History
Website: history.sewanee.edu
The Department of History offers students many and varied opportunities to deepen their historical awareness and to practice the discipline. History is consistently one of the most popular choices for majors and minors at the college, and its faculty members are recognized by Sewanee and its peer institutions for their commitment to and excellence in both teaching and research.
The department's range of introductory and advanced courses for majors and non-majors reflect the broad geographical, chronological, and methodological interests of its professors. Sewanee students may begin their introduction to the field of history by choosing either from a range of 100-level thematic introductions to the study of history or from an array of 200-level national and regional surveys. These courses are designed to teach students to think critically about historically significant events and processes and to analyze and assess primary and secondary sources. Those who choose to continue in the major will work closely with an individual faculty advisor to devise a program that best suits the student's interests and that exposes them to a broadly-conceived understanding of history. The department encourages its students to consider themselves not as narrow specialists, but as history majors who must think across conventional boundaries of time and space.
The department has recently enhanced its major with a summer program entitled "From D-Day to Berlin: World War II Sites in England, France, and Germany," led by Professor Goldberg. An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Willis additionally projects a summer program entitled "Exploring Southern Identities," which will take students beyond the classroom to the major sites of nineteenth and twentieth century history and culture in the Deep South. Interested students, faculty, and members of the broader Sewanee community are encouraged to attend the annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, as well as the annual Anita S. Goodstein Endowed Lectureship in Women's History, organized and chaired by Professor Mansker.
In addition to merit awards from the university, history students are eligible for several awards the department offers to recognize scholarly excellence. The Edward B. King Prizes for Excellence in History are awarded each year to history majors who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and research. The Joseph D. Cushman Prizes are awarded annually to junior and senior history majors who exemplify the characteristics of academic achievement, high character, and a sense of responsibility.
Professors Berebitsky, Goldberg, McCardell, McEvoy, Perry, Register (Chair), Ridyard, Roberson, Turrell, Willis
Assistant Professors Bhattacharjee, Mitchell, M. Shea, C. Thompson
Associate Professors B. King, Levine, Mansker, N. Roberts, Whitmer
A member of the history faculty assigned as the student’s advisor will help the student plan a coherent program of study.
Requirements for the Major in History
The major requires successful completion of the following:
Code | Title | Semester Hours |
---|---|---|
Course Requirements 1 | ||
Select one course in history (HIST) with a G4 attribute--Exploring Past and Present 2 | 4 | |
Select at least one course in history (HIST) focused on the period before 1700 | 4 | |
Select at least one course in history (HIST) focused on the period after 1700 | 4 | |
Select at least one course in history (HIST) focused on an area outside Europe and the United States | 4 | |
Select four additional courses in history (HIST) numbered 200 or above | 16 | |
HIST 352 | Junior Tutorial | 4 |
HIST 452 | Senior Research and Writing Seminar 3,4 | 4 |
Total Semester Hours | 40 |
Code | Title | Semester Hours |
---|---|---|
Additional Requirements | ||
A comprehensive examination 4 |
1 | Students must earn at least a 2.00 GPA in history courses. |
2 | AP or IB credit may fulfill this requirement. |
3 | A grade of C or better on the senior research paper is required. |
4 | A grade of C or better on the comprehensive examination is required which includes the senior research paper and an oral presentation and defense of the senior research paper. For distinction on the comprehensive exam, students must earn a grade of B+ or better on the senior research paper and a grade of distinction for the oral presentation and defense of the senior research paper. |
Honors
The Chair will invite students with an appropriate GPA in the major and a B+ or better on their Senior Research paper to apply for permission to write an honors paper as an independent study in the Easter semester of their senior year. This application will include the agreement of an appropriate advisor and a statement of scope and intent for the honors paper itself. Honors in history will be awarded to students who have a GPA no lower than 3.50 in history courses and a grade of B+ or better on an honors research paper written under the direction of a history advisor.
Capstone Experience
Junior Tutorial
The junior tutorial provides a formal introduction to the study of history at an advanced level. The seminar interrogates the question: What do historians do? It does so by exploring three interrelated questions: a) What approaches or categories do historians employ to study the past? b) How do historians talk to each other? c) How do historians write history? These questions are investigated with reference to texts, both ancient and modern, chosen at the individual instructor’s discretion, that allow students to gain an appreciation for multiple categories of historical analysis (eg: gender-based, environmental, materialist, military, cultural); for the practice of historiography; for the multiple categories of source materials and the methods involved in selecting, processing, and evaluating historical evidence; and for the varied rhetorical or narrative styles of history writing. In addition, the seminar asks students to engage in a substantial amount of writing, on both individual and multiple texts. Students must pass the junior tutorial in order to be eligible for the senior seminar.
Senior Research and Writing Seminar
The senior seminar, which is designated as writing-intensive, asks history majors to enter fully into the field of history by making a coherent, well-researched, and well-supported contribution to the field in the form of a substantial (7,500 word) research paper and bibliographical essay that a) advances a lucid argument, b) engages with a body, or several bodies, of historiography, and c) interrogates deeply a wide range of primary sources. The seminar will guide students towards this goal, through individual, group, and class work, by emphasizing the multiple steps required in such a serious undertaking. These steps include the articulation of a clear and effective research question, the gathering of secondary and primary sources, the choices and opportunities involved in different writing styles, and the necessity of multiple drafts, especially a formal rough draft that will be due two thirds of the way through the semester. The seminar instructor will provide substantial assistance to students at every step of the research and writing process, including extensive comments on the rough draft.
Students will need a grade of C or better on their senior research paper to be eligible to undertake an oral presentation and defense. In awarding a grade lower than C, the seminar instructor will consult with at least one other member of the history department. Such students will be given a specific set of recommendations for revision. Once their papers have reached a C-level, they will be eligible for the oral presentation and defense. Each student will have the opportunity to present their paper in a condensed form to a panel of history department members, who will then engage the student in a question and answer period. The presentation and defense will be graded on a Pass/Fail/Distinction basis.
Requirements for the Minor in History
The minor requires successful completion of the following:
Code | Title | Semester Hours |
---|---|---|
Course Requirements 1 | ||
Select five courses in history (HIST) numbered 200 or above (excluding HIST 352, HIST 452, and HIST 440) | 20 | |
Total Semester Hours | 20 |
1 | Subject to approval by the history faculty, the department accepts up to two courses from other institutions. |
Making History Courses for Freshmen and Sophomores (HIST 111 through HIST 127)
The various Making History courses introduce students early in their college careers to historical analysis and argumentation through the intensive investigation of an especially rich theme or topic. Each course within the Making History category is organized around the “investigation” of a particular set of historical questions. In all Making History courses, students examine a range of sources, methods, and approaches that historians use to understand and to make arguments about the past. In doing so, students are able to draw on the diverse resources and talents in the department of history’s faculty, who themselves are students of the past in Europe, the U.S., Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Students also learn how to “make history” by acquiring and using the skills of historical investigation, analysis, and writing. The Making History courses are primarily intended for freshmen and sophomores. Students may take no more than two for academic credit. History majors who take two Making History courses for credit must take an additional ten courses outside this category.
