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African History
History 2302 History of Modern Africa, 1800-1960s
Instructor: Sikainga, Ahmad
Days/Times: TR, 11:10am-12:30pm
Second Session
Description
Thematic survey of African History from 1800 to the 1960s.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3307 History of African Health and Healing
Instructor: McDow, Dodie
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
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 3308 History of US-Africa Relations, 1900-Present
Instructor: Kobo, Ousman
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
History of the United States’ relations with Africa since World War I. Sometimes this course is offered in a distance-only format.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies
History 3312 Africa & World War II
Instructor: Sikainga, Ahmad
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Second Session
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
History 3314 From Rubber to Coltan: A Long History of Violence and Exploitation in Central Africa
Instructor: Van Beurden, Sarah
Days/Times: MW, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
What does your cellphone have to do with conflict in central Africa? And what did the rubber boom of the late 19th century have to do with colonial violence in the same region? And how are these related? This course will help you understand how the past has shaped the present in central Africa, and how global economic systems are connected to localized violence.
The Great Lakes region in Central Africa is home to some of the world’s most prized economic resources. Based on an economy ravaged by the slave trade, a 19th century colonial extractive system emerged that focused first on ivory, later on rubber, and expanded in the 20th century to include diamonds, copper, gold, uranium, and lately coltan, crucial for the development of cellphone and computer technology. After a tumultuous decolonization, the region became home to some of the more violent conflicts of the past decades, including the Rwanda Genocide and the ongoing conflict in Eastern Congo.
This course will explore how the histories of economic exploitation, political authoritarianism, and the supposedly ethnic conflict in this region are intertwined, and how seemingly local conflicts have global roots. The first two modules of this course focus on the colonial history of the area, which was colonized in the late 19th century by the Belgian king Leopold II (Congo), Germany (Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania) and the UK (Uganda). The second part of the course will focus on the post-colonial history of the region, starting with the reign of the military dictator Mobutu and the continued economic exploitation of the Congo, to the Rwanda genocide, the UN missions in the region, the Great War of Africa, and the continuing conflicts in eastern Congo. We will explore the role of conflict minerals, international media reporting on the conflict (particularly on the violence against women), and the role of guerrilla groups such as M23 in the conflict.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies
History 4325 Seminar in African History
Instructor: Kobo, Ousman
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the relationship between China and Africa has been accelerating exponentially. By 2012, China had emerged Africa's largest trading partner, surpassing the United States and Europe, Africa’s historical trading partners. In the diplomatic arena, China also managed to secure a broader African support for its global diplomacy in ways that suggests a mutual economic and political gains. This course employs a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and historicize this relationship. It examines closely the economic and political relations between the two regions dating back to at least the 1960s (but even before foreign dominations of the two territories between the 18th and 19th centuries). We will trace the trajectory of this relationship to the era before the 1960s, but our focus will be from the 1960s to the present, with particular attention to interrogating how the post-Cold War relationships represented a rupture or continuity. As a multi-disciplinary course grounded in history, the course will thus encourage students to see how various interests impact the ways academics and policy-makers frame Africa-China relations in both historical and contemporary terms. We will also examine issues of culture and race to explain how cultural perspectives and racialized discourses also shape that relationship. In doing, we want to recognize Africans’ agencies in shaping their relationship with China, without overlooking the vast difference in power and influence that China wields in its foreign engagements. The seminar aims to provide students with the tools to develop and understand not only China’s impact on Africa, but also how African actors actively shape their relations with China in the context of their past history of imperial domination as well as the dynamics of shifting global power.
African American History
History 2081 African American History from 1877
Instructor: Fontanilla, Ryan
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
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, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 3086 Black Women in Slavery and Freedom
Instructor: Hammack, María
Days/Times: TR, 3:55-5:15pm
Description
Traces the experiences and struggles of African American women from slavery through the Civil Rights/Black Power era.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility
American History
History 1152 American History since 1877
Instructor: TBD
Days/Time: TBD
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 2046 Christianity and Liberation in the USA
Instructor: Brakke, David
Days/Times: TR 12:45pm – 2:05pm
Description
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 ethni2city 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
History 2750 Natives and Newcomers: Immigration and Migration in U.S. History
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Times: WF, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
General survey of (im)migration history in the U.S. from precolonial times to the present. Topics include cultural contact, economic relations, citizenship, politics, family, and sexuality.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3013 Civil War and Reconstruction
Instructor: Cashin, Joan
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
The causes, character, and consequences of America’s inter-sectional war and the post-war settlement.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
History 3014 Gilded Age to Progressive Era, 1877-1920
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
Advanced study of U.S. social, political, cultural, foreign policy history from 1877-1920: Industrialization; immigration; urbanization; populism; Spanish-American War; progressivism; WWI.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3014 Gilded Age to Progressive Era, 1877-1920
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
Description
Advanced study of U.S. social, political, cultural, foreign policy history from 1877-1920: Industrialization; immigration; urbanization; populism; Spanish-American War; progressivism; WWI.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3015 From the New Era to the New Frontier, 1921-1963
Instructor: Stebenne, David
Days/Times: TR, 11:10am-12:30pm
Description
Examination of the major political, economic, social and cultural changes in the USA from the end of World War I through the early 1960’s. Emphasis on the polarized nature of American life in the 1920’s; the seismic shocks brought by the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War; how they helped propel the revival of a much bigger middle class and the decline of social polarization during the 1950's; and the problems that new social system began to create.
Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State (2016)
Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe, A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression (2017)
John Hersey, Hiroshima (1985 ed.)
Richard Fried, The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!: Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold-War America (1998)
Alan Ehrenhalt, The Lost City: Discovering the Forgotten Virtues of Community in the Chicago of the 1950’s (1996)
Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (2005)
Joyce Johnson, Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir (1994)
Assignments
A midterm, a final and a short (5-7 page) paper based on the assigned reading.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
Notes:
Students planning to pursue a master’s in education should note that this course satisfies one of the course requirements in history, Group B, post 1750. This course counts toward the Historical Studies category of the legacy GE or the Traditions, Cultures and Transformations theme in the new GE. It also counts toward the four courses needed to complete a history minor.
History 3016 The Contemporary U.S. since 1963
Instructor: Elmore, Bart
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
Riots, hippies, and rock ‘n’ roll. That’s where we’ll start in this course as we examine American history since the death of John F. Kennedy. It gets more exciting from there as we talk about Black Power, Vietnam, and nuclear war with the Soviet Union. We’ll meet some of the most radical activists pushing for civil rights in this country and travel to the arid West where we’ll discuss eco-terrorists plans to blow up dams. As you can see, we’ll be detailing a time of revolution, but we’ll also document how these changes bred backlash. The course will tackle Reaganomics and examine how our economy has changed over time, and in our final weeks of class, we will devote time to a conversation about the most pressing issues of our day—climate change, for example—as we discuss how history can make us better citizens in the twenty-first century. Hang on, because it’s going to be a magical mystery tour.
Throughout the semester, you will come to know personalities from the past by reading speeches and primary source documents. You will also get to hear these historical actors express themselves in their own words, as we’ll watch a lot of films featuring historical footage of America. Students in the course will evaluate and interpret these primary sources each week and construct historical insights to share with fellow students in our sessions. Often the readings and videos 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
History 3017 The Sixties
Instructor: Steigerwald, Dave
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Examination of postwar America's pivot point, focusing on civil rights; liberal, radical, and conservative politics; sweeping social, cultural, and economic change; and the Vietnam War
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3030 History of Ohio
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of economic, social, political development of the geographic area that became Ohio from Native Americans to present.
General Education
GEL Historical Study
History 3040 The American City
Instructor: Howard, Clay
Days/Times: MWF, 1:50-2:45pm
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 3070 Native American History from European Contact to Removal, 1560-1820
Instructor: Newell, Margaret
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Major issues and events in Native American history from before the European invasion and colonization through the early 1820s.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility
History 3083 Civil Rights and Black Power Movements
Instructor: Jeffries, Hasan
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
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 3084 Citizens Behind Bars: Black Leadership and the Politics of Liberation in African American History
Instructor: Cook, DeAnza
Days/Times: Wednesdays, 5:30pm-8:15pm @ the Ohio Reformatory for Women
This offering of History 3084 is a class with students from Ohio State and students from the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a state prison. The class meets once a week at the prison facility in Lancaster. An application for this course is required: https://opeep.osu.edu/courses-0
Description
Every day more human beings are locked inside of jails, prisons, or secured facilities across the United States than in any other country on the planet. This course explores the history of citizenship in captivity and the legacy of liberatory movements led by incarcerated citizens in the US from the era of settler colonization and slavery to the present age of mass incarceration.
General Education
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3086 Black Women in Slavery and Freedom
Instructor: Hammack, María
Days/Times: TR, 3:55-5:15pm
Description
Traces the experiences and struggles of African American women from slavery through the Civil Rights/Black Power era.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility
History 3706 Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change 1800-Today
Instructor: Elmore, Bart
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Coca-Cola is everywhere. Today, the company sells over 2.2 billion servings of its products daily to customers in over 190 countries worldwide. The company has bottling plants in every corner of the globe from Australia to Zimbabwe. This is remarkable considering the company started out as a “brain tonic” first sold for just five cents in a small Gilded Age Atlanta pharmacy in 1886 by a sick and cash-strapped businessman named John Pemberton. So how did the company do it? That’s one of the big questions we will ask in this global environmental history course.
History 3706 offers an introduction to the fields of environmental history and business history. It is organized chronologically, beginning with the railroad revolution of the 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 ecological change between 1800 and 2017. It also considers the social and political responses to these environmental changes.
The questions we will ask in this course are not simple, and they will require us to re-imagine well-told stories from a new, ecological perspective. How did Coca-Cola acquire the natural resources it needed to end up all over the world? Can history tell us whether global climate change is real? Are Californians going to run out of water? We will deal with these and other intriguing questions as we explore the history of America in the world through the lens of environmental history.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 4015H Honors Seminar in Modern U.S. History
Instructor: Stebenne, David
Days/Times: M, 9:35am-12:20pm
Topic
American Legal History Since 1830
Description
An examination of the leading legal-historical controversies in the United States since 1830. Emphasis on the judiciary’s role in resolving major legal and political disputes, such as those arising out of slavery and emancipation, government support for industrialization and regulation of a modern market economy, pacifist agitation and restrictions on civil liberties during wartime, school desegregation, protections in law for criminal suspects and defendants, freedom of the press, privacy and reproductive rights, the death penalty and mass incarceration.
