Courses in History (Division 390)

Fall Term, 1998 (September 8-December 21, 1998)

300-Level Courses and Above are for Juniors and Seniors

402. Problems in Roman History I. (3) (Excl).
Section 001 – The End of the Roman Republic. By the middle of the second century B.C. Rome had expanded her authority across the Mediterranean; by the middle of the first century the Roman empire had collapsed into civil war among its great generals. This course will analyze this process of disintegration by focusing on translations of original sources by Sallust, Cicero, Plutarch, and Julius Caesar, as well as some modern scholarship and fiction. Topics to be discussed include aristocratic values, agrarian legislation, the social role of armies, the nature of Roman imperialism, its consequences at Rome, and popular unrest at Rome. All classes will be discussions of the readings with occasional short lectures. Final grade is based on participation in discussions and a series of papers. No prerequisites; everyone welcome. Cost:2, maybe 1 WL:1 (Van Dam)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

408(430). Byzantine Empire, 284-867. (3). (Excl).
A lecture course which provides a survey of the history of the later Roman Empire from the reforms of Diocletian that paved the way out of the crisis of the third century, through Constantine's move east and the conversion to Christianity (entering the Byzantine period), Justinian, Heraclius on through the Amorion Dynasty which came to a close with the murder of Michael the Sot in 867. The course will stress political history, giving considerable attention as well to religious history (conversion to Christianity, the great theological disputes over the relationship between God the Father and the son as well as the relationship between the human and divine natures in Christ culminating in the Church councils of Nicea and Chalcedon, the rise of monasticism and Iconoclasm), administrative reforms (Diocletian's and Constantine's reforms, the reforms of the seventh century culminating in the Theme system), demographic changes and foreign relations (Goths, the Slavic and Bulgar invasions, relations with the Bulgars, relations with the Persians and Arabs in the East and later with the Franks and Charlemagne). No background is assumed. Requirements: a midterm written hour-exam. One ten page paper and a final examination. Paper topics are tailored to individual interests. (J. Fine)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

420. Modern Germany. No credit for those who have completed or are enrolled in History 418 or 419. (3). (SS).
This course explores the changing meanings of "Germany" between the foundation of the German Empire in 1866-71 and the reunification of Germany in 1990. It will approach German history through a succession of themes organized chronologically, including: problems of political development under the Kaiserreich; World War I and the German Revolution; the instabilities of democracy during the Weimar Republic; state and society under Nazism; war, race, and Judeocide; divided Germany and reunification. Themes will be treated historiographically. Attention will be paid to political, social, cultural, and economic history. Students will be evaluated by class attendance and participation, reading, midterm and final exam, and a critical term paper. Instruction will be via lectures and discussion. An optional LAC (Language Across the Curriculum) section may be added if there is enough student interest. (Eley)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

433. Imperial Russia. (4). (SS).
A history of Imperial Russia from Peter the Great to World War I, with emphasis on the problems of modernization, political institutions, economic development, and the revolutionary movement. Lectures, supplemented by discussion section. (Rosenberg)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

440/ACABS 413/Anthro. 442. Ancient Mesopotamia. Junior standing. (3). (HU).
See Ancient Civilizations and Biblical Studies 413. (Yoffee)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

442/AAPTIS 461. The First Millennium of the Islamic Near East. Junior standing. (3). (Excl).
See AAPTIS 461. (Bonner/Lindner)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

444. Inner Asia, Russia, and China. One course in Russian, Chinese, or Near Eastern history. (3). (Excl).
A survey of Inner Asian history and its connections with the wider world. Inner Asian affairs have impinged and imposed upon the histories of the Near East, East Asia, and Russia. Besides the present importance of this vast area, the past importance of nomads in the history of Eurasia justifies a course focusing on the history of nomadism from the nomad's point of view. Among the topics to be covered are: the rise of nomadism and the nature of nomadic politics; the great nomadic enterprises: Scythians, Hsuing-Nu, Huns, Turks, and Mongols; the conflict of religions in Inner Asia; the spread of Tibetan Buddhism and the decline of nomadism; the expansion of the Russian and Ching empires; the "Great Game" and the erection of buffer states in Asia; the communist impact on Inner Asia; the problems and promise of independence. (Lindner)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

446/CAAS 446. Africa to 1850. (3). (SS).
The course is an introduction to the peoples and cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. It begins with a survey of the origins of man and early African civilizations and concludes with the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Check Times, Location, and Availability

