Bard College Catalogue 2009-2010
2009-2010

Historical Studies

http://historicalstudies.bard.edu

Faculty

Overview

The Historical Studies Program focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of history. The program encourages students to examine history through the prism of other relevant disciplines (for example, sociology, anthropology, economics, philosophy) and different forms of expression (art, film, literature, drama, architecture). The program also introduces students to a variety of methodological perspectives used in historical research and to philosophical assumptions about men, women, and society that underlie these perspectives.

Areas of Study

Study plans can be divided into the following categories: national, regional, or local history (for example, American, European, Asian, Russian); period-oriented history (ancient, medieval, early modern, modern); and topical and disciplinary specializations (environmental history, urban history, diplomatic history, ethnic history, African American history, history of gender and sexuality, history of ideas, history of science and technology). Individual study plans may be further subdivided into specific areas of concentration.

Requirements

Students must take a global core course before Moderation. In the Lower College, students are expected to take three or four history courses covering different regions and time periods and using a variety of research methodologies. For Moderation, students are required to submit the standard two short papers and a sample paper on a historical subject. By the time of their graduation, students must have completed between six to eight history courses covering at least three world regions and one period prior to 1800. As part of the preparation for their Senior Project, juniors should take a Major Conference.

Recent Senior Projects

“A Botanical World: The Culture of Botany in 18th-Century Europe”
“Gabriel’s Conspiracy of 1800: Slave Rebellion in American History and Memory”
“In Case You Are Mapped: Politics and Technologies of Representation in Post-Katrina New Orleans”

Courses

The course descriptions that follow are presented numerically, beginning with 100-level introductory classes and continuing through 300-level seminars. Tutorials and Major Conferences are also offered regularly; recent examples include Anarchism, Critical Geography, and The Decision to Drop the Bomb.

Revolution
History 1001
cross-listed: asian studies, human rights
This course analyzes and compares some of the most iconic and influential revolutions in world history, including the French Revolution of 1789, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and China’s Communist Revolution of 1921–49. Other revolutionary events examined include the German Peasant Revolt of 1525, China’s Cultural Revolution, the protests by students and intellectuals that rocked Europe in 1968, and the “velvet revolutions” and near revolutions that transformed state socialism in 1989.

Europe from 1350 to 1815
History 101
The second millennium opened a new era of European ascendancy. For 300 years, Northern Europeans improved agriculture and lived longer, and cities flourished as centers of commerce and culture. Then came a little ice age and the Black Death, followed by famines and epidemics. Yet the period also saw the rise of literacy, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the creation of a global empire. To understand the paradoxical making of Europe, students examine primary sources and modern analyses.

Europe from 1815 to the Present
History 102
cross-listed: gis, human rights, res, victorian studies
The first half of the course, from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, covers such topics as the establishment of parliamentary democracy in Great Britain, the revolutions of 1848, and European imperialism. The second half focuses on the Great War, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, among other seminal events and developments.

From Empire to Superpower
History 106
cross-listed: american studies, gis
This course examines the international role of the United States in the 20th century. The course covers the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of fascism, Pearl Harbor, the decision to drop the atom bomb, the Cold War, and Vietnam. Students are asked to weigh the role of economic, strategic, and moral concepts in the formulation of American policy.

Introduction to Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture
History 115 / Jewish Studies 115
See Jewish Studies 115 for course description.

U.S. History to 1865
History 119
cross-listed: american studies
An introduction to the major themes and events in American history from the colonial era to the end of the Civil War. Themes addressed include the contest over continental “imperialism” between Europeans and Indians, the definition and production of an “American” identity, and the economic and political ramifications resulting from the transition of a household mode of production to a factory mode of production.

Introduction to Modern Japanese History
History 127
cross-listed: asian studies
Japan in the mid-19th century was beleaguered by British and American imperialism and rocked by domestic turmoil. How, then, did it become an emerging world power by the early 20th century? Why did Japan’s transformations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries lead to the total war of the 1930s and 1940s, and what factors explain its postwar economic growth and renewed global importance?

Victorian Crime and Punishment
History 1270
cross-listed: victorian studies
This class provides a broad overview of developments in the criminal justice system during the 19th century. Focusing on Britain and the United States, it explores the rise of crime in industrial society and the various attempts to understand and control criminal activity, including the development of penitentiaries, police forces, criminology, and forensics. Students also consider the image of the criminal in popular culture by studying representations of crime as well as stories of famous criminals.

Origins of the American Citizen
History 130
cross-listed: american studies, human rights, sre
The United States is often portrayed as emerging triumphantly in 1776 to offer inclusive citizenship and a transcendent, tolerant, “American” identity to all its indigenous and immigrant residents. Yet the reality of American history belies this myth. This course focuses on six moments that definitively challenged and shaped conceptions of “American identity”: the early colonial period, the Constitutional Convention, the Cherokee Removal, the era of internal slave trade and the “Market Revolution,” the Mexican-American War, and Reconstruction.

The Politics of Culture
History 131
cross-listed: american studies
This course develops the assumptions that Americans define their differences more through their culture than their politics. Studies focus on the development of modern media, popular culture, advertising, gender roles, and official efforts to suppress cultural differences. Readings include novels and stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mary Gordon, J. D. Salinger, Mark Twain, and others who have had a keen sense of the sources of cultural conflicts.

Imperial Chinese History
History 135
cross-listed: asian studies
An introduction to the origins and transformations of the Chinese imperial order from the Neolithic period to the final decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). Among the topics explored are the founding and transformations of the imperial state, the emergence of the literati class, and late imperial-period rural peasant society. The course considers the fluid and complex relations between Chinese states and their Central Asian neighbors, and assesses the impact of Buddhism on China’s Confucian and Taoist philosophical traditions.

The Mediterranean World
History 138
cross-listed: italian studies, lais
A historical journey to the Mediterranean world of the 16th and 17th centuries using the scholarship of Fernand Braudel as a vehicle. The class considers geography, demography, climate, and economies; next, the formation of social structures; and last, politics, religion, and culture.

