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African History
History 2302 History of Modern Africa, 1800-1960s
Instructor: Sikainga, Ahmad
Second Session
Days/Times: Hybrid, TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
Thematic survey of African history from 1800 to the 1960s.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2303 History of Contemporary Africa, 1960-present
Instructor: Van Beurden, Sarah
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
This course takes a closer look at the history of the African continent from the process of decolonization until today. We will study and discuss broad historical developments, such as the origins and histories of independence movements, the rise of development ideology, military rule and dictatorships, debt accumulation, and the economic struggles and successes of the continent. In addition, we will focus on a number of important locations and events, including the Algerian Revolution, the fall of the apartheid system in South Africa, the Congo crisis, the Rwanda genocide and the following Great War of Africa.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
Frederick Cooper, Africa Since 1940. The Past of the Present. (Cambridge University Press,2002)
Mary Ingouville Burton, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Ohio University Press, 2017)
Marie Beatrice Umutesi, Surviving the Slaughter. The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire. (University of Wisconsin Press 2004)- available as an e-book from the library website
Assignments
Midterm, final, two position papers, map quiz, reading quizzes, attendance, and participation
History 3307 History of African Health and Healing
Instructor: McDow, Dodie
Days/Time: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am
This course explores approaches to health and healing in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 150 years. By using a historical perspective on health and healing, we see why specific diseases emerge, why they persist, and what their consequences are for African societies. Diseases we will consider include cholera, sleeping sickness, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, among others. The course is also interested in African experiences of being unwell.
While students will gain some biological or technological understanding of diseases and causes of illness, the course focuses on the wider social or economic consequences that promote disease and illness. By investigating illness, we can consider the ways that different governments (colonial and post-colonial) have attempted to control disease and control the people disease affected; the rise and elaboration of tropical medicine as a field; and the impact of colonial and post-colonial policy on land use, ecology, and human settlement. In addition, by thinking about health and what makes one healthy, we can find insights into societal values, and look at the overlapping and contradictory therapeutic traditions (grounded in both popular and biomedical treatments) that African people have used to regain health.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies
History 3312 Africa and World War II
Instructors: Sikainga, Ahmad
Second Session
Days/Time: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
This course will focus on the oft-neglected African dimension of WWII. The course will explore the importance of Africans as soldiers and producers; the effects of WWII on class, race, and gender relations within the continent; and the importance of WWII in provoking crises in colonial empires and transforming the nature of political mobilization across the African continent.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
African American History
History 2080 African American History to 1877
Instructor: Hammack, Maria
Days/Times: TR, 3:55pm – 5:15pm
Description
African American History is American History. It is a foundational aspect of the creation of the United State. It is a history that dates from the early arrivals of African people across spaces that became, first English, French, and Spanish Colonies, and later transformed into the United States of America. The Atlantic Slave Trade forced roughly 600,000 African and African-descended people to the geographies that came to constitute the United States. Thereby by 1861, an estimated 4.5 million Black Americans lived across the country, enslaved and free, and at the end of the Reconstruction period, in the late 1870s, the Black American population surpassed the 7.5 million mark.
This course centers the ways in which Black Americans have helped create and shape our nation. It is designed to focus on learning about the experiences, contributions, and legacies of African Americans in the development of this country with the goal to highlight the rich Black stories, culture, and traditions that forged the country from the 1500s to 1877. The object is twofold: one is to teach students to visualize the Black founding fathers and mothers we’ve rarely learned about in tandem with those our more popularized American histories regularly present (& represent). And two is to help students recognize the roles that Black women, men and children played in shaping the freedom(s), citizenship, and civil rights we enjoy today in the United States. The goal is to empower students to consider the past in ways that illuminate its relevance to our current present.
This course will cover events, historical actors, movements, and experiences that showcase that the story of the United States cannot and must not ever be told without the inclusion of Black life and legacy. Topics discussed will include (but not limited to) the following: an overview of the richly diverse people and history of the many countries, geographies and cultures where Black Americans trace their ancestry, chronologically trace the arrival of people of African descent to American soil, their lives in the vast and extant Early American spaces, an examination of the origins/justifications behind the creation of the institution of slavery, ideas/ideologies of race and racial difference, episodes and events that shape the timeline and meanings of resistance, freedom, abolition and citizenship in the (global) context of the United States.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
Textbook: 9780312648831, Deborah Gray White, Freedom on My Mind, Volume 1
Assignments
- Primary Source Analysis
- #FlixNLearn Assignment
- Historical Marker Assignment
- Map Quiz
- Midterm
- Final Exam
- Attendance/Participation In-Class Activities
History 2081 African American History from 1877
Instructor: Fontanilla, Ryan
Days/Times: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
The study of the African American experience in the United States from the era of Reconstruction through the present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
American History
History 1152 American History since 1877
Instructor: Michael Kraemer
Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm - 2:05pm
Description
The political, constitutional, social and economical development of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
HISTORY 2001 Launching America
Instructor: Roth, Randy
Days/Times: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
This course is an introduction to American history from the age of exploration and colonization through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The course focuses on central themes and issues in the development of American growth, institutional change, cultural development, and political democracy as Americans faced them in the past. Subjects treated in the course include: the pre-Columbian peoples of North America; exploration, colonization, and relations between European settlers and Native Americans; colonial America and the British Empire; family and gender relations; slavery and race; the American Revolution; establishing the new nation; technological, industrial, and transportation revolutions; social and cultural life in 19th century America; ethnic and cultural diversity in the Trans-Mississippi West; expansion, War with Mexico, and the sectional crisis; and the Civil War and Reconstruction.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts:
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! Vol. 1, Brief Edition (but any edition, brief or full, will suffice). The latest edition (5th) is: ISBN-13: 978-0-393-62319-2. AVAILABLE THROUGH CARMEN BOOKS
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (any edition, although the pagination may not match the one available at local bookstores). An inexpensive edition, Dover Publications, 2016: ISBN-13: 9780486284996. AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK THROUGH THE OSU LIBRARY: The 1988 edition, edited by Benjamin Quarles (Harvard University Press).
Various additional readings on Carmen
Assignments: We will write one critical essay on primary sources (5-6 pp.). There will be a midterm, a final exam, and five quizzes.
