Course Offerings, Fall 2012

 Hist 3071: History of Louisiana   (1:30-2:50 p.m. T Th)

A general survey of Louisiana’s history from the earliest days of European colonization to the present.  Although the primary focus is on events that took place within the boundaries of the colony, territory, and state, we will also cover material intended to help students understand Louisiana’s past and present in terms of relevant regional, national, and international events and contexts.  Within those broad parameters, students will be required to develop an accurate mental timeline of important events, eras, and developments in the state’s history.  Drawing on reading assignments (a textbook and three additional short books) and lecture materials, students will also be asked to develop and express historically informed opinions about the significance of the state’s history in three exams.  Prof. Alecia Long.

Hist 3117: The Holocaust and 20th Century Genocide (3:00-5:50 p.m. Tu)

This seminar is designed to foster a greater understanding of genocide in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on its causes, methods, and implications.  The study of the Holocaust will take up the majority of the course, but other instances of genocide and state sponsored mass killing will also be studied. This course will be challenging for a couple of reasons.  First, there will be a good deal of reading. To succeed one must come to each class ready to discuss the material.  Second, one must be prepared to grapple with the realities of some of humanity's darker moments as we examine the following: European anti-Semitism, the Herero genocide, Armenian genocide, Soviet attacks on kulaks, the Holocaust, the "killing fields" of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, and genocide and mass killing in Rwanda and Darfur. Instructor Jason Wolfe.

Hist 3118: Religious Violence and Toleration in Early Modern Europe (3:00-5:50 p.m. W)

This seminar will examine cases of religious conflict and toleration in Europe between the period 1400 and 1800.  Particular focus will be on relations between Christians and Jews, Christians and Muslims, and Protestants and Catholics.  Topics include religious warfare, religious polemic, the emerging idea of religious toleration, and cases of religious coexistence and harmony.  Requirements will include class discussions of assigned readings, about half a dozen short papers, and one final essay. Prof. Christine Kooi.

 Hist 3119, section 1: America’s Founding Myths (12:00-1:20 p.m. T Th)

This course will explore the various myths used to glorify America’s Revolutionary generation. We will examine myths surrounding the Puritans, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere, Molly Pitcher, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and John & Abigail Adams in folklore, artwork, satire, film, and history.  We will assess the meaning of national creation stories, and the impact of war on storytelling.  We will also deconstruct the myths by looking at the actual historical conditions and the complex personalities of the founders. Prof. Nancy Isenberg.

 Hist 3119, section 2: Louisiana in Film (3:00-5:50 T)

This course will explore how the state and its history have been portrayed in a variety of  American films.  Students will view a film or two each week, do assigned readings or view documentaries which will help them contextualize and critique each film, take two exams, and write an analytical research paper with an oral presentation component. Students must have taken History 3071: Louisiana History before enrolling in the course and must have earned a C or better in that course. Prof. Alecia Long.

Hist 3119, Section 3: Slavery and the Antebellum Southern Economy (10:30 -11:50 a.m. T Th)

The goal of this seminar is to provide students with an understanding of the economy of the Antebellum South.  By the end of this course students will be able to explain what drove the Southern economy, the development of the plantation system, how slavery became so important to it, and how preserving slavery became the most important political and economic issue in the South, ultimately leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.  Slavery was the engine of early Southern, and American, economic development, and needs to be understood not just as a social or moral problem, but as an economic one as well.  Instructor Michael Frawley.

Hist 3119, Section 4: Radicalism and Resistance via African-American Religion (3:00-4:20 p.m. M W)

This course will examine religious leaders and communities instrumental in social, political and economic resistance movements throughout African-American history.  Instructor Kodi Roberts.

Hist 4001: Greece of the City-State (9:00-10:20    T Th)

From the epics of Homer to the exploits of Alexander the Great:  Course will follow the rise of Greek culture and self-identity first against the background of the state system of the wider Mediterranean world, and then in the context of the emergence of the polis city state system and the significance of the Greek cultural heritage.  Reading intensive:  Both textbook readings and original source texts (the classical historians and other examples of Greek literary authors) will be used. Primary emphasis is on military and political history, but due attention will also be paid to philosophy, tragedy, art history and other important aspects of Greek society and its impact on the modern world.  One midterm exam and a final; one book report on an "outside" book; one research paper; participation points and debates. Prof. Steven Ross.

