Fall 2018 Courses
100 Level Courses
HI 125 American Colonial History
Eric Morser | 3 credits
An exploration of the complex and contested history of colonization in North America. Students will focus on contact and conflict among different peoples, the ongoing struggle among Europeans and indigenous powers for domination of the continent, the critical importance of slavery in crafting the North American colonial experience, the rich cultural diversity. that defined colonial life, and the trans-Atlantic events that paved the way for the American Revolution.
Note(s): Fulfills the Social Sciences requirement.
HI 142 Intro to Modern China
Jenny Day | 3 credits
An introductory survey of the major political, economic, and social developments in China, from the foundation of the last imperial dynasty in 1644 to the present. Emphasis is on the major stages of the revolution, from the Opium War to the present.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences and Non-Western Culture requirements.
HI 146 Middle East Survey
Murat C. Yildiz | 3 credits
This course is a survey of the history of the Middle East, from late antiquity to the early modern period. It combines a chronological and thematic examination of social, political, and legal institutions; scientific, philosophical, and scholarly ventures; the impact of invaders; conversion; and, religious, political, economic interactions. By examining cities, such as Aleppo, Baghdad, Cairo, Constantinople, Cordoba, Esfahan, and Shiraz, as well areas, such as the Mediterranean basin, bodies of water, such as the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, over the course of a thousand years, the course challenges the notion that there was one physical center to the Middle East. Through a close reading of historiographical debates and primary sources, students will examine the circulation of people, ideas, goods, and practices across space and time.
HI 151 001 Two World Wars, A Global Perspective of the Years 1900-1945
Matthew Hockenos | 3 credits
Examines the two world wars from a global perspective. Rather than study the two wars as merely a series of military battles in Europe and the Pacific, this course will give special attention to the global nature of the two wars: the clash between imperial powers over colonial possessions; the use of colonial subjects as soldiers; the collapse of great empires after the wars; the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as world powers; the impact of war on Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East; the growth of colonial independence after the wars; and the origins of the global Cold War in the second half of the 20th century. This course gives equal weight to how the wars broke out, how they were waged, and how their outcomes fundamentally rearranged the world. Students will be introduced to the various lenses through which the war can be examines, including perspectives that emphasize, culture, the economy, the homefront, gender, and society.
200 Level Courses
HI 206 Fall of Rome
Michael Arnush | 3 credits
A study of Rome from the foundation of the empire by Augustus until the sack of the city of Rome and the empire's demise. Students examine the Julio-Claudian and succeeding emperors, political intrigue in the imperial court, the development of an imperial mindset and responses to it in the provinces, the multiculturalism of the empire, social and political institutions, the evolution of Roman culture, the rise of Christianity and the end of the empire. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement.
HI 224H The Enlightenment
Erica Bastress-Dukehart | 4 credits
Studies the most important interactions to take place within and among society, politics, and culture that characterized this intellectual and cultural transformation. Influenced by revolutionary advancements in science and medicine, inflamed by seditous political treatises, and distrustful of Catholic reforms, 18th century enlightened thinkers sparked the emergence of a new political and literary culture. Ultimately, the intellectual advancements that excited Europe's philosophers helped shape the ideological foundations of the American and French Revolutions.
Note(s): Fulfills humanities requirement.
HI 247P History of Modern Japan
Jenny Day | 4 credits
An examination of the historical transformation of the Japanese archipelago from a feudal society to a modern state and imperial power, and to a postwar economic giant and a "bubble economy" in the 1990s. Students will explore how Japanese women and men have transformed elements of other cultures to create forms of government, society, and the arts that are uniquely Japanese. Sources include a diary, short stories, legal documents, and films.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences and Non-Western Culture requirements.
HI 266 American Environmental History
Eric Morser | 3 credits
An exploration of American environmental history from pre-colonial times through the modern era. Students will investigate how the different landcapes and ecologies of North America shaped the continent's history, the links between industrialization and the environment, economic and political struggles for control of natural resources, the rise of modern consumer culture, and changing American perceptions of nature.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement.
HI 275 Introduction to the History Major
Jennifer Delton | 1 credit
An introduction to the aims of the history major.
Note(s): A prerequisite for the Colloquium. Required for all majors and interdepartmental majors, to be taken in the sophomore or junior years. Open to non-majors with permission of instructor.
300 level courses
HI 335P German History Since 1918
Matthew Hockenos | 4 credits
Berlin (and much of Germany) lay in ruins at the end of the Second World War. Allied takes and aerial bombardments had reduced Germany's capital to rubble. Skeletons of bombed-out buildings dotted the Berlin skyline and gave an eerie sense of apocalyptic doom. Hunger and disease, homelessness and death were apparent on all sides.
With Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945, sovereign authority over the country passed to the victorious Allied Powers (America, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). They divided the country as well as Berlin into four zones, and agreed to govern the country and the city jointly. But when cooperation between the Soviet Union and the western Allies broke down over ideological and practical differences, Germany was divided officially into a Communist East Germany and a democratic-capitalist West Germany.
Berlin, which sat in the center of Communist controlled East Germany, became the front line of the Cold War when the western Allies refused to abandon Berlin to the Soviet Union. Soon East Berlin fell firmly under the control of the Soviets and West Berlin under the control of the Americans.
This course examines the history of divided Berlin during the Cold War. Topics include: the brutal Soviet invasion of Berlin; the emergence of the Cold War division of the city; the 1948 Soviety blockade of West Berline and the American and British airlift of food and fuel to West Berliners; the quashing of the 1953 workers' uprising in East Berlin by Soviet tanks; the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961; attempts (often fatal) to subvert the wall; the women's movement on both sides of the wall; Stasi surveillance of East Berliners; and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Berlin and the rest of Germany. Special attention will be given to the emergence of two distinct cultures in East and West Berlin, including eating habits; sex life; gender relations; youth movements; religious life; film, music, theater, and literature; and attitudes toward the Nazi past and the Holocaust.
Prerequisites: One college course in European history.
HI 351D Muslim Christian Jews in the Middle East
Murat C. Yildiz | 4 credits
This course examines the history of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East. Drawing from a diverse array of studies and complimented with translated primary sources, students are exposed to the ways in which ethno-religious identities, physical boundaries, and socio-political hierarchies between members of the three monotheistic communities were produced, transformed, and navigated. While the course emphasizes the modern period, it also explores these dynamics in the pre-modern period in order to both appreciate the unique attributes of modernity as well as the ways in which history is mobilized. Topics will include shared practices and activities, the cross pollination of ideas, communal boundaries, exclusive ethno-religous bonds, the emergence of sectarianism, and violence. Together, these and other topics will highlight historical linkages and the similar (and dissimilar) ways in which "majority" and "minority" popularions shaped the social cultural, political, and economic landscapes of the Middle East.
Note(s): Counts as a research course this semester.
PL227 Power and Politics in Russian History
Kate Graney | 4 credits
A comparison of traditional Russian society with Soviet society after 1917. The course will focus first on the political, economic, and social characteristics of the authoritarian tsarist empire. Then we will turn to the revolutionary changes initiated by Lenin, the terror of Stalin, the reforms of Khrushchev, and the stagnation under Brezhnev. The course will focus in particular on the changes in political structures and participation, economic organization and equality, and cultural life, including gender roles. Readings will include novels, memoirs, and press translations.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement.
PLHI 322R History and Political Thought of American Revolution
Tillman Nechtman | 4 credits
The creation of a new nation: 1763-1789. This couse will give special attention to the political ideas that gave direction to the American Revolution and the Constitution.