Required Texts
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835), vol. 1
Earl M. Maltz, Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery (2007)
Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Paul Kens, Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial (1998)
Marc Lendler, Gitlow v. New York: Every Idea an Incitement (2012)
John Fliter and Derek Hoff, Fighting Foreclosure: The Blaisdell Case, the Contract Clause, and the Great Depression (2012)
Roger Daniels, The Japanese American Cases: The Rule of Law in Time of War (2013)
Gregory S. Jacobs, Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and The Columbus Public Schools (1998)
Carolyn Long, Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures (2006)
Kermit Hall and Melvin Urofsky, New York Times v. Sullivan: Civil Rights, Libel Law, and the Free Press (2024)
John W. Johnson, Griswold v. Connecticut: Birth Control and the Constitutional Right of Privacy (2005)
David M. Oshinsky, Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and The Death Penalty in Modern America (2010)
Assignments
Attendance at, and lively participation in, all class meetings; a 3-5-page research paper prospectus; and a first draft and a final draft of a 15-page research paper.
Notes
History 3005 and/or 3006 recommended. One need not be working toward a history major or minor to take the course.
Ancient Mediterranean History
History 2221 Introduction to the New Testament: History and Literature
Instructor: Harrill, Bert
Days/Times: MWF, 10:20-11:15am
Description
How did a small group of Jews connected with a prophet named Jesus become a separate religion with its own rituals and literature about a “Son of God”? How did the early believers come to understand themselves to be a distinct group within the Roman Empire? In this course we shall examine the history and literature of the early Christians in their Greco-Roman world. Topics include actual letters to local congregations by a freelance apostle named Paul, the production of rival biographies or “gospels” about Jesus, and writings involving church organization and leadership. You will read the entire New Testament plus so-called apocryphal (hidden, “secret”) works such as the “Acts of Paul and Thecla,” the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” and the “Coptic Gospel of Thomas.” The course approaches New Testament and other early Christian literature historically, from outside the framework of any particular belief system.
Required Texts
1. New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, College Edition, edited by M. Coogan, M. Brettler, M. / C. Newsom, C. / and P. Perkins. Oxford University Press, 2018.
2. Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. 5th edition. Oxford University Press, 2021. You must have this edition.
3. Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr., Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels. 5th edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992.
Assignments
Two unit tests, one interpretative essay, and final examination
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Literature, GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3210 Archaic Greece
Instructor: Anderson, Greg
Days/Times: 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.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3215 Sex and Gender in the Ancient World
Instructor: Sessa, Tina
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
This course explores the history of sex, gender, race and ethnicity in ancient Greece and Rome, from ca. 750 BC to 200 CE. It introduces students to the roles of men and women in ancient Mediterranean society; to the household as a social unit, an economic center, and a physical space; to ancient ideals of femininity and masculinity; to ancient views on a variety of sexual practices that were commonplace in ancient Greece and Rome. It also introduces students to Greco-Roman constructions of race and ethnicity, and to how they variously intersected with gender and sexuality in thought, writing, and social practice. Additionally, the class aims to teach students how to understand the complex relationship between rhetorical constructions of gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity in (largely male-authored, Greco-Roman) literature and more representative social experiences of sex, gender, race, and ethnicity.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 3218 Paul & His Influence in Early Christianity
Instructor: Harrill, Bert
Days/Times: WF, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
Paul is the most powerful human personality in the history of the Church. His letters are the foundations on which later Christian theology is built. This course introduces the critical study of Paul's literary work as primary sources for reconstructing the development of the Christian movement. We explore how the figure changed over time. We look at the significance of Paul's life and the competing ways its story was retold, appropriated, or resisted. The student will study the Pauline literature closely and will read important secondary treatments of Paul, including areas of controversy in the interpretation of his life and thought. The course presupposes no prior coursework on the Bible or in the academic study of religion.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Literature, GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3222 The Roman Empire, 69-337 CE
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: TBD
Description
An advanced survey of Rome's imperial history from the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty to the death of Constantine.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 4217 Seminar in Late Antiquity
Instructor: Sessa, Tina
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Late Antiquity has often been characterized as an “age of migration,” and more darkly, as a period of “barbarian invasions.” Starting with Edward Gibbon, some modern historians have argued that these “foreign migrants” contributed to the fall of Rome. More recent scholarship, however, has significantly complicated our understanding of barbarian movements into and within the empire by pointing to the long history of non-Roman ethnic integration and assimilation (both forced and organic). Most historians now argue that migration and mobility were regular features of the ancient Mediterranean world as a whole. This course will explore why, how, and where people moved into, out of, and within the Late Roman Empire. We shall examine not only the history of barbarian movements (including questions of ethnicity and assimilation) but also the more quotidian experiences of mobility within the empire, from the seasonal migration of peasants and the itineraries of Christian pilgrims to forced displacement during disasters. We meet as a class for the first nine weeks to discuss primary and secondary source readings. During the final six weeks, students will work independently on a research project of their choice, with the goal of producing a 15-20 page paper. Additional assignments: weekly reading responses and a book review.
Asian History
History 2402 History of East Asia in the Modern Era
Instructor: Reed, Christopher
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
History 2402 is an introductory and explicitly comparative survey of early modern and late modern East Asian history that focuses on China, Korea, and Japan. It thematically examines the major political, social, economic, and military contexts and processes that shaped East Asia from 1600 up to the late 20th century. To do so, History 2402 extends, chronologically and to some extent spatially, topics some of you may have covered in History 2401 (which is not a required introduction to this course) and adds some new ones.
