The Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi is pleased to announce that George C. Rable, of the University of Alabama, will give the 2013 Burnham Lecture in Civil War History on Thursday, April 25^th.  Dr Rable’s lecture is entitled God as General: Was There a Religious History of the American Civil War?  The lecture is free and open to the public and will be held in Farley Hall, room 202.

George C. Rable holds the Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama.  He is the author of numerous award-winning books on a wide range of Civil War era topics, including Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!, winner of the 2003 Lincoln Prize.  His most recent work, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the Civil War, explores how Americans used faith to understand the war’s larger meaning and its impact on their lives.  His current research focuses on the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and George B. McClellan as well as how Confederates defined their “Yankee” enemies.

The University of Mississippi established the Center for Civil War Research in the spring of 2009. The Center promotes a more thorough understanding of the American Civil War, its history, and its scholarship, among the various constituencies of the University.  Each April, the Center for Civil War Research invites a distinguished historian to the University of Mississippi to deliver a lecture on the Civil War era.  Dr. Van Robinson Burnham was a family physician, Mississippi native, and University of Mississippi alumnus whose lifelong love of history and archeology prompted his generous support for the Center for Civil War Research. Through the Burnham Lectures, the Center honors Burnham’s commitment to sharing historical knowledge and ensuring that others have the resources to explore and learn from history.  For more information, visit www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu

The Center for Civil War Research invites you to save the date for our 2013 Conference on the Civil War.  The conference, entitled, “This Terrible War” will be held Oct. 3-5, 2013, and will explore the war years.  The keynote speaker will be Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.  Dr. Foner will speak on October 3^rd, 2013.

This course surveys the political, social, and economic development of America during the age of revolution, 1740-1789.
305-1                     The United States, World War I-1945                                     TBD
M W F 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM
Bishop Room 107

The course will cover major developments in the age of normalcy, depression, and global war.

306-2                     The United States since 1945                                                     TBD
M W F 11:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Bishop Room 103

The course will cover major developments in the age of Cold War, domestic reform, and world power responsibilities.
307-1                     African American History to 1865                                             Professor Charles Ross
T TH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course is an introduction to African American history from West African to 1865.  The course focuses on central themes in the development of African American growth, cultural development, and emphasizing the role of black leaders and their struggle against racial segregation and oppression.  Themes treated in the course include: early African civilizations; the Atlantic slave trade; colonial slavery; black participation in the American Revolution; slave rebellions; antebellum slavery; the abolitionism; slavery and intersectional strife; the Civil War and black participation.

Academic Objectives:
In this course I want you to develop the following skills and competencies:
-To develop the ability to assess and think critically about historical issues and how people interpret those issues.
-To gain a basic factual knowledge of this historical period.
-To develop some skills in analyzing historical data and reaching informed conclusions about that data.

Course Requirements:
Each student is responsible for (1) class attendance and class participation, (2) weekly reading assignments, (3) a paper, and (4) three examinations.
Method of Determining Final Course Grade:
1^st Exam:                     30%
2^nd Exam:                   30%
Paper:                         10%
Final Exam:               30%

307-2                     African American History to 1865                             Professor Shennette Garrett–Scott
T TH 09:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Bishop Room 112

This course covers black American history from West Africa to 1865, emphasizing the role of black leaders and their struggle against oppression.
 

313-1                     Survey of Native America to 1850                                            Professor Mikaëla Adams
M W F 11:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Bishop Room 112

This course surveys American Indian history from the period before European contact to the 1850s, focusing on how the continent’s indigenous people negotiated dramatic changes in their lives. Using an ethnohistorical methodology, which considers the writings of anthropologists and archaeologists as well as historians, students will develop an understanding of and appreciation for Native and non-Native cultures, federal policies and local adaptations, systems of domination, and efforts at resistance. The course will begin by examining indigenous creation stories and the migration of Paleo-Indians to the Americas. Students will explore pre-contact Native North America and gain an understanding of the diversity of American Indian societies and cultures. The course will move on to discuss the different contact zones established between Indians, the Spanish, the French, and the English. Students will examine how Native people interacted with the newcomers, formed alliances, and engaged in warfare and trade. Following the American Revolution, the United States formally recognized the political status of Native nations through treaties. Nevertheless, Americans worried about the ramifications of having sovereign Indian nations within the new country’s territorial boundaries. Students will learn how Indians responded to “civilization programs” and other efforts to end their tribal identities. Students will explore the connections between American expansion and Indian removal, and how eastern Indians dealt with threats to their lands and resources. The class will end in the decades after Indian removal by examining how Native people rebuilt their lives in Indian Territory, and how Indians further to the west managed the arrival of the first American settlers to the region. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class discussions, a map quiz, three 3-4 page papers based on the assigned readings, a midterm, and a final exam.

