Undergraduate History Courses

Fall 2007 Course Descriptions

The Undergraduate courses for Fall 2007 are also available in PDF format.

University Seminars (Hist 13184)

University Seminars are designed to foster intense interaction between first-year students and faculty in small settings where class discussion is the dominant mode of instruction in introducing the paradigms of a given academic discipline. These are writing intensive courses in which students will write and read simultaneously and continuously throughout the semester. Every first-year student must take one University Seminar, and these courses are open only to first-year students. These courses can count toward either the university History requirement or the History major (see individual course descriptions for major breadth categories).

Pirates in History

MURRAY
HIST 13184 01 CRN # 13672
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45
(Major Breadth Category: Special)

In this particular course you will use piracy as the means to engage the work of historians. Each unit will be built around particular textual problems that historians face in their endeavors to recount the past. You will experience how historians reconstruct fragmented texts, how they use various kinds of primary sources to corroborate one another, and how they establish and disagree about the authorship of given texts. You will also see how historians and creative writers differ in their portrayal of piracy and what it means to their understanding of life around them. Since there will be no examinations in this course, the goal will be not to memorize dates and facts, but instead to marshal textual evidence in support of the arguments you will make in the course of your written reflection papers and essays.

The Canadian Alternative

Noll
lHIST 13184 02 CRN # 13671
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15
(Major Breadth Category: Special)

Although Canadians are welcomed in this course, it is designed as an introduction to the history of Canada studied as an alternative to the history of the United States. Canadian history resembles the history of the United States in many ways, even as, in many other ways, it is quite different. Why, as examples of differences with the United States, has Canada possessed a national system of universal health care for at least two generations? Why does every Canadian province provide some kind of financial support for private schools, including religious schools? Why were Canadians much more likely than Americans to be regular church goers until about 1965, but since 1965 much less likely? These and other questions will be explored historically through readings in books and Canadian periodicals, through some viewing of Canadian media, and through student writing and discussion.

Religious Belief and the Dawn of Modernity

MARTIN
HIST 13184 04 CRN # 14276
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15
(Major Breadth Category: Modern Europe)

From the Reformation to the mid-19th century, the religious traditions of Christians and Jews in Europe and Russia were shaken by new intellectual currents, political upheavals, and a changing social order. Reading biographies, autobiographies, and some scholarly works, we will examine the diversity of responses to these challenges-including mysticism and freemasonry, secularization and religious skepticism, as well as changing ideas about education, family, class, nationality, and gender.

The Idea of India

SENGUPTA
HIST 13184 05 CRN #17407
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15
(Major Breadth Category: Africa/Asia/Middle East)

Land of spirituality, or land of widow-burning? Land of fabulous wealth, or land of dire poverty, the caste system, and untouchability? Western literature has reflected stereotypical and contradictory images of India since antiquity. This course examines the impact of foreign perceptions of India on both the foreigners and the people of India. Unpacking the complex interplay of indigenous Indian culture with Islamic and western civilizations, this course seeks to train students in the idea that Indian civilization is not a fixed residue handed down from the past, but rather an enduring structure with adaptive mechanisms that permit it to be both a historically determined and continuously creative force. Students in this course will make an in-depth analysis of assigned readings, and write several short papers.

Revolution in Mexico

Beatty
HIST 13184 06 CRN # 14277
TR 3:30 - 4:45

Between 1910 and the 1920s cycles of revolution and civil war brought tremendous upheaval to Mexican society, yet few Mexicans and fewer historians agree on just what the revolution meant for the country. We will examine the revolution and its meaning for Mexico by reconstructing the major events and issues, by untangling the various strands of revolution and its aftermath, and by examining diverse efforts to describe and interpret the revolution. We will use prose, art, and film to portray central individuals and ideas, and we will use writing assignments and class discussions to analyze and evaluate those portrayals.

Regular Courses (First-Year, Sophomore, and Major)

These courses fulfill the university History requirement and various major requirements (any exceptions are noted within individual descriptions). They are organized below into the various, largely geographic, breadth categories of the History major. Generally these courses are open to all students, but seats in many courses are restricted by class and major status, especially during initial registration. For general guidelines on seat access, see the explanatory notes to non-majors and majors in the preface of this description booklet. For any specific course, check InsideND for student restrictions, which may change over the registration period.

Africa/Asia/Middle East

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #1 (Africa/Asia/Middle East). See individual descriptions for courses that also satisfy the majorâ€™s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.

Medieval Middle East

COBB
HIST 30080 CRN # 17426/17429
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

This course offers a survey of Middle Eastern history from the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE until the rise of Mongol successor polities in the 15th century. The course is structured to cover political and cultural developments and their relationship with broader changes in society during the formative centuries of Islamic civilization. Specific topics include: the career of the Prophet Muhammad and the origins of the earliest Muslim polity; the creation and breakup of the Islamic unitary state (the Caliphate); the impact of Turkic migrations on the Middle East; social practices surrounding the transmission of earning in the Middle Ages; the diversity of approaches to Muslim piety and their social and political expression; popular culture; non-Muslims in Islamic society; the creation of the medieval Islamic "international" cultural order. Among the more important themes will be long-term cultural and social continuities with the Islamic and ancient Near East, and concepts of religious and political authority. This course also satisfies the major's pre-1500 requirement.