The basis of comparison is the three countries of East Asia themselves. The course is aimed at students with no background. There are no formal prerequisites other than good reading and writing skills 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.
China is the focus of much of the first third of the course, Korea of the second third, and Japan of much of the final third. The lectures will devote equal time to each of the three countries while including some comparative topics involving all three.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Diplomatic/International History
History 3501 U.S. Diplomacy, 1920-Present
Instructor: Parrott, Joe
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
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
History 4525 Seminar in International History
Instructor: Parrott, Joe
Days/Times: F, 2:15-5:00pm
Description
The Cold War defined the second half of the 20th century. The unique nature of the conflict – undeclared, transnational, and potentially apocalyptic – touched all parts of the globe in ways that even the previous world wars had not. It set two of history’s most powerful militaries and economies against each other for decades, inspiring a technologically driven weapons race and splitting much of the world into ideological camps whose borders were policed by proxy conflicts and propaganda campaigns. These expansive competitions and the constant fear of nuclear war effectively reshaped the way that nations defined both security and social relations. As the world seems poised once more to retreat into great power conflict, understanding the origins, dynamics, and legacies of the Cold War is more important than ever.
This course will prepare you to explore the history and historiography of the Cold War. It is designed to deepen your understanding of how historians have interpreted the diplomacy, politics, culture, and continuing influence of this era, while preparing you to conduct your own primary research into a specific topic related to the conflict.
Environment, Health, Technology, and Science
History 2700 Global Environmental History
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: TBD
Second Session
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 Resrcs, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Social and Behavioral Sciences
History 2701 History of Technology
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
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: Otter, Chris
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Food is implicated in all dimensions of human existence. It is a biological necessity, without which human beings slowly die. Control over food supplies is a basic function of all organized societies and polities. Shared food traditions and tastes shape cultural identities of particular groups. Human history can be told as a history of how food has been produced, distributed and consumed. This course offers a synoptic, global history of food. It begins with the history of fire and the Neolithic revolution (c.10,000 BCE) and the foundations of agriculture and ends with the recent wave of global “food crises” (late 1940s, early 1970s, early 2000s). In between, it explores the formation of food cultures in Europe, Asia and South America, and development of an integrated world food system from the sixteenth century. It examines the “nutrition transition” – the rise of a food complex built around animal proteins, dairy products, sugar and refined wheat – which began in the west in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is currently spreading across much of the rest of the world. It looks at the rise of the modern food industries, agribusiness, the green revolution, industrialized food production, fast food and the development of modern dietary anxieties and pathologies. It also examines the persistence of famines and global hunger over the past two centuries.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 2702 Food in World History
Instructor: Cahn, Dylan
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: Cahn, Dylan
Online, asynchronous
Second Session
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/Times: MWF, 9:10-10:05am
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: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
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/Times: 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
Instructor: Harris, Jim
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
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 HIP: Interdisciplinary and Integrated Coll Tch, GEN Theme: Lived Environments, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 3706 Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change 1800-Today
Instructor: Elmore, Bart
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Coca-Cola is everywhere. Today, the company sells over 2.2 billion servings of its products daily to customers in over 190 countries worldwide. The company has bottling plants in every corner of the globe from Australia to Zimbabwe. This is remarkable considering the company started out as a “brain tonic” first sold for just five cents in a small Gilded Age Atlanta pharmacy in 1886 by a sick and cash-strapped businessman named John Pemberton. So how did the company do it? That’s one of the big questions we will ask in this global environmental history course.
History 3706 offers an introduction to the fields of environmental history and business history. It is organized chronologically, beginning with the railroad revolution of the 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 ecological change between 1800 and 2017. It also considers the social and political responses to these environmental changes.
The questions we will ask in this course are not simple, and they will require us to re-imagine well-told stories from a new, ecological perspective. How did Coca-Cola acquire the natural resources it needed to end up all over the world? Can history tell us whether global climate change is real? Are Californians going to run out of water? We will deal with these and other intriguing questions as we explore the history of America in the world through the lens of environmental history.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US, GEN Theme: Sustainability
History 3708 Vaccines: A Global History
Instructor: Harris, Jim
Days/Times: MTWR, 11:30am-12:25pm
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 HIP: Interdisciplinary and Integrated Coll Tch, GEN Theme: Health and Well-being
History 3711 Science and Society in Early Modern Europe
Instructor: Goldish, Matt
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
A survey of the history of science and its place and relationship to European society in the early modern period. Students will understand the various strands that constitute the scientific revolution in early modern Europe, modern intellectual history, how revolutions in thought occur, and will practice analytical and communications skills in working with both secondary and primary sources.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Number, Nature, Mind
History 4705 Seminar in the History of Environment, Technology, and Science
Instructor: Breyfogle, Nicholas and Eaglin, Jennifer
Days/Times: M, 2:15-5:00pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Environmental History, Technology and Science.