The major objectives of this course are for students to (1) learn about the indigenous people of North America, (2) develop an understanding of ethnohistory as a methodology, (3) hone critical thinking and analytical skills, (4) learn how to read and analyze primary and secondary sources, and (5) improve writing skills.
319-1                     Religion in American History                                                     Professor Darren Grem
T TH 09:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Bishop Room 107
This course explores the religious lives of Americans from the colonial era to the present.  In-class lectures provide a framework for understanding the course of American religious history.  Case studies of religious people, events, and movements complement the course’s readings, which supply additional perspectives about the social and political power of religion in the American past and present.

No exams are required in the course, although students must write two book reviews of 3-4 pages in length and take a quiz for a third book.  For an end-of-term assignment, students will write an 8-10 page paper that addresses a particularly pressing issue or debate raised by the course, building their conclusions from the course’s lectures, case studies, readings, and other resources.

Required Resources:
- Jon Butler, Grant Wacker, and Randall Balmer, Religion in American Life: A Short History, rev. ed. (Oxford, 2007).
- David L. Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Oxford, 2006).
- Edward J. Blum, W.E.B. DuBois, American Prophet (UPenn, 2007).
- Joanna Brooks, The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith (Free Press, 2012).
- Selections from various books, articles, CDs, films, photograph collections, and online resources.

322-1                     Race, Gender, Science in Early America                                Professor Deirdre Cooper Owens
T TH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Bishop Room 101

This course examines ideas and experiences of racial and gendered health as they have evolved scientifically and medically from the colonial period through Reconstruction. It unearths the history of these concepts as a tool for understanding the relationship of health to regional politics, as a means of exploring the history of science and medicine, health, health care, and gender in the country, and as a venue for interpreting the relationships among racial and gender ideologies. The course has as its primary objective, the study of the intersection of racialized and gendered science and medicine drawing on the literatures from history, science studies, and related disciplines. The course considers the cultural concepts of race and genders and its usefulness as an analytical category, and examines various media to determine the historical interrelationships among race, medicine, and science. Finally, we will analyze the historical roles of enslaved people, as healers, patients, research subjects and activists. Thus the course examines how questions of race, identity, culture, biology, and political power have been implicit in the health concerns of native, black, and white Americans.  We will analyze how science has grown to be the focus of our cultural visions and imaginations and what that translates into for our futures.
To put the discussion in perspective, the seminar will:

• Examine the literature concerning debates on race and science, including race and its origins, phrenology, intelligence testing, criminality, environmental racism, sterilization, melanism, etc..
• Discuss how scientists (and historians) have described and interpreted perceived human differences (the two quotes above are evidence of the schisms that exist in scientific communities).
• Examine various models of science.
• Situate the topics in socio-historical context.
• Examine how racial differences became medicalized.
• Focus on the historical participation of racial minorities and women in the practice of science.

Course Objectives:
After studying the materials discussed in class, students should be able to understand:
• How racial and gendered beliefs and ideologies are embedded in science and medicine.
• How science is deployed and used for racial and gendered ends.
• How science privileges certain communities.
• How race and gender is socially constructed.
• How to critically assess the literature.
• Understand the social and cultural dimensions of science and medicine.
• The underlying principles of significant debates on scientific racism in the 19th century.

329-1                     The Civil Rights Era                                                                         Professor Charles Eagles
M W F 01:00 PM – 01:50 PM
Bishop Room 107
The course will examine the post-World War II black struggle for equal rights, with a special emphasis on the southern movement.  Topics covered will range from the NAACP’s campaign against school segregation in the 1940s and 1950s to the effects of the Voting Rights of 1965 in the late 1960s and will include Martin Luther King, Jr., the sit-ins and freedom rides, the role of churches in the movement, and white opponents of the movement.

Each student will write a brief paper on each of the books assigned.  Two tests and a final examination will be required.

