COURSES
Spring 2022 Course Descriptions: 100-400 Level
SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE! Always check the University online schedule for the latest changes.
HIS 101-01: The Contemporary World
10143 MWF 10:00-10:50
Jeff Jones
This course examines the world by region—Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America—with a number of themes in mind: the Cold War; the rise and fall of communism; nationalism; violent vs. non-violent resistance to oppression; the rise of terrorism; gender relations; colonialism/de-colonization; racial/ethnic/religious diversity and conflict; and the international economy.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; MFND
HIS 204: History of Africa from 1870
10148 ONLINE asynchronous
Colleen Kriger
When, how, and why did European nations colonize the African continent? And, an equally important question, What is the legacy of European colonialism in Africa today? This course examines major themes in recent African history, and discusses theoretical debates in the history of Africa during the colonial period and since. Topics to be covered include: the imposition of colonial rule and wars of resistance; styles of colonial rule; theories of underdevelopment and the effects of colonial policies; Pan-Africanism, nationalism, and independence movements; the creation of apartheid; decolonization; and issues facing independent Africa such as neo-colonialism and the dismantling of apartheid. These themes will be studied with reference to the regions of west, east, central, and southern Africa.
Field: Wider World. Markers: ADS; GHP; GN; GPM; MGIL
HIS 206-01: "Women, Gender, and Power in the Premodern Atlantic World"
10321 206-01 TR 8:00-9:15 a.m.
Jewel Parker
This course surveys women's and gender history in the Atlantic World up to 1750. This course explores how social and cultural expectations for gender roles informed concepts of power, reproductive and physical labor, family dynamics, religion, economics, and politics as exchanges of peoples, ideas, and goods circulated the Atlantic Ocean. Focusing on these themes and the lives of women living in Africa, Europe, and the Americas, this course will examine questions such as "How were women’s lives affected by European exploration and the growth of empires?," "How did women display power within their families and communities?," and "How did the lives of single women differ from the lives of married women?" Through answering these questions, learners will develop a more thorough understanding of how ideas about gender, sexuality, race, and class informed significant developments across the Atlantic, such as European exploration, intercultural interactions, the Atlantic slave trade, and the ways women worked within and pushed against societal boundaries to control their own lives and gain visibility within their communities. Learners will analyze primary sources from diverse perspectives that introduce the controversies, trends, events, and actors in the premodern period. In addition to exploring women and gender as a historical concept, learners will also learn analytical skills employed in the study of history.
Field: Europe. Markers: GHP; GL; GPM; MHFA
HIS 206-02: "Cultures and Trade in World History"
14613 206-02 MW 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Kaitlyn Williams
This course will survey global history from early human history through around 1600. By exploring the emergence and development of society and cultures in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the course will show connections between groups people, the rise of religions, the formation of social structures, and more. In addition, as the course progresses, it will also explore the impact of trade from the Silk Road, Columbian Exchange, and more. These trade routes had a profound impacts on cultures, religions, economies, and political structures.
Field: Europe. Markers: GHP; GL; GPM; MHFA
HIS 207-01 and -02: "Islamic Civilization, 600-1200 C.E."
MWF 11:00-11:50 and 12:00-12:50
Asa Eger
In the middle of the seventh century, Arab tribes coalesced and emerged from the Arabian Peninsula, conquering an enormous expanse of territory that reached from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the deserts of India in less than one hundred years. In the following centuries, Islamic civilization took shape, a dynamic process framed by Islamic ideals yet influenced by the many cultures this civilization embraced. The products of this civilization included magnificent monuments, extensive works of literature and science, far-flung trade routes that connected to east Asia, and new agricultural and technological innovations. This course will familiarize students with the history of the rise and spread of Islamic civilization as a complex and interdependent process that occurred throughout the Near East, North Africa, Spain, and Central Asia. We contextualize this process in the world before Islam and the rise of the Prophet Muhammad at the start of the seventh century and continue until the time of the Crusaders at the end of twelfth century. Our approach will be interdisciplinary. We will look at the history, art and architecture, archaeology, environment, literature, and religion of Islamic civilization.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GN; GPM; IGS; MGIL
The lecture portions of HIS 207-01 and HIS 207-02 meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11-11:50. Smaller discussion groups meet on Fridays at 11:00-11:50 and 12:00-12:50.