History 2002H Making America Modern
Instructor: Steigerwald, David
Days/Times: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
From the aftermath of the Civil War to the 2000s, this course offers a sweeping survey of American history since 1865. The story of America that unfolds is one of perpetual contest between competing cultures, political factions, and institutions, each struggling to define the meaning of freedom and citizenship within the United States and beyond its borders. It is a story filled with contradictions, one featuring moments when economic progress coincided with egregious violations of social justice and progressive reform melded with retrogressive repression. Our primary objectives in this course are the following: to identify key moments when Americans sought to reconcile competing visions of democracy and to catalog the key figures and social and political conflicts that helped shape modern America.
Throughout the semester, you will come to know personalities from the past by reading letters, speeches, and book excerpts from specific time periods. You will also have the opportunity to watch YouTube clips featuring historical footage and radio recordings of key historical moments. Students in the course will evaluate and interpret these primary sources each week and construct historical insights to share with fellow students in discussion section. Often the readings, videos, and radio recordings for the week will offer insights into contemporary issues we face today. Through short essays, each student will make connections between key historical events in the past and present-day issues facing our nation.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Prerequisites
Honors standing
History 2015 History of American Criminal Justice
Instructor: Roth, Randy
Days/Times: WF, 12:45pm-2:05 pm
Description: Crime and punishment are among the most important issues in contemporary America. This course offers an introduction to the historical study of crime in the United States from colonial times to the present. It highlights changes in criminal behavior and in the ways Americans have sought to deter, punish, and rehabilitate. Primary topics include historical patterns of violence, the role and organization of the police, and the evolution of punishment in theory and practice. This course also emphasizes differences in crime and punishment by region, class, ethnicity, gender, and age. Topics will include riots, homicide, capital punishment, organized crime, gangs, prisons, policing, jurisprudence, and official violence.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Readings:
Walker, Samuel (1998) Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 0-19-507451-3 (paper)
Robert Perkinson (2010) Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire. Picador. ISBN-10:0312680473 ISBN-13:978-0312680473 (paper)
Butterfield, Fox (1995) All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence. New York: William Morrow. 0-380-72862-1 (paper)
Quinones, Sam (2015) Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. New York: Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 13: 978-1620402528
Assignments:
Discussion and Attendance (10% of grade)
Quizzes on the Readings (10% of grade)
Midterm and Final Examinations (40% of grade)
Research Notes (20% of grade) / Research Essay (20% of grade): You will be asked to write a five-page paper on a topic in criminal justice history of interest to you (e.g., drugs, embezzlement, homicide). We will use online historical newspaper articles as sources. You will be required to turn in your research notes electronically as well as your essay, because the goal is to help you master the skills involved in careful historical research.
History 2046 Christianity and Liberation in the USA
Instructor: Brakke, David
Days/Times: TR 12:45pm – 2:05pm
This course explores the various ways in which Christians in the USA developed new practices and theologies to reflect their differing experiences of marginality based in race, ethnicity, and gender and to foster resulting movements of liberation. We will survey the histories of how African Americans, women, Hispanic/Latinx Americans, Asian American, and Native Americans interacted with Christianity as the context for the emergence of liberation theologies and movements in the late twentieth century. After focusing on race, gender, and ethnicity in turn, we will then consider how these marginal positionalities intersect in womanist, Latina, and LGBTQ+ theologies of liberation. We will attend especially to how the categories of race, ethnicity, and gender function within these Christian movements.
General Education
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
Required Materials
Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction, edited by Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas and Anthony B. Pinn (New York University Press 2010)
Other readings will be made available as PDFs on Carmen.
Assignments
2-3 short papers, observational/analysis paper, midterm, final
History 3005 The United States Constitution and American Society to 1877
Instructor: Stebenne, David
Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Examination of the major developments in American constitutional history from the origins of European settlement of what became the USA through the era of Reconstruction. Emphasis on the origins of the English Common Law, its transmission to the Thirteen Colonies, constitutionalism and the American Revolution, the rise and decline of the Articles of Confederation and the antebellum constitutional system, law and American economic development, the pressures placed on the legal system by the expansion of slavery, the constitutional crisis of the late 1850s, the emergence of a new constitutional system in the wake of the American Civil War, and the changing legal status of African Americans in the 1860s and 1870s.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Text
Kermit L. Hall and Timothy S. Huebner, Major Problems in American Constitutional History, 2nd ed., (2010).
* Be sure to get the second (2010) edition of the textbook, it's quite different from the first edition, which won't work for this course.
Assignments
Active participation in class discussions; and take-home midterm and final examinations.
History 3040 The American City
Instructor: Howard, Clay
Days/Times: MWF, 1:50pm – 2:45pm
Description
History of the American city (urban-suburban) from colonial times to the early 21st century.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Lived Environments
History 3080 History of Slavery in the US
Instructor: Cashin, Joan
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
In this course, we will discuss the history of slavery in North America from the colonial era to the Civil War. We will include material on bondage in other societies, but the focus will be on African American slavery in what is now the United States. We will explore various aspects of the slave experience, such as work, religion, family life, resistance, and rebellion. We will also discuss free blacks, people of mixed race, yeoman whites, and slave owners, as well as the significance of slavery as a culture, economic, and political issues.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
Assignments
Students will read several monographs, write several short papers, and take one exam.
History 3083 Civil Rights and Black Power Movements
Instructor: Jeffries, Judson
Days/Time: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am
Cross-listed with AFAMAST
Description
Examines the origins, evolution, and outcomes of the African American freedom struggle, focusing on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3085 African American History Through Contemporary Film
Instructor: Jeffries, Hasan
Days/Time: Hybrid, M, 12:00pm – 2:45pm
Description
Uses contemporary film to explore the history of African American life, culture, politics, and resistance.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US
Ancient Mediterranean History
History 2213 The Ancient Mediterranean City
Instructor: Sessa, Tina
Days/Times: MWF, 10:20am – 11:15am
Cities in the ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome, with an emphasis on their physical form and historical importance.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2221 Introduction to the New Testament: History and Literature
Instructor: Harrill, Bert
Days/Times: MWF, 10:20am – 11:15am
This course provides students with a basis for critical thinking about the most influential writings in the intellectual and cultural history of world civilization. What we call the "New Testament" is a not a single book but an anthology reflecting the work of various ancient authors. We examine how a small group of Jews connected to a prophet named Jesus of Nazareth became a separate religion with its own rituals and literature about a "Son of God." To this end, we study the earliest known Christian literature, the letters of the Apostle Paul, the production of "gospels" about the life of Jesus, and the formation of early churches. We also explore biblical scholarship as an academic field within the study of history, and why every educated person ought to know about its findings.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Literature, GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
- The SBL Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, edited by The Society of Biblical Literature. HarperOne, 2023.
- Bart D. Ehrman and Hugo Méndewz, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. 8th Edition. Oxford University Press, 2024.
- Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr., Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels. 5th edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992.
Assignments
Two unit tests, one interpretative paper, and a final examination.
History 3210 Archaic Greece
Instructor: Anderson, Greg
Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
This is the first half of a two-course sequence that surveys the history of ancient Greece (the second half will be offered in Spring semester--it is not necessary to take both courses). The course examines the formation of Greek culture, from the Neolithic era (ca. 7000-3000 BC) all the way down to the year 480 BC. We will explore major political developments, including: the rise and mysterious demise of the Mycenean kingdoms of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1100 BC); the subsequent emergence of small, village-based chiefdoms; and the first city-states in the Dark Age (ca. 1100-700 BC); the creation of written laws, political institutions, and, ultimately, the world's first citizen-states in the Archaic Age (ca. 700-480 BC); and the momentous wars against the Persian empire in the early fifth century. Along the way, we will also explore various social and cultural phenomena associated with these political developments. Here, particular attention will be paid to the many innovations of the Archaic Age in art, architecture, sports, literature, and philosophy, as well as to broader social issues, such as the place of women and slaves in Greek society.
Assigned Readings
Herodotus, The Histories, Rev. Ed. (Penguin Classics, 2003)
West, M. L., Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford University Press, 1993)
Assignments
2 exams and term paper
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3720 The Corrupting Sea: The Environmental History of the Ancient Mediterranean
Instructor: Sessa, Tina
Days/Times: WF, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
A historical examination of interactions between the environment and human activity in the ancient Mediterranean.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Asian & Islamic History
History 2402 History of East Asia in the Modern Era
Instructor: Cruz Guan
Days/Time: Online, MW, 12:45pm - 2:05pm
Description
Introduction to the transformation of societies and cultures of modern China, Korea, and Japan from the 17th century to the present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2353 The Middle East since 1914
Instructor: Akin, Yigit
Days/Times: WF, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
This course presents a foundational overview of the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the Middle East from the late-nineteenth century to the present. It aims to go beyond the simplistic generalizations and stereotypes about the region and its people by introducing students to the complexities of the Middle East’s modern history and its present. The course also aims to enable students to adopt an informed and critical perspective on the region’s current conflicts and challenges. Among other issues, we will pay particular attention to the following topics: nineteenth century reformism; economic dependency, imperialism, and anti-imperialism; nationalism and nation state formation; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; women’s experiences; U.S. involvement in the region; the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the rise of Islamist movements; and recent upheavals in the Middle East. This course offers students the chance to explore these issues through a variety of media—academic works, film, fiction, and other primary sources.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts / Assigned Readings
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2007) ISBN-13: 978-1596913431 [Paperback]
All other readings will be available online through Carmen.
Assignments
Attendance & participation, quizzes, response papers, writing assignment, take home final exam
History 2675 The Indian Ocean: Communities and Commodities in Motion
Instructor: McDow, Dodie
Days/Times: WF, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
This course surveys the long history of the Indian Ocean as a vital arena of world history. We need the Indian Ocean to understand Mahatma Gandhi, Osama bin Laden, and Freddie Mercury. The Indian Ocean was a meeting point for the peoples and cultures of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia long before European colonization, and it has become a site of intense innovation in our global age. It helps of understand the history of East Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia in relation to each other. Part of the story is based on the sea because the Indian Ocean is home to monsoon winds, Sinbad the sailor, and a long history of piracy from British "privateers" Davy Jones and William Kidd to more recent Somali freebooters. But it is also a story of landed empires and strategic port cities. We'll look at the production and circulation of commodities, from spices and textiles, to ivory and cloves, to opium and oil. Slaves and indentured servants crossed the Indian Ocean to work plantations in the past, and we can see new coerced labor regimes in the rise of Persian Gulf states. The Indian Ocean has been the home of Islamic scholarly networks and a focus in the global war on terror. Finally, the Indian Ocean is also an ideal place to study the history of environmental change: the dodo was hunted extinct on one of the ocean's islands in the 17th century, and global warming threatens island nations like the Maldives. In short, this is a course that will provide an introduction to a fascinating region.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3375 Mongol World Empire: Central Eurasia, 1000-1500
Instructor: Levi, Scott
Instructor: MW, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, a small and relatively obscure nomadic people emerged from their isolated homeland in the steppe north of China to forge what would quickly become the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world. While the Mongol Empire is long gone, it had a profound and undeniable impact on the trajectory of world history. The destruction of the Mongol conquests was overwhelming, but that relatively short period of trauma was followed by a lengthy recovery under the Pax-Mongolica: the Mongol Peace. For several decades, Eurasia witnessed an unprecedented rise in the movement of people and a corresponding rise in the transcontinental exchange of commodities, scientific knowledge, religious and cultural traditions, and even disease pathogens. This course will introduce students to the social, cultural, and political history of medieval Central Eurasia, paying special attention to the quite regular, occasionally turbulent, but never dull interactions of pastoral-nomadic and sedentary peoples.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
Required Texts
Ruth W. Dunnel, Chinggis Khan: World Conqueror (Boston, 2010).
Nicholas Morton, The Mongol Storm (New York, 2022)
Timothy May, The Mongol Conquests in World History (London, 2012).
Morris Rossabi, The Mongols and Global History (New York, 2011).
History 3404 Modern China 1750-1949
Instructor: Reed, Chris
Days/Time: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
This course provides a general but analytical survey of Chinese history from approximately 1750 to 1949 with emphasis on the second half of the Qing (pronounced “Cheeng”) dynasty (1644-1912) and the two successive Republic(s) of China (1912-28, 1928-49). After a brief introductory phase, we will discuss key historical phenomena that have distinguished China’s evolution in this “late modern period.” The course is organized around the paired themes of (1) non-Han Chinese attempts to revive (Manchus), challenge (Western imperialist powers), or destroy (Japan) China’s sovereignty along with (2) Chinese (ethnic Han, Manchus’, and others’) responses to all of those efforts. After 1895, Manchus and ethnic Han along with others in China began to seek “wealth, power, and international respect” for their modernizing, revolutionizing country, a process that deeply influenced 20th-century China down through 1949, the moment at which this course ends. For all of these reasons, emphasis in this course is placed on political, sociological, and military developments, although some attention is also given to economic, cultural, and intellectual ones. We will not cover the Communist movement in detail; neither will we cover the People’s Republic of China (including Hongkong, Tibet, or Xinjiang) or contemporary Taiwan at all.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
This class will have one or more required texts.