Possible readings:
Cottroll, et al. Brown v. Board of Education
Miller, Voice of Deliverance
Williamson, Radicalizing the Ebony Tower
Carson, In Struggle
Sokol, There Goes My Everything
Lewis, The Shadows of You

330-1                     The History of Mississippi                                                           TBD
T TH 08:00 AM – 09:15 AM
Bishop Room 107

This course covers the political, economic, and cultural developments from Indian settlement through contemporary society.
331-1                     The South through the 19^th Century                                        TBD
M W F 08:00 AM – 08:50 AM
Bishop Room 105

This course covers the social, political, economic, and cultural developments through the 19^th century, including slavery, the plantation system, western migration, the Civil War, and its aftermath.

332-1                     The South in the 20^th Century                                                    TBD
M W F 09:00 AM – 09:50 AM
Bishop Room 107

This course is a survey of developments in agricultural, industry, music, literature, politics, and race.
333-1                     The Era of the Civil War, 1850-1877                                         Professor John Neff
M W F 02:00 PM – 02:50 PM
Bishop Room 101

This course offers an exploration of the American Civil War, its origins, causes, and consequences.  Since the issues which produced war in 1861 had been present since the creation of the American nation, the sweeping social, political, economic and cultural changes unleashed by the Civil War altered the very definition of the nation.  We will consider the sources and evolution of the sectional frictions which divided the country, the political and racial tensions which fueled the division, the compromises that failed to avoid war, and the recourse to battle.  As we look at the war itself, we will try to understand it in whole and in parts – the grand strategies of politicians and generals as well as the experience of individual soldiers.  All wars take place in a social context and so the respective home fronts, the civilians who supported war and made it possible, also demand our study.  Lastly, in the aftermath of battle, all Americans – north and south, black and white – worked to live in the nation redefined by war, but encountered great difficulty as they tried to fulfill the promises inherent in Northern victory.

In addition to faithful and diligent completion of the assigned readings and enthusiastic class participation, students will be required to complete other class and research assignments, including a midterm examination, a final exam, and two writing assignments.

337-1                     History of Religion in the South                                                                TBD
T TH 09:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Bishop Room 103

This course covers Southern religion and its cultural, racial, and political impact from the Great Awakening to the present.

340-1                     Science in the Modern World                                                    Professor Theresa Levitt
T TH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
South Residential College Room 113

Science and technology have become defining features of modern life.  This course examines how this came to be, and how in turn the conditions of modern life have shaped man’s views on the natural world.  It will cover many topics, including:

-   the Scientific Revolution, during which new models of exploring nature were proposed in both the physical and life sciences
-  the place of science in the industrializing, secularizing world of the nineteenth century, focusing particularly on cosmology and evolutionary biology
-  the shift from classical to modern physics, and the impact of this shift on wider culture
-  the development of nuclear weapons and the role of scientists in public life
-   the genetic revolution and its implications

Several questions will interweave this material:  Does our knowledge of the world depend on the conditions in which we create it?  Can science be separated out from the rest of human cultural activity?  How has science come to play the role that it does in our lives?

354-1                     The Middle Ages                                                                             Professor Courtney Kneupper
T TH 01:00 PM – 02:15 PM
Bishop Room 101

The course will focus on the Early and High Middle Ages, from approximately 400 to 1300 C.E.  This course is intended to provide an introduction to the history of what has been traditionally known as the Middle Ages.  Among the topics to be examined is the birth of Europe as an entity and cultural idea created by the interweaving of Roman, Germanic, and Christian elements.  We will ask ourselves, when and how did Europe become Europe?  While geographical emphasis will be on Western Europe, this course will make reference to cultures at the periphery as well, as in some ways the periphery defines the center.  We will also examine the trajectory of Christianity and its institutions from its official legalization through the apex of the papal monarchy.  We will consider the reactions of Christian thought to various challenges, including violence, nonbelievers, and heresy.  We will undertake to examine political developments in Europe, including the birth of the nation state and the fracturing of the German Empire.  Special emphasis will be placed on the various methods and strategies used to obtain and consolidate power.  The experiences of women in the Middle Ages are often treated as a separate topic.  We will consider why this would be the case, and discuss both the experiences of women and their place in the history of the Middle Ages.