History Courses
HIST 100 Topics in Western Civilization (4)
Topics and themes related to the development and impact of Western civilization upon the human community. This subject will be analyzed through an intensive examination of a specific historical theme, issue or period. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 111 Religion and Power in the Pre-Modern West (4)
Two principles central to modern American culture are “separation of church and state” and individual freedom of religious choice. For most of Western history, however, these principles would have been largely incomprehensible. This course examines the close relationship between religion and “the state” in ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and medieval Europe, analyzing the ways in which they reinforced each other as well as instances in which they came into conflict. More broadly, the course examines ways in which religion reinforced or challenged social norms relating to gender, hierarchy, and the identification of “insiders” and marginalized groups. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 112 Women Changing the World: Gender and Social Movements (4)
This course examines women’s participation in social and political movements throughout the world since the late eighteenth century in order to understand how gender (the set of beliefs each culture has regarding male and female difference) has affected women’s involvement. The course explores a variety of gender-based arguments that women have used to bring social change, assessing whether these approaches are effective or ultimately limit women to a narrow range of issues. Some attention is paid to how gender affects men’s involvement in social movements. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 113 Civil Disobedience from Ancient Greece to Modern Africa (4)
This course examines how acts of civil disobedience have affected the course of world history from ancient through modern times. It explores how the emergence of democratic government and Christianity formed the foundation of civil disobedience. Sophocles, Perpetua, Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela are women and men who affected the course of history by challenging laws, customs and conventions that they believed to be immoral. The course investigates both common and distinctive methods employed by these historical actors in challenging various systems of oppression that emerged as communities and societies organized into nation states. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 116 Revolution and Evolution: Europe since the Eighteenth Century (4)
This course analyzes the origins and development of the political and industrial revolutions that began to affect Europe in the late eighteenth century and addresses how Europeans responded to their impact. The course, which examines the processes connected with these adjustments from the eighteenth century through the post-World War II era, emphasizes the interplay of social, cultural and political history. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 117 Discovering America, 1400-2000 (4)
This course examines the history of North America through the lens of "discovering America," a prevalent expression in discussions of the region’s landscape and people from 1400 to 2000. Using art, fiction, popular entertainments, travel writing as well as works by historians, the course focuses on early encounters between indigenous and European peoples, the importance of stories of discovery in politics and culture, and Americans’ efforts to describe and assign value to the natural environment as the United States emerged as a nation and world power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 118 Roots of Hate: Introduction to Modernity and the Final Solution (4)
This course introduces students to the "Final Solution"—the Holocaust—and the murder of millions of Jews and others during the Second World War. More than an exploration of death and destruction associated with the Shoah, the course examines important antecedents and paradigms that helped to foment such hatred against such groups and focuses on the words of individuals who espoused and resisted such ideologies. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 119 Intertwined Paths: Jews, Africans, and the West’s Journey into Modern Times (4)
This course examines the lives of those affected by two of the world’s largest historical displacements—Jews and Africans. Students learn the historical and intellectual contexts within which these "Diasporas" occurred and read the accounts of those who enacted them and those who were displaced. The course considers the strategies that Africans and Jews used to counteract their oppressors, their fight for constitutional rights, and the ways their struggles affected the West’s vision of itself. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 120 Children and Childhood in History (4)
This course focuses on the lived experiences of children and traces the emergence of a new “ideology of childhood” in the early modern world (c. 1300 to 1800). The course examines the major social, political and economic changes that unfolded throughout this period, including related programs of religious, scientific, and educational reform, and studies how these changes affected children’s roles or status within families and communities–in–transition. It also asks whether a fundamental change in the meaning of childhood by 1800 corresponded to the emergence of an increasingly global, colonial, and industrial world order. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 121 Consumer Culture and Its Discontents, 17th - 20th Centuries (4)
This course examines the development of a consumer culture from the seventeenth to the late twentieth centuries in Europe and around the globe. “Consumerism” is used to encompass a constellation of historical changes, including the shift from a mercantilistic to free market system of capitalistic exchange, the advent of mass production, and innovations in retailing and marketing. The course analyzes how the increasing organization of life around seemingly infinite flows and accumulations of commodities affected political, social and cultural life as well as individual behavior and value systems. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 124 World in the Twentieth Century (4)
This course focuses on major events in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Europe, the United States, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Taking a global perspective, the course argues that events in one part of the world cannot be understood in isolation—that events in Europe, for example, affected and were influenced by incidents in Asia, Africa, or the U.S. Topics include the two world wars, the fall of empires, the Cold War, the roles of important personalities, and recent events in China, central and southern Asia, and the Middle East. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 125 The Age of Discovery: Encounter of Two Worlds (4)
The course delves into the intellectual, social and cultural aspects of the Native American/European encounter in what came to be called Latin America in the first century after the arrival of Columbus. It examines such facets as the underlying religious and political legitimation of the Iberian conquests, indigenous responses, and the issue of "othering" and mutual perceptions. It also scrutinizes material and institutional factors such as Spanish imperial and Indian policy, forms of surplus extraction established by the Spanish, and political arrangements embracing native peoples and Europeans. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 126 Into the Heart of Darkness: Imperialism in the 19th and 20th Centuries (4)
This class investigates the controversial history of European empires since 1800 to understand how imperialism has shaped the modern world. It explores the motivations behind the creation of European empires, the technologies and tactics that made the acquisition of colonies possible, and the economic, cultural, and social effects of imperialism on the colonized and the colonizer. The course also considers how and why European hegemony collapsed during the age of decolonization and the impact of the rise of the United States on imperialism. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 127 Atlantic Britons, 1500-1850 (4)
This course examines the period after 1500 when the people of the British Isles began to explore the world beyond their shores, to encounter unfamiliar cultures and peoples, and to exploit resources and peoples in Africa and the Americas. It considers the understandings and agendas the British brought to these encounters and how interactions with distant lands and peoples altered the way the British saw themselves and their own culture before and after the political crisis of 1776 that ruptured the empire they created. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 128 Adventures at Sea: The Indian Ocean in World History (4)
This course examines the history of the interconnected region that scholars today call the Indian Ocean World. One of the oldest and most significant maritime highways in the world, it joined the east coast of Africa with the Chinese empires. The course focuses on the adventures of people who traversed long distances and shaped this world – merchants, soldiers, religious pilgrims, sailors, pirates, coolie laborers and sex workers. It considers the varieties of sources that can aid in constructing the history of the region, how forces of globalization and colonization affected its development, and how this region influenced the patterns of world history. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 129 Jerusalem: Histories of the Real and Imagined Holy City (4)
Sacred to three religions, the contested future capital of two nations, a place of longing for millions, Jerusalem is one of the world’s great cities. This course looks at the history, geography, and religious significance of the Holy City, while also considering its place as a city of the imagination. In investigating the city’s place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, its historic importance for Muslim and European imperialists, its long status as a tourist and pilgrimage destination, and its significance in Israeli and Palestinian nationalism, the course asks whether the myriad understandings of the city can co-exist or is Jerusalem destined to always be “a golden bowl filled with scorpions.”. Open only to and sophomores.