Notes
There are no prerequisites for this course nor for success in it. Further, almost any humanities or social science course you’ve taken will help you succeed in this course. History 3404 satisfies the Legacy GE category of Historical Studies or the New GE Foundations category of Historical and Cultural Studies. History 3404 is applicable to the History Minor, which typically requires only four courses above the 1000-level to complete and may overlap up to six hours with GE requirements. Students should consult their college or departmental catalogue as well as their advisers for further guidance on meeting course and program requirements. History Majors take note: This course belongs to Group East Asia, post-1750, with concentrations in Power, Culture, and Society (PCS) & Colonialism and Comparative Empires (CCE).
Diplomatic/International History
History 3501 US Diplomacy, 1920 – Present
Instructor: Parrott, Joe
Days/Time: TR, 3:55pm – 5:15pm
Description
Since 1920, the United States has played a dominant role in international affairs due to its massive economy, unrivaled military, and global cultural influence. Historians have often referred to this era as “the American century,” a term coined by Time Magazine publisher Henry Luce in February of 1941. However, Luce’s editorial was as much a call to action as it was an accurate description: as late as 1941, the nation was still debating its desired role in world affairs. Far from a dedicated superpower, the United States was and remains a country whose foreign relations are hotly contested. The nation has struggled to discern a consistent path between opposing tendencies of democracy, empire, isolationism, internationalism, national security, and the role of defense in daily life. At the same time, many countries have militantly resisted projections of American power.
In this course, we will explore a sampling of these contests and the sometimes-contradictory foreign policies they produced. While focusing on the specific policy history of the United States, we will also assess the impact American actions have had across the globe, foreign responses to the United States, the changing contexts that transformed official thinking, and the decentralization of the international system. The course will ultimately seek to have you engage directly with the ways U.S. foreign policymaking has affected and responded to global and domestic events, and what this means for the future of American foreign affairs.
Please note, this is an upper-level history course and will require your active engagement with a larger amount of regular weekly reading and viewing assignments.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Environment, Health, Technology, and Science
History 2700 Global Environmental History
Instructor: Henry Misa
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Global overview of the ecology of the human condition in past time, stressing climate change, earth systems, technology, energy, demography, and human cultural-economic revolutions.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEL Social Science: Human, Natural and Econ Resources, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Social and Behavioral Sciences
History 2701 History of Technology
Instructor: Otter, Chris
Days/Time: 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
From stone tools, fire, and stirrups and to drones, iPhones and the Anthropocene, human history is inexplicable without understanding technology. This course provides an introductory overview of the multiple ways in which technology has shaped human practices throughout history. It has two sections: the first half, running up to week 5, offers a history of technology from 3.3 million years ago to the twentieth century. The second half explores numerous themes in the history of technology, including war, gender, disaster, culture, and the environment. Although the bulk of the course focuses on developments in Europe and the US, a global focus is maintained throughout.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Lived Environments
Assignments
3 response papers and a final paper.
History 2701 History of Technology
Instructor: Dylan Cahn
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of the history of technology in global context from ancient times.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Lived Environments
History 2702 Food in World History
Instructor: Dylan Cahn
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of the history of food, drink, diet and nutrition in a global context.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 2702 Food in World History
Instructor: Dylan Cahn
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of the history of food, drink, diet and nutrition in a global context.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 2703 History of Public Health, Medicine and Disease
Instructor: Jones, Marian Moser
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
Survey of the history of public health, disease, and medicine in a global context.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Health and Well-being
History 2704 Water: A Human History
Instructor: Ellen Arnold
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
History of human use and understandings of water from ancient to modern times, with case studies taken from different geographic locations. Sometimes this course is offered in a distance-only format.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 2710 History of the Car
Instructor: Eaglin, Jennifer
Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
The car has shaped the world we live in today. Ideas of capitalism, technology, and consumerism are inherently linked to its creation and expansion in modern society. This course will examine the development of the car in the 20th century, first in the United States and then how its global expansion has come to define global society today.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Lived Environments
History 2911 The Climate Crisis: Mechanisms, Impacts, and Mitigation
Instructors: Harris, Jim; Bevis, Michael; Hood, Jim
Days/Time: Lectures = TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm, Recitation = Monday or Wednesday
4 credit hours High Impact GE Class
Description
Examination of the basic science of climate change, of the ability to make accurate predictions of future climate, and of the implications for global sustainability by combining perspectives from the physical sciences, the biological sciences, and historical study. Team-taught with faculty members in EarthSc and EEOB.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Natural Science: Biological Science, GEL Natural Science: Physical Science, GEN Theme: Lived Environments, GEN Theme: Sustainability
Assignments
Online reading essays; In class quizzes; Team Poster project; Final paper
History 3701 History of American Medicine
Instructor: Jim Harris
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of the history of American medicine from the Colonial period through the twentieth century.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Health and Well-being
History 3706 Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change 1800-Today
Instructor: Elmore, Bart
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
This course offers an introduction to the fields of environmental history and business history, beginning with the industrial revolution of the early nineteenth century and ending in the twenty-first century. It chronicles the rise of some of America's biggest multinational corporations and examines how these firms, working with governments and other institutions, shaped global change.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 3708 Vaccines: A Global History
Instructor: Harris, Jim and Summers, Katie
Days/Time: MTWR, 11:30am – 12:25pm
4 credit hour High Impact GE Class
Description
This course examines the history and biology of vaccines. We explore the discovery and development of vaccines, along with the political and cultural controversies that have surrounded them for centuries. Team-taught course with faculty member in Pharmacy.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Health and Well-being
European History
History 1212- European History II
Instructor: Bond, Elizabeth
Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous
Description
This class introduces students to the political, economic, social, and cultural history of modern Europe from roughly 1500 to the present. This course contextualizes European history within a global frame. We will study the major changes of the modern period, including: the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the emergence of new models of states and empires; the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment; the Age of Revolutions, democracy, and human rights; the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, and popular politics; the First World War, technology, and diplomacy; World War II and the Holocaust; the Cold War and the collapse of communism; decolonization and globalization; and life in Europe today. This survey course also focuses on how these larger trends were experienced by people. Readings, lectures, and films will highlight how these moments in modern European history were lived.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 1212 European History II
Instructor: Conklin, Alice
Second Session
Days/Time: Online Asynchronous
Description
This class introduces students to the political, social, and cultural developments that shaped the history of modern Europe since 1660. Some topics include responses to war and crisis in early modern Europe; the emergence of new ideas questioning absolutism during the Enlightenment; the birth of representative politics and democratic institutions; scientific innovation, industrialization, and the new technologies; the ideologies of modernity such as conservatism, liberalism, socialism, and nationalism; the effects of European colonialism and imperialism; the new social classes and changing gender roles; the triumph of the nation-state and the two world wars; challenges to the democratic order and experiments in socialism and fascism; the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing; the divided world during the Cold War and the overthrow of the communist regimes; and decolonization, multiculturalism, and globalization. Using a variety of primary sources, students will learn and debate about the historical developments that created the modern European state, society, and culture.
