100-200 Level History Classes
HIS 101: History of the United States, I (to 1877)
Prof. Scott Heerman
Section 7C DIS, F 10:10-11
Section 7E DIS, F 12:20-1:10
Section E LEC, MWF 12:20-1:10
HIS 122: The Dragon and the Rising Sun: East Asia, 1800-Present
Prof. Stephen Halsey
Section R, TR 2-3:15
HIS 131: Europe from Antiquity to 1600: An Expanding World
Prof. Hugh Thomas
Sec 7D DIS, F 11:15-12:05
Sec 7F DIS, F 1:25-2:15
Sec F LEC, MWF 1:25-2:15
HIS 227: Nationalism: Love thy Brother, Hate thy Neighbor?
Prof. Dominique Reill
Section S, TR 3:30-4:45
HIS 254: History of the Cold War in the Americas
Prof. Eduardo Elena
Section R, TR 2-3:15
HIS 267: Making History: Asian Food in U.S History
Prof. Sumita Chatterjee
Section EF, MW 12:20-1:35
300-500 Level History Classes
HIS 312: Femininity, Masculinity, and Sexual Politics in Indian History
Prof. Sumita Chatterjee
Section GH, MW 2:30-3:45
HIS 315: Imperial China
Prof. Stephen Halsey
Section T, TR 5:05-6:20
HIS 321: Human Trafficking in African History
Prof. Etana Dinka
Section Q, TR 12:30-1:45
HIS 325: The Early Middle Ages: Europe, 450-1095
Prof. Hugh Thomas
Section CD, MW 10:10-11:25
HIS 334: Britain and the Commonwealth in the Twentieth Century
Prof. Phil Harling
Section Q, TR 9:30-10:45
HIS 346: Imperial Russia
Prof. Krista Goff
Section P, TR 11-12:15
HIS 349: The Rise and Fall of the European Great Powers between Napoleon and the Cold War
Prof. Hermann Beck
Section S, TR 3:30-4:45
HIS 350: Europe and the World in Modern Times
Prof. Constance de Font-Réaulx
Section P, TR 11-12:15
HIS 361: American Beginnings
Prof. Ashli White
Section C, MWF 10:10-11
HIS 364: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Prof. Michael Bernath
Section 7D, F 11:15-12:05
Section 7G, F 2:30-3:20
Section D, MWF 11:15-12:05
HIS 370: Storied Pasts: 19th Century U.S. History and Literature
Prof. Michael Bernath
Section EF, MW 12:20-1:35
HIS 447: Global History of Communism
Prof. Krista Goff
Section Q, TR 12:30-1:45
HIS 538: Studies in Early Modern European History: Global Natural Histories From Ordering Nature Through The Anthropocene
Prof. Constance de Font-Réaulx
Section 1R, T 2-4:45
HIS 544: Studies in Modern European History: The Second World War Through Diaries and Autobiographies
Prof. Hermann Beck
Section 5G, W 2:30-5:15
HIS 591: Studies in Comparative History: Slavery in Fact and Fiction
Prof. Scott Heerman
Section 1G, M 2:30-5:15
HIS 101: History of the United States, I (to 1877)
This course is a topical survey of the history of the United States, from its colonial origins to Reconstruction. Between 1300 and 1877, the meeting of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans defined U.S. history and we will be exploring how these VERY diverse groups of people interacted with each other, made new societies, and destroyed old ones. We will explore competing visions of hierarchy, and belonging in U.S. History. Throughout this course, you will be expected both to know the large narrative of U.S. history and to argue about the important turning points in that narrative.
HIS 122: The Dragon and the Rising Sun: East Asia, 1800–Present
Do you want to learn how China and Japan developed two of the largest economies in the world? To understand why China now has the second largest population after India? To know why Beijing and Tokyo fought two bitter and bloody wars in the last hundred and fifty years and may do so again in the future? Explore the history of the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region this fall in The Dragon and the Rising Sun. We will focus on the fascinating connections between two of the great powers, China and Japan, and the ways that this complex relationship has shaped the history of the Asia-Pacific region. This class is an integrative survey, which means that we will discuss topics ranging from geisha and poets to empires and revolutions to samurai warriors and atom bombs. The Dragon and the Rising Sun is an introductory level course and assumes no prior knowledge of Asia or coursework in the field of history.
