Courses

• HIST 11100: World History to 1500
  
  This is a survey the history of human civilization from the end of the Stone Age to 1500 CE. The course examines the concept of civilization, the emergence of the earliest civilizations, and the distinctive features of ancient cultures, societies and governments. Other topics include the expansion of contacts among the early centers of urban society, and the emergence of civilizations in what had originally been peripheral regions. Particular attention is paid to the development of the religious and intellectual traditions of several classical civilizations, and the influence these traditions have had on later societies. The course ends roughly around 1500, on the eve of the tremendous changes that came about in the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world as a result of the European explorations and conquests that began with the voyages of Columbus.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 12100: Early Modern Europe 1500-1815
  
  The early modern period saw the Renaissance, the Reformations, the Age of Discoveries, the invention of print, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Contemporary observers interpreted these events as harbingers of new times, and speculated how society should or will be organized in the future. This course reads the major transformations of early modern Europe through the lens of these utopian visions. As we will see, the expectations of contemporaries were often not realized. Yet their writings reveal how scholars, priests, newswriters and ordinary people experienced and hoped to shape the world they were living in.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 12200: 19th and 20th Century Europe (W) Elidor Mëhilli
  
  An introduction to the history of modern Europe. Beginning with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the course traces the development of the Industrial Revolution, the dissemination of ideas and ideologies across the continent, imperialism, two world wars, and the global repercussions of the Cold War. We will raise a number of big questions: How do we explain European predominance and decline in the modern era? Was the nation-state inevitable? Were free markets inevitable? Were democratic systems inevitable? How did the two world wars change the international system? How did Europe’s global entanglements over the last two centuries shape its societies? How can we make sense (or not) of the past, and what does that say about the present?
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D). (W) Writing intensive course.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 12200: 19th & 20th Century Europe (W) Iryna Vushko
  
  History of modern Europe between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering Western, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The focus of this course is upon political history but topics related to economy, culture and the arts are included as well. We start with the French Revolution of 1789 and complete the course with the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union in 1991. We will analyze how the concept of Europe changed over time; how colonies turned into nation states, and how these nations transformed during the modern era; why, how, and when some states adopted totalitarian models; and how colonialism and totalitarianism came to an end in Europe after WWII. Themes include: the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars, romanticism, liberalism, socialism and Marxism, 1848, empire and nation states, European imperialism, WWI, interwar radicalism, Nazism, fascism, and Stalinism, WWII, the Holocaust, cold war, European Union, the collapse of communism, and the creation of a new Europe. Lectures will be supplemented by weekly readings from the textbook and primary sources. Students will learn to work with primary sources and incorporate them into historical analysis.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D). (W) Writing intensive course.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 141.51: Twentieth-century World History Manu Bhagavan
  
  This course is designed to introduce students to major themes in the world’s history during the twentieth century. Some of the questions explored during the term include: What are the drivers of integration and unification? What forces have been divisive? What have been major fault lines of conflict? What visions have advocated peace and justice, and in what way? No prerequisites.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15100: United States from the Colonial Era to the Civil War (W) Staff
  
  This course will cover U.S. History broadly from the early period of European settlement to the conclusion of the Civil War. The course will include at least one focused study of a particular topic or event from this period.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15100: United States from the Colonial Era to the Civil War (W) Staff
  
  This survey course examines the development of the United States politically and socially through the Civil War. Specific topics we will follow over the entire course include the foundation and development of the United States government, economic growth, immigration, slavery, social and intellectual thought, territorial expansion, and the place of women in American society. Students who satisfactorily complete this course should be able to discuss the major themes, questions and events that shaped the United States through the Civil War, including the foundations and institutions of the American government; understand and employ historical method, including cause and effect, change and continuity over time, and the role evidence plays in writing history; conduct critical reading of primary and secondary sources and apply these readings to in-class discussions and written assignments and exams; develop, draft, and edit a research essay which investigates a historical topic with rigorous, scholarly sources.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War Era to the Present (W) Donna Haverty-Stacke
  
  This course surveys some of the major developments in United States history from 1865 to the 1970s. Among the subjects covered are the struggles for justice of African Americans and women; the expanding scope and power of the federal government; and the increasing engagement of the United States with the world.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War Era to the Present (W) Daniel Hurewitz
  While this course is designed to be a broad overview of the last 150 years of American history, this version of the U.S. survey focuses in on the shifting answers to 3 key questions. Who counts as American in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender? How much is economic inequaity an issue of public concern? What role should the United States plan in the affairs of other countries.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War Era to the Present (W) Jonathan Rosenberg
  