Hist 4008: The Later Middle Ages (12:30-1:20   M W F)

The course seeks to introduce the student to the history of the Later Middle Ages, 1000-1500 AD, through a focus on primary source readings. The student will learn how to analyze these and other sources, and how to use them in the study of history.  The geographic focus of the course is the Mediterranean basin and Northern Europe. Prof. Maribel Dietz.

Hist 4009: The Renaissance  (11:30-12:20   M W F)

Lectures and readings on Italian Renaissance politics, art and culture from Dante to Machiavelli, and on the Northern Renaissance, with emphasis on Christian humanism. Prof. Christine Kooi.

Hist 4016: Europe in the 19th Century (9:00-10:20 a.m. T Th)

History 4016 covers the major issues in European history during the period from 1815 to 1914: the Restoration following the Congress of Vienna, the Concert of Europe, the Industrial Revolution, the revolutions of 1820, 1830, and 1848, the Crimean War, the unification of Italy, the unification of Germany, Imperialism, the Belle Epoque, the origins of the Great War, and the ideologies: liberalism, socialism, and nationalism. To recreate the character of life and mood, students will read five of the great nineteenth-century novels, Dickens, Hard Times, Gogol, Dead Souls, Zola, Germinal, Mann, Buddenbrooks, and Di Lampedusa, The Leopard. The grade will be determined by a Midterm Examination and a Final Examination.  Prof. Benjamin Martin.

Hist 4028: The First World War    (10:30-11:20 a.m.    M W F)

Given events in Europe since 1989, the First World War has taken on increasing importance as an historic milestone.  One could argue that the War disrupted the “normal course” of Western Civilization and launched it on a 75-year period of odd but destructive social and political experiments including Hitlerism, Fascism, Stalinism, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the bankruptcy of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.  It also had a profound impact on the Middle East.  Prior to World War I the Middle East was under the rather benign rule of the Ottoman Empire.  Since World War I it has become a cauldron of trouble and will be for the foreseeable future.  The course will require seven books, two papers, mid-term, and final examination. Prof. Karl Roider.

HIST 4034:  Russia since 1861 (12:00-1:20  T Th)

This course covers developments in Russian history from the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 to the present.  As such, it deals with the decline and collapse of the imperial Romanov dynasty, the Russian revolution, the rise, consolidation, and collapse of Soviet power, as well as the post-communist period under Yeltsin and Putin.  Course grades will be based on a midterm, a final, quizzes, and a research paper.  Prof. William Clark.

Hist 4044: Stuart England   (12:30-1:20 p.m.   M W F)

This course covers Britain's 'Century of Revolution' from 1603 to 1714, a period which saw civil war, the trial and execution of a king, and the overthrow of a dynasty. Course requirements include a midterm, final, and research paper. Prof. Victor Stater.

Hist 4047:  20^th-Century Britain (1:30-2:20 p.m.   M W F)

A survey of British history from 1900 to the present, with special attention paid to the impact of total war on social structure, political life, and cultural values; the question of "British decline;" the experience of imperialism and the loss of empire; and the shift to a "post-Christian" culture. This course relies heavily on class discussion; attendance is absolutely required. Assignments include a number of films and oral histories, a novel (Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning), a journalist's exposé (Bill Buford's Among the Thugs), and an album (The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). Course grade is based on two exams, class participation, reading and viewing quizzes, and papers. Prof. Meredith Veldman.

Hist 4055: The Civil War    (10:30-11:50 a.m.   T Th)

The history of the American Civil War (1861-1865), in the context of the era of North/South sectional conflict (1830-1877).  Discussion of political, economic, cultural, and racial issues as ell as military campaigns.  Essay examinations include both lectures and assigned readings.   Cross-listed with   MILS 4055. Prof. Charles Royster.

Hist 4060:  The Age of FDR   (12:30-1:20 p.m.  M W F)

This course will explore the years of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, the longest in American history, and focus on the Great Depression and World War II and the effects both had on the nation.  Students will be expected to write 6 or 7 argumentative papers over the course of the semester. Prof. Charles Shindo.

