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Selected Topics Summer 2012
HIST-096/396/696-N01: Walking Dostoyevsky's Petersburg
HIST-084/384/684-N01: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Beyond
HIST-082/382/682-N01: Civil War Institute
Selected Topics Fall 2012
HIST-500 003: Seminar in American History
HIST-299 001:Conversations in History: Modern American Politics
HIST-235 001H: West in Crisis: 1900-1945
HIST-500 001: History of American Radicalism
HIST-312 001: Topics in European History: Tolstoy vs. Napoleon: Russia and the West
HIST-496/696 001: The Enlightenment
HIST-500 002: Jews and Muslims in Modern Europe
HIST-447/647 001: Asian Studies: Modern China
HIST-459/659 001: History: Modern American Women's History
HIST-496/696 001: Selected Topics: US Urban History
HIST-496 003: Soviet Foreign Policy
HIST-396 001: Separation of Powers
Selected Topics Spring 2012
HIST-296 001: Vikings and CrusadersHIST-396 001/ HIST-696 001: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe
HIST-396 002/ HIST-696 002: Scientific Revolution
HIST-396 003/ HIST-696 003: The United States and the Middle East
HIST-396 004: Jerusalem through the Ages
HIST-396 005/ HIST-696 005: British Empire in Asia and Africa
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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS SUMMER 2012
HIST-096/396/696-N01: Walking Dostoyevsky's Petersburg
Offered as part of the Initiative for Russian Culture, this course will take the form of a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, to explore the places where Dostoyevsky lived and worked and to walk the streets and visit the sites that his characters inhabited.
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HIST-084/384/684-N01: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Beyond
Summer study trip to Japan in conjunction with the Nuclear Studies Institute. Focuses on Japanese wartime aggression, the human devastation wrought by the atomic bombings, current Japanese and international efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the building of closer ties between the people of the United States and Japan. Participants hear first-hand accounts of atomic bomb survivors and Asian victims of Japanese atrocities, visit sites of historical and cultural significance, and attend commemorative events. Usually offered every summer.
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HIST-082/382/682-N01: Civil War Institute
This week-long summer program introduces participants to the key causes and consequences of the war by exploring its remnants and remembrances in the Washington, D.C. area. The intensive program combines morning presentations and discussions with afternoon field trips. Sites include Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Arlington National Cemetery, Sherman and Grant Memorials, Howard University, Fort Stevens, Frederick Douglass Home, Ford's Theater, and a full-day trip to Richmond. Usually offered every summer.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS FALL 2012
HIST-500 003: Seminar in American History
A seminar focusing on political and social transformations. Again, all 500s should have permission of instructor required for UG registration. no higher than 20 for 500s
HIST-299 001:Conversations in History: Modern American Politics
For the period from World War I to the present, this course explores historical debates over the two defining elements of American political life: liberalism and conservatism.
HIST-235 001H: West in Crisis: 1900-1945
Honors Course Eligibility Rule
HIST-500 001: History of American Radicalism
instructor consent field, can be added at the section level for topic course sections only. Indicate on course descrp. UG by permission only.
HIST-312 001: Topics in European History: Tolstoy vs. Napoleon: Russia and the West
Marking the bicentennial of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, the course will explore Russia's geopolitical and cultural engagement with the West from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Integrating history, literature and film, the course will culminate with a close reading and examination of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
HIST-496/696 001: The Enlightenment
The significance of the Enlightenment has been hotly debated in recent years: Was it a “science of freedom”? Or did it create new means of social and political control and new justifications for dominant groups? Debates over the legacies of the Enlightenment have only become more urgent in a post-9/11 world, and this course explores these questions and that of the Enlightenment’s continued relevance, if any, by reading selected works of recent historical scholarship and primary sources. We will encounter the Enlightenment both as a body of “canonical texts” and as ideas in motion through new publics created by new forums of academic sociability and new publishing ventures, from encyclopedias to periodicals. Students are invited to consider the Enlightenment less as a unified body of thought than as an often contradictory, cosmopolitan cultural movement. The course is organized thematically, though it will stress the interconnectedness of these themes.