  This course surveys some of the major developments in United States history from 1865 to the 1970s. Among the subjects covered are the struggles for justice of African Americans and women; the expanding scope and power of the federal government; and the increasing engagement of the United States with the world.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War Era to the Present (W) Eduardo Contreras
  
  This course surveys the political, social, cultural, and economic history of the United States from the Civil War era to the present. We will study key themes and developments in U.S. history since the mid-nineteenth century, including industrialization and deindustrialization; urbanization and suburbanization; liberalism and conservatism; (im)migration and racialization; and civic action and social movements, among others.
  Writing Intensive Course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 250.05: Eastern Europe since 1800 Iryna Vushko
  
  History of Eastern Europe from 1800 to the present. In this course, we analyze the concept of and historical trajectories of Eastern Europe during the modern era. The focus of this course is upon political history, but we will also discuss how modern politics affected culture and the arts. Themes and topics include (but not limited to): the concept of Eastern Europe; empire, statehood and nationalism in East-European history; Marxism, radicalism, fascism, communism; the revolutions of 1848, 1917, 1989, and 2014. No prior knowledge of East-European history is required. We focus on territories that belong to today’s Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, and will also address some issues related to the history of the Balkans, specifically former Yugoslavia. Lectures will be supplemented by weekly readings from the textbook and primary sources. Readings include two textbooks and excerpts from primary sources as well as two works of fiction related to specific historical events and periods.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 250.06: Men, Women & Sex in 20th Century U.S. Daniel Hurewitz
  
  This course explores how ideas about masculinity and femininity, and “appropriate” heterosexual and homosexual behavior have shifted over the last 100+ years in the U.S. We look at the emergence of sexual identities, and recent battles about abortion, AIDS, and sex education.
  Expand Course Details

• HIS 250.07: Europe in the Age of Total War 1900-1963 Benjamin Hett
  
  This class explores the history of Europe between approximately 1900 and 1963 from a particular angle, that of the intersection of large-scale wars and military mobilization (the two World Wars and the Cold War) and processes of social, political, cultural and economic change. We will consider throughout what exactly the concepts of “total war” (and its near cousin, “totalitarianism”) really mean; and at the core of the course will be the question of how the World Wars were possible, and whether or not some similar kind of war remains possible – and if not, why not. We will also spend time considering important questions of historical causation – especially that of whether certain social or intellectual changes were results of the World Wars or instead causes of them. By the end of the course students should have a good grasp of the causes and consequences of these large scale historical events; they should be familiar with the use and analysis of primary sources and secondary sources such as are listed on this syllabus; and they should be able to formulate and sustain an argument on the basis of such sources.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 250.76: Modern South Asia Manu Bhagavan
  
  This course is designed to introduce students to the civilization(s) of the subcontinent from the coming of the Mughals in 1526 to the present. We will examine aspects of South Asia’s diverse political, social, and cultural histories. “South Asia” here refers to the contemporary countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. No prior knowledge of South Asian history or culture is expected or required.
  No prerequisites.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 250.80 / WGS 20001: Introduction to LGBT Studies Daniel Hurewitz
  
  The class will begin with questions about the meaning of sex and sexuality and then explore some of the historic evolution of these concepts in a U.S. context. From there, we will investigate several contemporary situations including the politics of same-sex marriage, the making of queer families, the treatment of LGBT characters in pop culture, and intersections of race and sexuality.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 27100: Early Latin America Mary Roldán
  
  This course provides an overview of the early political, economic, cultural and social history of Latin America (1490s to 1820s). The course encompasses the history of Spanish America as well as Portuguese Brazil, but emphasis will be on the former. Among the topics covered are pre-Columbian indigenous societies in the Americas; the personal, regional and transnational impact of the encounter between European, African and Native peoples; evolving land, labor and production arrangements; Christian evangelization and the role of the Catholic Church in colonial society; the character and reach of imperial authority; racial, ethnic, caste and gender relations; popular resistance and protest; and the ideological and material underpinnings of emergent independence movements in the early 19th century. 
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 27650: Middle Eastern History from the Beginning of Islam to 1800 Karen M. Kern
  
  History 276.50 is a survey that acquaints the student with the origins and development of the history and civilization of the Middle East since the advent of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula until 1800 when Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt changed the course of Middle Eastern (and European) history. As a result, the concentration of this course is on the Muslim experience in the Middle East. Non-Muslim populations are also considered in relation to the dominant Muslim culture. This course introduces Middle East history through the voices of the makers of that history and, consequently, the majority of the primary sources are translations of works written by scholars and intellectuals from the region. This course describes and analyzes the historical development of religious, educational, social, and legal institutions in the Middle East in the imperial and early modern periods, and the relevance of those institutions to the world today.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 27651: Modern Middle East: 1500 to the Present Karen M. Kern
  
