HIST - History (HIST)

This course will trace and interpret the evolution of world civilizations from the emergence of early humans up until approximately 1500. The scope of the class is understandably ambitious as it seeks to study and compare diverse historical experiences worldwide. The content of the course is organized both chronologically and thematically. The advancement of human societies through time is reflected in five general themes of universal application: human origins and human cultures; settling down; empire and imperialism; the rise of world religions; and the movement of goods and people.

This course traces the evolution of the modern world from approximately 1300 to the present. The scope of this course is understandably broad as it combines global themes, intercontinental commerce, religious and ethnic strife, mass politics and totalitarian ideologies, with their regional variations. From the 13th Century Mongol conquests of Eurasia that expanded dramatically the concept of time and space, to the 20th Century information and communication revolution that rendered this same concept relative, this course follows the evolutionary trajectory of the modern world.

Development of Western civilization from its origins in the Near East to the Scientific Revolution.

Development and expansion of Western civilization from Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution to the present.

Colonial America through the end of the Civil War.

Reconstruction to the present.

Survey of the development of the New World empires of Spain and Portugal from Pre-Columbian times through independence.

Evolution of societies and nation states from the 1820s to independence.

Independent developments in African Civilization and the impact those developments have had on human progress.

Study of the traditional peoples and cultures of Africa; survey of contacts between Africa and the outside world with emphasis on colonialism, decolonization and the independence era.

An introduction to the modern history of the Middle East, from Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt (1798) to the present.

Survey of the historical development of major Asian civilization (ancient Near East, India, China, Japan and Korea), primarily pre-modern. (Formerly ASIA 3102).

Asian history and culture from the 19th century to the present. (Formerly ASIA 3103).

A survey of the impact of ideas, technology, culture, and circumstances on the history of the global economy from 1492 to 1992.

An introduction to the history of warfare from ancient times to the present. The impact of warfare on history, and the interaction of society with warfare.

Inquiry into the social, political and legal status of women in ancient Greece and Rome.

Required of all history majors. Method and rationale of historical research.

Investigation of the tension between individual liberty and the traditional power of state and society and of the political and social institutions that maintain social cohesion in a complex society.

This course explores the social, political, economic, and cultural history of New York City. Topics covered include changing patterns of immigration; crime and policing; social activism; class, ethnic, and race relations; skyscrapers, parks, highways, and the shaping of the built environment; and arts and culture. From laborers to political bosses, from slaves to reformers, from tenement dwellers to urban planners, we will focus on the diverse people who have called New York City their home.

The state of New Jersey from colonial days to the present. Emphasis on factors having heaviest impact on the state today.

Explores the changing relationship between people and the environment in the United States. As a general survey of the nation’s environmental history, the course examines a variety of issues, including our changing understanding of the “natural” world and our place in it; the consequences of human efforts to commodify and control nature; social and ethical responses to environmental problems; and the evolution of environmental policy.

Explores the role of women in America from settlement to the split in the suffrage movement after the Civil War. This course will ask students to think not just about women’s impact on American politics, culture, and society from settlement to 1869 but also about how the American historical narrative changes when viewed through women’s eyes.

Historical change over four centuries in distinctive community established by immigrants.

This course explores the diverse peoples of Latino/a heritage who have been part of the history of the United States from the colonial era to the present.

Economic development of the United States from colonial origins to contemporary position as a world power.

A combination of business and the humanities, this course surveys the history of private businesses in the US from the Revolution to the twenty-first century. In very important ways, the history of the US is the history of American businesses. These entities, whether shops, plantations, partnerships, or corporations, had a massive impact on their eras and, in turn, reflected those eras. Issues covered include slavery, immigrants, labor, law, technology, racism, sexism, nativism, and prejudice. Specifically, this course provides an introduction to this important crossover between business and the humanities through case histories.

Course explores the experience of African-Americans from the medieval West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay through the trans-Atlantic slave trade to enslavement in the colonial era and nineteenth century and finally emancipation in the Civil War. Topics of gender, class, and black resistance will be explored within that chronological framework.

The interaction between black and white society in the United States and the nature of black society and cultures from 1865 to post World War II.

Introduction to the development of law in America from the origin of English common law and its reception in the English colonies to the 20th century United States, with emphasis on the political, social, and economic factors influencing this development.

Introduction to the development of law in the United States in the twentieth century.

Development of American military institutions, policies, experiences and tradition in peace and war from colonial times to the present.

