Undergraduate History Courses
Fall 2009 Course Descriptions
The Undergraduate courses for Fall 2009 are also available in PDF format.
Groups of Courses
University Seminars (HIST 13184)
Regular Courses (First-Year, Sophomore, and Major)
Courses Open to History Majors Only
History Workshop
Departmental Seminars
History Honors Program
Courses by Region
Africa/Asia/Middle East
Ancient/Medieval Europe
Modern Europe
United States
Latin America
Special
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).
Opportunity Lost
PIERCE
Hist 13184 01 CRN # 13208
TR 9:30 - 10:45
(Major Breadth Category: US)
During the semester, we will engage in the dangerous practice of considering alternatives to historical realities. We will examine fourteen significant events/people that were controversial in their day and remain a source of debate in present times. Hopefully, we will do more that examine events from yesteryear. We will research, debate, and passionately argue about events that have greatly affected American society. In a sense, we dare to consider “what if?” A rather unfettered intellectual journey ensues.
Pirates in History
Murray
HIST 13184 02 CRN #13209
TR 11:00 - 12:15
(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 Strange Origins of the American Revolution
Griffin
HIST 13184 03 CRN #13210
TR 2:00 - 3:15
(Major Breadth Category: US)
This course will explore the origins of the American Revolution from an unconventional perspective. Did the Revolution have to do with American rights and British taxes? Yes, but at a deeper level, we will look to see how the crisis that would lead to rebellion had to do with American colonists who thought of themselves as loyal Britons, not as "Americans," turning their back on Britain. The class will explore this theme by placing the colonies in a British and Atlantic context. We will learn how much in common the colonists shared with Scots and Irishmen and women in the eighteenth century. And one of the ways we will do this is by focusing on the experiences of an Irish Catholic man who would be adopted by the Mohawk and become a leading British official in New York. The life of Sir William Johnson, one of the most fascinating characters of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world, revealed the ways in which the American rebellion against British sovereignty revolved around more than taxes and rights. The crisis had to do with who was more British: the British or the colonists. This semester, we will enter Johnson's world and leave it with new understandings of our Revolution. We will read and discuss all sorts of fascinating books on the subject. We will also get our hands dirty with primary sources, in particular the papers of Sir William Johnson.
War and Society in Europe, 1939 - 1945
KUNICKI
HIST 13184 04 CRN #13579
TR 3:30-4:45
(Major Breadth Category: Modern Europe)
This course provides an overview of World War II in Europe, from its origins until its conclusion, with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the subsequent beginning of the Cold War. We will seek to examine World War II as a novel form of warfare, enemy occupation, and genocide. Although some attention will be paid to the course of the war in Asia and Africa, the class will focus primarily on the ways in which World War II dominated and determined the fate of Europe and the Europeans.
Mental Health in American History
HAMLIN
HIST 13184 05 CRN # 18024
TR 2:00 - 3:15
(Major Breadth Category: US)
This seminar provides an opportunity to explore the American response to mental disabilities over a long time span and in terms of a number of different standpoints – states and communities, professions, institutions and charities, families and sufferers. Our focus will not only be with “madness” per se, but with broader questions of mental incapacity – with conditions known as melancholia and neurasthenia, as well as feeble-mindedness and dementia. Readings will explore changing concepts of mental illness, technologies of intervention, and societal response. Students will be responsible for a term paper based on primary sources.
What is History?
DEAK
HIST 13184 06 CRN #13580
TR 11:00 - 12:15
(Major Breadth Category: Special)
In this course we will explore in depth our own conception of history by reading, discussing, and critically analyzing the work of philosophers, professional historians, and other thinkers and writers. We will explore how various thinkers have conceived of the practice of history and how academic and professional concepts of history have actually changed over time. The objective of this course is twofold: to introduce students to the larger philosophical and professional questions that inform how history is written and thought; and, in the process, to bring students to reflect critically on how they have been taught history over the course of their own education. Together, we will consider big questions that have motivated and disturbed philosophers and historians for the past two centuries: should history be a chronicle of the facts? Should it represent objective truth? Or, is history just a form of literature--i.e. a form of entertainment that need not have any relationship to fact? We will also ask what is 'the past' and consider the difference between our concepts of 'time,' 'memory,' 'history,' and 'the past.' Assessment will be based on class participation in our discussions and several short papers on the reading.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE): Lawyer, Politician, Philosopher
MACCORMACK
CLASSICS 13186 02 CRN #
TR 11:00 - 12:15
(Major Breadth Category: Ancient/Medieval Europe)
We have more information about Cicero than about any other Roman individual. In this course, we will study selections from his letters, speeches and dialogues so as to understand the man, his times and his contemporaries, among them Julius Caesar.
Cicero was born in Arpinum, a small Italian town near Rome, and was sent for his education to Rome, where he made his career, first as a lawyer, and then also as a statesman. Law and politics were intimately related in Cicero's career, because even as a young and relatively inexperienced advocate, he pleaded political cases that required not just skill but also courage. As holder of the highest Roman magistracy (the consulship), Cicero had to confront a conspiracy to overthrow the government. His subsequent exile was in part the work of the enemies he made in the course of these events. Thanks to his opposition to Julius Caesar's dictatorship, Cicero was forced to withdraw into private life. He used these years to write dialogues about politics and law, philosophy and rhetoric. After Caesar's assassination, Cicero returned to politics in the hope of restoring some form of the traditional government of the Roman republic. This cost him his life. Cicero's influence was enormous. In his own time he was recognized - even by his enemies - as a brilliant orator whose views had to be reckoned with. The early Christians and their medieval successors thought long and hard about his philosophical works. In the renaissance, it was Cicero's speeches that invited imitation and emulation. Then and subsequently, the hundreds of letters he wrote to his friend Atticus and to other contemporaries have revealed his personal life, and his reflections and uncertainties about the turbulent times in which he lived.