  History 27651 is a survey of Middle East history spanning from the 16th century, during the period of the time of the great Ottoman and Persian empires, to the present. This course introduces modern Middle East history through the voices of the makers of that history and, consequently, the majority of the primary sources are translations of works written by scholars, intellectuals, and artists from the region. In addition, films in English or subtitled will be shown during the semester. Geographically, the course concentrates on lands of the former Ottoman Empire, particularly present day Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa, plus Iran. Thematically, topics covered are concerned with state formation and the impact of European imperialism on Middle East politics and society. The primary focus of the course is on intellectual history and examines the views of scholars on issues such as nationalism, pan-Arabism, political Islam, women’s rights, colonization, decolonization, and revolutions.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST27700: East Asia to 1600 Richard Belsky
  
  A survey history of the traditional cultures and sociopolitical structures of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam to about 1600 AD. This course tracks East Asian history from the regionally diverse evolution of early Neolithic cultures into more complex hierarchical polities. It examines the evolution of distinctly Chinese schools of thought regarding proper social/political relations and structures, and both traces how Chinese ideology evolved over time and how Chinese classical thinking affected and was adopted by the regionally diverse and distinctive societies with their own rich autonomous traditions located in modern Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 27800: East Asia, 1600 to the Present Richard Belsky
  
  A survey history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from 1600 AD to the present day. The course examines the cultural, economic and material attainments of the Qing empire, and the Choson, Tokugawa and Nguyen regimes. We trace the rising presence of Western powers in East Asia during this period, note the differing challenges and varied responses in these different regions to Western challenges, examine the fall of traditional polities and the rise of new ones. Finally we examine the reconstructed modern East Asian identities, the renegotiated power relations (among East Asian states and vis-à-vis the international order), the rise of new and types of political orders, as well as economic developments and cultural trends.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 290: History Practicum: Nineteenth-Century American Civic Life (W) Donna Havverty-Stacke
  
  A writing intensive seminar intended to help history majors develop their skills as historians. Each section of this course may focus on a different historical theme and so students will encounter different readings and topics. But in all sections of this course students will learn to locate, critically assess, and interpret primary sources, both textual and non-textual; analyze and critique a range of secondary sources for both methodological and historiographical purposes; and develop, draft, and revise a strong and effective research paper by learning how to construct a thesis, organize a paper, devise a bibliography, and cite sources following the Chicago Manual of Style.
  Writing Intensive Course. Prereq: ENGL 12000; 6 cr in history and permission of the department.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 290: History Practicum (W) Daniel Hurewitz
  
  This version of the practicum focuses in on the “whys” and “hows” of history as a field. For the whys, we examine the historical impulse and why we explore the past. For the hows, we practice multiple research techniques and materials, including oral history interviews, newspaper research, census records, and photography.
  Writing Intensive Course. Prereq: ENGL 12000; 6 cr in history and permission of the department.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 290: History Practicum (W) Elidor Mëhilli
  
  This course offers an introduction to the practice of historical research and writing. Students locate, assess, and interpret primary sources, and they also analyze a variety of secondary sources for methodological and historiographical purposes. During the first half of the coure, students discuss approaches in political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual history. Then, they devise a research paper on a topic, incorporating feedback from peers and the instructor. Students learn to think about history as a discipline (through analysis of key texts about what historians do and how writers work). Authors covered include Robert Darnton, Friedrich Engels, Michel Foucault, Jan T. Gross, Niccolo Machiavelli, George Orwell, E.P. Thompson, and Sun Tzu. Writing Intensive Course. Prereq: ENGL 12000; 6 cr in history and permission of the department.
  Expand Course Details

Note: Courses at the 300-level and above not offered to freshmen.

• HIST 30000 (W) Staff
  
  Independent research related to a prior upper-level course already completed under the supervising instructor. The research will result in an extensive paper.
  Prereq.: HIST 29000 and departmental permission. Writing intensive course.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 31700: History of the American City from the Colonial Period to the Present Donna Haverty-Stacke
  
  In this course, we will explore the relationship between the growth, use, and regulation of urban spaces, and the creation and transformation of gendered, class-based, ethnic, racial, religious, and civic identities in the United States from the colonial period to the present. By understanding the city as both a physical landscape and a human community we will be able to examine the process of the social and historical construction of identity there, something perhaps less easily visible than the construction of tenements, parks, and opera houses. Over the course of the semester we will address a series of related questions. How did these cities take shape, in terms of their infrastructure and their diverse subcultures? What did the development of these cities mean to those who built them, those who were drawn to them, and those who fled from them? What were the social, cultural, and political possibilities of the new modern city, and what were its problems? How did urban middle-class, elite, and working-class dwellers define those hopes and anxieties? How and why did these aspirations and fears change over time?
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 31800: History of the American Working Class from the Colonial Period to the Present (W) DOnna Haverty-Stacke
  
