You can find a link to the History Major Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
You can find a link to the History Minor Undergraduate Requirements and Course Catalog here.
Online (U800, U700) Classes: Online History Courses are set up through The College of Professional Studies (formerly known as University College or UC), not through the History Department. The majority of the seats in these classes are reserved for College of Professional Studies Students. Any other available seats can be taken on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to enroll in the course during the enrollment period, you will have to wait until the first day of class, when any remaining reserved seats are released. We are unable to offer permissions or increase enrollment caps at this time.
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HST 102: American History Since 1865
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This semester offers a broad look at the history of the United States in the 150 years from the end of the Civil War through the first decade of the 21st Century. Throughout the course, we will engage with the social, political, and cultural changes, ideas, and events that have profoundly shaped modern American society.
Key questions include: How have we defined being American? How has the nation’s relationship with the world changed? How have the rights of citizens evolved over time? How have various groups in American society articulated their claims to citizenship and national belonging? What factors have affected the development of American political leadership?
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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HST 112: Napoleon to Present
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This course examines the major developments in European history since the late 18th century, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Fascist and Nazi seizures of power, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and European Unification. The thematic focus of this course is the relationship between the individual and the state. How does this relationship change over time – what makes it “modern”? To address this question, we will examine ideologies (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, fascism), the birth of mass society, poverty, violence, women’s rights, and racism. There are two lectures and one discussion section per week. Discussions emphasize primary sources and historical debates. Grades are based on in-class exams, papers, and discussion.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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HST 122: Global History 1750-Present
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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HST 211: Medieval and Renaissance Europe
*This course includes the lecture and a weekly discussion section. By enrolling in discussion, you automatically enroll in the lecture.
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This introductory survey traces Europe’s transformation during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, from roughly 300 CE to roughly 1500 CE. It begins as the Roman Empire slowly gave way to new societies in both East and West, and then follows the fortunes of these societies over more than 1000 years. It explores the religious, political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and artistic aspects of these societies and how they changed over time. Readings will include both primary sources (those written at the time) and secondary sources (by modern scholars). Students will learn to analyze these sources in order to find out what happened in this period, how people understood events, and how historians use evidence to explain the past. Requirements include reading and participation, midterm and final exams, and two papers.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
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A basic survey of political, economic, and social history of Africa during the colonial period through the post-independence period.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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Elizabeth I: Cultural icon? Virgin queen? ‘Father/Mother’ of the nation? This course will examine the images, personality, words and actions of one of the most important monarchs in English history. How did Elizabeth manage to negotiate her rule of a patriarchal society as a ‘weak-willed woman’? Did she exploit her considerable political skills to benefit the country or simply to maintain her position on the throne? And what of those who sort to assassinate or replace her? How did she react to threats of foreign invasion, domestic rebellion and a barely concerned hostility among many in the governing classes? Using both early modern and modern iconography, we will explore the images and representations of Elizabeth to unravel her life and examine how she sought to portray herself and how others have seen her through the years.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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HST 300/PSC 300/HNR 360, M002: White Nationalism/Right Populism in Modern America
HONORS ONLY
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This course will examine why White Nationalism and Right-wing Populism have become so prominent on the early 21st-century American political landscape. Although such tendencies have long been evident (consider the Second KKK in the 1920s and the Dixiecrats of the 1940s and '50s as two examples), we will explore why they have achieved such significance in recent years. Among the questions we will consider are these:
To what extent is there continuity between earlier forms of right-wing radicalism and those we see today?
Was the emergence and ongoing influence of Donald Trump (and pro-Trump groups like QAnon, Proud Boys, Militias, and America First) a cause or consequence of the surge in such beliefs?
In what ways are US developments distinctive, and how are they part of a global authoritarianist wave?
How has social media enabled the development of movements like these? Throughout the term, emphasis will be on reading, reflection, and discussion.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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As A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) has exploded into contemporary consciousness and its uses in everyday life have expanded exponentially (ChatGPT, for example), it is vital to pause to reflect on its potential impact on nearly every realm, from education, jobs, popular culture, and entertainment to how we think of ourselves as human beings, form relationships, interact with others, and navigate other aspects of our public and private lives. In this course, we will explore AI as a cultural phenomenon through its history, imaginative portrayals in film and the arts, and current debates over its pros and cons, with special attention to the impact of the virtual world of computer technology, social media, the internet, and now AI, on the self. Comparison with earlier concepts of the self, emotion, and thought in intellectual history and cultural criticism of technology and media—with their visions of what the human person is and might strive to be—can help us assess what might be different in emerging concepts and practices.
