Undergraduate Course Descriptions

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS FALL 2011

The United States, 1877 to World War I

His 304-1 1:00 MWF Bish 107 Professor Elizabeth Payne

This course introduces students to the main themes and significant contours of American history from the end of reconstruction through the first world war. As such, it emphasizes national legislation and politics, but it also focuses on social and cultural history. Students should be prepared to switch perspectives between a chronological and a topical approach, realizing that both readings and lectures have been designed for breadth. At the end of the course, earnest students should have a working knowledge of the essential themes and major historical landmarks in American history from 1877 to 1919.

Grades will be straightforward and based on a point system of 100. Each reading quiz will count 5 points for a total of 35 points. There will be three exams, each of which will count fifteen points, totaling 45 points. All quizzes and exams will be taken from questions students’ submitted samples. Finally, there will be a paper counting 20 points.

Tentative Reading List: Janet Sharp Hermann, The Pursuit of a Dream Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth Robert McMath, American Populism Kate Chopin, The Awakening John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt Thomas Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War

His 307-1/Aas 325 African American History to 1865 9:00 MWF Bish 101 Professor Marco Robinson

This course focuses on the experiences of African and African American people beginning Western Africa and concluding with the Civil War. More specifically, the enslavement of African people, African people’s experiences in colonial North America, the development of African American culture, and black’s experiences in antebellum America are covered in this course. Themes treated in this course deal with the social, political, and economic impact of slavery on black life, black’s resistance of slavery, the experiences of free blacks, the relationship between science and racism, the experiences of enslaved women, blacks in the abolitionist movement, and African American’s participation in the Civil War.Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, students will read and analyze literary texts and primary sources to gain a broadened perspective of black life in America before 1865.

Textbook: John Hope Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom. 9th edition

Audrey Smedley, Race in North America, 4th edition

His 307-2/Aas 325 African American History to 1865 2:30 TTH Hume 101 Professor Maurice Hobson

This course will help students to better understand the experience of African peoples and the impact of colonization, the Middle Passage, and American slavery on the emergence of African American communities and culture. This course will focus on African backgrounds and tradition; the formation of African American communities and culture; and agency and resistance.

His 324-1/Aas 324/ Gst 321 Race, Gender, and Courtship in African American History

2:30 TTH Bish 101 Professor Angela Hornsby-Gutting

The course will examine concepts of courtship and romantic love among African Americans to assess the central roles that race, gender, class and social forces played in the most private, and intimate, of matters. Though American social historians have addressed concepts of romantic love, with articles and texts focusing on relationships of white Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scholarly illumination of intimacy among African Americans is rare. Through readings (primary and secondary), assignments, and discussions, students will assess the importance of “love” as a social construct among African Americans and how expressions of it complement or diverge from Euro-American conceptions. Class members will also study the diverse ways in which this history has thus far been approached and understood by historians. The remainder of the course will probe definitions of romantic love among black southerners. We will analyze love letters for clues as to how respectability and romantic love manifested themselves within southern locales during Jim Crow. By semester’s end, students should have become extensively familiar with this type of historical scholarship and have demonstrated improvement in their reading, writing, and analytical skills.

His 328-1/Aas 440 History of African Americans in Sport 11:00 TTH Bish 101 Professor Charles K. Ross

Aas 440/His 328 is a historical survey of African Americans and their roles in various sports beginning with black participation in the late 19th century and chronicling that involvement into the 21st century. Some of the major themes that will be examined include: black jockeys, black cyclist, and black baseball in the late 19th century; black participation in football, golf, and boxing in the early 20th century; the development of color barriers in various sports; black teams during the age of segregation; the integration of various sports; and future involvement of African Americans in sport.

Course Requirements: Each student is responsible for (1) class attendance and class participation, (2) weekly reading assignments, three papers, a midterm exam, and (3) a final exam.