History 4706 Chronic: Illness, Injury, and Disability in Modern History
Instructor: Moore, Erin
Days/Times: TR, 3:55-5:15pm
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
European History
History 1212- European History II
Instructor: TBD
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 2202 Medieval History
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
Survey of medieval history from the late Roman Empire to the early sixteenth century. Sometimes this course is offered in a distance-only format.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 2206 History of Paris
Instructor: Bond, Elizabeth
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
A history of Paris, France, as told through the human stories of its diverse inhabitants and shaped by the collective memories and stories surrounding the legendary City of Lights. Using a social and cultural history of the city, the course will examine and analyze the rich, complex, and multi-faceted environments that have shaped life in Paris for more than two millennia.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Lived Environments
History 2475 History of the Holocaust
Instructor: Judd, Robin
Days/Times: WF, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
It has been over seventy years since the Allies liberated the last of the Nazi camps and, yet we continue to debate the Holocaust’s history. How did the Nazis rise to power? When did the Nazi government begin to plan for the Final Solution? Who was culpable in planning and executing the genocide? This course will peel away at some of these questions. Together we will examine the state-sponsored murder of millions of Jews and non-Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. We will study the individuals, institutions, historical events, and ideologies that allowed for the Holocaust to occur.
We will begin our study with an analysis of historical factors that predated the Nazi rise to power. After we study the histories of antisemitism and early 20th century Europe, we will consider how the Nazis assumed and consolidated power during the early 1930s. The next segment of the class will examine the crucial period of 1933-1938, paying close attention to the erratic anti-Jewish and anti-Roma policies of the era and the myriad of responses to them. In the third portion of the course, we will explore the Final Solution. We then will consider the Holocaust’s aftermath and legacy in Germany, Israel, and the United States. At the end of the semester, we will discuss the contemporary rise of antisemitism and xenophobia.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3232 Solving Crime in Medieval Europe
Instructor: Butler, Sara
Days/Times: WF, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
This course explores the interaction between the development of criminal law and social change in the late medieval period from a comparative perspective, examining primarily the English common law, but also the continental courts of law. Topics such as trial by ordeal; forensic medicine; homicide; sex crimes; clerical criminals; treason; sanctuary; and fear-mongering, will be explored.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 3245 The Age of Reformation
Instructor: Brakke, David
Days/Times: T, 3:55-5:15pm
Description
"During the sixteenth century, European Christians fought bitterly over the most basic questions of their faith: What is sin? How are people saved? What is the nature of religious authority? What are the sacraments, and how do they work? How do religious conviction and state citizenship go together if at all? The debates and reform movements that divided and rejuvenated the Roman Catholic Church make the century after 1517 one of the most fascinating and perplexing eras in the history of Christianity. Although we will not neglect social and political developments, this course will focus on the religious history of sixteenth-century Europe—the teachings and practices of the Lutheran, Anabaptist, Calvinist, Anglican, and Catholic reformers. We will study their roots in the medieval Church, especially in the thought of Augustine of Hippo, and consider what the diverse reform movements (both Protestant and Catholic) shared as well as how they differed. The rapid religious changes of this tumultuous century transformed how Europeans (including those who went to America) thought about faith and citizenship..
The course will combine online lectures with weekly in-person discussion of primary sources."
Required Readings
Denis Janz, A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions (2nd edition)
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
Recommended Texts
Carter Lindberg, The European Reformations
Assignments
1. Weekly Carmen quizzes on recorded lectures.
2. Attendance, preparation of readings, discussion board posts on readings, class discussions.
3. Map quiz
4. Two short papers (3–5 pages) on the readings
5. Midterm examination
6. Final examination
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations3245
History 3247 Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (1450-1750)
Instructor: Goldish, Matt
Days/Times: TR, 11:10am-12:30pm
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 Subjects to Citizens: A History of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe
Instructor: Bond, Elizabeth
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
The French Revolutionaries invented human rights and the metric system. They abolished feudalism and opened up all professions to merit, including the military. They formed one of the first modern republics, and they abolished slavery in colonial Haiti. They invented a new vocabulary for citizenship. Yet when we remember the French Revolution, we also think of the guillotine and the violence of the Reign of Terror. How and why did all of these elements converge in a few short years? In History 3250, we explore the complexity and contradictions of this key moment in the history of the modern world. Its legacies are still with us today.
Required Texts
Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo’s The French Revolution: A Document Collection, Second Edition (Hackett, 2023).
Mette Harder and Jennifer Ngaire Heuer’s Life in Revolutionary France (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Jeremy Popkin’s A Short History of the French Revolution, 8th edition. (Routledge, 2024).
Assignments
Assignments include discussion posts, two reading response essays, a book review, a film response, and weekly quizzes.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3254 Europe Since 1950: From the Iron Curtain to Fortress Europe
Instructor: Dragostinova, Theodora
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
Description
This upper-level course explores the post-World War II history of Europe through the examination of several discreet themes: the rebuilding of the continent after the war; the origins and development of the Cold War in Europe; the end of European empires and the Cold War in the Third World; immigration and the making of multicultural Europe; protest movements and youth counterculture; European economic and political integration during and after the Cold War; and changes in historical memory and European identities over time. Tracing developments in Western and Eastern Europe comparatively, the class interrogates the shifting meanings of West, East, and Europe from the Cold War until today, with a focus on migration, mobility, and immobility and their diverse manifestations.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility
History 3265 20th-Century German History
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: 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
History 3282 History of the Soviet Union
Instructor: Hoffmann, David
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
Description
History of the Soviet Union from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of communism in 1991.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 4255 Seminar in Modern European History
Instructor: Kern, Stephen
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Modern European History.