456. Mughal India. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Mughal India in the Wider World. This course covers the region of South Asia from about 1500 to 1800, that is the centuries preceding the British conquest of India, and the transition to British rule. We will begin with a comparative Ottoman-Safavid introduction, that will place the Mughal empire in the context of state-building in the Islamic world, and proceed to a survey of historiography from Sir Jadunath Sarkar to the "Aligarh school" of the 1960s. We will cover various political, ideological and economic themes, including the nature of the fiscal regime, the issue of the degree of centralisation of the empire, forms of legitimation and the vocabulary of political discourse, as well as relations between religious groups (e.g., the Sufi orders) and the imperial structure. We will also address recent work by Simon Digby, Muzaffar Alam, the instructor, and others on cultural questions: travel accounts and other first-person accounts, the relations between Persian and the vernaculars, the character and meanings of court-patronised art and architecture. The impact of European (Portuguese, Dutch, English) presence will be analyzed, as will the question of the possible existence of forms of "proto-Orientalism." Readings will include: Irfan Habib and Tapan Raychaudhuri (eds.) The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. I; J.F. Richards, The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India, vol. I.5); Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds.), The Mughal State, 1526-1750; Kate Teltscher, India Inscribed. Students will be expected to write a research paper, and a short book review or comment on a published text of the period (e.g., The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, or The Memoirs of Jahangir). (Subrahmanyam)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

457. History of India, 1750-1900. (3). (Excl).
This is a lecture survey of the history of India in the period of British rule, and the beginnings of Indian nationalism. Topics covered will include issues of the formation of colonial knowledge, forms of Indian cultural responses to foreign rule, relations of gender, caste and class, economic and political structures of colonial rule, and the invention of the idea of an Indian nation-state.
Check Times, Location, and Availability

461. The American Revolution. (3). (SS).
An intensive course on the background to the Revolution, its progress, and the changes it wrought in American life. Emphasis on America's mid-18th-century socio-economic transformation, Britain's reorganization of her empire in the 1760s and 1770s, colonial opposition, and the emergence of a uniquely American ideology. Subsequent topics include the progress and disclocations of the military conflict, the attempt at confederation, and the culmination of the Revolutionary movement in the iteration and early development of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. (Hancock)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

466. The United States, 1901-1933. (4). (SS).
The course is concerned with the progressive era, the era of World War I, the 1920's, and the Great Depression. The emphasis is on political history and foreign relations, but considerable attention is given to social, cultural, and economic factors and to the position of minority groups and women in American society. There is no textbook for the course, but several paperbacks are assigned. Course requirements include a midterm, a final examination, and a paper. History 466 is a lecture/discussion course. Undergraduates electing this course must register for Section 001 and one discussion section. Cost:3 WL:1-3 (S. Fine)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

476/Anthro. 416. Latin America: The Colonial Period. (4). (SS).
This course will examine the colonial period in Latin American history from the initial Spanish and Portuguese contact and conquest to the nineteenth-century wars of independence. It will focus on the process of interaction between Indians and Europeans, tracing the evolution of a range of colonial societies in the New World. Thus we will examine the indigenous background to conquest as well as the nature of the settler community. We will also look at the shifting uses of land and labor, and at the importance of class, race, gender, and ethnicity. The method of instruction is lecture and discussion. Each student will write a short critical review and a final paper of approximately 10 to 12 pages. There will be a midterm and a final. (Frye)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

478. Topics in Latin American History. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Law, History, and Processes of Social Change: Perspectives on Race and Citizenship from Latin America and the United States. This seminar explores the relationship of law, politics, and society in periods of political and social transformation, focusing on the histories of the end of slavery in the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the United States, male former slaves became full political participants for the period of Reconstruction, but retrenchment soon followed. Shortly after slavery was abolished Cuba, by contrast, a large scale cross-racial nationalist movement emerged, whose legacy was a strong claim to citizenship by Afro-Cuban veterans. What accounts for these divergent histories of the move from slavery to democratic politics? The readings will include primary and secondary sources on the historical episodes involved, as well as general theoretical writings on the questions presented. Admission will be by permission of the instructors only. Cost 3 WL 3 (R. Scott, R. Pildes)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

