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.
This course examines some of the most significant conflicts and turning points in the history of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth in Europe and its Caribbean slave colonies from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. We approach women’s reproductive bodies as contested sites of political struggle over issues as diverse as slavery, colonialism, population growth and birth control, religious reform, midwifery, the medicalization of childbirth, and nation-building. Centering women’s voices and experiences of the birth process where the sources allow us, we study the cultures and communities that women of diverse racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds constructed around biological reproduction.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire from the Revolution of 1688 to the present.
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.
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.
An introduction to the history of German-speaking Europe, c. 1450 to 1850. The course examines the complex history of the Holy Roman Empire, a vast, economically and culturally rich, multi-ethnic state. It also focuses on imperial politics in theory and practice, territorial expansion and diplomacy, the relative autonomy of many German cities, the Protestant Reformation and its aftermath, peasant revolts, the Thirty Years War, the German Enlightenment, and the Vormärz period that culminated in the 1848 Revolutions.
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.
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.
This course introduces students to the experience of thinking historically and doing historical work. Students will learn about historiographical debates, lenses or approaches to history, how to locate and to interpret primary sources such as letters, journals, images, and maps. They will also have opportunities to engage with historical sites, monuments, special collections materials and to work with digital tools. Students examine how historians formulate questions or lines of inquiry, how to conduct library and archival research and practice organizing and presenting research in oral and written form. Required of all history majors and minors.
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.
Selected topics in the history of western Europe during the Middle Ages. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion.
From sudden events such as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, to those that unfolded over many years, crises and catastrophes were omnipresent in early modernity. While contemporaries often agreed that crises were imminent or unfolding, like today they did not always agree on how to respond. This course considers specific public health crises of the period, such as the global spread of smallpox and plague, positioning these within key readings in the history of science, medicine, capitalism and empire. Students also will study the disruptive dimensions of the period’s political and ecological crises and links between experiencing crisis and activism.
This American History course covers the Black Power Movement’s history from its origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s through the current Black Lives Matter era. Together we review how the Black Power Movement empowered individuals and groups to protest police brutality, advance criminal justice reform, advocate for self-defense, promote Black collective interests, advance Black values, create Black institutions, and secure Black autonomy.
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.
Religious nationalist parties and social movements play an increasingly important role in our contemporary world. Promising a more “authentic” approach to nationalism than secular nationalism, these movements provide meaning to millions of adherents, while also contributing to partisanship and conflict around the world. This class investigates the history of religious nationalism with a focus primarily on the history of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish nationalism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Case studies will be drawn from the history of Israel/Palestine, India/Pakistan, Ireland, and the United States.
Public historians work with a variety of people and non-academic institutions, including community heritage groups, historical societies, and museums. In this course, students will explore the practice of conducting historical research in support of projects proposed by these institutions. This course will blend theory and experience by examining the cultural, intellectual, and economic implications of conducting public history research while exploring the practical aspects of conducting public history fieldwork.
Selected topics in the history of England from the Roman conquest to the accession of Henry Tudor. Emphasis on reading, papers, discussion.
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.
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.