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 overview. For any specific course, check Inside ND for student restrictions, which may change over the registration period.
Africa/Asia/Middle East
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #1 (Africa/Asia/Middle East). See individual descriptions for courses that also satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.
Muhammad and the Qur'an
MIRZA
HIST
30077
MW 4:30 - 5:45
Modern South Asia
SENGUPTA
History 30106 CRN #14689/14690
TR 11:00 - 12:15
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.
History of Chinese Medicine
MURRAY
History 30141 CRN #18032/18447
TR 9:30 - 10:45
In light of the contemporary currency of certain Chinese practices in the field of alternative medicine, this course will explore the phenomenon of Chinese traditional medicine in both its historical and contemporary settings. It will begin with a comparison of Greek and Chinese medicine in the ancient world, where from earliest times, the differences between what will become the biomedicine of the West and the concern with harmonic imbalances of China manifest themselves in the differing ways that the two cultures defined and saw bodies. Different ways of touching and seeing the body were bound up with different ways of being bodies. Readings for this unit will include China’s premier medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. The course will then explore different types of Chinese bodies (imperial, female, Daoist) and the ways in which medicine was practiced upon them both then and now. This course also satisfies the History major pre-1500 requirement.
Gandhi's India
SENGUPTA
History40180 CRN #15851/15852
TR 2:00 - 3:15
The dominant figure in India’s nationalist movement for nearly thirty years,
Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi has also been the twentieth century’s most famous pacifist, and a figure of inspiration for peace and civil rights movements throughout the world. This course offers an examination of Gandhi and the nature of his unconventional and often controversial politics. It charts Gandhi’s career against the background of events in London, South Africa and India, and examines the evolution and practical application of his ideas and techniques of non-violent resistance, and his attitudes toward the economy, society and state. Gandhi’s influence on Indian politics and society is critically assessed and his reputation as the ‘apostle of non-violent revolution’ examined in the light of developments since his death in 1948. Some of the questions that will be discussed are: how far did the distinctive character of Gandhian politics derive from his absolute commitment to India's nationalist struggle? Was his success due to the force and originality of his political ideas and his advocacy of nonviolent action? Can his achievements be explained by political wiliness and pragmatism, or by willingness to embark on new experiments with the truth? How central to his politics was his critique of "modern civilization?" Films and other media will be used as necessary. Though helpful, a prior knowledge of Indian history is not required for this course.
Ancient/Medieval Europe
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #2 (Ancient and Medieval Europe). These courses all satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement. See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy other major categories.
Western Civilization I
NOBLE
History 20200 CRN #14685/14682
TR 10:40 - 11:30
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.
NOTE: The seats in HIST 20200 are open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the seats in HIST 10200 are available only to first-year students.
Students enrolled in History 20200 or 10200 must also take History 22000 or 12200, a weekly tutorial:
Ancient Greece and Rome
MAZUREK, T.
HIST 10210 CRN #12513
MWF 12:50 - 1:40
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. Offered annually.
Age of Alexander
BARON
HIST 30223 CRN #18830
TR 3:30 - 4:45
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 accounts of ancient writers "historians and others" down to novels and films of the present day. Ancient authors and documents are read in translation.
History of Ancient Rome
HERNANDEZ
HIST 30230 CRN #18831
TR 12:50 - 1:450
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.
Students enrolled in History 30230 must also take Classics 32205 a weekly tutorial
Medieval Cities
CONSTABLE
HIST 30255 CRN #18033/18451
MW 9:35 - 10:25
What is a town, and how did our modern concept of urban life come into being? This lecture course will examine the evolution of European towns and urban life from late antiquity, through the middle ages, and into the early modern period. Though taking a historical approach, the course is fundamentally interdisciplinary, and we will consider many different types of primary sources, including written materials, visual images, material and archeological data, town plans, topography, and architecture. Students will be responsible for completing regular reading assignments, participating in class discussions, writing several short analytical papers, and contributing to three group projects. These group projects form the core of the course. Early in the semester, each group will begin by creating a fictional late Roman town (inventing its history and political structure, name, economy, topography, town plan, and so forth) that they will present to the class. In the middle of the semester, each group will evolve their Roman town into a medieval town, addressing similar issues and making another presentation. Near the end of the semester, each group will make a third presentation of the same town, detailing its development and changes in the early modern period. This course can also satisfy the Africa/Asia/ME breadth requirement.
Students enrolled in History 30255 must also take History 32255 a weekly tutorial
Middle Ages I
PERETT
HIST 30261 CRN # 18035/18453
MWF 10:40 - 11:30
Did the Roman Empire fall, and did Europe enter the “Dark Ages” following Rome's collapse? This course will aim to answer these questions by introducing students to the history of Europe between approximately 250 and 1000 A.D. Students will learn how three distinct cultural elements -- classical, Christian and Germanic -- fused during this period and created the unique culture of early medieval Europe. Topics will include Christianity's growing influence within the Later Roman Empire, the emergence of the Byzantine Empire and the Germanic kingdoms, the impact of the Islamic conquests in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, Irish missionary activities on the European continent, the intellectual revival initiated by Charlemagne and his successors, the Vikings' invasions, explorations and settlements in Europe and North America, and the development of new kingdoms in Northern and Central Europe during the 10th and early 11th centuries. Through lectures, discussions and the reading of a broad range of primary and secondary sources, students will have the opportunity to explorethe varied, dynamic forces that contributed to the making of medieval Europe.