Method of Determining Final Course Grade: Three Papers – 45% Mid Term Exam – 25% Final Exam – 30%

Required Books: Roberts, Papa Jack Goldman, One Man Out, Curt Flood versus Baseball Leslie with Burnett, Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You Ross, Outside the Lines

His 329-1/Aas 443 The Civil Rights Era 9:00 MWF Bish 112 Professor Charles Eagles

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: Harvard Sitkoff, The Black Struggle for Equality, 1954-1992. Adam Fairclough, Martin Luther King, Jr. Robert J. Norrell, Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee. Neil R. McMillen, The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-1965.

His 330-2 The History of Mississippi 1:00 MWF Bish 112 Professor Michael Namorato

This course will examine the history of Mississippi from its earliest founding to the present day. Topics to be studied include Mississippi in the colonial era, statehood, how the state changed in the antebellum era, and what impact the Civil War and Reconstruction had on its people. Other topics include the rise of Jim Crow, the revolt of the Rednecks, Mississippi in World Wars, the Great Depression and particularly how the state adjusted to the changing American environment after 1945.

Students will be expected to do the assigned readings, participate in class discussions, complete a series of short group assignments, take a Mid-Term and Final exam, and write a research paper on a topic approved by the instructor.

The assigned readings include the following: Westley Busbee, Mississippi: A History D. M. Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery Ben Wynne, Mississippi’s Civil War

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi The class will also read selections in a number of other sources such as Robert Palmer, Deep Blues.

His 333-1 The Era of the Civil War, 1850-1877 9:30 TTH Bish 107 Professor April Holm

The Civil War was a pivotal moment in American political history and a central experience in the lives of people who lived through it. The war and its aftermath resolved unanswered questions about the nation’s future, set the United States on course to becoming a modern state, and redrew the boundaries of American citizenship. It also defined a generation, changed countless ordinary lives, and bequeathed a new set of unresolved questions to subsequent generations. Beginning with the aftermath of the Mexican-American War in 1848, students will learn about the conflicts over slavery, abolition, and westward expansion that brought the nation to war in 1861. The course will focus on the experience of the war itself for Americans both North and South, and enslaved and free—on the home front and on the battlefield. We will examine the profound challenges that faced Americans as they sought to rebuild and reshape the nation during the years of Reconstruction. The course ends with an evaluation of the political and cultural reunion of the North and South: how it was accomplished, what it resolved, and what questions remained unanswered as Americans entered a new age shaped by the Civil War and Reconstruction.

His 337-1 History of Religion in the South 9:30 TTH Bish 103 Professor Charles R. Wilson

This class will trace the development of religion in the American South. It will begin with the colonial era, examine the rise of evangelicalism and how that tradition became the dominant one in the South, trace the emergence of the sectional conflict between North and South and the role of religion in it, discuss the religious meanings of the Civil War and its aftermath, examine the expansion of evangelical churches after the war, consider the role of Catholics and Jews in the South, study developments in the early twentieth century, and conclude with religion’s role in the civil rights movement and the rise of the Religious Right. The course will also look at religion’s role in such creative expressions as music, literature, and films.

Four books are required reading. We will discuss each book in class and there will be a short quiz on each. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. The other requirement is an oral history project, based around religion and culture.

Texts: Christine Heyrman, Southern Cross Paul Harvey, Redeeming the South Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods Will Campbell, Brother to a Dragonfly

His 364-1 Germany in the Age of Unification, 1815-1914 (Germany, 1800-1918)

2:30 TTH Bish 105 Professor John Ondrovcik

“In the beginning was Napoleon.” Historian Thomas Nipperdey’s now-famous comment on nineteenth-century Germany will be our starting point as we explore German history between the French and Russian Revolutions. As this formula suggests, German culture and society during this period was strongly shaped by its responses to its neighbors to the west and the east: nationalism and Romanticism were part of a wide-ranging reaction to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and German militarist and colonial ambitions were shaped very much by the widespread desire to expand German political and economic dominance eastward toward Russia and Ukraine. This is not to say that we will ignore “homegrown” developments like industrialization, the development of Social Democracy as an “alternative culture,” or the anti- Catholic and anti-Polish “struggle for civilization” which characterized the early part of

Bismarck’s tenure as chancellor; the course will, however, emphasize the extent to which Germans consciously attempted to shape their nation as an alternative to other national variants. Further topics include: the revolutions of 1848, colonialism in Africa, German migration to the United States, ethnic minorities, the rise of the culture of reading and of cinema, World War One, and the German Revolution of 1918.

