HSTY 100 Introduction to History. 1 Units.

HSTY 100 introduces students to the various theories and methods that underlie historical scholarship, and to the value of historical analysis to disciplines, careers, and professions that American popular culture depicts, wrongly, as being distant from historical understanding. Students who successfully complete HSTY 100 will receive recognition of one three-credit course for a 5 on an AP History exam or a 6 or 7 on an IB Higher Level History exam. Prereq: Score of 5 on AP History Exam or Score of 6 or 7 on IB Higher Level History Exam

 

HSTY 103 Introduction to Medieval History. 3 Units.

Medieval history and civilization from the fall of the Roman Empire to the age of the Renaissance. Interactions between medieval Europe and other Mediterranean and Eurasian cultures. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement

 

HSTY 108 Intro to Early American History 3 Units.

This course offers an introduction to American history through a thematic survey of colonial British North America and the early United States, from the first permanent English settlements of the early seventeenth century to the onset of the American Civil War. It focuses on (1) the emergence and development of contrasting social systems in the various colonies; (2) the causes and consequences of the American Revolution; and (3) the political, religious, and economic transformations of the period 1790 through 1860. Readings include a mix of primary sources (historical documents) and secondary sources (books and articles written by modern scholars). Students will examine a variety of historical methods and approaches but will particularly explore past social experiences and values through the personal (or autobiographical) writings of individual Americans of varying backgrounds. Particular attention will be paid to the experiences of women and African Americans. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.

 

HSTY 113 Intro to Modern World History. 3 Units.

The history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in global context. Emphasis on the forces that have created or shaped the modern world: industrialization and technological change; political ideas and movements such as nationalism; European imperialism and decolonization; and the interplay of cultural values. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.

 

HSTY 137 Introduction to Modern South Asia. 3 Units.

This course will introduce students to the history of the region that today includes India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The course will deal with the following themes: global trade between the Indian subcontinent and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the East India Company’s dominance over the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; the transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements of the 19th century; changing modalities of colonial rule after the transfer of governing power from the East India Company to the British Crown-in-Parliament; the emergence and trajectories of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; the struggles of women, low status groups, and other minorities in the region; decolonization; and the partition of the subcontinent. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.

 

HSTY 138 Radical History 3 Units.

This course examines the radical tradition in America from the time of the American Revolution until the present. Topics will include abolitionism, suffrage, anarchism, socialism, communism, black power, feminism, the New Left, radical environmentalism, and queer liberation. Recommended Preparation: High school American history. Counts for CAS Global & Cultural Diversity Requirement.

 

HSTY 163 Introduction to Modern Britain and its Empire. 3 Units

This seminar covers the history of Britain at the height of its political and industrial power and the history of the expanding and contracting British Empire. Britain was a nation of great technological, economic, and military power, but it also experienced extraordinary stresses. Industrialization meant material prosperity for some, but hardship and dehumanization for others. Many questioned how overwhelming poverty and ignorance could be allowed to stand beside such vast affluence. And subjects of the British in India, Ireland, and elsewhere struggled for independence from an empire that claimed to bring freedom, reason, and equality. The British learned to their cost, too, that decolonization often meant being caught in the crossfire of ethnic rivals. This course will explore the many paradoxes of the history of the British at their most dominant. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 211 The Era of the American Revolution 1763-1789. 3 Units.

This is a survey of the Revolutionary period of American history, from the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789. It begins with some background coverage of the colonial period (1607-1763), but focuses primarily on the underlying causes of the American Revolution, the chain of events leading to the Declaration of Independence, the war with England, postwar conflicts of the 1780s, the Constitutional Convention, and the ratification struggle that followed, with a look forward to the so-called Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Lectures, readings, and discussions explore the Revolutionary crisis as a complex, multi-racial, transatlantic struggle involving Native Americans, African Americans (enslaved and free), poor whites, wealthy Anglo-American planters and merchants, Scottish traders, and British administrators, as well as multi-racial and multi-national military forces organized on radically opposing principles. The course also examines competing scholarly interpretations of the Revolution as a progressive or retrograde watershed in American gender relations. Finally, it considers competing interpretations of the aftermath of the Revolution during the 1780s and thereafter as representing either an acceleration of “radical” social change or a conservative “counterrevolution”–with corresponding implications for the lower classes and for other historically disempowered social groups. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.