Concentration: U.S./Europe / Period: Modern
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This course introduces students to the surprising width and depth of medieval literature from the Mediterranean and Western Europe, debunking a great deal of commonly held assumptions, such as that these times were ’dark ages’, obsessed with life-denying religiosity, and full of valiant crusaders. Instead, we will discover the cosmopolitan nature of many texts and authors, we will engage with the political and social – at times remarkably advanced - aspects of medieval literatures, and indulge in some really great humor.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
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This course considers the history of capitalism in the United States, exploring the nation from its origins as part of the British empire to its emergence as the world’s greatest financial power. In it, students will explore how canals, turnpikes, and railroads transformed the nation’s transportation network. They will discuss the rise of markets in cities and towns. Students will explore the emergence of plantation slavery, making the South the center of a global market in cotton. The course discusses how technology reshaped manufacturing. They will consider the development of an American working class and their protests against their treatment. Students will learn about the rise of the modern corporation, banking, and the stock market. And the class will discuss a range of additional themes, including law, war, regulation, consumerism, de-industrialization, and white-collar work.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Pre-Modern
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HST 300, M007: Herodotus and the Invention of History
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A study of Herodotus, the father of history, the first anthropologist, the first ethnographer…and the father of lies. Herodotus was the product of ancient Greece, which defined itself in cultural terms in opposition to non-Greeks, or ‘barbarians.’ This cultural framework provides the context from which to consider Herodotus’ narrative of the Persian Invasions of Greece.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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This course explores the history of anti-Jewish discrimination, bigotry, and violence in the United States between 1654 and 2024. Students will learn about antisemitism in the context of modern Jewish history as well as modern U.S. history, determining how, if at all, antisemitism relates to racism, xenophobia, and misogyny.
Concentration: US / Period: Modern
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This course explores the various interconnections of race and law in American history. Our focus will be on key issues including slavery, federal Indian law, immigration, civil rights, and mass incarceration. We will consider how race and law have intersected and shaped American society in enduring ways.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects.
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M/W 3:45-5:05
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What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects.
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The Civil War was a second American Revolution, and considerably more transformative than the first. Through lectures, readings of primary and secondary-source texts, discussions, and films, this course will show why. We begin by asking what led Southern states to secede in 1861, why the North resolved to restore the union by force of arms, and how emancipation evolved from a military expedient to a defining war aim. We will ask how changing military strategies and tactics related to political struggles over the objectives of the war, and why the war took so many lives. The role of political and military leaders – Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, to name a few – will be placed alongside the experiences of soldiers, slaves, and civilians. Our examination of Reconstruction will pay particular attention to the efforts of freedmen and women to secure their freedoms despite the hostility of white Southerners and the indifference of Northerners. Care will also be taken to understand the Civil War and Reconstruction in relation to larger social, economic, and cultural developments in nineteenth-century America, and to place them in global context. Finally, we will look at how Americans have remembered the war, from struggles over memorialization, to the persistence of "Lost Cause" mythology, to changing interpretations of the war advanced by historians in the twentieth century.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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An analysis of key historical issues that have shaped Africa's relationship with the international/global community since about 1870. This includes, but is not limited to, Western imperialism, the African colonial economies, the two world wars, nationalism and decolonization, the Cold War, and the development question.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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This course will survey the history of China from the seventeenth century to the present. Our focus will be on revolution and reform: the primary means through which Chinese people responded to the challenges of a new world, and, most particularly, to Western encroachment and invasion. Topics to be considered in depth include: politics and society under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911); the end of the dynastic system and the continuing quest for a viable political system; reform of Chinese culture through revolution; the challenge of changing old attitudes about gender roles; conflicting visions for the new nation; the critique of communism by dissident Chinese; the persistence and resurgence of traditional ways, and the renewed interest in Maoism during the 2000’s. Assigned readings include a slim textbook to provide chronology and a variety of historical materials including memoirs, fiction and poetry.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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In this course, we will explore Latin American history from independence to the late twentieth century. This course is broad, geographically and temporally, but no prior knowledge of Latin American history is necessary. Drawing upon primary documents, audio and visual materials, and secondary historical literature, this course will explore the nation-building process and the ways that ordinary people interacted with the state. We will also analyze the construction of racial, class, and gender hierarchies in various Latin American contexts. We draw from case studies and national histories, but we will place these historical moments within a global perspective, elucidating how Latin American actors shaped imperial practices, nation-state formation, revolutionary and counterrevolutionary dynamics during the Cold War, and innovative political practices against neoliberalism.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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This course surveys the history of the Indian subcontinent from 2000 BCE, when an urban civilization was thriving in the Indus Valley, to the seventeenth century, when the Great Mughals ruled over one of the most powerful empires in the contemporary world. While covering this vast time period, we will focus on specific topics pertaining to ancient and medieval Indian politics, economy, religion, society, and culture. Selected readings will examine forms of kingship, the rise of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, the position of women in society, the role of temples as social and political centers, and the relations between the subcontinent and other empires.
Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-Modern
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This course introduces students to the models and methods developed in the field of queer theory and teach them to apply them on a wide range of medieval texts (letters, novels, monastic rules, medieval historiography, legal texts etc.). Starting from John Boswell’s groundbreaking but also highly controversial work Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality we will alternate between reading and discussing major theoretical texts, historiography and medieval primary sources The course will introduce students of all fields to tools and methods used in historical research.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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Focusing mainly on the past 150 years, this course is intended to provide an overview of women’s experiences in America from the Civil War to the present. While it is not a course on the history of feminism, it will be taught from a feminist perspective. What does that mean? Stated simply, in this class women will be considered as subjects—as actors who themselves “make history,” and not simply as passive objects of the actions of others. Moreover, it assumes the full personhood of women, the reality of discrimination against women, and the intrinsic significance of women’s experience. Beyond that, it is not expected that students in the course will share the professor’s point of view on all matters (indeed, with any luck, the class will contain a healthy diversity of backgrounds and perspectives). It should be understood from the outset that “U.S. women’s history” is not monolithic. Therefore, we will pay considerable attention to the diversity among women and their experiences over time. This diversity adds to the complexity of what we will be studying—but it also will add to the richness of understanding that I hope you will take away from this class. Student participation is not only welcome, but essential! Finally, this course also assumes the seriousness with which women's history needs to be considered—so, know from the outset that HST/WGS349 is designed to be both demanding and challenging. There is a lot of assigned reading (after all, we are dealing with a lot of long-neglected material). Though it may be impossible for you to do it all, the more you read, the more you will get out of the class (and the better your grade will be). And you are expected to do most of it! As we go along, certain readings will be noted as deserving special emphasis.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
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This course examines the political, cultural and social history of Early Modern England. Topics covered will include the power and image of the monarchy (cases studies - Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I); the role of the printing press in both ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture; the impact of crime and the treatment of criminals; the importance of London as a center of commerce and culture; the myth and reality of Shakespeare and the role of the theater; witchcraft and the dominance of religion in everyday life; and the role of women in a patriarchal society. The course will emphasize reading, discussion, visual culture and the use of primary sources.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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Among the ancient world’s most enduring legacies, democracy continues to exert a powerful influence over the modern political imagination. This course examines forms of ancient democracy and democratic participation in government to help understand and problematize today's so-called democracies. Throughout the course, we probe questions like why democracy arose, what factors limited participation, who benefited most from it, and why twenty-first century versions of it are failing.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern
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This course begins in the catastrophic aftermath of the Second World War, traces out the reconstruction of Germany, its incorporation into capitalist and communist blocs, and its emergence as a leader of contemporary Europe. Throughout, the course highlights the legacies of the Nazi past, international connections from the Cold War to the so-called refugee crisis, and the truly profound transformations of political and cultural life from aggressive racial dictatorship to pluralistic democracy.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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The history of twentieth-century Europe can be understood in large part as the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The first half of the century was dominated by the antagonism between the Soviet and Fascist powers; the second half, between Soviet and Western spheres of influence in the Cold War. Likewise, if the 20th century began in 1914 with the start of WWI, it arguably ended in 1991 with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. This course has two main objectives: to examine the major issues surrounding the rise and fall of communism in Russia in the 20th century, and to give you a glimpse of what life was like for people who lived through the Soviet era.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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This course will study major developments in the history of the first and second world wars. These were conflicts that dramatically changed the course of history across the globe.
On World War I: The setting for the war in the struggle for mastery in Europe to 1914. The Schlieffen Plan and its fate in the critical early months of the conflict. The creation of the killing ground of the western front trenches by 1915. The massive attrition battles in the arenas of death at Verdun, the Somme and in Flanders Field. The war in the east and its implications for the fate of Russia. The war at sea to Jutland and after. Warfare beyond the European battlefields. The war in the air. American entry and the final encounters 1917-18.
On World War II: The heritage of Versailles and the rise of Hitler. After appeasement and isolationism – the war begins in Poland with Blitzkrieg. The Fall of France and the Battle of Britain. Barbarossa and Hitler’s run of victories against the Red Army. Pearl Harbor and America’s road to war. From Stalingrad to the Kursk Salient and beyond. The Pacific war from Midway to the offensives in the Central and Southwest Pacific. The Holocaust and violence against civilians in Europe and Asia. Closing the ring in Europe. Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the decision to use the atomic bomb.