486(509). Social History of Early Modern England. Hist. 220 and junior standing are recommended. (3). (Excl).
This course surveys the social history of England from the later Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution. Its principal concern is with the course of social change and its effects on the behavior and attitudes of men and women of all social classes. It will explain how population rise, inflation and the Reformation led to increasing social and cultural polarization, and also examine institutions that experienced comparatively little change, such as the family, and explore why. A great deal of attention will be given to the fundamental social hierarchies of the period - status, gender, and age – so that the values of the period are understandable. The political events that affected social relations, most notably the English Revolution of 1640-1660, will be discussed. (MacDonald)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

493/Econ. 493. European Economic History. Econ. 101 or 102. (3). (Excl).
See Economics 493.
Check Times, Location, and Availability

494/Econ. 494. Topics in Economic History. Econ. 101 and 102. (3). (Excl).
See Economics 494. (Gill)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

A course number in the 500s does not indicate a more difficult or advanced course than one in the 400s.

531/AAPTIS 587. Studies in Pahlavi and Middle Persian. (3). (Excl).
See AAPTIS 587. (Windfuhr)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

546/AAPTIS 495/WS 471/Religion 496. Gender and Politics in Early Modern Islamdom. Students should preferably have had one course in Islamic Studies. (3). (Excl).
See AAPTIS 495. (Babayan)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

551. Social and Intellectual History of Modern China. (3). (Excl).
In this course we will treat a selected set of major aspects of Chinese history from the 18th century to the present. A central task will be to sort out the roots, processes, and consequences of the Chinese revolution. We shall examine the testimony of conservatives as well as revolutionaries, of Confucians as well as Marxists. Among the topics will be: secret societies and religious cults; trends in Confucian thought and the role of popular culture; Christian missions and imperialism; nationalism and ethnicity; women's liberation; cultural iconoclasm and neotraditionalism; Marxism and the Chinese peasant, Maoism and its debunking. Previous familiarity with the broad outline of events will be useful but is not required. Readings will be drawn from analytical literature and translated documents. Participants will be asked to write two papers and take a final exam. Cost:3 WL:4 (Young)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

569/LHC 412 (Business Administration). American Business History. Junior, senior, or graduate standing. (3). (Excl).
A study of the origins, development, and growth of business. The course traces the beginnings of business enterprise in Europe and describes business activities during the American colonial, revolutionary, and pre-Civil War periods. It then discusses economic aspects of the Civil War, post-Civil War industrial growth, business consolidation and the anti-trust movement, economic aspects of World War I, business conditions during the 1920s, effects of the 1929 depression and the New Deal upon business, economic aspects of World War II, and a multitude of recent business developments and trends. Cost:1 WL:3 (Lewis)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

578/LACS 400/CAAS 478. Ethnicity and Culture in Latin America. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits.
Section 001 – Gender, Status, and Law in Latin American History. This seminar, open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates, will examine the ways historians have explained the relationships between gender and race or ethnicity and how they have worked to regulate family structures, establish social difference, and legitimize relations of power in diverse regions and periods of Latin American history. The course will focus on the ways that legal documents or juridical literature help us understand the ways gender, honor and social status (based on class, ethnicity, or race) were redefined after Independence, yet remained pertinent legal and social concepts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thus, we will look first at the ways honor and status were defined and policed by colonial legal systems, and then examine how these concepts were changed in the modern, liberal legal codes that replaced colonial legislation. The last few weeks of class will be devoted to reading new, mostly unpublished scholarship and attending a conference on this topic that will be held at the University of Michigan. The conference will bring together a group of scholars from the U.S. and Latin America whose work focuses on the topic "Honor, Status, and Law in Modern Latin America." (Caulfield)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

582. History of Criminal Law in England and America. (3). (Excl).
This year the course will mainly trace the history of criminal justice in America. It will give only very brief attention to the English background. It deals with political and social theories regarding the institutions and ideas of the criminal law and with the relationship between society and legal norms. Among the subjects included in the scheme of the course are: the history of the criminal trial jury, its relationship to other institutions of the criminal law and its role with respect to the interaction of social attitudes and the formal processes of the criminal law; the use of the criminal law for counteracting disintegration of basic social institutions; political trials; theories of punishment; the development in the United States of constitutionally protected rights of defendants in criminal cases. This course is intended for students interested in Anglo-American history, for those interested in government and law, for those interested in the history of the relationship between social institutions and theories of criminal sanctions, and for those interested in the origins and development of the central ideas and institutions of American constitutional and legal history. Course requirements: twelve-pg., take-home, midterm essay based in part on documents, and a final examination. (Green)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