City Cultures
History 139
Examining the built environment of cities is a powerful method for uncovering the social and cultural dynamics that shaped the past of urban populations. Students examine features of the urban landscape, including parks, tenements, cafés, skyscrapers, street corners, world’s fairs, freeways, museums, courtyards, and even sewers for what they reveal about urban life across time. Cities studied include Paris, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Vilna.

The Land of the Golden Cockerel: Introduction to Russian Civilization
History 140
cross-listed: medieval studies
An examination of the origins and evolution of Russian civilization from the founding of the first Eastern Slavic state through the 18th century, when Russia began to modernize by borrowing from Western culture. Among the topics considered are the ethnogeny of early Russians, the development of state and legal institutions, the relationship between kinship and politics, the role of religion in public and private spheres, economic organization, social institutions, popular culture, and the impact of the outside world upon Russian society.

20th-Century Germany and the Unification of Europe
History 141
cross-listed: german studies, gis, human rights
This course explores Germany’s pivotal place in the ideological divisions, political catastrophes, and theoretical, social, and scientific innovations of modern Europe. A guiding theme is the paradox that even as Germany is perhaps the most “modern” of European states, it has been haunted since its inception by its past. Topics include the impact of World War I, the political experiment of Weimar democracy, the Holocaust, the student protests of 1968, and the creation of a new German and European identity after 1989.

Bread and Wine: A Cultural History of France from the Middle Ages to the 18th Century
History 146
cross-listed: french studies
This course reviews medieval and early modern land cultivation (grape and grain); new seasonings brought to French culture by returning merchants and explorers; the transfigurative kingship under Louis XIV that made into gods men of royal lineage, among many other topics. It concludes in the 18th century with the rise of the café as a place where elites met and critiqued politics and culture, and with taverns and bread riots as sites in which the poor met and critiqued elites.

Under a Western Sky: The American West in Film, Fact, and History
History 150
cross-listed: american studies, film and electronic arts
This course offers an in-depth examination of one of the richest of American film genres, the Western. The films—which include such John Ford classics as Stagecoach and The Searchers, among others—are studied from a number of perspectives, as characteristic examples of popular narrative cinema and as attempts to understand the complex dynamic of America’s westward expansion in the 19th century, the actual history of which provides a background for the screenings.

The Athenian Century
History 157 / Classics 157
See Classics 157 for description.

Rethinking Difference: Modern France
History 159
cross-listed: africana studies, french studies
The French nation gave birth to itself in 1789, but would be reborn as its colonial relations forced new ideas about the progress of its political identity. This course surveys French politics, society, and economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the topics covered are the French and Haitian Revolutions, the imperialist “civilizing mission” (especially in West Africa), the fall of France in Indochina and its defeat in the Algerian War, and the rise of the French intellectual.

History of Economics and Technology
History 161
cross-listed: gis, sts
The course considers how a separate domain of technology first came to be defined, in theory and practice, during the 18th century, and addresses how institutional forces such as law, academia, business, and government came to define and influence technological change and scientific research during the industrial revolution. Case studies ranging from the bicycle to the birth control pill help students generate “internal” accounts of the development of technology and science in conjunction with “external” accounts of the historical context of technologies.

Inventing the Self in Early America
History 163
cross-listed: american studies
This course examines how a disparate cast of people—from Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Rowlandson, to such long-forgotten figures as Andrew Montour, Stephen Arnold, and Hannah Bernard—constructed personal identities in the messy world of early American history. Students explore the processes of identity formation and work to connect these individuals to larger changes in racial, gendered, and national identities.

Hooke’s Micrographia
History 164
A monument of natural philosophy and scientific illustration, Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665) was the first laboratory manual in microscopy. Hooke intended the work to be a manifesto of experimental method and faith in progress. His Royal Society of London colleagues also hoped Hooke’s observations would lend credence to atomism, a notorious ancient philosophy that was being rehabilitated in the 17th century. Students investigate Hooke’s life and work, as well as the links between science and society during the Scientific Revolution.

Czarist Russia
History 168
cross-listed: res
A survey of the period from Peter the Great to the 1917 revolution. Among the topics studied are reforms of Peter the Great and their effects; the growth of Russian absolutism; the position of peasants and workers; the rift between the monarchy and educated society; the revolutionary movement, particularly Russian Marxism; and the overthrow of the Russian autocracy. Readings include contemporary texts, literary works, and documents from the period.

The French Revolution
History 170
cross-listed: french studies
Was the French Revolution a bloodbath or an affirmation of human rights? Who led it, who benefited from it, and why did it evolve as it did? Using Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety for its narrative, this course examines the documents left by eyewitnesses, participants, partisans, and opponents.

The History of Medicine and Psychiatry
History 172
A survey of Western medicine from its beginnings in ancient Greece to the 19th century. Sessions are structured chronologically but focus on such concepts as psyche, pneuma, humor, spirit, vital force, nerves—all presented as markers to identify the continuities and ruptures in the beliefs that have informed the theory and practice of medicine and psychiatry.

Modern British History: 1789–2003
History 176
This course explores the efforts of Britons to create a stable definition of their nation and themselves in response to industrialization, an expanded middle class, the establishment of the largest empire that the world has ever known, and other fundamental changes. The course also charts developments in the post–World War II era, when Britain slowly lost its position as the industrial, cultural, and colonial power of the world.

Africa South of the Sahara, 1800 to the Present
History 178
cross-listed: africana studies, gis
European colonial occupation of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa, lasted a relatively short time, yet its impact on African religion, political organization, material culture, and gender relations was profound. This course examines how Africans coped with, resisted, and accommodated colonization, decolonization, and nation building. It reviews primary materials produced by Africans and records left by colonial officials and missionaries, and covers such topics as the Negritude intellectual movement of West Africa and the emergence of an independent Ghana.