Modern South Asia

SENGUPTA
History 30106 CRN # 17430/17431
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45

Home to over a billion people, just over 23% of humanity, the South Asian subcontinent is a fascinating laboratory in which to analyze the unfolding of such themes in modern history as colonialism, nationalism, partition, decolonization, post-colonial democracies, the modern state, economic development, center-region problems and relations between Asia and the West. The course will consider critical themes in social, political, economic, and cultural history, which will include imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, religious politics, regionalism, ethnicity, globalization, diaspora, ecology, social inequality, and gender, development, and democracy. It will not only provide a lively historical narrative told through lectures based on scholarly research and primary texts, but will also seek to embellish this narrative with the perception and articulation of vision and sound, as well as with readings from representative genres of South Asian literature.

Modern Japan

THOMAS
History 30120 CRN # 17436/17438
MW 11:45 â€“ 1:00

This introduction to modern Japanese history focuses on political, social, economic, and military affairs in Japan from around 1600 to the early post-WWII period. It considers such paradoxes as samurai bureaucrats, entrepreneurial peasants, upper-class revolutionaries, and Asian fascists. The course has two purposes: 1) to provide a chronological and structural framework for understanding the debates over modern Japanese history, and 2) to develop the skill of reading texts analytically to discover the argument being made. The assumption operating both in the selection of readings and in the lectures is that Japanese history, as with all histories, is the site of controversy. Our efforts at this introductory level will be dedicated to understanding the contours of some of the most important of these controversies and judging, as far as possible, the evidence brought to bear in them.

Introduction to Chinese Culture and Civilization

YANG
History 30144 CRN # 15415
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

This is a survey course that introduces students with little or no knowledge of the Chinese language or culture to the major aspects of Chinese cultural tradition from the dawn of its civilization to the present time. Readings (in English translation) include traditional Chinese historical, philosophical, political, religious and literary texts as well as modern scholarship. Students are encouraged to bring in their experience, living or reading, of Western culture in order to approach the Chinese texts from a comparative perspective. This course also satisfies the major's pre-1500 requirement.

Ancient/Medieval Europe

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #2 (Ancient and Medieval Europe). These courses all satisfy the majorâ€™s pre-1500 requirement. See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy other major categories.

Western Civilization I

NOBLE
History 10200/20200 CRN # 17402/17408
MW 1:55 â€“ 2:45

This course offers a survey of the central themes in Western Civilization from ancient Mesopotamia to the Renaissance. Emphasis will fall upon problems of social organization, especially the mutual obligations and responsibilities of individuals and states; evolving concepts of justice; aesthetic standards; religious ideas and institutions; basic philosophical concepts; different kinds of states and the ideologies that defined and sustained them.

Students enrolled in History 10200 must also take History 12200, a tutorial

HIST 12200 01 CRN # 17406
F 1:55 â€“ 2:45

HIST 12200 02 CRN # 17405
F 12:50 â€“ 1:40

Students enrolled in History 20200 must also take History 22200, a tutorial

HIST 22200 01 CRN # 17414
F 1:55 â€“ 2:45

HIST 22000 02 CRN # 17416
F 12:50 â€“ 1:40

Ancient Greece and Rome

MAZUREK
HIST 10210 CRN # 12817
MWF 11:45 â€“ 12:35

This first-year course introduces the general history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome to students coming to the subject for the first time. Literary texts central to the ancient Greek and Roman traditions receive prime attention, including works by Homer, Plato, Cicero and Virgil, but students are also exposed to the importance of learning from documentary texts, archeology, and art history. Topics discussed include concepts of divinity and humanity, heroism and virtue, gender, democracy, empire, and civic identity, and how they changed in meaning over time. The course allows students to develop a rich appreciation for the Greek and Roman roots of their own lives, and prepares them to study the Greco-Roman past at more advanced levels.

History of Ancient Rome

MAZUREK
HIST 30230 CRN # 18129/18130
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

This course offers an introduction to the history of ancient Rome from Romulus to Constantine. The topics covered include the meteoric spread of Roman rule in the ancient Mediterranean, the brilliance of a republican form of government tragically swept away by destructive civil war, the rise of repressive autocracy under the Caesars, and the threats to empire in late antiquity posed inside by the rise of Christianity and outside by hostile invaders. Readings include narrative, documentary, and archaeological sources. The course prepares students for advanced study in ancient history and is offered biannually.

Alexander the Great

BARON
HIST 30223 CRN # 18553/18554
MWF 3:00 - 3:50

This course examines the military achievements of Alexander of Macedon (356-323B.C.) and their far-reaching political, social, cultural, and religious consequences. Topics covered include the Greek, Macedonian, Persian, and other cultural contexts of the time, Alexander's attitude toward divinity (including his own), his concept of empire, his generalship, and his legacy for Greco-Roman antiquity. Particular attention is devoted to representations of Alexander through the ages, beginning during his own lifetime with the accountsof ancient writers "historians and others" down to novels and films of the presentday. Ancient authors and documents are read in translation.

