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 from a medieval culture 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 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

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.

This course examines sexuality in America from the colonial period to the present, exploring how American views of sex and desire have changed over time. We will study not only sexual behavior through history, but also its changing meaning, and attempts to control its expression. Topics will include colonialism, slavery, race, religion, class, prostitution, women’s rights, birth control, masculinity, and gay and lesbian history.

This course will combine lecture and discussion of course readings. Course assignments will include a midterm and final examination, two short papers, and short writing assignments.

With the 1415 conquest of Ceuta, Portugal launched its transformation from a remote medieval kingdom into the first global society. When Napoleon’s forces swept into Portugal in 1807, the Portuguese monarchy sailed away to Brazil making it the empire’s temporary center. Charting an early modern global history, the course follows the Portuguese down the western coasts of Africa and around the Indian Ocean - from Mozambique to Hormuz and Goa to Malacca - and then reaches out to China and Japan. Portugal’s vaulting and violent ambitions started to knit together a global economy, yielding both the riches of the spice trade and the horrors of the slave trade. From the exchange of medical knowledge and the spread of Christianity to the writing of Portugal’s national epic and the creation of hybrid artistic styles, new connections reshaped societies and cultures. In parallel, the course traces the story of colonial Brazil and the entanglements of its history with those of West Africa, the Atlantic Islands, Kongo, and Angola. From the original sugar boom and the Dutch invasion to the first gold rush, the course follows Brazil’s story, ending with the transition from a court in exile to the independent Empire of Brazil.

Concentration: Global/European / Period: Pre-Modern

Beginning in 2008, the so-called “new media”—from social networks to blogs and podcasts, to narrow-cast radio and video—have played increasingly significant roles in American electoral politics. And these same new media continue to evolve and shape the style and substance of campaigns and governance. In this class, we will explore the roles of these media, focusing on the 2020 presidential race, but also giving some consideration to House and Senate contests. Among the resources we will examine are networking sites (especially Facebook); YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter; candidate sites; various blogs; television programs such as The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, Full Frontal, and SNL; and electronic outlets for traditional news media. Class members will work in teams to follow the election (presidential and other major races) in various states and regions, and each student will be required to present a piece of independent, individual research (in other words, a term project) by the end of the semester. Class sessions will be largely discussion based, rather than centering on lectures.

This course 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-20^th century and younger adults participate in the electoral process and think about citizenship, as well as how they use and respond to the new media in all its varieties.

Concentration: US / Period: Modern 

This course examines the pivotal Persian Wars, as a result of which two superpowers emerged in the Greek world: Athens and Sparta. Sparta gained a mystique persisting to the present-day as a communistic state of austere and invincible warriors. Athens continued its political experiment of democracy, bequeathing the practice and conception to the modern world, at the same time as it built an empire over other Greek states. The course studies the war's history and legacy.

Concentration: European / Period: Pre-Modern 

This course examines the history, politics, and culture of media in the Middle East. Through a series of case studies, it will offer a broad overview of the development and evolution of regional media from print journalism to social media. The class will examine Middle Eastern media in the context of European imperialism, the Cold War competition between the United States and Soviet Union, the use of state-based radio and television by regional powers and rivals, the media strategies of non-state actors, the rise and expansion of satellite television, and the social media revolution. Students will be introduced to a range of media sources in regional languages (with translation) as well as English-language media based in the Middle East. 

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern 

Religion has been an explosive issue in recent South Asian politics. Commencing with a look at contemporary events, such as the Rohingya refugee crisis, the consolidation of a Hindu nationalist state in India, and the recently concluded Civil War in Sri Lanka, this course will work its way back through the twentieth and nineteenth centuries to understand their historic roots. Key themes discussed will include the gendered nature of religious violence; majoritarian politics and religious identities; colonial rule and enumerated communities; everyday and extraordinary violence.

Concentration: Global / Period: 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. 

This course begins with the European arrival in North America and ends on the eve of the American Revolution.  It focuses on the overlapping political, social, and cultural worlds of Indians, Europeans, and Africans.  The class covers major events including the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Pueblo Revolt, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Seven Years’ War.  We will also examine changing relations between slaves and slave owners, between Indians and colonists, between men and women, between religious leaders and their followers, between political leaders and their constituents.   Readings are a mix of primary and secondary sources.