People and Power in Colonial and Contemporary Mexico
History 179
cross-listed: anthropology, gis, lais
This history of Mexico weaves together four thematic approaches: a social history of indigenous, Hispanic, and Afro-Mexican peoples; a cultural geography of land, legal, and labor relations; a documentary history of intellectual, religious, and cultural traditions; and political-economic analyses of Mexico’s independence, revolution, domestic and foreign policies, wars, and border issues.

The Cold War
History 190
cross-listed: gis, human rights, res
Like two scorpions, the Soviet Union and the United States warily circled each other in a deadly dance that lasted more than half a century. In a nuclear age, any misstep threatened to be fatal—not only to the antagonists, but possibly to the entire human community. What caused this hostile confrontation to emerge from the World War II alliance? This course reconsiders the Cold War by simultaneously weighing both the American and Soviet perspectives on events as they unfolded.

Topics in Modern European History, 1789–2000
History 192
cross-listed: gis
This course employs methodologies and historiographies ranging from gender and demographic history to diplomatic and military history. It offers both an in-depth presentation of key aspects of modernity and a survey of contemporary historiography. Among the key issues discussed are the relation of the Industrial Revolution to the creation of new institutions of invention and patent, the role of institutional struture in diplomacy, and the effect of new mass media on citizenship.

Alexander the Great and the Problem of Empire
History 201
cross-listed: classical studies
Alexander the Great changed the world more completely than any other human being, but did he change it for the better? How should Alexander himself be understood—as a tyrant of Hitlerian proportions, as a philosopher-king seeking to save the Greek world from self-destruction, or as a deluded madman? Such questions remain very much unresolved among modern historians. This course undertakes a thorough reading in the ancient sources concerning Alexander and examines as much primary evidence as can be gathered.

Lincoln in American Memory
History 2012
cross-listed: american studies
Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, this course takes a sweeping look at his unique place in American history. It explores the different and often conflicting ways in which Lincoln is remembered by northerners and southerners, whites and blacks, conservatives and progressives, and East Coast elites and western colleagues. Students examine the impact of Lincoln’s emancipationist legacy, tracing his reputation among African Americans—from reverence, to criticism, to rejection, to rediscovery (as recently exemplified in the writings of Barack Obama).

Frederick Douglass and His World: On Page and Screen
History 2013
cross-listed: american studies
Few figures loom larger in 19th-century America than Frederick Douglass, the former slave turned abolitionist and editor whose eloquence and moral passion ignited a generation. This course takes a close look at Douglass’s career and examines how his life has been treated by historians, biographers, and filmmakers. Students read from a wide selection of Douglass’s writings and at least two biographical treatments, and study a number of documentary films.

Indochine: On Love and Empire
History 2032
cross-listed: french studies, gis, gss
French Indochina was composed of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This course is organized around the theme of social order, from precolonial state structures to the French colonial restructuring and administration of the built environment, commercial relations, and law and punishment in these places. The course ends with the rout at Dien Bien Phu (1954) that brought a violent end to French rule in Indochina.

Wars of Religion
History 2035
cross-listed: gss, human rights
Religion and revolution have formed an unholy alliance at several distinct moments in history. The 16th and 17th centuries were a time in which religious revolution and new ways of ordering spiritual life exploded in a fashion that no one could have anticipated. This course traces the personal stories of real people during this period through Inquisition records, diaries and conversion tales, early pamphlets, and accounts of uprisings.

The Boundaries of Fiction: 19th-Century European Historical Narratives
History 2038
cross-listed: literature
The historical narrative and the historical novel developed interdependently during the 19th century. Narrative historians appropriated the techniques of novelists, while historical novelists made new claims to truthfulness by grounding their fictions in historical fact. This course explores the porous frontier between the century’s historiography and realist fiction, comparing classic historical narratives by Carlyle, Tocqueville, Leopold von Ranke, and Marx to fictional narratives by Balzac, Georg Büchner, and George Eliot.

Cultural Politics of Empire: The Case of British India
History 2103
cross-listed: anthropology, gss, victorian studies
This course focuses on the reciprocal impact that Britain and India had on each other as a result of the British imperial presence in India from the mid-19th century until decolonization in 1948. Domestic politics, science, popular culture, and education were all changed irrevocably by the imperial project. In India, the rhetorical model of the Enlightenment and the central tenets of British liberal ideology were adopted and recast to give voice to the Indian nationalist movement.

The Way We Work
History 2104
cross-listed: american studies
This labor history course covers the colonial era through the present. Although such topics as the struggle between workers and employers for reduced hours and the right to organize are touched upon, the primary focus is to construct a narrative of the experience of work in America and how that has changed over time. For each period surveyed—preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial—the course examines what Americans have understood work to mean, and how that meaning in turn influenced the experience of work itself.

Early Middle Ages
History 2110
cross-listed: classical studies, medieval studies
A survey of seven centuries, from the Germanic invasions and dissolution of the Roman Empire to the Viking invasions and dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. Topics include early Christianity, “barbarians,” the Byzantine Empire, Islam, monasticism, and the myth and reality of Charlemagne. Readings include Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, and selections from Ammianus Marcellinus and Gregory of Tours.

The Invention of Politics
History 2112
cross-listed: human rights
Individuals and groups spoke, wrote, and fought to make their claims to public power in the period between 1500 and 1800 in ways that forced a reimagining of political relationships. The greatest institutions in place, particularly monarchies and the papacy, used their words, documents, symbols, and rituals to maintain their legitimacy in the face of resistance. The tension among groups created new political vocabularies that we have claimed by virtue of historical ownership or explicitly rejected.

The Arab-Israel Conflict
History 2122
cross-listed: human rights, jewish studies, middle eastern studies
This course provides students with an understanding of this conflict from its inception to the present. Among the themes discussed are how the Jewish national movement that began in the late 19th century and the Arab national movement that arose to contest Ottoman and European rule of Arab peoples led to the emergence of the State of Israel and the Palestinian refugees in 1948. The course examines how the political character of the conflict has changed over the decades.