Jewish History
History 2453 History of Zionism and Modern Israel
Instructor: Yehudai, Ori
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
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
History 2475 History of the Holocaust
Instructor: Judd, Robin
Days/Times: WF, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
It has been over seventy years since the Allies liberated the last of the Nazi camps and, yet we continue to debate the Holocaust’s history. How did the Nazis rise to power? When did the Nazi government begin to plan for the Final Solution? Who was culpable in planning and executing the genocide? This course will peel away at some of these questions. Together we will examine the state-sponsored murder of millions of Jews and non-Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. We will study the individuals, institutions, historical events, and ideologies that allowed for the Holocaust to occur.
We will begin our study with an analysis of historical factors that predated the Nazi rise to power. After we study the histories of antisemitism and early 20th century Europe, we will consider how the Nazis assumed and consolidated power during the early 1930s. The next segment of the class will examine the crucial period of 1933-1938, paying close attention to the erratic anti-Jewish and anti-Roma policies of the era and the myriad of responses to them. In the third portion of the course, we will explore the Final Solution. We then will consider the Holocaust’s aftermath and legacy in Germany, Israel, and the United States. At the end of the semester, we will discuss the contemporary rise of antisemitism and xenophobia.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3480 Israel/Palestine: History of the Present
Instructor: Yehudai, Ori
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
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/Times: 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
History 3106 History of Mexico
Instructor: Smith, Stephanie
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
This course offers an intersectional study of the history of Mexico, highlighting the importance of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity from the precolonial era to the present day. Throughout the semester we will examine patterns of conflict and negotiation, including ways in which everyday people participated in and influenced cultural and political events. The roles of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity will be analyzed throughout the lectures and assignments, as will Mexico’s transcultural interactions. Additionally, the course will consider Mexico’s rich culture, including movies, literature, and artists.
Several themes considered during the course are: 1. The rich diversity of Mexico’s pre-Columbian indigenous societies, including the importance of gender and women’s diverse roles; 2. The complex interactions between the Spaniards and the indigenous populations of Mexico, including systems of oppression but also resistance; 3. The colonial era, including the hierarchical social systems based on ethnicity, as well as the roles of women, including Sor Juana and indigenous women; 4. The struggle for Independence and an analysis of Mexico’s indigenous participation; 5. The 19th century breakdown into chaos, the modernizing “Porfirian” dictatorship, and the horrific loss of indigenous land; 6. The Mexican Revolution, including an in-depth study of women’s diverse roles in the battles; 7. Mexico’s dynamic postrevolutionary art scene, with a focus on women artists and Frida Kahlo; 8. The rise of the country’s one-party state, the return of indigenous land under President Cárdenas, and struggle for women’s right to vote; 9. The 1968 student movements, including women’s participation; 10. Mexico’s ongoing efforts for just economic development, and the continuing movement for inclusion by Mexico’s indigenous population; 11. Mexico’s border with the United States, including the movement of peoples and resulting restructuring of gender norms within Mexico, as well as a discussion of the racial and ethnic assumptions surrounding current discussions on the immigration today; 12. Mexico’s current issues, including Mexico’s 2024 presidential election with two women candidates.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEL Diversity: Global Studies, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 4125 Seminar in Latin American History
Instructor: Smith, Stephanie
Days/Times: Online, R, 3:55-6:40pm
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, Argentina, and Brazil 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.
This class will have one or more required texts.
Middle Eastern History
History 2353 The Middle East Since 1914
Instructor: Akin, Yiğit
Days/Times: MW, 2:20-3:40pm
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.
Required Text
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2007) ISBN-13: 978-1596913431
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
History 3480 Israel/Palestine: History of the Present
Instructor: Yehudai, Ori
Days/Times: TR, 12:45-2:05pm
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
History 4375 Seminar in Islamic History
Instructor: Akin, Yiğit
Days/Times: W, 10:00am-1:00pm
Description
This research seminar focuses on the late ninetieth- and early twentieth centuries in the Middle East, a critical period in the region’s modern history, which saw a number of wars, revolutions, and a genocide. We will examine these development as transformative moments in the region’s politics, society, and culture. Collectively, they left behind profound legacies for the region and its people. Throughout our seminar, we will read notable examples of the recent scholarly literature on these wars, revolutions, and genocide and become familiar with key historical debates on them. Our readings and discussions will not only focus on the intellectual, political, and military elites but we will also examine how non-elite individuals and groups influenced the course of this tumultuous period war and how they were affected by it.
Military History
History 2550 History of War
Instructor: Grimsley, Mark
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
“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
History 2550 History of War
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
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: TBD
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
Description
A global history of World War I, with a particular focus on citizenship. As the first war in history waged by enormous citizen-soldier armies, this course considers citizenship within this paradigm-shifting conflict that would transform the global balance of power and power dynamics, as well as alter cultural and societal attitudes and practices both inside and outside of Europe.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 3551 War in World History, 1651-1899
Instructor: Grimsley, Mark
Days/Times: 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
History 3552 War in World History, 1900-Present
Instructor: Cabanes, Bruno
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
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, GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, & Transformations
History 3561 Citizenship and American Military History: 1902 to the Present
Instructor: TBD
Days/Times: TBD
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 3590 Wars of Empire and Decolonization
Instructor: Walker, Lydia
Days/Times: WF, 12:45-2:05pm
Description
This course examines the means, methods, challenges and results of military encounters between modern imperial powers and indigenous forces they met on the battlefield.