General Education
GE historical study and diversity global studies course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.
Required Texts
All required readings are provided on CARMEN via PDFs or web links.
Assignments
- Quizzes: 5%
- Weekly discussion forum posts: 30%
- Two 2-page reflection papers: 20% (10% each)
- Midterm exam: 20%
- Final exam: 25%.
History 3230 Saints and Demons in Medieval Europe
Instructor: Ellen Arnold
Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
Study of the development of Medieval Christianity from Constantine to the early sixteenth century.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 3246 Tudor and Stuart Britain, 1485-1714
Instructor: Butler, Sara
Days/Time: MWF, 1:50pm – 2:45pm
Description
The social, political, and religious history of England and the British Isles in the age of Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
History 3247 Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (1450-1750)
Instructor: Butler, Sara
Days/Time: MWF, 10:20am – 11:15am
Description
Investigation of the history of European witchcraft, focusing on intellectual, religious, and social developments and on the great witchcraft trials of the early modern period.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 3250 Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe, 1750-1815
Instructor: Bond, Elizabeth
Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous
Description
A survey of European but especially French history from the crisis of the Old Regime to the end of the wars of the French Revolution.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
History 3253 20th Century Europe to 1950
Instructor: Kern, Stephen
Days/Time: TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
Description: This course covers one of the most dynamic periods in modern European history from 1900 to 1950 that spans the two world wars. It will concentrate on Modernist culture, World War I, the Russian Revolution, Weimar Germany, the rise of Nazism, and Hitler and the holocaust.
Required Texts / Assigned Readings:
Richard Hamilton, Decisions for War, 1914-1917.
Rex Wade, The Russian Revolution, 1917.
Eric Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy.
Rudolph Binion, Hitler and the Holocaust
Assignments:
Three papers, 5 pages each.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 3254 Europe Since 1945: From the Iron Curtain to Fortress Europe
Instructor: Dragostinova, Theodora
Days/Time: WF, 11:10am – 12:30pm
This upper-level lecture course explores the post-World War II history of Europe through the examination of several discrete themes: the rebuilding of the continent after the war; the origins and development of the Cold War in Europe; the notion of Iron Curtain as part of Cold War rhetoric and practice; the end of European empires and the Cold War in the Third World; postcolonial and labor migrations and the making of multicultural Europe; protest movements and youth counterculture; European economic and political integration before and after 1989; the emergence of the notion of Fortress Europe in relation to migration within and to the old continent; and changes in historical memory and European identities over time. Tracing developments both in Western and Eastern Europe comparatively, the class interrogates the shifting meanings of West, East, and Europe from the Cold War until today.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility
Required Texts / Assigned Readings (tentative)
Most readings will be provided via Carmen, but students will also read three works of fiction, which may include (don’t purchase yet):
Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper: A Berlin Story (Pantheon Books, 1983).
Buchi Emecheta, Second-Class Citizen (George Braziller, 1983).
Alexandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives (Picador, 2014).
Assignments
Weekly reflection papers: 30%
Two midterm essay exams: 30% (15% each)
Final essay exam or research project: 20%
Attendance: 10%
Participation in discussion: 10%
History 3260 Britain in the 19th Century
Instructor: Otter, Chris
Days/Time: WF, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
This lecture course provides a survey of British history, including imperial history, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. It covers many dimensions of British history: political, economic, social, religious, medical, technological, scientific, and environmental. The central themes of the course are the rise of liberalism as a political and economic theory, the development of industrial and urban society, the dramatic growth of the British Empire, the Irish famine, individualism and self-help, and the rise of social problems. The course will explore how Britain and its governments attempted to generate economic strength while simultaneously ameliorating the ‘social question’. The tensions between economic freedom and social protection remain central to British politics, just as they do in America.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
Assignments
3 response papers and a final paper.
History 3641 Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (1450-1750): Diversity in Context
Instructor: Jordan Schoonover
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Investigation of the lives and experiences of early modern European women, with special focus on family life, gender, work, education, religious life, and political power.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 3642 Women in Modern Europe, from the 18th century to the Present
Instructor: Soland, Birgitte
Days/Time: TR, 3:55pm – 5:15pm
Description
This course is designed as an introduction to the history of women and gender in Europe, from the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Several themes will be central to the course. We will study the enormous social, political, and economic upheavals Europe underwent in the 18th century, and how these upheavals also recast gender relations and produced new ideas about men and women and their respective roles and responsibilities. We will also explore how women strove to shape and improve their lives under changing circumstances, and how relationships between women and men developed both inside the family and in society in general. Finally, we will look at how economic position, religion, sexuality, marital status, ethnic and national differences influenced women's experiences.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
Assigned Readings
Most assigned readings will consist in primary sources, i.e. evidence drawn from the time under investigation. The primary sources will be complemented with historical scholarship in the form of articles and book chapters. All required readings will be made available electronically, and students will not be required to purchase any books for the course.
Assignments
Students are required to complete one take-home midterm exam and one take-home final exam. Both of these exams will be in essay format. The expected page length for the midterm essay will be approximately 7-8 typed, double-spaced pages; the expected page length for the final exam will be approximately 10-12 typed, double-spaced pages.
History 3265 20th-Century German History
Instructor: Eric Limbach
Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
Exploration from 1914 to the present of German cultural, economic, political, and social history.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Jewish History
History 2453 History of Zionism and Modern Israel
Instructor: Yehudai, Ori
Days/Times: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
This course explores the history of the Jewish state from the rise of the Zionist movement to the present. It begins by examining the social and ideological roots of Zionism in late 19th-century Europe, proceeds with the development of the Jewish community in Palestine under Ottoman and British rule, and then turns to the period following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Among the issues to be discussed are Jewish-Arab relations, immigration, the encounter between European and Middle Eastern Jews, the creation of a new Hebrew identity, the interaction between religion and state, the impact of the Holocaust, and Israel’s international status. Course materials include secondary historical sources, a variety of primary documents, short stories, and films.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
Course textbook: Anita Shapira, Israel: A History (available online through the library website)
Assignments
Midterms, book review, film response (subject to change)
History 2455 Jews in American Film
Instructor: Goldish, Matt
Days/Times: Hybrid, M, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
A study of how modern Jews appear in film compared with historical reality.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 3480 Israel/Palestine: History of the Present
Instructor: Yehudai, Ori
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
The course will enable students to reflect on the ways in which the past informs interpretations of the present and the ways in which the present informs interpretations of the past. The course will adopt a broad definition of the "present", investigating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict primarily against the background of the collapse of the Oslo peace process in the early 2000s.