Middle Ages I

BOULTON
HIST 30261 CRN # 17443/17444
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45

This course will examine the history of the Roman world from the time of the first incursions of barbarians into the Roman empire in the 3rd century to the time of the final invasions in the 10th. It will concentrate first on the rise of Christianity and the institutions of the Catholic Church, and on the transformation of the tolerant polytheistic society of Antiquity into the intolerant monotheistic civilizations of Western, Latin, or Catholic Christendom and Eastern, Greek, or Orthodox Christendom. Next it will briefly examine the emergence in the 7th century of the new monotheistic religion of Islam and of the new civilization and empire centered on it, which quickly conquered most of the Asian and all of the African provinces of the Roman empire, and in 711-18 conquered most of Spain as well. The remainder of the course will concentrate on the history of Latin Christendom and its pagan barbarian neighbors to the north and east during the Germano-Roman Period from c. 400 to c. 840. The course will conclude with the final set of invasions of Latin Europe that began around 840 and lasted to around 960, and will examine the simultaneous dissolution of the Germano-Roman socio-political order during the first epoch of the Proto-Traditional Period. There will be two short papers, two tests, and a final examination.

12th C. Renaissance & Reform

VAN ENGEN
HIST 30272 CRN # 17460/17461
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

The thousand years of history we call "the middle ages" witnessed repeated efforts to reform and enlighten society through learning and religion. Such aspirations did not wait for the periods we call Renaissance and Reformation. This course will examine reform movements in the years 1050-1215, a time of great cultural expansion often called the "twelfth-century renaissance." Here we find the invention of the university and also of chivalry, mystics as well as satirical mockers. We will read original sources dealing with ethics, politics, love, and religion in that society. We will ask what it means, historically, to speak of a society as undergoing renewal or reform: Can a whole society be reformed? By whom? By what means? Three short papers, and a midterm, will be required.

Medieval Ireland: Irish History, 950-1400

RAPPLE
HIST 30321 CRN # 17462/17463
TR 12:30 â€“ 1:45

Consideration of the period between 950 and 1400 is of crucial importance in understanding Irish history. This course not only covers the range of continuities and radical discontinuities that marked Irelandâ€™s development during this time, but charts the attempted conquest of the entire country by the English Crown. The lecture series also seeks to answer a number of questions. Why did the Papacy give the English Crown sovereignty over Ireland? Why did a country like Ireland, on the verge of attaining political and economic centralization, not organize better resistance to English attempts to subdue it? Why did the English colony fail to prove more successful in exerting its will over indigenous Irish potentates? Culturally the period also witnessed the growing assimilation of English invaders to the norms of Gaelic Irish politics and society. Lastly, events in Ireland had a serious influence on developments in England, Wales and Scotland, provoking, amongst other things, the fall of the Plantagenet dynasty and an attempted invasion by King Robert I of Scotland.

Tudor England: Politics and Honor

RAPPLE
HIST 30410 CRN # 17466/17467
TR 5:00 â€“ 6:15

The period from 1485 to 1603, often feted as something of a â€˜Golden Ageâ€™ for England, saw that country undergo serious changes that challenged the traditional ways in which the nation conceived of itself. These included the break from Rome, the loss of Englandâ€™s foothold in France, and the unprecedented experience of monarchical rule by women. Each of these challenges demanded creative political responses and apologetic strategies harnessing intellectual resources from classical, Biblical, legal, chivalric and ecclesiastical sources. This course will examine these developments. It will also look at how the English, emerging from under the shadow of the internecine dynastic warfare of the fifteenth century, sought to preserve political stability and ensure a balance between continuity and change, and, furthermore, how individuals could use these unique circumstances to their own advantage.

Augustine and the City of God

MACCORMACK
HIST 40239 CRN # 18133
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

The aim of the course is to gain a detailed understanding of one of the world's important works of historical and political theology. Writing in response to the destruction of the City of Rome by Visigothic invaders in 410 AD, Augustine devoted the first half of this "long and difficult work" to a refutation of Roman religion and ancient philosophy (Books I-X). In the second half (Books XI-XXII) he explained what he meant by City of God and Terrestial City and traced the evolution through time of the two cities in relation to each other. We will study the City of God in light of the sources Augustine engaged with. For the first part, these include the philosophers Plato, Apuleius, Plotinus and Porphyry, the historians Sallust and Livy, and also the statesman Cicero and the poet Vergil. In the second part, Augustine builds on biblical theology, history and chronology. To conclude, we will devote some time to the influence of this very long book. It will be studied in English, but those with viable Latin will be encouraged to use it.

Knighthood and Chivalry in Medieval Europe, 750-1625

BOULTON
HIST 40297 CRN # 18360/18362
TR 3:30 â€“ 4:45

This course, to be conducted primarily by discussion, introduces students to the history of knighthood (the status of noble heavy cavalryman) and chivalry (the distinctive ethos and code of the knightly nobility of Latin Europe) from their emergence in Western

Europe between 950 and 1180, through their apogee between 1180 and 1380, and to their slow decline between 1380 and 1625. It will deal first with the history of the proto-knight as warrior, vassal, and in some cases monk (in the religious orders of knighthood like the Templars), and then with emergence after 1100 of noble knighthood and of its rituals (like dubbing) and marks of status and identity (especially heraldic arms). It will next examine the complex origins of the code of chivalry, embodied first in literary and then (additionally) in didactic texts, and the extent to which it actually influenced knightly and noble behavior, especially towards noble women. After this it will turn first to an examination of knightly games (the tournament and joust) and their relationship to warfare, and then to the different types of lay knightly society that were founded in considerable numbers between 1325 and about 1500, especially the great 'curial' orders like those of the Garter and the Golden Fleece, attached to the courts of kings and princes, and destined to be the principal embodiments of the knightly tradition in most of Europe after 1520. Finally, it will examine the conversion of the status of knight from one primarily associated with warfare to one increasingly associated with high birth, landed wealth, and service to the crown in any capacity. A concluding session will examine knighthood since 1625. Students will be required to lead discussions of selected materials in rotation throughout the term, and to write two short papers, two short tests, and a final examination

Modern Europe

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #3 (Modern Europe). See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.

