HIS 101: History of the United States, I (to 1877)
Prof. Michael Bernath
Section 7D DIS, Class 11992, F 11:15-12:05
Section 7G DIS, Class 11993, F 2:30-3:20
Section D LEC, Class 11991, MWF 11:15-12:05
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
Prof, Stephen Halsey
Section R, Class 4925, TR 2-3:15
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 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
Prof. Hugh Thomas
Sec 7D DIS, Class 4894, F 11:15-12:05
Sec 7F DIS, Class 4896, F 1:25-2:15
Sec F LEC, Class 4898, MWF 1:25-2:15
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 254: History of the Cold War in the Americas
Prof. Eduardo Elena
Section R, Class 4937, TR 2-3:15
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
Prof. Sumita Chatterjee
Section 4G, Class 4941, W 2:30-5:15
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
Prof. Sumita Chatterjee
Section U, Class 4946, TR 6:35-7:50
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 321: Human Trafficking in African History
Prof. Etana Dinka
Section Q, Class 4943, TR 12:30-1:45
This course examines several key themes in the history of human trafficking in Africa. Building on discussions about multiple slave trade traffic that originate in Africa, the course explores how African human trafficking of global significance emerged in the wake of declining slave trade networks, exploring various forms of trafficking built on and embedded in forms of slavery or subtle and blurry transitions to freedom. Readings about trafficking in the 19th century, the transition from the slave trade to migrant labor, the links between the end of slavery and the trafficking in colonial Africa, sex trafficking and prostitution, Islam and trafficking, contemporary trafficking, and series of international legal instruments created to fight against human trafficking constitute vital blocks of the course. In exploring these themes, students will examine the dynamic and complex transitions between slavery and the rise of multiple forms of human trafficking that have become a global economic factor, defying national, oceanic, and continental boundaries. Students will have opportunities to appreciate the historical roles of human trafficking in transforming local and international relations and its significance in understanding societies, cultures, polity, religions, and people's perceptions and worldviews. While Africa remains the course's focus, most themes open up discussions about the history of human trafficking from global perspectives.
HIS 325: The Early Middle Ages: Europe, 450-1095
Prof. Hugh Thomas
Section G, Class 4934, MW 2:30-3:20
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)
Prof. Phil Harling
Section O, Class 4927, TR 9:30-10:45
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 multi-racial 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 349: The Rise and Fall of the European Great Powers between Napoleon and the Cold War
Prof. Hermann Beck
Section S, Class 4903, TR 3:30-4:45
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
Prof. Constance de Font-Réaulx
Section P, Class 4884, TR 11-12:15
The course examines European relations with 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
Prof. Ashli White
Section C, Class 4933, MWF 10:10-11:25
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 370: Storied Pasts: 19th Century U.S. History and Literature
Prof. Michael Bernath
Section EF, Class 4920, MW 12:20-1:35
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 544: Studies in Modern European History: The Second World War Through Diaries and Autobiographies
Prof. Hermann Beck
Section 5G, Class 4932, W 2:30-5:15
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 538/632: Global Natural Histories: From Ordering Nature to the Anthropocene (1500-present) (WR)
Prof. Constance de Font-Réaulx
Section 1R, Class 4901/4899, T 2-4:45
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 602: Studies in African History
Prof. Etana Dinka
Section 1P, Class 4905, R 2-4:45
This graduate seminar aims to engage students in key issues in African history, from its origins as a field to its current state and future direction, exploring historical debates, problems, methods, historiographies, emerging themes, and research agendas. We aim to do so through sustained examination of the field’s six decades of evolution in its scholarly research. Major readings and discussions in this seminar include the idea of Africa and contours of African history, expansion and diversification in its sources and methods, key themes of research in the past and present, longstanding debates, principal themes in African history and historiographical issues, and future directions of historical research on Africa.