10322 207-01 meets MW at 11:00-11:50, F at 11:00-11:50
13992 207-02 meets MW at 11:00-11:50, F at 12:00-12:50
HIS 207-03: "The Caribbean in World History: From Columbus to Haiti"
13993 ONLINE asynchronous
Linda Rupert
From Columbus's misguided attempt to find a route to Asia, to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution (the world's only successful slave revolt) three hundred years later, the Caribbean was at the center of early modern world history. This course explores major moments in the region's history, their relationship to wider historical processes, and the impact on the lives of ordinary people. Topics include piracy, smuggling, the transatlantic slave trade, and plantation slavery.
Field: Wider World. Markers: ADS; GHP; GN; GPM; IGS; MGIL
HIS 207-04: "Empires and the Atlantic World to 1800"
10323 CHANGED ONLINE asynchronous March 3 to May 2, 2022Ashley Gilbert
The central focus of this course will be on pre-colonization societies, colonization, and the Age of Revolutions while giving agency to Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. These three groups played vital roles in the creation of an Atlantic World. From contact in 1492 to the Haitian Revolution, the interactions and decisions of these groups had global impacts. This course will not only look at the construction of an Atlantic World, but also the preservation, changes, and growth of cultures and societies.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GN; GPM; IGS; MGIL
HIS 208: "The Cold War in Fact and Film"
10153 TR 11:00-12:15
Mark Moser
In this course, we will search for answers and a better understanding of our recent past as we examine the major events of the Cold War from three different historical perspectives: primary source documents, scholarly secondary sources, and finally, several feature films containing Cold War themes. Major topics examined will include, but not be limited to, the origins of the Cold War, Soviet and American ideology, the nuclear arms race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and numerous proxy wars fought around the globe. The primary objective of the course will be to have students work to separate historical fact from historical fiction regarding this major event in world history. Field: Europe. Markers: GHP; GL; GMO; IGS; MHFA
HIS 209-01: "Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century"
10325 TR 2:00-3:15
Mark Moser
This course will begin with excerpts from Hannah Arendt's 1951 study The Origins of Totalitarianism and proceed to examine totalitarian regimes chronologically throughout the 20th century. We will study totalitarianism on both sides of the political spectrum and seek to understand why it proved to be both resilient and persistent. Relying heavily on primary source documents, we will also examine the common methodologies used by totalitarian regimes to seize unlimited power.
Field: Wider World. GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
HIS 209-02 - "Women in Modern World History"
14505 ONLINE asynchronous
Katharine Duckworth
In this course, we will explore some of the major themes in the study of women and world history since 1750, focusing primarily on Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the United States. We will consider how women's experiences have changed over time and differed according to location. The course will examine four topics in-depth a) the Atlantic slave system b) the rise of industrial capitalism c) women and imperialism and d) women's political activism. Students will learn how to analyze a variety of primary sources and evaluate historical debates. Students will analyze how researching women and gender changes our understanding of major topics in world history and sheds light on contemporary politics. Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
HIS 210: Human Rights in Modern World History
MWF 12:00-12:50 and 1:00-1:50
Mark Elliott
This course provides a conceptual and historical introduction to the idea of human rights, surveying major developments in the advocacy of human rights around the globe from 1760 to the present. Focusing on a selection of important events, historical figures, and international issues of global significance, this course explores human rights in international law, transnational movements, and global causes. By understanding how claims of "humanity" arise from grassroots struggles, this course will widen the historical inquiry on this topic from a World, rather than Eurocentric, perspective. The concept of "human rights" has not remained static over time; it has been a contested idea and the subject of debate and disagreement among its advocates as well as its detractors. Placing the debates around, and the uses of, "human rights" in historical context will be the main endeavor of this course.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
The lecture portions of HIS 210-01 and HIS 210-02 meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 12-12:50. Smaller discussion groups meet on Fridays at 12:00-12:50 and 1:00-1:50.