General Education
GEL Historical Study, GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 5550 Special Topics in Military History
Instructor: Walker, Lydia
Days/Times: W, 9:35am-12:20pm
Description
TBA
General Education
Seminars
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Kern, Stephen
Days/Times: MW, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Cashin, Joan
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Topic: Women in the Civil War
Description
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.
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Hoffmann, David
Days/Times: Online, asynchronous
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
History 2800 Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Staley, David
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Investigation of the methods and analytical approaches historians use to understand the past.
History 2800H Introduction to the Discipline of History
Instructor: Conklin, Alice
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
Description
This course is designed for Honors history majors. History 2800H introduces history majors to the field of history, and particularly to the historian’s craft. We will look at the different purposes for studying history, a wide array of sources that are used in examining the past, and the diverse approaches to the past that historians embrace. Because the best way to learn what historians do is to practice the craft ourselves, we will spend the semester focusing on a modern global history that is, in fact, close at hand: that of “Ohio and the World.” Our readings will highlight related global and local developments six different dates: 1753, 1803, 1853, 1903, 1953, and 2003. Topics include the “French and Indian” War, racism and abolitionism, German immigrants’ participation in the American Civil War, the global women’s suffrage campaign in Ohio, 1960s student protests at Kent State, and more recent ties between Japan and Ohio manufacturing. We will use a combination of primary sources (archives, newspapers, images, political treatises, and maps) available in digital format or in local collections, such as the OSU rare book room and archives, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library, and the Ohio History Connection, as well as secondary sources.
Required Texts
Geoffrey Parker, Richard Sisson, William Russell Coil, ed. Ohio and the World, 1753-2053
Course packet of primary sources
Assignments
Students will be required to contribute to class discussions, complete several short writing assignments, one visual/aural presentation, and one longer research essay based on newspaper archives on a topic of your choosing.
Notes
Attendance and active participation is required. There will be several class sessions when we will not meet in order to free students to work on their individual projects.
History 4015H Honors Seminar in Modern U.S. History
Instructor: Stebenne, David
Days/Times: M, 9:35am-12:20pm
Description
An examination of the leading legal-historical controversies in the United States since 1830. Emphasis on the judiciary’s role in resolving major legal and political disputes, such as those arising out of slavery and emancipation, government support for industrialization and regulation of a modern market economy, pacifist agitation and restrictions on civil liberties during wartime, school desegregation, protections in law for criminal suspects and defendants, freedom of the press, privacy and reproductive rights, the death penalty and mass incarceration.
Required Texts
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835), vol. 1
Earl M. Maltz, Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery (2007)
Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Paul Kens, Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial (1998)
Marc Lendler, Gitlow v. New York: Every Idea an Incitement (2012)
John Fliter and Derek Hoff, Fighting Foreclosure: The Blaisdell Case, the Contract Clause, and the Great Depression (2012)
Roger Daniels, The Japanese American Cases: The Rule of Law in Time of War (2013)
Gregory S. Jacobs, Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and The Columbus Public Schools (1998)
Carolyn Long, Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures (2006)
Kermit Hall and Melvin Urofsky, New York Times v. Sullivan: Civil Rights, Libel Law, and the Free Press (2024)
John W. Johnson, Griswold v. Connecticut: Birth Control and the Constitutional Right of Privacy (2005)
David M. Oshinsky, Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and The Death Penalty in Modern America (2010)
Assignments
Attendance at, and lively participation in, all class meetings; a 3-5-page research paper prospectus; and a first draft and a final draft of a 15-page research paper.
Notes
History 3005 and/or 3006 recommended. One need not be working toward a history major or minor to take the course.
History 4125 Seminar in Latin American History
Instructor: Smith, Stephanie
Days/Times: Online, R, 3:55-6:40pm
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, Argentina, and Brazil 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.
This class will have one or more required texts.
History 4217 Seminar in Late Antiquity
Instructor: Sessa, Tina
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
Description
Late Antiquity has often been characterized as an “age of migration,” and more darkly, as a period of “barbarian invasions.” Starting with Edward Gibbon, some modern historians have argued that these “foreign migrants” contributed to the fall of Rome. More recent scholarship, however, has significantly complicated our understanding of barbarian movements into and within the empire by pointing to the long history of non-Roman ethnic integration and assimilation (both forced and organic). Most historians now argue that migration and mobility were regular features of the ancient Mediterranean world as a whole. This course will explore why, how, and where people moved into, out of, and within the Late Roman Empire. We shall examine not only the history of barbarian movements (including questions of ethnicity and assimilation) but also the more quotidian experiences of mobility within the empire, from the seasonal migration of peasants and the itineraries of Christian pilgrims to forced displacement during disasters. We meet as a class for the first nine weeks to discuss primary and secondary source readings. During the final six weeks, students will work independently on a research project of their choice, with the goal of producing a 15-20 page paper. Additional assignments: weekly reading responses and a book review.
History 4255 Seminar in Modern European History
Instructor: Kern, Stephen
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Modern European History.