HIST 4064: American Diplomatic History, 1917 to Present  (8:30-9:20 a.m. M W F)

This course covers major events in American diplomatic history since 1917, focusing on an up-to-date understanding of policy-making, which of necessity includes not just traditional foreign policy elites, but special-interest pressure groups, mass media, disinformation campaigns, and attempts to make foreign policy of concern to the average person for matters other than decision for war.  The course will pay special attention to espionage, propaganda, and include a final exam question taking the course through the fall of 2012. Prof. David Culbert.

Hist 4079: Women in American History   (9:00-10:20 a.m.  M W)

This course explores the history of women in America from the colonial period to the present day. We will read primary sources, scholarly articles, and monographs that examine how women have experienced, shaped, and understood life in the American colonies and the United States. In doing so, we will do more than identify women’s contributions to the political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and military history of this country. Rather, we will look at this history through women’s eyes, interrogating how gender, sex, and sexuality, as well as such factors as race, ethnicity, class, or region, shaped the lives and experiences of women living in the American colonies and the United States. Students enrolled in this course will write several short essays, as well as a midterm and final exam. Prof. Carolyn Lewis.

Hist 4083: Mexico: The National Period (10:30-11:20  M W F)

This course covers the history of Mexico from the wars of Independence to the present (c. 1810-present).  It is designed to introduce the region to the college student in some of its complexity—the history, the politics, the economics, the art, the people.  It proposes to do so through readings, discussions, film, individual research, analytical writing and lectures.  What will be offered is montage, cut and spliced images—glimpses—of times and places past, as well as contemporary visions and some very minor future prognostications.  The stereotypes of mustachioed men, bandoliered revolutionaries, and mariachis will be eschewed for a more realistic, everyday picture of the Mexico’s people and places.  When possible, we will attempt to listen to the articulations of Mexicans themselves, principally through words they have written—primary sources.  Topics covered will include the struggle for independence from colonial powers, the creation of an independent nation-state, war in the 19th century, the Porfiriato, the Mexican Revolution, economic development in the 20th century, the rise of the Mexican counterculture, debt-crisis and neoliberalism, democratization and the PRI, drug-trafficking and violence, and popular culture. Students will be assigned two essays as well as a final research paper. Readings will include scholarly monographs, articles, novels, and primary sources. Prof. Stephen Andes.

Hist 4084: West Africa to 1800 (10:30-11:50 T Th)

This course looks at the history of West African societies from the pre-historic period to the dawn of the nineteenth century. Among the themes to be covered will be the rise of early urban life, commerce and state-formation, including the early kingdoms and empires of West Africa. Attention will also be paid to such issues as the development of the arts, religion, social stratification, and the advent of external influences through the trans-Saharan and Atlantic slave trade systems. In addition to weekly reading and writing assignments, as well as midterm and final examinations, students will also be required to write an original research paper. Prof. Gibril Cole.

Hist 4088:  Atlantic History (1:30-2:50 p.m.   T Th)

Using the fourteen chapters of Douglas R. Edgerton et al’s The Atlantic World:  A History, 1400-1888 as the basis for weekly readings and discussion the course explores how Europeans, Africans and Native Americans initially encountered  and then interacted with each other to create new cultural, economic, and racial realities.  The weekly reading assignments are accompanied with questions that students respond to on-line in Moodle.  Four short papers based on additional assigned readings and three exams complete the assignments. This course is an excellent way to either begin to learn about the history of the Americas and West Africa that parallels perhaps better known events in Europe or the United States OR to integrate what has been learned in courses specifically on Europe, the US, Latin America, and Africa. Graduate students have to prepare a research paper on an Atlantic History topic. Prof. Paul Hoffman.

Hist 4092:  China since 1600  (3:00-4:20 p.m.  T Th)

This course is a survey of Chinese history from the ascent to power of the last Chinese Dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911) to the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949). We will start with an examination of Chinese society and civilization in the late imperial period. We will then examine China's attempt to transform itself into a republic in 1911, spurred by deep internal social and cultural changes and by pressure from Western imperialism. The 1911 Republican revolution, however, did not end China's search for a new political and cultural identity. China, in fact, emerged from a bloody war with Japan (1937-1945) and a devastating civil war (1945-1949), in a new Communist mode.