HIS 131: Europe from Antiquity to 1600: An Expanding World
This course will begin with the ancient world and end with the Protestant Reformation. In the process, we will briefly start with Mesopotamia and Egypt, move on to Greece and Rome, and then proceed through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We will explore not only different civilizations but also different approaches to history. There will be two lectures each week and a third hour class period devoted to discussions of readings of primary sources posted on Blackboard or downloaded from the web. There will also be a textbook which will play an important role in the class. Grades will be based on exams, assignments based on the textbook, and participation in discussion.
HIS 227: Nationalism: Love thy Brother, Hate thy Neighbor?
This lower-division lecture course will offer an introductory thematic overview to the ideas and politics of nationalism throughout the globe.
HIS 254: History of the Cold War in the Americas (WR)
Although the Cold War is commonly thought of as a bloodless standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was a period of violently “hot” conflict throughout much of the world. In the Americas, the Cold War brought great social upheaval and political turmoil. Focusing on the period from the late 1940s to the 1990s, this course will examine the origins, evolution, and enduring consequences of the Cold War in this region.
HIS 267: Making History: Asian Food in U.S. History (WR)
This course studies the transformative journey of Asian culinary traditions and foodways as they have been woven into the fabric of American culture. By uncovering how Asian food both shaped and was reshaped by American society, the course invites students to critically engage with themes of immigration, cultural identity, authenticity, consumer behaviors, and innovation, ultimately demonstrating that food is a powerful medium for understanding history and forging community bonds.
HIS 312: Femininity, Masculinity, and Sexual Politics in Indian History (WR)
This course will be a thematic rather than chronological study of issues relating to gender, sex, and sexuality and the ways in which they have shaped the history of women and men’s lived experiences in India. We will read a variety of multidisciplinary texts – primary historical documents, religious texts (Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist), legal treatises, folktales, fiction, memoirs, and films to explore these themes.
HIS 315: Imperial China (WR)
Explore a world of bloodthirsty Mongol khans, learned Confucian scholars, glamorous imperial princesses, swashbuckling pirates, and wealthy merchants. Learn how imperial China conquered vast territories, governed a population of hundreds of millions, and built capital cities larger than ancient Rome. Coverage extends from China’s earliest history to 1800.
HIS 321: Human Trafficking in African History (WR)
This course examines the significance of African human trafficking by exploring the decline of global slave trade networks, various forms of trafficking rooted in and intertwined with multiple types of slavery, and understanding the subtle and often blurred transitions to freedom. Key components of the course include trafficking in the 19th century, the shift from the slave trade to migrant labor, the connections between the end of slavery and trafficking in colonial Africa, sex trafficking, the relationship between Islam and trafficking, contemporary trafficking issues, and several international legal instruments established to combat human trafficking.
HIS 325: The Early Middle Ages: Europe, 450–1095 (WR)
This course covers the history of Western Europe from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the Crusades. There will also be some coverage of Byzantium and the Islamic world. Topics will include the loss and survival of Roman culture, the barbarians, the Carolingian Empire, the Vikings, the spread of Christianity, and relations with the emerging Islamic empire. There will be a main textbook and four or five other books containing sources written in the period. Grades will be based on class participation, midterm, final, and papers.
HIS 334: Britain and the Commonwealth in the Twentieth Century (WR)
Britain’s 20th century was a century of massive political, social, and cultural changes. We’ll explore those changes as they relate to several prominent themes: the impact of two World Wars on soldiers and civilians alike, each of hitherto unimaginable scale and scope; the rise and decline (?) of the welfare state; the dismantling of the British empire and the (closely related) rise of a truly multiracial and multi-ethnic Britain; the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s; the political and economic tumult of the 1970s; the rise and consolidation of Thatcherite neoliberalism; the long but certain decline of Britain’s great-power status; the complicated relationship between Britain and the European Union – before, during, and after Britain’s membership in it; and the complex and often contested relationship among the four nations within the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England.
HIS 346: Imperial Russia
This course is a survey of the Russian Empire to the dawn of the 1917 Russian Revolution. How did the Russian Empire become the world’s largest land empire, and how did it stay together for centuries? We will integrate local histories of imperial peripheries into the major themes that define Russian imperial history.