  

HSTY 219 Berlin in the Tumultuous 20^th Century. 3 Units

The tumultuous but short twentieth century began and ended with a united Germany, with Berlin as its capital. But in between, Berlin, and Berliners, experienced the extremes of the economic, technological, and cultural progress that the century brought, and the devastation, violence, division, and uncertainty that it also brought. This course introduces students to the German tumult of the twentieth century. We will read about historical events and developments. We will address persistent questions, such as why and how did Hitler come to power; what was life like behind the Berlin Wall; how does one come to grips with a history like Germany’s in the twentieth century; and what has life been like for ordinary Berliner/innen. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 224 The Nazis Next Door. 3 Units

From the beginning of the National Socialist Party in 1919 until German unification in 1990, and extending to the very present, everyday Germans have had to deal with the reality that, regardless of their own political beliefs, many neighbors and even relatives embraced the doctrines of National Socialism. This course explores this complex reality from the rise of National Socialism, through the crimes of the Third Reich, and the stumbling and mixed efforts of the postwar Germanies to cope with the presence of Nazis in German society, to current interactions with authoritarian and neo-Nazi movements inside Germany. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 246 Early Native American History

This survey will explore the rich and diverse history of Native America before contact with Europeans and continue through the nineteenth century. This course will examine interactions between sovereign Native American nations, European empires, and the United States from Indigenous perspectives. Substantial attention will be paid to the interactions of race, class, gender, and various religions/cosmological belief systems within Indigenous societies and how they shaped Native cultural/social/political interactions with Europeans and Americans. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 250. Issues and Methods in History. 3 Units.

A methodological introduction to historical research. Students use a variety of approaches to interpret and study historical problems. Specific topics and instructors normally vary from year to year.

 

HSTY 251 Religion and Medicine in the Medieval Period. 3 Units

In the medieval period, both religion and medicine experienced significant changes. Christianity and Islam, as ‘new religions,’ took shape against the background of the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of the Barbarian kingdoms, and the increased contact among peoples in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. As these religions continually evolved, so did their notions about the body, physical and spiritual health, and medicine. In this course, we shall explore the principles and practices of medicine, and the changes it underwent, as conceived by the two ascending religions of the time. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as an Understanding Global Perspectives course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course

 

HSTY 257 Immigrants in America. 3 Units

Immigration to America has constantly reshaped the way the nation views itself. This course examines the overall history of immigration to the United States, but places that movement within a global context. It also pays particular attention to the roles that policy and technology have played in controlling or defining immigration to America. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 275 History of Now: U.S. since 1980. 3 Units.

This course provides a survey of U.S. history since 1980, examining both domestic and global contexts. Topics include the rise and fall of neoliberalism, U.S. wars and foreign policy, dramatic transformations in technology and media, political realignments, social and cultural changes, and the histories of our most divisive current debates. Aside from simply covering “what happened,” we will attempt to go further and explore how historians think about contemporary events, place current events into longer historical contexts, develop skills in media literacy to better evaluate the quality of information we receive, and discuss the uses and misuses of historical analogies in public debate. We will also investigate the importance of structural narrative in making sense of historical events and processes: what questions do we ask of the past and why some questions and not others? Why do our questions about the past change over time? How do present circumstances affect our historical work? When do we draw our chronological boundaries; when do our stories start and when do they end?

 

HSTY 283 Gender and Sex in the Medieval Period. 3 Units.

This course examines the history of Europe during the so-called long nineteenth century, lasting from the French Revolution, which signaled the end of the Old Order, through World War I, which led to the end of the European primacy in the world. Major themes include decline of aristocratic hegemony, the emergence of new ideologies (especially nationalism, liberalism, and socialism), the rise of the bourgeoisie, culture in Europe’s golden age, and increasing national rivalry and competition. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as an Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 288 Imperial China: The Great Qing. 3 Units

This course is an introduction to the history of Imperial China, from the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644 to the creation of the Chinese republic in 1912. We will explore the major historical transformations (political, economic, social, and cultural) of the last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), and develop an understanding of the major social, political, economic, and intellectual cultural forces shaping the formation of modern China. Contrary to commonly-held ideas in both West and in China that traditional Chinese society was timeless or stagnant, historians now see dramatic and significant changes during this period–to the economy, to gender relations, to religion, and to many other aspects of life. This course surveys the social, political, economic, and cultural history of this era, with emphasis on recent research. The main goals of the course will be to acquaint students with the key changes and to show the interplay between economic, social, and cultural changes on the one hand and political developments on the other. By the end of the semester you should have a good sense of how Chinese society was transformed over the course of the 17th through early 20th centuries. The topics we will discuss include urbanization and commerce; gender, family and kinship; education and the examination system; opium and free trade; and ethnicity and nationalism. Offered as ASIA 288 and HSTY 288. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 289: Reform, Revolution, Republics: China 1895-present

Completes a two-term sequence of the Chinese history survey, although HSTY 288 is not a prerequisite for this course. Beginning with the First Sino-Japanese War (1895), we review the historical development of intellectual discourse, public reaction, and political protest in later Imperial China through the creation of the People’s Republic in 1949 forward to contemporary times. In contrast to the conventional description of China from a Western point of view, this course tries to explain the emergence of modern China in the context of its intellectual, political, and socio-economic transformation as experienced by Chinese in the late 19th and into the 20th century. By discussing the influence of the West, domestic rebellions, and political radicalism, we examine how the Chinese state and society interacted in search for modernization and reforms, how these reforms were continued during the Republican period, and to what extent historical patterns can be identified in China’s present-day development. Offered as ASIA 289 and HSTY 289. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 345 The Modern European City. 3 Units.

An examination of social, cultural, political, economic, and architectural and urban planning aspects of life in European cities in nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The principal focus will be the transition of medieval and early modern cities to modern metropolises, both spatially and socially. Case studies may include London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and cities in eastern Europe and southern Europe. Offered as HSTY 345 and HSTY 445. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 360 Methods and Theory in Publicly Engaged Humanities. 3 Units

Who has access to knowledge and why? How is knowledge produced and publicized? What and where is the public? Who is included and excluded in this public? What is the role of art and culture in various publics? This innovative new course will address these questions as it introduces students to the theories and methods of the Public Humanities and Civic Engagement. Broadly defined, Public Humanities works to engage diverse publics in the subjects of the humanities by making topics like art history, literary history, film, and theater, accessible and understandable to a wider civic audience, but it also interrogates the concept of the expert and seeks to find experts in the field, rather than exclusively in the academy. Through a combination of reading, discussion, and virtual (or in person) visits from leaders of Cleveland-area organizations, administrators, legislators, and public historians, this course will teach you how to put your degrees to work for the greater good! Although this course is about Public Humanities & Civic Engagement, it is open to students in all fields across the university who are interested in ways to integrate the community in their education and to think creatively about the types of work their academic training prepares them to do. Undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from opportunities to broaden their professional networks and to learn more about the kinds of skills that are necessary in professions across the disciplines. Offered as ARTH 316, ARTH 416, HSTY 360, and HSTY 460. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.

 

HSTY 373 Women in Medicine in the US. 3 Units.

Students in this seminar will investigate the experiences of American women as practitioners and as patients. We will meet weekly in the Dittrick Medical Museum for discussion of texts and use artifacts from the museum’s collection. After a unit exploring how the female body was viewed by medical theorists from the Galenic period to the nineteenth-century, we will look at midwives, college-trained female doctors and nurses, and health advocacy among poor populations. We will then look at women’s experiences in terms of menstruation, childbearing, and menopause, before exploring the cultural relationship between women and psychological disorders. Offered as HSTY 373, HSTY 473, and WGST 373. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 389 History of Zionism. 3 Units

This course seeks to elucidate the major strands of Zionism, their origins, how they have interacted, and their impact on contemporary Israeli society. These may include political Zionism, cultural Zionism, socialist (labor) Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, and religious Zionism. This course will also examine the differences in the appeal of Zionism to Jews in different places, such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States. Offered as HSTY 389, JWST 389, and RLGN 389. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course

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HSTY 398. Senior Capstone Seminar. 3 Units.

Training in the nature and methods of historical writing and research. Counts as a SAGES Senior Capstone course. Prereq: Majors only, Senior standing.

 

HSTY 410 Early American Historiography. 3 Units

This seminar examines the historiography of early America. It is designed to acquaint history doctoral students with the major themes, methods, and scholars of American history from the seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Students will be expected to read and report on major works in the field. Prereq: Graduate student standing.

 

HSTY 470. Historiography. 3 Units.

A graduate level survey of fundamental themes in historiography, method, and theory, as well as interdisciplinary methods and theories. Prereq: Graduate standing or instructor permission.

 

HSTY 473 Women and Medicine in the US. 3 Units

Students in this seminar will investigate the experiences of American women as practitioners and as patients. We will meet weekly in the Dittrick Medical Museum for discussion of texts and use artifacts from the museum’s collection. After a unit exploring how the female body was viewed by medical theorists from the Galenic period to the nineteenth-century, we will look at midwives, college-trained female doctors and nurses, and health advocacy among poor populations. We will then look at women’s experiences in terms of menstruation, childbearing, and menopause, before exploring the cultural relationship between women and psychological disorders. Offered as HSTY 373, HSTY 473, and WGST 373. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 476. Seminar in Comparative History. 3 Units.

An introduction to comparative method for historians. The topics will vary year to year, but the course will require exposure to historical contexts outside of the United States. Prereq: Graduate standing or instructor permission.