Concentration: US / Period: Pre-Modern

This course will examine a number of major developments in recent American history. Among the subjects considered: the informing experience of the forties and fifties; The Cuban crises of 1961 and 1962; to Dallas 1963; the Civil Rights movement and after; the Great Society; the Vietnam War at home and abroad; the multi-faceted social upheavals of the sixties; Watergate; the shattering economic defeats of the seventies; the hostage crisis and the election of 1980; the conservative reaction in the eighties and the rise of the New Right; Ronald Reagan’s America; the shaping of American military policy; the road to Iran-Contra; the end of the Cold War and the confrontation in the Gulf; recession and Bill Clinton’s victory; the economic successes of the nineties; the politics of scandal in the Clinton years; the bizarre election of 2000; September 11, 2001 and after – the “War on Terror”; the Bush doctrine and the road to Iraq, the economic crisis of 2008 and the wrenching recession, Obama’s victory and domestic and foreign challenges 2010-2016; the new technology and its wide-ranging impact; the Trump phenomenon and the even more bizarre election of 2016.

Concentration: U.S. / Period: 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 medieval 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 understand 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 course covers the major political, social, and cultural developments in Europe during the period of the two world wars. Major themes include the failures of liberal democracy and capitalism, the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships, and the decline of Europe. In addition to a textbook, course materials include historical monographs, memoirs, novels, and films. Assignments include papers, in-class exams, and quizzes.

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 selects a topic relevant to contemporary Latin America and explores it in the recent past.  The topic for spring 2014 is comparative revolutions.  Attempts at large-scale social transformations were a common feature in the region throughout the 20th century.  The Cuban Revolution comes to mind as the quintessential example of such an experiment with social change.  Nevertheless, there are many other, varied attempts at revolutionary change that challenge the Cuban case as the “classic” revolution. 

This course will examine three such attempts in Mexico, Chile, and Guatemala at different junctures throughout the 20th century.  We will explore the historical differences among the three cases in the context of today’s post revolutionary sensibilities and questions.  How were narratives of social inclusion, armed conflict, and human rights constructed across the 20th century and how are they different today?  How did groups on different sides of the political spectrum justify the use of violence in the context of social conflict?  How did international events, such as the Cold War, influence these revolutions?  How have the historical differences among the three cases facilitate and limit political options for social change?  What can we learn about the aspirations for revolutionary change as well as the ensuing failures to understand Latin America today? 

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern 

This course surveys the history of the Indian subcontinent from 2000 BCE, when an urban civilization was thriving in the Indus Valley, to the seventeenth century, when the Great Mughals ruled over one of the most powerful empires in the contemporary world. While covering this vast time period, we will focus on specific topics pertaining to ancient and medieval Indian politics, economy, religion, society, and culture. Selected readings will examine forms of kingship, the rise of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, the position of women in society, the role of temples as social and political centres, the importance of overseas trade, and the Indian Ocean world.

Did the Aryans invade India? Was the Ramayana a central text for all Hindus? Was the Gupta Empire truly a golden age? What was the impact of the Mughal conquest of Delhi? Through primary and secondary texts, lectures, and class discussions, students will find answers to these questions, and gain a fresh understanding of the Indian past and present.

Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern

This course examines and analyzes the changing social, economic, and political roles of American women from European settlement to the Civil War. Using primary documents, historical essays, and fiction, we will explore how women's roles and identities have been defined by American society over different historical periods. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which women of diverse races, classes and ethnic groups have either embodied or challenged dominant social norms.  

This is primarily a lecture course with discussion of reading and writing assignments based on primary source material.

Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern

This course will analyze the evolution of the modern presidency and its present operation. The focus of our attention will be on the years since the Second World War, and especially on those since 1960. The decision making process and operation of presidential administrations from Kennedy to Barack Obama will be studied in detail; we will also discuss the Obama administration to and through the 2012 election. We shall consider the various roles that the president plays in government, politics and society. The presidency as an institution and as an individual office will be examined to identify factors that have contributed to the successes and failures of particular administrations. This course shall also examine the roles and influence of unelected officials (esp. senior White House staff), and popular attitudes toward both the symbolic and the practical presidency—especially as they have been shaped by the traditional mass media and the “new media” (especially online interactivity). We will consider what lasting effects, if any, events during the last quarter century have had upon the presidency as an institution.   Finally, we will leave space for discussion of breaking news and unexpected developments, especially those related to presidential politics.