587. History of History I. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Time and Space. For Fall Term, 1998, this section is offered jointly with Anthropology 458.002. (Verdery/Cohen)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

591. Topics in European History. Upper-class standing. (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.
Section XXX – Going to the Fair. Whether it be the school field-trip, the Sunday visit, or the tourist excursion, when one crosses over the museum's threshold, one enters into a space marking a clear point of separation from everyday life and into the sanctity of an imagined community of fellow worshipers. As William Hazlitt said about the National Gallery in 1824, "to visit this holy of holies is like going on a pilgrimage – it is an act of devotion performed at the shrine of Art." The site of the museum can be likened to a place of worship, the visitor to a pilgrim, and the objects collected within its walls, to holy relics placed on view for the initiated to worship. But how did museums come to be endowed with this aura of holiness? What relationship - if any – did (or do) they have with religious ritual and spiritual devotion? Where did the first collections originate? And indeed, why did people begin to collect at all? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this class. We will explore the historical role that museums and museum collections have played in maintaining – and defining – the cultural values (and power) of elite or privileged groups. At the same time, by examining related institutions, practices and events, such as exhibitions, fairs and carnivals, we will also explore sites of resistance to these "official" values. We will read about festivals in ancient Greece and Rome, about the trade in Saints' relics in the middle ages, about charivaris (festivals) in which women became men and men women, about court spectacles and cabinets of curiosity; we will also read about the very first museums, about practice of collecting and travel, about colonial politics, and evolutionary theory; we will end our historical examination of the museum by trying to understand its place in the constitution of modernity itself. (Wintroub)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

592. Topics in Asian History. Upper-class standing. (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.
Section 001 – History of Burma. This course examines the history of Burma, now Myanmar, from earliest times to the present day. It is structured largely in terms of historiographic debates or problems for which alternative interpretations are available: What was the nature of classical civilization? Why did the classical civilization of Pagan decline? What was the role of maritime trade in subsequent development? Why was the colonial era so traumatic for Burma, and why did the Burmese fare so poorly in the modern economy? What are the sources of the army's strength – conversely why has the democracy movement been emasculated – and what does the future hold? Two research papers, regular participation in discussions, no formal exams. Open to any students with at least one course in Asian history. Cost:2 WL:3 (Lieberman)

Section 002 – Let the Shadow Warrior Speak. Picked up at an execution ground, the deceased overlord's look-alike was fitted into the role of 'kagemusha' ("Shadow Warrior"). Now the pillar of the Takeda house and a guardian of its strength and honor, the former thief viewed the world from new heights. We will see the film, KAGEMUSHA, and explore the historical time and place in which the Shadow Warrior might have found himself. The course investigates the social and political meanings of the "Country-at-War," Japan's age of turmoil (16th century) which continues to stimulate the creative imagination of film directors and novelists. Issues to be explored include: the [real] history of the samurai, technology and social meaning of wars and battles, economic development and classes, the role of peasants, gender relations, and the samurai-sponsored arts. The class combines lectures and discussion. Grades are based on class participation and papers. Graduate students write an additional paper. No prerequisites. Cost:2 WL:4 (Tonomura)
Check Times, Location, and Availability

593. Topics in U.S. History. Upper-class standing. (3). (Excl). May be elected for credit twice.
Section 001 – Black Nationalism in Comparative Context. Black nationalism is often viewed as a distinct form of nationalism, one which is contingent on "race" rather than "nation." But as recent scholarship has demonstrated, concepts of race are intimately connected to nationalist ideologies; furthermore, as a politics of self-determination, Black nationalism shares much in common with other nationalist movements. The mission of this course, then, is two-fold: it juxtaposes nineteenth and twentieth century African-American nationalisms with other nationalisms as it considers the role of gender and sexuality within nationalist projects. We will survey nationalist movements across the globe in order to establish an analytical framework and we shall assess ways in which various collectivities – ethnic, racial, religious, economic, cultural – constitute a "nation" given certain circumstances. Finally, this seminar foregrounds gender and sexuality since reproduction of the collective is integral to many nationalist endeavors. Assignments include brief critical summaries of readings, short essays, and a final paper. Cost:2, maybe 3
Check Times, Location, and Availability

100-199

200-299

300-399

400-599

University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | LS&A Bulletin Index

This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall

Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.