HIST 201 History of the United States I (4)
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 202 History of the United States II (4)
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 204 Rich and Poor in America from the Colonial Period to the Present (4)
A history of being poor in America focusing on the conjoined categories of “wealth” and “poverty” in the lives of impoverished people, and of private and public actions and policies affecting them from the colonial period through the early twenty-first century. Students consider how poor and non-poor Americans have understood what it means to be poor and wealthy, what causes poverty and affluence, and what remedies the former and enables the latter. For the period after 1870, the course incorporates the enlargement of Americans’ vision to encompass global conditions of wealth and poverty. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 205 History of England I (4)
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of England and the British Empire since the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 206 History of England II (4)
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of England and the British Empire since the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 207 Russia: Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Serfdom, Revolution (4)
First semester: the formation of the Russian state; significant personalities such as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great; and the rise of the revolutionary movement. Second semester: a study of the collapse of the monarchy; the causes of the Revolution; and the consolidation and growth of Soviet power under Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. The Gorbachev era and reasons for the collapse of the Soviet system will be explored. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 208 Russia: Revolution and Repression, War and Cold War, Collapse and Renewal (4)
First semester: the formation of the Russian state; significant personalities such as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great; and the rise of the revolutionary movement. Second semester: a study of the collapse of the monarchy; the causes of the Revolution; and the consolidation and growth of Soviet power under Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. The Gorbachev era and reasons for the collapse of the Soviet system will be explored. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 209 Early Modern Europe (4)
A survey of European history from 1400 to 1750. Topics include rural and urban communities, the Renaissance, humanism, education and literacy, women and gender, the Protestant and Counter Reformations, confessional violence, absolutism, witch-hunts, poverty and deviance, colonialism, science and empire, nationalism, religious pluralism and Enlightenment. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 210 Early Modern Cities (4)
A survey of urban life in the early modern world between 1400 and 1750. This course examines the dynamic contours of early modern cities in a variety of cultural contexts, considering how the period’s emerging networks of exchange, as well as colonial ambitions, generated new links between decidedly urban spaces across the globe. How did residents experience and use the space of the city to regulate relationships among members of disparate social and cultural groups? Students also assess the status of early modern cities as key sites for the transfer and production of knowledge. The course ends with an introduction to cosmopolitanism in the eighteenth century. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 211 China: Inside the Great Wall (4)
Designed to provide an introduction to Asian history. First semester: the foundations of East Asian civilization: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and the flowering of Chinese culture. Second semester: a study of the European impact on Asia and the resultant rise of nationalism and communism. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 212 China: Manchus to Massacre, Dynasty to Dictatorship (4)
Designed to provide an introduction to Asian history. First semester: the foundations of East Asian civilization: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and the flowering of Chinese culture. Second semester: a study of the European impact on Asia and the resultant rise of nationalism and communism. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 213 Early Modern Courts (4)
A survey of courtly life in Europe between 1450 and 1750. The course considers the role of the courtier, the ways in which art, drama, and ritual promoted the power of the monarch, the mechanics and implications of patronage, changing notions of monarchial authority, and the relation between courtly culture and civility. Special attention is paid to Spanish and English courtly culture in the sixteenth century and French courtly culture in the seventeenth century. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 214 Africa Inside Out (4)
This course rethinks the traditional, historical, and popular presentations of Africa as a coherent, bounded region. It employs a methodology of global interaction to unfold a regional approach to the continent’s history, while providing the key analytical tools employed by African historians. It also examines the rise, problematic implications, and continued relevance of the concept of "Africa," "Africans," and "African history." In addition to becoming experts in the nested histories of one particular African locale, students will interrogate the broad wealth of African history and historiography. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 215 Southern African History (4)
This course encompasses both the established history of the southern African region c. 1500-2004 and recent historiographical developments. As a result of this dual focus, the course highlights the production of southern African history, considering how, for whom, and why that history has been written. Topics include: the environment in history; the creation and interactions of racial groups; the mineral revolution and capitalist development; white domination, segregation, and apartheid; and political and popular resistance to these oppressive racial regimes. The course ends with the transition to majority rule, the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the democratic future of South Africa. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 216 History of Japan (4)
A survey of the history of Japan from earliest times to the present. Topics include early Chinese influence, Buddhism, the rise of feudalism, unification in the 15th Century, the era of isolation, the intrusion of the west, the Meiji Restoration, the rise of Japan as a military power and World War II, and postwar recovery. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 217 Renaissance and Reformation (4)
The history of Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries with an emphasis on the Renaissance in Italy and in northern Europe, Christian humanism, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and the beginning of the era of the religious wars. Not open for credit to a student who has successfully completed either HIST 305 or HIST 306. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 218 The Age of Enlightenment (4)
An examination of the political, social and economic history of eighteenth-century Europe and of the Enlightenment as a distinctive and significant culture. The course includes the extension of European power and influence in the other parts of the world. Attention is also given to the ideas and events of the period in relation to the Revolutionary Era that followed. Not open for credit to a student who has successfully completed HIST 345. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 219 History of Africa to 1880 (4)
A historical introduction to the African continent from human origins until the imposition of European colonial control. Topics addressed include environmental constraints, relations between elites and peasants, the rise of states and empires, the emergence of diverse religious systems, artistic production, slavery and the slave trades, and the interchange between Africa and other parts of the world. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 220 History of Africa Since 1880 (4)
Analysis of the forces such as colonialism and economic development that have shaped the history of modern Africa. The focus of the course is on the diversity of African economic, political, cultural, and religious systems; the critical role of the African landscape in shaping social change; the high degree of interaction between Africa and the rest of the world; the creation of enduring stereotypes of Africans; the ambivalent legacy of independence movements; and recent developments including popular culture, epidemics, and mass migration. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 221 History of India and South Asia I (4)
An examination of India and South Asia, exploring the cultural, religious, political, and social life of India before the arrival of Europeans. Topics include the cultural roots of India, the Aryan religion, the growth of Hinduism, the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, the status of women, the advent of Buddhism, and the development of Islam. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 222 History of India and South Asia II (4)
This course covers the history, culture, and politics of India during the periods of British rule, the nationalist movement, and independence. Special attention is paid to cultural ideas, the interaction of religion and politics, and the careers of nationalist leaders in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 223 Latin American History to 1825 (4)
A study of the mixture of Indian and Spanish civilizations. Concentration on sixteenth-century culture of Aztecs and Incas, the evolution of Spanish colonial empire, the historical background to strongman government, the art and architecture of the colonies, and the Independence Period 1810-25. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 224 Latin American History Since 1826 (4)
A study of nation building and strongman government in the nineteenth century, the Mexican Revolution 1910-20, Argentina under Peron, and twentieth-century Brazil. Special emphasis on the roles of women and blacks. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 225 Empire in the New World: Incas and Aztecs (4)
This course offers a comparative perspective on the processes that led to the emergence of the Incas and the Aztecs. The course focuses on primary sources and texts from a variety of experts and scholars concerned with issues of state-building, self-sustained economy, warfare, aesthetics, rituals, religion, and culture. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 226 Politics and Society in Contemporary America (4)
This course will survey the history of the United States since World War II. It will focus on the nation's emergence as an international superpower and the domestic political and social upheavals that accompanied this development. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 227 Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States I (4)
Explores selected problems in the development of American ideas and social structures, 1789-1980. The first semester (1789 to 1877) examines the conflicts and tensions associated with the emergence of a democratic, capitalist society. The second semester (1877 to present) extends the questions posed during the first semester by focusing on development of industrial and consumer capitalism in the twentieth century. The course as a whole emphasizes the analysis and discussion of primary texts and pays close attention to issues of race, gender, and class. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 228 Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States II (4)
Explores selected problems in the development of American ideas and social structures, 1789-1980. The first semester (1789 to 1877) examines the conflicts and tensions associated with the emergence of a democratic, capitalist society. The second semester (1877 to present) extends the questions posed during the first semester by focusing on development of industrial and consumer capitalism in the twentieth century. The course as a whole emphasizes the analysis and discussion of primary texts and pays close attention to issues of race, gender, and class. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 229 The Many Faces of Sewanee (4)