  In this course we will examine the history of labor and working-class life in America since the colonial period. Working with both primary and secondary sources we will explore some of the major themes of this history. We will examine the different ways that American laborers organized themselves and struggled for control over their work and their lives, not only on the shop floor, but also in community organizations, through ethnic associations, and by their particular partisan affiliations. We will consider the nature and evolution of labor and of the working-class cultures that existed in America from the colonial period to the late-twentieth century, and the extent to which those working-class cultures both drew from and influenced a broader American culture.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D). Writing Intensive course (W)
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 32900: History of European Diplomacy Elidor Mëhilli
  
  What is power? Who enables it? Can it be completely taken away? Can a big state lack power? Can a small state effectively exercise power? How? Are states the only legitimate sources of power? Can anyone else have it? In tackling these questions, this course offers a broad overview of modern European international relations since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Major themes include international stability and instability, ideas and ideology, alliances, world war, the establishment of international organizations, Cold War confrontation, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the making of post-Cold War Europe. Students will engage with a variety of texts, including original sources, and they will be expected to actively participate in debates on major themes.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 336.40: Germany Since 1914 Benjamin Hett
  
  This course is an introduction to the major themes in German history in the 20th Century. We will cover such topics as the impact of the First World War, the incredible culture of the Weimar Republic, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the Second World War, and Germany’s place in the Cold War. The course will place particular emphasis on understanding the controversies which have arisen out of Germany’s turbulent recent past, and on encouraging students to develop their skills in participating in such arguments. We will also put much emphasis on reading and understanding primary texts: eyewitness accounts from people involved in these dramatic historical events.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 33800 - History of Italy (W) Elidor Mëhilli
  
  This course introduces students to the history of modern Italy, from the Risorgimento to the present. Topics covered include: unification, industrialization, Italian colonialism, migration, religion, fascism, communism, world wars, decolonization, political competition, demographics, race, regionalism, crime, and corruption. Readings and class discussions place Italian history in a broader Mediterranean, European, and global context.  Students will engage with a variety of texts, including primary sources, fiction, and films, and they will be expected to actively participate in debates on major themes. Writing intensive course. Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.03: Berlin: Capital of the 20th Century Benjamin Hett
  
  This class explores the central importance of the city of Berlin to the course of German, European, and world history in the twentieth century. The local and national politics of Berlin will be traced through the five different German regimes of the twentieth century: Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally the course will examine the distinct local culture of the city of Berlin, and Berlin’s role as a center of artistic, scientific, and social innovation in the twentieth century. Themes of the course will include the tensions between the local, national and world dimensions of Berlin’s story, and the various questions of identity – urban, Prussian, west versus east German, “red” versus “national” – which Berlin’s history raises. By the end of the course, students should understand the periodization of Berlin’s 20th century history and the key facts, themes, issues and individuals and groups involved; they should be familiar with the use and analysis of primary sources such as those listed on this syllabus; and they should be able to formulate and sustain an argument on the basis of such sources.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.20: Women and Gender in Islam Karen M. Kern
  
  For centuries the position of women in the Middle East has aroused much interest in the West. In today’s world, the most common media-generated view in the West has claimed that Muslim women are victims of a medieval, unchanging, religious-based construction of male-female relationships. In recent decades, in response to this negative stereotyping, academics in the West and in the Muslim world have attempted to present a more balanced, better-informed view of this issue. Nevertheless, the question of women’s status remains ideologically charged. History 341.20 examines through translated works the various roles that women have assumed since the beginning of Islam in the seventh century by looking at biographies of women warriors, religious scholars, political leaders and Sufi mystics. We will also analyze Muslim legal texts to ascertain the ideal role of women in society as well as legal prescriptions on their rights and responsibilities and attitudes towards the body that involve questions of sexuality, purity, fertility and seclusion. We investigate the wide variety of experience of Muslim women today, in particular those who are full participants in political and social life, and women who are finding identity through participation in modern revivalist movements.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.36: The United States since 1945 Jonathan Rosenberg
  
  This class explores some of the key developments in the history of the United States since the end of World War II. Particular attention is paid to postwar politics and culture, the freedom struggles of African-Americans and women, U.S. engagement with the world, and the ways in which foreign affairs shaped social and cultural life in the United States.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.52: Art, Politics and Culture in Twentieth Century Latin America Mary Roldán
  
