearl Buck and Marco Polo; and some infamous, such as the forger Sir Edmund Backhouse. One famous expert even boasted he’d never been to China. Why, he asked, should he permit the real China to interfere with the more glorious China of his mind?  How experts have seen China has been determined in some sense by how they wanted to see it, and by how they wanted to convey it to the people back home.  Students choose a China expert to research in depth, and prepare a substantial research paper based on original sources. 

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

Instructor Consent Required

Students doing the thesis will take 3 credits of HST 495 the first semester and 3 credits of HST 496 the second semester (2 semesters for a total of 6 credits), which may begin in their junior or senior year.  Students should register for HST 495 and 496 upon approval from the faculty advisor and Undergraduate Director.