The Holocaust

SPICER
HIST 30408 CRN # 14283/14285
MW 10:40 â€“ 11:30

This course offers an historical analysis of the Holocaust of European Jews under National Socialism. Topics include the origins of antisemitism, the rise of National Socialism, German Jews in the Weimar Republic and their exclusion from public life under National Socialism, the euthanasia action, Reichskristallnacht, ghettoization, deportation, and the concentration and death camps.

Students enrolled in History 30408, must take History 32408, a tutorial

HIST 32408 01 CRN # 14963
F 10:40 â€“ 11:30

HIST 32408 02 CRN # 14964
F 11:45 â€“ 12:35

British History, 1660-1800

SMYTH
HIST 30411 CRN # 17468/17469
MWF 12:50 â€“ 1:40

This course of lectures and readings concentrates on British (that is Scottish as well as English) history from the restoration of monarchy in 1660 to the great crisis detonated by the French Revolution and war in the 1790s. Themes include the politics of Protestant dissent, the Catholic Question, political ideologies, the role of parliament, Jacobitism and the rise of the radical parliamentary reform movement.

Irish History to 1800

SMYTH
HIST 30431 CRN # 17470/17471
MWF 9:35 â€“ 10:25

This course explores the main themes in Irish histories from the plantation of Ulster, after 1603, to the rebellion of 1798 and the Act of Union with Great Britain in 1800. Attention focuses on plantation, colonization and religious conflict; the Cromwellian reconquest and the Williamite wars in the seventeenth century, and the anti-Catholic penal laws and rise of Protestant Ascendancy in the eighteenth century. This dramatic and formative period witnessed the emergence of many of the forces and rivalries which shaped modern Irish politics and society and continue to generate lively disagreement among historians today.

Medieval & Early Modern Russia

MARTIN
HIST 30470 CRN # 15351/15352
TR 3:30 â€“ 4:45

This course examines the history of Russia from its medieval origins until the age of Catherine the Great in the 18th century. We will begin with the genesis of Orthodox Slavic civilization in medieval Kievan Rus and that state's destruction in the Mongol invasion. Then we will study the rise of the tsardom of Muscovy and the fateful developments that nearly doomed it in the 16th-17th century â€“ the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Time of Troubles, the imposition of serfdom, the schism of the Orthodox Church, and widespread popular revolts. Lastly, we will see how Peter the Great and his 18th century successors attempted to stabilize the social order, Westernize the upper classes, and make Russia a great European power. This course also fulfills the major's Ancient/Medieval Europe requirement and the pre-1500 requirement.

Early 20th C. Russia

LYANDRES
HIST 30473 CRN # 17473/17472
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

This course examines some of the most important ideas, events, and personalities that shaped Russian and Soviet history from the beginning of the last tsar's reign in 1894 to the emergence of the Soviet Empire at the end of the Second World War. In particular, we will explore the role of politics and ideology in Russian society, the origins of Leninism and the creation of the first socialist state as well as the experience of Stalinism and the Nazi-Soviet War.

20th C. Eastern European History

KUNICKI
HIST 30483 CRN # 15546/17480
WF 11:45 â€“ 12:35

This course surveys the history of twentieth century Eastern Europe, the conglomeration of states and nations between Germany and Russia, stretching from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black and Adriatic Seas in the south. The class aims to provide students with a basic understanding of the chronology of events and developmental processes in this part of Europe. It also attempts to answer the question whether 'Eastern Europe' is or is not a meaningful historical, political, and cultural construct. Themes include nationalism, the creation of nation-states and the influence of Great Powers, indigenous fascism, the role of the intelligentsia, Nazi occupation, Stalinism, and the evolution of Communism and response from society. Finally, by employing participant accounts, novels, and films the course introduces students to the cultures, traditions, and leading voices of the lands and peoples under discussion.

Students enrolled in History 30483, must take History 32483, a tutorial.

HIST 32483 01 CRN # 17545
M 11:45 â€“ 12:35

HIST 32483 02 CRN # 17546
M 10:40 â€“ 11:30

War, Violence, and Politics in Europe since World War I

ORR
HIST 30583 CRN # 18393/18394
MWF 1:55 â€“ 2:45

This class examines the management and effects of domestic, colonial, and interstate armed conflicts on European societies and democracy since the First World War, in order to probe the relationship between violence and politics. The overriding question of the course is, "How has politically motivated violence affected European democracy?" Course themes include the effects of war on regimes, the effect of domestic violence on democratic institutions, and the attempts to come to terms with terror as a political weapon. The course studies the World Wars, the role of violence in effecting political and social change, including changing gender norms, and terrorist violence in both Western Europe and in the colonial context.

United States

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #5 (United States). See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.

US History from 1865

MCGREEVY
HIST 10605/20605 CRN # 12691/13725
MW 10:40 â€“ 11:30

This course traces major developments in American society, politics, and culture from 1865 to the present. Major themes will include new connections between government and society; shifts in cultural, intellectual, and religious life; social movements; and the global dimensions of American history.