Vietnam and Iraq: Wars of Mass Deception
History 2124
cross-listed: human rights
Since World War II, the United States has fought two controversial and widely unpopular wars: Vietnam and the 2003 war in Iraq. Both wars began with presidential deception to justify a crusade against a global enemy—communism, and then terrorism—and both saw U.S. forces mired in battles against an elusive enemy and inflicting serious casualties on civilians. The primary focus is on Vietnam; a secondary concern is to determine if that war offers lessons that can help us understand Iraq.

Cultural Capital, Paris 1715–1873
History 2125
The city tells its stories through neighborhood and parish, gates and walls, vineyards and graveyards, cafés and street life: markets, fairs, open-air theater, and scaffolds. Students read Diderot’s enigmatic Rameau’s Nephew, Mercier’s descriptive Tableaux, and Zola’s Belly of Paris; they also examine maps, engravings, and Marville’s early photographs. The course opens with the Regency period, when great fortunes were made and lost, and ends with the Paris Commune.

The Making of the Atlantic World
History 2133
cross-listed: american studies, sre
The Atlantic: an English lake, an African lake, a Dutch lake, a French lake, a First Peoples lake, an Iberian lake, an American lake, a connector, a barrier, a source of trade and of sorrow. The Atlantic World encompasses the histories of the peoples, economies, ideas, and products that interacted around its basin in the early modern period. Students consider the histories of the actors and agents who shaped or were shaped by Atlantic systems, and investigate the implications of how we write or remember that history.

Comparative Atlantic Societies
History 2134
Slave or indentured labor underpinned the early modern Atlantic world. Beginning in the early 16th century, millions of enslaved Africans and indigenous Americans came to or moved around the Americas, creating a wide variety of zones of interaction that became places of contested and changing cultural practice. This course focuses on the African and indigenous Atlantics, and considers the comparative development of slavery, the methods of resistance, and the processes of emancipation and national formations at the end of the 18th century.

Reason and Revolution
History 2136
cross-listed: french studies, german studies, sts, victorian studies
Readings from Descartes, Leibniz, and Vico allow students to sketch the framework out of which the Enlightenment arose, while also suggesting some of the period’s fundamental tensions and contradictions. The course follows the development of these tensions through the 19th century, using as a guide a close reading of texts by Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Burke, Fourier, Darwin, Marx, and Schopenhauer.

Jewish Women: Gender Roles and Cultural Change
History 2137
cross-listed: gss, jewish studies, religion
This course draws upon historical texts and memoirs to examine the changing economic, social, and religious roles of Jewish women and to explore the intersection of gender with religious and ethnic identities across the medieval and modern periods. Some of the topics covered are the status of women in Jewish law, the differing impact of enlightenment and secularization on women in Western and Eastern Europe, and the role of women in the Zionist and labor movements in Europe, Israel, and the United States.

Black Thought
History 2271
cross-listed: africana studies, gss, sre
A survey of contemporary African American intellectuals on such subjects as cultural representation, black feminism, black neoconservatism, aesthetics, nationalism, colonialism, and American legal discourse. Students read essays by Toni Morrison, Cornel West, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Derrick Bell, Patricia Williams, and bell hooks, as well as publications such as The Nation and The New Republic in order to engage cogently in current debates.

Confucianism
History 229
cross-listed: human rights, philosophy, religion
This course explores the transformations of Confucian philosophy, social ethics, and political thought, from its ancient origins through the present, focusing on five key moments of change. Close readings in seminal texts provide a foundation in the earliest Confucian ideas of benevolence, rites, and righteousness. The course also considers how Confucian thought shaped Western ideas of rights; how Confucian concepts of humanity, relational ethics, and social responsibility offer alternatives to Euro-American rights discourse; and the contemporary Confucian revival.

The Fabulous Fifties
History 230
cross-listed: american studies
This course measures the impact of the Depression and New Deal legacies and the Cold War consensus on the United States after World War II. It examines areas of popular culture (rock and roll), intellectual trends, social trends, and politics (the Fair Deal and McCarthyism) as they were affected by American efforts to find security in the face of rising prosperity and the communist menace.

China in the Eyes of the West
History 2301
cross-listed: asian studies, human rights
European Enlightenment thinkers viewed the Qing dynasty as the world’s most enlightened despotism, but by the turn of the 20th century most Western thinkers considered China to be the “sick man of Asia.” This course reconstructs the visions of China formulated by Europeans and Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries and also considers how and why those visions changed over time.

Shanghai and Hong Kong: China’s Global Cities
History 2302
cross-listed: asian studies, gis
Shanghai and Hong Kong are China’s global cities, but they are cities with long cosmopolitan pasts. This course explores the history of their current economic, social, and cultural dynamism, and in doing so probes the historical roots of globalization. It analyzes how 19th- and early 20th-century colonialism and semicolonialism both drove and conditioned, in somewhat different ways, the development of these two cities.

Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Modern China
History 2306
cross-listed: asian studies, gis, gss
The point of departure for this course is the traditional areas of focus for scholars of gender and sexuality in China: footbinding, the cloistering of women, and the masculinization of public space; the transformations of Confucian age-sex hierarchies within the family; the women’s rights movements of the early 20th century; and the communist revolution’s ambivalent legacy for women in the People’s Republic of China.

The American Dream
History 2307
cross-listed: american studies
“But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” These words from James Truslow Adams summarize the optimism and sense of exceptionalism that have defined much of American experience. This course considers the various articulations of the Dream and the ideological and structural supports for it, and how these have changed over time.

Inventing Modernity
History 2341
cross-listed: german studies, italian studies, sts
Starting with Jacob Burckhardt’s classic account The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, this course examines the role of the drastic upheavals of the early modern period in defining the origins of such institutions as capitalism, religious freedom, democracy, and the modern military. Also addressed is the historiography and politics surrounding the “invention” of the Renaissance in the late 19th century, looking particularly at Burckhardt’s relation with Ranke, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.

