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First-Year Courses

HIST 0403 History of Modern Southeast Asia: Colonial Era to Present
This is an introductory survey course in the political and cultural history of Modern Southeast Asia from 1815 through 1978 or roughly from the growth of European colonialism within the region through the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.  It will emphasize the expansion of European influence in the political and economic spheres, the growth of nationalism, and the process of decolonization in Southeast Asia.  It will also focus on the new political and cultural forces that transformed the region over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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HIST 0487 World War II In Asia
The history of the war, 1937-1945, between Japan on the one hand and China, the United States, the soviet union and great Britain on the other.  The course stresses the ideological, economic, political, social, diplomatic and military forces in those five countries, and how these forces led to a disastrous war beginning in the late 1930s.  The course concludes with a discussion of the allied occupation of Japan and Japan's postwar recovery.
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HIST 0601 United States 1865-Present
An introduction to American history from the Civil War to the present which emphasizes selected topics on changes in American society and politics as an earlier agrarian society became an industrial-urban one and as the nation took up an ever larger role in world affairs.
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HIST 0612 Origins of American Capitalism
This course surveys the history of North American capitalism from the time of the first European settlements up through the emergence of a recognizably modern economy in the aftermath of the Civil War. It focuses in particular on the ways in which ordinary people made a living, how and why those ways changed over time, and what those changes in turn can tell us about the evolving structural determinants of the system as a whole.
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HIST 0633 20th Century African American Women's History
Using both a chronological and topical format, this course will investigate the history, culture, and activism of African American women in the twentieth century through readings of historical texts and articles, autobiography, and oral testimony.  The content of the course includes an exploration of the responses of African American women to racism, sexism, and class and color consciousness within different historical periods. Combined Section: AFRCNA 0536
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HIST 0663 20THC African American Women's History
Using both a chronological and topical format, this course will investigate the history, culture, and activism of African American women in the Twentieth Century through readings of historical texts and articles, autobiography, and oral testimony. The content of the course includes an exploration of the responses of African American women to racism, sexism, and class and color consciousness within different historical periods.
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HIST 0678 United States and the Holocaust
With increasing interest in the Holocaust in Europe, this course focuses on the American side of the Atlantic - on issues of anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment in this country and on America's response to the Holocaust.  We will also look at some post-Holocaust issues as well. Combined Sections:
JS 0283
RELGST 0283
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HIST 0700 World History
This course is an introductory survey of world history, by which is meant an overview of major processes and interactions in the development of human society since the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. It is a selective overview, emphasizing large-scale patterns and connections in political, social, cultural, technological, and environmental history, yet it also provides balance among regions of the world. It encourages students to apply historical techniques to issues of their own interest.
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HIST 0712 A Global History of Terrorism
This course will acquaint students with the remarkably long, diverse and widespread use of strategies of terror to advance political, economic, religious and social agendas.  Our analysis will focus upon terror from below that is terror by non-state actors; it will range from ancient Greece to the present; and will touch upon every inhabited continent.  Using examples from many societies, we will discover that the human motivations for terrorist acts have changed little, but that their expression has changed a great deal, from the days of the Spartacus slave revolt to the calculated terror of the Algerian revolution, to the media-centered "madmen strategy" of Al-Qaeda and Isis.  Our organization will be roughly chronological and will be combined with a typology of different kinds of terrorism.  This inherently comparative approach will enable us to make this a true world history course, moving with ease from place to place, movement to movement, while still having a solid temporal and analytical framework to keep the material coherent.
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HIST 0755 Religion in Asia
This course serves as an introduction to the major religious traditions of South and East Asia. During the course of the semester, we encounter Hinduism and Jainism; the native Confucian, Daoist (Taoist), and popular traditions of China; and the Shinto, folk and new religions of Japan. Buddhism, which originated in India but later spread to East Asia, is examined in its relation to the history of both Chinese and Japanese religions. We approach these traditions through lectures and discussion based on Chinese classical and popular literature, secondary scholarship, and films, which inform us about cultural and historical context, beliefs, practices, and personal experience. In the process we expect to learn something about the ways in which non-Western religious traditions see themselves and their world on their own terms, and to see how/if they can complement our own worldviews. Combined Section:
RELGST 0505
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HIST 1175 Xenophobia in Modern Europe
This course will examine Europe's post-war xenophobic, racist and exclusionary policies.  We will use memoirs, photo-journalism, film and interviews to understand recent discrimination against refugees, guest workers, Jews, linguistic and religious minorities.  We will also put the question into scholarly context, as we examine how historians, sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists try to understand the way in which Europeans construct the categories of "us" and the "others". COMBINED SECTION: PS 1348
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HIST 1757 Religion in India
An introduction to the religious traditions that have developed in the Indian subcontinent and their role in shaping the cultures of India. Combined Section:
RELGST 1500
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HIST 1775 Origins of Christianity
This course presents a historical-critical investigation of Christian origins. Special attention is paid to varieties of 1st century Hellenistic and Palestinian Judaism within the Greco-Roman world. Primary readings include selected Biblical passages and apocrypha, 1st century historians and philosophers (Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Philo), the New Testament corpus (including Paul and the Pastorals), and selected readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition there will be assignments from various modern New Testament critics, historians, and theologians. Combined Sections:
CLASS 1430
RELGST 1120
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HIST 1781 Roman History
This course surveys the history of Rome from the earliest times through the late empire, with particular emphasis on political and social developments during the late republic and early empire. Combined Section:
CLASS 1220
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HIST 1790 Mediterranean World Since 1500
 
With uniformity and diversity in the Mediterranean world as its overarching theme, this course examines the singularly important role of "the sea between the lands" from the fall of Rome to the present day.  Concentrating on the lands and people of the Northern shore from Gibraltar to Anatolia, the focus alternates between thematic approaches to the Mediterranean region as a whole and specific attention to the sub-regional histories of Iberia, Italy, and the Balkans.

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