The instructor will encourage students not only to acquire a clear understanding of many of the important people, places, and events that influenced the course of historical change, but also to develop their ability to interpret and analyze sources that shed light on the diversity of experiences of those who lived in the past.

Required Readings:

Medieval Europe: A Short History, Judith Bennet, ISBN-13: 978-0073385501
Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100, Lisa M. Bitel, ISBN-13: 978-0521597739
The Making of Europe, Robert Bartlett, ISBN-13: 978-0691037806
R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250, ISBN-13: 978-0631171454                                                         The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, Betty Radice, ISBN-13: 978-1450586801
Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (Author)› Visit Amazon’s Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie PageFind all the books, read about the author, See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central (Author), Barbara Bray (Translator), ISBN-13: 978-0807615980

Further readings will be posted on Blackboard or available online

357-1                     Age of Absolutism & Enlightenment, 1648-1789               Professor Jeffrey Watt
T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM
Bishop Room 112

This course will deal with the major trends in political, social, intellectual, and cultural history in Europe for the period 1648-1789. We will study the Scientific Revolution and the development of absolutism in France and elsewhere in the seventeenth century.  For the eighteenth century, we will deal at length with the cultural movement known as the Enlightenment, examining the works of various “philosophes” and considering the politics of “enlightened absolutism.”

Assignments:
One mid-term exam and a final examination. Some quizzes on the assigned readings. Either two shorter papers (about 5 pages each) or one longer paper (10-15 pages).

Required readings:
Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments
Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History
Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen
Françoise de Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman
Isabel De Madariaga, Catherine the Great: A Short History
The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln
Montesquieu, Persian Letters

364-1                     History of Germany, 1800-1918                                                 Professor John Ondrovcik
T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM
Bishop Room 103

This course explores the history of modern Germany from the beginning of the French Revolution to the end of the First World War. German society underwent a fundamental transformation during this period, as Germans were forced to come to terms with new cultural, philosophical, political, and economic developments in neighboring states and to face the challenges presented by the emerging modern industrialized order. This course will track these developments as Germans dealt with foreign invasion, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise of nationalism, religious and regional divisions, the creation of the industrial order. We will also investigate the German colonial presence in Africa, the German experience of migration to North America, the advent of the modern media and mass culture, and the effects of a catastrophic total war.
 
373-1                     History of Ancient Christianity                                                  Professor Lester Field
M W F 09:00 AM – 09:50 AM
Bishop Room 112

In seminar and lecture format, this course examines major events and trends in the development of Christian doctrine from the time of the apostles to the second Nicene, or seventh Ecumenical, Council (787). Students who successfully complete this course will have gained an elementary knowledge of early Christianity.

Since both lectures and class discussion presuppose that the student has done the reading assigned for the week, the mid-term and final exam will therefore hold the student accountable for all the reading, which is the essential component of each class. Class discussion is a key to understanding this reading and not a substitute for it.

The exams appear in the same format, that is, in two halves. The first half will consist of eighteen short-answer identifications of significant persons or items, each worth three points. Each point corresponds to a portion of identification 1) by century, 2) by city, province, or kingdom, and 3) by historical significance. Partial credit is therefore possible, even likely. The second half will consist of an full-length essay question.

The exams are graded on a “curve” that is designed to reward those who have excelled relative to others in the class. By the same token, this grading is designed not to punish anyone, but to encourage all to better. Starting with the top grade, always an A, and working its way down–rather starting at the middle and working in both directions–this “curve” presupposes that the class will do well. In theory, for example, there will always be at least one A, but there need not be any F.

For classroom participation, there are only three possible grades: an A for those who contribute questions and discussion regularly, a C for those who attend regularly, and a F for those conspicuous by the absence. Tardiness and sleeping in class constitute disruptive absences. Despite the fact the classroom participation accounts for a relatively small percentage of the final grade, this percentage can have a decisive effect on the final grade. An A in classroom participation “bumps” a grade by half a grade, so that a student otherwise earning a B+, for example, would get an A- as a final grade. By the same token, an F “drops” a final grade a full grade.