This seminar is designed to introduce sophomores to the facts and conceptual processes of history by using Sewanee and its immediate surroundings as a case study. Students employ historical methods within a variety of interdisciplinary contexts drawing on insights from archaeology, geology, literary analysis, and sociology, as well as social, political, military, and intellectual history to comprehend both what has happened here and how it is variously understood. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 231 African-American History to 1865 (4)
A survey of the history of African-Americans from their arrival in the English colonies to the end of the Civil War. African-Americans' struggle with slavery and oppression provide the central theme, but the course will address the various political, economic, social, and cultural conditions which contributed to the development of a unique African-American community. Particular attention will be given to the development of such institutions within this community as family, religion, and education. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 232 African-American History since 1865 (4)
A survey of the major topics and issues in African-American history from 1865 to the present: the era of emancipation, the turn-of-the-century nadir of race relations, black participation in both world wars, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and various dimensions of contemporary black life. The course will also explore some of the historiographical themes that have catalyzed current scholarship and will analyze diverse theories about the black experience in America. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 234 British Reformations (4)
This course examines why and how Protestantisms of differing type replaced Roman Catholicism as the official church in England, Scotland, and Ireland; how people throughout each society sought to encourage or oppose these changes; and how religious developments in these three nations from 1500 to 1750 diverged so sharply, yet remained so closely intertwined. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 235 Introduction to Public History (4)
This course introduces the history, theory, and practice of public history, examining the ideas and questions that shape and are shaped by public engagements with the past. It engages and evaluates historical works aimed primarily at public audiences in order to determine why and how public investments in the historical past develop and change. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 237 Women in U.S. History, 1600-1870 (4)
A survey of the history of American women which will consider how women experienced colonization, American expansion, the industrial revolution, war, and changes in the culture's understanding of gender roles and the family. The course also explores how differences in race, ethnicity, and class affected women's experience. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 238 Women in U.S. History, 1870 to the Present (4)
A survey of the major changes in American women's lives since the end of the last century, including increased access to education, movement into the labor market, and changes in reproductive behavior and in their role within the family. Special consideration will be given to the movements for women's rights. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 241 Global Women’s Movements since 1840 (4)
An exploration of 19th and 20th century women¿s movements around the world. This global history provides the foundation of women's widespread involvement today in such transnational movements as environmentalism and the defense of human rights. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 267 German History Since 1500 (4)
The development of Germany in the light of major themes in western civilization from the Reformation to the present. The second semester begins in the mid-nineteenth century and focuses on the German nation's political problems. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 268 German History Since 1850 (4)
The development of Germany in the light of major themes in western civilization from the Reformation to the present. The second semester begins in the mid-nineteenth century and focuses on the German nation's political problems. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 270 European Women in War, Revolution, and Terrorism (4)
This course surveys European women’s gendered experiences of war, revolution, and terrorism from the French Revolution to the present. Adopting gender analysis as its methodological framework, it focuses on the changing constructions of femininity and masculinity in relation to major global upheavals and theories of violence in the modern world The course examines the impact of such developments on the lives of European women of different socioeconomic, regional, and racial backgrounds. Topics covered include the Russian Revolutions, World Wars I and II, global terrorism of the 1970s, and contemporary European feminist politics of immigration and the veil. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 271 The French Revolutionary Era, 1789-1814 (4)
This course explores the social, political, and cultural history of the French Revolution from its origins in the eighteenth century to the fall of Napoleon's Empire. It highlights revolutionary debates over how to constitutionally and practically realize the Enlightenment principles of human rights, individual liberty, and social equality in the context of France and the French Empire. Topics include radical republicanism, popular violence and the Terror, the Haitian Revolution, women's revolutionary roles, gender and the reconfigured family, counterrevolution and the Church, the citizens' army, and the Napoleonic Empire. Not open for credit to students who have received credit for HIST 308. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 272 France Since 1815 (4)
Although modern France is a product of the same tumultuous nineteenth- and twentieth-century developments experienced by the rest of Europe, the French reacted to the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and the democratization of politics, and the two world wars in their own fashion. This course considers in detail how France became "modern" and what the effects of this process were on different groups of individuals in French society. Readings center on primary documents. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 283 Environmental History (4)
An introduction to the field of environmental history, which asks how the natural world has shaped the course of human civilization, and how humans, in turn, have shaped the natural world, over time. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 293 Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians (4)
A political and cultural history of ancient Greece and Rome. Topics include the formation and culture of the Greek polis (city state), the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars in Greek history, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic world, the Roman Republic, Augustus and later Roman emperors, the development and decline of Rome as a "world power," and the place of religion in defining political and cultural identities. Special attention is given to the ways in which the histories of the Greek and Roman worlds were shaped by their interactions with one another and with the "barbarians" beyond their frontiers. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 296 History of the Middle East I (4)
This first offering in a two-course sequence introduces students to the history of the Middle East. Surveying the region¿s history prior to the eighteenth century, it considers the emergence of the world¿s earliest civilizations; the rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the spread of Arab, Turkish, and Persian Empires. Emphasis is placed on the Middles East's place in global trade networks and imperial conflicts. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 297 History of the Middle East II (4)
This second offering in a two-course sequence addresses the modern Middle East, and emphasizes the region¿s place in global politics and the world economy. Among the topics considered are European imperialism and local responses, nineteenth-century reform movements, the rise of the nation-state, the impact of Arab nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Islamic political movements, gender relations in the region, the importance of oil, the Iraq conflict, terrorism and the peace process. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 298 History of Islam (4)
Should we speak of Islam as a single tradition? What is Islam’s relation to other religious faiths? How has Islam shapedand been shaped bylocal traditions? What is the relation between Islam and politics? This class looks at Islam and Muslim societies from the emergence of the prophetic faith until the present day. Students are introduced to the diversity of interpretations of the Prophet Muhammad’s message and to Islamic practice in a variety of geographical and historical contexts, to understand how Islam has influenced and continues to influence world history. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 301 Ancient Greece (4)
Selected topics in the history of Ancient Greece from the early Bronze Age to the death of Alexander. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 302 Ancient Rome (4)
Selected topics in the history of Royal, Republican, and Imperial Rome. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 303 Medieval Europe I (4)
Selected topics in the history of western Europe during the Middle Ages. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 304 Medieval Europe II (4)
Selected topics in the history of western Europe during the Middle Ages. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 305 Medieval Women -- In Their Own Words (4)
This course closely analyzes the relatively rare sources that allow historians to see the experience of medieval women through the eyes of the women themselves rather than through the prescriptive lens of the men who held most forms of power in their society: a ninth-century woman's book of advice for her son, surviving letters and spiritual writings, wills, and the legal records that show both the vulnerability of women and their readiness to bend and break the law. Case studies of individual women are employed, along with critical analysis of different categories of source material. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 307 Revolutions and Revolutionaries in the Middle East (4)
The “Arab Spring,” the Green Movement in Iran, and the Gezi revolt in Turkey have focused attention on revolution and “people power” in contemporary analyses of the Middle East. But revolution is not a new phenomenon in the region. Analyzing anti-colonial, constitutional, nationalist, socialist, and Islamic revolutions from the late nineteenth century until today, this class investigates how revolutionary uprisings have shaped the Middle East. Pushing beyond the notion that revolutions are primarily ideological conflicts, the class considers how people take to the streets for economic and social justice, greater political representation, and in defense of nationalist, sectarian, and local interests. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 309 Politics and Society in Europe: 1815-1914 (4)
A study of the foreign and domestic policies of the principal states, problems arising from the Industrial Revolution, liberal democracy, nationalism, and socialism, and the origins of World War I. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 310 Modern Iraq and the US-Iraq Conflict (4)
This seminar offers students an in-depth look at the modern history of Iraq and the current US-Iraq conflict. Using a blend of primary and secondary sources, the class looks at the impact of Western influence and regional trends such as Arab nationalism, Ba¿athism, and Islamism on the modern development of Iraq. Reasons for the current conflict are also explored from a number of political and nationalist perspectives to foster understanding of the U.S. invasion of 2003 and of Western foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 311 Politics and Society in Europe after 1914 (4)
The external and internal development of the principal states, revolution, fascism, the search for a system of collective security, World War II, the Cold War, the democratic welfare state, and the European unity movement. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 312 Eighteenth-Century England (4)
A seminar in eighteenth-century English studies with emphasis on social and cultural development. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 313 Youth and Families in Early Modern Europe (4)
