Perspectives of History
50:509:299:01
T/TH 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Mokhberi
This course will focus on the myth of Joan of Arc from the Middle Ages to the present. Students will analyze primary source materials, including her trial and retrial transcripts with a particular focus on her interrogation and confession. Students will consider whether these trials produced truth or alternative meanings and will determine how authority is both challenged and reasserted. Further, the class will examine representations of Joan of Arc using primary and secondary sources produced after her trial to question how she has been reinterpreted through the ages and used as a national, political, and religious symbol. Through the examination of Joan of Arc, students will sharpen their research and writing skills and learn how historians interpret and write history.
public History Practice
50:509:300:01
By Arrangement
Professor Mires
Get your hands on history: This is an individualized opportunity to gain knowledge of local and regional history while contributing to a public history project based at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden. The options include historic house research and curatorship for the Cooper Street Historic District and research and digital publishing for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. In addition to readings in local and regional history, students will be provided with training and ongoing supervision and feedback while working approximately six hours per week on-site on their selected projects. This course is by arrangement, with permission of the instructor, and is open to juniors and seniors with a GPA of 3.0 and above. Interested students please contact Dr. Charlene Mires, cmires@camden.rutgers.edu.
GEN ED: Experiential Learning (XPL)
western civilization ii
50:510:102:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Marker
This course explores the development of modern politics, society and culture in Europe and beyond from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. With such a vast time span under consideration, this course is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of modern European history. Rather, we will use a combination of lectures and primary texts as points of entry into the major historical events and trends of the era—the Enlightenment, the rise of capitalism, the French Revolution, industrialization, nationalism, imperialism, the World Wars, and decolonization. Coursework includes lecture, discussion, brief homework assignments, short papers, a mid-term and a final exam.
GEN ED: Global Communities (GCM)
imperialism
50:510:265:01
M/W 3:45 pm – 5:05 pm
Professor Marker
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.
GEN ED: Heritages and Civilizations (HAC)
introductory topics in european history: history of the western medicine
50:510:280:01
T/TH 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Professor Bonneau
Suffering, illness, and death are experiences universal to all of humanity. How we address these constants varies across time and cultures. This course surveys changes in western attitudes towards the body and care for the sick from antiquity to the present. It gives particular focus to the development of those institutions that that dominate health care twentieth century Europe and the United States. It is designed for students with either an interest in the fields of health care and medicine or the history of science. As success depends more on your ability to think critically about historical questions and arguments, rather than rote memorization, it is open to all students and requires no previous knowledge of the topic.
EUROPE AND THE WORLD
50:510:333:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Mokhberi
This course examines European representations of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas from the Middle Ages to the early eighteenth century. It traces European portrayals of foreigners in travel writings, descriptions of diplomatic visits, and various art forms. We will discuss European criticism of foreign customs and politics and investigate Europe’s fascination with the exotic, which often resulted in imitation and adoption of foreign habits and luxury goods. We will explore how Europeans imagined and reimagined distant countries and used them as models for comparison.
GEN ED: Global Communities (GCM)
religion in ancient greece: cult and community
50:510:380:01
M/W 3:45 pm – 5:05 pm
Professor Beeler
This course explores religion in ancient Greece through the people, places, and practices associated with it in the literature, art, and archaeology of the Late Bronze Age through Classical periods (ca. 1650-323 BCE). Students gain a background in the historical and social context of religion in the ancient Greek world, and develop and understanding of the sources and methods for religious rituals and beliefs. Students analyze and interpret primary source evidence for Greek religion, including ancient texts and interpret primary source evidence for Greek religion, including ancient texts and material culture. Topics include origin myths, hero cult, funerary rites, animal sacrifice, oracles, mystery cults, ecstatic worship, witches, and necromancy.
development of united states II: CISS Session
50:512:102:01
T 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Amy Osterhout
The Course Initiative for Student Success (or CISS) program provides students with an extra one-credit class in addition to their regularly scheduled, 3-credit Development of US II survey class. Students enrolled in the CISS session will meet for one hour, once a week in addition to their regular attendance in the larger USII course. CISS is a small group review session led by the USII graduate student/teaching assistant that provides students with individualized attention, extra review and guidance, and skills to improve their critical reading and writing skills in college.
development of united states I
50:512:201:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Martin
This course traces the path of American history from before European colonization through the colonial period, the Imperial Crisis, Revolution, Civil War, and Reconstruction. We will examine the most important political, economic, social, and cultural developments of the 17th – 19th centuries, and observe how different groups of people shaped and were affected by such developments. Learning about the past involves a careful effort to understand the ideas and beliefs that motivated people to act in certain specific ways, within particular historical circumstances. Development of U.S. I is an introductory course, intended to acquaint students with various ideas, events, and people from this particular segment of America’s past, and to introduce students to some of the questions and debates that animate the study of early American history.