Required Texts:
Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin)
Eusebius, The History of the Church (Penguin)
Hillgarth, Christianity and Paganism (1986)
Morrison, The Church in the RomanEmpire (1986)
Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology Vol. 1 (1988)

Course requirements and percentage of final grade:
Class participation            10%     Attendance and discussion
Essays                                   20%     See below
Midterm                              20%     Bring blue book(s)
Final                                       50%     Bring blue book(s)

381-1                     The Middle East since 1914                                                         Professor Vivian Ibrahim
T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM
South Residential College Room 113

This course deals with the history of the Middle East from the First World War to the Gulf War 1990-1. It explores the transition from empires to nation states in the Arab world, Israel, Turkey and Iran through processes of modernization in the political, social and cultural realm.

The course is divided into two main sections, which are organized chronologically and thematically. The first part of the course deals the emergence of a state system after the First World War, the definition of colonial societies in the interwar period, and the consolidation of Arab, Turkish and Iranian Nationalism in the first half of the 20^th century. The second part of the course analyzes modernization and state formation through the study of revolutions in the Arab world and Iran, in the 1950s and in 1979 respectively.

385-1                     History of Islam in Africa                                                              Professor Bashir Salau
T TH 01:00 PM – 02:15 PM
Bishop Room 102

This course will explore the history of Islam in Africa from the seventh century to the twentieth century. Attention will be given to examining, first, the diverse local forms of Islam and how historical, cultural, and environmental factors influenced their growth; second, the social, economic and political contexts that facilitated the growth of Islam from relative insignificance to one of the two leading religions in Africa; and, finally, the impact of Islam on Africa.  The primary focus will be on West and East Africa. Topics will include Muslim minorities in non-Muslim societies, Islam and slavery, women in Muslim societies, Jihad movements in Africa, Muslim responses to nineteenth century European expansion, Islam and colonialism, and Islam and post-colonial developments. By the end of the course students must have embraced critical reading and writing skills. They will also appreciate the diversity of Islam and its importance in social, economic and political developments in Africa during the pre-colonial, colonial and the post colonial eras.

393-1                     State, Citizen, Nation: Modern Latin America                    Professor Oliver Dinius
T TH 01:00 PM – 02:15 PM
South Residential College Room 113

This course examines the history of Latin America from the 1820s to the present day. The focus is on the transformation of economically and ethnically fragmented postcolonial societies into politically unified, though socially still fragmented nation states.

The overarching theme for the 19^th century is state formation. Issues include colonial legacies and independence; rebellions and civil wars; the end of African slavery; and Latin America’s (re)integration into world markets. The overarching theme for the 20^th century is nation-building. Issues include mestizaje, ‘whitening,’ and cultural nationalism; industrialization, urbanization, and economic nationalism; democracy, populism, and social revolution; national security, military coups and dirty wars; drugs, violence, and poverty.

The promise of citizenship – meaning guaranteed individual rights as well as economic, social, and cultural integration – remains unfulfilled for many in Latin America today. The recent political turmoil in the Andean countries, for example, is a result of this long history of unfulfilled promises. The course will illuminate Latin America’s long history of race- and class-based inequality and try to explain why these patterns of social exclusion persist to this day.

Lectures and readings use country examples to illustrate thematic points. The focus is on Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin America.

396-1                     Modern Japanese History                                                           Professor Noell Wilson
T TH 02:30 PM – 03:45 PM
Hume Room 101

This course examines the emergence of modern Japan from the late 1500s to the present.  Class lecture and discussion will analyze the historical background from which modern Japan emerged, identify the principal political and cultural developments in her transition to a modern industrial society, explore the rise and fall of Japan’s colonial empire and examine her emergence as a major world power today.  Intertwined with analysis of events, people and ideas, we will consider key theoretical debates on the meaning of “modernity” and how these analytical frameworks influence our understanding of Japan’s past and present.

 400-1                     America’s War on Terror: George W. Bush and Barack Obama, 2000-2013                 Professor Michael Namorato
W 04:00 PM – 06:30 PM
Bishop Room 333

If nothing else, America’s war of terrorism has changed the way we as a people perceive our world and our society. Before 9/11, Americans had a sense of security and self-confidence, afforded by a number of factors, but especially our distance from other countries in the world. That, of course, all changed when the American airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. Now, we are more conscious of what goes on in the world and we are even more willing to sacrifice some of our liberties in order to have a higher sense of security throughout our society.