This research seminar explores the social and cultural history of early modern European communities (c. 1400 to 1750) by using gender, age and emotion as tools of historical analysis. Key topics include: Renaissance debates about the education of girls and boys, families, fathers and feeling in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, popular and learned stereotypes of the female witch, youth gangs and child-circulation. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 315 Saints, Witches, and Heretics in Early Modern Europe (4)
A seminar on how the concepts of sainthood, witchcraft, and heresy changed and developed in the period of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. The course explores the Catholic definition of heresy, responses to individual heretics (including Martin Luther), and the spirituality of Counter Reformation saints. It considers the Protestant attack on the cult of the saints, the reasons why the witch hunt was particularly extreme in countries that embraced Protestantism, and how examples of "true" and "false" religion helped to shape Protestant and Catholic identities. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 316 The African-American Church in Slavery and Freedom (4)
This seminar course examines the presence of the African-American church in the lives of African Americans and in the history of the United States. From its creation as an "invisible institution" during slavery to its dynamic existence during the era of black emancipation to its crucial presence during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, the black church has been a vital force in framing the contours of African-American culture and shaping religious life in America. This course explores how the church has functioned as a formative social and political institution within a racially fractured but continually changing civic landscape. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 317 African-American Intellectual History (4)
This course examines the development of African-American thought from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and explores various cultural, spiritual and intellectual dimensions of African-American life. Emphasis is placed on political, religious and literary figures, including the works of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, Charles Chesnutt, Booker T. Washington, Henry McNeal Turner, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neal Hurston, Langston Hughes, Pauli Murray, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, and Cornel West. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 318 African American Women and Religion (4)
This class will examine African American Women's participation and critical role in religious life in America. It will explore black women's place in the formation of revival culture, the creation of religious ritual, and the institutional establishment of the black churches. Further, it will investigate black women's vital role in the dissemination of religious values within and between generations. Through biography and autobiography, this course shall address the ways in which black women have appropriated religious language and sensibility in constructing the narratives of their lives. In sum, it will explore the myriad ways African American women contested and critiqued their place in the church and the community, while simultaneously supporting and furthering black churches and promoting the health of religious life. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 319 The Arab-Israeli Conflict (4)
The Arab-Israeli conflict has long dominated the politics of the Middle East and been seen as central to U.S. foreign policy in the region. This seminar considers the history of this conflict and the politicized historiographical debates that accompany it. Topics addressed include Zionism, Palestinian and Arab nationalism, the birth of the Arab refugee crisis, the effects of the 1967 and 1973 wars on the region, the use of terrorism, the two intifadas, and the Oslo peace process. Primary texts, secondary sources, and scholarly articles from a variety of perspectives will be used to investigate how people within and outside the region debate and fight over these issues. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 320 Victorian and Edwardian Britain (4)
This seminar will study British history from the passing of the Great Reform Bill to World War I, with special attention to cultural and political developments. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 321 English Identities (4)
Addressing questions arising from contemporary debates over issues such as national character and historical memory, this seminar examines the lives of some English men and women; how individuals, identities have been shaped by wider social, cultural, religious, and political circumstance; and also how these same identities have been partly self-constructed. Course readings include biographies, autobiographies, and diaries from the medieval period to the late 20th century. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 322 Southern Lives (4)
An exploration of Southern history through the lenses of biography, autobiography, and fiction. This seminar examines the careers of significant figures in the history and literature of the South from the antebellum era to the present. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 324 Colonial and Imperial Warfare in North America and Southern Africa (4)
This seminar compares the warfare that accompanied colonial encounters in North America and southern Africa, from the first European contact through the early twentieth century. It focuses on wars fought in response to resistance by native peoples and on the use of native allies in warfare between imperial foes as windows into the processes of acculturation, resistance, dispossession, and representation that characterized the colonial encounter as a whole. Texts range from traditional military history to religious, cultural, environmental, and comparative approaches to the topic. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 325 Revolutionary America (4)
A study of the development and challenges of early American nationalism. Students will consider the growth of republican institutions and ideas during the colonial era, the causes and conduct of the American Revolution, and the initial tests of the young republic. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 327 The Old South (4)
An exploration of the Southern past from the earliest English settlements to the establishment of the Confederate States of America. This course charts the development of distinctive Southern political, economic, and social structures, examines the role of chattel slavery in shaping the region, and analyzes the causes of the war for Southern independence. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 329 The New South (4)
An examination of Southern history from the end of Reconstruction to the early victories of the Civil Rights Movement. Students explore the transformation of the plantation system; map the influence of the section's new industries and cities; trace the roles of race, class, and gender in Southern society; examine the political issues and structures that governed the region; and probe the culture that has defined the South. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 330 History of Southern Appalachia (4)
An examination of the events, people, movements, and themes of the region’s past, from earliest known human habitation to the present. The course explores contrasting ways of life expressed by native and European peoples; implications of incorporating the area into the United States; the agricultural, industrial, and transportation revolutions of the nineteenth century; popular culture within and about Appalachia; contemporary issues of regional development and preservation; and ways the unique environment of these mountains has shaped and frustrated notions of regional identity. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 331 Modern Cities (4)
An exploration of the modern urban experience in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas and a consideration of the social, cultural, and political transformations of world cities, including London and Paris, Cape Town and Algiers, Hong Kong and Shanghai, New York and Los Angeles, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 332 Twentieth Century American Culture (4)
An examination of major issues and topics in the cultural history of the U.S. from the 1893 Columbian International Exposition to the implosion of the internet dot.com bonanza in 2000. To dissect and analyze the discourses of race, gender, class, and sexuality in American life, the class will concentrate on texts and images form the periods under examination, with special attention to the production and consumption of popular culture. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 333 Topics in American History (4)
A seminar dealing with important political, social, and intellectual movements in American history. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 334 Mass Culture and Popular Amusements in the United States, 1870-1945 (4)
A seminar on the development of mass culture and popular amusements in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Particular attention will be paid to the important roles of women in the invention of these new cultural forms and to social and economic tensions generated by the rise of a mass commercial culture. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 335 Monsters, Marvels, and Museums (4)
This course introduces students to the history of a particular kind of early modern museum: the curiosity cabinet or Wunderkammer. These striking collections of curious objects, marvels, and “monsters” had become key research and educational venues in many European cities by 1500. They generated discussion about the relation between local and global knowledge, between the natural and artificial, the extent and causes of biodiversity, and much more. The course explores the history and politics of these collections while recognizing their role as nodes in global circuits of information transfer and exchange. Also considered is the Wunderkammer’s impact on the development of museums of art, science and technology, natural history, and anthropology. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 336 Hours of Crisis in U.S. History (4)
This course examines several key moments of crisis in American political, military, and cultural history from the Second Continental Congress's decision to declare independence in 1776 to the wars with Iraq in 1991 and 2003. The class explores the events that created the context for essential public actions, the historical factors that led to the decisions, and how succeeding generations came to view those decisions and, in some cases, to use them as precedents in thinking about contemporary problems. Prerequisite: One course in history with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 337 Nature, Magic, and Machines in Early Modern Europe (4)
Currently scholars from across the globe are rewriting the history of what is often called the "Scientific Revolution," with some questioning whether such a revolution ever occurred. Did it? If so, why and how did it take place? This course explores watershed changes in the tools and strategies used to produce and circulate new knowledge in the early modern world. It thereby pursues a global, interdisciplinary approach to study of the scientific revolution. While focusing on the contributions of famous figures such as Galileo and Descartes, the course also takes account of lesser-known personalities and of diverse instruments, practices and social networks that contributed to the rise of modern science. Topics addressed include natural history, botany, taxonomy, medicine, alchemy, experimental philosophy, colonial science, indigenous knowledge, and the transfer of knowledge. Not open for credit to students who have earned credit for HIST 392. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 339 The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 (4)
A seminar on the cultural history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the end of World War I, with emphasis on the problems of analyzing changes in politics, religion, labor and industrial production, retailing, amusement, and consumption. Underlying the class will be special attention to transformations of gender relations and identities at the turn of the century. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 342 Topics in British History (4)
Studies of important political, social, and intellectual movements in British History. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 344 Twentieth-Century Britain (4)