Native Peoples of America
History 2356
cross-listed: american studies, human rights, sre
An overview of the history created by and between Native peoples, Europeans, and Africans, from the initial colonial exchanges of the 15th century up through the 20th century. It focuses on primary sources from the Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast and the ways in which those sources have been manipulated over time. The changing cultural and political self-understanding of Native peoples is examined in conjunction with the appropriation of their culture and agency by both the federal government and scholarship.

Greek Religion: Magic, Mysteries, and Cults
History 2361 / Classics 2361
cross-listed: religion
This course examines the ways in which polytheism was practiced and conceptualized by the ancient Greeks from the Mycenaean period into the Hellenistic era. It emphasizes the ritual aspects of Greek polytheism through the analysis of religious institutions, beliefs, and rites in their wider sociocultural contexts. Students explore the literary expressions of Greek religion and the ways in which religious beliefs and practices profoundly affected the development of Greek culture and history.

The Sixties
History 237
cross-listed: american studies
This course examines the irony of increasing political dissent and violence in an era of relative prosperity. It touches on such topics as civil rights, media and politics, the Cuban missile crisis, popular culture, and the feminist movement. It takes an in-depth look at John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon, and at the most disruptive crisis of the post–World War II years, the war in Vietnam.

The Conservative Revolution: America from Watergate to Cyberspace
History 238
cross-listed: american studies
One historian wrote of the 1970s, “It seemed like nothing happened.” Yet in that decade and the period that followed America was transformed in profound ways. This course focuses on the key dynamic informing this period, the struggle over the legacy of the 1960s in both politics and culture. Some topics covered are the collapse of the New Deal coalition during the Reagan Revolution, the rise of the Internet, and the struggle to understand the role of the United States in the New World Order.

Reason and Passions
History 2391
cross-listed: sts
What is the good life? In hard times, is it better to serve or to flee society? What power does reason have over the passions? Descartes and Pascal, Molière and Racine, Fontenelle and Foigny debated these questions during hard times in the 17th century. This course samples their writings, exploring the influences—ancient and modern, religious and libertine, scientific and political—on their thought.

20th-Century Russia: From Communism to Nationalism
History 242
cross-listed: human rights, res, sre
In its search for an elusive balance between modernity and tradition, Russian society has experienced many radical transformations, which are the subject of this introductory survey. In addition to a discussion and analysis of the main internal and external political developments in the region, the course examines the Soviet command economy; the construction of national identity, ethnic relations, and nationalism; family, gender relations, and sexuality; and the arts. Materials include scholarly texts, original documents, works of fiction, and films.

History of East Central Europe since
World War II
History 245
cross-listed: gis, human rights, res
Culturally and geographically positioned between the West and Russia, this ethnically diverse region experienced very dramatic changes over the course of the 20th century. After a brief summary of the history of the region prior to and during World War II, the course concentrates on the area’s history since the war and particularly on those events and developments that reflect its paradoxical evolution.

Film, Culture, and Politics in the Depression Era
History 247
cross-listed: american studies
As the U.S. economy spirals out of control, the Great Crash of 1929 and the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt suddenly have a new relevance. As Hollywood provided Americans with entertainment and escape, Roosevelt and his New Deal also employed mass media to manage the public mood. This course examines how the New Deal, in its manipulation of symbols, differed from other national responses to these crises. Among the topics considered are the dangers of domestic fascism, the rise of the welfare state, and the Dust Bowl phenomenon.

Insurgency, Revolution, and Irregular War
History 2505
cross-listed: gis, sts
This course provides a theoretical, strategic, and operational understanding of insurgencies and irregular warfare. Students examine the different revolutionary theories that explain how countries become unstable and insurgent movements gain momentum; compare the exhaustion strategies that typify successful insurgencies against conventional military strategies; and investigate examples of insurgent systems in order to understand how these strategies developed into tactical and often idiosyncratic methods. Finally, the course considers how the U.S. government could wage protracted irregular warfare to accomplish national strategic objectives in decades to come.

China in Revolution: Nationalism to Maoism
History 2530
cross-listed: asian studies, gis
In October 1949, Mao Zedong stood at the Gate of Heavenly Peace and proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This course explores the intertwined processes of nationalism and revolution that drove this transformation. Students explore the causes and effects of different kinds of revolutionary movements, and trace China’s revolutionary process from the beginnings of mass mobilization at the start of the 20th century to the Cultural Revolution during the 1950s and 1960s.

Jews in American Society, 1880 to the Present
History 258
cross-listed: american studies, jewish
studies, sre
The great waves of East European Jewish migration west after 1880 constitute a major event in the modern history of the Jews and of the United States, creating a large and important American social group. This course considers such major themes as the pattern of migration and cultural amalgam of the “Yiddish” immigrant generation; the rapid upward mobility of American Jews as well as their concentration on the political left; anti-Semitism and American Jewish behavior during the European Holocaust; and other issues.

European Intellectual History since 1860: Central Debates of the Modern Period
History 261
This course outlines the principle transformations in the modern perception of society and nature within a political, cultural, and institutional framework. It considers the suppositions and fault lines on which 20th-century thought developed, using as its central theme “great debates” of the modern period, among them the critique of positivism at the turn of the century, the conflict of psychoanalysis and historicism, and the critique of technocracy and systems theory in the postwar period.

Diaspora and Homeland
History 2627
cross-listed: jewish studies, sre
This course reviews recent theoretical work on diaspora and then examines the first and longest-lived diasporic minority group: the Jewish people, who have maintained a distinct religious and ethnic identity during a worldwide dispersion lasting 2,000 years. Students consider how the attitudes of Jews toward homeland and diaspora have changed over time. Other diasporic groups studied include Southeast Asians and Africans. Readings include theoretical writings and literature as well as historical studies.