This course will examine in detail the war on terror as it played out during the George H. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies. Incidents, such as 9/11, the Iraq war, the capture and trial of Saddam Hussein, the war in Afghanistan, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Benghazi attack, and the use of drones all will be covered in the seminar. The course will particularly focus on the policies pursued by both presidents under consideration, George H. Bush and Barack Obama. Finally, the impact of those policies at home and abroad will be examined.

Each student will be expected to do the assigned readings, attend class and participate in class discussions, complete 2 brief oral group projects, and write a final 20-page paper on a topic approved by the instructor. Students will also be advised to have the following books:

George H. Bush, Decision Points
Karl Rove, Courage and Consequences
The 9/11 Commission Report
Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor
Dick Cheney, In My Time
Terry Anderson, Bush’s Wars
Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars
 

400-2                     Life After the NFL:  Physical Injuries, Bankruptcy,  Homelessness, and Indifference                                            Professor Michael Namorato
M 04:00 PM – 06:30 PM
Bishop Room 333

Every Sunday and Monday, they are our heroes. We watch professional football players engage in one of the most violent sports in American and, perhaps, world history. We cheer the great catch, we admire the hard hit, and we idolize the quarterback who puts together the winning drive. Yet, these players have a short lifespan as a professional football player. Once their careers end, we seldom ever hear from or about them. And, when we do, what we learn is unsettling. Players who can no longer walk, others who are bankrupt, and still others who lost everything. Why and how could this have happened? These once-great heroes, in many instances, become tragic figures after their “15 minutes of fame.”  The questions that are often raised are – how could this have happened? who is responsible? and what about the NFL? Isn’t there something It can do?

This seminar will examine life after the NFL. It will study in depth what happens to players once the bright lights have flickered out. The seminar will look at players who suffer permanent physical injuries, those who have nothing left financially, and others who, most tragically, have lost everything from family to home. The seminar will also examine why all this occurs and what role the NFL plays in it.

Each student will do the assigned readings, participate in class discussions, complete 2 short group oral projects, and write a 20-page paper on a topic approved by the instructor. Students are advised to consider purchasing the following books:

R. Huizenga, You’re Okay: It’s Only a Bruise
K. Cook, The Last Headbangers
M. Yost, Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps
L. Carroll and D. Rosen, The Concussion Crisis
A. Gargano, NFL Unplugged: The Brutal, Brilliant World of Pro Football
C. Culverhouse, Throwaway Players
B. Romanowski, Romo
400-3                     The Homefront in the American Civil War                           Professor April Holm
T 01:00 PM – 03:30 PM
Bishop Room 326
The Civil War was a period of great transformation for Americans, North and South.  Some of the most profound changes in American life occurred off the battlefield: enslaved people gained their freedom, women took on new public roles, and politicians drafted legislation that continues to shape the United States to this day.  Students in this seminar for history majors will learn about these and other non-military transformations that took place on the Civil War homefront. At the same time, they will develop a related research topic and undertake original historical research for, write, and revise a 20-page final paper.  Students are responsible for demonstrating consistent research and writing progress and will present their findings at the end of the semester.

450-1                     Undergrad Research: European History                                                Professor Chiarella Esposito
M 01:00 PM – 03:30 PM
Bishop Room 326

This is one of the history senior capstone seminars whose primary objective is to instruct students about how to write a 25-page research paper. Paper topics will have to deal with the history of the Cold War in International Perspective, including but not limited to: the Postwar Settlement; the Origins of the Cold War; Reconstruction; the Berlin Crises; Decolonization; the “Third World” between the Superpowers; the Cuban Missile Crisis; Soviet-Chinese relations; the Korean War; Vietnam; Nuclear Deterrence; Détente; Protest Movements of the 1960s and 1970s; Terrorism; the Crisis of Communism; the 1989 Revolutions in Eastern Europe. The paper should be based both on primary and secondary sources.  (N.B.: the paper cannot deal primarily with American domestic policies or issues, but must center instead on events in other parts of the world.  US intervention in and/or relations with any country during the Cold War is an acceptable approach as long as non-American points of view and sources are included).

During the first five weeks of classes students will become acquainted with adequate research topics, learn to write footnotes and a bibliography correctly, and to distinguish primary from secondary sources. We will also have a quiz on David Painter, The Cold War: An International History. Students will prepare PowerPoint presentations on chosen topics (instructor’s approval required).  The main purpose of these presentations will be to formulate questions on the various topics and thus help guide each individual student towards the choice of an appropriate research topic. The instructor will review PowerPoint files one or two days before the presentation due date. Students should speak clearly and loudly enough to be heard and understood by their classmates.