General Education
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Latin American History
History 3100 Colonial Latin America
Instructor: Delgado, Jessica
Days/Time: TR, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
Mayan, Aztec, and Incan Empires; the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and the transplanting of Iberian institutions; the Baroque period; the Bourbon Century and the Enlightenment.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3106 History of Mexico
Instructor: Smith, Stephanie
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
Mexico faces many crucial issues today: immigration, the environment, cartels, the rights of women and indigenous peoples, economic and trade issues, the role of the United States, and others. Although these topics are current and timely, their historical context can be located throughout several centuries of struggle. Beginning with the Olmecs, Maya, and Aztecs, “HIST 3106” analyzes Mexico’s dynamic history during the pre-Conquest period, the colonial era, the time of Independence, the nineteenth-century, and the present. Throughout the semester we will examine patterns of conflict and negotiation, including Hernan Cortes’ invasion of the Aztec Empire (or the Spanish-Aztec War, 1519–21), and the great Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), which shaped Mexico’s historical legacies. In addition to a study of Mexico’s politics, we also will explore the ways in which everyday people participated in and influenced cultural and political events. The role of women, race, and ethnicity will be analyzed throughout the lectures, as will Mexico’s transcultural interactions. And lastly, the course will consider Mexico’s rich culture, including movies, literature, and artists.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts / Assigned Readings
There will be one required textbook that students will buy, and 3 other texts that will be available online through the OSU library.
Military History
History 2550 History of War
Instructor: Grimsley, Mark
Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous
“History of War” is an introduction to the salient concepts and problems involved in the study of military history. Although it examines war from prehistoric times to the present, the course is thematic rather than strictly chronological—less a survey of wars and military developments per se than an examination of the major concepts involved in the study of war. In addition, the course focuses extensively on the warrior codes of various cultures (Greek, Roman, Japanese, Native American, etc.). The study of the warrior code will include a practical exercise on incorporating the warrior ethos into one’s own life. Students will achieve an understanding of the causes, conduct, and consequences of war, as well as how various societies—past and present, western, and nonwestern—have understood and practiced war. They will also hone their skills at critical writing and analysis and gain greater insight into the way historians explore the human condition.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts / Assigned Readings (tentative)
Shannon E. French, The Code of the Warrior: Exploring Warrior Values Past and Present.
Victor Davis Hanson, Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power.
Wayne E. Lee, Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History.
Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.
William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th edition.
Selected articles and primary source documents.
Assignments
Participation in Discussions – 10 percent of course grade
Personal Challenge Assignment – 10 percent (for details, see special comments, below)
Quizzes – 30 percent
Completion and Submission of Surveys – 5 percent
Midterm Examination – 20 percent
Final Exam – 25 percent
Special Comment
The Personal Challenge Assignment (PCA) is a practical exercise to carry the warrior ethos from the realm of mere head knowledge to an opportunity to experience it personally and, in the process, to discover and explore the warrior within oneself. The essence of the warrior ethos is aggressive, self-disciplined action taken on behalf of a cause larger than oneself. Self-improvement counts as such a cause, because it creates a person larger than one’s present self, a person better equipped to deal with the demands, stresses, and opportunities of life. Students will select one of the following challenges: 1) overcoming procrastination; 2) mental and emotional health; 3) general exercise; 4) strength training; 5) weight control; 6) improving study skills. Students will be divided into Discussion Groups based on their selected challenge.
History 2550 History of War
Instructor: Sarah Douglas
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
A survey of the main concepts and issues involved in the study of war in world perspective, using case studies from prehistoric times to the present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3270 History of World War I
Instructor: Sarah Douglas
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Origins, conduct, and consequences of the First World War in global context.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
History 3551 War in World History, 1651-1899
Instructor: Grimsley, Mark
Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous
Description
This course is an introduction to the salient concepts and problems involved in the study of military history from the mid-17th century to the turn of the 20th century. The most significant development during this period was the rise of the West (Europe and its settler societies, such as the United States) to global dominance. Consequently it will be a prominent course theme. We will also give extended attention to the ways in which the Age of Democratic Revolution (circa 1760-1800) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) profoundly influenced military affairs in Europe and the United States.
In addition, students will achieve an understanding of ways in which Europeans were influenced by warrior codes stretching back to ancient Greece. The course contends that the martial warrior ethos translates metaphorically into civilian life. Students will therefore undertake a Personal Challenge Assignment to achieve a better grasp of the warrior ethos. Students may choose any challenge they find meaningful; for example, weight control, regular exercise, and overcoming procrastination.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
Assigned Readings
Wayne E. Lee, Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History.
Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.
Gunther E. Rothenberg, The Art of War in the Age of Napoleon.
Selected articles, essays, and primary documents.
Assignments
Participation in Discussion Groups (10 percent of course grade)
Personal Challenge Assignment (10 percent)
Weekly quizzes (15 percent)
Graded Surveys (5 percent)
Midterm Examination (25 percent)
Final Examination (35 percent)
Notes
To get a sense of what the online lectures will be like, visit Prof. Grimsley’s “The History of War” playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLguJ2ro8FC3AW93d-MUFayfSUY2ITRtS7
Students are required to undertake a Personal Challenge Assignment. For information about this project, please watch this 6-minute video. https://youtu.be/MRgDZH-7bX0?si=aO-Lqx3rhzP_33QB
History 3552 War in World History, 1900-Present (The Experience of War in the 20th Century)
Instructor: Cabanes, Bruno
Days/Time: TR, 9:35am – 10:55am
Description
The past hundred years have changed the nature of war. Industrial warfare and global conflicts led to an inexorable intensification of violence. From trench warfare in World War I to ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, the total number of deaths caused by or associated with war has been estimated at the equivalent of 10% of the world’s population in 1913. In the course of the century, the burden of war shifted increasingly from armed forces to civilians, to the point where non-combatants now comprise some 80 or 90% of war victims. This lecture course investigates the blurring of distinction between combatants and non-combatants, as well as the experiences of ordinary men and women who lived through the wars of the 20th Century. It covers events such as World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and topics such as the experience of captivity, sexual violence in wartime, children in war, or genocides.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
Required Texts / Assigned Readings
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin
Henri Alleg, The Question
Jean Hatzfeld, Machete Season. The Killers in Rwanda Speak
Assignments
The final grade in the course will be an average of the four grades given for: a short 2000-word paper (20%), the mid-term examination (25%), lecture Quick Writes/Quizzes (25%); the final examination (30%).
