Spring 2018 Courses
100 Level Courses | 200 Level Courses | 300 Level Courses
100 Level Courses
| HI 111 001. Intro. to Latin American History Kate Paarlberg-Kvam (3 credits) MWF 10:10-11:05 a.m. An introduction to the economic, political, social, and intellectual history of Latin America. Organized thematically and chronologically, topics emphasize understanding the emergence of the colonies of Spain, Portugal, France, and England into a group of distinct nation-states. Students will explore Latin American society from initial encounters among Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. We then study independence: political, economic, and social challenges of early nation-state formation in a multicultural context. We conclude with the twentieth century, addressing topics such as industrialization, revolution, U.S.-Latin American relations, and selected intellectual trends. Note(s): Not open to students who have successfully completed HI 109. (Fulfills Cultural Diversity requirement, fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 116H 001. Sea Changes Tillman Nechtman (4 credits) WF 8:40-10:00 a.m. A survey course in global history that takes the world’s oceans as its subject. Students will explore themes ranging from naval history to legal history, from environmental history to zoological history, and from the history of exploration and adventure to the history of imperialism and conquest. Students will work with primary and secondary sources and develop their analytical and writing skills as they ask questions about the field of history itself. What assumptions have historians made when they focus on nations and continents? What institutions and categories have they privileged with their focus? What have we missed because we look only at the history of land? How and why does history’s narrative shift when we undertake a “sea change” in our perspectives? Note(s): (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 126 001. Revolution to Civil War Eric Morser (3 credits) MWF 12:20-1:15 p.m. A grand tour of United States history from the American Revolution to the Civil War. Students investigate the challenge of nation building, the contested rise of American democracy, the economic transformation of the United States, battles to control the western frontier, and the growing conflict over slavery that eventually tore the nation apart. Note(s): (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 144 001. East Asian Civilization Jenny Day (3 credits) MWF 11:15 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. An introductory survey of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) from its earliest history to the end of the Mongol empire in the 1300s. Students will explore the formation of Confucianism as an ideology, the changes in social and political institutions across East Asia, ideas and practices concerning gender and the family, religion and beliefs of elites and ordinary people, and intercultural exchanges and conflicts within East Asia. Note(s): (Designated a non-Western culture course; fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 151001 Cold War Matthew Hockenos (3 credits) WF 8:40-10:00 a.m. This course exams the U.S.-Soviet rivalry after 1945—known as the Cold War—from a European and global perspective. In addition to addressing the nuclear arms race and the ideological struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States, attention will be given to how the Cold War ignited deadly conflicts in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Our starting point will be the division of Europe at the end of the Second World War and the formation of Eastern and Western Blocs under Soviet and American hegemony. In the European context we exam the occupation and division of Germany; the Marshall Plan; everyday life behind the Iron Curtain; the Prague Spring; and the revolutions across Eastern Europe that brought down the communist regimes. In the global context we exam the Korean War; the Cuban Missile crisis; the Vietnam War, and the emergence of China as a superpower. We end the course by examining the explosion of nationalism in the Yugoslav states after the fall of communism and the ethnic cleansing and genocide that takes place there in the 1990s. |
| HI 151C 002. The Making of the Modern Middle East Murat Yildiz (4 credits) T/Th 11:10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. This course will explore the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the modern Middle East. The modern period has its roots in the sixteenth century and continues through the present day. Course readings and discussions will encourage students to consider how the governmentalization of the Ottoman and Qajar states resulted in the fundamental restructuring of state-society relations, government institutions, and the way in which individuals conceptualized themselves and others. The course is designed to expose students to the processes and practices that were central to the production of the Middle East as both a physical space as well as a discursive concept. |
200 Level Courses
| HI 204 001. Athens, Alexander, Cleopatra Michael Arnush (3 credits) T/Th 12:40-2:00 p.m. A study of Greece from the Peloponnesian War to the end of Greek independence. Students examine the war between Athens and Sparta and its aftermath, the struggle for preeminence among Greek city-states, the rise of Macedonia, the monarchies of Philip and his son Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic kingdoms, the development of scientific thought, and the last “Greek” monarch, Cleopatra of Egypt. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic. Note(s): (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 223P 001. U.S. Foreign Policy Jennifer Delton (4 credits) T/Th 9:40-11:00 a.m. An examination of the development of the United States from its peripheral position in world affairs to its role as an international superpower. What has motivated American foreign policy? What has defined America’s international and national interests? Can we discern a continuity to American foreign policy over time, or is it defined by contingency and reaction? How have Americans defined themselves through their foreign policy? How has American foreign policy betrayed American ideals? How has it fulfilled those ideals? How has September 11 changed our views of America’s role in the world? (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 229 001. War and Peach in Latin America Kate Paarlberg-Kvam (3 credits) T/Th 11:10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Examines the social, economic, political, and intellectual causes and consequences of important internal and international wars in twentieth-century Latin America. The course will consider cases of successful and unsuccessful attempts to achieve political change ranging from the Mexican Revolution to Central America’s road from war to peace in the 1980s and 1990s, to U.S. interventions in the Caribbean and military dictatorships in South America. Why certain sectors promote war, the justifications of war, why others choose to instigate or participate in conflict and violence, what conditions are required to consider a conflict concluded, and what factors (internal and international, ethnic, religious, gender, etc.) shape specific conflicts are principal questions. Note(s): (Designated a Cultural Diversity course, fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 242P 001. China in War and Revolution (4 credits) TTh 2:10-3:30 p.m. The emergence of modern China-its turbulent and violent transition from an imperial dynasty to a Communist nation-state. Students will study how internal and external crises precipitated reforms and revolutions, how people shed their old identities and took on new ones, how political leaders engineered campaigns and movements-often with disastrous effects-and how this history has been remembered, reflected upon, and remolded by the Chinese themselves. Note(s): (Fulfills Non-Western Culture requirement, fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
| HI 251C 001. Leisure and Serious Fun in the Middle East Murat Yildiz (3 credits) TTH 2:10-3:30 p.m. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were periods in which men and women of the Middle East developed new notions of time, carved out larger spaces for themselves in the expanding public sphere, created novel activities, and experimented with different mood- and mind-molding substances. Through close readings of secondary and primary sources (including photographs, films, novels, and memoirs), we will examine a number of urban transformations related to leisure and pleasure, including: drugs, tobacco, coffee houses, reading rooms, alcohol, prostitution, public transportation, vernacular photographs, and sports. By creating new narratives around leisure activities, pleasure, and fun, students are able to cultivate a more textured and multidimensional understanding of the making of modernity in the Middle East. |
| HI 251C 002. Alexander the Great Michael Arnush (3 credits) TTh 2:10-3:30 p.m. Alexander the Great was the so-called "world's first rock star” and “fantastic freak of nature." Who was this King of Macedon, champion of the Greeks and conqueror of the east? He has come to symbolize worldly glory and conquest, and critics have viewed him either as a dashing adventurer, a ruthless tyrant, or a superhuman living god with feet of clay and a drinking problem. Why has this complex and fascinating figure captivated us? We will play a semester-long role-playing game in which students will assume a character in Alexander’s life and see if, indeed, Alexander will succeed in conquering much of the known world … and survive! |
| HI 251D 002. Resisting Hitler Matthew Hockenos (4 credits) MW 2:30-3:50 p.m. An introduction to perspectives on the German and European resistance to Hitler from 1933 to 1945. We’ll explore a number of general questions about resistance, including: What types of behavior can be called resistance? How does resistance differ from opposition, dissent, and non-conformity? What forms did resistance take within Nazi Germany and how did resistance in Germany differ from resistance in German-occupied countries? How did Jews resist? How can one distinguish between the myths of resistance and the realties of the resistance? How has the resistance been memorialized? We begin to try to answer some of these questions by exploring how Germans resisted the Nazi dictatorship from within. In particular well look at the resistance and opposition by high school and university students, Communists and Socialists, Jews and Christians, and the military opposition portrayed in the movie Valkyrie. We’ll then expand outward to see how people living in nations occupied by the Germans resisted Nazi policies, such as in Poland, Italy, Denmark, and Bulgaria. The third unit of the course will explore the revolts and uprisings that took place in some of the extermination camps and ghettos, such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. And we’ll conclude by considering how the resistance has been remembered and memorialized. |
|
HI 251D 002. Resisting Hitler Matthew Hockenos (4 credits) An introduction to perspectives on the German and European resistance to Hitler from 1933 to 1945. We'll explore a number of general questions about resistance, including: What types of behavior can be called resistance? How does resistance differ from opposition, dissent, and non-conformity? What forms did resistance take within Nazi Germany and how did resistance in Germany differ from resistance in German-occupied countries? How did Jews resist? How can one distinguish between the myths of resistance and the realties of the resistance? How has the resistance been memorialized? We begin to try to answer some of these questions by exploring how Germans resisted the Nazi dictatorship from within. In particular well look at the resistance and opposition by high school and university students, Communists and Socialists, Jews and Christians, and the military opposition portrayed in the movie Valkyrie. We'll then expand outward to see how people living in nations occupied by the Germans resisted Nazi policies, such as in Poland, Italy, Denmark, and Bulgaria. The third unit of the course will explore the revolts and uprisings that took place in some of the extermination camps and ghettos, such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. And we'll conclude by considering how the resistance has been remembered and memorialized. |
| HI 251D 003. From Buckley to Breitbart: The Conservative Movement in America Jennifer Delton (4 credits) T/Th 12:40-2:00 p.m. It began as a small group of intellectuals and discontents. By the end of the twentieth century, however, the conservative movement had successfully redefined American politics and government. This course asks how and offers a critical examination of the ideas behind America conservatism and their development into a political movement. We will trace the evolution of American conservatism from the Old Right of the 1930s through the Cold War to the New Right of the 1980s and beyond, with a focus on tensions within the movement, its marriage of elitism and populism, and its effect on contemporary U.S. politics. |