Slavery
History 263
cross-listed: africana studies, classical studies, human rights, sre
Slavery can be defined as an institution in which an individual’s labor is extracted—usually for the duration of his/her life—with the imprimatur of legal authorities and with some sort of social stigma attached to enslaved status. This course focuses mainly on the ideas, practices, and experiences of slavery in Greek and Roman societies in the eighth century b.c.e. through the second century c.e., and later in the Americas, particularly North America, from the 17th through the 19th century.

Capitalism and Slavery
History 2631
cross-listed: american studies, human rights
Scholars have argued that there is an intimate relationship between the contemporary wealth of the developed world and the money generated through 400 years of slavery in the Americas. Is there something essential that links capitalim, even liberal democratic capitalism, to slavery? This course examines the development of this linkage, focusing on North America and the Caribbean from the early 17th century through the staggered emancipations of the 19th century. Contemporary issues (reparations, the “duty” of the Americas to Africa) are also considered.

The Holocaust, 1933–1945
History 2701
cross-listed: german studies, human rights, jewish studies
This course examines modern anti-Semitic movements and the aftermath of World War I; Nazi rule and the experience of German Jews during 1933–38; the institution of ghettos and the cultural and political activities of their Jewish populations; the turn to mass murder and its implementation in the extermination camps; and the liberation and its immediate aftermath. Special attention is paid to the question of what constitutes resistance or collaboration in a situation of total war and genocide.

The Origins and Implications of Human Rights Law, Institutions, and Policy in the Modern Period
History 2702
cross-listed: gis
Both the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the successor conventions that ultimately formed the International Bill of Human Rights were created in reaction to the problems of genocide and mass population transfers during World War II. Topics include the creation of national rights from the treaty of Westphalia through the British, American, and French Revolutions, the relation of these rights to colonial administrations, and the postwar institutions of human rights, among others.

Empires, Ancient and Modern
History 277 / Classics 277
cross-listed: religion
Where does the idea of world conquest arise? This course explores some of the great world empires of the past: the Achaemenid Empire under Darius I, the Greek world conquest of Alexander, the Mauryan Empire of Candragupta and Asoka, the Roman Empire, and the modern sea-based British Empire. America’s imperial enterprises are also examined.

American Environmental History I
History 280A
cross-listed: american studies, eus
Since the Old World first encountered the New, a battle has raged over what this New World might become. For some, it meant moral and spiritual rejuvenation. For most, it meant an opportunity to transform material circumstances. At no time have those two visions been compatible. This course examines attempts to fashion a scientific or aesthetic rationale for the use and abuse of natural resources, to subdue or preserve the wilderness, and to understand the relationship between humans and nature.

American Environmental History II
History 280B
cross-listed: american studies, eus, social policy
This course investigates the history of Americans’ interaction with their environment from roughly 1890 to the present. It considers how the role of the federal government has changed from the “conservation” to the “environmental” eras, why the Dust Bowl occurred, how chemical warfare changed the life span of bugs, whether wilderness should be central to the environmental movement, and other topics that address how we live in the world.

History of European Women, 1500–1800
History 297
cross-listed: gss
This course considers the “woman question” in the medical, legal, religious, and political discourses of the early modern period through processes such as the centralization of European states, Protestant and Catholic reformations, and colonial settlement. Course readings examine how social, economic, and other material circumstances shaped the history of working and bourgeois women. Where possible, the course focuses on women’s cultural production and reflects upon the history of women’s studies, both as a field of inquiry and as an academic institution.

Major Conference: Creating History
History 300
cross-listed: classical studies
This course looks closely at how history as a field of inquiry came about and the way that the early Greek historians—Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon—shaped its identity. It considers how the first historians thought about such things as data, narrative structure, depiction of character, and the usefulness of the discipline that they invented. Some theoretical readings, both traditional and poststructuralist, are used to help examine these issues.

World War II and the Cold War in Politics and Film
History 302
cross-listed: american studies, eus, social policy
This course examines the period from the late 1930s until the early 1950s. During this period, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America and its Allies fought and won a global war, and the United States dropped the atomic bomb and launched the nuclear arms race, and finally entered into a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Students take advantage of the archival resources of the Roosevelt Library and the Cold War International History Project.

Research Seminar in U.S. Urban History
History 3102
cross-listed: american studies, sre
This course provides an opportunity for students to pursue specialized study and research in American urban history. Topics include urban space and its meanings, urban planning and design, new urbanism, suburbanism, the postmodern city, urban politics, urban infrastructure, and urban culture, among others. Students initially consider a common set of readings having to do with urban historiography; the focus then shifts to individual student research projects, and the literature and methods informing them.

Political Ritual in the Modern World
History 3103
cross-listed: anthropology, asian studies, human rights
Bastille Day, the U.S. presidential inauguration, and rallies at Nuremberg and Tiananmen Square: political ritual has been central to nation-building, colonialism, and political movements over the last three centuries. This course uses a global, comparative perspective to analyze the modern history of political ritual. Among the topics covered are state ritual and the performance of power, the relationship between ritual and citizenship in the modern nation-state, and the ritualization of politics in social and political movements.

British Empire and Imperialism
History 3104
This course is not a comprehensive history of the British Empire, but an attempt to examine the concept of imperialism in its many guises—as a cluster of historically identifiable ideologies and as a possible mode of analysis in the study of history. It focuses primarily on the political, economic, and cultural relations between Great Britain and its non-European subject peoples in the period since the American Revolution.

Migration and Identity in the Modern World
History 3105
cross-listed: human rights, sre
Human migration predates recorded history. In this course, however, students concentrate on the age of modernity, roughly between 1850 and the present. Articles, primary source documents, film, and photography are enlisted to better understand the impact of movement across cultures on the identity of individuals and communities and whether that impact is historically significant. Does it matter whether people migrated voluntarily or not? Have migrating peoples thought differently of their identities before and during their journey? These and other questions are considered.