Students enrolled in History 10605 must also take History 12605, a tutorial

HIST 12605 01 CRN # 12372
F 10:40 â€“ 11:30

HIST 12605 02 CRN # 12371
F 9:35 â€“ 10:25

HIST 12605 03 CRN # 12370
F 11:45 â€“ 12:35

Students enrolled in History 20605 must also take History 22605, a tutorial

HIST 22605 01 CRN # 13697
F 10:40 â€“ 11:30

US National Security Policy since 1890

SOARES
HIST 10750 CRN # 18407
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45

In the aftermath of 9/11, with American troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and concern about the nuclear ambitions of such nations as North Korea and Iran, "national security" is a phrase that is often discussed and of crucial importance to informed citizens. This course will examine national security policy: what it is, how it is formulated and executed, and how U.S. national security policies have evolved since the 1890s. Using a variety of readings and films such as Casablanca and Dr. Strangelove, this course will examine U.S. national security policies from the late 1890s through two world wars, the interwar period, the Cold War, the post-Cold War years and up to the current post-9/11 world. We will identify continuities and departures in historic U.S. national security policies, and consider the roles of policymakers and their critics in a self-governing society.

US History to 1877

GROW
HIST 20600 CRN # 13723
MWF 11:45 â€“ 12:35

This course offers a survey of the social, cultural, and political history of the British North American Colonies and the United States to the close of the Civil War, including Reconstruction. Topics include Native American, European, and African encounters; regional development and divergence; imperial conflict and revolution; constitutional development and argument; democratization and its implications; religious impulses and reformism; immigration and nativism; the importance of land and westward expansion; slavery and emancipation; sectional division, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

The American Revolution

SMITH
HIST 30602 CRN # 18395/18396
TR 12:30 â€“ 1:45

The American Revolution was more than a war. It marked a time of changeâ€”both tumultuous and subtleâ€”as well as continuity with a colonial past. Accordingly, this course sets the war itself, those who fought it, and those whose lives it touched in less obvious ways within the broader context of a Revolutionary Era. We will explore the preconditions for revolution as well as its profound impact within social and political contexts, emphasizing the experiences and perspectives of Americans from various backgrounds.

The US Civil War Era, 1848-1877

Degruccio
HIST 30604 CRN # 12789/14289
MW 4:30 - 5:45

Through intensive reading and writing students will explore the social and cultural history of America's most costly war. We will focus on various topics as they relate to the war: antebellum origins, religion, gender, Lincoln's reasons for waging war, dead bodies, freedmen's families, black soldiers, and the uses of war memory. This will not be a guns-and-generals-smell-the-smoke course, though knowledge of military matters can be helpful. We will ask and try to answer who really "won" and "lost" the war.

US Gilded Age/Progressive Era

GLOEGE
HIST 30606 CRN # 17485/17487
MWF 10:40 â€“ 11:30

Through lectures and discussion this class examines the substantial changes to American society and culture that occurred between the end of the Civil War and World War I. It will begin by covering the period's economic, intellectual, political and demographic transformations.This skeletal narrative will be complicated with a closer examination of cultural objects, religious belief, social practice, ideologies of race, class and gender and reform movements that developed during this time. A particular effort will be made to trace the continuing impact of these changes on the present. Students will read a variety of primary and secondary sources including fiction from the period. Course requirements include a midterm and final examination, two short written assignments, a final research paper and a group presentation.

US 1900-1945

BLANTZ
HIST 30608 CRN # 12813/14298
MWF 9:35 â€“ 10:25

This course explores the political, diplomatic, economic, social, and cultural development of the United States from 1900 to 1945. Major topics will include the background for Progressive reform, the New Nationalism and New Freedom administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the diplomacy of the early twentieth century, the causes and results of World War I, the Republican administrations of the 1920's, the New Deal administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, isolationism and neutrality in the inter-war period, and the American home front during World War II. There will be a required reading list of approximately seven books, two shorter writing assignments, and three major examinations, including the final.

Medicine & Public Health in US History

HAMLIN
HIST 30626 CRN # 17491/17492
MW 1:30 â€“ 2:45

This course examines health as a unifying concept in American history. It follows several themes: how class, race, and gender, as well as age, lifestyle, and place have manifested themselves in differential health experience; the ongoing conflict between personal liberty and the interests of the state, the remarkable diversity of American medical systems and their close relation to religious and social diversity; the place of medicine in Americanization campaigns; the changing political economy of American medicine; and finally, the emergence of health as the core concern of the American dream. In short, by the end of the course you should have a good understanding of the uniqueness of American medicine and its central place in America's history. You should have acquired an historical and critical context that will be of use in your own encounters with matters of health and medicine -- as intelligent citizens about issues of public health and questions of medical ethics, and as creative thinkers about more satisfactory modes of medical practice and health improvement and protection. The course will use 3-5 texts, and require exams, a project and a presentation.

What's Love Got to Do with It? Marriage and Family in American History from the Revolution to the present

Degruccio
HIST 30636 CRN # 18559/18560
TR 3:30 - 4:45

From the heated trenches of America's "culture wars" few thing are as polarizing as marriage and the family. At the extremes, some hearken back to less troubled days when one man and one woman made enduring commitments to each other; others imagine a narrative of progress with women throwing off the shackles of patriarchy, as both men and women forged new kinds of relationships informed by individual needs. Through intensive reading and writing students will grapple with these conflicting narratives of decline and triumph. We will explore Native-American families, polygamy, free-love communities, Cold War homemakers, the black family, and gay marriage. In all of these we will flesh out the ways in which defining "the family" has always been entangled with citizenship, national politics, and religious intolerance.