| HI 275 001. Introduction to the History Major Jennifer Delton (1 credit) MWF 1:25-2:20 p.m. An introduction to the aims of the History major. A prerequisite for the Colloquium. Required of all majors and interdepartmental majors, to be taken in the sophomore or junior years. Open to non-majors with consent of instructor |
| HI 280 001. Science and Nature in the Renaissance Erica Bastress-Dukehart (3 credits) T/Th 3:40-5:00 p.m. A study of the culture of Renaissance ideas as they pertained to the natural world. Building on historian Brian Ogilvie’s argument that natural history was invented in the Renaissance, this course looks at the Renaissance perceptions of the natural world from three perspectives: (1) how scientists and philosophers thought about astronomy, astrology, and humans’ relationships with the universe; (2) how explorers, natural philosophers, and theorists cataloged and categorized their wonderous discoveries; (3) how Renaissance notions of the cosmos transformed perceptions scientists, artists and doctors had about the human body. Note(s): (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) |
300 Level Courses
|
HI 315P 001. Crime and Punishment Erica Bastress-Dukehart (4 credits) This course is an investigation of the history and theory of crime and punishment in an age when criminal violence and state violence were often undistinguishable and unmediated. Over the course of four hundred years Europe experienced a transformation from the persecuting societies of the Middle Ages, through the terrors of religious wars and the Inquisition, to John Locke’s call for civil government and Beccaria’s “enlightened” rejection of traditional criminology. Integrated with Michel Foucault’s influential work, Discipline and Punish, the readings for this course address dominant social norms and ever-changing definitions of deviance, crime, and punishment. The course explores the intellectual, social, and political justifications for punishment and the ensuing conflicts between conceptions of authority and individual freedom. |
|
HI 316R Empires in India. Tillman Nechtman (4 credits) Examines the history of the Indian subcontinent from the late sixteenth century to
the present. Begins with a study of the late Mugal period, moving on to explore the
origins of the British empire in India, focusing in particular the role of the East
India Company in that process and on the impacts British imperialism had on British,
Indian, and world history. The second half of the course focuses on efforts to pull
down the structures of British imperialism in India from the nineteenth century forward
to independence in 1947, including such topics as the origins of Indian nationalism,
the complex interaction of various groups involved in decolonization in India, and
the early histories of the independent nations that emerged from British India. |
|
HI 326 001. Manhood in America Eric Morser (3 credits) An investigation of manhood and masculinity in American history from the colonial era through modern times. Students will explore a number of topics, including the link between gender and early American religion, the impact of conceptions of manliness on western expansion and foreign affairs, manhood and the sporting life in antebellum cities, the rise of a homosexual subculture in Gilded Age New York City, and shifting definitions of manhood in contemporary America. |
|
HI 335R 001. German History Since 1918 Matthew Hockenos (4 credits) An examination of the cultural, economic, political, and social history of Germany
from 1918 to the present. Through primary and secondary sources, films, and novels,
we examine Germany’s brief and ill-fated attempt at democracy in the Weimar Republic,
the genocidal rule of Hitler and the Nazis, the occupation and division of Germany
after the Second World War, the ideological struggle between Germany’s place in the
Cold War and finally the (re)unification of Germany and the ghosts of the Nazi and
communist past. |
|
HI 344P 001. China’s Last Empire Jenny Day (4 credits) The Qing Empire from 1644 to 1911. A multiethnic empire created by the Manchu confederation
from the northeastern borderlands, the Qing expanded into Central Asia, Mongolia,
Tibet, and projected a powerful influence in Korea and Southeast Asia. Students will
focus on the political, social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of the dynasty
and examine the Sino-Western and Sino-Japanese encounters of the nineteenth and early
twentieth century, as well as how imperialism and secular crisis led to its decline
and demise. |
|
HI 351C 001. Public Historian Jordana Dym (3 credits) Most people encounter the past every day without setting foot in a history classroom, whether through reading a placard in a historic city center, updating a family recipe, or watching “History Detectives” on TV. Much of this past is mediated by public historians, people who apply the historian’s skills of writing, research, and presentation to engage a popular audience. This course considers the distinctive practices of history “on the hoof” both within Saratoga Springs, as well as in national and international settings. We will read relevant literature and discuss how public historians craft different versions of the past; how governments and institutions construct and dissemi-nate historic narratives; portrayals of the past in popular culture, in-cluding newspapers, television and film; and how private groups, in-cluding families and museums, preserve individual and collective her-itage and memory. Students will evaluate museum exhibits, historic sites, events, and archives. In addition, students in this course will work on a larger public history project developed with the Media Burn Archive in Chicago, IL. Students will work with video interviews made for the documentary film You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004) to identify stories not told in the feature-length film about activist and historian Howard Zinn. They will prepare edited versions of the interviews for the archive’s website. Interviewees include Alice Walker, Marian Wright Edelman, and Tom Hayden. The film cover issues including the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War. No previous experience in film making or editing is needed. |