  Latin American artists (poets, musicians, painters, writers, artisans) were often in the vanguard of challenging the status quo, offering alternative visions of the nation, exposing and criticizing social inequalities, and spearheading popular expression and resistance when formal political participation in parties, elections, or free speech was constrained by repression or limited only to a privileged few. This course uses the lens of culture and the role of the artist to examine the processes of revolution, reaction, repression, and reform that characterized twentieth century political contention in Latin America over such issues as the definition of national identity and citizenship, ideology and values, and persistent racial/ethnic, class, and gender inequalities. We will explore the connections between politics and culture through different mediums (film, music, plays, painting, photography, etc) in different countries (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina, Cuba) from the early 20th through the 21st centuries. Fulfills major requirements (non-US, non European).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.74: Topics in U.S. History: Significant Themes in American Cultural History Donna Haverty-Stacke
  
  In this course we will explore several significant themes in American cultural history from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Through close readings of selected primary and secondary works (both written and visual) we will consider the meanings of popular, proto-mass, and mass culture as well as the nature of different levels of cultural tastes and styles in modern American history. Reflecting on the broader social and political context of these developments we will study a range of topics. These may include, but will not be limited to, a consideration of the historical significance of the myth of the self-made man evoked in Horatio Alger novels, the role of the frontier and the cowboy popularized in Owen Wister's The Virginian, the resonance of early Disney films, such as The Three Little Pigs, during the Great Depression, and the critique of mass consumer culture found in the poetry of Allen Ginsberg.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.1A: Women and the French Revolutions Laura Schor
  
  This is a course in French history and in Women’s History that focuses on three periods of revolutionary fervor that led to changes in the way people lived, worked, and thought in France. The course will cover the major events of each of the three revolutionary periods, but will focus on women’s activities to remove the monarchy, to establish a constitutional republic, to expand the electorate, to improve conditions for workers, and to establish an egalitarian society. Why is it important to study women’s participation in past events? Because, as John Hope Franklin noted, “good history is a foundation for a better present and future.” We will see that the actions of women revolutionaries were frequently met with vitriolic caricature and satire. Revolutionaries and reactionaries both felt threatened by the demands and actions of women. Studying the way individuals and groups responded to these personal and painful attacks will shed light on how to combat misogyny in the present. In this class you will learn to use a variety of primary and secondary sources to develop your own ideas about the history of women in this turbulent period.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.1F: Cold War: A Global History Elidor Mëhilli
  
  The Cold War evokes images of an imminent military confrontation and the terrifying prospect of nuclear weapons deployment. The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was intense, its impact profound. But competition between the two super-powers also extended to other areas and had global repercussions. This seminar examines these entanglements. Rather than exhaustive in coverage, it underscores the relationship between centers and peripheries. The European theater is central to our discussions, but we will also venture beyond it. Central themes include the making of a Communist world system from Eastern Europe to East Asia, the rise of China in global affairs, Third World revolutions and solidarity, economic advising and technological exchange, reform and failure, the unexpected dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the legacy of Cold War conflicts in the world we live in today—from the Balkans to Afghanistan.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.1J: Terror and the Constitution: Free Speech & National Security in the US Since 1886 Donna Haverty-Stacke
  
  This course explores the history of free speech in America and the various attempts to curtail it in the name of national security from the turbulent decades of the Progressive era through the uneasy years since the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. It pays particular attention to key moments of stress during which the national security state first emerged, expanded, and took on a life of its own. In this class we will consider various real and alleged threats to America’s security, including anarchism, socialism, communism, and modern variants of domestic and foreign terrorism. We will also explore the evolving government responses to such threats including the creation and expansion of the FBI. We will explore the rise of modern free speech constitutional theory in landmark Supreme Court cases, like Schenck, Dennis, and Brandenburg. And we will examine the history of organizations, like the ACLU, which emerged in the context of the struggle to defend first amendment rights in the wake of state-sponsored abuses.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.1R: U.S. Latino History Eduardo Contreras
  
  This course surveys the histories and diversity of Latino communities in the United States from the colonial era to the present. It considers the legacies of conquest, imperialism, and colonialism; processes of racialization, (im)migration, and labor market participation; and the predicaments of citizenship and Americanization. It also focuses on community formation; civic action and social movements; and the cultural politics surrounding gender relations, family life, and sexuality.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 341.1V: The Modern Middle East: Topics in Arab-Israeli Relations Karen Kern
  
  This course traces the origins and development of Arab-Israeli relations from the late 19th century to the present. Through the use of primary and secondary sources, this course examines major issues such as colonialism, modernity, and nationalism, as well as the development of Zionism, Palestine under Ottoman Rule, the Yishuv, the Palestinian Mandate, the 1948 War of Independence, as well as other conflicts, settlements, and the Peace Process.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 3xx.xx: Gandhi Manu Bhagavan
  