A study of British history in a time of world war and social and political adjustment. Among the topics considered are the impact of two world wars, the evolution of the welfare state, the implications of post-colonial status, and recent debates over economic and constitutional issues, including the country's relationship with Europe. Where possible the course will draw on first-person accounts and responses to these developments. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 346 History of Socialism (4)
A study of the development of socialism as an ideology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the major topics discussed will be: utopian socialism, Marxism, anarchism, German social democracy, Russian Marxism, and Chinese Marxism. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 347 The American Civil Rights Movement (4)
This seminar will survey the major topics and issues of the twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement in America. In addition to exploring the lives and roles of popular figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and Jesse Jackson, we shall also examine the contributions of important but less prominent figures such as Charles Houston, Medger Evers, Ella Baker, Clifford Durr, and Septima Clark. Emphasis shall be placed on each phase of the movement, from the formation of the NAACP at the 1909 Niagara Conference to the legal strategy to overthrow racial segregation to the nonviolent protest of the 1950s and 60s and finally ending with the Black Power Movement. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 348 The Mexican Revolution (4)
This course examines the Mexican Revolution (1910-1940), describing the ideologies and political programs of its rival leaders and forces. Emphasis is placed on analysis of the revolutionary movement as a mosaic of local uprisings, each with its own roots and objectives. The social origins of the participants, both followers and leaders, the causes of the insurrection, the objectives proclaimed by each faction, and the changes actually accomplished, will be the main topics of discussion. The heterogeneity and ambiguity of the Mexican Revolution will be explored by examining different approaches to the insurrection through biographies, novels, political theory and historical account. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 349 American Women’s Cultural and Intellectual History (4)
The seminar examines women's involvement in American literary and artistic movements and in the development of distinct American ideas and social structures from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. The course will focus on notable individuals as well as broad themes such as consumerism and leisure, representations of women, and sexuality and reproduction. Emphasis will be on reading, papers and discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 350 Berlin: Impressions of a City (4)
A survey of Berlin through its history and architecture, its literature and film with emphasis on the twentieth century. The course is divided into five parts: Berlin's early history before WWI, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Period, Cold War Berlin (East and West), and modern Berlin after 1989. In addition to the history and architecture, major novels and films of the city are examined throughout the semester. This course is taught in English and may not be used in fulfillment of the foreign language requirement; however it can count toward the German major if a term paper is presented in German. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 351 A History Written in Blood: The Partition of India (4)
The partition of India in 1947 dealt a staggering blow to centuries of fluid identities in South Asia. This course considers both the history of high politics--political maneuverings of Gandhi, Jinnah, and Mountbatten--and the human dimension--migration, murders, suicides, and rapes--of this watershed event through literature and cinema. The course examines how partition serves as a fulcrum in creating narratives of national, gendered, religious, and linguistic identities within the broader framework of late colonial and early post-colonial histories of South Asia. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 352 Junior Tutorial (4)
A consideration of some of the ways historians have dealt with historiographical issues. The books to be examined are all significant in the way they treat evidence, construct an interpretation of the past, and reflect ideas and values of the historians' own time. The emphasis in the course is on current historical methods and interpretations. Open only to students pursuing majors in history. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 353 The Nazi Period (4)
An examination of the connection between Nazi ideology and German culture of the nineteen-thirties and forties. The course offers a discussion of artistic reactions to the Nazis among the German exile community, along with a discussion of literary works about the Nazis written after WWII. The course also offers an analysis of holocaust representations in art and literature. The course gives an overview of the historical facts and events that shaped the Nazi period with PowerPoint presentations, film, and a number of significant books about the period, including Sebastian Haffner’s The Meaning of Hitler. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 354 Renaissance Humanism (4)
An examination of the intellectual movement that first emerged in Italy in the 14th century and that played a central role in the European Renaissance. Topics include the rediscovery of the antique, civic humanism, Christian humanism, neoplatonism, and the impact of humanism on art, politics, science, and gender relations. Readings consist of original source material and include writings of Petrarch, Valla, Ficino, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More and Montaigne. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 357 Latin American Biographies (4)
Through the reading of biographies, this course will examine major topics in Latin American history. Important issues to be explored will include: the Spanish conquest, the colonial experience, wars of independence, national projects, imperialism, and social revolutions. Among the historical actors whose lives will be discussed and analyzed are: Hernan Cortez, Montezuma, Jose Baquijano y Carrillo, Simon Bolivar, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, William Grace, Emiliano Zapata, Eva Peron, and Fidel Castro. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 358 Women in Latin America (4)
A seminar on the history of Latin American women from the seventeenth century to the present, examining the tension in Latin American countries concerning the role of women, their relationship to the family, and their desire for equality. The course explores controversies over the legal status of women, education, employment, and participation in political life. Students will examine several theoretical approaches to gender studies together with specific case studies. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 359 United States and Latin America since 1898 (4)
This seminar deals with the historical interaction of Latin America with the United States from 1898 to the present. Specific topics to be examined include U.S. views of Latin America, imperialism, economic nationalism, the Cuban Revolution, guerrilla warfare, the Chilean and Nicaraguan cases, and the drug problem. The course will discuss the goals, perceptions, and actions of the United States and various Latin American governments during this period. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 360 Latin American Topics (4)
A seminar designed to analyze a theme, period or topic of significance in the development of Latin America from colonial times to the present. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 363 Peasant Resistance and Rebellion in Latin America, 1500-1990 (4)
A seminar focusing on forms of resistance and accommodation of rural peoples in Latin American history-peasants, slaves, rural laborers, indigenous people and others-to the forces of cultural change and the impact of modernization over several centuries. Readings will examine theories of the peasantry as a social group as well as forms and cases of rural collective action in Latin American history. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 364 Topics in Russian History (4)
An examination of significant developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russia. Topics may include: the peasant problem, the revolutionary movement, major personalities, 1917 Stalinization/de-Stalinization, and foreign policy. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 365 Medieval England I (4)
Selected topics in the history of England from the Roman conquest to the accession of Henry Tudor. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 366 Medieval England II (4)
Selected topics in the history of England from the Roman conquest to the accession of Henry Tudor. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 367 Writing the Nation: Literature, Nationalism and Search for Identity in Latin America (1810-Present) (4)
A study of national projects in Latin America from 1810 to the present. Topics include Bolivar, the wars of independence, nineteenth-century visions of progress, Vasconcelos' concept of The Cosmic Race, and contemporary movements for the inclusion of women, blacks, Native Americans, gays, and other marginalized groups in a common Latin American culture. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 368 Saints and Society in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (4)
This course will explore the place of Christian saints in the society and culture of the late Roman and medieval worlds. It will analyze changing ideals of sanctity and their relationship to broader social, religious and cultural developments. It will also focus on the varied functions of saints' cults as perceived by both the promoters and the followers. Emphasis throughout will be on the close relationship of religious ideals, ecclesiastical and secular politics, and social and cultural change. The course will be a seminar with emphasis on reading, class participation, and papers. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 369 Muslim Spain: Glory, Decline, and Lasting Influence in Contemporary Spain (4)
A study of the rise of al-Adalus and the caliphate of Cordoba. The succeeding Taifa kingdoms, Almohad and Almoravid dynasties, and the Nasrid rule in Granada will be studied as well as the Reconquest by the Christian kingdoms of the north. Special attention to the concepts of convivencia and mudejarismo. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 370 Ritual and Worship in the Long English Reformation (4)
This course examines the role of ritual and worship in the religious history of England, ca. 1530 to ca. 1700. It will look at the history of religious practices, seeing them as both cause and effect of the religious and political upheavals in the period. While there is no formal prerequisite, the course does presume a basic familiarity with the broad outlines of English and/or European history in the early modern period. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 371 Tudor England 1485-1603 (4)
A study of the reigns of the Tudor monarchs with special attention to innovations in government; the humanist tradition; the English Reformation; and the influence of these factors on the political, religious, social, and cultural developments of the time. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 372 Stuart England 1603-1714 (4)
A study of the reigns of the Stuart monarchs and the mid-seventeenth century interregnum with special attention to the origins of the English Civil War and its impact on English ideas and institutions through the reign of Queen Anne. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 373 English Puritanism 1558-1700 (4)
This seminar examines English puritanism as a religious, cultural, and sometimes political movement from the Elizabethan settlement until the end of the seventeenth century. Topics covered include puritan piety, puritan social life, conflict over church rituals, and puritans' use of the media in their day, and the role of the puritans in the coming of the English civil wars. Students also look briefly at New England and Scotland as attempts to create a puritan paradise. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 374 Anglicanism 1350-1662 (4)
A study of significant thinkers and events in the formation of the Anglican tradition from the English Reformation to the English Civil War and Restoration. Attention also given to the pre-Reformation development of religious thought and practice in England. Writers from Thomas Cranmer to the Caroline Divines will be considered in the contexts both of English and European history and of the intellectual currents of the period. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 375 The Outlaw in American Culture (4)