HIST-500 002: Jews and Muslims in Modern Europe
This course examines the experiences of Jews and Muslims in European history from 1700 to 2000. We will be particularly interested in how these minorities were affected by the great changes of modern European history, including the rise of secularism, democracy, imperialism/decolonization, industrial society, and nationalism.
HIST-447/647 001: Asian Studies: Modern China
This course explores the transition from empire to nation-state in modern Chinese history (1600-present). Topics include the rise of the last imperial dynasty in the seventeenth century, the heyday of the Qing order, the Western impact, and the revolution and nation-building enterprises of the twentieth century. The course emphasizes politics, culture, ethnicity, and gender. Meets with HIST-647 001.
HIST-496/696 001: Selected topics: US Urban History
This course will explore the rich history of US cities and suburbs from the nineteenth century through the present. We will pay close attention to how the dynamics of race, gender, class, and sexuality have interacted with the urban landscape and built environment. Among other topics, we will investigate the impact of riots, urban amusements, slum clearance policies, suburbanization, and gentrification.
HIST-496 003: Soviet Foreign Policy
This course will focus on the relationship between ideology and national security in the formation of Soviet policy as well as the evolution of foreign perceptions and misconceptions about Soviet interests. The materials will include primary documents, scholarly works, literary fiction, and film.
HIST-396 001: Separation of Powers
This seminar analyzes a series of political crises and how they played out in the context of the balance of power among the branches of the federal government. Case studies will examine the Watergate scandal and Nixon impeachment, ABSCAM (undercover methods to investigate legislative branch corruption), the Iran-Contra affair, the Whitewater controversy and Clinton impeachment, and the 9/11 Commission investigation. Taught by Richard Ben-Veniste, a defense lawyer, former Watergate prosecutor and member of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. The course includes guest lecturers involved in many of these crises.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS SPRING 2012
HIST-296 001: Vikings and Crusaders
This course examines the movement of large numbers of Europeans in the early and central Middle Ages. Primary and secondary sources are used to investigate, among other things, life in the Viking homeland, reasons for expansion, the nature (usually violent) of encounters with Europeans, the Christianization of the Vikings, and the character of Viking settlements in Europe. The class then briefly considers Norman expansion before moving on to a detailed study of the Crusading movement. The course includes the religious and political context in Europe and the Middle East, just war theory, the social and economic reasons for Crusading, the progress of the First Crusade, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The course ends with a brief examination of the later Crusades, which tended to concentrate on locations other than Jerusalem.
HIST-396 001/ HIST-696 001: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe
This seminar explores changing ideas about crime and punishment in Europe. It considers topics such as public executions, personal vendettas, humanitarian legal theory, the classification of criminals, the use of torture, the necessity of capital punishment, the emergence of the insanity plea, and attitudes towards sexual crimes.
HIST-396 002/ HIST-696 002: Scientific Revolution
This course analyzes the transition from medieval forms of natural inquiry to more modern science. It looks at the new sun-centered worldview, mechanical conception of motion, experimentalism, women and science, and the New World and science between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
HIST-396 003/ HIST-696 003: The United States and the Middle East
This course covers the history of the United States' relationship with the nations and peoples of the Middle East. U.S. interests there date back to the Barbary Wars and continue down to today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The course focuses especially on U.S.-Middle East relations after 1945.
HIST-396 004: Jerusalem through the Ages
This course covers the history of the city of Jerusalem from David's conquest ca. 1,000 B.C.E. through to the present day, focusing especially on the site as a holy city to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and its status as a point of contention in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict. Meets with JWST-396 002.
HIST-396 005/ HIST-696 005: British Empire in Asia and Africa
This course examines British involvements in Africa and Asia from the eighteenth to the twentieth century focusing on the political, economic, and social contours of imperialism. Topics covered include British colonial India, the Scramble for Africa, and South Africa's Boer Wars.