Requirements
Three quizzes: 10% each (total of 30%); Midterm: 30%; Final: 30%; Class participation: 10%

Textbooks: Harold Tanner. China: A History (Hackett Pub Co); Jonathan Spence. The Death of Woman Wang. (Penguin); Tsao Hsueh-Chin. Dream of the Red Chamber. (Anchor; Abridged edition); Pa Chin (or Ba Jin), Family (Waveland Press); Various articles (available as pdf files through Moodle). Prof. Margherita Zanasi.

Hist 4094: Modern Japan (9:30-10:20 a.m.  M W F)

This course presents a survey of the last four and a half centuries of Japanese history, from the time of the first contact with Westerners in the middle of the sixteenth century to the post-World War II era. We will attempt to achieve a balance between political, social, economic, and cultural history in this survey. About two-thirds of the course will be devoted to the period before the twentieth century. There is no specific course prerequisite for enrolling in this class. Prof. John Henderson.

Hist 4097: History of South Asia (1:30-2:50 p.m.  T Th)

A consideration of the features of South Asian history most pertinent to the creation of the region's modern contours. Historiography and readings in cultural history feature prominently. Prof. Reza Pirbhai.

Hist 4113: European Intellectual History Since 1850 (9:30-10:20  M W F)

Intellectual history is the study of how people in the past made sense of their world, as expressed by the most articulate and subtle minds of the day. The study of intellectual history aims not only to understand that past in its own terms, but also to enter into dialogue with it, helping us to make sense of our own world via this broadened perspective. The class will therefore emphasize discussion as well as lecture. There will be approximately 12 different thinkers considered, each with an extended excerpt from their writings. Student will be required to write journals on 7 out of 12 assignments (app. 3-4 pages each). These should provide the basis for class discussion. In addition, a midterm and a final. Prof. David Lindenfeld.

Hist 4125: History of  Ancient Israel    (10:30-11:50   T Th)

Surveys Israelite history from its beginning to the Persian period.  The main goal is to become skillful at historical reconstruction, which includes the critical evaluation of ancient sources, especially the Hebrew Bible.  The format of the course balances short lectures with class discussion and student reports. Requirements include short writing exercises; a critical review and oral presentation about a scholarly essay on an aspect of Israelite history; a take-home midterm; a take-home final.  Crosslisted as REL 4125. Prof. Stuart Irvine.

Hist 4191: Religions of China and Japan (11:30-12:20  M W F)

Major religious traditions of East Asia; Confucianism, Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, Shinto, and Chinese and Japanese folk religion; religion in the context of Chinese and Japanese cultural history. Cross-listed with   REL  4191. Prof. John Henderson.

Hist 4197: History of College Sport (4:30-7:20 p.m.  M)

We all think we understand college sports, but we think we know more than we do. In this class, from a perspective of a century of  experience, we learn to separate our opinion from our analysis, read controversy with a critical eye, examine original documents, and seek  the facts and the substance of our understanding of intercollegiate sports.
      The course requires students to write four essays of 2,000 words or more, attend class regularly, and participate in online discussion groups. In their written assignments, students must think and write critically about the role of intercollegiate sports in society, with emphasis on issues of governance, finance, race, class, gender, war, media and technology, and social change. Prof. John Lombardi.

GRADUATE COURSES:

Hist 7904: Seminar in American History and Criticism (3:00-5:50 p.m. M) Prof. Gaines Foster.

Hist 7923: Seminar in European History from 1500 (3:00-5:50 p.m. T) Prof. Suzanne Marchand.

Hist 7951: Reading Seminar in American History 1607-1865 (3:00-5:50 p.m.  T) Prof. Nancy Isenberg.

Hist 7956: Reading Seminar in American History from 1890 (3:00-5:50 p.m. W)

This course will explore twentieth century American history through extensive readings in recent historiography.  Students will be expected to read 1 or 2 books and/or articles a week and write weekly papers. Prof. Charles Shindo.

Hist 7959: American Cultural History, 1700-1865 (3:00-5:50 Th)

This is a hybrid course: part common readings/colloquium, with several short analytical papers; part seminar, with an independently conceived research paper.  Overall, the course is designed to teach graduate students to think, write, and argue as historians.  Exploring the topics of historical memory, newspaper culture, and constructions of race and gender in America’s formative period, we focus on how the historian exploits sources and constructs a critical, interpretive historical argument. Prof. Andrew Burstein.