This survey approaches the outlaw both as imagined in fiction, film, and music and as a real historical subject. Special attention is paid to how changing understandings of the “outlaw” correspond to specific moments in American history such as the settling of the West, gangsterism in the Great Depression, the rise of Black Power, and the development of new technology involving internet hacktivists. Legal and other-than-legal responses to the outlaw are also considered. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 378 Sexuality and the Self in Modern Europe (4)
This seminar investigates how and why sexuality became the key to selfhood in modern Europe. Drawing on the tools of gender analysis and cultural history, students explore the ways in which political, socioeconomic and cultural tensions of particular historical moments were manifested in the sexuality of individuals. Students also examine a variety of primary sources from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries to consider how individuals defined themselves through sexuality and how definitions were imposed on them by a variety of institutions and authority figures. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 379 Honor, Shame, and Violence in Modern Europe (4)
This course treats honor as a tool for understanding change and continuity in European society from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Honor and shame are viewed as conduits that allow students to explore broader sexual, gender, class and political developments. Particular attention is given to ways in which honor functioned differently in the public ideologies and private lives of dominant and marginal social groups. This course also explores the relationship of violence to the cult of honor. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 380 Crimes and Scandals in the Historical Imagination, 18th–20th Centuries (4)
An investigation of the ways historians read past crimes and scandals for evidence of broader social, political, and cultural anxieties and desires. Focusing less on details of incidents themselves than on the debates and public interpretation surrounding them, this seminar deals with crimes such as those committed by Jack the Ripper or French murderesses at the end of the nineteenth century. In addition to analyzing secondary sources dealing with crime and scandal, students scrutinize a variety of primary documents such as trial records, medical and judicial debates, scientific analysis of criminality, memoirs of notorious criminals and detective novels. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 381 Travel Cultures, Global Encounters, 1800-1950 (4)
In recent centuries overseas explorations and investigations, journeys and migrations, and ¿exotic¿ advertising and tourism have defined the very nature of modernity. This course investigates the cultural frameworks of travel -- the purposes, the interpretation of encounters, the interaction with peoples and landscapes -- from 1800 to 1950. Through reading recent works of scholarship on imperial cultures and research in primary sources for European and American global exploration and travel, students will learn how to analyze the discourses and practices that give meaning to experience. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 382 Science, Segregation, and Popular Culture in 20th-Century South Africa (4)
This seminar explores the rise and significance of three crucial and interrelated phenomena in 20th-century South Africa. It examines the relationship between developments in science and the institutionalization of segregation, culminating in the ideology and practices of apartheid. The course further explores how popular culture both mirrored and shaped these changes in scientific understandings and political realities. By bringing together the histories of science, segregation, and popular culture, the seminar analyses the formation of the uniquely South African cultural racism that sustained apartheid state and society. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 385 Missionaries, Mullahs, and Marabouts: African Encounters with Christianity and Islam (4)
This seminar examines the introduction and dramatic expansion of Christianity and Islam throughout Africa from the precolonial era to the current day. Looking at both sides of the cultural interchange, the course pays attention to themes of indigenous religion, translation, resistance, syncretism, and the colonial invention of religion. While seminar focuses on secondary sources and historiography, primary sources will also be considered. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 386 African Environmental History (4)
A survey of African environmental and agrarian history, focusing on the historical interrelationship between Africans and their environment. Topics include colonial misconceptions of Africans and their environment; key environmental factors in the development of African societies and the slave trade; agrarian history with its focus on agricultural production; colonial-era developments leading to food insecurity; the failure of large-scale "development" and modernization projects and ideologies; the creation of nature reserves; the denial of African hunting traditions, and the promotion of the "great white hunter" and safari culture. This seminar class emphasizes historiography, primary sources, and discussion. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 387 Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa (4)
This seminar investigates intertwined phenomena of great importance to African history, from the pre-colonial era to the early twentieth century. The course examines the various forms of unfree labor in Africa through the lens of comparative slavery studies and then explores Africa’s key slave trades: the Saharan, East Indian, and Trans-Atlantic. The course focuses on the internal African dynamics that shaped labor recruitment and participation in the slave trade, stressing African agency in the face of dynamic historical circumstances. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 388 The United States and Vietnam since 1945 (4)
The focus of this course is the history of Vietnam since World War II, French colonialism, the development of the independence movement, the origins of U.S. involvement, and the escalation of the conflict in the 1960s. Vietnamese goals, American foreign policy, the anti-war movement, and the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon will be topics of special interest. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 389 European Cultural and Intellectual History, 1750-1890 (4)
From 1750 to 1890, European men and women experienced a startling new world of political, socioeconomic, and technicological change. Developments such as the Enlightenment, urbanization, feminism, the democratization of politics and the discovery of the unconscious radically altered the mindset of intellectuals and contributed to the creation of modern forms of consciousness and artistic innovation. Examining art, novels, poetry, philosophical tracts, and utopic visions as symbolic languages that reflect changing social relationships and experiences, the course illuminates the broader cultural and intellectual reactions to the processes of modernization. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 390 Topics in European History (4)
An examination of the significant social, political, and intellectual movements in the history of Europe. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 393 America's Civil War (4)
This course examines the military, economic, political, and social upheaval of mid-nineteenth century America. We will consider the failure of antebellum political mechanisms, the growth of sectionalism, justifications for and against secession, the methods and implications of war, competing constitutional systems during the conflict, efforts to eradicate Southern separatism, and the lingering cultural implications of the nation's fratricidal dispute. Students will employ the America's Civil War web site, as well as other media, in preparing for discussions, tests, and research papers. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 394 Reconstructing the South (4)
This seminar investigates a variety of postbellum transitions in the United States South, as the defeated slaveholding society reluctantly conceded to less restrictive forms of labor and limited civil equality. Unlike traditional treatments of the era-which focus on politics and end with conservative overthrow of Republican rule-this course also considers changing modes of economic and social life, and concludes with the establishment of the Solid South in 1902. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 396 The Origins and Conduct of the First World War, 1900-1919 (4)
This course examines the problem of how and why Europe went to war in 1914, then comments on the conduct of the war itself and the peacemaking that followed. Attention is on the following topics: operation of the alliance and entente systems, impact of intelligence operations on foreign policy, domestic organization of the European powers, relationship between strategic planning and decision making, and the role of ideas in modeling approaches to international politics. The fortunes and misfortunes of eastern Europe and especially Austria-Hungary will receive special emphasis. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 397 The Origins and Conduct of World War II (4)
A study of the causes, events, and results of World War II. Topics discussed include: the legacy of World War I, rise of totalitarianism, diplomacy of the 1930s, battles and strategies of the war, the Holocaust, and origins of the Cold War. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 400 Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand (4)
This course focuses on Southeast Asia. Students investigate each country's unique history and traditions. For Vietnam and Cambodia, they examine the legacy of foreign intervention, including the impact of Chinese control, French colonialism, and American involvement. For Thailand they look at the traditions of monarchy and the attempts to maintain independence while surrounded by colonialism. In all cases the course connects history and culture in order to provide a context for understanding the development of traditional theatre. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 401 Contemporary Chile, 1970-2011 (2)
This course examines the trajectory of Chilean history, politics, and culture over the past half-century. Starting with the presidency of Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and its historical foundations, students analyze the legacies of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) and the problems of Chile’s transition to democracy (1990-present). Includes in-depth consideration of the political, social, economic, and cultural issues involved in Chile’s present debates, among them the access to free education. Cultural activities and guest lectures by prominent Chilean scholars and activists are combined with field trips to historical sites in and around Santiago. Conducted as a three-week summer course. No Spanish language experience required. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 402 China (4)
This course focuses on ancient and traditional China. Students discuss the rise of the dynastic system, unification under the First Emperor (including building of the Great Wall and the tomb of the Emperor), the development of the philosophies and religions of China (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), and historical events under the Han, T'ang, Sung, Mongol, Ming and Manchu dynasties. This historical survey provides the basis for our understanding of the development of Chinese culture. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 403 Capitalism in Britain and the United States (4)
The impulse to combine land, labor, and capital in profitable ways has always existed; this course focuses on how British and American entrepreneurs have attempted this challenge over the past 500 years of history. The differing cultural, institutional, and technological developments faced by entrepreneurs in each country are considered. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 405 Directed Films and Readings for World War II Sites in England, France, Germany (2)
This half course is designed to prepare students for the summer course program called “From D-Day to Berlin: World War II Sites in England, France and Germany.” Films may include The Battle of Britain, The Longest Day, Conspiracy, and Downfall, among others. Assignments also include short readings on the war. Prerequisite: Approval of the program director required..