Concentration: U.S. or Europe / Period: Modern
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Religion is an explosive issue in contemporary politics globally, but seems to have extra resonance in parts of Asia, including in the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, since 9/11, Islam appears as the typical face of religious extremism. This course challenges the myth of religious politics as the relics of pre-modern solidarities, exploring instead its specifically modern incarnations. Accordingly, we will look at how religious identities are intertwined with modern political forms (democracy) and modern technologies (mass media). To that extent, we will see how religious fundamentalism is not limited to Islam but indeed extends to all prominent South Asian religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism. Other key course themes include the gendered nature of religious politics and the lasting consequences of colonial forms of rule. Course material includes articles, documentaries, fiction and poetry.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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An approach to the history of the modern Middle East and North Africa since the early 20th century through the lens of film, music, television, sports, and the internet. Readings and discussions consider popular culture and social change, and culture to understand the lives of regular people. Though understanding politics is important, the focus is not on government or the elite, but youth, social movements, fan culture, women and gender, and the role of popular culture in shaping identity and as means of resistance to oppression. Topics are grouped around specific countries and genres with particular focus on Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Palestine and Israel, and Morocco.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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If we want to understand medieval everyday life, mentality, culture and religion, investigating death might be one of the most productive approaches. Every culture and period develops its distinct attitudes towards death, ways of integrating death into everyday life, rituals, emotional responses and notions of lifecycles. Topics addressed in this course range from classical and Christian concepts of the afterlife, burial rituals, cults of the saints and the veneration of relics, taboos on death, to diseases, death penalty, imaginary journeys through hell (especially Dante), the plague, the Danse Macabre and other manifestations of Death in Art expression. Special emphasis will be placed on reading and analyzing primary sources and on historical methodology.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
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This course explores the history and meaning of the Vietnam War. How and why did the United States become involved in Vietnam? How did the conflict shape popular culture in the United States, Vietnam, and globally? How does popular culture contribute to the historical record? Drawing on a range of films, fictional and non-fictional accounts, and music, this class examines the intersection of history and memory.
Concentration: U.S. and Global / Period: Modern
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In the eighty years since the Second World War, the United Kingdom has undergone vast changes - in its relationship to its former empire, Europe, and the world; in its demographic make-up; and in the manner and quality of life of its people. Throughout those eight decades, such changes have been illustrated and commented upon through the medium of film. The UK's vibrant motion picture industry has informed the country's cultural conversation in important ways, and looking back, postwar British cinema provides historians with a valuable resource by which to observe how ideas, experiences, attitudes, and conflicts have altered over time. In this course, each student will write a research paper which makes a distinctive argument about some or other aspect of British postwar life, using film as a principal source of evidence. As a preliminary, we will watch and discuss a number of films as a class to help inspire and hone ideas
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
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This is an advanced research and writing seminar on selected ideas/movements/episodes in cultural history, ancient and modern, as seen in images. Through close-reading, students investigate texts, images, and other cultural artifacts. Research centers especially on representations of the self, emotion, and the art of living as reflected in a range of primary sources, including philosophy, literature, art, architecture, music, and film. Secondary readings help students to situate their sources in time and place and to identify original research questions. Attention to each step of the project allows students to master such skills as the choice and proposal of topics, archival research (including digital), footnoting and use of evidence, bibliographical annotation, logical argumentation, revision of rough drafts, constructive critique of others’ work, and enhancement of the literary quality of their final papers. Students produce a 25-30 page research paper on a subject of their choosing dovetailing with the course theme. This seminar is the capstone of the History major and is required for majors.
Concentration: U.S./Europe/Global / Period: Modern
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This course focuses on the history modern Iraq from roughly 1900 to the present. If Iraq appears in US news headlines it is often associated with violence, sectarian strife, hardship, and civic disintegration, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon. This class centers Iraqi experiences to understand Iraqi cultural life, its labor movement, and successful socialist politics before turning to the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, the sanctions regime, the 2003 US invasion and its aftermath. Throughout, we will focus on the lives of Iraqis of various social classes, the differences between rural and urban society, the impact of the expansion of education and social services, and the ways in which broader social, economic, and political changes affected Iraqi men, women, and their families. Readings detail the political changes under British colonial occupation through the lens of medicine, women’s political activism from the period of anti-colonial nationalism through the US invasion. A third title examines the relation between warfare and masculinity. While focusing on different periods, these readings raise similar questions about gender roles and gender identities that offer an insightful window into the social history of modern Iraq. Overall, this course introduces students to the dynamism of modern Iraq through a range of texts by anthropologists and historians as well as works of fiction and a popular blog. This class meets the requirements for IDEA course in the College of Arts and Sciences. There are no prerequisites.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
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Instructor Consent Required
Students doing the thesis will take 3 credits of HST 495 the first semester and 3 credits of HST 496 the second semester (2 semesters for a total of 6 credits), which may begin in their junior or senior year. Students should register for HST 495 and 496 upon approval from the faculty advisor and Undergraduate Director.