History 3561 Citizenship and American Military History: 1902 to the Present
Instructor: Mansoor, Peter
Days/Time: WF, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
This course examines how uniformed service impacted Americans' conception of citizenship from the aftermath of the Spanish-American War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after the terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland on September 11, 2001.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3580 The Vietnam War
Instructor: Parrot, Joseph
Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
Study of the background, causes, conduct, and consequences of the Vietnam War, 1945-1975.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
Seminars
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Joan Cashin
Days/Time: Online, Synchronous, TR, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Topic: Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation
This course is designed to introduce undergraduates to the historical method, that is, how historians write history. We will learn how to distinguish between primary sources, which are generated by historical figures, and secondary courses, which are written by historians. We will examine important events in historical context, concentrating on a specific issue, Abraham Lincoln, and emancipation. We will explore how Lincoln reached the decision to free the slaves, how his political opponents reacted in the North, and how African Americans experienced freedom on the ground.
Required Materials
Students will read two books, William Gienapp’s biography, Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, and his document collection, This Fiery Trial: The Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln.
Students will also examine a variety of primary sources that can be found online: newspapers, military correspondence, personal letters, diaries, memoirs, political cartoons, and museum artifacts.
Students will also make short verbal presentations in class about their research in the primary sources. They will write short papers on the articles, and a longer paper, due at the end of term, on Lincoln and emancipation.
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Kern, Stephen
Days/Time: MW, 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Hoffmann, David
Days/Time: Online, Asynchronous
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
History 2800H Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Goldish, Matthew
Days/Time: MW, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
Prerequisites
Honors Standing
History 4125 Seminar in Latin American History
Instructor: Smith, Stephanie
Days/Time: R, 2:20pm – 5:05pm
Topic: “Revolutions and Revolutionaries in Modern Latin America”
Description
What is a revolution? Why are successful revolutions such rare events? Why have so many revolutions failed and so few succeeded? Who are the revolutionaries? What is guerrilla warfare, and why do people resort to guerrilla warfare? What happens after the revolution, and how do revolutionaries rebuild/create a new government? What is the difference between a revolution and social movement? And historically, what was the complex relationship between the United States and modern Latin American countries, and why was the U.S. interested in Latin America?
This course examines these and other questions to analyze the history and meanings of revolutions and revolutionaries in modern Latin America. Starting with Mexico’s great revolution, we will move forward to analyze other revolutions and social movements in Guatemala, Cuba, Nicaragua, and others. Throughout this class we will discuss the causes of revolution, their changing historical nature, and revolutionary outcomes. Additionally, we also will consider dictatorships in Chile and Argentina to examine the search for social justice and reform. To better understand the inclusion of all peoples within the revolutionary experience, the course includes a consideration of the concepts of class, gender, and race and ethnicity. In this manner, we will pay special attention to historical actors to explore participation from the ground level up. We also will look at U.S. involvement in Latin American countries, including the role of the U.S. in revolutions and in the creation of a post-revolutionary society. Through an examination of these various historical factors, this class ultimately will provide a context for many of the major issues facing Latin American today.
Required Texts:
TBA, although most of the assigned readings will be available online through the OSU library or on Carmen.
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4215 Seminar in Greek History
Instructor: Anderson, Greg
Days/Time: T, 2:15pm – 5:00pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Greek History.
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4325 Seminar in African History
Instructor: Kobo, Ousman
Days/Time: TR, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in African History.
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4410 Seminar in Chinese History
Instructor: Reed, Chris
Days/Time: 2:20pm – 3:40pm
Topic: The 2nd Sino-Japanese War, 1937-45
Description
In July 1937, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) were involved in what initially seemed to be a minor military skirmish with Republican (not Communist) Chinese soldiers at the Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao) near Beijing. Since the 19th century, Japanese and other foreign troops had frequently used/provoked such events to provide their political leaders at home with excuses to send military reinforcements to China. This time, however, what the Japanese used to call “The China Incident” grew into a protracted eight-year continental war. Also, the Japanese goals of establishing an anti-Communist, anti-imperialist alliance against Russia & the Western imperialists, particularly Britain and America; creating an East Asian “civilization” (so-called “New Order” announced by P.M. Prince Konoe Fumimaro in Nov 1938); a reformed economy (“Yen Bloc”); and a stable new Chinese government that was friendly to Japan grew ever-more elusive.
In their desperation to end the war by imposing a full embargo on Chiang Kai-shek’s alleged pro-Communist wartime government holed up in Chongqing, the Japanese eventually attacked and invaded British-controlled Hong Kong, US-colonized Philippines, all of Southeast Asia from French Indochina across Thailand to British Malaya, Singapore, Burma, and India; the Dutch East Indies; New Guinea; and they even assaulted Darwin, Australia. They also attacked the American-controlled, pre-statehood territory of Hawaii, due east of Japan’s post-WWI Pacific Mandates (Marshall, Caroline, and Marianna islands). In the process, the Japanese added to the China Incident what they call the Pacific War (1941-45) and what the West calls World War II. Behind it all, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) churned on unceasingly and remained the justification for all the Empire of Japan’s various post-1940 “sideshows.”
This course, taught by a modern China history specialist, will examine this 2nd Sino-Japanese War from Chinese and Japanese political, economic, military, and civilian perspectives. Like all 4000-level Readings/Research Seminars, the course will emphasize readings, discussion, sources, and student-initiated writing projects rather than lectures. Throughout the course, we will use the case study of the 2SJW to better understand the broader historical field of late modern East Asian, particularly Chinese and Japanese, history.
Required Texts
This class will have one or more required texts (TBD).
Notes
This course is designed for junior- or senior-level History majors, especially those who have already taken History 2800. It fulfills a 4000-level seminar requirement for History majors. It can also count toward the History minor. Non-History majors/minors are welcome to take the course with the professor’s permission. For this course and for success in it, there are no formal or fixed academic prerequisites other than good reading, writing, & work habits.