HIST 406 From D-Day to Berlin: World War II Sites in England, France, Germany (4)
This course focuses on World War II in England, France, and Germany. Lectures and discussions on specific topics are enhanced by visiting sites related to the progression of the war and its impact on soldiers and civilians. Starting in London with the Imperial War Museum and War Cabinet Rooms, the program moves to Portsmouth and then crosses the Channel into Normandy. In northern France the emphasis is on D-Day, followed by a visit to Paris and discussions of the occupation and liberation. The program travels east and finishes in Germany with visits to Nazi party locations in Munich, Dachau Concentration Camp, Nuremberg, and the capital city of Berlin. Conducted as a three-week summer course. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 410 Five Centuries of Atlantic Slavery, 1400-1900 (4)
An examination of the history of the practices of human slavery in the Atlantic World. Topics include the conduct of the transatlantic trade, the Middle Passage experience, plantation systems in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, the role of Atlantic slavery in the transition to industrialism, slave resistance and revolt, and the abolitionist movements. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 420 The History of International Development (4)
This seminar examines the history of economic development and efforts to address poverty and disease in the “underdeveloped” world, or global south, with a particular focus on Africa, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Topics include humanitarianism, the civilizing mission, modernization, dependency theory, foreign aid, globalization, and social investing. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 430 Political Islam (4)
Offering a broad view of Islam in contemporary politics, this course investigates the politicization of Islam and the “Islamization” of politics by Islamist groups (such as al-Queda and Hamas), governments (such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan), and non-state actors in the Muslim world. The class aims to demystify the so-called “Islamic turn” by considering how Islamic politics are shaped by wider debates about modern Islam, by Western actions in the regions, and by the emergence of powerful new technologies of propaganda and recruitment. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 440 Honors Seminar (4)
The seminar has two functions: first, it serves as the classroom setting in which senior history majors are guided as they conduct the independent research for and complete the writing of their senior honors thesis; second, it operates as a workshop that assists honors candidates in the preparation of the thesis by engaging them in the larger scholarly enterprise of reading and reviewing each other's work. Toward these ends, members of the history department and scholars from other colleges and universities may share their work with and seek the critical engagement of the honors students. The class concludes with an oral presentation of each student's research to the history faculty. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 444 Independent Study (2 or 4)
An opportunity for students to explore a topic of interest in an independent or directed manner. Prerequisite: Professor consent and prerequisite override required.
HIST 452 Senior Research and Writing Seminar (4)
History majors engage in primary and secondary research on a topic of interest, culminating in a significant analytical paper. The semester concludes with an oral presentation of each student’s research. Open only to students pursuing majors in history. Prerequisite: HIST 352.
HIST 455 European Empires in Asia (4)
This course examines the great age of European expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries in Asia and explores the underpinnings of an imperial state. From the age of exploration, to the age of trade, to the age of European decolonization, the relations between the European and the local peoples underwent a significant change in terms of cultural contact, economic exploitation, and political domination. The course analyzes the results of these relations for the Europeans and for the Asians they ruled. It also considers why and how imperial dominations lost their force and new national identities emerged in Asia. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 456 Partition and Its Meanings: India, Ireland, and Palestine (4)
This seminar explores the theory and practice of partition in the twentieth century by focusing on the political divisions that colonial or occupying powers imposed in Ireland, Palestine and India. It examines how the idea of partition arose, the nature of support and opposition it attracted within and beyond these regions, and how such systems came to prevail against extremely determined opposition. The course further considers how partition affected the development of nationalist movements, the course of world events, and the everyday lives of the peoples inhabiting these regions. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 470 Ways of Seeing and Knowing in the Early Modern World (4)
This course explores new ways of studying knowledge production and circulation in Europe and the Atlantic world, circa 1400 to 1800. A key strategy involves attending to the period’s material culture and “reading” objectsmodels, microscopes, mapsas primary sources. Other topics include the uses of paper tools such as note-taking, bio-prospecting, cultures of collecting, and the curiosity cabinet. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 472 Marriage and Imagined Families in the Modern World (4)
Applying Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities” to historical understandings of family life and marriage, this seminar investigates the multiple ways in which modern Europeans have imagined family relationships, spaces, and rituals of marriage. The course examines the cultural creation and reworking of the nuclear family by a diverse range of historical actors within an increasingly global context. How did individuals invent shared pasts that legitimized non-traditional concepts of marriage and the family? Topics include Victorian, socialist and fascist families, the modification of marriage, and challenges to family structures posed by person of alternate sexual, immigrant, and gendered identities. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 480 Reformation to Revolution: Religion and Politics in Early Modern England (4)
This seminar examines political and religious change in England in the tumultuous sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period marked by religious schism, two revolutions, and a failed experiment in republican government. Topics include reformations of church and government, patterns of rebellion and political instability, puritan culture, and the shaping of domestic life. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 481 The Oxford Movement (4)
This course charts the history of the Oxford Movement and its impact on British religion and society, as well as the colonies and former colonies of the British Empire. The Oxford Movement did not arise in a vacuum, so the course begins by exploring the 18th century High Church and Evangelical background. Nor did the Movement exist in a vacuum, so its interaction with the U.S. and the late 19th century “crisis of faith” is seen. Finally, the Movement’s successors are examined: slum priests in rapidly growing cities, the Liberal Catholics, and the Gothic revival in architecture and worship. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 491 European Life in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance (2)
This course begins with an examination of the organization and character of the Western Catholic Church before the Reformation. It considers the distinctive systems of belief that were fostered and seeks to understand how particular beliefs prompted distinctive behavior in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Visits to medieval churches in Oxford and environs facilitate an exploration of what was being commissioned and built by different classes of lay men and women before the Reformation, the better to understand the tenor of faith and pious activity at that time. The course continues through the reign of the Tudors, and the evolution of the Reformation in Britain, Italy and the Mediterranean, and Northern Europe. This course is only available through the European Studies Program. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 493 The Civil War and American Historical Memory (4)
This seminar examines, through a variety of texts, the impact of the Civil War on American historical memory. The goal is to awaken in students’ minds the enduring importance of historical events and to suggest way in which time, distance, and context affect how those events are understood. The seminar, then, is an historiographical excursion which treats a wide range of materials as meaningful historical documents. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 495 War and Society in Ancient Greece and Rome (4)
This course explores war and society from the Greek Archaic Age in the eighth century B.C. to the crisis of the Roman Empire in the third century A.D. It looks at changes in the groups who fought wars, and the ways in which these related to larger social, economic, and political movements. It also considers how participants and non-combatants thought about war, and how these attitudes shifted over time. Archaeology is of prime relevance, but literary texts provide the most important evidence. These are examined to provide new angles on well-known writers, such as Thucydides and Plato, as well as to introduce fascinating, but lesser known, authors including Aeneas Tacticus and Frontinus. Artistic evidence, both public and private, is also central to this course. This course is only available through the European Studies Program. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 496 History and Religion in Medieval Europe (4)
This course covers the history of Europe during the Middle Ages, roughly 500-1500 A.D. It also introduces students to the rise of Christianity as a world religion within the Roman Empire, leading to its eventual domination in Western Europe, and to its interaction with medieval Judaism and emerging Islam. The course combines the study of religion with that of history, precisely because one of the features of the Middle Ages was the centrality of religion to politics, society, and culture. The study of primary sources, including, among others, the writings of Sidonius Apollinaris, Rabia of Basra, Bede, Einhard, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Christine de Pisan and Petrarch, underpin the structure of the course. This course is only available through the European Studies Program. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.