HST 101 American History to 1865
This introductory course will survey American history from the pre-colonial era to the Civil War. We will approach this period of history through a discussion of three themes. The first covers the period from the founding down to the middle of the eighteenth century and focuses on how Europeans from a medieval culture became Americans. The second theme explores the political, social and economic impact the Revolution had upon American society. And finally, we will focus on the modernization of American society in the nineteenth century and how that modernization was a major factor in causing the sectional crisis.
In addition to the two lecture classes a week, you will attend a small discussion class taught by one of the teaching assistants once each week.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Pre-Modern
HST 111 Early Modern Europe: 1350 to 1815
This course covers the history of Europe from the Black Death, which marked the end of the Middle Ages, to the French Revolution – the beginning of the modern world. While it will cover the major events of the period – the Renaissance, the Reformation, the English, French and scientific revolutions, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the growth of the modern state – the emphasis will be on changes in the lives of ordinary men and women. There will be a midsemester, a final, and two short (c. 5 page) papers.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
HST 121 Global History to 1750
This course introduces students to global history from the thirteenth century through 1750 by focusing on social, economic, political, intellectual, and religious developments in major regions of the world: Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Beginning with the Mongol’s Eurasian empire, their transformation of the continent, and the spread of Islamic empires from Central Asia to the Atlantic, it traces the historical patterns of different world regions in the fifteenth century through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and European imperialism. What types of exchanges were facilitated by maritime trade and trade diasporas? How were human interactions with their environment circumscribed by climate change and disease? The latter part of the course looks at global connections and local particularities facilitated by the spread of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Course themes include empire, disease, environment, slavery, religion, state-formation, and the rise of global trade. Topics will be covered thematically in general chronological order. Lectures will be supplemented by maps, visual materials, music, documentaries and films. All students are required to attend lectures and one discussion a week.
Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern
HST/MES 208 Middle East Since the Rise of Islam
This course is an introductory survey of Middle East history from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to 1900. There are no pre-requisites, and no prior knowledge of the Middle East is expected. We will discuss the origins of Islam, and aspects of major Islamic empires such as the Umayyads (7th-8th centuries), the Abbasids (8th-13th centuries), the Fatimids (10th-12th centuries) with greater focus on the Ottomans (14th-20th centuries). In approaching this long history, which unfolded over a vast geography from the Iberian Peninsula and West Africa to Central and South Asia, we will not confine our study to high politics but will also explore intellectual, cultural and social issues such as gender relations, sectarianism, consumerism (coffee, tulips!), gossip and disease. We will also learn how to critically read documentary and material historical traces in order to understand how historical knowledge is constructed as well as the tensions between popular memory and written history.
Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern
HST 210 The Ancient World
This course surveys the history of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and explores the classical roots of modern civilization. We will begin with the first civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the roots of western religion in ancient Israel; then proceed through Bronze Age, archaic and classical Greece, the Persian wars, the trial of Socrates, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic world, the rise of Rome, and end with the fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity. The course will treat political, social, cultural, religious and intellectual history. We will focus on issues that the ancients themselves considered important – good and bad government, the duties of citizens and the powers of kings and tyrants – but we will also examine those who were marginalized by the Greeks and Romans: women, slaves, so-called "barbarians." The course will emphasize reading and discussion of primary sources, in order to provide a window into the thought-worlds and value systems of past societies.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
HST 213 Africa: Ancient Times to 1800
This course is a survey of pre-modern African history, presenting an overview of the main themes and chronology of the development of African culture and society. It provides an exposition of the regional and continental diversity and unity in African political, economic, social and cultural histories with special emphasis on major African civilizations, processes of state formation, encounters with the Euro-Asia world, Africa’s role in the international Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean and Atlantic trades, ecology, and urbanization.
Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern
HST 300: Absent Presence: History of Palestine
A history of Palestine and Palestinians from the nineteenth century to the present. It begins with Palestinian urban experiences, village histories, and family life in the late Ottoman era. We will then turn to nationalist movements, and anti-colonial resistance under the British Mandate before covering Palestinian histories over the remainder of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. This will include the experiences of Palestinians with occupation whether in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian refugees, Palestinians living inside the Green Line, and in the diaspora. Topics also include women and gender, human rights and international law, poetry, fiction, and film.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
HST 300 Economic History of Africa Since 1500
This course analyzes economic trends in Africa from circa 1500 to today. The focus is on the qualitative development of various African sectors such as trade, agriculture, mining, tax regimes, labor regimes, development, oil economies, to mention just a few. It includes an analysis of economic frameworks within which these sectors have evolved, as well as understanding the roles of certain historical agencies in shaping these sectors, notably African peoples/communities, African states—precolonial, colonial, and post-colonial—as well as international/external factors such as Western imperialism and capitalism, global markets/demands, global conflicts, Global Financial Institutions, and international aid.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
HST/NAT 300 Native American History to 1830
This course is part one of the Native North American Survey. Spanning from the pre-colonial era to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, this course will take a chronological approach to Native North America to understand how major historical events and themes connect the past to the present. This is mostly a discussion-based course with major topics including Native sovereignty and self-determination, cultural conflict, the Doctrine of Discovery, international/inter-imperial warfare, settler colonialism, Native survivance, and other forms of Native resistance and cultural perseverance.
Concentration: US / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern
HST/NAT/IRP 300 Native America and the World
This course is a study of Native America in an international context. Organized thematically, this course will begin with a discussion of the 2007 United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the issues faced by Native Americans in the present day. We will then touch on critical points in the history of North America that place Native Americans in contact/conflict with other nations from across the world. This course is an even split of lectures and discussions with major topics ranging from colonialism to migration to the global whaling industry to the sport of Lacrosse to environmental activism and justice.
Concentration: US/Europe / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern
HST 300/HNR 360 Whose Middle Ages?
This course examines two concurrent developments in medieval history and historiography. The first is scholarship reevaluating race (and ideas about race) in the European Middle Ages. Second is how ideas about race continue to frame discussions about the Middle Ages today, both in aca-demia and in the broader culture. Examples include debates among medievalists about the study of race, and the misappropriation and misrepresentation of the Middle Ages by white surprema-cists. By discovering that medieval Europe was more diverse than is generally assumed and that ideas about race go further back than most historical accounts recognize, students will better un-derstand how the medieval era shaped the present and is being distorted in the present.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
HST 300 The Big Game: Cultural History through Sports Films
This course explores cultural history through selected sports films, including documentaries, game reportage, and feature films, connecting filmic sources with readings in history, theory, and literature on the cultural meaning of sports and games. The course involves close-readings of primary and secondary sources, understanding and discussion of differing perspectives and ideas, and reading and writing intensive assignments.
Concentration: US/Europe / Period: Modern
HST 300 Cultural History in Images
This is an advanced research and writing seminar on selected ideas/movements/episodes in cultural history, ancient and modern, as seen in images. Through close-reading, students investigate texts, images, and other cultural artifacts. Research centers especially on representations of the self, emotion, and the art of living as reflected in a range of primary sources, including philosophy, literature, art, architecture, music, and film. Secondary readings help students to situate their sources in time and place and to identify original research questions. Attention to each step of the project allows students to master such skills as the choice and proposal of topics, archival research (including digital), footnoting and use of evidence, bibliographical annotation, logical argumentation, revision of rough drafts, constructive critique of others’ work, and enhancement of the literary quality of their final papers. Students produce a 25-30 page research paper on a subject of their choosing dovetailing with the course theme. This seminar is the capstone of the History major and is required for majors.
Concentration: U.S./Europe/Global / Period: Pre-Modern/Modern
HST 300 World War II in Europe
The Second World War in Europe lasted for six years and cost the lives of more than 50 million soldiers and civilians. It transformed the continent's politics, economics, society, and culture. Its memory continues to haunt Europe and influences every aspect of the region's current affairs. Studying its causes, conduct, and consequences, then, is an essential precondition for understanding modern Europe. In this seminar we will combine close classroom readings of important primary and secondary sources with independent research on aspects of the conflict chosen by the students themselves. The end goal for each participant will be an original research paper drafted and presented to the class.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
HST 300/JSP 300 Antisemitism in US History
What is antisemitism? How and in what contexts has it appeared in the United States? How, if at all, does it resemble other forms of American bigotry? How, if at all, does it resemble antisemitism elsewhere in the world? This course addresses these questions through analysis of anti-Jewish discrimination in the United States between the colonial period and the present. Examining anti-Jewish practices and discourses, students will learn to identify representations of Jews as “others”; determine the origins and sources of anti-Jewish sentiments and policies; and analyze the extent to which, if at all, anti-Jewish bigotry resembled antisemitism in other national contexts and racism and xenophobia in America.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 300 American Jewish History Survey, 1654-Present
One hundred and fifty years ago, most of the world’s Jews lived in Europe or the Ottoman Empire. Yet by the middle of the twentieth century the United States was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Using the tools of social, cultural, and intellectual history, this course examines the lives of Jews in America from 1654 through the present, exploring how they adapted to life in the United States and how the United States adapted itself to the presence of Jews.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 300 Food in Modern Europe
In the last two and a half centuries, food has transformed dramatically. Global integration and new agrarian and industrial systems of production have displaced many earlier relationships with the land and its products. The people who grow, harvest, prepare, and serve food and how they do so have transformed due to accelerating social processes from urbanization to mass migration and the culture of domesticity. Eating, too, has become both deeply politicized and intensely refined—the stuff of regulation, identity formation, and emotional connection. The production, consumption, abundance, and scarcity of food create boundaries, political or otherwise, defining people and shaping bodies from obesity to genocide. This course anchors the study of these transformations in European history in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
HST 301 Practicum
What is History? How do scholars “do” history? This seminar introduces history majors to the methods and goals of historical study, and to the skills needed to conduct independent historical research. The first part of the course will be spent discussing what exactly history is and has been. We will then move on to discussing the kinds of history that have developed across the century in the American Historical profession. Finally, students will spend a large portion of the course familiarizing themselves with the analytical and practical skills needed to develop their own research projects.