Castles & Courts in Medieval Europe
BOULTON
HIST
30290 CRN# 18036 / 18456
TR 12:30 - 1:45
The expanded title of this course is Castles, Castellanies, and Courts in Latin Europe, 900-1650. This course will examine the high period in the history of the castle - a combination of fort and residence - of the castellany or district subjected to the domination of a castle, and of the household and court of the kings, princes, and barons who built such residences and organized their lives and their activities within their various structures. It will first consider the castle as a form of fortification, review briefly the history of fortifications before 900, and examine the ways in which lords and their builders steadily improved their defensive capabilities in response to new knowledge and to new methods and tools of siegecraft. It will then examine the relationship of the castle to the contemporary forms of non-fortified or semi-fortified house, and finally its relationship to the lordly household (the body of servants organized into numerous departments associated with particular rooms or wings of the castle) and with the court (or body of soldiers, officers, allies, students, and temporary guests) who filled the castle when the lord was present. The course will conclude with an examination of the history of the castellany as a form of jurisdiction. The course will concentrate on the castles of the British Isles and France, but will examine the great variety of types found throughout Latin Europe. The course will require students to participate in discussions, to write two short papers, and to take three in-class tests and a final examination.
Early Medieval Ireland
RAPPLE
HIST 30321 CRN# 14703/14704
TR 3:30 - 4:45
Ireland in the late fifteenth and sixteenth century was a land of political, social and ethnic diversity. Both the descendants of the medieval English colonists and the Gaelic Irish shared the country that until 1541 was largely autonomous from the rule of the English Crown. This course examines the strategies attempted by the English state to bring Ireland under its control during this period. We will examine a range of schemes inaugurated in the hope of making the smaller island more biddable using programs of social reform and amelioration, as well as through the use of violence. It is a story of trial and error, of good intentions imperfectly realized and bad intentions inexpertly carried out. The question of the nature of England's engagement with Ireland was particularly affected by Henry VIII's break with Rome and its ramifications. Central to this course is an examination of the ways in which confessional discord first had an impact on Irish history.
Modern Europe
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’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.
Tudor England: Politics & Honor
RAPPLE
HIST
30410 CRN # 14705/14706
TR 11:00 – 12:15
The period from 1485 to 1603, often feted as something of a 'Golden Age' 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 England'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.
Irish History, 1600 - 1800
SMYTH
HIST 30431 CRN # 18037/18460
MW 12:50 - 1:40
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 that shaped modern Irish politics and society and continues to generate lively disagreement among historians today.
Medicine and Disease in Modern Ireland
Grimsley-Smith
HiST 30442 CRN #18908/18909
MWF 12:50 - 1:40
Ireland is among a handful of modern nations whose histories have been thoroughly transformed by disease events. These events, and the Great Famine in particular, are never simple “visitations of providence” that afflict an undifferentiated populace. They are, rather, inextricably linked with existing social structures and the exercise of power. Changes in government and society from the 1801 Act of Union with Great Britain through the relief of the penal laws against Catholics, emigration, electoral and land reform, and independence in the twentieth century are reflected in the health (or lack thereof) of the Irish people. This course, therefore, is intended to introduce students to the social and political history of modern Ireland as seen through the lens of health and disease. While focusing on Irish conditions, we will discuss issues that remain especially relevant in our own time, including: Who is responsible for health? Is health a universal right? Who is the “public” in public health? Where are the boundaries of medical expertise, and how are they determined?
France: Old Regime to Revolution
Kselman
HIST 30450 CEN# 18038/18463
MW 10:40 - 11:30
France in 1700, ruled by the Sun King, Louis XIV, was the most powerful state in Europe, as well as a cultural center that drew the attention of the world. At Versailles, just outside of Paris, Louis created a palace that symbolized his authority and still stands as a masterpiece of art and architecture. Less than a hundred years later, in 1789, the French Revolution challenged and eventually destroyed the monarchy, with Louis XVI dying on the guillotine in 1793. The course will be organized around major political developments, and seeks to understand how the monarchy could grow so powerful during the seventeenth century, and then collapse at the end of the eighteenth. It will open with the establishment of the Bourbon family on the throne in 1589 and conclude with the rise of Napoleon in 1790s, with about one-third of the class concentrating on the revolutionary events that began in 1789. Understanding the political fortunes of France will involve exploring the ways in which the nation was being transformed by a combination of social pressures and cultural conflict, in particular the Enlightenment. In addition to reading a selection of works by historians students will read, view, and listen to some of the great cultural achievements of the time - the plays of Molière, the music of Lully, the novels of Voltaire, the paintings of David, to give just some examples. The course will generally consist of lectures on Monday and Wednesday and discussions on Friday. There will be a mid-term and a final, and two to three writing assignments totaling about 20 pages. Students with the appropriate language skill will have the option of choosing an additional discussion section to be held in French.