Women and Work in Early America

WHITE
HIST 30652 CRN # 17974
MW 11:45 â€“ 1:00

This course introduces students to a broad view of early American social history that foregrounds the gendered aspects of work in Early Americaâ€”defined loosely as the period from colonial settlement to 1820. On one level, this approach allows for the recovery of women and girlsâ€™ contributions to the formal and informal economies of pre-Industrial early America, including their work activities within the household. This perspective is especially crucial to the examination of white, Indian and African servitude and/or slavery since gender ideologies dictated the work experiences of large race- and class-defined segments of the population. Yet cultural retention also played a part and this course will invite students to investigate the impact of derivative work practices (for example, examining African womenâ€™s dominance of market activities in the New World through the lens of West African work practices). Further, while the course title emphasizes womenâ€™s experiences, the class and race implications of male work practices in early America will be similarly illuminated by a gender studies approach. Thus, an overarching purpose of the course is to highlight the fluid and unstable conceptions of work that were applied alternately to masculine as opposed to feminine occupations, just as they were alternately applied to European versus non-European, free versus enslaved, and public versus private spheres.

Jacksonian America: Politics, Culture, & Society, 1815-1846

GRAFF
HIST 30680 CRN # 17495/17497
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45

This course explores the history of the United States from the close of the War of 1812 to the beginning of the war with Mexico, although our investigation of social, political, and economic processes will inevitably take us both backward and forward in time as well. Although the era takes its name from President Andrew Jackson, the course covers much more than national politics, affairs of state, and the contested biography and legacy of Old Hickory. It also explores the constitutional contests over suffrage and citizenship; the birth and rise to dominance of mass political parties; conflicts between nationalism, sectionalism, and rival forms of attachment; increasing commercialization, early industrialization, and the rise and fall of the republic's first labor movement; the transformation of slavery, the rise of antislavery politics, and the evolution of ideas about race; changing gender roles and the rise of women's activism; evangelical religion and reform; immigration and nativism; and Native American resistance and removal.

US Sex, Sexuality & Gender to 1900

BEDERMAN
HIST 30706 CRN # 13711/14320
MW 3:00 â€“ 4:15

Sexuality, like other areas of social life, has a history. Yet historians have only written about the history of sex for the last forty years or so. This course both introduces students to a variety of current themes in the history of sexuality and invites them to consider how they themselves might research and write that history. The class surveys recent topics in the history of sexuality from first colonial settlement to the end of the Victorian era. Issues we may consider include different religions' attitudes towards sexuality (the Puritans were not anti-sex!); how different cultures' views of sex shaped relations between colonists and Indians; why sex was an important factor in establishing laws about slavery in Virginia; birth control and abortion practices; changing patterns of courtship; and relationships between men who loved men and women who loved women. Written assignments include a weekly journal, four short (4-5 page) essays and a longer final project (paper or research) that counts for the final examination.

US Presidents: FDR to Clinton

DESANTIS
HIST 30854 CRN # 12750
TR 9:30 â€“ 10:45

This course offers a study of the personalities, styles, policies and performances of American presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton as they developed the Modern American Presidency and made it the most important elective office in the world.

American Men, American Women

ARDIZZONE
HIST 30886 CRN # 15019
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

What does it mean to be male or female in America? How different are our ideas about gender from those of other cultures? This course focuses on the 20th century and looks at the origins and development of masculine and feminine roles in the United States. How much have they changed over time and what aspects have been retained? The course explores the ways that cultural images, political changes, and economic needs have shaped the definition of acceptable behavior and life choices based on gender. Topics include Victorian ideals, the Jazz Age, war literature, movie Westerns, '50s television families, '60s youth culture, and recent shifts with women's rights, extreme sports, and talk shows.

Visual America 2

SCHLERETH
HIST 30894 CRN # 14948
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

The course has two objectives. First, it introduces students to the various methods scholars have developed to use visual evidence in cultural history research; second, it provides students with a content course in United States history, one where they receive an overview of the various roles that the art forms noted above have played in nineteenth and twentieth century American life. Iconographic analysis â€“ the uncovering of past and present, conflicting and paradoxical layers of cultural meanings within an image or assemblage of images â€“ is an important part of the course.

Crime, Heredity, and Insanity in US History

PRZYBYSZEWSKI
HIST 40630 CRN # 17852/17853
MW 3:00 â€“ 4:15

The 19th century witnessed a transformation in the understanding of the origins of criminal behavior in the United States. For many, a religious emphasis on humankind as sinful gave way to a belief in its inherent goodness. But if humans were naturally good, how could their evil actions be explained? Drawing on studies done here and abroad, American doctors, preachers, and lawyers debated whether environment, heredity, or free will determined the actions of the criminal. By the early 20th century, lawyers and doctors had largely succeeded in medicalizing criminality. Psychiatrists treated criminals as patients; judges invoked hereditary eugenics in sentencing criminals. Science, not sin, had apparently become the preferred mode of explanation for the origins of crime. But was this a better explanation than what had come before? Discussion is be the primary form of instruction.

Science and Environmental Policy in the U.S.