10326 210-01 meets MW at 12:00-12:50, F at 12:00-12:50
13916 210-01H (Honors section) meets MW at 12:00-12:50, F at 1:00-1:50
13968 210-02 meets MW at 12:00-12:50, F at 1:00-1:50
HIS 211: United States History to 1865
General survey of American history from colonization through the Civil War. All sections are Writing Intensive.
Field: United States. Markers: GHP; GMO; MDEQ; CW; WI
HIS 211-01 and -02: MWF 11:00-11:50 and 12:00-12:50
Watson Jennison
The lecture portions of HIS 211-01 and HIS 211-02 meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11-11:50. Smaller discussion groups meet on Fridays at 11:00-11:50 and 12:00-12:50.
10327 211-01 meets MW at 11:00-11:50, F at 11:00-11:50
10328 211-02 meets MW at 11:00-11:50, F at 12:00-12:50
10329 211-03: TR 9:30-10:45 Mandy Cooper
HIS 212: United States History since 1865
General survey of American history from Reconstruction to the present. All sections are Writing Intensive. Field: United States. Markers: GHP; GMO; MDEQ CW; WI
10330 212-01 MWF 12:00-12:50 Stuart Marshall
10331 212-02 TR 6:00-7:15 p.m. Robert Skelton
10332 212-03 ONLINE asynchronous Jonathan Baier
HIS 213-01: "America's Property: Slave Resistance, Protest, and Rebellion in History and Memory"
10362 ONLINE asynchronous
Felton Foushee
This course will explore historical figures and historical acts associated with disrupting, and at times attempting to destroy, the institution of slavery. Although the course focuses on slavery in the United States we will at points explore the practice beyond our shores in order to provide more historical context. By carefully reading primary and secondary source documents and reviewing selected media productions students will evaluate the various methods of dissent slaves and abolitionist used to interrupt the institution of American slavery. Was the act of working slow or laying down one's tools, when the overseer was out of sight, rebellious? Are Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown recognizable in our collective historical memory? In answering questions such as this students will gain a clearer understanding of the nuances associated with acts of defiance, while also learning analytical skills that will enhance their study of history and other subjects.
Field: United States. Markers: GHP; GMO; MDEQ
HIS 217: The World of the Twentieth Century (1900-1945)
Political, social, and economic forces affecting Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. 1900-1945.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
10363 217-01 ONLINE asynchronous Mark Moser
11080 217-02 ONLINE asynchronous Mark Moser Winter session Dec. 13, 2021 - Jan. 20, 2022 only
13972 217-03 ONLINE asynchronous Connor Harney
HIS 218: The World since 1945
This class will examine global issues in the contemporary world, focusing mainly on the post-World War II period, from the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, to the complex, high-tech, evolving world of today. We will examine some of the important political, economic, social, and cultural changes of the second half of the twentieth century and how these changes have shaped the world we live in today.
Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
10364 218-01 TR 9:30-10:45 David Wight
11081 218-02 ONLINE asynchronous Christine Flood Winter session Dec. 13, 2021 - Jan. 20, 2022 only
14614 218-03 CHANGED ONLINE asynchronous March 3 to May 2, 2022 Ashley Loper-Nowak
14615 218-04 MW 5:00-6:15 p.m. Kelsey Walker
HIS 221: Medieval Legacy
MWF 9:00-9:50 and 10:00-10:50
Richard Barton
Survey of Western European history from the end of the Roman Empire to the fifteenth century exploring such varied aspects of the medieval experience as pilgrimage, crusade, peasant life, the emergence of national states, and the rise of the university. Field: Europe. Markers: GHP; GL; GPM; MHFA
The lecture portion of this class meets online on Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00-9:50. Smaller discussion groups meet on Fridays at 9:00-9:50 and 10:00-10:50.
10365 221-01 meets MW at 9:00-9:50, F at 9:00-9:50
10366 221-02 meets MW at 9:00-9:50, F at 10:00-10:50
HIS 222: Europe 1400-1789
10367 TR 8:00-9:15
Abigail Shimer
Survey of major socio-economic, political, and cultural trends in Europe from the Renaissance to the French Revolution.