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4575 Seminar in Military History
Instructor: Cabanes, Bruno
Days/Time: W, 9:35am – 12:20pm
Topic: The First World War
Description
This course is a research and writing seminar that explores and analyzes the history of World War I. Students will read and discuss books, articles and documents related especially to the social and cultural aspects of the conflict. They will be asked to submit a 20-page research paper, based on primary sources by the end of the semester.
Required Texts
Bruno Cabanes, August 1914: France, The Great War, and a Month that Changed the World Forever (Yale University Press, 2016)
Martha Hanna, Your Death Would be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War (Harvard University Press, 2006) (Web e-book, Thompson Library)
Jennifer Keene, Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)
Assignments
Once during the semester, students will be asked to lead the discussion on the required readings; a 20-page research paper, based on primary sources, will be the core requirement of the course (40% of the final grade).
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4705 Seminar in the History of Environment, Technology, and Science
Instructor: Eaglin, Jennifer
Days/Time: W, 12:45pm – 3:30pm
Topic: "Energy in the Americas"
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Environmental History, Technology and Science.
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4706 Chronic: Illness, Injury, and Disability in Modern History
Instructor: Moore, Erin
Days/Times: TR, 3:55pm – 5:15pm
Description
This seminar explores the emergence of "chronic" - the disease category and the illnesses it names - over the course of the 20th century. We consider the political economic, environmental, and techno-social conditions that gave rise to chronic illness in modern history, and consider factors including public health policy, the pharmaceutical industry, activism, pop culture, and more.
General Education
GEN Theme: Health and Well-being
Prerequisites
A grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
History 4015H Honors Seminar in History: The "Fifties": Life in the United States, 1948-1963
Instructor: Stebenne, David
Days/Time: M, 9:35am – 12:20pm
Description
An examination of American life in the immediate post World War II period. Emphasis on the creation of a large military establishment and collective security agreements such as NATO, Cold War conflicts (most notably in Korea) and the U.S.-Soviet arms race, moderate (Eisenhower-era) conservatism, mass suburbanization, the baby boom, the re-emphasis on domesticity for women, the advent of television, the revival of mainstream religion, the Beats and other dissenters against the Fifties' system, and the other forces (economic, political, social, and cultural) that eventually undermined the stability of the Fifties' system, such as superpower confrontations in the global South, environmental pollution, and the increasing challenges to racial segregation in law and everyday life.
Required Texts
This class will have one or more required texts.
Assignments
Attendance at, and lively participation in, all class discussions; a 3-5 page research paper prospectus; and a first draft and a final draft of a 20-page research paper.
Weekly reading assignment delve into the various topics; approximately 125-150 pages per week.
Prerequisites
Honors standing, a grade of C or above in History 2800, and any 3000-level History course; or permission of instructor.
Women's Gender & Sexuality History
History 3620 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States, 1940-Present
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Time: WF, 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
An overview of LGBT culture and history in the U.S. from 1940 to the present. Students will examine changes in LGBT lives and experiences during the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, as well as the intersections of race, sexuality, and class, and how these categories have affected sexual minority communities and broader US law and culture.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 3641 Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (1450-1750): Diversity in Context
Instructor: Jordan Schoonover
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Investigation of the lives and experiences of early modern European women, with special focus on family life, gender, work, education, religious life, and political power.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
World, Global, Transnational History
History 1211- Western Society to 1600: Rise, Collapse, and Recovery
Instructor: Parker, Geoffrey
Days/Time: Online, Synchronous recitation each Monday and 2 asynchronous lectures each week
Description
For better or worse, Western societies have become extremely prominent in the world today – not just in the West but (thanks to Karl Marx and the Internet) around the world. How did this process begin? What is distinctive about Western values? These are two of the questions that this course seeks to answer. In addition, we will examine How Things Happen:
- Why did the West develop at such an early stage the right to free speech guaranteed in this country by the First Amendment?
- Why were 50% of all Western populations in this period under the age of 20?
- How could 167 Spaniards overthrow the Inca Empire, with perhaps 8 million subjects, and go on to dominate much of South America?
The course also offers strategies on how to identify, among masses of facts, the aberration from the trend, the cause from the contingent, the important from the incidental, and the continuities among the changes.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Required Texts
Wiesner-Hanks, Crowston, Perry & McKay, A history of Western society, Volume I: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment, 13th edition (2020)
Wiesner-Hanks, Evans, Wheeler and Ruff, Discovering the Western Past, Volume I: to 1789, 7th edition (2015)
Assignments
Watch all materials for the course posted online.
Read and discuss all assigned readings; attend and participate in all group discussions (20% of total grade)
Complete all assigned recitation exercises (20% of total grade)
One 5-page term paper (30% of total grade)
One final exam (30% of total grade)
History 1682 World History from 1500 to the Present
Instructor: Eric Limbach
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of the human community, with an emphasis on its increasing global integration, from the first European voyages of exploration through the present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2650 The World Since 1914
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Time: WF, 11:10am – 12:30pm
Description
Global perspective on major forces that shaped the world since 1914. Provides students with factual knowledge and a critical interpretive framework for responsible global citizenship.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2650 The World since 1914
Instructor: Eric Limbach
Second Session
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Description
Global perspective on major forces that shaped the world since 1914. Provides students with factual knowledge and a critical interpretive framework for responsible global citizenship.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Other
History 3676 Leadership in History
Instructor: Robin Judd
Days/Time: TR 9:30am – 10:50am
Description
From our nation’s capital to the town council, from business to faith, it is commonplace to hear that we live in a crisis, or absence, of leadership. But what does good leadership mean? And what is its inexorable connection to citizenship? This course employs the lessons, models, and narratives of history to consider different characteristics of leadership and analyze how those qualities might shape students’ own vision of what it means to be an informed citizen. We encourage students to apply historical thinking to answer the questions: What does citizenship, leadership, and followership mean? What responsibilities do we have as citizens to identify and protect the needs, objectives, and values of our communities? How should we act in order to be the kind of people we would wish to follow? Throughout the semester, students will analyze specific historical case studies, which will offer narratives of citizenship, community building and change-making. These case studies will encourage students to think critically, read thoughtfully, compare events across time and place, and articulate and advance ideas with clarity and a generosity of spirit -- all essential tools in becoming informed and active citizens. Moreover, they emphasize the ways in which making connections—to other persons, communities, and environments — shapes how people act as citizens.
General Education
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Required Texts
Sarah Federman, Last Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability Kelly McFall and Abigail Perkiss, Changing the Game: Title IX, Gender, and College Athletics
Premilla Nadasen, Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement
Assignments
Weekly reading questions, simulation exercise, short essay/reflection, and group project