Students enrolled in History 30450 must also take History 32450, a weekly tutorial
German History, 1740 - 1870
DEAK
HIST 30464 CRN # 18941 / 18942
MW 3:00 - 4:15
This course begins with Prussia's initial challenge to Austria's dominance in central Europe; it ends with the unification of Germany under Bismarck's Prussia--and Austria's exclusion from it. In addition to covering the on-going Austro-Prussian rivalry in Germany, the course will consider German History in a broad central European perspective that covers the variety of what was German-speaking Europe. We will cover the cultural, social, and political transformations of the period. Specific topics may include Enlightened Absolutism and the emergence of the 'enlightened' police state, the influence of the French Revolution in the German-speaking lands, as well as the revolutions of 1848 and the struggle for German Unification. Additionally, we will cover larger long term processes such as the emergence of civil society, political transformations such as the growth of German Liberalism and Nationalism and the emergence of Socialism, and German contributions to larger cultural and intellectual fields such as the Enlightenment and Romanticism. This course is the first half of a two-semester sequence in modern German history, although students may take either course independently of the other. The format of this course will include lectures as well as class discussions of primary documents and texts. Assessment of students' learning will be based on class participation, short written assignments, a mid-term and final.
20th Century Eastern Europe
KUNICKI
HIST 30483 CRN # 18040/18464
TR 11:00 - 12:15
IThis 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.
Early Modern Rome
MESERVE
HIST 30501 CRN #18041/18465
TR 2:00 - 3:15
This course traces the interlocking histories of the Papacy and the city of Rome from the Renaissance to the birth of the modern Italian state. Topics will include the rise and fall of the papal monarchy; the architecture, art, and culture of the Vatican court; the urban fabric of Rome from the Renaissance to the Baroque; the peculiar strains of Roman society; and the tumultuous relationship, both political and cultural, between Rome and the rest of Europe from the Reformation to the Age of Revolution. Students will write several short papers in response to readings and visual material and take a midterm and a final exam.
Modern Genocide in Historical Context
FAULKNER
HIST 30587 CRN #18920 /18921
TR 9:30 - 10:45
In 1948, the United Nations adopted a convention that defined genocide; the ratifying nations promised to prevent genocides, to intervene in those that broke out, and to hold the perpetrators responsible. However, genocides have continued to occur, and the signers of the convention have spent more time arguing over the definition and its limitations than acting against the perpetrators. In what context was the UN genocide convention drawn up and signed? How did the definition fall short in the eyes of so many of the signatories and scholars? What are its limitations? This course will explore modern genocide in its historical context in order to approach a definition of genocide that will complement the existing UN definition, underscoring the usefulness of the genocide convention as well as exploring alternate definitions and introducing students to the complexities of politics when it comes to enforcing such legislation. We will be looking at several different case studies throughout the semester, including genocides that preceded the invention of the word, most notably the Holocaust. Topics may include the German army in South West Africa; the Armenian genocide during World War I; the figure of Raphael Lemkin and the meaning of the 1948 convention; the impact of the Soviet Union on the official definition; the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides; ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Balkans after 1990; distinctions between ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and genocide; and contemporary events in Darfur. Assignments may include short review papers, a longer research paper, and one oral presentation over the course of the semester. This course also satisfies the Special breadth category.
Latin America
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’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.
History of Modern Mexico
PENSADO
HIST 30912 CRN # 15848/15849
TR 3:30 - 4:45
This course examines the history of Mexico’s national cinema and its film industry. It is designed to introduce students to Mexico’s post-independence history, with particular emphasis to the Porfiriato (1876-1910), the Revolution (1910-1938), and the Post-revolutionary period (1938-1970s). To this end, we are going to analyze the historical context of each film; explore the themes and audiences each film speaks to; and learn how to read each film critically as a visual text.
Students enrolled in this course are eligible take an additional 1-credit supplement, History 31912 01, Language Lab (CRN 17014)
Caribbean History: From Colonization to Emancipation
CHALLENGER
HIST 30960 CRN# 19168
TR 12:30 - 1:45
SUN-SEX & FUN is how the global tourism industry often packages the Caribbean to its potential travelers. In this course we will unpack such simplistic representations of the region. Students will be introduced to the diverse experiences and cultures of the peoples that made up the Caribbean from colonization in the 15th century to slave emancipation in the 19th century. The four major themes that we will examine are Indigenous peoples and European encounters; the labouring lives and the cultural worlds of enslaved Afro-Caribbean peoples; resistance and rebellion; abolition and emancipation. In this course we will watch films, use pictorial sources, slave narratives and diaries to capture the commonality of the experiences of the peoples of the Spanish, French, British and Dutch Caribbean.
Experience of Conquest in Mesoamerica
FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO
HIST 40910 CRN #18059/18487
TR 1:30 - 2:45
The aim of this research seminar is to try to understand what conquest, as we have traditionally called it, meant to the people who experienced it in some parts of the Americas that joined the Spanish monarchy in the sixteenth century. We'll concentrate on indigenous sources – documentary, pictorial, and material – and try to adopt the indigenous point of view, without neglecting sources mediated by Europeans. Although the classes will concentrate on selected cases from Mesoamerica, the lecturer will try to set the materials in the context of other encounters, both within the Americas and further afield; and students will be free, if they wish, to explore case-studies from anywhere they choose in the Americas (in consultation with the lecturer and subject to his approval) in their class presentations and term papers.
Gender, Sexuality, and Colonization in Latin America
GRAUBART
HIST 40909 CRN #27884 / 28613
MW 3:00 - 4:15
United States
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’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 to 1877
TURNER
HIST 10600/20600 CRN # 13243/15804
MW 11:45 - 12:35
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.