This course focuses on totalitarianism – both as an idea and a societal and state arrangement. The 20th century witnessed the rise of powerful totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Mao’s China. But it would be too easy to think that these particular nations were uniquely susceptible to totalitarian rule. Again and again, we are confronted with totalitarian phenomena in situations when individuals are asked or demanded to surrender their personal autonomy in pursuit of a collective goal. From the Nazi marching grounds in Nuremberg to Stalin’s show trials to the re-education camps during Mao’s Cultural Revolution to more recent charismatic cults in the United States, this course will draw on theory, literature, film, biographical accounts, and historical case studies to better understand the meaning and nature of totalitarian movements.

This course provides a comprehensive look at the history of the Cold War that pitched the United States against the Soviet Union during the period between 1945 and 1989. The class will emphasize the global nature of the contest between two competing ideologies; it will examine the impact of the Cold War on geopolitics, on the process of decolonization, and on internal and cultural developments in the West as well as within the so-called “socialist camp of nations.”

Sources and events of this revolutionary century that explain the problems and possibilities of the contemporary scene. (Formerly HIST 2210)

Surveys the diplomatic, military and geopolitical aspects of the First World War from its preliminaries to its conclusion, giving special consideration to its causes and consequences. (Formerly HIST 2211)

Surveys the diplomatic, military and geopolitical aspects of the Second World War from its preliminaries to its conclusion, giving special consideration to causes and consequences. (Formerly HIST 2212)

Rise of Hellenic culture from its genesis in the Aegean Bronze Age, the major interactions of the city-states in the 6th and 7th centuries, the Classical Period and its decline. (Formerly HIST 2220)

Investigation of the tension between individual liberty and the traditional power of state and society, and of the political and social institutions that maintain social cohesion in a complex society. (Formerly HIST 2221)

Throughout the Middle Ages, the experiences of women varied widely. Focusing on four broad categories – queens, wives, religious women, and women of ill-repute – this course looks at the broad scope of women’s roles in medieval Europe. How did a woman’s marital status affect the expectations of her role in society? What was life like for women in towns versus peasant women? What did medieval families look like, and what were the roles of family members? What legal rights and obligations did women have, and what recourse did they have in resolving disputes? What limitations and opportunities existed for women in the Middle Ages? Why did women become prostitutes? How and when were women able to wield very real political power? Readings will include primary sources such as letters, literature, legal documents, saints’ lives, histories, handbooks, and other contemporary writings.

Surveys medieval European political, legal, social, economic, cultural and religious history from circa 300 to circa 1000. Through discussion of a wide range of primary sources, students in this course will analyze the processes through which early Europeans amalgamated elements of Roman, "barbarian," and early Christian cultures to create a new civilization in western Europe.

The history of medieval Europe from 1000 to 1350, analyzed through discussion of primary sources, scholarly articles and monographs. The course charts a wide range of interconnected transformations - economic, social, cultural, political, legal, intellectual, religious - that make up what some historians have called “The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.”

This course is a survey of the Crusades. Beginning with a brief overview of biblical ideas of holy war and the political situation in Europe around the end of the eleventh century, it will examine the course of this movement from Pope Urban II’s first call to the Crusades in 1095 through the Crusades of the thirteenth-century via the accounts of Christians, Muslims, and Jews who experienced these movements first-hand. This course will also consider how the Crusades continue to influence modern politics as well as how they are presented in popular media, and will grapple with the idea of what is at stake when history is misreprented.

This course treats the history of Italy from the early Middle Ages to the Council of Trent. Emphasis is placed on the dramatic changes in peoples, state institutions, religion, the economy and society that occurred during these centuries. The abiding and sometimes determinant role of geography in Italian history is a subject that receives particular attention. All areas of the peninsula are discussed, with special attention to relations between peripheral or provincial areas and cultural or administrative centers. Major intellectual, religious, social and political developments are explored through primary and secondary readings, and a mixture of lecture and class discussion. (Formerly HIST 2234)

This course treats the history of Italy from the Baroque Age down to contemporary events. Emphasis is placed on the dramatic changes in peoples, state institutions, religion, the economy and society that occurred during these centuries. The abiding and sometimes determinant role of geography in Italian history is a subject that receives particular attention. All areas of the peninsula are discussed, with special attention to relations between peripheral or provincial areas and cultural or administrative centers. Major intellectual, religious, social and political developments are explored through primary and secondary readings, and a mixture of lecture and class discussion. (Formerly HIST 2235)

Beginning of modern Europe as the renewal of trade is followed by rediscovery of the ancient world, discovery of the New World, changes in art, literature and thought and the division of Christianity by the Protestant movement. (Formerly HIST 2240)

Intellectual ferment of the enlightenment, through the upheaval of the revolution and its despotic aftermath. (Formerly HIST 2242)

Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the Reform Bill in 1832. (Formerly HIST 2243)

From the origins of the Russian nation to Peter the Great. (Formerly HIST 2246)

The Reform Bill of 1832 to the present. (Formerly HIST 2253)

Political, economic, and social history of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 to the Great Famine of the 1840s. (Formerly HIST 2254) Crosslisted with CORE 3424 Engaging the World

Historical legacy of the Russian imperial period from the reign of Peter the Great to Russia's entry into World War I. (Formerly HIST 2256)

Political evolution and social and economic development of modern Poland and Danubian Europe from 1700 to present. (Formerly HIST 2257)

This course sets out to explore the ambiguities arising out of Russia’s position astride the boundary between Europe and Asia. Focusing on a series of regional and historical episodes, the course examines the process of Russian imperial expansion from the 16th century up to the time of the Russian revolution, the peoples caught up in the empire and the ways in which experience of empire was reflected back into Russian culture.

Examination of the forces of Ireland's recent past that account for her present condition. (Formerly HIST 2264)

Comprehensive survey of Germany beginning with its political and economic modernization, through the world wars of the 20th century to the present. (Formerly HIST 2265)

Russia since 1917. (Formerly HIST 2266)

Social and Political History of the Lands and Peoples of Modern Ukraine from medieval times to the present-day.

Russia's development from a traditional agrarian society under the Tsars to a major industrialized power under totalitarian rule. (Formerly HIST 2276)

Leo Toystory's Anna Karenina is an epic tale of passion, intrigue, betrayal, and redemption. It is also a penetrating and encyclopedic portrayal of Russian life in the period following the Great Reforms of the 1860s. This course uses Anna Karenina as the starting point for a multifaceted investigation of nineteenth century Russian history and culture. 3 credits

Survey of the age of exploration and settlement of the English colonies. Includes a discussion of the forms of society, religion and government that developed in the region. Course covers the period from c. 1400 to 1763. (Formerly HIST 2341)

Covers the origins, pattern and consequences of the American Revolution from 1763 to 1790. Includes discussion of major documents such as the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. (Formerly HIST 2342)

Politics and thought in the Jacksonian Era, the westward movement, and the development of Manifest Destiny and sectionalism. (Formerly HIST 2352)

Slavery and sectionalism; causes and character of the Civil War; Reconstruction in its varied aspects. (Formerly HIST 2353)

This course is designed to introduce students to the major events and trends in U.S. politics, society, and culture from the end of World War II to the aftermath of the Cold War. Students will assess a range of sources, draw connections between disparate historical phenomena, and in doing so, develop an understanding of the years between 1945 and 1989 as a coherent period in U.S. history.

Review of major events and campaigns. The decade 1955-65 represents the temporal focus of the course, but the movement's 20th century antecedents and the period beween 1965-68 are discussed; the period within which the movement was broadened in internatioal perspective and transformed into a struggle for human rights. Goals and objectives of the struggle and the movement's impact on United States society are identified and evaluated.

This course considers how race, region, and gender have shaped Americans’ understandings of families in poverty in the twentieth century. We will consider the solutions to poverty proposed by reformers and policymakers alongside the lived experience of poor families themselves. Our goal will be to think critically about the sources of poverty as well as about how ideas about social justice, poverty, and poor families themselves have changed over time. 3

This course explores the non-fiction writings of literary icon and civil rights “witness,” advocate, and activist, James Baldwin.

The foreign relations of the United States during a century of conflict and change. This course deals with American diplomacy at the end of World War I, isolation, the Good Neighbor policy, the challenges to the dictators, the response to World War II, atomic diplomacy, the Cold War, detente, American global hegemony and the challenges to it. (Formerly HIST 2371)

Ethnic minorities in the development of American life. (Formerly HIST 2374)

This course explores the evolution of the family in the United States from colonial times through the present. We will examine the shifting boundaries of public and private in American life and chart the ways that the family—and ideas about its purpose and value—have changed. We will explore how laws and policies supported particular visions of the family and its role in society as well as consider the experiences of ordinary men, women, and children.

This course introduces students to the study of gender and sexuality in US History. This class examines how sexuality has been socially constructed, how understandings of sexuality have changed over time, and how questions about sexuality have been shaped by public debates about categories like race and class. Topics will include sexual violence, queer communities, sexual rights, and the regulation of sexuality by the state.

This course charts the monumental social, political, economic, and cultural shifts that took place during the closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening decade of the twenty-first. Focusing on the years 1980-2010, we will examine the rise of conservatism and neoliberalism; the development of new technologies such as personal computers and the internet; financialization and the growth of income inequality; the end of the Cold War and the advent of the global “war on terror”; new social movements; and the intensification of battles over national and cultural identity.