HST 311 Medieval Civilization
This course explores European civilization from about 800 to about 1200. We will study kings, saints, and villains; faith and violence, love and hatred; ideas and beliefs. Our questions include: how did these people make sense of their world? How did they respond to crisis and opportunity? How did their civilization work? What was life like in medie-val Europe? To answer these questions, we will mainly read primary sources that show us what medieval people themselves had to say about their world. Our goal will be to un-derstand the past on its own terms. We will also emphasize the skills of close reading, strong argumentation, and clear expression of ideas.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-modern
HST 315 Europe in the Age of Hitler and Stalin
This course covers the major political, social, and cultural developments in Europe during the period of the two world wars. During this era, liberal democracy and capitalism failed, authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships proliferated, and, ultimately, political violence and warfare obliterated European civilization. In order to understand these developments, we will focus on themes such as political ideology, class conflict, racism, gender, the persecution of “internal enemies” and social outsiders, violence, and Europe’s general “crisis of modernity.”
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
HST 320 Traditional China
In this course we will survey Chinese history from earliest times to the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644. This seemingly remote time witnessed the formation of a complex government and society whose influence extended to much of East Asia. Ranging over the centuries, the class will explore some of the main currents in Chinese political, cultural, social, and intellectual history. These include: Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Legalism as competing and sometimes intersecting philosophies; the imperial system and major changes in its form over time; the changing roles of women in society; popular rebellion and heterodox religion; and the place of science and technology in the Chinese past.
We will read a variety of texts in addition to a concise textbook.
Concentration: Global / Period: Pre-modern
HST/SAS 329 Making Modern India
This course surveys the history of modern South Asia from the beginnings of British colonial rule in the eighteenth century, through the moment of decolonization in the mid-twentieth century, to present-day politics in independent India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Using fiction, memoirs, maps, films, as well as academic literature, we will sequentially address themes ranging from violence and famine to cricket and cuisine
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
HST 341/PSC 329 Modern American Presidency
This course analyzes the evolution of the modern presidency and its present operation. The focus of our attention will be on the years since 1960. The decision-making process and operation of presidential administrations from Nixon to Trump will be studied in particular detail. We shall consider the various roles that the president plays in government, politics, and society. We will examine the presidency as an institution and as an individual office to identify factors that have contributed to the successes and failures of particular administrations. This course also shall examine the roles and influence of unelected officials (especially senior White House staff), and popular attitudes toward both the symbolic and the practical presidency—particularly as they have been shaped by the traditional and “new” media. We will consider what lasting effects, if any, events during the past quarter century have had on the presidency as an institution. Finally, we will leave plenty of space for discussion of breaking news and unexpected developments, especially those related to the 2024 election.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 347/HNR 360 Modern American Politics Through Film
In this course we will examine major themes in the political consciousness and popular culture of modern America, as they are reflected in contemporary films. The focus will be both on particular events and movements and on more generalized and persistent concerns (discrimination, alienation and depersonalization, authoritarianism, violence, gender, sexuality, bureaucratization, corruption). We shall be examining “politics” broadly u nderstood, through the lens of popular culture. The goal is to explore a range of movies as ways of interrogating how Americans understand themes of power, intersectionality, conflict and consensus.This class differs from most at SU in that it is intergenerational. In addition to those enrolled for credit , participants will include approximately ten people from Oasis, a program for “mature learners” (generally, retired professionals and businesspeople) in the Syracuse community. Their lived experiences and perspectives on both the movies and the themes the y illuminate will be a major component of what this course is all about.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 354/LIT 300 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
The late Roman Empire and the Mediterranean world from c.200 to c.700. Political, religious, cultural, social history. Rise of Christianity, transformation of classical culture, and the so-called Decline and Fall of Rome.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Pre-Modern
HST/JSP 362 Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
In 1933, a radical and dictatorial regime came to power in Germany, remade the German state, and went on to orchestrate a vast program of mass murder in pursuit of a vision of biological purity and to launch a war of world conquest, ultimately killing millions. This course examines the history of German fascism, the Nazi state, and the Holocaust according to three primary lines of inquiry. In the first part of the course, we will address the question of how the Nazis came to power. What was Nazism, and why did it gain a popular following? Why did the Weimar Republic, the parliamentary democracy founded in 1918, fall (first to dictatorship and then to Nazism) in the early 1930s? In the second part of the course, we will examine the politics of Nazism in power. What was everyday life like for various Germans under the Nazi state, and why did many Germans come to support the regime? The course’s third section addresses war, genocide, and the legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust. How did Nazi genocide policies develop, and how was it possible to implement them? What can the history of Nazi Germany teach us about other state-run mass murder programs? How have Germans grappled with the aftermath of Nazi Germany?
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
HST 364 The Origins of Modern Russia
The Russian Empire emerged relatively late in the modern era, but it quickly rose to dizzying heights of military power, cultural prestige, and influence on international politics. Powerful rulers like Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, literary giants like Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoevsky, radical socialists like Alexander Herzen and Vladimir Lenin – these figures placed Russia at the center of trends that transformed European society for five hundred years. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire was in the midst of a period of precipitous decline, which led to the collapse of the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty during the First World War. This course examines the history of Russia from the emergence of the Tsarist autocratic system in the 1400s to the revolutions of 1917, focusing on the Russian state, serfdom, the Russian intellectual tradition, Russia’s imperial policies, and nineteenth-century working-class activism. We will also examine the lived experiences of various social groups within the Empire, including peasants, urban women, ethnic minorities, factory workers, and the intelligentsia.
Concentration: Europe / Period: Modern
HST 370 American Military History
Is there, as some historians have claimed, a distinctive ‘American way of war’ traceable over the four centuries since the beginning of the European colonization of North America? If so, what are its characteristics, how has it changed over time, and what does it reveal about a peculiar American attitude to state violence and the relationship between military and civilian society? In this course, we will examine the ‘small’ and ‘big’ wars of the United States from the colonial period to the ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Syria. Class meetings will be a mixture of lectures and discussion. Students will complete primary and secondary source readings. Assessment will be based on class discussion and several reading and writing assignments.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 386 Crime and Society in US History
This course focuses on the history of crime and criminal justice in the United States from the colonial period to the present. We will consider the ways in which the state encouraged order among its constituents, as well as the ways that people defied the norms established by law. Students will examine how industrialization, immigration, urbanization, emancipation, and war transformed American society, causing the breakdown of older forms of social control, such as religion, while producing significant discontented and dispossessed populations.
Concentration: U.S. / Period: Modern
HST 393 East Asia and the Socialist Experience
Examines the adoption of socialism in East Asia. Historical account of how socialist China, Mongolia, North Korea and Vietnam arose, developed, “failed” and responded to globalization in the 20th century.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
HST 401 Genocide in the Modern World
The goal of this seminar is to produce a research paper (20-25 pp.) that explores one topic related to the history of genocide in the modern world. The term genocide initially referred to the Nazi massacre of millions of European Jews during WWII. Since the defeat of Nazism, the term has been applied to many instances of mass killing that occurred before and after the Holocaust. This course seeks to answer several important questions about genocide. What constitutes genocide? Why does genocide happen? Why do ordinary people kill? Finally, can genocide be prevented? If so, how? During roughly the first half of the semester, the seminar will examine readings that explore these issues. After the sixth or seventh week, members of the seminar will work exclusively on conducting research, giving presentations, and writing their final papers.
Concentration: Europe/Global
HST 401 China in Western Minds
This course examines the history of Western attitudes towards China. In particular, we will focus on experts: the relatively small group of individuals we have relied upon for our knowledge of China. Among their numbers have been journalists, historians, missionaries, fiction writers, poets, and philosophers. Some have been famous, such as Pearl Buck and Marco Polo; and some infamous, such as the forger Sir Edmund Backhouse. One famous expert even boasted he’d never been to China. Why, he asked, should he permit the real China to interfere with the more glorious China of his mind? How experts have seen China has been determined in some sense by how they wanted to see it, and by how they wanted to convey it to the people back home. Students choose a China expert to research in depth, and prepare a substantial research paper based on original sources.
Concentration: Global / Period: Modern
For any questions regarding the History Program please contact:
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Professor Albrecht Diem at adiem@syr.edu or
Academic Coordinator: Christina Cleason at cmcleaso@syr.edu or 315-443-2210
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