Textbook: David Blackbourn, History of Germany, 1780-1918. We will also read selections from Mack Walker, German Home Towns, 1648-1871; Isabel Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military

Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany; Marion Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany. Primary texts include Theodor Fontane’s novel of Bismarckian Germany, Effi Briest, and Heinrich Mann’s novel of Wilhelmine Germany, Man of Straw. We shall also view and discuss Michael Haneke’s 2010 film about imperial Germany and the origins of Nazism, The White Ribbon. Other primary sources will be read in translation.

His 366-1 Late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia 11:00 MWF Bish 112 Professor Joshua First

This course examines the major developments of Russian history from the late-19th century to the foundation of the Soviet Union in the early 1920s, emphasizing the origins and culmination of the Russian Revolution. During this period, the Russian Empire embarked on a long and difficult process of economic, social and cultural development: During the 1860s, Russia became the last European country to abolish the institution of serfdom. Along with this major reform of social relations came concerted efforts at industrialization and a partial liberalization of the political system. Nonetheless, major resistance to the imperial Russian state also emerged during this time. Students and intellectuals, and later, industrial workers and peasants, protested the maintenance of a repressive state, along with the consequences of the country’s rapid movement toward modernity. By the early 20th century, the Russian autocracy proved unable to resist the social forces that its own desperate attempts at modernization had helped create.

In order to understand this era on its own terms as well as in light of the revolution that would bring it to a cataclysmic end, we will study the swirling currents of Russian and Western thought that clashed and combined to form a uniquely Russian cultural mix in the waning years of the Russian Empire and the dawn of the Soviet Union. We will examine the problems of economic development, imperial expansion (and contraction), religious and secular culture, and the successive periods of war, reform and revolution that characterized this fascinating era of Russian history.

Required Books: Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaia, Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia Vera Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist Alexander Kuprin, Yama: The Pit

His 373-1 History of Ancient Christianity 9:00 MWF Bish 107 Professor Lester Field

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 a full-length essay question.

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

Grading: Class participation – 10% Attendance and discussion Essays – 20% Midterm – 20% Final – 50%

His 380-1/Gst 380 9:30 TTH Bish 105 Professor Susan Grayzel

Society and the Sexes in Modern Europe

Description and Objectives: What defines Marriage? Parenthood? Should the state play a role in shaping the family? Should any member of a nation be excluded from its rights and obligations, including military service? This course will introduce students to a variety of topics in and approaches to the study of women and men in European society and culture that will seek to address the questions above and many others. Along with discussing the significance of gender in women’s and men’s lives from the French Revolution until the aftermath of the Cold War, we will also explore the connecting issues of class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual identity, and race in order to understand the experience of modern European women and men more fully.

Readings may be drawn from the following texts: Caine, Barbara and Glenda Sluga, Gendering European History French, Katherine and Allyson Poska, Women and Gender in the Western Past Paine, Thomas, The Rights of Man Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre Ibsen, Henrik, A Doll’s House Forster, E.M. A Passage to India Remarque, Erich Maria, All Quiet on the Western Front

Smith, Helen Zenna, Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War Hanna, Martha, Your Death Would Be Mine Kollantai, Alexandra, The Love of Worker Bees Delbo, Charlotte, Auschwitz and After

Levi, Primo, Survival in Auschwitz Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin Grossman, Vasily, A Writer At War Ifekwunigwe, Jayne O. Scattered Belongings