Role of Catholics and the Church in the United States from colonial beginnings to the recent past, focusing on internal developments and on relations with the wider society. (Formerly HIST 2387)

Explores the ways in which religious ideas and practices have shaped political, social, cultural and economic experiences in the region of Latin America from the 16th though the 18th centuries.

This course examines women and the construction of gender in the modern Middle East and North Africa. In its historical approach, the course will first examine women in Islam and early Islamic societies, and will then study women and women’s movements in the wake of colonialism, nationalist movements, and modernization projects of the 19th and 20th centuries. To challenge stereotypes about Muslim women and men, the course will analyze the cultural, social, economic, and political structures and discourses that have shaped gender and identity in the modern Middle East and North Africa.

The course explores the complicated history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the clash of two nationalisms.

Topics in North African history: the pre-Arab era, Arabization and Islamization; Ottoman rule, North Africa since the Napoleonic invasion. (Formerly HIST 2554)

For description, see ASIA 3127. (Formerly HIST 2621)

For description, see ASIA 3129. (Formerly HIST 2622)

This course will explore the evolution of modern mythologies in Japan to reveal Japan’s social, political, economic, and diplomatic history between the 19th and 21st centuries. These modern myths allowed the Japanese people to rise within an international system that favored Euro-American hierarchies of civilization without losing a distinctive cultural identity. No previous knowledge of Japanese history or culture is required.

The History of Japanese Masculinities (Hist Jpn Masculinities) integrates the cultural phenomena of gender into Japan’s political and social history, tracing the evolution of male and female roles in society from the 700s through to the present. Starting with the shaman female leaders of Japanese protohistory through to the matrilocal society of the Heian period, from the erudite male heroes of the classical period to the rise of a patrilineal warrior class, we will investigate the influence of Shintoism and Confucianism on gendered societal norms. From there, the class will pivot to the Edo period’s pacifistic scholar warriors, the subversive power of urban pleasure districts, the evolution towards the “modern boy” (moboi) and “modern girl” (moga), as well as the hypermasculinization of Japanese nationalism during the Pacific War. The class will conclude with an investigation of the postwar role of the salary man, contemporary gendered challenges behind Japan’s “aging society,” and movements like androgenous jendaresu-kei (genderless style) popular today.

For description, see ASIA 3128. (Formerly HIST 2651)

For description, see ASIA 3130. (Formerly HIST 2652)

To be set by instructor. (Formerly HIST 2191)

Individual reading and research projects. (Open only to junior and senior majors by arrangement with specific instructors). (Formerly HIST 3191)

Individual reading and research projects. (Open only to junior and senior majors by arrangement with specific instructors). (Formerly HIST 3192)

Individual reading and research projects. (Open only to junior and senior majors by arrangement with specific instructors). (Formerly HIST 3193)

The specific destination will vary, but all trips will be led by one or more faculty members who will emphasize the history of the area and country visited. Included will be visits to historic sites and museums, with readings and lectures on related topics. Students are required to write a paper for the course, and to participate in discussions.

The specific destination will vary, but all trips will be led by one or more faculty members who will emphasize the history of the area and country visited. Included will be visits to historic sites and museums, with readings and lectures on related topics. Students are required to write a paper for the course, and to participate in discussions.

The specific destination will vary, but all trips will be led by one or more faculty members who will emphasize the history of the area and country visited. Included will be visits to historic sites and museums, with readings and lectures on related topics. Students are required to write a paper for the course, and to participate in discussions.

To be set by instructor. (Formerly HIST 2290)

To be set by instructor. (Formerly HIST 2291)

To be set by instructor. (Formerly HIST 2390)

To be set by instructor. (Formerly HIST 2391)

To be set by instructor.

To be set by instructor.

Instruction and work experience in area historical institutions in the custody, care and management of documents, artifacts, and sites. (Formerly HIST 2710)

Capstone course, designed to engage senior history majors in careful study of an historical topic chosen by the instructor. Prerequisite: HIST 2180 Introduction to Historical Research and a total of 75 credits.

Typically taken as part of a year-long honors research in history program, this course allows outstanding undergraduate History majors to produce a senior thesis, building on a research paper undertaken in a previous course. It allows students to undertake intensive research over the course of the semester as part of a community of History honors students. In addition to meeting regularly with individual faculty mentors, students convene as a class with the honors research coordinator to report on their progress, discuss methodological concerns, and provide peer review. The course culminates with the honors research symposium, where students present their work to fellow students, members of the history department, and the wider university community.