VANDEWALL
HIST 40648 CRN # 15943
MW 3:00 â€“ 4:15

This class meets in a seminar format and examines the history of US science and environmental policy from 1870 to the present day. It examines what kinds of research have been funded by the federal government in each period and how this reflects the changing concerns of the populace. It also introduces students to the following question: how do commercial and political interests shape scientific inquiry, knowledge, and practice, both now and in the past? The course pays particular attention to the role of both the executive and legislative branches of government in supporting science and to identifying interest groups that have been influential in shaping science and environmental policy. The final portion of the course is devoted to case studies in current science and environmental policy, as students will research the development of a particular policy â€“ breast cancer research, the clean air act, the space station â€“ and present to the class and analysis of both the history of the policy and an evaluation of its impact on public life. This course does not satisfy the university history requirement.

Sport and the Cold War

SOARES
HIST 40857 CRN # 18378/18379
TR 3:30 â€“ 4:45

This course explores the ways that sport reflected the political, ideological, social, economic and military struggle known as the Cold War. Sport permitted opportunities to defeat hated rivals or to develop competition more peacefully. It reflected the internal politics and societies of nations, and also illuminated relations among allies. Using a variety of readings, media accounts and film clips, this course looks at a number of crucial teams, athletes and events from the Cold War, including the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, the controversial 1972 Olympic basketball final, "ping pong diplomacy," Olympic boycotts, East German figure skater Katarina Witt, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, the ferocious Soviet-Czechoslovakian hockey rivalry following the Soviet invasion of 1968, and more.

The Meaning of Things

WHITE
HIST 40885 CRN # 17973
MW 1:30 â€“ 2:45

This course asks how objects as diverse as an â€˜heirloomâ€™ quilt, a pair of jeans or an iPod acquire meaning and value. This course introduces students to a range of practices relating to consumption in American history from the colonial period to the present; it investigates the gendered aspects of production, marketing, buying and using goods as these impact not only on gender, but also on the construction of class, ethnic and â€˜racialâ€™ identities. Students will work on small collaborative projects as a foundation for writing substantive individual research papers on a topic of their choice.

Nature in History

SCHLERETH
HIST 40890 CRN # 17983
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

This seminar explores the concept of nature in the American historical and contemporary experience within an interdisciplinary context of art, history, literature and ecology. In addition to weekly reading discussions, the seminar meets, on a number of occasions, at several â€œnatureâ€ sights: Morris Conservatory and Muessel-Ellison Tropical Gardens; Potawatomi Zoo; Elkhart Environmental Center; Shiojiri Niwa Japanese Garden; Fernwood Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve; University of Notre Dame Grene-Nieuwland Herbarium. In addition, to encourage the study of nature in American Art (painting, photography; sculpture) the seminar also meets at the Snite Museum of Art; South Bend Regional Museum of Art; South Bend Regional Museum of Art and the Midwest Museum of American Art.

Latin America

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #4 (Latin America). See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.

Colonial Latin America

Graubart
HIST 10901/30901 CRN # 18546/18545
MW 11:45-12:35

When Columbus stepped ashore in the Caribbean in 1492, he set in motion a process that led to the creation of wealthy Spanish and Portuguese empires in the Americas, the genocide of countless numbers of indigenous men and women, the enslavement of millions of African men and women, and the eventual formation of a variety of independent states competing in the world economy. In this semester-long survey, we will examine topics in this history that will allow us to consider how history is produced as well as what happened in the past, from various perspectives, from elite colonial administrators and merchants to indigenous peasants and formerly enslaved men and women. Most weeks' assigned readings include primary texts - sources written by participants in these events -- and written assignments and discussion sections will concentrate upon the use of these sources.

Students enrolled in History 10901 must also take History 12901, a tutorial

HIST 12901 01 CRN # 18547
F 11:45 - 12:50

HIST 12901 02 CRN # 18548
F 11:45 â€“ 12:50

Chronicles of the Conquest of Latin America

Graubart
HIST 30930 CRN # 18539/18540
MW 3:00 - 4:15

This seminar examines key aspects of the conquest of Latin America through readings of chronicles and other texts written by Spaniards and Amerindians in the 15th-17th centuries. We will focus upon the ways in which Spaniards and Amerindians theorized and explained their experiences, and their representations of themselves and their "others." In particular, we will pay attention to the beginnings of modern notions of race and ethnicity through discussions of barbarians, wildmen and cannibals, among other "types" important to the colonial encounter. Students will help lead class discussions and will write a series of essays that critically engage with the historical texts.

Special

All majors must take one course from four of the Departmentâ€™s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #6 (Special), a designation for courses that either donâ€™t fit into the geographic scope of the other categories or offer a more thematic, global, or comparative approach to the past. See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.

Making Australia

MISCAMBLE
HIST 20975 CRN # 17412
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

The struggle to 'make' Australia, as opposed to replicating Britain, got underway early on after European settlement, and it has been in process ever since. This course will seek to understand and illuminate this nation-building process. Approximately two-thirds of the course will be devoted to examining the major issues in Australia's history, beginning with an appropriate treatment of Aboriginal history through to the present debates over Australian identity and the nation's future. The final third of the course will explore important issues in contemporary society and culture. This course will have special interest for students who plan to participate in an overseas study program in Australia [Fremantle or Perth]. In addition to reading 4-5 books, students will view [outside of class time] a number of important Australian documentary and feature films. A willingness to participate in extracurricular activities is a prerequisite for the course. The course will involve lecture and discussion. Students will write three five-page papers and a number of brief reaction papers, and take mid-semester and final examinations. This course may satisfy one of the four breadth courses required of all majors.