HIS 349: The Rise and Fall of the European Great Powers between Napoleon and the Cold War (WR)
This is a survey of European diplomacy in the crucial period between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the first phase of the Cold War, which ended with the building of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. We begin with an examination of the international repercussions of the failed revolutions of 1848, the Crimean War, and Bismarck’s push to unify Germany. German unification in 1871 fundamentally changed the European system, and Bismarck subsequently tried to safeguard his creation through an intricate system of alliances (1871–1890) that barely survived his own downfall in March of 1890. We turn next to the dissolution of Bismarck’s system, the creation of the Triple Entente, and Germany’s increasing diplomatic isolation in the two decades prior to the outbreak of World War I. Other major topics include: the Great War and its consequences, the Versailles Treaty, the 1917 Russian Revolution and diplomacy in the 1920s, the Europe of the Dictators, the origins of the Second World War, Great Power relations after the start of World War II in September 1939, the formation of the Grand Alliance and, finally, the roots and the early history of the Cold War.
HIS 350: Europe and the World in Modern Times (WR)
The course examines European relations with the wider world from 1500 to the present. The course will give attention to Europe’s global entanglements and ask how Europe had shaped and had been shaped by the rest of the world. It combines the perspective of the history of European exploration and expansion, imperialism and decolonization, global transport and trade, world wars, and globalization in an environmental perspective.
HIS 361: American Beginnings (WR)
When and how did America become “America”? This course explores this question through a multi-faceted appraisal of the colonization of North America. We focus on the late sixteenth through the mid-eighteenth centuries, an era that was marked by discord and adaptation, as Native peoples, Africans, and Europeans from diverse nations interacted to make “America.” Throughout the semester, we will pay particular attention to the consequences of this colonial enterprise, and we will consider why this historical moment and its legacies continue to resonate so powerfully in the United States today.
HIS 364: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850–1877) (WR)
This course explores the most cataclysmic event in American history. We will examine the Civil War as a revolutionary experience, an event that touched and radically transformed nearly every aspect of American life, and indeed, redefined the very meaning of the United States itself. This course will not be confined to battles and generals. While the military struggle will not be neglected, the primary focus of the course will be on the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the war. The Civil War has rightly been called “the crossroads of our being.” It fundamentally altered northern and southern society, ended the institution of slavery, and forever changed the course of American history. Today, the United States is still touched, and in many ways defined, by the legacy of the Civil War.
HIS 370: Storied Pasts: 19th Century U.S. History and Literature (WR)
This course explores 19th-century American intellectual and cultural history through the lens of its literature. Analyzing key works of fiction, poetry, oratory, and philosophy as historical sources, we will seek to discover how the changing themes and forms of nineteenth-century literature shaped and/or reflected larger intellectual, political, and social currents.
HIS 447: Global History of Communism
This course explores the evolution of communist theories and movements. We will discuss the Soviet Union, as well as other case studies from around the world, to understand the diversity of the socialist thought.
HIS 538: Global Natural Histories: From Ordering Nature to the Anthropocene (1500–present) (WR)
This seminar explores the emergence of natural history as a discipline in Renaissance Europe and ends with the contemporary notion of the Anthropocene. This class will put natural history in its historical, cultural, spatial, and material contexts to understand how over the past five hundred years the practices, theories, and institutions of natural history have undergone many changes. Topics will include debates over preservation; relations between natural histories and European colonial and commercial expansion; collecting and ordering the natural world; material, tools, and machines in the production of knowledge; natural history and ecology; environmental conservatism; Anthropocene.
HIS 544: Studies in Modern European History: The Second World War Through Diaries and Autobiographies (WR)
In this course we look at the Second World War through the lens of diaries and memoirs. These personal accounts convey a proximity to historical events and insight into understanding a different age that no ordinary history book can match. During the semester, we read the memoirs and diaries of those who lived through World War II, including Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich, Alexander Stahlberg’s Bounden Duty: Memoirs of a German Officer, and Ursula von Kardorff’s Diary of a Nightmare. Berlin 1942–1945, among others. We will read some of these books in excerpts and select the most interesting passages. All of the books assigned are eminently readable.
HIS 591: Studies in Comparative History: Slavery in Fact and Fiction
Selected topics in Comparative History. Subtitles describing the topics to be offered will be shown in parentheses in the printed class schedule, following the title.