NOTE: The seats in HIST 20600 are open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the seats in HIST 10600 are available only to first-year students.
Students enrolled in History 20600 or 10600 must also take History 22600 or 12600, a weekly tutorial:
US History from 1877 to Present
BLANTZ
HIST 10605 CRN # 22379
MW 11:45 - 12:35
This course will be a survey of the political, diplomatic, economic, social, and cultural development of the United States from 1877, the end of the Civil War, to 1988, the end of the Ronald Reagan presidency. Major topics to be covered include the industrial revolution of the late 19th century, the Progressive legislation of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the causes of the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression, the New Deal programs of Franklin Roosevelt, World Wars I and II, the Fair Deal and Containment policies of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism, the New Frontier of John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements, Vietnam, Richard Nixon and Watergate, and the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. The class format will be two lectures each week and one discussion session. There will be a weekly quiz on the assigned readings, two short writing assignments, a mid-term and final examination. Students enrolled in History 10605 must also take History 12605, a weekly tutorial.
History of US National Security Policy
SOARES
HIST 20750 CRN # 16221
MW 3:00 - 4:15
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. First year students only.
The American Revolution
GRIFFIN
HIST 30602 CRN #18042 / 18467
TR 11:00 - 11:50
The American Revolution was more than a war. It marked a time of change-both tumultuous and subtle-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.
Students enrolled in History 30602 must also take History 32602, a weekly tutorial:
United States History 1900-1945
BLANTZ
HIST 30608 CRN #12510/13585
MWF 9:35 - 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 six books, two shorter writing assignments, and three major examinations, including the final.
Catholics in America
CUMMINGS
HIST 30615 CRN#18864
MW 1:30 - 2:45
Since 1850 Roman Catholics have constituted the single largest religious denomination in the United States. This course explores what the presence of Catholics has meant for the American experience, focusing on themes of church/state separation, education, politics, gender and social reform. We will also examine how the American context has transformed the practice of Catholicism, with attention to ethnicity, race, class and sexuality as variables that have shaped the American Catholic experience. In addition we will study the representation of Catholics in American film, material culture relating to Catholic devotional life and the sacraments, and the shifting position of American Catholics in the universal Roman Catholic Church. We will take several field trips, including a visit to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Snite Museum of Art, and the University Archives.
Mexican-American History
RODRIGUEZ
HIST 30621 CRN #15837/ 15838
MW 1:55 - 2:45
This course is an introductory survey of Mexican American history in the United States. Primarily focused on events after the Texas Revolution and annexation of the American Southwest, we will consider the problems the Spanish and Mexican settlers faced in their new homeland, as well as the mass migration of Anglo-Americans into the region following annexation. Throughout the course, we will explore the changing nature of Mexican American U.S. citizenship. Other themes and topics examined will include immigration, the growth of agriculture in Texas and California, internal migration, urbanization, discrimination, segregation, language and cultural maintenance, and the development of a U.S.-based Mexican-American politics and culture. Although primarily focused on the American Southwest, Texas, and California, this course also highlights the long history of Mexican American life and work in the Great Lakes and Midwestern United States. We will conclude with the recent history of Mexican and Latin American migration to the United States after 1965, and the changing nature of Mexican-American identity and citizenship within this context.
Students enrolled in History 30621 must take a weekly tutorial History 32621:
History of American Sport
SOARES
HIST 30631 CRN #15843 / 15844
MW 11:45 - 1:00
Sport, a major part of American entertainment and culture today, has roots that extend back to the colonial period. This course will provide an introduction to the development of American sport, from the horseracing and games of chance in the colonial period through the rise of contemporary sport as a highly commercialized entertainment spectacle. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, we will explore the ways that American sport has influenced and been influenced by economics, politics, popular culture, and society, including issues of race, gender and class. Given Notre Dame's tradition in athletics, we will also explore the university's involvement in this historical process.
American Religious History
SWARTZ
HIST 30633 CRN #18043/18469
MW 11:45 - 1:00
This course will examine religion in American life from the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans in the sixteenth century to the present. We will explore the ways in which religion has shaped American society, culture, and politics, and in turn how the U. S. setting has shaped religious expression. Themes will include the rise of religious diversity and ideas of religious freedom; the interactions between the American religious “mainstream” and minority religious traditions; the relationship between religion in the U.S. and its international setting; and the diversity and persistence of religion in American culture.
Natives and Newcomers to 1815
COLEMAN
HIST 30660 CRN # 18044 / 18471
MW 1:55 - 2:45
Stretching from 1491 (and earlier) to the aftermath of the war of 1812, this course charts the history of early America through the exchanges, misunderstandings, conflicts, and unions between Native Americans and a variety of European newcomers. The course combines methodologies, themes, and questions of both Indian and colonial histories. Through lectures, class discussions, and essay assignments, students will explore early America through the multitudes of nations, peoples, and cultures that staked their claim to the continent.
Reforming America in the Long 19th Century (1776-1919)
TURPIN
HIST 30681 CRN #18922/18923
TR 12:30 - 1:45
With the recent 2008 presidential election there is a lot of excitement about the possibility of “change” and “reform” in our country. This class will provide perspective on our present historical moment by examining American reform movements of the past. It will focus on “the long nineteenth century” from the American Revolution to World War I. During this time optimistic Americans of various stripes set out to reform all sorts of things: religion, sex, eating and drinking, race and gender relations, education, and working and living conditions, to name just a few. As we look at these reform movements, we will ask the questions: What drove certain people to buck convention and seek reform? Why did they choose to focus on these particular reforms at these times? What did they believe would be the ultimate significance of the changes they were seeking? Why were some movements more successful than others?
