WHAT IS HISTORY?
50:509:101:01
M/W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Thomas
GEN ED: XPL (Experiential Learning), AAI (Art and Aesthetic Interpretation)
How do we know what really happened in the past? When we’re confronted with competing versions of history, how can we determine which version is most true, or at least, which version is most accurate and reliable? In our society, who decides which stories are important and legitimate and which are not? And finally: what is the historian’s role in negotiating these complex issues?
This course is designed for beginners, for students who may know little about history but are curious about how history gets made. We will learn about different approaches to historical research through guest presentations and discussions with various members of the History Department. Following each presentation, we will reflect on how different fields of history and the use of different kinds of sources lead historians to ask different kinds of questions – and to answer those questions in distinctive ways. At the same time, students will build research skills through a variety of workshop-style sessions to learn how to navigate library resources and databases; how to read and interpret primary sources; and how to conduct oral history interviews. With step-by-step guidance – and with freedom to follow their own interests, and to choose the format of the final product – students will develop a research project over the course of the semester.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION I
50:510:101:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Jewell
GEN ED: GCM (GLOBAL COMMIUNITIES)
This course explores the development of what has been called “Western Civilization”, from the prehistoric period, down to the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of Charlemagne. While this course covers a vast amount of historical and geographical territory, we will focus on key themes, such as the development of polities and imperialism, the emergence of new religious institutions and spiritual regimes, and the role of cultural exchange and material culture in the definition of “Western Civilization(s)”. Other concerns will also be treated as secondary threads, intersecting with each other, such as environmental change, migration and citizenship, slavery and emancipation, ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, and the economies that undergirded the polities that produced what we call “Western Civilization(s)”. Throughout the course, we will engage in a dialogue about whether the term “Western Civilization(s)” is still the best way of labeling or understanding the multiple cultures, polities, and peoples we encounter along the way and the inheritance they have left us today. Students will examine these issues through the critical analysis of primary sources, both texts and visual objects, learning close reading skills, as well as gaining a familiarity with the shifting geographies that encompass the “West”, through digital mapping tasks. Assessments also include exams, short writing tasks, and an object analysis in a museum.
IMPERIALISM
50:510:265:01
M/W 2:05 PM – 3:25 PM
Professor Marker
GEN ED: HAC (Heritages and Civilvations)
From iconic children’s tales like Tarzan and German-style beer made in China to English-speaking call centers outsourced to India, the residues of European imperialism are all around us. This course explores the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of European imperial expansion and colonial rule from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1960s. Using narrative histories, historical documents, fiction, and film, we will consider imperialism’s impact on Europeans and European society; African, Indian, and East Asian experiences and critiques of colonial and imperial power; the forces that ultimately led to the collapse of European empires; and the afterlives of imperialism in our globalized world.
ROME OF THE FIRST CAESAR
50:510:304:01
M/W 3:45 PM – 5:05 PM
Professor Jewell
At the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, Gaius Octavius, better known as Augustus, the first emperor, finally conquered the last of the Greeks—and the Romans as well. This course explores the rise of Rome and its empire in the provinces on either side of this watershed moment. From the emergence of Rome as a Mediterranean power in the late 200s BCE with the defeat of the Carthaginian empire, down to the early principate of the Roman emperors, students will study the major political and military developments in Roman imperialism in this course. Depending on course enrolment numbers, the class will also feature a 3-week role-playing game focused on a political crisis during the Roman Republic. In addition to this, students will discuss the impact of Roman rule on social, religious, economic and legal developments throughout Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East, as well as interactions with regions beyond Roman control (e.g. India). Special consideration will be paid to how life differed for people in the empire according to their region and place (e.g. urban vs rural), local pre-Roman culture, social and legal status (e.g. enslaved, free or freed), religion, gender and other factors.