  This class will explore in-depth the life, thought, and legacies of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the famed proponent of non-violent resistance and leader of the twentieth-century anti-colonial campaign in India. We will critically discuss a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, Gandhi’s role(s) in and thoughts on nationalism and identity politics; class/caste/ethnic/religious conflict; protest, non-violence, and resistance; and mass mobilization.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 3xx.xx: Twentieth-century India: Murder, Minds, and Money Manu Bhagavan
  
  This seminar will explore the history of India in the twentieth century. Guided by the visions and legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, “India” as a concept and idea has come to mean different things to varying groups and individuals, dependent upon their own agendas. This course explores these divergent visions as a means to better understand the making of the world’s first major non-Western postcolonial state, and its “largest democracy.”
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 34600: Churchill’s Britain 1900-1965 Benjamin Hett
  
  This course looks at the history of Britain in the 20th century through the life of Winston Spencer Churchill, 1874-1965, Prime Minister of Britain 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. The emphasis will be on the world wars and their impact on British military and diplomatic power, as well as on the changes the wars brought to the British economy, society and culture. The major theme of the course will be on how to understand Britain’s “decline” in the 20th century: can we really speak simply of such a decline, or is the reality of Britain’s 20th century more complicated than that? By the end of the course, students should understand the periodization of Britain’s 20th century history and the key facts, themes, issues and individuals and groups involved; they should be familiar with the main facts of Churchill’s biography; they should be familiar with the use and analysis of primary sources such as those listed on this syllabus; and they should be able to formulate and sustain an argument on the basis of such sources.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 37000: The West in American History Eduardo Contreras
  
  This course focuses on the history of the place now known as the American West and the diverse inhabitants living there. Starting in the seventeenth century, we will study European expansion; Native American subjugation and resistance; the establishment of Spanish-American colonies; and the incorporation of western territories into the United States. We will pay specific attention to the ideology/myth of the West in United States history; Anglo-American migration and western settlement; struggles over land, water, and natural resources; and the rise of western cities.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 37300: History of the Ottoman Empire (W) Karen M. Kern
  
  History 373.00 explores the history of the Ottoman Empire from the beginnings of Turkic migrations into Byzantine Western Asia in the 11th century through the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. At the end of the semester, we also look at the emergence of Turkey, the country that took over from the empire and sought different directions to mark its own path in the world. The approach to this survey includes chronological overviews of Ottoman history; geographical focus that examines the role of the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Arab lands in the Empire; and selected topics, such as religion, law, education and statescraft, that highlight broader issues and transformations of the period under study. The course also concentrates on Ottoman decentralization, the rise of European colonialism, and Ottoman responses to the new nationalisms of the 19th century. Finally we will consider the question of the historical legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the world today.
  Fulfills the Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group A). Writing intensive course (W).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 37500: Late Imperial Russia and Soviet Union Iryna Vushko
  
  History of late imperial Russia and the Soviet Union from the nineteenth century to 1991. The course is organized around the concept of Russian special path: by analyzing Russian imperial and Soviet history, we will seek an answer to the question of why and when (if ever) Russia took a path, different from the rest of Europe. The focus of this class is upon the Empire: we will approach Russian history in its complexity and discuss the ethnic, religious and cultural heterogeneity of the Russian and Soviet Empires. This course combines aspects of political, cultural, intellectual and economic history: we will analyze how politics became reflected – or negated – in literature and the arts, and how it affected everyday life of citizens of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
  Fulfills Pluralism and Diversity requirement (Group D).
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 37800: China Since 1800  Richard Belsky
  
  Of the many reasons to study modern Chinese history three are especially relevant today. The first is that China is becoming (or more accurately is re-emerging as) an enormously important force on the world stage. People outside of China should learn more about that country, and given geopolitical realities, Americans have a special obligation in this regard. The second reason is that knowledge of China's past should be considered an indispensable part of any educated person's understanding of history. No one who aspires to even a very basic and general understanding of the universal human condition can ignore such a major portion of humanity. Scholars estimate that in the year 1800 when our course begins approximately one third of all human beings were subjects of the Qing Empire, and even today Chinese citizens represent close to one fifth of the world’s people. Of course, China’s claim to universal human significance goes beyond numbers of people; more important is China's social/culture attainments, its economic power over centuries, and its great regional and increasingly global political influence. Particularly notable are China's efforts to achieve modernity on its own terms, reacting to and learning from but not slavishly following the west.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 382.14: America and the World in the Twentieth Century Jonathan Rosenberg
  