Field: Europe. Markers: GHP; GL; GPM; MHFA
HIS 240: (Dis)order and Progress: Latin America since 1810
10368 MWF 10:00-10:50
Denisa Jashari
In this course, we will explore Latin American history from independence to the late twentieth century. This course is broad, geographically and temporally, but no prior knowledge of Latin American history is necessary. Drawing upon primary documents, audio and visual materials, and secondary historical literature, this course will explore the nation-building process and the ways that ordinary people interacted with the state. We will also analyze the construction of racial, class, and gender hierarchies in various Latin American contexts. We draw from case studies and national histories, but we will place these historical moments within a global perspective, elucidating how Latin American actors shaped imperial practices, nation-state formation, revolutionary and counterrevolutionary dynamics during the Cold War, and innovations in urban design, technology, and culture. In doing so, we will invert common perceptions of the region and understand Latin American actors in their own terms. Field: Wider World. Markers: GHP; GMO; GN; IGS; MGIL
HIS 302: Race and Segregation
10369 MW 2:00-3:15 Watson Jennison
Race and segregation in the United States since the Civil War, including the origins of the Jim Crow laws, the civil rights movement, black urbanization, the Harlem Renaissance, black nationalism, and the African American experience in America.
Field: United States. Markers: ADS; GMO
HIS 315: Witchcraft and Magic in European History
10370 TR 11:00-12:15 Jodi Bilinkoff
You may have heard about the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. But, did you realize that by that time tens of thousands of people, mostly women, had been tried and executed as witches throughout western Europe? In this course we will examine the intellectual, religious, legal, and social factors that led to a "Witch Craze" in the period between 1480 and 1700. Field: Europe. Marker: WGS
HIS 317: Creating a Public Past: History Beyond the University
10372 TR 9:30-10:45 Torren Gatson
Explores the place of the past in contemporary life and
introduces the field of public history: the effort to make history for and with audiences beyond the university.
Field: United States.
HIS 328: U.S. Women's History to 1865
10389 TR 12:30-1:45 Mandy Cooper
A history of women in the U.S. to the Civil War. Topics include Native American gender systems, midwives, witchcraft, women's labor and education, families, slavery, and social reform.
Field: United States. Marker: WGS
HIS 334: United States Environmental History
10390 TR 11:00-12:15 Greg O'Brien
In HIS 334 you will examine the interaction of humans and nature in American history from before European arrival to today. The approach will be roughly chronological, with emphasis on selected issues, events, and persons. The course will consider three large themes: 1. The way that Americans (of different sorts) have thought about nature and the relationship between people and nature. 2. The history of the human impact on nature and of nature’s impact on people in the area now known as the United States. 3. The roles of government, industrialization, pollution, resource management, and the modern environmental movement in shaping the way that Americans interact with the environment.
Field: United States. Marker: ENV
HIS 347: History of North Carolina
11736 ONLINE asynchronous Carolyn Lindley
This is a survey course. It spans more than 400 years of state history - from colonization to the present. It is American history with the spotlight on North Carolina. Objectives of the course include an examination of:
- when, how, and why North Carolina developed as it did.
- How its actions and reactions were similar or different from the other states.
- How the development of its economic, social, and political structure determines present-day North Carolina with special emphasis on such topics as: a) the economy b) politics c) race relations.
HIS 349: The World at War, 1939-1945
10394 TR 3:30-4:45
Mark Moser
Emphasis on the political systems responsible for the Second World War; military establishments that fought it, the populations that suffered it, and sociopolitical and cultural changes it brought about.
Field: Europe. Marker: GL
HIS 378: Russian History since 1900
10395 MW 2:00-3:15
Jeff Jones
This introductory course examines Russian and Soviet history in the 20th century in two parts. Part I: "From Traditional Russia to the Civil War," looks at traditional Russian society and culture; developments in the late 19th century; and the upheavals in Russian society from the late tsarist period through World War I, the revolutions of 1917, and the civil war. Part II: "From the Rise of Joseph Stalin to post-Soviet Russia," emphasizes the impact of the Stalin Revolution, the purges, and WWII; the reformist course of de-Stalinization pursued by Nikita Khrushchev; neo-Stalinism under Leonid Brezhnev; the Soviet-Afghan War and Mikhail Gorbachev’s dramatic reforms in the 1980s; and the collapse of the USSR and post-Soviet Russia with an emphasis on the conflict in Chechnya. The course explores several themes: Russia’s relationship with the West; revolution and the role of the individual in history; the role of gender and class in Russian and Soviet society; and the role of ideology and socialism in theory and practice.