Gender in Interwar Britain
History 3106
cross-listed: gss
Full suffrage was given to British women in 1928. Although many relinquished their roles as wartime workers, they did not forget the financial and social independence of their war experiences. This course examines how men and women were affected by, and how they moved forward from, their wartime experiences. Readings include contemporary fiction by Robert Graves, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Virginia Woolf, as well as the historical analyses of Jay M. Winter and Susan Kingsley Kent.

Fugitives, Exile, Extradition
History 3107
cross-listed: human rights
This course studies the picaresque case histories of runaway wives, fugitive slaves, dissident pamphleteers, anti-imperial revolutionaries, and others confronting extradition by foreign governments or sovereigns. It covers the period from the rise of European states (when rulers effectively kidnapped their subjects from foreign territories) to the birth of the modern extradition system. Prerequisite: History 102, Political Studies 104, or Sociology 242.

Impolitic Speech and the Arts of Diplomacy
History 3111
cross-listed: gis
The story of the state’s emergence as the primary agent of conciliation between individuals and groups within and beyond its borders has often been neglected. In this conciliatory capacity, the state’s power has increased in manifold ways, and the rise of diplomatic institutions that negotiate in the name of the state has paralleled domestic developments. This course places early modern ideas on peace, sovereignty, international protocols, sociability, and civility within a cultural framework.

Plague!
History 3112
cross-listed: human rights, medieval
studies, sts
The cry “Plague!” has struck fear among people around the world, from antiquity to the present. What is plague? How has it changed history? Starting with Camus’ metaphorical evocation of plague in a modern North African city, this Upper College seminar examines the historical impact of plague on society. It focuses on bubonic plague, which was epidemic throughout the Mediterranean and European worlds for 400 years, and which remains a risk in many parts of the world.

Japan: From Feudal Isolation to Modern Democracy
History 3115
cross-listed: asian studies, gis
This course considers Japan as an example of modernization in the non-Western world. Starting with the arrival of Commodore Perry’s “black ships” in 1854 and ending with the state of Japanese democracy today, the course reviews the various stages of the Japanese confrontation with a dominant West. Among the topics discussed are the establishment of Japan’s Asian Empire, the wars with Russia and China, the budding democracy of the 1920s, Japan’s war with the West and subsequent U.S. occupation, and postwar democracy.

The High Middle Ages
History 3117
cross-listed: french studies, medieval studies
The High Middle Ages is an era of cultural flowering, population growth, and political consolidation, occurring between the two cataclysms of Viking invasions and bubonic plague. Students read modern analyses of medieval inventions, heretics in Southern France, the plague, and women’s work. Also examined are medieval texts—anticlerical stories, epic poetry, and political diatribes—that offer a contemporary perspective on values and issues.

The Case for Liberties
History 3121
cross-listed: sts
What is tyranny? When is rebellion justified? What defines a nation? Such questions prompted Netherlanders in the 16th and 17th centuries to carve a Dutch Republic out of the Spanish Empire, and to create a “Golden Age” of capitalism, science, and art. In this course monographs on Dutch history are supplemented with paintings, scientific treatises, and the literature of rebellion and republicanism (including Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise).

Making of the Sunbelt
History 3122
cross-listed: american studies, sts
This course investigates the causes and consequences of one of the fundamental changes in American society over the past 50 years: the rise in power of the region stretching from North Carolina’s Research Triangle to Orange County, California. Among other things, this area saw dramatic population increases, served as the location of much of the post-1965 new immigration, and has been the political birthplace of many recently elected presidents. The course also examines how the rise of the Sunbelt has reshaped the environment.

The Law and Theory of War: From Agincourt to the Global War on Terror
History 3123
cross-listed: human rights, sts
This course examines the laws and customs of war from the Treaty of Westphalia to the global war on terror. After considering both the customary and codified sources of law (the Chivalric Code, Lieber Code, Hague Conventions, and Nuremberg Principles), students review a variety of examples of political justice: the Santee Sioux, Henry Wirz, Jacob Smith, Llandovery Castle, Leipzig, Malmedy, Yamashita, Nuremberg, Calley, Padilla, and Guantánamo Bay.

Research Seminar: Immigration and American Society, 1880–1930
History 3125
cross-listed: africana studies, asian studies, sre
An exploration of the experiences of immigrants to the United States—how and why they came, and how they adjusted to and transformed American society, economically, culturally, and politically. From 1880 to 1930, new immigrant groups came to the United States in unprecedented numbers. How Americans conceived of their absorption and how the country came to racialize these immigrants are important themes of the course. Also considered are the experiences of Asians (especially the Chinese) and Mexicans in the American West.

The American West
History 3129
cross-listed: american studies
This course examines the interplay between the historical development of the American West and the historical development of the “West of the Imagination.” It explores the interaction between native societies and the settlers and their cities; considers the environment of the modern American West; and investigates the politics of how these historical events have been remembered through fiction, film, and memory, as well as through the writing of historians.

The City and Modernity in Central Europe: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest
History 3141
cross-listed: american studies, eus, sts
Focusing principally on the four cities listed above, this course keys on the metropolis as a means to investigate the central European experience of modernity. Some topics covered are the cultural reaction to mechanization and bureaucratization of modern urban life, the metropolis as a new political arena to contest traditional political and social roles, and new forms of communication, association, and political action in the city. Period films and the writings of figures such as Benjamin, Freud, Kafka, and Musil are examined.

Violence in Colonial America
History 3142
cross-listed: american studies, human rights
The frontier is one of the great underlying constructs of North American identity. This nebulous, turbulent borderland has been marshaled to defend everything from the natural expansion of the United States to the hallowed memory of our colonial past. But what was the violence of colonial America really like? Who participated, who suffered, who fought, and what did it all mean? Primary and secondary colonial sources are reviewed in order to understand the role that violence plays in social and cultural formations.