  This class considers the interrelationship between the United States and the twentieth-century world. In examining the trajectory of American foreign relations during the last century, the class considers how and why the United States engaged other nations and peoples as it did. At the same time, the class explores how developments overseas helped shape American domestic life. The aim of the class, then, is to develop an understanding of America’s impact on the twentieth-century world and also to consider the myriad ways in which the world influenced life in the United States.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 382.17: Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century Laura Schor
  
  This course is designed as an honors seminar—a weekly meeting of students—devoted to the study of the city of Jerusalem and its peoples in the 20th century. Jerusalem is an ancient city whose 3,000-year recorded history played a central role in the religious lives of Jews, Christians, and Muslims world over. All those who vied for control of the city used stories of Jerusalem’s past to demonstrate their rights to land and authority. During the period of our study the boundaries of the city changed several times, and the composition of the population changed significantly. In the first half of the century Jerusalem was controlled by colonial powers: first Ottoman, later British. During these years nationalism began to replace religion as a powerful way to separate those who lived in the Holy City. In 1948, following the abrupt departure of British forces, battles between Arabs and Jews resulted in significant loss of life and emigration. The city was divided, the western part controlled by the new state of Israel and the eastern part by Jordan. In 1967, following a swift war and victory by Israel’s forces, the city was reunited and declared the indivisible capital of Israel. City boundaries were expanded and the population of the city grew rapidly. Nevertheless, half a century later, in the eyes of the world, the future of Jerusalem remains contested. The purpose of the class is to deepen understanding of the modern history of this ancient city, taking into consideration the competing views of Western, Israeli, and Palestinian scholars. Understanding the conflict in Jerusalem is key to understanding the larger Middle East. The skills learned in this course should enable the student to participate in a more meaningful way in one of the most important trouble spots in today’s world.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 382.18: U.S. Social History Eduardo Contreras
  
  This seminar will focus on the lived experience of peoples in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will underscore the linkages and intersections between everyday life, politics, economy, and culture.  Specific topics of inquiry include family and community life; the changing nature of work and labor organizing; (im)migration and Americanization; and leisure, consumption, and mass culture, among others.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 382.23: The Balkans in the Twentieth Century  Elidor Mëhilli
  
  This seminar examines the history of the Balkans from the last decades of Ottoman rule through the Cold War and the collapse of Communists regimes — and especially the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Does it even make sense to think of the Balkans as one region to be studied separately? Does it make sense to think of Balkan history primarily through the angle of nationalism? Or war? Or ethnicity? We will read some of the best fiction from southeastern Europe, in addition to primary sources and other historical analyses. Central themes include the role of major European powers in the nineteenth century, national ideologies, authoritarianism, fascism, revolution, communism, non-alignment, solidarity, globalization, disintegration, and explanations for violence.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 382xx: Race & Racism in U.S. History Eduardo Contreras
  
  This undergraduate seminar examines the centrality of race, racial politics, and racism in United States history from the colonial era to the present. It uses a comparative approach to study the historical experiences produced by conquest, slavery, imperialism, immigration restriction, and segregation. We will work to understand the political logic behind multiple forms of racial exclusion/discrimination; a host of social movements for racial equality; and the relationship between race, Americanness, and American civic ideals.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 383.61: LGBT U.S. History Daniel Hurewitz
  
  This course investigates the emergence of gay and lesbian identities, social worlds, and political movements from the late 19th century through the 20th century. It looks at the economic, cultural, and social structures that shaped the establishment of those identities and communities, with an emphasis place on the differences among them and across racial and economic lines.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 384.26: Death, Sex and Memory Benjamin Hett
  
  This seminar deals with the history of memory in 20th century Europe. We will look at some of the important theorists of historical memory – Renan, Halbwachs, Nora – and consider how the major events of mass killings such as the World Wars and the Holocaust have been remembered across the 20th century. One of the important themes as well will be the ways in which issues of sexuality and gender tend to be caught up in questions of memory. Since films tended to be one of the main ways in which collective memories were transmitted in the 20th century the class will feature the study of several important moves, along with fiction, art, architecture, monuments, and historical literature and historians’ debates. Students should gain a good understanding of the theory and practice of historical memory as well as greater skill in identifying the ways in which various sources construct memory.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 384.61: Hitler’s Germany 1919-1945 Benjamin Hett
  
  This seminar will deal with some of the major issues in understanding this catastrophic period in human history: the atmosphere of the Weimar Republic that gave birth to the Nazi movement, the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, the major aspects of the history of the Third Reich – the nature of Hitler’s rule, Nazi society, foreign policy, the Second World War and the Holocaust, and some of the efforts after the war to hold Nazis accountable for what they had done. Readings will include both primary sources in translation and secondary sources. By the end of the course students should have a good command not only of the basic narrative history of the Nazi era, but of some of the debates which it has aroused among historians and others. Students should also improve their skills in research and writing.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 35900: Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States
  Instructor: Contreras, Mon/Thurs 1:00 – 2:15 pm
  In this course we will examine the historical experiences of immigrants and their families in the United States with an emphasis on the variety of experiences among migrants, and the reasons for them. Learning Objectives include an understanding of the chronological sequence and historical context of foreign migration to the United States, the major issues and events of American immigration history, and the ability to analyze and contextualize relevant documents.  