Grade distribution: Research Paper: first half 40%; Second half 40%; Presentations in class, quiz and discussion: 20%

450-2                     “World War II and the Politics of Memory”                        Professor Joshua First
TH 01:00 PM – 03:30 PM
Bishop Room 333

As one historian recently commented, “‘Remembering’ World War II requires no immediate experience of those years.” Indeed, in the years during and after the war, nations were developing their own conceptions of what the war meant, which parts were to be canonized within a narrative of national histories, and which parts were to be ignored, excised or otherwise removed from popular memory. This research seminar examines cultural production – literature, cinema, the visual arts, along with the production of History itself – on the topic of World War II.  Through our own research projects, we attempt to grapple with the “drama” of the Second World War as it played out in the United States and Europe after the war itself ended. Your research projects may touch upon a multitude of national narratives of the war, but should remain focused on European nations.  Together, we will compare alternate and competing memories of the war, and learn how these memories shifted over time.

In your research projects, you may ask questions such as:  How did the countries who participated in World War II make sense of it after it was over?  How did the various belligerents articulate victory and defeat?  Which countries saw themselves as victims of foreign aggression?  How did other countries deal with their own aggressive actions?  Through active reading and critical writing, you will gain understanding of the work that historians do, and the style of writing associated with the discipline of History. In addition to demonstrating the rhetorical manner of academic historical writing, and how historians present their research in written form, the examination of historiography in this course also serves to investigate different perspectives and foci on the subject of social and collective memory of World War II.

490-1                     Commodities in Latin American History                                Professor Jesse Cromwell
TH 01:00 PM – 03:30 PM
Bishop Room 326

How does a bar of chocolate provide insight into the history of a country, region, continent, or hemisphere?  This is but one of many questions we will ask in HIS 490: Commodities in Latin American History.  Latin America has long been (mis)perceived as a land of exotic primary products and a constellation of “banana republics.”  Goods like silver, sugar, and coca leaf have shaped outside perceptions as well as national identities.  This course approaches history through the foods, minerals, and drugs that Latin America has produced and that historical actors have coveted.  In doing so, it ponders linkages between botany, geology, production, trade, transportation, consumer desire, and consumption.  Commodities crossed borders and connected disparate groups to one another.  While it focuses on the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, this class invites students to consider these bonds throughout the entire history of Latin America.

The first part of this course will involve common readings on commodities meant to establish a breadth of knowledge on the subject. In the second part of the course, students will trace the history or historiography of a specific commodity (approved by the instructor) through a twenty-five-page research paper.  This part of the course will consist mainly of a few structured group meetings to discuss research problems and individual, weekly consultations with the professor.

Major course readings may include:
Steven Topik, Zephry Frank, and Carlos Marichal, From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000
Marcy Norton, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World
Kris Lane, Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires

Ron Chernow is an award-winning journalist, historian and biographer, best known for writing insightful biographies of historical figures from the realms of American business, finance and politics. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has hailed him as “one of the pre-eminent biographers of his generation,” and Fortune magazine has dubbed him “America’s best business biographer.”

 
His latest book, Washington: A Life, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize. In The New York Review of Books, historian Gordon Wood praised it as “the best, most comprehensive, and most balanced single-volume biography of Washington ever written.” Excerpted by Smithsonian magazine, the book spent five weeks on The New York Times’ best-sellers list.

 The 2013 History Day High School Competition at the University of Mississippi is set for Saturday, February 23.   Entry fee is only $5 per student and includes a t-shirt and lunch.  All participants must participate in the History exam and have the option of competing in the Team Brain Bowl, Research Paper, Display/Poster, Video Presentation, and Computer Project.  Students must be in the 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade.  Entries can come from schools or individuals.  Rules, registration, and award information can be found at http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/youth/History_Competition/.

Otis W. Pickett’s article “’We Are Marching to Zion’: Zion Church and the Distinctive Work of Presbyterian Slave Missionaries in Charleston, South Carolina, 1849–1874″ was selected as the best  graduate student paper for the three volumes of the Proceedings for 2010- 2012 by the South Carolina Historical Association.