Perspectives on War: The Pacific War through Japanese and American Eyes
History 3143
cross-listed: human rights
This course considers the same historical period through Japanese as well as U.S. eyes. Source materials include histories, eyewitness accounts, novels, and films made during the war itself and afterward. Controversial events, such as the Nanjing Massacre and the bombings of Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, are studied from different national and political perspectives.

Women, Gender, and Political Media
History 3144
cross-listed: gss, human rights
This course explores the long history of women’s participation in political media. By focusing on how women political leaders, writers, journalists, artists, and audiences shaped the media, and by studying the complex role women played and were assigned in public and political life, the course seeks to move beyond familiar, binarized debates about social goals, resources, and policies, establishing clear links between the history of media and the histories of women’s and human rights.

Jamestown
History 3145
cross-listed: american studies, sre
In this course students first learn various methodologies and approaches used in writing early American history, and then apply these strategies in their own research papers. The first half of the course examines current historiographical approaches to the topic of the English settlement of Jamestown; the second half provides an intensive investigation of primary source materials, which form the core of the research papers that students generate at the end of the semester.

Technocracy, Technology, and Social Control in Nazi Germany, the DDR, and the BRD
History 3234
cross-listed: gis, sts
This research course addresses the coercive and violent powers of the modern state as they were refined through technologies and techniques in National Socialist Germany, and then alternately condemned and utilized in the two German nations of the (East) German Democratic Republic (DDR) and the (West) German Federal Republic (BRD). Topics range from the development of new techniques of propaganda to the manipulation of social technologies such as identification papers, the census, racial pseudoscience, and, most horrifically, the concentration camp system.

War, Old Media, and Performance
History 3235
cross-listed: human rights
This course traces the history of the militarization of European society and its close relationship to the rise of new media on the eve of the modern era. Against the backdrop of its unspeakable enactment, war incited discourse and, perhaps, invented the modern public. Students explore how that invention and how the ethos of war entered into such everyday and pleasurable practices as listening to music, theatergoing, dancing, sex, and gambling.

Irish and Germans in America, 1830 to 1930: Immigration and Ethnicity
History 329 / Sociology 329
cross-listed: american studies, human rights, sre
The experience of the United States with immigrants from non-English backgrounds, and the emergence of ethnicity among the children and later descendants of these immigrants, was first fashioned in the encounter with the Irish and Germans during the century after 1830. Course themes include old country origins, terms of settlement, American schools and the children of the immigrants, patterns of adjustment in the second generation, and ethnic life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

America, Its Jews, and Israel
History 3335 / Sociology 3335
cross-listed: american studies, jewish studies, middle eastern studies
This course considers themes of American ethnicity by tracing striking shifts in American Jewish attitudes toward Israel since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. The course then deals with American politics by illuminating the changing role of Israel in American Jewish voting patterns, lobbying efforts, and financial contributions for politics. Finally, the course examines American foreign policy itself, evaluating the dramatically shifting history of American involvement with the Jewish state.

The Politics of History
History 340
cross-listed: sre
What are the origins of history as a modern discipline? How have particular modes of history developed in relation to nationalism, imperialism, and the emergence of the modern state? How have modern historical techniques served to produce ideology, and how have these same techniques provided tools for challenging different forms of domination and the ideologies that help to perpetuate them? This course addresses these questions through theoretical readings, including works by Foucault, LaCapra, Scott, White, and theorists active in the subaltern studies movement.

1917 Revolution in Russia
History 347
This seminar examines the economic and social developments that preceded the revolution; intellectual and cultural background of the revolutionary movement; ideology and practice of major political parties that participated in the revolutionary events; the role of women in the revolutionary movement; the political dynamics of the revolution; the reasons for the Bolshevik victory; and the effects of the revolution on Russian society. Readings include original works and scholarly studies.

History of Sexuality
History 3491
cross-listed: gss, sts
This course seeks to instill a critical understanding of how definitions of human sexuality have developed in particular social and national contexts, how social concerns about sexuality have been played out in personal and political realms, and how a wide range of sexual identities have been constructed in different historical contexts. It explores various issues in the history of sexuality, covering a broad range of theoretical and thematic questions. The focus is primarily on western Europe and North America during the 19th and 20th centuries, with attention given to issues of race and colonialism.

20th-Century Russia: A Society
in Turmoil
History 350
cross-listed: gis, res
The most important force that shaped the contemporary world was the process of modernization initiated by the 18th-century revolution in France and the English industrial revolution. As a result of modernization, many societies underwent a profound transformation that changed them beyond recognition. This seminar discusses the modernization of Russia and its diverse effects on Russian society. It covers the period from the reforms of 1861 under Tsar Alexander II to the 1930s.

Oral History Seminar
History 3531
This seminar focuses on practical, technical, and legal aspects of conducting interviews. Each student is responsible for conducting a two-part oral history interview, transcribing the results, and leading the discussion/critique of another interview. The course seeks to convey very practical knowledge about how to win trust and conduct interviews in a variety of circumstances.

Russian Intellectual History
History 365
cross-listed: res
Following a brief introduction dealing with the modernization of Russia and the origin of Russian secular thought and the intelligentsia, this seminar focuses on the major trends and personalities in 19th-century Russian secular thought. Topics include continuity and change in Russian culture, debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles, revolutionary populism, and socialism. Readings include works by Chaadayev, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Lenin, and Tolstoy, and contemporary studies of the Russian intellectual tradition.

The Civil Rights Movement
History 371
cross-listed: africana studies, human rights, social policy, sre
This course contextualizes the intense decade of political ferment surrounding the struggle for black rights in the United States, stretching roughly from 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education) to 1964 (Civil Rights Act). This period is explored longitudinally, against a longer history of constitutionally based precedents and legislation, and against the backdrop of other pertinent developments following World War II, such as the rise of a human rights movement, the Cold War, northward migration, and simultaneous domestic social movements.