  • For History Majors: New requirements: US History course (200-level or above)
  • Old requirements: Counts as US
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 384.65 The Dreyfus Affair Laura Schor
  
  More than 1,000 books about the Dreyfus Affair have been published in English. The Dreyfus trial was called Trial of the Century. Much as the Scopes trial in the US, the Dreyfus trial in France captured the attention of millions of people, dividing them into two camps—Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards. A detailed study of the trial opens a window on French history as the belle époque drew to a close and years of war and depression loomed. It is also an opportunity to study Jewish history as a century of expanding civil rights for French Jews was followed by a century of anti-Semitism and mass murder. Finally, study of this trial raises broader questions of military justice and military secrets, the role of a free press, and the role of public intellectuals.
  Expand Course Details

Note: Courses at the 300-level and above not offered to freshmen.

• HIST 40000: Historical Research [H] Staff
  
  The origins of history writing and the modern historical profession; modes of historical research; the evaluation of historical evidence; the historical and social uses of history. Required of students who wish to graduate with honors in history.
  Prereq: Not open to students who have completed fewer than 80 credits.
  Expand Course Details

• HIST 48300: Problems in U.S. History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair. Prereq or coreq: ENGL 12000.

• HIST 48400: Problems in European History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• HIST 48500: Problems in Non-Western History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• HIST 49200: Honors Seminar in Historical Studies
  Staff

• HIST 49300: Individual Tutorial Research Project
  Staff
  Research paper under individual supervision of faculty member.
  Prereq: Perm. chair and instr.

• HIST 49800: Internship
  Work in professional institutions.
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• Hist 72700 – History of African Americans in the US: Black Powers
• Hist 74151 – Era of American Revolution
• Hist 75000 – History of the American Labor Movement
• Hist 76602 – History of US-Lat Am Relations
• Hist 77207 – Race and Racism in US History
• Hist 77211 – Free Speech in the United States
• Hist 77213 – Power and Culture in Cold-War America
• Hist 77214 – Dancers, Singers, Sax Players
• Hist 77215 – 20th Century US – War & Society
• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77217 – King v Kanye: Civil Rights, Hip Hop, and Racial Justice
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77219 – Labor & Migration in US History
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 7741M – America and World in 20th Century
• Hist 77418 – The United States in the Twentieth Century
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

• Hist 72700 – History of African Americans in the US: Black Powers
• Hist 74151 – Era of American Revolution
• Hist 75000 – History of the American Labor Movement
• Hist 77207 – Race and Racism in US History
• Hist 77211 – Free Speech in the United States
• Hist 77215 – 20^th Century US – War & Society
• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77217 – King v Kanye: Civil Rights, Hip Hop, and Racial Justice
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77219 – Labor & Migration in US History
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741M – America and World in 20th Century
• Hist 77418 – The United States in the Twentieth Century
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

• Hist 75400 – Contemporary Europe
• Hist 77306 – Dictatorships in Modern Europe
• Hist 77307 – French Revolution & Napoleon
• Hist 77400 – Modern Jewish Social and Intellectual History
• Hist 7741H – Women in Modern Europe
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 77485 – Problems in Modern European History

• Hist 73000 – Mexico Since Independence
• Hist 76602 – History of US-Lat Am Relations
• Hist 76803 – Gandhi
• Hist 76808 – Modern Mid-East: Arab-Israeli
• Hist 76901 – Violence and Nationalism in African History
• Hist 7741C – Internationalism
• Hist 7741D – Social Movements in Latin American History
• Hist 7741F – Jerusalem in the 20^th Century
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 7741L – Nations and Nationalism in Global Context
• Hist 77411 – Colonial Latin America
• Hist 77412 – Topics and Themes: Debating the Rise of the West
• Hist 77435 – Modern Latin America: Political and Social History
• Hist 77444 – Women and Gender in Islam
• Hist 77472 – Human Rights and the Non-Western World

• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741D – Social Movements in Latin American History
• Hist 7741H – Women in Modern Europe
• Hist 77444 – Women and Gender in Islam
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

1. Go to the CUNYfirst website.
2. Log in with your CUNYfirst credentials.
3. Select HR/Campus Solutions from the first menu after login.
4. Click on Self Service > Student Center > Course Planning & Enrollment > Search for Classes (green button on the top right of the page).