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

This course examines the political, cultural and social history of Early Modern England. Topics covered will include the power and image of the monarchy (cases studies - Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I); the role of the printing press in both ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture; the impact of crime and the treatment of criminals; the importance of London as a center of commerce and culture; the myth and reality of Shakespeare and the role of the theater; witchcraft and the dominance of religion in everyday life; and the role of women in a patriarchal society. The course will emphasize reading, discussion, visual culture and the use of primary sources.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern 

This course examines the historical experiment in communism that played out in the lands of the former Russian Empire in the twentieth century. In 1917, radical revolutionaries seized control and attempted to create a multi-ethnic state dedicated to the realization of Karl Marx’s utopian plans for a communist society. Yet the seventy years that followed were dominated by mass repression, genocide, world war, and crushing dictatorship in all spheres of life. When the USSR abruptly disappeared in 1991, few mourned its passing. What (if any) promise did the communist revolution hold for the residents of Tsarist Russia? Why did the utopian ideals propounded by Russian Marxists lead to Stalinist dictatorship? And did the USSR have any chance to reform after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, or was the system fatally flawed and doomed to collapse? In addition to addressing these issues, this course will provide a glimpse of what life was like for people who lived through the “experiment” itself.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

This course focuses on the history of Modern East Africa from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present. More specifically, it examines the global connections between East Africa and Asia and Europe, Western  imperialism, colonialism, slave trade and abolition, race and society during the colonial period and after, labor, nationalism, decolonization, political transformation, Pan-Africanism in the postcolonial period, and postcolonial challenges to development and state-building, as well as inter-state relations since independence. While focus will be concentrated on the core East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zanzibar, the course also looks at such countries as Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

This lecture course examines the role of law in the history of the United States from its origins as a British colony to the present day. It looks at law not only as a functional response to American social transformation, but also as both a powerful constitutive force shaping everyday life and as a principal component of American political mythology. The course will examine constitutional, common, and statute laws, as well as legal culture and institutions. Key subjects include economic expansion, southern slavery, the civil War amendments, laissez-faire constitutionalism, legal realism, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement. Assignments include midterm, final, 10-12 page paper, and short presentations on the readings.

Concentration: U.S./Period: Modern 

Through a thematic and chronological approach, this course examines the changing nature of Japanese society from early modern times (1600-1868) through the modern period (1868-1945) and postwar Japan (1945-today). We begin in 1600 when the battle of Sekigahara ushered in more than two centuries of “great peace” and “isolation” that only ended in 1868 with the fall of the Togukawa shogunate. We follow developments through the founding of the new Meiji government, when political leaders and ordinary citizens set out to create a modern nation-state, which resulted in great social, political and economic changes, while internationally Japan’s quest for an oversea empire brought the country into conflict with its neighbors and ultimately the U.S. In the final section of the course, we study Japan’s successful post-war economic “miracle,” and consider the Tokyo governor and nationalist Ishihara Shintarô’s publication of the best-selling book "The Japan That Can Say No," which argues that the West has much to learn from Japan. Class topics range from urbanization, mass culture and nationalism, popular protest, imperialism, colonialism and empire to gender, war and occupation, memory, apology politics, and globalization. The course will also pay particular attention to the contested nature of modernity. Primary sources, secondary scholarship, film clips and short story translations allow us to explore the changing nature of Japanese politics and society, as well as Japan’s interaction with East Asia and the world. Course requirements include weekly reading assignments, class discussion, a take-home midterm, an in-class final exam and a research paper.