His 383-2 Muslim World: From the Origins to the Middle Ages 2:30 TTH Bish 103 Professor Nicolas Trépanier

This course offers a survey of the history of the Muslim world, from its origins to the thirteenth century. We will pay particular attention to the context in which Islam was born and the life of its founder Muhammad; the “golden age” of the life of the Prophet and his immediate successors, which continues to inform current debates such as the Shi’i/Sunni divide; the rapid establishment of a united Muslim empire ranging from Spain to India and its ultimate disintegration; and the interaction between Islam and the Christian world through intellectual interactions, along frontiers and during the Crusades.

The course will follow a chronological approach to the main events in the history of the Muslim peoples while, in parallel, exploring a number of key themes in the social, intellectual and artistic history of the region. Themes discussed will include Islam as a religion and social phenomenon, Islamic law, Sufism (Islamic mysticism), identity and ethnicity, literature, philosophy and science.

His 387-1/Aas 392 Modern Africa 1:00 MWF Bish 101 Professor Bashir Salau

This course surveys African history from the nineteenth century to the present. Significant political, economic and cultural developments will be analyzed. Some of the major topics to be considered include the early nineteenth century political mutations, the abolition of slave trade, the partition of Africa, African responses to European expansion, colonial rule, apartheid, and the political economy of the post colonial era. Attention will also be given to exploring the nature of relationship between the United States and Africa. After completing this course, students should: have gained a sound knowledge of major controversies in modern African history, have a better appreciation of the processes which shaped modern Africa, be more critical in interpreting information, and be able to effectively communicate history through writing and verbal statements. The format will be lecture and discussion.

His 388-1 Mexico and Central America 9:30 TTH Bryant 200 Professor Douglass Sullivan-González

The major aim of this course is to improve the student’s understanding of the colonial and national experience in Mexico and in Central America, and in particular, to comprehend the nature of the diverse societies emerging from conquest and the subsequent roots of conflict common to contemporary Mexico and Central America. From the very beginning, these colonies, formed by subjugation of indigenous peoples where possible, were directly linked to the world economy, and their people ranked into sharply divided social classes. Are these facts connected? To what degree did race and class serve to divide or unite these major social groups, and what role did religion play in the colonial conquest and within indigenous revolts? This course attempts to find answers to these questions. This course ranges from the encounter of two worlds to the revolutionary periods in twentieth-century Mexico and Central America.

The organization of the lectures is topical and chronological. There is no prerequisite for this course (except upper-class standing), and I assume no knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese.

His 389-1 Samurai and Cinema 2:30 TTH Bish 112 Professor Noell Wilson

This course explores the transformation of the bushidō (way of the warrior) ethos from the late sixteenth century to the present through film and text. The class will examine both seminal primary documents and film as we explore two central themes: the historical reality of the samurai and the construction of samurai mythology both in Japan and the West on screen. Discussions will consider topics such as the impact of the introduction of firearms on warrior culture, the consolidation of samurai rule, the social implications of ritual disembowelment, the influence of the Meiji Restoration on the samurai class, and the symbolic significance of samurai customs to author Yukio Mishima. Films examined will include Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), Masahiro Shinoda’s Gonza the Spearman (1986), Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri (1962), Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai (2003), Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai (1967), Hiroshi Inagaki’s Chushingura (1962), and a selection of other Japanese and Western films.

His 394-1 Late Imperial and Modern China 11:00 MWF Bish 101 Professor Joshua Howard

This course surveys the main political, social, and cultural developments in late imperial and modern Chinese history since the mid 17th century. We will focus on two broad themes: the rise and fall of the Qing empire and China’s road to revolution. We first examine how the Manchu as an ethnic minority

conquered China and then established one of the world’s largest land-based empires. During the nineteenth century, the interaction of domestic and foreign pressures weakened the Qing dynasty and ushered in the collapse of an entire civilization. The focus will then shift to the great revolution, the struggle to transform the world’s most ancient dynastic order and to create a revolutionary society. We close with a consideration of how the legacy of revolution has helped shape contemporary China. Lectures, film, and readings will introduce students to the people, places and events that have shaped China’s modern history. The instructor will also encourage students to develop their ability to interpret and analyze documents that shed light on the experiences of those who lived in the past.

His 399-1 The Middle East since 1914 Course number to be changed to His 381, summer 2011

1:00 MWF Croft 107 Professor Vivian Ibrahim

This course deals with the development of the Middle East from the First World War until the Gulf War. 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 fields.

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 20th century. The second part of the course analyses modernization and state formation through the study of revolutions in the Arab world and Iran, in the 1950s and in 1979 respectively as well as the role of Political Islam.

His 400-1 Undergraduate Research Seminar in U.S. History The Presidency of Bill Clinton, 1992-2000

4-6:30 W Bish 333 Professor Michael V. Namorato

He was and remains a charismatic leader who is a contradiction in terms. During his presidency, he provided the American people with one of the most prosperous economies in our history. He worked diligently to bring down America’s debt. He limited the military, expanded social welfare programs, and told the world that America was still the best in everything. Yet, he also was involved in numerous sex scandals, his affair with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky wreaked havoc in American society, and his private indiscretions led to his impeachment. He would be the only elected president ever impeached and tried by Congress. In the end, he prevailed. More than that, today he is seen as a senior statesman travelling around the world to rescue American hostages, supporting the fledgling Obama presidency, and promoting charitable causes with his foundation. Truly, he is a complicated man to understand!

This seminar will study Bill Clinton and his life, education, political career, Presidency, impeachment and trial, and his ultimate status as a senior American statesman. The course will analyze in depth what he

accomplished, failed to do, and what legacy he left as president and what legacy he may leave as a senior statesman.

Each student will be expected to do the assigned readings, attend all classes, participate in the discussions, complete a small number of class assignments, and write a 20-page paper on a topic approved by the instructor.

The following books will be used in the seminar. Others will be announced when the class begins. Bill Clinton, My Life S. Gillon, The Pact: Clinton, Gingrich, and the Rivalry That Defined a Generation K. Starr, Starr Report

J. Klein, The Natural His 400-4

Undergraduate Research Seminar in U.S. History American Women’s History

4-6:30 M Bish 326 Professor Elizabeth Payne

This course invites students to write history. It introduces students to concepts and methods basic to historical research through looking at and writing about the historical experiences of women in the United States. Students will gain competence in using the Internet, archival documents, and oral interviews as basic research tools. As a result of taking this course, students will become familiar with the methodological and historiographical issues necessary for doing original research on topics relating to the history of the United States.

His 450-1 Undergraduate Research Seminar in European History The Cold War in International Perspective

1-3:30 M Bish 326 Professor Chiarella Esposito

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. Students will also 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. Students will help assess each other’s presentations.

Grade distribution: Research Paper: first half 40%; Second half 45%; Presentations in class and discussion: 15%

His 490-1 Undergraduate Reading Seminar in History Science and Society

1-3:30 TH Bish 326 Professor Theresa Levitt

This class examines the interactions of science and society from a historical perspective. It begins by examining three case studies:

1. The atomic bomb: We will address questions such as: How did the bomb come about? How did it change our world? How did it change how we think about knowledge and progress? 2. Eugenics: The practice of trying to “breed humans” was at one point very common in the United States. We will examine the rise and fall of this practice, and its close connection to race and racism.

3. The controversy over teaching evolution: Darwin’s theories set off a host of moral, religious, and social debates. We will cover the Scopes Trial, which famously banned the teaching of evolution, as well as what has happened since then.

We will examine both the impact of scientific discoveries on American culture and the way that broader culture helped shape what the science looked like. Students will then write a research paper of their own exploring these issues on a topic of their choosing.