Field: Wider World. Marker: IGS
HIS 380: "Antioch Through the Ages"
10397 MW 3:30-4:45
Asa Eger
Antioch was unique among the great cities of the classical world for its position at the crossroads between the Mediterranean Sea and the Asian continent and for being a new foundation of the Greek age that shrunk almost to insignificance in the modern era. It was mainly because of these characteristics that Princeton undertook a major archaeological excavation of Antioch in the 1930s. The records, photographs and drawings of the expedition and the majority of objects uncovered were shipped home to Princeton, where they remain today, but the discoveries of the excavation were never properly analyzed or published. The focus of this course will be on the luxury villas situated in the suburb of Daphne outside of Antioch whose interiors were paved some of the most beautiful mosaic floors found in the Roman and early Byzantine worlds. Students in this course will get exclusive access to the Antioch excavation archives and artifacts in Princeton collections and will read primary sources and scholarly studies, complemented by talks from distinguished experts on the history and culture of the city and on research techniques for the study of site reports, ceramics, coins and mosaics. Each student will work on a research project related to the history of Daphne, to be presented in seminar form to the class and as a final paper. The course is open to undergraduates without prerequisites, particularly those studying History, Archaeology, Art History, Classics, and Religious Studies. Special provisions will be made for graduate students wishing to take the course for credit. History graduate students who wish to take the course for credit must register for HIS 692 with written permission.
Field: Wider World. Marker: IGS
HIS 390: History Internship
Field learning experience in public or applied history. Academic supervision provided by job supervisor. Assigned reading and written reports. May be repeated. Prerequisite: Consent of Director of Public History. Written permission needed to register. Contact Anne Parsons for information.
HIS 391: Historical Skills and Methods
Writing and Research Intensive. Prerequisites: History major or minor and completion of all 200-level requirements for the major.
This is a required course for all history majors (except social studies concentration candidates who complete HIS 430 for research methods). It serves as a prerequisite for the capstone course in the major. Students in the course address a variety of research problems in history using different sources and methods in preparation for HIS 411. Formal goals include: analyzing varieties of primary and secondary source materials; designing a project focus; finding and evaluating appropriate sources; learning citation methods; understanding how historiography can guide us to significant questions and methods.
Marker: CW; WI
10407 391-01 TR 12:30-1:45 David Wight
10409 391-02 MW 2:00-3:15 Denisa Jashari
HIS 392: The Holocaust: History and Meaning
10410 TR 9:30-10:45
Teresa Walch
This course examines the Holocaust on multiple scales - the local, national, continental, and global. The Holocaust had unique and contingent origins in Germany, but it cannot be understood without examining some important antecedents, and it was ultimately a European phenomenon with global, and long-lasting ramifications. This course will cover the timeframe of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on the critical years of 1933-1945. You will be introduced to the main historiographical debates surrounding Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and you will be asked to reflect upon the all-important questions of how and why. You will encounter the voices of diverse individuals who experienced persecution by the Nazi regime. By the end of this course, you should be able to outline the ideological, political, material, and interpersonal dynamics of the Holocaust and to chart the timeline of historical events and the stages of radicalization.
Field: Europe. Marker: GL
HIS 403: "Slavery in the Americas"
14814 W 4:00-6:50
Watson Jennison
Comparative analysis of slavery and race relations in South and Central America, the Caribbean, British North America, and the United States, 1501-1888. Cross-listed with HIS 502. Field: United States. Marker: ADS.