MARIA ANTOINETTE AND HER WORLD: A HISTORY OF QUEENS AND MISTRESSES
50:510:320:01 Cross listed W/50:443:390:01,
50:420:391:01
T/TH 11:20 AM – 12:30 PM
Professor Mokhberi
GEN ED: GCM (Global Communities), G (Global Studies)
This course focuses on the life and legacy of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Students will learn about the powerful queens and mistresses prior to Marie and examine the way formidable women throughout the world projected their authority through art, fashion, music, dance, and theater. The class then traces the life of Marie Antoinette from her arrival at the palace of Versailles to her journey to the Guillotine. The Queen became an object of criticism that reflected the anxieties about the roles of women and men in society and the politics of gender during the French Revolution. Students will examine depictions of the Queen, including lampoons and pornography that vilified her. The myths around Marie Antoinette will anchor a debate about the place of women and other marginalized groups in the past and today.
INDEPENDENT STUDY HISTORY
50:510:499:01
By Arrangement, Staff
Independent reading under the supervision of a member of the department.
INDEPENDENT STUDY HISTORY
50:510:499:02
By Arrangement, Staff
Independent reading under the supervision of a member of the department.
DEVELOPMENT OF UNITED STATES I
50:512:201:01
T/TH 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Bayker
GEN ED: USW (U.S. in the World)
This course provides an introduction to American history from the colonial era to the Civil War and Reconstruction. We will examine key political, social, economic, and cultural developments of the period. Topics covered include interactions between Native Americans and Europeans, the experience of African Americans in slavery, the place of women in early American society, the political ideology of the American Revolution, and the sectional conflict that precipitated the Civil War. This is an introductory course, and no prior knowledge of the subject is assumed or required.
WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY
50:512:220:01 Cross listed W/50:443:222:01
M/W 9:35 AM – 10:55 AM
Professor Bayker
GEN ED: USW (United States World)
This course explores the history of women and gender in America from the colonial era to the twenty-first century with a focus on three key themes: labor, political participation, and the regulation of sexuality and reproductive rights. We will examine the everyday lives of women and trace the shifting cultural ideas about womanhood and manhood while paying special attention to the people who defied the gendered expectations of their era.
SPORT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
50:512:275:01
ONLINE
Professor Bayker
Discover how American history was written on the field. This course explores the pivotal role of sports in shaping U.S. culture, politics, and society. Move beyond the stadium to understand how athletics have historically defined American citizenship, challenged social boundaries, and influenced our collective identity.
CONSUMER CULTURE
50:512:303:01
T/TH 2:00 PM – 3:20 PM
Professor Woloson
What did Americans buy and why? How did purchasing habits change over time, and what can those changes tell us about changes in how Americans lived their lives and thought about themselves individually and collectively, from the first settlers to the present? This course covers a broad sweep of American consumer culture over four centuries, using consumption to better understand broader aspects of American history and life, such as prevailing standards of living and economic conditions; politics; technological innovations; regional, national, and global commerce and emerging marketplaces; and individual and collective aesthetic sensibilities. The class will draw from both secondary readings and primary source documents, and we will consider everything from 18th-century backcountry dry goods stores to e-commerce. Subject areas of focus will include, among many other things, consumer activism (including boycotts and patriotic purchasing), the development of advertising and marketing, and the rise of department stores, malls, and other sites of shopping. In addition, we will explore the meanings of shopping itself over time and also the shifting roles of the goods we’ve bought, from being expressions of self-fashioning and status to repositories of intense emotion and desire. This is a writing-intensive course: several essays drawing on primary and secondary source material will be required, in addition to a final exam.
BLACK CAMDEN
50:512:307:01
CROSS LISTED W/ 50:014:381:01
T/TH 11:10 AM – 12:30 PM
Professor Boyd
This course examines the urban Black experience from a historical perspective, centering on Camden, New Jersey. The course begins by providing students with a brief overview of urban history in the United States and Camden and then proceeds to examine several themes throughout the semester that relate to the urban Black experience. Themes include Cultural and Social Life; Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Endeavors; Community Activism; Health and Wellness; and Reclaiming Space and Creating Beauty. These topics will be explored from a historical perspective; however, we will also make connections to the present. We will meet weekly to discuss the assigned readings and also hear from guest speakers. Students will also conduct research throughout the semester, and volunteer with community history initiatives. This course has been designated by the General Education Committee as an Engaged Civic Learning (ECL) course and fulfills the “Cross-Cutting” course requirement for graduation. As an ECL course, students will directly apply course concepts in real-world settings.
