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.
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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students and sophomores.
HIST 114 Health and Illness in History: Reading and Writing about Disease in American History (4)
An introduction to the history of medicine by examining the way diseases have been documented and discussed by patients, family members, and medical professionals in the past. Students will read medical narratives produced during and about various periods in United States history. They will study how such narratives have changed the way historians think about the history of medicine and, in some cases, how Americans think of themselves and their relationship to illness, the healthcare profession, and medical research.
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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students and sophomores.
HIST 122 Science, Society, and the Archives (4)
This course studies the sciences and their histories as social practices. Focusing on the cultural meanings and politics of scientific work in many different contexts, special attention is given to the early modern period of global history. Consideration is given to the important role archives play in the work of historians. Topics include knowledge networks, translation, archives and imperialism; secrecy and the suppression of scientific expertise, scientific consensus and policy-making; science and gender; scientific racism; artificial intelligence and cultures of innovation; observation and the history of objectivity.
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 new first-year students.
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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students 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 first-year students and sophomores.
HIST 131 "We are not what we seem": Race, Class and Identity in American History since 1863 (4)
This course focuses on Race, Class, and Identity in American history since the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to the present, emphasizing specific political, social, and economic developments. It examines such topics as expansion, Populist and Progressive movements, the Great Depression, the World Wars, reform and dissent in the 1960s and the Vietnam conflict. Open only to first-year students 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 Britain and Ireland I (4)
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain and Ireland from pre-history to the Revolution of 1688. Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 206 History of Britain and Ireland II (4)
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. 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 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 229 The Many Faces of Sewanee (4)
This seminar introduces students 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.
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 267 Early Modern Germany: Reformation to Revolutions (4)
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. 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 292 Jews in the Greco-Roman World (4)
A political, social, and cultural history of Jews in the Greco-Roman world, this course spans the conquest of Jerusalem by Alexander the Great in 322 BCE to Jerusalem's re-founding as the pagan city Aelia Capitolina by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 135 CE. Topics include: the rise of apocalypticism, the Maccabean Revolt, Jewish sectarianism, Messianism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, religious martyrdom, the destruction of the Jewish Temple, and Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora. 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 shaped -- and been shaped by -- local 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 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 310 From Barbary to Iraq: Britain and America in the Middle East (4)
Through an in-depth look at the history of British and American empire in the Middle East from the 19th century until the present day, this seminar explores how British and American hegemony has impacted the Middle East and how that hegemony has shaped the political and military cultures of both countries. Participants will study a wide variety of actors (missionaries, travelers, consular agents, imperial officials, and anti-colonial nationalists) and a broad range of sources (government documents, missionary correspondence, travel accounts, novels, and films). Prerequisite: One course with attribute G4 including AP or IB credit.
HIST 313 Youth and Social networks in the Early Modern (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 Out of the Shadows: Women of the Civil Rights Movement (4)
A seminar focusing on the women of the long Civil Rights Movement who galvanized their communities to resist oppression and demand justice. These women, long overshadowed by men, labored tirelessly even after the Movement gained national attention but few are known and fewer still acknowledged. In this course, we will study the history of the long Civil Rights Movement from the points of view of these women and their known and unknown predecessors who paved the way. 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 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 328 Slavery, Race, and the University (4)
An exploration of the importance of slavery to the development of higher education in the United States through a close study of the history of the University of the South, its antebellum roots in the slaveholding South, and the continuing impact of the legacies of slavery and racial injustice on its development. The course also examines campus monuments and memorials that shape collective memories and identities at Sewanee and considers the ethical questions of how universities may seek justice and reconciliation in light of their historic and long-unaddressed connections to slavery. Not open to new first-year students.
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 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 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 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 351 History of Modern India through Cinema and Literature (4)
This course surveys the historical transformations provoked by the advent of modernity in twentieth-century India, including the rise of Gandhian nationalism, alternative and more extremist forms anti-colonialism, independence, and the partition of India in 1947. Through cinema and literature, the course examines how key events served as fulcrums 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 Making History (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 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 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 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 382 Global Segregation, Race, and Popular Culture in the United States and South Africa (4)
An exploration of the rise and significance of segregation, race, and popular culture as crucial interlinked global phenomena during the era of burgeoning urbanization and nationalism in the late 19th and 20th centuries, with special attention to the histories of South Africa and the United States. Students engage primary sources from the popular culture of a global historical setting. 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 Modernity and Modernism in Europe, 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 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 and approval of the World War II program director required.
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 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 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 408 The Body Republic: American Politics, Medicine, and Society Before the Civil War (4)
This course explores the connections between science, politics and social conventions in the period known as the Early Republic. Topics include the relationship between scientific theories and the temperance movement, gender roles, and scientific racism. Consideration of how the medical was political runs throughout the course as the challenges of microbes, diet, climate, and shifting definitions of ‘race’ and ‘citizen’ are explored. Course readings highlight the intersection of science, politics, race, and gender during this foundational period in American History.
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 421 The History of Sustainability and Sustainable Development (4)
An examination of the historical origins and development of the discourses of sustainability, sustainable development, and the green economy, which have been ubiquitous, influential, and critically and historiographically under-examined in contemporary U.S. and global society. The course draws on contemporary global environmental historiography, while analyzing key primary sources such as Malthus' An Essay on the Principles of Population, Marsh's Man and Nature, Ehrlich's Population Bomb, Club of Rome's Limits to Growth, the United Nations' Brundtland Commission's "Our Common Future," the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, and the University of the South's Sustainability Master Plan. 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: Instructor prerequisite override required.
HIST 441 The Home and the World: Gender and Sexuality in Modern India (4)
Taking a historical approach towards understanding gender and sexuality in South Asia, this course focuses particularly on the history of women in the region. As is suggested in the translated title of one of India's most celebrated writers Rabindranath Tagore's novel, Home and the World, this course's themes also pivot around questions of women's belonging in circumscribed spaces. From this center it reaches out to offer an understanding of the great diversity and heterogeneity of women's experiences in India, an analysis of women's movements, forays into women's voices, and colonial policies towards women. Apart from a robust historiographical literature, this course introduces students to poems, fiction, literature, plays, art, and cinema from India.
HIST 444 Independent Study (2 or 4)
An opportunity for students to explore a topic of interest in an independent or directed manner. Prerequisite: Instructor prerequisite override required.
HIST 452 Senior 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 471 Health, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800 (4)
An exploration of the intertwined histories of health, medicine, religion, and emotion in Europe, c. 1400 to 1800. Informed by the methods and scholarship of social and cultural historians, the course considers the ways in which status, social roles and obligations, gender, and religious identities and practices affected how early moderns understood the health of their minds, bodies, and souls. Topics include Galenic humoralism and theories of disease, religious and astrological cures, learned medicine and anatomy, dissection and the study of female bodies, hospitals, and asylums. 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 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: Only open to students admitted to the European Studies program.
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: Only open to students admitted to the European Studies program.
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: Only open to students admitted to the European Studies program.