HIS 411A: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "Crisis to Crisis: Cold War, Civil Rights, 1962-1964"
10653 MW 3:30-4:45
Thomas Jackson
The major project for this class is production of an original research paper which poses and answers questions, analyzes primary sources, situates the material in the appropriate historical context, and engages with relevant historical scholarship. In these years, the word "revolution" was on more lips in the United States than perhaps at any time since the, well, Revolution. In many ways, these are the first years of our time. With an immediacy and intensity amped up by the new technology of television, the United States seemed to be propelled from crisis to crisis, at home and abroad. Faced with Soviet missiles in Cuba, the Kennedy Administration steered the county to the edge of nuclear war, then negotiated key agreement that de-escalated the Cold War, even as it committed U.S. forces to the defeat of Communism in Southeast Asia. In places like Birmingham, Greensboro, and Chicago, movements pressured, Presidents proposed, and Congress passed the most far reaching legislation in race relations since Reconstruction. Lyndon Johnson, together with a powerful (if temporary) liberal coalition in Congress passed a raft of reform legislation to deal with racial, educational, and economic inequalities. Contemporaries and scholars routinely refer to “a revolution in public policy” set in motion by the "Negro Revolution of 1963." But what really changed? Your answer will depend on your angle of vision and your "frame of reference."
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisites: For social studies licensure students: HIS 430 and permission of instructor. For all other history majors: HIS 391 and permission of instructor.
Field: United States. Markers: CW; WI; SI
HIS 411B: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "Germany in the Modern World"
10654 TR 12:30-1:45
Teresa Walch
Why do so many people around the world celebrate Oktoberfest? How did the "love bug" (the German-manufactured Volkswagen Beetle) become an iconic symbol in 1960s American counterculture? Why does the United States still have military bases in Germany? This course will examine German history in the twentieth century from a global and transnational perspective. We will examine Germany's global linkages in several historical eras during the past century: the German Empire, Weimar Germany, Nazi Germany, divided Germany in the Cold War, and reunified Germany. Throughout all these eras, Germany maintained economic, political, cultural, and ideological networks with the wider world. This course is designed to introduce students to global and transnational history through the lens of German history. Students will design and write a research paper of their own on a related topic.
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisites: For social studies licensure students: HIS 430 and permission of instructor. For all other history majors: HIS 391 and permission of instructor.
Field: Europe. Markers: CW; WI; SI
HIS 411C: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "The Chinese City in the 20th Century"
10655 TR 3:30-4:45
James Anderson
This course will examine the transformation of the modern Chinese city in the 20th century. Topics examined during the semester will include the role urban centers played as a source of political and intellectual movements in modern Chinese society, peasant revolutions, Chinese cities during the May Fourth Movement, urban crime and the policing of urban society, popular urban protest in the rise of nationalism and communism, and city life since the 1949 founding of the People’s Republic of China. Most importantly, students in this course will be responsible for individual research projects, for which they will locate and use historical source materials, written and oral, published and unpublished. Comparing and analyzing a variety of primary source materials, students will write their own histories of Chinese urban centers and in the end develop their skills in observing societies with different origins than their own.
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Prerequisites: For social studies licensure students: HIS 430 and permission of instructor. For all other history majors: HIS 391 and permission of instructor.
Field: Wider World. Markers: CW; WI; SI
HIS 430: Historical Methods for Social Studies Teachers
10656 ONLINE asynchronous
Lisa Tolbert
Writing Intensive. Prerequisites: Middle Grades or Secondary Social Studies Licensure candidates who have completed HIS 308, HIS 316, and one other 300-level History elective for a total of 9 s.h.. or permission of instructor.
HIS 430 is an introduction to historical thinking and the research process designed to address these historical methods content standards for all social studies licensure candidates. The state of North Carolina requires that teacher candidates must demonstrate depth of content knowledge in "the process of critical inquiry in history and the social sciences used to examine change over time and develop historical perspectives," including: identifying and framing a problem, using primary and secondary resources, evaluating the credibility of sources, putting sources into historical context, investigating, interpreting, and analyzing multiple viewpoints, clearly and effectively articulating conclusions. The ultimate goal of the course is to understand the creative process of research within the discipline of history. Markers: CW; WI
HIS 434: "Hamilton's America: Race & Gender in the Revolutionary Era"
10657 TR 3:30-4:45
Mandy Cooper
The Broadway musical "Hamilton" has popularized the study of Alexander Hamilton and the rapidly changing world in which he lived. Yet, it has also raised questions regarding the central ideas, acts, and figures of the founding of the United States. This class focuses on a central question in the history of the American Revolution: "a revolution for whom?" We will move beyond the Founders to examine the Revolution from the perspective of women, Native Americans, African Americans, and loyalists, beginning in the late colonial period and continuing through the early American Republic. Finally, we'll examine the stories that we continue to tell of the American Revolution, questioning who takes center stage in those stories—and why that matters.