HIS 702: Research Seminar Part 2
Prof. Ashli White
Section 1P, Class 4940, M 2:30-5:15
Our research seminars 1 and 2 aim to enable our graduate students to deliver an original article-length essay over two consecutive semesters. This seminar research seeks to prepare students to conduct primary research to produce the essay, which is due the following semester (Fall 2025). In their research and writing, students are expected to craft a compelling argument that mobilizes historical evidence, competently demonstrate awareness about the relevant body of knowledge, convincingly present the significance of their findings, and write clearly. The readings, discussions, and assignments in this research seminar, therefore, are designed as a semester-long set of work to guide students to focus on necessary activities to achieve the goal of crafting an original article.
HIS 703: Directed Readings in African History, Colonial and Post-Colonial Ghana: From Expansion of British Jurisdiction on the Gold Coast to the Fourth Republic
Prof. Edmund Abaka
Section 1, Class 4930, W 9:45-12:15
This course examines the colonial and post-colonial history of the Gold Coast/Ghana from the time of the expansion of British Jurisdiction in the Gold Coast from the 1840s through independence to the fourth Republic. It interrogates British policies on the Gold Coast in the post-slavery period, the responses of Gold Coasters towards British colonialism, the struggle against colonialism (for independence) and the various governments formed between independence and the Fourth Republic. It pays particular attention to the controversies around the contributions of various individuals and groups towards independence and the policies various governments pursued after independence. Also, a close examination would be made of the various military regimes that truncated the first, second and third republics. Intimating that they had come to make things better for the people of Ghana, some of these military governments made things worse, especially, when they were accountable to only themselves. The final segment of the course deals with the notion that Ghana has one of the most stable governments in post-independence Africa. Why is this the case - perception or reality? What factors have contributed to this long period of stability?
HIS 721: Historiography
Prof. Stephen Halsey
Section 1P, Class 4889, R 11-1:45
This graduate seminar examines the practice and theory of writing history. It is designed to introduce students to different methodological approaches, important historiographical debates, and seminal works. In the process, it will equip students with some of the common concepts and vocabulary utilized by historians across different fields that serve to connect us as a profession. Through critical readings of some of the most influential works in recent historiography, students will analyze how historical arguments are constructed, the different ways in which sources are interpreted, and the theoretical frameworks that explicitly or implicitly drive these interpretations. The course consists of weekly seminar meetings devoted to intense critical discussions of the assigned readings. Attendance is mandatory and all students are required to complete the week’s assignment before coming to class.
HIS 760: Directed Readings in Latin-American History; The Global South in History
Prof. Eduardo Elena
Section 4G, Class 12071, W 2:30-5:15
This course explores the shifting ways in which countries outside the North Atlantic have been viewed as possessing certain shared characteristics and aspirations. It begins by tracing how earlier theories for conceptualizing the “developing,” “Third,” and “postcolonial” worlds have given way to the North/South distinction prevalent today. Seminar members will consider recent methods for investigating the history of specific populations and places located within the vast imagined region of the “Global South” and assess what, if anything, connects their historical experiences. Readings will introduce seminar members to new scholarly directions in the history of technology, development, empire, the environment, urbanization, consumption, and inequality in the Global South. We shall ask ourselves how research on the South might, in turn, provide fresh approaches for rethinking trends in the North. Although the course moves across multiple world areas, our primary focus will be on the twentieth century and cases from Latin America, Caribbean, and African history.
HIS 830: Doctoral Dissertation
Required of all candidates for the Ph.D. The student will enroll for credit as determined by his/her advisor, but for not less than a total of 12 hours. Up to 12 hours may be taken in a regular semester, but not more than six in a summer session.
HIS 840: Post Candidacy Doctoral Dissertation
Required of all candidates for the Ph.D. who have advanced to candidacy. The student will enroll for credit as determined by his/her advisor, but not for less than a total of 12. Not more than 12 hours of HIS 740 may be taken in a regular semester, nor more than six in a summer session
