Courses in History (Division 390)

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

100-Level Courses are Survey Courses and Introductory Courses for First- and Second-Year Students

110. Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Europe. (4). (SS).
The first half of the European history survey course covers a sweeping period of over a millennium. The course is designed to expose students to general outlines and chronology of European history and to encourage critical, skeptical analytical thinking. To anchor our flying coverage of this long and varied time, we will focus on developments in culture (art, architecture, literature), social organization (family, community, gender relations), and in political organization and theory. Readings will include a textbook, primary sources, challenging interpretive essays. Lecture time will be punctuated by small-group discussions, and active participation is strongly encouraged. Slides will frequently accompany lectures. Cost:3 WL:1
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121/Asian Studies 121. Great Traditions of East Asia. (4). (HU).
This is an introduction to the civilizations of China, Japan, Korea, and Inner Asia. It aims to provide an overview of changing traditions from ancient to early modern times (ca. 1660 AD) by outlining broad trends which not only transformed each society, economy, and culture but also led to the development of this region into distinctly different modern nations. The development of state Confucianism, the spread of Buddhism, the functions of the scholar and the warrior, the impact of the military empires of Inner Asia, and the superiority of pre-modern Asian science and technology are some of the topics we will cover. In addition to the required textbooks, we will read contemporary accounts and view slides and films to acquire intimate appreciation of these cultures. Course requirements include successful completion of: quizzes given in sections; four major tests given in class; one report/project (5 pp. plus bibliography and notes). Cost:2 WL:3
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132/AAPTIS 100/ACABS 100/HJCS 100. Peoples of the Middle East. (4). (HU).
See AAPTIS 100. (Babayan)
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151/Asian Studies 111. South Asian Civilization. (4). (HU).
This course is an introduction to the civilization of India, that is, the region of South Asia consisting of the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. We will begin with the first Indian civilization, that of the Indus Valley, and go on to the Vedic age, the formation of empires and the classical civilization of India, its social organization, arts, and sciences. We will then examine the encounter of India with Islamic and European civilization, and the formation of the independent nation-states of today. Course requirements include short papers, midterm, and final exam. (Trautmann)
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160. United States to 1865. (4). (SS).
This lecture/discussion course will examine central issues and events in the history of the territories that became the United States, and the peoples who lived there, from the late 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries. Among the topics that will be considered are the territorial expansions of Europeans into the Americas; the creation of Anglo-American colonies; the social, political, and cultural orders of British North America; the creation of an independent American republic in the Revolution; and the destruction of that first republic in the War Between the States. The required readings will include both primary and secondary sources, and will be examined in weekly discussion sections. There will be both a midterm and a final examination, and active class participation will be expected in the sections. (Vinovskis)
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161. United States, 1865 to the Present. (4). (SS).
This course is an undergraduate survey of U.S. history from 1865 to the present. We will examine major social, cultural, political, and economic events that shaped the United States after the Civil War. We will focus particularly on: Reconstruction, Westward Movement, Industrialization, Progressivism, World War I, Depression, the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Sixties, and Reagan Republicanism. This survey introduces the students to urban, labor, ethnic, and women's history of the time period through extensive use of primary sources. The students will be examined in weekly discussion sections over their readings of both primary and secondary sources. There will be a midterm and a final. Active class participation will be expected in the sections. Cost:3 WL:1
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195. The Writing of History. (4). (Introductory Composition). This course may not be included in a history concentration.
"The Writing of History" courses offer students the opportunity to learn writing through the study of historical texts, debates, and events. Each "Writing of History" section will study a different era, region, and topic in the past, for the common purpose of learning how history is written and how to write about it. Students will read the work of modern historians as well as documents and other source materials from the past, such as historical novels, letters, diaries, or memoirs. In each case the goal will be to learn how to construct effective arguments, and how to write college-level analytic papers. History 195 satisfies the first-year writing requirements. Each section will enroll a maximum of twenty students.

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196. First-Year Seminar. (3). (SS).
Section 001 – Court Narratives: Gender and Justice in the United States. This seminar will focus on a series of trials and other matters of law that illuminate the history of women and gender relations in the United States. Beginning with prosecutions involving slander, rape, infanticide, illicit sex, heresy, and witchcraft in 17th-century British and Spanish colonies and ending with 20th-century legal battles over employment discrimination, reproductive rights, sexual harassment, and surrogate mothering, our approach will be to examine judicial proceedings as sites of competing "stories in the law" told about gender, race, class, and ethnicity. A primary concern will be how these stories have been narrated in and beyond the courtroom. We will also ask what they tell us about continuities and changes in constructions of womanhood and manhood, in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and in the relations of power within families and among different groups of men and women. (Karlsen)

Section 002: SUBJECT? Students will use the techniques of historical analysis to unravel how gender, race, and class have functioned in American History. We will also explore the historiography of these subjects – how historians have identified, analyzed, and written about them and how approaches have changed over time. Students will be introduced to the concept of social construction – the idea that race, gender and class structures are not fixed, universal biological entities, but are shaped and determined by cultural values, time, and place. They will also be urged to think about how these categories intersect. This seminar is intended to be a small reading and discussion class, so regular attendance and participation are mandatory. There is a strong writing component. Cost:2 (Morantz-Sanchez)

Section 003 – Nationality and the Soviet Union. Beginning with the question, what is a nation?, this seminar will examine nationality in the Soviet Union and will consider the three interrelated topics of national identity, nationality policy, and nationalism. Particular attention will be given to the approaches and policies of Lenin and Stalin, their consequences, and to the experience of nationalities in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. As a case study, we will examine in detail the origins, evolution, and outcome of a movement in support of national self-determination in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1988 and 1990. Topics to be explored in depth include the movement in the context of Gorbachev's reforms; the movement in comparison with other national movements in the Soviet Union; and the role of historical memory in nationalisms of the period. The relationship between nationalism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union also will be considered. Readings will include primary and secondary sources. Class presentations and papers will be required. (Platz)

Section 004 – Making the Future. One of the enduring myths about the United States is that it is a country that has no past, only a present and a future. This freshman seminar will explore elements of that myth by examining various ways in which the future has been imagined and produced, from the Puritans' city on a hill to the 1939 New York World's Fair to the Microserfs' global cybernetic village. Using a range of kinds of sources - including diaries, literature, politics, art, science, technology, and film – drawn from various moments in the nation's past, we will investigate how Americans have sought to make and remake American culture and society. A particular interest will be in analyzing whether Americans have been at all successful in escaping the past, or whether it is precisely various experiences of the past that have helped to shape imaginings of the future. (Carson)
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197. First-Year Seminar. (3). (HU).
Section 001- European Intellectual History, from the French Revolution to the First World War. This course will consider major ideas and intellectual movements, principally in Western Europe, from the French Revolution to the outbreak of the First World War. The topics will include: Nationalism; Liberalism; Romanticism; Darwinism; the Rise of Industrialization and Technology; Militarism; Utopian Socialism; Marxism; and Democratic Political Movements. There will also be a consideration of the rise of modern psychological and sociological thought. The method to be employed will include both lecture and class discussion. The student will be required to do a series of written reports on the various topics to be covered in this class. Readings will include both original texts and documents, as well as a general narrative history textbook treating leading historical events. WL:3 (Becker)

Section 002 – Introduction to Maritime History. Students in this seminar will consider various perspectives on the history of maritime activity in the early modern world – with special attention to issues of race, class, and gender. Texts for the course will include monographs on sailors, navigation, and exploration; community and cultural studies; and fiction. (J.Scott)
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100-199

200-299

300-399

400-599

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