Field: United States. Crosslisted with HIS 534.
HIS 442: "Violence in the Middle Ages"
10659 MW 2:00-3:15
Richard Barton
This course examines the meaning and consequences of violence during the Middle Ages. It is not a course in military history, nor will it focus simply upon a string of violent episodes. Rather, it attempts to get into the medieval mentality of violence. We will move topically through a selection of primary sources (Gregory of Tours, Galbert of Bruges, Saga of Njall, Raoul of Cambrai, etc) and scholarly analyses of war and peace, feuding, dispute resolution, chivalry, and lordship. As we do so we shall attempt to grapple with some fundamental questions: how did medieval people define 'violence', if they did so at all? How did violence differ from 'force'? Did medieval people consider violent acts to be necessarily bad? If so, under what circumstances? Were certain social orders and/or institutions more or less associated with violence? That is, was violence a component of lordship? To what degree was violence a subjective category imposed by authors, and to what degree was it universal? This course will investigate these and many other questions pertaining to medieval representations of force, violence, and social norms. Crosslisted with HIS 542.
Field: Europe.
HIS 444: "Cities and Their Dwellers, 1400-1700: From Paupers to Patricians (and Everyone In-Between)"
10660 TR 2:00-3:15
Jodi Bilinkoff
The period following the end of the Middle Ages was an age of demographic growth, economic expansion, and cultural flourishing throughout western Europe, especially in its urban centers. Indeed, it is hard to think of Shakespeare apart from his London, or Michelangelo without Florence. Scholars have identified the cities of early modern Europe as the sites of innovations as varied and significant as the invention of the printing press, the administration of overseas empires, the Protestant Reformation, the emergence of modern banking, and the Scientific Revolution. In this course we will explore these and other aspects of urban life in Europe between roughly 1400 and 1700. In the process we will encounter some famous political and religious leaders, intellectuals, and artists, as well as the ordinary men and women who constructed the walls and buildings, prepared food, kept legal records, raised children, policed crime, and delivered the goods and services of every sort that kept cities functioning. We will inquire, as well, whether all social groups benefitted equally from the urban experience. In addition to readings in common, each student will choose a city to research for written and oral reports due at the end of the semester. Crosslisted with HIS 544.
Field: Europe.
HIS 469: African History and Cultures Through Film
10661 T 4:00-6:50
Colleen Kriger and Cybelle McFadden, (LLC)
In this course we analyze the multiple mappings of 'race,' gender, class, and sexuality in recent Francophone Cinema. Along the way, we examine Africa's precolonial and colonial histories, struggles for independence, and the legacies of these histories in the current post-colonial period. Focusing on the ways in which Africa and Africans have been portrayed in a variety of film genres takes us directly into issues of content – that is, messages conveyed in film about Africa and Africans – and the ways in which those messages are conveyed in order to decode them. Thus we will be identifying stereotypes about Africa in film, and discussing where those stereotypes have come from, in what forms they persist over time, and how politically aware and engaged filmmakers have responded to them. What are the historical, social, economic, political, and cultural forces at play in the production of African films and in their content? What are the challenges of imagining Africa on its own terms and not in relation to the West, especially the former colonial power? How are interactions with the West negotiated? Finally, we will consider how some films and their circulation may change perceptions of Africa both from within and outside the continent. Cross-listed with HIS 568 and LLC 468 and 568. All films will be subtitled in English. Field: Wider World. Markers: ADS; IGS
500-700 Graduate Level Courses | History Major Advising Center | University Catalog | Courses