Abraham Lincoln's America, 1809-1865
GRAFF
HIST 30685 CRN #18045/18473
MW 3:00 - 4:15
Abraham Lincoln’s America will use the life of the republic’s most celebrated president as a window to explore the transformations and continuities in American politics, cultures, economics, ideologies, and social life during the half-century ending in the cataclysmic Civil War. Using Lincoln’s own experiences as a starting point — his poor upbringing, his family’s frequent moves across the sectional borderlands, his self-motivation and professional ambition, his embrace of mass politics, and his rapid ascent to national leadership during the republic’s greatest crisis — students will explore much more than the sectional struggle and the fight to save the Union from secession. Important topics will include the evolving struggles over the meanings of race, freedom, and slavery; the increasing commercialization of the economy and the forging of new class relationships and identities; migration, property-holding, and relations with Native Americans in the rural and small-town west; changing realities and conceptions of gender, family, childhood, and parental authority; the changing role of local and national governments and the rise of political parties and mass political participation; and the heated contests over nativity, religion, and citizenship. In short, Lincoln’s personal experiences will be the entry into understanding American society as a whole during his life (1809-1865), and students will ponder the usefulness of biography to the larger historical project as well as the importance of memory and myth in the ways we repeatedly reconstruct the past.
US Foreign Policy to 1945
BRADY
HIST 30705 CRN# 18046/18477
MWF 8:30 - 9:20
This course covers the main developments in American foreign relations from the War of the American Revolution through World War II. It traces the emergence of the United States as a major world power and examines in some detail how the United States became involved in the two world wars. A recurring theme will be the major traditions in America foreign policy and the ways in which these traditions influenced policy makers until the beginning of the Cold War.
American Intellectual History to 1870
TURNER
HIST 30707 CRN #18047/18480
MW 1:30 - 2:45
This lecture course will survey major developments in American thought from the first English contacts with North America to the mid nineteenth century. Emphasis will fall on ideas about religion, society, politics, and natural science and on the institutions and social contexts of intellectual life, with an eye towards understanding the roots of our own ways of thinking. Especially in the first weeks of the course, European backgrounds will also receive attention. Students will write a midterm and a final exam, as well as a ten-page research paper.
US Presidents, FDR to Clinton
DESANTIS & MISCAMBLE
HIST 30854 CRN # 12454
TR 9:30 - 10:45
A study of the personalities, style, 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. NOTE: This course is open ONLY to History majors.
American Men, American Women
ARDIZZONE
HIST 30886 CRN#
MW 3:00 - 4:15
What does it mean to be male or female in America? Where did our ideas about
gender come from and how do they influence our lives, institutions, values, and
cultures? In this course we will begin by reviewing colonial and Victorian gender systems in the U.S. Our focus, however, is the twentieth century, and the development of modern (early 20th c) and contemporary (post 1970s) gender roles and ideas. How much have they changed over time and what aspects have been retained? We will explore the ways that cultural images, political changes, and economic needs have shaped the definition of acceptable behavior and life choices based on sex and gender. We will also pay close attention to the roles that race, class, culture, sexuality, marital status and other key factors play in determining male and female roles and influencing images of femininity and masculinity.
Civil Rights and Protest Movements
ARDIZZONE
HIST 30890 CRN #
MW 11:45 - 1:00
This course will look at protest movements for civil rights and other related
issues, focusing on the 20th century, especially the second half. One central
theme will be the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and
1960s. How did race, gender, class, religion, and region impact the
strategies, goals, and reception of various threads of black struggles for full
citizenship? In addition, we will explore previous and later generations of
African American activism, as well as other protest movements in the post WWII
period. How did the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1950s draw on
early 20th century activism and leadership? What directions did African
American protest movements take after the late 1960s? How did other civil
rights, racial and ethnic consciousness, and social reform movements in the
1960s, 70s, and 80s develop from their own historical experiences and in
relationship to other protest movements?
American Wilderness
Annie Gilbert Coleman
HIST 30891
TR 2:00 - 3:15
Wilderness is an inherently slippery category, but it has proven vital to Americans’ understandings of themselves and their nation. This course will explore the relationship between Americans and the places we have defined as wild. Using approaches from environmental history, cultural geography, and landscape studies, we will consider how understandings of wilderness have changed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, how race, class, and gender have influenced Americans’ interactions with wilderness, and how wilderness has become politicized in different ways.
The US-Mexico Border in the American Imagination
RUIZ
HIST 30893 CRN #18874
MW 11:45 - 1:00
The U.S.-Mexico border has been a hotly contested social and political space since it took its current shape in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, the border remains the source of contentious debates in the United States—from proposed amnesty for undocumented workers and unprecedented activism for migrants’ rights to those who argue for a 700-mile fence to physically divide the two nations—even as Latinos have become America’s largest minority group. This course will unpack these varied (and often contradictory) meanings of the border, paying particular attention to the history of representations of Mexico and “Mexicanness” in the United States and their impact upon foreign policy, political organizing, and cultural relations. Our approach will be interdisciplinary, drawing on methods and texts from history, sociology, film studies, critical race theory, cultural studies, and ethnic studies. Together we will read texts as varied as Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera and Steven Soderberg’s Traffic.
Race and American Popular Culture
RUIZ
HIST 30895 CRN # 18871
MW 3:00 - 4:15
While “race” is a notoriously difficult concept to define, it is undoubtedly a powerful force in American life. But how do we know what we know about race? Where do these ideas come from? How will matters of race and representation change in the era of Barack Obama? Focusing on the late nineteenth century to the present, this course explores the ways in which ideas about race are formed, negotiated, and resisted in the arena of American popular culture. From blackface minstrelsy on the Vaudeville stage to contemporary comedy, television, and music, this course will ask how popular culture actively shapes—rather than merely reflects—American ideas about race and ethnicity. Rather than emphasizing on a particular racial or ethnic group, we will more broadly examine the politics and practices of representing difference in the United States. By engaging with a diverse set of theoretical, historical, and primary texts, students will learn to approach and analyze popular culture with a critical eye.
Catholics & Protestants in American History
APPLEBY & NOLL
HIST 53657 CRN #27843 / 28608
T 3:00 -5:30
This course (a crosslisted graduate seminar) is designed for advanced undergraduates with a special interest in American religious history and/or the desire to engage the historian’s craft at a more intense level. It is coded permission required; if you are interested, please contact Dan Graff, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, at dgraff@nd.edu.
This seminar will concentrate on books featuring American Protestants who engaged with Catholics and books on Catholics who were responding to their situation in America, especially the Protestant influences in American life. The reading list will include older classics like Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860 (1938) and Jenny Franchot, Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism (1994) as well as more recent classics like John McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom (2003) and Michael Hochgeschwender, Wahrheit, Einheit, Ordnung: Die Sklavenfrage und der amerikanische Katholizismus, 1835-1870 (2006). Student writing will include brief responses week-by-week to assigned texts and a more extensive historiographical or research paper.
Special Courses
All majors must take one course from four of the Department’s six breadth categories. These courses satisfy major breadth category #6 (Special), a designation for courses that either don’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.
Environment & Civilization
FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO
HIST 20990/10990 CRN #18025/18019
MW 8:30 - 9:20
This course is about how some societies transform the environment by radically interventionist strategies: highly selective breeding and winnowing of species, intensive agriculture, and city building. We investigate how and why this ‘civilizing ambition’ has functioned and failed in a variety of settings, and compare its effects with those of other strategies adopted by less ambitious societies. We approach the history of the world not by the usual strategy of classifying events according to the periods or cultures in which they occurred but by using different environments as our units of enquiry, looking at tundras and taigas, arid deserts, forests of different kinds, alluvial soils, grasslands, highlands, and coastal and marine environments, and seeing how people have exploited the peculiar opportunities and responded to the challenges of each. This course also satisfies the major’s pre-1500 requirement.
NOTE: The seats in HIST 20990 are open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, while the seats in HIST 10990 are available only to first-year students.
Students enrolled in History 20900 or 10990 must also take History 22990 or 12990, a weekly tutorial
History of Ancient Medicine
LADOUCEUR
HIST 30212 CRN# 18826
MW 1:30 - 2:45
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.
Making Australia
MISCAMBLE
HIST 30975 CRN# 18049/18485
TR 3:30 - 4:45
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 this nation-building process. Most 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 part of the course will explore important issues in contemporary society and culture. This course will have special interest for students who either have studied or plan to study in the Notre Dame Australia program. In addition to reading 5-6 books, students must view 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 lectures and some discussion. Students will write a ten-page review essay, a number of small reaction papers, and take mid-semester and final examinations.
The Canadian Alternative
NOLL
HIST 30987 CRN# 18050/18486
MW 1:55 - 2:45
This course offers an introduction to Canadian history that is designed especially for American students. While serious attention is devoted to the important phases, problems, personalities, and prospects of Canadian history considered as subjects in their own right, the question of comparison with the United States is always in view. Why, as examples of differences with the United States, has Canada possessed a national system of universal health care for at least two generations? What difference did it make for Canada to have two founding peoples (French, English) and two founding religions (Catholic, Protestant)? How did Canada’s evolution into modern nationhood make it different from the United States with its revolutionary origins? Why does every Canadian province provide some kind of financial support for private schools, including religious schools? What are the advantages and disadvantages of Canada’s parliamentary democracy compared with the United States’ democratic republic? These and similar questions will be explored through readings in books and Canadian periodicals, through some viewing of Canadian media, and through student writing and discussion. Small-scale research projects using Canadian primary sources will also be required.
Students enrolled in History 30987 must take a weekly tutorial History 32987
Slavery in the Atlantic World
CHALLENGER
HIST 30988 CRN# 19169
TR 3:30 - 4:45
This survey course explores the role of coerced African labor in the birth of the Atlantic World. What do we mean by Atlantic World? What do we mean by slavery? What varied and nuanced claims to humanity did Africans make against a dehumanizing labor system? How did sexuality and gender norms shape the experiences of slavery for men and women? Together we will examine slave autobiographies, travel diaries, and pictorial sources to address these questions. We will focus on the peoples of West Africa, Brazil, the United States and the Caribbean who were enslaved from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
Space, Place and Landscape
ROTMAN
HIST 40986 CRN 18057
TR 9:30 - 10:45
In this course, we will explore human relationships to the built environment and the complex ways in which people consciously and unconsciously shape the world around them. Cultural landscapes are not empty spaces, but rather places we imbue with meaning and significance. We are particularly interested in the ways in which the built environment has worked as an agent of cultural power as well as how social relations (notably class, gender, and ethnicity) have been codified and reproduced through landscapes. We will examine how people perceive, experience, and contextualize social spaces at the intersection of symbolic processes, senses of place, memory, and identity formation as well as how these change through time and across space. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, we will draw from history, geography, art, environmental science, architecture, landscape studies, anthropology, and urban planning, among other disciplines. Students will undertake a significant original research project that investigates the human experience through space, place, and landscape. This course does NOT satisfy the University History 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.
KSELMAN
HIST 33000 01 CRN #10029
MW 1:30 - 2:45
MESERVE
HIST 33000 02 CRN#10028
TR 11:00 - 12:15
COLEMAN
HIST 33000 03 CRN# 18058
TR 9:30 - 10:45
Exploring History Beyond the Classroom
GRAFF
HIST 33005 CRN #15417
T 12:30 - 1:45
In this special course designed for inquisitive history majors, students will attend a number of lectures, panels, and seminars on campus during the semester -- and then have a follow-up discussion for each led by a historian (either a visitor or a member of the history faculty). Before each discussion, students will be expected to complete a short reading assignment. At each follow-up session, the students will submit a 1-2 page summary and analysis of the talk, with a critical question for discussion. The goal is to encourage students to enrich their major experience by participating in the intellectual discussions that occur amongst ND and visiting scholars across the campus. This is a 1-credit course open only to history majors and by permission. Please see the Director of Undergraduate Studies for more information about this opportunity.
History Internship
GRAFF
HIST 35000 CRN # 24762
History Internship credit is designed for students who undertake unpaid internships with organizations dedicated to the discipline of history, whether through preservation, exhibition, public education, or scholarship. Please see the Director of Undergraduate Studies for more information about this variable credit opportunity.
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: Iish Memoir & Autobiography
SMYTH
HIST 43435 CRN #18060
MW 11:45 - 1:00
This seminar has four basic objectives, to explore different ways in which to read texts, to explor th different ways in which memoir and autobiography can be read, though the lives of the authors to introduce modern Irish social and political history, and more broadly, to introduce students to different human experience. Key texts may include Frank McCourt’s Anglea’s Ashes, Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy, Maurice O’Sullivan’s Twenty Years Agrowing. In addition we may study extracts from other books, by writers such as William Carlton, Elizabeth Bowen and Robert Harbinson.
SEM: European Enlightenment
SULLIVAN
HIST 43558 CRN #18062
TR 2:00 - 3:15
The course will establish thatEnlightenment (not the Unitary Enlightenment) brought into being modern Atlantic Society.It is impossible to understand the formative long eighteenth century (ca. 1687-1807) as a game of either capture the flag or follow the leader. Both the variety and the contradictions of the European Enlightenment continue to inform our world. Sampling some of the cultural achievement of Europeans, from Ireland to Italy and from Prussia to Spain, will locate everyone on a level playing field. (No prior knowledge of European history is expected.) You will devote the rest of the semester to researching and writing of seminar papers on one or another major theme of or contributor to Enlightenment in Europe. You will present your seminar papers for class discussion over the last four meetings of the semester. Students who possess even an elementary reading knowledge of a non-English European language will apply their knowledge in their seminar papers.
SEM: The Era of Franklin Roosevelt
BLANTZ
HIST 43756 CRN #18064
MW 1:30 - 2:45
The purpose of this course is threefold: first, through readings and discussions to give the student a good understanding of United States history during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945, the critical years of the Great Depression and World War II; second, to enable the student to research and produce a scholarly research paper of approximately twenty-five or thirty pages on a topic of his or her choice during this period; and third, to improve one's writing skills by producing a paper unified and coherent in structure and persuasive in argumentation. Possible areas of discussion and research are President Roosevelt's New Deal efforts of raise the country from the Depression; various public works programs; the growth of labor and rise of the CIO; conservative opposition to the Roosevelt program; the status of Black Americans; the role of women; the coming of World War II; the Roosevelt-Churchill collaboration; the home-front during World War II; the Atlantic Charter and the Yalta Conference; and the place of Roosevelt in the ranking of presidents.
SEM: Student Politics in th 20th Century
PENSADO
HIST 43975 CRN# 18065
TR 9:30 - 10:45
This is a history seminar for undergraduate majors on student protests and activism during the 20th century. While assignments will attempt to cover most of the century, the seminar will concentrate the discussion on the “long sixties” (1956-1977) in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. In particular, students will be asked to explore a “student movement” of their choice during this (or another) period in history and write a 25-page research paper based on primary sources.
NOTE: A student with a matching concentration interest may instead take one of the following regular courses and fulfill the Department Seminar requirement, as long as she works out an arrangement with the instructor to complete a 20-25 page research paper rooted in primary sources:
History 40180 – Gandhi’s India (SENGUPTA)
History Honors Program
These courses are open only to those History majors participating in the History Honors Program.
Honors Colloquium
LYANDRES
HIST 53002 CRN# 10217
M 11:45 - 2:15
This course, open only to students in the History Honors Program, introduces students to the ways in which history is conceptualized, written, and argued about. Students approach these issues by reading and discussing the historiography of the instructor's chosen field or fields. The emphasis of the class will be on understanding how historians have framed their questions for research and how their work, collectively and individually, has shaped the development and the research agendas of the larger discipline of history.
History Honors Thesis
GRAFF
HIST 58003 CRN # 10173
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.