US IN THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA
50:512:325:01
M/W 12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
Professor Epstein
GEN ED: USW (United States in the World), (WRI) Writing Intensive
Massive inequality. Racial tensions. Military involvement overseas. The United States today has a lot of similarities to the United States between the Civil War and World War I, the period when modern US history really began. If you want to understand the forces that still shape Americans’ debates over income distribution, racism and sexism, and the country’s place in the world, you need to understand the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.
This class will provide students with a better informed perspective on today’s world, a firmer understanding of US history during a pivotal period, and a foundation for more advanced study. It will focus on the following events and themes: Reconstruction; the emergence of industrial capitalism; the labor movement; Populism; changes in the armed forces; the establishment of Jim Crow; gender relations; the transformation of the United States from a continental to a global power; Progressivism; and the experience of world war. As much as possible, students will learn about this period from the people who lived through it—ex-slaves, industrialists, farmers, factory workers, immigrants, presidents, Native Americans, Supreme Court justices, suffragettes, and others. In so doing, they will improve their ability to evaluate information, to write, and to think critically about issues of great historical and contemporary importance.
The class is designed to be accessible to both majors and non-majors. It meets the “United States in the World” (USW) General Education requirement and the Writing (WRI) graduation requirement.
THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD, 1776-1914
50:512:387:01
M/W 3:45 PM – 5:05 PM
Professor Epstein
GEN ED: USW (United States in the World), WRI (Writing Intensive)
When the thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, they saw their new nation as a beacon of liberty in a world of oppressive European empires. But over the course of the next century, the United States itself became an empire—first continental, then global. Then as now, the growing assertiveness of the United States in the world occasioned debate: while some Americans welcomed it, others saw it as a betrayal of the nation’s revolutionary legacy. Was the United States a new kind of empire—an “empire of liberty,” in Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase—or did becoming an empire make it impossible to remain the land of liberty? This course will examine those questions and others. We will begin by studying English ideas about foreign policy that colonial Americans incorporated into their own thinking. Next, we will look at the expansion of the United States across the continent, as well as the place of the United States in the global economy. The foreign relations of the Confederacy and the Union during the Civil War will also be a focus. In the last part of the course, we will consider how industrialization and the first era of globalization affected the place of the United States in the world.
The class is designed to be accessible to both majors and non-majors. It meets the “United States in the World” (USW) General Education requirement and the Writing (WRI) graduation requirement.
JAPAN IN THE ERA OF SAMURAI
50:516:341:01
T/TH 2:00 PM – 3:20 PM
Professor Kapur
GEN ED: HAC (Heritage and Civilizations)
In this course we will examines the history of Japan from the earliest times up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, including the rise of the samurai class, the emergence of the imperial state, and the development of traditional Japanese culture, including religion, literature, and the arts. Along the way, we will consider the extent to which myths and legends about the samurai are true or false, as well as the role played by women in the making of Japanese culture.
This course falls under the following History concentrations: Business, Finance, & Economics; Culture, Literature, & Art; Gender, Sexuality, & Society; Law, Politics, & Government; Religion, Philosophy, & Ideas; War, Peace, & Diplomacy; World Cultures & Civilizations; China, Japan, & Asia
MODERN CHINA
50:516:346:01
T/TH 3:35 PM – 4:55 PM
Professor Kapur
This course will examine the history of China and the Chinese people from the collapse of the Ming Dynasty to the present time, including political, social, economic, and cultural developments. We will examine the rise of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the partition of China into “spheres of influence” following the Opium War, the nationalist and communist revolutions of the 20th century, the disasters of Maoist rule, and China’s recent reemergence as an economic powerhouse while still facing many pressing social issues.
This course falls under the following History concentrations: Business, Finance, & Economics; Culture,
Literature, & Art; Empires, Imperialism, & Colonialism; Gender, Sexuality, & Society; International Relations and Global Affairs; Law, Politics, & Government; Race, Ethnicity, & Immigration; Religion, Philosophy, & Ideas; Science, Technology, & Medicine; War, Peace, & Diplomacy; World Cultures & Civilizations; China, Japan, & Asia.