History of Ancient Medicine

LADOUCEUR
HIST 30212 CRN # 18132
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

This course traces the development of medicine in the ancient Mediterranean world, concentrating on the medical beliefs, theories, and practices of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The course emphasizes the value of studying written sources such as the Hippocratic treatises and the works of Galen with artistic evidence and human remains. A connection between ancient and modern medicine is made by considering two contrasting models of disease-the biomedical and the biopsychosocial-that figure as the focus of a contemporary debate on health care. This course also satisfies the major's pre-1500 requirement.

Courses Open to History Majors Only

History Workshop
Departmental Seminars

History Workshop

This course is a requirement for - and open only to - students pursuing the standard major in History (not the supplementary major). Designed as a "gateway" into the major program, it should be taken the semester after the student has declared the major.

The History Workshop introduces students to how historians study the past. Students gain insight into the nature of historical inquiry through discussion of how historians actually do history, analysis of primary source documents from two different time periods and places, and, most important, their own efforts to write history. Readings (both exemplary histories and discussions of how to write history) include several books and journal articles, short excerpts from classic theoretical texts, and two large collections of primary source documents. Writing assignments include two 3-5 page essays on how to write history and two 5-8 page histories written by each student based on the assigned primary sources. At the discretion of the instructor, occasional one-page reader response papers may also be required.

BEDERMAN
HIST 33000 01 CRN # 10049
MW 11:45 â€“ 1:00

KUNICKI
HIST 33000 02 CRN #10048
TR 11:00 â€“ 12:15

COBB
HIST 33000 03 CRN # 10050
TR 3:30 â€“ 4:45

Departmental Seminars

These courses are open only to History majors, who conduct research in primary sources and write a 20-25-page paper. Every major must take at least one of these courses, ideally in the area of concentration, but they are encouraged to take more than one.

SEM: Modern European Revolutions

LYANDRES
HIST 43557 CRN # 17562
TR 2:00 â€“ 3:15

This research seminar is designed to familiarize history majors with the main categories of primary and secondary sources, major historical interpretations, and historical method through study of selected events and personalities of Modern European Revolutions, including the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1848; Russian Revolutions of 1905, 1917 and 1991; Eastern European Revolutions of 1989; the so-called Roses Revolution in Georgia in the fall of 2003 as well as the Orange Revolution in Kiev in November-December 2004. Students are required to write a major research paper based largely on primary sources. The purpose of this seminar is to enhance your training as a historian by developing more fully your ability to research and write history. The objective is that you will sharpen your skills in defining a research topic, the gathering and critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, interpretation, organization of material, writing and your ability to evaluate the written work of others. You will become a historian rather than just a student of history. The focus of the seminar, therefore, is on the preparation of a major research paper of twenty to twenty-five typed pages.

SEM: Reforming America

GROW
HIST 43616 CRN # 17571
TR 12:30 â€“ 1:45

This research seminar examines the role of political and social reform in American history from the late eighteenth century to the present. Throughout U. S. history, reformers have targeted a variety of social illsâ€”including slavery, poverty, industrialization, racism, lack of womenâ€™s rights, and political and moral corruptionâ€”in their efforts to transform American culture, politics, and society. We will study the broad dynamics of reform as well as investigate specific movements as case studies. Themes will include the struggles between competing visions of reform to define America; the religious roots (both Protestant and Catholic) of various reform movements; and the international influences on reform. Students will write a 25-page paper, based on primary source research, which explores a case study of a reform movement or individual reformer from any period in American history.

SEM: 20TH Century US

BLANTZ
HIST 43750 CRN # 17573
MW 1:30 â€“ 2:45

The purpose of this course is twofold. First, it permits the student to gain a greater familiarity with several of the major topics in twentieth-century American history - the Progressive Period of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression; the New Deal legislation of Franklin Roosevelt; World Wars I and II; the Cold War; the Fair Deal Program of Harry Truman; Dwight Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism; John Kennedy's New Frontier; the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson; the Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement; Richard Nixon and Watergate; aspects of twentieth-century American culture; and the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Second, and more importantly, the course offers each student the opportunity to research and produce a major paper on a topic of his or her own choosing in twentieth-century American history. Approximately one-fourth of the semester is devoted to reading and discussion of several of the above topics, and the rest of the semester to research and writing the seminar paper. The papers will be summarized for class discussion in the last four meetings of the semester.

History Honors Program

These courses are open only to those History majors participating in the History Honors Program.

Honors Colloquium

THOMAS
HIST 53002 CRN# 10289
W 3:00 â€“ 5:30

This course introduces students to the practice of history, to the ways in which historians conceptualize, imagine, argue about, and narrate the past. Students will approach these issues by reading some of the best theoretical works on these topics and by looking at a case study (the 1868 Meiji Restoration) to show how theoretical ideas about analysis, evidence, and narration are enacted.The course will be divided into three sections: the first third devoted to discussing historians' own philosophical statements about they how pursue their craft; the second section looking at the major arguments about Japan's "modern" "revolution;" and, the third section during which students will concentrate on historiographical issues relating to their thesis topics and present their work. Written assignments include synopses of the works under consideration and a longer historiographical essay on the student's research topic.

History Honors Thesis

GRAFF
HIST 58003 CRN # 10238

Working under the direction of one supervisor (generally a faculty member of the History Department), History Honors Program seniors research and write a thesis over the course of the senior year. They register for 3 thesis credits in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

Department of History

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME