Undergraduate History Courses
Spring 2007 Course Descriptions
The Undergraduate courses for Spring 2007 are also available in PDF format (requires Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or higher).
Groups of Courses
First Year and Sophomore Courses
University Seminars
Major Courses
History Workshop
Africa/Asia/Middle East
Ancient/Medieval Europe
Modern Europe
United States
Latin America
Departmental Seminars
History Honors Program
Course Numbers
Hist 10050: African History to 1800
Hist 10400: Western Civilization 2
Hist 10605: US History 2: 1877 to present
Hist 13184 01: Animals in American History
Hist 13184 02: Pirates in History
Hist 13184 03: Jose de Acosta: Missionary & Historian of Latin America
Hist 13184 04: History University Seminar
Hist 13184 05: US Presidents & Presidencies
Hist 13196: The American Revolution
Hist 20079: History Survey: Arab Middle East
Hist 20110: Ancient Japan
Hist 20631: History of US Sport since 1876
Hist 30050: African History to 1800
Hist 30079: After Life in Ancient Egypt
Hist 30087: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Hist 30110: Ancient Japan
Hist 30115: Japan's Imperial House
Hist 30144: Introduction to Chinese Culture and Civilization
Hist 30169: Sex, Freedom, and Economy in Contemporary China
Hist 30211: Sex and Gender in Antiquity
Hist 30221: Democracy and the Greeks
Hist 30250: World of the Middle Ages
Hist 30263: Age of Charlemagne
Hist 30282: The Medieval Mind
Hist 30352: The Reformation
Hist 30398: History of Psychiatry
Hist 30416: Victorian England
Hist 30431: Irish History to 1800
Hist 30435: Nineteenth Cenury Ireland
Hist 30471: Imperial Russia
Hist 30495: 20th Century Poland
Hist 30603: New US Nation, 1781-1848
Hist 30609: The US Since WWII
Hist 30622: Consumerism in 20th Century US
Hist 30630: Religion and American Politics
Hist 30632 US Environmental History
Hist 30658: Early American Empires
Hist 30800: African American History II
Hist 30805: US Foreign Policy since 1945
Hist 30806: US Sex/Sexuality/Gender from 1880
Hist 30892: American Utopias
Hist 30897: Homefronts During War
Hist 30903: Modern Latin America
Hist 30909: Race and Nation in Latin American History
Hist 30985: World History of Christianity
Hist 32495: 20th Century Poland
Hist 33000: History Workshop
Hist 40233: Romans and their Gods
Hist 40237: The Roman World of Apuleius
Hist 40238: Creation and Time in Augustine
Hist 40851: Civil Righs Movements
Hist 40857: History of Sport and the Cold War
Hist 40885: The Meaning of Things
Hist 43440: The Northern Ireland Troubles
Hist 43560: Communist Europe
Hist 43610: Notre Dame History
Hist 43615: Right to Vote in American History
Hist 43902: Latin American Research Seminar
Hist 53001: History Honors Methodology
Hist 58003: History Honors Thesis
First Year and Sophomore Courses
These courses are designed to introduce students to the discipline of History and the content of a particular topical field. Those that start with a 1 are open only to first-year students. Those that start with a 2 are generally open to all students, but in most cases sophomores and/or first-year students have priority during the initial registration period. Unless otherwise noted, these courses count toward the university History requirement. In addition, under new guidelines passed by the Department in the spring of 2006, they can also count toward the History major.
African History to 1800
Osborn
HIST 10050 CRN # 27159
MW 10:40 – 11:30
This course introduces students to major themes in African history to 1800. It investigates agricultural and iron revolutions, states and empires, religious movements, and patterns of migration and labor exploitation. The latter part of the course focuses on Africa in the era of trans-Atlantic slave trade, from 1550 to 1800. We will study the various methods that historians use to investigate the past; we will also delve into some of the intellectual debates surrounding pre-colonial Africa and the slave trade. By the end of the course, students will have a firm understanding of states and societies in Africa in the pre-colonial period.
Students enrolled in History 10050 must also take History 12050, a tutorial
Hist 12050 01 CRN # 27160
F 10:40 – 11:30
Historical Survey of the Arab Middle East
Amar
HIST 20079 CRN #
27899
TR 12:30 – 1:45
This course will chart the history of the Arab Middle East from the formative period of the emergence of Islam in the seventh century through the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the creation of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Intended to be broad in its coverage and comprehensive in its scope, the course will introduce students to the social, cultural, and religious crosscurrents that came to define the Arab life and culture in the region.
Ancient Japan
Thomas
HIST 20110
CRN # 27166
MW 11:45 – 1:00
This course provides training in understanding and engaging history as a series of wide-ranging debates. The class will examine three issues: first, the politically charged question of Japan's origins in myth and archeology; second, the question of whether the forces of Chinese culture or nature as disease and environmental degradation defined the Yamato state from the sixth to the ninth century; and, third, whether Heian court power until about 1200 rested on economic, political, military, judicial, or aesthetic grounds. The second purpose of the course, the development of the disciplined imagination necessary to enter another culture and another time, relies on the reading of primary texts in translation. There will be three tests and several classroom assignments.
Western Civilization since 1600
Kselman
HIST 10400/20400 CRN # 27161/27167
MW 9:35 – 10:25
This course will provide a comprehensive overview of European history over the last four centuries. During this period European states emerged as powerful institutions, extending their control over the peoples of Europe and battling with each other for territory, subjects, and status, both in Europe and throughout the world. The enormous growth of state power provoked opposition, from both elites and ordinary people. This course will therefore explore resistance to the state as well as tracing its growth, with special attention paid to the English revolution in the seventeenth century, the French and Russian revolutions in 1789 and 1917, and the collapse of the Soviet empire in the late twentieth century. In addition to political and social developments, this course will treat in broad terms the major cultural and intellectual trends in Europe, examining the growth of the critical spirit in the Enlightenment, and the emphasis on feeling and subjectivity in the age of Romanticism. The course will conclude with a section on recent developments, focusing on efforts to create an integrated Europe, and on the emergence of the current tensions that divide Europe and the United States. Slides, music, and film will be used to illustrate and supplement material treated in lectures.
Students enrolled in History 10400 must also take History 12400, a tutorial.
Hist 12400 01 CRN # 27162
F 9:35 – 10:25
Hist 12400 02 CRN # 27163
F 8:30 – 9:20
Hist 12400 03 CRN # 27164
F 10:40 – 11:30
Students enrolled in History 20400 must also take History 22400, a tutorial.
Hist 22400 01 CRN # 27170
F 9:35 – 10:25
US History II: 1877-present
Grow
Hist 10605/20605 CRN# 22754/23690
MW 11:45 – 12:35
This course traces major developments in American society, politics, and culture from 1877 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. The class format will be two lectures each week and one discussion section.
Students enrolled in History 10605 must also take History 12605, a tutorial.
History 12605 01
F 11:45 – 12:35
Course Reference Number 22205
History 12605 02
F 10:40 – 11:30
Course Reference Number 20023
History 12605 03
F 12:50 – 1:40
Course Reference Number 22261
Students enrolled in History 20605, must take History 22605, a tutorial.
History 22605 01
F 11:45 – 12:35
Course Reference Number 23724
History of American Sport Since 1876
Soares
History 20631 CRN # 27168/27169
MW 1:30 – 2:45
Since professional baseball was institutionalized with the establishment of the National League in 1876, sport in the United States has played a large and complex role in American life, intertwined with such developments as the rise of the mass media, democratization of higher education, race and gender issues, and the growing popularity of sport as a form of entertainment exemplified by the rise of the ESPN “family of networks.” This course will explore the social, cultural, political and economic implications of sport in American society since 1876. It will include such topics as the rise of professional sport, the long history and rapid fall of the “reserve clause” that gave so much power to pro sport owners, the origins and development of college sports (and Notre Dame’s place in that history), the rise of “sports heroes” in the
1920s, the role of sport in the Cold War, sport and the social turmoil of the 1960s, and sports’ impact on changing race relations and gender roles in recent decades.
University Seminars
According to the College of First Year Studies, “University Seminars are required classes for all first-year students. These seminars … allow students to pursue their interests while working on their writing and critical reading skills.” The courses below introduce students to the discipline of History; they can count toward either the university History requirement or, under new guidelines passed by the Department in the spring of 2006, toward the History major.
Animals in American History
Coleman
Hist 13184 01
CRN # 21087
TR 9:30 – 10:45
This class examines American history through humans’ interactions with animals—wild, domestic, and symbolic. Using a variety of texts from folk stories to motion pictures, from scientific articles to stuffed toys, the course traces the ways real and imagined animals have wandered into and altered American history. The class begins with a basic introduction to wildlife biology and ecological concepts. From there, we will investigate animals’ roles in colonization, industrialization, folklore, leisure, politics, and pop culture. The goal of the course is to prompt students to re-think their own relationship to animals—as meat, as pets, as cultural icons—through the exploration of the variety of human and animal relationships in the American past.
Pirates in History
Murray
Hist 13184 02 CRN # 21141
TR 9:30 – 10:45
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 to be writing intensive courses in which students will write and read simultaneously and continuously throughout the semester. 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.
Jose de Acosta: Missionary and Historian of Latin America
MacCormack
Hist 13184 03 CRN # 21791
TR 11:00 – 12:15
José de Acosta (1540-1600), born of Jewish parents who converted to Christianity, entered the Society of Jesus in his teens. In those years, he acquired the foundations of the classical, patristic and theological learning that speaks in his writings. After teaching for the Society for some years, he was sent as a missionary to Peru, where he spent 17 years, returning to Spain via Mexico in 1587. He soon became deeply involved in matters relating to the governance of the Society of Jesus and the somewhat fraught relations between the Spanish crown and the Papacy. His last years were spent at the University of Salamanca. Acosta's book about the Americas, The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, became an immediate bestseller in Spanish, English, French and Italian. His manual on the nature and methods of missionary work was seminal, inter alia because of his poignant awareness of a missionary's multiple and sometimes contradictory responsibilities: to those who are to be converted to Christianity, to the church, and to his own country. In his later years, Acosta's thoughts turned to the last days, and to the Christian life as lived day by day. In this course, we will study Acosta's life and writings to gain an understanding not only of his ideas and personality, but also of the political and religious environment in which he lived. Readings will focus on what is available in English, but those who read Spanish or Latin will be able to make use of their skills.
US Civil Rights/Legal Rights
Rodriguez
Hist 13184 04 CRN # 21215
TR 2:00 – 3:15
Although the Declaration of Independence is highly regarded for its famous phrase, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," issues of equality, liberty, and happiness have not been self-evident for many groups in the United States. Primarily focused on the 20th century, this seminar seeks to examine the tensions between theory and practice over the course of American history as we explore the ways a variety of American individuals and groups have sought to compel the United States to abide by its own stated commitment to liberty and civil rights as citizens, minority group members, women, workers, and others. Particular emphasis will be placed on Mexican American civil rights history. Since this is a seminar course, each student will be expected to contribute wholeheartedly to the weekly discussions, write several response papers, and complete a medium sized research paper.
US Presidents & Presidencies
Miscamble
Hist 13184 05 CRN #21915
TR 3:30 – 4:45
This seminar will examine presidents and presidential leadership from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. An effort will be made to identify the requirements for and features of successful and effective presidencies. Some significant attention will be paid to the relationship of character to good presidential leadership. The course aims to foster careful reading, good writing and thoughtful discussion and analysis. Students will write a number of smaller (3-4 page) papers, give class presentations, and write a 10-12 page final paper.
The American Revolution
Slaughter
Hist 13196 01 CRN # 27165
TR 9:30 – 10:45
This seminar features readings in books and original documents on the background, causes, contexts, events, outcomes, and consequences of the American Revolution, c.1750-1783. We will focus on the social, cultural, intellectual, diplomatic, and political history of the period, and not on wartime combat. The course will decidedly not be military history.
Major Courses
Most of these courses are open to all students, but some seats are usually reserved for History majors. In most cases section 1 of the course reserves seats for majors, while section 2 of the course has unrestricted seats (Courses that the department crosslists from other programs usually have only a single section whose seats are reserved for majors.). Unless otherwise noted, these courses fulfill the university History requirement; they also fulfill various major requirements (any exceptions are noted below).
History Workshop
This course is a requirement for - and open only to - students pursuing the standard major in History (not the supplementary major). It should be taken as soon as possible, usually the semester after the student declares the major.
Osborn
Hist 33000 01 CRN # 20601
MW 3:00 – 4:15
Appleby
Hist 33000 02 CRN # 20408
TR 9:30 – 10:45
Bederman
Hist 33000 03 CRN # 27216
MW 11:45 – 1:00
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. History Workshop introduces students to how historians study the past. Students will 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) will include three books and several journal articles, short excerpts from classic theoretical texts, and two large collections of primary source documents. Writing assignments will 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.
Africa/Asia/Middle East
See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.
African History to 1800
Osborn
Hist 30050 CRN # 27171/27172
MW 10:40 – 11:30
This course introduces students to major themes in African history to 1800. It investigates agricultural and iron revolutions, states and empires, religious movements, and patterns of migration and labor exploitation. The latter part of the course focuses on Africa in the era of trans-Atlantic slave trade, from 1550 to 1800. We will study the various methods that historians use to investigate the past; we will also delve into some of the intellectual debates surrounding pre-colonial Africa and the slave trade. By the end of the course, students will have a firm understanding of states and societies in Africa in the pre-colonial period. This course also satisfies the major’s pre-1500 requirement.
Students enrolled in History 30050, must take History 32050, a tutorial.
Hist 32050 01 CRN # 27208
F 10:40 – 11:30
Hist 32050 02 CRN # 27207
F 9:35 – 10:25
Hist 32050 03 CRN # 27209
F 11:45 – 12:35
Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
Ladouceur
Hist 30079 CRN # 27788
TR 12:30 – 1:45
THIS COURSE DOES NOT SATISFY THE UNIVERSITY HISTORY REQUIREMENT
After an initial survey of historical sources, this course will focus on a wide range of texts, archaeological artifacts, and architectural remains associated with Egyptian funerary practice and conceptions of the Otherworld. This course also satisfies the major’s pre-1500 requirement.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Kaufman
Hist 30087 CRN # 23736/23737
MW 3:00 – 4:15
This class discusses the roots, evolution, current situation, and prospects for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In order to better understand this theme the class will also locate this conflict within larger regional and global perspectives. Thus, issues such as nationalism in the Middle East, colonial impact in the region, the Arab states and their involvement in the conflict, and cold war and post-cold war dynamics, will all be an integral part of the class discussions. We will also juxtapose the competing narratives of Israelis and Palestinians towards this conflict. Finally, we will engage in an un-historical practice by looking at the future and thinking about possible avenues for concluding this protracted conflict.
Ancient Japan
Thomas
Hist 30110 CRN # 27173/27174
MW 11:45 – 1:00
This course provides training in understanding and engaging history as a series of wide-ranging debates. The class will examine three issues: first, the politically charged question of Japan's origins in myth and archeology; second, the question of whether the forces of Chinese culture or nature as disease and environmental degradation defined the Yamato state from the sixth to the ninth century; and, third, whether Heian court power until about 1200 rested on economic, political, military, judicial, or aesthetic grounds. The second purpose of the course, the development of the disciplined imagination necessary to enter another culture and another time, relies on the reading of primary texts in translation. There will be three tests and several classroom assignments. This course also satisfies the major’s pre-1500 requirement.
Japan’s Imperial House
Thomas
Hist 30115 CRN # 27175/27176
MW 3:00 – 4:15
Japan boasts the longest, unbroken imperial line extant today, but what does this continuity really mean? This course looks at Japan's emperors and empresses from antiquity to the present, raising questions about the nature of power, the idea of good government, gender, divinity, war responsibility, and the liberty of the family now called upon to symbolize a purportedly democratic nation. Although most of the course will focus on modern emperors, it begins with Japan's earliest political structures in order to ask such questions as: Was the Imperial House an indigenous idea or was it an imitation of Chinese ideas of power? Why were there so many powerful women leaders in ancient Japan and why did Japan stop having empresses on the throne? What is the relationship between the imperial house and the various religions of Japan? The course will then consider the medieval and Tokugawa periods, asking why powerful samurai failed to overthrow the militarily impotent emperors. Finally, the course will turn to the modern period, beginning in the middle of the 19th century with the elevation of the Meiji Emperor to unprecedented prominence. Why was the ancient imperial house used to modernize Japan? Even though sex of emperors has been male for centuries, why were ancient emperors female and why is the imperial gender (and Japan as a whole) in the modern period often regarded as female? Was Hirohito guilty of fomenting war? What is the function of the Imperial House today? This course sweeps through myth and 1500 years of Japanese history, tracing the permutations, continuities, and discontinuities of the imperial line. This course also satisfies the major’s pre-1500 requirement.
Introduction to Chinese Culture and Civilization
Yang
Hist 30144 CRN # 28170
TR 2:00 – 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.
Sex, Freedom, and Economy in Contemporary China
Jensen
Hist 30169 CRN #
TR 2:00 - 3:15
Today China is undergoing a revolution (a word used so frequently as to be meaningless, but very meaningful in this case as we will learn) in society, politics, economy, and thought perhaps as significant as that which brought the Chinese Communist Party to national power in 1949. The objective of this course, constructed through film and new media investigation, along with readings on social status, identity, sexuality, work, home, youth culture, gender, business, education, sports, ecology, is to come to an understanding of the multiple domestic forces that have made China a global power. Furthermore, the course will familiarize the student with the very complex ramifications of the passionate national quest for international recognition as it affects every aspect of present-day life while exploring the mercurial manner in which the economic transformation of China has been represented in the media. In this last respect, it represents an experiment in cultural studies in that its avowed subject, contemporary China, is studied in dialogue with the United States-the two nations most exemplifying the promise and terror of modernization. No knowledge of Chinese or previous knowledge of China is required.
World History of Christianity since 1900
Noll
Hist 30985 CRN # 27205/27206
MW 1:30 -2:45
This course surveys the dramatic changes that have recently altered the face of Christianity in the world. For Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, and the rapidly growing number of “independent” churches, the last century witnessed changes on a scale not seen since the first centuries of Christian history. The long-time Christian heartlands of Europe and North America have undergone unprecedented secularization, while the once-missionary regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America have developed larger communities of active believers than now exist in “the Christian West.” All over the world, Christian interactions with war (and peace), poverty (and affluence), disease (and health) have multiplied with increasing complexity. The course concentrates on Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with developments in Europe and North America in the background. Throughout, a primary aim is to link Christian events with major international developments like the world wars, the Cold War, economic globalization, and colonization-decolonization. This course can also be used to satisfy the Latin America or “Special” breadth categories.
Ancient/Medieval Europe
These courses all satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement. See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy other major categories.
Sex and Gender in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Mazurek
Hist 30211 CRN # 27784
TR 11:00 – 12:15
This course examines the differing roles and stereotypes, forms of behavior, and values associated with women and men in Greco-Roman antiquity. Special attention is given to the preoccupations of the Greeks and Romans with the categories of ‘female’ and ‘male’ and to the dynamics of relations and relationships between women and men. The course both deepens knowledge of Greco-Roman society and provides an informed background for contemporary gender debates.
Democracy and the Greeks
Baron
Hist 30221 CRN # 27746
TR 9:30 – 10:45
This course examines the theory, practice, and development of ancient Greek, especially Athenian, democracy. Particular attention is devoted to comparing ancient with modern forms of democracy. Among the special topics studied are the origins of democracy, its advantages and disadvantages as a form of government, Greek ideas of alternatives to democracy, and democracy as an abiding legacy of Greek civilization to the modern world.
Romans and Their Gods
Taylor
Hist 40233 CRN # 27780
MWF 12:50 – 1:40
This course is an introduction to the way in which the Romans conceived of, worshipped, and communicated with the myriad gods of their pantheon. The course focuses first on conventional religious rituals and their cultural meaning, and secondly on the success of Roman polytheism in adapting to changing historical and social conditions. Particular attention is paid to the so-called “Mystery Religions,” including Christianity, and their relationship to conventional forms of Roman religious behavior.
Roman World of Apuleius
Bradley
Hist 40237 CRN # 27823
TR 2:00 – 3:15
This is an advanced course in Roman history and literature that investigates the Latin author Apuleius in his socio-cultural context. The course begins with the Romano-African setting into which Apuleius was born, recreates the educational travels to Carthage, Athens and Rome that occupied his early life, and focuses especially on his trial for magic in Sabratha in Tripolitania before following him back to Carthage where he spent the remainder of his life. Notice will be taken of all Apuleius' writings, but special attention will be paid to the Apology, a version of the speech of defence made at his trial, and to the socio-cultural significance of his work of imaginative fiction, the Metamorphoses. The course is open to students with or without Latin.
Creation, Time and City of God in Augustine of Hippo
MacCormack
Hist 40238 CRN # 27889
W 1:30 – 4:00
In his youth, Augustine (354-430 AD) received an excellent education in the Latin classics, the benefits of which remained with him throughout his life. Later, he also read philosophical writings, and, after his conversion, works by Christian authors. The book he quoted most frequently was the Bible. From his childhood, Augustine was endowed with a most unusual ability to ask awkward questions. Initially targeting his teachers, he later addressed his questions to the authors whose books he read, and to God. His writings therefore tend to take a dialogic form where the interlocutors include not only the reader but God, and - among human beings - Cicero, Vergil and other Romans, and also Augustine's Christian contemporaries, including Jerome, Paulinus of Nola and Count Marcellinus, to whom he addressed the City of God. In following these dialogues, we will read not just Augustine's best-known writings (Confessions and City of God) but also his commentaries on Genesis, and some of his letters and sermons. The purpose is to arrive at an understanding of Augustine's ideas about creation and time, and about the nature of human society and its goals. We will also ask what can be learnt from Augustine's dialogic and sometimes disputatious way of thinking, explaining and debating. Almost all of Augustine's writings have been translated into English, but obviously, an ability to read Latin will be most useful.
The World of the Middle Ages
Noble
HIST 30250 CRN # 27846
MW 1:55 – 2:45
The Middle Ages have been praised and reviled, romanticized and fantasized. The spectacular popularity of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Narnia have brought a revival of interest in and curiosity about the Middle Ages. But what were they like, these ten centuries between Rome and the Renaissance? In this course, we will explore major themes and issues in medieval civilization in an attempt to offer some basic answers to that question. We will have in view three kinds of people: rulers, lovers, and believers. But we will also study carefully those who wrote about those kinds of people. We will constantly ask how can we know about the Middle Ages, and what kinds of things can we know? We will consider major literary texts as both works of art and historical documents. We will explore various kinds of religious literature. We will try to understand the limits, boundaries, and achievements of philosophy and theology. Some lectures will incorporate medieval art so as to add a visual dimension to our explorations. This course will constitute an extended introduction to the dynamic and fascinating world of the Middle Ages.
Students enrolled in History 30250, must take MI 22001, a tutorial.
MI 22001 01 CRN # 27465
F 1:55 – 2:45
MI 22001 02 CRN # 27466
F 12:50 – 1:40
MI 22001 03 CRN # 27467
F 10:40 – 11:30
MI 22001 04 CRN # 27844
F 11:45 – 12:35
Age of Charlemagne
Noble
Hist 30263 CRN # 27179/27180
MWF 10:40 – 11:30
The Carolingian (from Carolus, Latin for Charles: Charles the Great--Charlemagne--was the most famous Carolingian) period, roughly the eighth and ninth centuries, was foundational for western Europe. But this was also the time when the mid-Byzantine Empire consolidated its position and when the Abbasid family of caliphs introduced important and durable changes in the Islamic world. This course will focus on the West in the age of Charlemagne, but will draw frequent comparisons with and make continuous reference to Europe's Byzantine and Islamic neighbors. The course will explore such themes as: Europe's Roman and Christian inheritances from antiquity; the peoples of the Carolingian world; kingship and empire; political and social institutions and ideologies; religious and secular law; war and diplomacy; agriculture and trade; the church--popes, bishops, monks, and nuns; theology; art and architecture; Latin and vernacular literature. Reading assignments will combine modern scholarship and primary sources (in translation). Students will write mid-term and final examinations and will choose between several short papers or one long paper.
The Medieval Mind
Van Engen
Hist 30282 CRN # 27181/27182
TR 11:00 – 12:15
This course offers an introduction to thought and culture in the European Middle Ages, the era of Romance, scholastic theologians, and female mystics. After a relatively brief look at the early Middle Ages, the course will focus on the origins of the literature of love and chivalry, of schoolmen in universities, and of women religious writers. There is a general textbook to guide the course, but much of the reading will be in primary sources, that is, in the thinkers and poets and mystics of the medieval period.
Modern Europe
See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.
The Reformation
Gregory
Hist 30352 CRN # 27183/27184
MW 9:35 – 10:25
This course offers a narrative history of Christianity in Western Europe from c.1500-c.1650, and it takes an international and comparative perspective, including Catholicism, Protestantism, and radical Protestantism. Topics covered include Christianity on the eve of the Reformation, Christian humanism, Luther and the German Reformation, the Peasants' War and Anabaptism, the English Reformation, Calvin and Calvinism, Catholic Reform and the Council of Trent, the French Wars of Religion, confessionalization, the Thirty Years' War, and the English Revolution. Major themes include matters of religious content (doctrinal positions and devotional sensibilities), the relationship between different Christian groups and political regimes, the impact of religious changes across the population, and the definitive emergence of Christian pluralism.
Students enrolled in History 30532, must take History 32352, a tutorial.
Hist 32352 01CRN # 27210
F 9:35 – 10:25
Hist 32352 02 CRN # 27211
F 10:40 – 11:30
History of Psychiatry
Merie
Hist 30398 CRN # 23433/23719
TR 3:30 – 4:45
The course is a thematic overview of the history of psychiatry from its inception at the end of the eighteenth century to the present day. It raises issues concerning: the nature of the Self and its relationship with social compulsion and state power; the connection between body and mind; the nature of disease and illness; the relations between the individual and the expert; the position of marginal groups (women, colonial subjects, homosexuals, etc.) vis-à-vis social norms and authority. Topics covered in this course include: a comprehensive survey of various perspectives on the history of psychiatry (the so-called 'Whig approaches' to the history of psychiatry; the anti-psychiatric movement; feminist and post-colonialist critiques of psychiatry); the establishment of mental hospitals in the nineteenth century and their subsequent history; the struggle between biologically and psychologically oriented theories and therapies of mind; the role and function of psychiatry in different social and political settings; the effects of the science of psychiatry on individuals who have been the object of psychiatric research and intervention.
Victorian England
Merie
Hist 30416 CRN # 23749/23750
TR 11:00 – 12:15
The history of Great Britain during the long 19th century, from the impact of the French revolution in 1789 to the First World War in 1914, is one of innovation and social experiment. The period saw the emergence of many of the most characteristic and most controversial features of the modern world, such as urban industrialism; corporate capitalism; the welfare state; the transformation of civil and political rights, the civic role of religion, and gender and class relations; the non-revolutionary expansion of democracy; the professionalization of government; paternalist colonial conquest and administration of much of the world; the rise of classical economics, Marxism, and Darwinism. Most remarkable is the intensity of Victorian public examination of these and other issues. The Victorians are known for the thoroughness with which they interrogated their souls on everything from the foundations of faith to social responsibility to their own sexuality, and equally the passion and brilliance with which they examined these issues in public in their doctrinaire social novels, their scathing reviews of one another's ideas in periodicals, their eloquent and witty speeches in the House of Commons, and their enormous campaigns of social investigation. It was a time of immense confidence in the idea that, through the exercise of intellect, human beings could finally get the world to run right. In their depth and breadth these discussions reflect a far richer political culture than most of us are accustomed to, one incorporating morality with efficiency, duties with rights, progress with the maintenance of values. Course assignments will include research on the life of a not-so-eminent Victorian, someone like Henry Brougham (an insufferable polymath who could speak extemporaneously (and eloquently) for six hours straight) or Harriet Martineau (radical economist, pioneer anthropologist, and mystic). Course materials include general texts, novels of the period, and a packet of primary and modern sources.
Irish History to 1800
Leaney
Hist 30431 CRN # 27189/27190
TR 9:30 – 10:45
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 re-conquest 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 shaping modern Irish politics and society and continues to generate lively disagreement among historians today.
Nineteenth-Century Ireland
Leaney
Hist 30435 CRN # 27191/27192
TR 12:30 – 1:45
This course invites students to examine the profound changes affecting Irish society in the nineteenth century. The course will focus on the social, cultural, and religious history of Ireland rather than the political (though this will not be neglected). Topics to be covered include education, emigration, religious revivals, the cultural revival, and the role of sport in Irish society.
Imperial Russia
Martin
Hist 30471 CRN # 27193/27194
TR 2:00 – 3:15
The course begins in the early 1700s with the reforms of Peter the Great, which made Russia into a highly centralized, powerful, oppressive society whose nobles grew wealthy and Europeanized while its peasants were reduced to poverty and serfdom. Successive tsars made Russia the greatest power of continental Europe while failing to reform its increasingly archaic sociopolitical order. As a result, the regime ultimately faced a restive peasantry, a radicalized intelligentsia, and deepening economic and military backwardness. The course concludes with the final, vain attempt by the monarchy in the 1860s-70s to stave off revolution by dismantling the system that Peter had created.
20th Century Poland
Kunicki
Hist 30495 CRN # 27187/27188
MW 11:45 – 12:35
This course surveys Polish history from 1900 to the present. It aims to provide a basic knowledge of the major events and processes that shaped the political, social, and cultural history of Poland in the twentieth century. Key themes include: nationalism and the rise of independent Poland in 1918; democracy and its failure during the interwar period; Nazi and Soviet occupations, and the impact of World War 2 on Polish society; the imposition and evolution of Communism and response from society; the Polish Solidarity movement and the collapse of the communist system; and contemporary Poland.
Students enrolled in History 30495, must take History 32495, a tutorial.
Hist 32495 01 CRN # 27214
F 11:45 – 12:35
History 32495 02 CRN # 27215
F 10:40 – 11:30
United States
See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.
The New American Nation, 1787-1848
Grow
Hist 30603 CRN # 27195/27196
TR 12:30 – 1:45
This course examines the social, political, and cultural history of the United States from the Constitutional Convention (1787) to the end of the Mexican-American War (1848). This time period witnessed rapid changes in American life as citizens of the new nation sought to define the meanings of the American Revolution and wrestled with the changes it unleashed. Themes will include the democratization of politics and society; westward expansion; early industrialization and class conflict; Native American resistance and removal; immigration and nativism; religious impulses and reform movements; changing ideas about gender and race; and slavery, resistance to slavery, and growing sectionalism between North and South.
The United States Since WWII
Blantz
Hist 30609 CRN # 22856/23759
MWF 9:35 – 10:25
The purpose of this course is to study the political, diplomatic, economic, social, and cultural development of the United States from 1945 through the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Although the military and diplomatic history of World War II will be considered by way of background, the principal topics of investigation will be the Fair Deal Program of President Truman, the Cold War, the Korean Conflict, the Eisenhower Presidency, the New Frontier, Vietnam, President Johnson's Great Society, the Civil Rights Movement, the Nixon Years, the social and intellectual climate of this post-war era, and the presidencies of Gerald Ford through George H.W. Bush. There will be a required reading list of approximately six books, two smaller writing assignments, and three examinations.
Consumerism in the United States since 1890
Orr
Hist 30622 CRN # 27197/27198
TR 11:00- 12:15
By 1900 the development of mass production made the possibility of consumption for private enjoyment available to increasing numbers of Americans. This course will examine the creation of contemporary consumer culture beginning with the advent of mass production and mass marketing in the nineteenth century, including the rise of advertising and the growth of department stores. We will look at how the ideas and institutions associated with consumerism changed through the twentieth century during times of depression, war and into the present. Additional topics will include how consumers have used consumption to fashion individual and group identities, as well as how Americans have embraced or challenged consumerism over time.
Religion and American Politics
Noll
Hist 30630 CRN # 27721/27722
MW 3:00 – 4:15
Since the early 1950s, religion has been an obviously major factor in American political life driven first by the African-American leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and then, in more recent decades, by the concerns of the Religious Right. Especially after the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, Catholics have also been fully recognized participants in the nation’s political uses of religion as well as in debates over whether and how religion should be used politically. This class tries to show that modern political-religious connections are but new instances of what has always gone on in the American past. The shape of contests over religion and politics may have changed considerably over time, but not the fact of dense connections between the two spheres. Readings for the course include primary and secondary accounts that treat notable incidents, problems, debates, and controversies from the colonial period to the present. Lectures spotlight major issues of historical interpretation, like religion and the Constitution, religion and antebellum debates over slavery, religion and Reconstruction, Catholic versus Protestant understandings of liberty, and civil rights and the New Christian Right. Opportunities for student writing will feature responses to primary documents and historical interpretations.
US Environmental History
Coleman
Hist 30632 CRN # 24749/24912
TR 2:00 – 3:15
This course is an introduction to the new field of environmental history. While many people think "The Environment" suddenly became important with the first "Earth Day" in 1970 (or a few years earlier), environmental issues have in fact long been of central importance. In recent decades historians have been actively exploring the past sensibilities of various groups toward their surroundings and fellow creatures. They have also increasingly paid attention to the ways environmental factors have affected history. This course will range widely, from world history to the story of a single river, from arguments about climate change to the significance of pink flamingos, and it will survey a number of types of history including cultural, demographic, religious, and animal.
Early American Empires
Cortes
Hist 30658 CRN # 27201/27202
MWF 10:40 – 11:30
Between 1500 and 1750, a fierce battle for Empire was waged between and within Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, and the peoples they sought to control, particularly Africans and Amerindians. The result of this fateful encounter would determine the political, economic, cultural, racial, religious, and ecological character of what became the United States of America. Students will engage in this momentous event in several ways: by engaging historiography; by using primary sources written by the colonized and colonizers; and by reading important secondary works. The themes we will explore include: the symbols used by the various Empires in establish rights to the land; the different patterns of settlement; the various European interactions with Africans and Amerindians; the effect that contestants for Empire had upon the land; and the response of Africans and Amerindians to European attempts at subjugation.
African American History since 1877
Pierce
Hist 30800 CRN # 22918/23768
MW 8:30 – 9:20
This course examines the broad range of problems and experiences of African Americans from the close of the American Civil War to the 1980s. We will explore both the relationship of blacks to the larger society and the inner dynamics of the black community. We will devote particular attention to Reconstruction, the internal migration of African Americans, and the socio-political efforts of the African-American community. We will also examine the political impact of cultural exhibitions. The course will utilize historical documents in the form of primary sources, scholarly articles and other secondary sources. Classes will be conducted as lecture-discussions.
Students enrolled in History 30800 must alto take History 32800, a tutorial.
Hist 32800 01 CRN # 28165
F 8:30 – 9:20
Hist 32800 02 CRN # 28166
F 9:35 – 10:25
US Foreign Policy since 1945
Miscamble
Hist 30805 CRN # 23771/23772
TR 9:30 – 10:45
This course covers the main developments in American foreign policy from World War II through the end of the Cold War. The principal topics of investigation will be wartime diplomacy and the origins of the Cold War; the Cold War and containment in Europe and Asia; Eisenhower/Dulles diplomacy; Kennedy-Johnson and Vietnam; Nixon-Kissinger and détente; Carter and the diplomacy of Human Rights; Reagan and the revival of containment; Bush and the end of the Cold War. This is basically a lecture course although there will be ample opportunity for discussion and questions in class. About seven books will be assigned. There will be short assignments, a ten-page paper, and mid-semester and final examinations.
US Sex, Sexuality, and Gender since 1880
Bederman
HIST 30806 CRN # 23773/23774
MW 1:30 – 2:45
This course explores the history of sex, sexuality, and gender in the United States since 1880. Topics may include representations of sexuality in movies and advertising; new courtship practices among unmarried heterosexuals (from courting to dating to hooking up); changing concepts of same-sex love (from inversion to homosexuality to gay liberation to LGBTQ); the demographic shift to smaller families; the twentieth-century movements for and against birth control and legal abortion; and the late-twentieth-century politicization of sexual issues.
American Utopias
Meaney Halperin
HIST 30892 CRN #28523
MW 11:45 – 1:00
From our colonial roots to the present day, from the Puritans’ City Upon a Hill to the Branch Davidians’ Waco compound, Americans have been trying to create ideal communities based on their particular version of the Truth. In this course, we will survey a wide variety of Utopian communities, some based on protection from the world, others based on free love and/or perfection of human relations, some now considered cults and others mainstream religions. We will examine how they were supposed to work versus how they worked in reality, and the dreams and beliefs upon which they were based. We will explore the ways these experiments in living were created by American culture and have in turn transformed it.
Homefronts During War
Ardizzone
HIST 30897 CRN # 28522
TR 3:30 – 4:45
This course examines the social history of American homefront experiences. How have Americans responded at home to war and threats of war throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first? What internal divisions and shared identities has war inspired or revealed? Throughout this course we will examine not the battles and factors that determined the military outcomes of war, but the domestic struggles that have defined our national experience and informed many of our responses to current events. Topics will include: critiques of democracy and civil rights inclusion during WWI; treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII; development of peace and anti-nuclear movements; cold war politics and fears of American communism; debates over the draft, just-war, racism at home, and U.S. policies abroad in the wake of Vietnam. The final unit will focus on the Gulf War, terrorism, and developments since September 11, 2001.
US Civil Rights Movement
Mason
HIST 40851 CRN # 28172
TR 9:30 – 10:45
This course will trace the struggle for equal rights by various marginalized groups in the twentieth-century United States, focusing particularly on the experience of African Americans. We will explore in detail the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, considering its internal pluralism and contesting visions for African American liberation and the meaning of American freedom and democracy. This will be put in context of the “long” struggle, going back to early efforts of African Americans to fight Jim Crow and moving forward to current debates over issues such as affirmative action and reparations, with a consideration of the conservative white backlash. We will also examine the struggles of other traditionally marginalized groups—including women, Native Americans, Latinos, and gays and lesbians—to achieve a full measure of constitutional rights and cultural acceptance. Much of our study will be done through the reading and analysis of primary sources. Students will have the option of doing community-based learning through work in various local organizations focused on civil rights issues.
History of Sport and the Cold War
Soares
HIST 40857 CRN # 23845/23846
MW 4:30 – 5:45
This course will explore 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 will look 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 # 28525
TR 11:00 – 12:15
This course will introduce students to a range of practices relating to consumption in American history. We will investigate the gendered aspects of production, marketing, buying and using goods in American history, as these impact not only on gender, but also on the construction of class, ethnic and ‘racial’ identities.
Latin America
See individual descriptions for any courses that also satisfy the major’s pre-1500 requirement or other major categories.
Modern Latin America
Beatty
HIST 30903 CRN # 27203/27204
TR 9:30 – 10:45
From Patagonia at the extreme southern tip of South America to Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border, the Latin American region encompasses a great diversity of nations, peoples, and cultures. This course examines central trends and problems in the study of Latin American history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, including Revolutions in Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile and Peru; the Catholic Church in both its progressive and conservative faces; the pervasive influence of the United States; and the changing welfare of most Latin Americans through a century of economic development from the export boom to neoliberalism. We will use readings, film, news accounts, and lectures to examine this history. No previous exposure to Latin American history is necessary.
Race and Nation in Latin American History
Valiant
HIST 30909 CRN # 28513
T 3:30 – 6:00
This course offers a critical analysis of the particular representations of race and nation as presented in film, art, and essays from the colonial era to the present in Latin America. Utilizing these materials we will examine issues of independence, statehood, slavery, revolution, wealth, poverty, education and gender in public culture.
Departmental Seminars
These courses are open only to History majors, who will 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: The Northern Ireland Troubles
Smyth
HIST 43440 CRN # 27217
MW 11:45 – 1:00
This discussion-based seminar explores the history of the six north-eastern counties of Ireland which became ‘Northern Ireland’ in 1920/1. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom and had a built-in Protestant unionist majority. The Catholic minority, alienated from the state from the outset, looked across the new border and to Dublin, capital of the Irish Free State, as the true site of their allegiance. Northern Ireland was thus, from the beginning, dysfunctional, scarred by sectarian violence and systematic discrimination in housing and employment. After examining the origins of the state and the early decades of it existence the seminar will turn to its main concern, “the troubles” which broke out in the late 1960s. The major episodes under scrutiny include the civil rights movement, Bloody Sunday, the hunger strikes, and the Good Friday Peace Agreement. Students are obliged to produce a twenty-five-page essay based on original research, and many are expected to draw on the rich microfilm archive of “the troubles,” the Linenhall Collection held in the Hesburgh Library.
SEM: Communist Europe: The Soviet Bloc, 1945-1991
Kunicki
HIST 43560 CRN # 27218
TR 11:00 – 12:15
This research seminar examines the rise, progression, and fall of communist regimes in East Central Europe, the conglomeration of states that by 1948 had fallen under Soviet political and military domination. The Left and the Right are elusive concepts in Eastern Europe. Therefore we will begin by analyzing Communism against the backdrop of the political and historical traditions in the region. We will examine how the communists conformed to domestic realities, in order to identify commonalities and differences between members of the Soviet bloc. Primary issues include: communist takeovers and the founding of people’s democracies; the Cold War rivalry and its impact on the communist regimes; Stalinism and de-Stalinization; the pattern of relationship between the Moscow center and its Eastern European peripheries; the entanglement of nationalism and Communism; pluralism within Communism; détente and the democratic opposition; the dynamics of the revolutionary and reforming processes that led to the collapse of the communist system.
SEM: Notre Dame History
Blantz
HIST 43610 CRN # 27219
MW 1:30 – 2:45
This seminar will offer the student the opportunity to research an aspect of Notre Dame history of his or her particular interest -- academic program, student life, administrative decisions, etc. Research topics might include Father Sorin's rebuilding of the Main Building after the fire of 1879, priest-chaplains serving in the Civil War, Notre Dame during World War I or World War II, Rev. Julius Nieuwland, CSC, and the discovery of synthetic rubber, Notre Dame's Minims Department (grade school), Notre Dame's Preparatory School (high school), Notre Dame's Manual Labor School, immigrant scholars on the Notre Dame faculty in the 1930's, Holy Cross Religious as Japanese prisoners of war in World war II, the inauguration of the Great Books Program, Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, CSC, and the Kennedy family, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, and the Civil Rights Commission, etc. After some introductory readings on the history of the University, the principal work of the course will be the research (in primary and secondary sources) and writing of a paper of approximately thirty pages, and a presentation of the paper for class discussion.
SEM: The Right to Vote in American History, 1607-present
Graff
HIST 43615 CRN # 27220
M 3:00 – 5:30
This research seminar focuses on the right to vote in American history. Students will explore the right to vote as it evolved over the course of American history, beginning with the colonial experiments in Virginia in the seventeenth century and ending with the contested presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Alex Keyssar's The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States will provide the central text, and we will investigate case studies centering on age, property, religion, race, gender, naturalization, and other issues throughout four centuries of American history. Each student will explore one particular case study from any period in American history and produce a twenty-five-page paper based on primary source research.
SEM: Research Seminar in Latin America and the Atlantic World
Beatty
HIST 43902 CRN # 27221
R 3:30 – 6:00
After briefly examining different models of research and writing, students will undertake a major, semester-long primary source research project on a topic within Latin American and/or Atlantic World history (which could include foreign relations with the United States or European nations; business, economic, or church history that crosses international lines; im/emigration to or from the region; etc.). I anticipate that most students will use research materials available at or close to Notre Dame. Interested students are encouraged to see the instructor prior to the beginning of the semester in order to begin exploring possible topics and available research materials.
History Honors Program
These courses are open only to those History majors participating in the History Honors Program.
Honors Methodology
Martin
HIST 53001 CRN # 20753
TR 3:30 – 4:45
[This course is open only to juniors in the HHP.]
The course is designed both to introduce students to the theoretical and practical foundations of Historical Method and to assist them in beginning their own research for their senior thesis. During the first half of the semester we will discuss and practice key aspects of Historical Method, providing a structure for you to start your own research. During the second half of the semester you will work on formulating your research question and identifying key primary and secondary sources for your thesis project, write several drafts of a research proposal, and compile an annotated bibliography. By the end of the semester, you will not only have developed your research proposal, but also have identified a faculty member who will supervise your thesis project.
History Honors Thesis
Graff
HIST 58003 CRN # 21162
[This course is open only to seniors in the HHP.]
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.