DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY COURSE OFFERINGS

Fall 2024

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 111 What is Science? Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science 3 Units.

We look at historical and philosophical aspects of modern science. The objective of the course is to develop a sense of (1) what forms scientific research has taken historically, and (2) what it is about scientific research that makes it distinctive as a form of human knowledge. Offered as HPSC 111, PHIL 111 and HSTY 111.

 

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 164 The History of London in London. 3 Units

Travel to London to learn the history of London. What was London like before it became the largest, most powerful city in the world? How was its growth and life affected by recurrent epidemic? What did it look like and how did it function as the world’s lynchpin in the 1800s? How did it fare under general bombardment in the Second World War? How did that devastation, and Britain’s decline after the war, shape the city we see today? Which communities have been cast as London’s “outsiders” across the centuries? Through instruction, reading, and exploration students will receive a broad overview of the ages-old history of London. Students will learn to think historically about London and any city: they’ll learn the questions of social history, learn to think about the connections between built- and non-human environments, and get a grasp on varieties of local governance. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 201 Science in Western Thought I. 3 Units.

The development of Western thinking about the natural world and our relation to it, as part of culture, from pre-classical civilizations to the age of Newton.

 

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 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 278 Nineteenth Century Europe. 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 a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

 

HSTY 318. History of Black Women in the U.S. 3 Units.

Chronologically arranged around specific issues in black women’s history organizations, participation in community and political movements, labor experiences, and expressive culture. The course will use a variety of materials, including autobiography, literature, music, and film. Offered as AFST 318, ETHS 318, HSTY 318, and WGST 318.

 

HSTY 319 The Crusades. 3 Units

This course is a survey of the history of the idea of “crusade,” the expeditions of Western Europeans to the East known as crusades, the Muslim and Eastern Christian cultures against which these movements were directed, as well as the culture of the Latin East and other consequences of these crusades. Offered as HSTY 319 and RLGN 319. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 371. 3 Units.

This course examines the social and political status of Jews under Muslim and Christian rule since the Middle Ages. Themes include interfaith relations, Islamic and Christian beliefs regarding the Jews, Muslim and Christian regulation of Jewry, and the Jewish response. Offered as HSTY 371, JDST 371 and RLGN 371. 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 387 Growing up in America 1607-2000. 3 Units

Children have been growing up in the United States since it was declared independent, in 1776, but how adults conceive of (and therefore legislate and interpret) children and childhood constantly changes to fit current circumstances. The experiences of children themselves have varied not only in terms of race, class, gender, and religion but also depending on specific events (i.e., coming of age during the Civil War versus the Civil Rights movement) or geography (i.e., growing up in rural Hawaii vs. urban New Jersey). We cannot cover all of those histories in one course, so this seminar course instead focuses on exploring the interplay of ideas about children and the expressed or historical experiences of children. When the puritans and plantations members (slave, bonded and free) came to the Atlantic shore, they brought with them particular ideas about what is meant to be a child, and to experience childhood. They encountered already established residents who also had ideas about childhood. How did those concepts adjust/meld/contrast over time, and how do we see those ideas reflected or reshaped by actual experiences? This course engages particular lines of inquiry: How and why do understanding about what is “natural” for children change over time? How do variables like race, class, gender, etc., uphold effects the manifesting of such concepts? What is the role of the state in children’s lives and how has that changed over time? What is the impact of mass culture on modern childhood? Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 393 Advanced Readings in the History of Race. 3 Units

This course examines the concept of race as a social construction that carries political and economic implications. We begin by examining the histories of the early racial taxonomists (e.g., Bernier, Linnaeus, and Blumenbach among others) and the contexts that informed their writings. We then assess how the concept of race changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century in the United States. We conclude by evaluating how the ideology of race has influenced U.S. domestic life and foreign policy at specific historical moments. Offered as AFST 393, HSTY 393, HSTY 493, and ETHS 393. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 395. History of Medicine. 3 Units.

This course treats selected topics in the history of medicine, with an emphasis on social and cultural history. Focusing on the modern period, we examine illnesses, patients, and healers, with attention to the ways sickness and medicine touch larger questions of politics, social relations and identity. Offered as HSTY 395 and HSTY 495.

 

HSTY 415 Graduate Reading Seminar in African American History to 1900. 3 Units

This intensive, graduate-level reading and discussion seminar will explore the lives, labors, and culture of African descended peoples during enslavement and their ongoing struggle for freedom in the United States. Specifically, we will examine the themes of slavery, freedom, resistance, labor, politics, economics, gender, culture and identity, and community formation among enslaved and free populations. This course will be particularly useful to graduate students who are preparing for their general examinations, but it is open to all graduate students.

 

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 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.

 

HSTY 493 Advanced Readings in the History of Race. 3 Units

This course examines the concept of race as a social construction that carries political and economic implications. We begin by examining the histories of the early racial taxonomists (e.g., Bernier, Linnaeus, and Blumenbach among others) and the contexts that informed their writings. We then assess how the concept of race changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century in the United States. We conclude by evaluating how the ideology of race has influenced U.S. domestic life and foreign policy at specific historical moments. Offered as AFST 393, HSTY 393, HSTY 493, and ETHS 393. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

 

HSTY 495. History of Medicine. 3 Units.

This course treats selected topics in the history of medicine, with an emphasis on social and cultural history. Focusing on the modern period, we examine illnesses, patients, and healers, with attention to the ways sickness and medicine touch larger questions of politics, social relations and identity. Offered as HSTY 395 and HSTY 495. Prereq: Graduate standing or instructor permission.

 

HSTY 499 Advanced Readings in Black History. 3 Units

This is an advanced readings course that may change from semester to semester. This course will provide students with an opportunity to more deeply explore special themes and theoretical issues in the field of black history that are often quickly and briefly covered in broad survey courses. Readings may be organized around specific topics such as resistance and social protest, black intellectual history, black nationalism and identity, black film and historical literacy black cultural forms and politics, black urban history, or some such other combination. Students may take this course more than once and receive credit as long as the course topic differs. Students should contact the History Department for more details on course content during any given semester.