GEN ED: US In the World (USW)
development of united states II
50:512:202:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Demirijian
This course examines the political, economic, social, and military history of the United States from the 1860s through the 1970s. The course will also examine the roles played by ethnicity, race, gender, class, the development of a national market economy, and the emergence of a powerful national state in shaping ideas about American identity and its place in the world.
GEN ED: US in the World (USW)
african-american history ii
50:512:204:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Glasker
This course covers the history of Black or African American people in the United States from the Civil War to the present. Emphasis is given to the philosophies of W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, and to the black freedom struggle (civil rights movement). The course also examines the growing class divide between the college educated, suburbanized, white-collar black middle class and the one-fourth of black people who live in poverty and are trapped in inner city ghettos.
GEN ED: US in the World (USW)
america in the age of world wars
50:512:330:01
M/W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Glasker
AMERICA IN THE AGE OF THE WORLD WARS will examine US history from 1912 to 1945. The course will begin with the election of 1912 and the Progressive Era. We will explore World War I, and proceed through the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II. The course will be a mix of domestic and foreign affairs, and will include US involvement in the World Wars. The course will also explore the role of African Americans and women in this time period. In addition to exams, students will complete a research paper.
special topics in american history: fAKE nEWS
50:512:380:01
T/TH 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Woloson
Claims of “fake news” have become increasingly common in the internet era. While today we have easy access to unprecedented kinds of information that enable us to fact-check stories in almost real time, it is also a reality that news stories – both real and fake – can spread faster and more widely than ever before. But while the circulation of fake news might seem like a phenomenon unique to our time, it actually has a much longer history. This course focuses on various kinds of false information circulated in America over time: hoaxes, conspiracy theories, advertising puffery, and propaganda. Learning about the much longer histories and broader contexts of fake news is a way to understand not only our current time but how we got here.The course is divided into two parts. In the first part, we will read a series of historical case studies to see how and why people spread fake news in different eras. We will read of newspaper editors who published stories about humans living on the moon in the 1830s, and of showmen getting rich by selling tickets to see a live mermaid in the 1850s. We will also read about how fake news helped foment excitement for the Revolutionary War, and how propaganda was similarly used to create homefront solidarity during World War I and World War II. The second part of the semester will be devoted to studying the role of fake news in America today, including how it is created and spread, and how it shapes our society. Students will complete a series of short writing assignments in addition to working in small groups on collaborative projects. * Note: This counts toward concentrations in BFE (Business, Finance, Economics); CLA (Culture, Literature, Art); LPG (Law, Politics Government); PPH (Public Professional History); RPI (Religion, Philosophy, Ideas); STM (Science, Technology, Medicine); WPD (War Peace Diplomacy); and USH (US History).
latin america ii
50:516:212:01
T/TH 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Lombera
The course offers an introduction examination of Latin America’s history, politics, culture, and processes of socioeconomic change through the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. We compare the evolution of events along these lines in the different sub-regions and countries, noting where generalizations of the Latin American region are possible and where some sub-regional cases are unique. We start with a discussion of how colonial patterns of domination shaped the socio-economic and political structures of Latin American states after independence, which most countries in the region achieved in the 1820s. Thereafter, two centuries of state formation and development are examined. Throughout this period, the course explores in comparative perspective issues such as class formation, race, gender, national identity, “boom and boost” economic cycles, foreign influences, revolution and counter-revolution, and general social and political change.
GEN ED: Global Communities (GCM)
`modern japan: from samurai to anime
50:516:342:01
M/W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Kapur
This survey course examines the history of Japan from the collapse of the samurai government in the 1850s to the present time. We will examine the “opening” of Japan following centuries of self-imposed isolation, its rise to power and defeat in World War II, and its subsequent transformation into an economic and pop culture powerhouse, as well as more recent events such as the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.
GEN ED: Global Communities (GCM)