Concentration: Global / Period: Modern

Quite often the middle ages are regarded as a period with few changes. Concepts as kingship, belief, knighthood, feudalism, or institutions such as the church, monasticism or cities are taken for granted and regarded as the unchangeable constituents of medieval life. This course aims at training to question these concepts and to develop sensitivity for the silent long- term developments within the medieval worlds – and especially those which have a strong influence on our own collective identity and cultural perceptions. The general theme is the history of medieval morality – as a key to the understanding of the development of medieval cultures and institutions. This topic will be approached from two sides: the function of saints (and their representation in texts) as role models, political agents and keystones for collective identities on the one hand and the development of morality, and the techniques of social disciplining and implementation of norms and values in medieval societies on the other hand.

Saints: the cult of relics and relic theft; holy men as role model and as a carrier of other people’s sins; miracles and the perception of the world; pilgrimage; local and national saints; the function of saints’ lives.

Sinners: the invention of confession; penitentials; the seven deadly sins; sodomy, simony and church reform; discipline and punishment in urban culture; the pastoral revolution after 1215; explosive poverty; sinful priests and pure heretics; the trade in indulgence and the response of the Protestant Reformation. (Counts towards the Minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.)

Many people are fascinated by the life of monks and nuns in the Middle Ages (and today). How could people aim to live a perfect life in a world disrupted by violence and uncertainty? Why did so many experiments of monastic life fail and end in hypocrisy and corruption? Which role did monasteries play for the preservation and the transmission of knowledge from Antiquity to our times? This course focuses especially on the centuries when monasticism was invented and when a variety of different models of ideal Christian life competed with each other – a period that still leaves a lot of open questions and causes controversies among historians. We will try to understand the processes in which the individual attempts to reach perfection of the Desert Fathers and Mothers transformed into concepts of communal life and the rise of powerful monastic institutions.

We will also use sources on early medieval monasticism to apply and try out a number of theoretical frameworks, ranging from Max Weber over cultural anthropology to Foucault and Queer Theory. Students who are interested in early Christian monasticism and students who are curious about critical theory and its use for historians are equally welcome. (Counts towards the Minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.)

This seminar will focus on a question: why was the United States, the world’s first democratic constitutional republic, also one of the most violent nations on Earth?  This research seminar looks at the persistence of force in a free society.  We will consider topics such as the conquest of indigenous peoples, slavery, gun ownership, political violence, the Civil War, strikes, the police, gangs, and crime waves.               

Students will write 25-30 page papers utilizing primary sources on a subject of their choice. During the first four weeks, the group will discuss research techniques and historical approaches to the subject.  After this, class will meet only intermittently, but students will confer regularly with the professor to show their progress through proposals, bibliographies, and rough drafts.

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

This course will explore the history of the City of London from the beginnings of its rise as a metropolis under Henry VIII to its place as the financial capital of Europe and status as one of the great cities of the world. Some of the topics we will explore include the role of entertainment and the theater under Elizabeth I, the Great Fire which destroyed the city in 1666, the Dickensian underworld of Victorian crime, poverty and social injustice, its rise to world prominence in the nineteenth century, life during the blitz of World War II, and the fight against Brexit. After a few weeks on the history of the city, students will undertake research on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor on some aspect of London’s history. The culmination of this research will be a 20 to 25-page paper.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern 

This course examines genocide, atrocity, and political violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 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 study genocide as a unique historical phenomenon? What are the implications of labelling an incident of mass killing “genocide?” Many scholars also agree that the label “genocide” is limiting and politicized. Therefore, the course will also pursue alternate understandings of mass killings, atrocities, and violence by reading and discussing new and emerging scholarly literatures. Finally, the course will explore genocide, atrocity, and political violence through multiple lenses, including race, class, and gender.

Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern

This is a research and writing seminar that will focus on the historical interactions between the United States and the area now called the “Middle East.” Students will examine a particular aspect of that relationship (political, social, economic, military and/or cultural) during a defined time-period in a 25-page final paper that relies largely on primary sources.

This course focuses on modern Iraq from the early 20th century to the present. While Iraq features prominently in current news headlines about violence, sectarian strife, hardship and civic disintegration, what did it look like before Saddam Hussein? The course explores Iraqi cultural life, its labor movement and successful socialist politics before turning to the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War and sanctions, and the 2003 invasion. It introduces students to the dynamism of modern Iraq through a range of texts by anthropologists and historians as well as works of fiction and a popular blog.

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.