History 4325 Seminar in African History
Instructor: Kobo, Ousman
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
Description
Since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the relationship between China and Africa has been accelerating exponentially. By 2012, China had emerged Africa's largest trading partner, surpassing the United States and Europe, Africa’s historical trading partners. In the diplomatic arena, China also managed to secure a broader African support for its global diplomacy in ways that suggests a mutual economic and political gains. This course employs a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and historicize this relationship. It examines closely the economic and political relations between the two regions dating back to at least the 1960s (but even before foreign dominations of the two territories between the 18th and 19th centuries). We will trace the trajectory of this relationship to the era before the 1960s, but our focus will be from the 1960s to the present, with particular attention to interrogating how the post-Cold War relationships represented a rupture or continuity. As a multi-disciplinary course grounded in history, the course will thus encourage students to see how various interests impact the ways academics and policy-makers frame Africa-China relations in both historical and contemporary terms. We will also examine issues of culture and race to explain how cultural perspectives and racialized discourses also shape that relationship. In doing, we want to recognize Africans’ agencies in shaping their relationship with China, without overlooking the vast difference in power and influence that China wields in its foreign engagements. The seminar aims to provide students with the tools to develop and understand not only China’s impact on Africa, but also how African actors actively shape their relations with China in the context of their past history of imperial domination as well as the dynamics of shifting global power.
History 4375 Seminar in Islamic History
Instructor: Akin, Yiğit
Days/Times: W, 10:00am-1:00pm
Description
This research seminar focuses on the late ninetieth- and early twentieth centuries in the Middle East, a critical period in the region’s modern history, which saw a number of wars, revolutions, and a genocide. We will examine these development as transformative moments in the region’s politics, society, and culture. Collectively, they left behind profound legacies for the region and its people. Throughout our seminar, we will read notable examples of the recent scholarly literature on these wars, revolutions, and genocide and become familiar with key historical debates on them. Our readings and discussions will not only focus on the intellectual, political, and military elites but we will also examine how non-elite individuals and groups influenced the course of this tumultuous period war and how they were affected by it.
History 4525 Seminar in International History
Instructor: Parrott, Joe
Days/Times: F, 2:15-5:00pm
Topic: The Cold War
Description
The Cold War defined the second half of the 20th century. The unique nature of the conflict – undeclared, transnational, and potentially apocalyptic – touched all parts of the globe in ways that even the previous world wars had not. It set two of history’s most powerful militaries and economies against each other for decades, inspiring a technologically driven weapons race and splitting much of the world into ideological camps whose borders were policed by proxy conflicts and propaganda campaigns. These expansive competitions and the constant fear of nuclear war effectively reshaped the way that nations defined both security and social relations. As the world seems poised once more to retreat into great power conflict, understanding the origins, dynamics, and legacies of the Cold War is more important than ever.
This course will prepare you to explore the history and historiography of the Cold War. It is designed to deepen your understanding of how historians have interpreted the diplomacy, politics, culture, and continuing influence of this era, while preparing you to conduct your own primary research into a specific topic related to the conflict.
History 4625 Seminar in Women’s/Gender History
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Times: M, 12:30-3:30pm
Description
In this seminar we will work extensively with primary documents in U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender history. As part of this work, we will also read and discuss selected secondary scholarship in the field as a way of grounding our own research and writing. Using audio, visual, and written primary sources from archives including the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society, ONE Institute and Archives, as well as digital collections increasingly available online, students will be asked to come up with a suitable research topic, develop the project through the production of an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources and a paper prospectus and then write a final research paper. Topics explored will cover a wide range of topics in LGBT history, including transgender communities and organizing from the 1950s to the present, bisexual activism, butch/fem lesbian experiences, LGBT social movements in the immediate postwar and post-Stonewall era, the experiences of LGBT people of color from the 1920s to the present, and the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
History 4705 Seminar in the History of Environment, Technology, and Science
Instructor: Elmore, Bart and Breyfogle, Nicholas
Days/Times: M, 2:15-5:00pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Environmental History, Technology and Science.
History 4705 Seminar in the History of Environment, Technology, and Science
Instructor: Eaglin, Jennifer
Days/Times: 2:15-5:00pm
Description
Advanced research and readings on selected topics in Environmental History, Technology and Science.
History 4706 Chronic: Illness, Injury, and Disability in Modern History
Instructor: Moore, Erin
Days/Times: TR, 3:55-5:15pm
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
History 4795 Seminar in History: An Introduction to Many Worlds History
Instructor: Anderson, Greg
Days/Times: T, 2:15-5:00pm
Description
Experts in a growing number of fields, from anthropology to international relations, now believe that humans across time and space have in fact lived in a “pluriverse” of many different worlds, not in a universe of just one. The seminar will introduce this exciting new idea, exploring its potentially momentous implications for the practice of History.
The main body of the course will be a kind of journey across history’s pluriverse, considering a series of case studies that immerse us in worlds profoundly unlike our own. They include the worlds of the ancient Greeks, the Chinese of the Ming era (1368-1644), the Aztecs, the Dogon and Mbuti of Africa, and Indigenous peoples of Amazonia, North America, and Scandinavia. Along the way, we will note some basic commonalities that seem to be shared by all of these non-modern worlds, perhaps helping us to explain their relative sustainability over time. How then might this journey change the way we view the very different world of our own modern experience, which has come to prevail across the globe over the past several centuries? And how might it also affect the way we imagine other possible futures?
The course requires no prior specialist knowledge, just an open mind, a curiosity about other ways of being human, and a willingness to consider alternatives.
Women's Gender & Sexuality History
History 3620 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in the United States, 1940-Present
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Times: WF, 11:10am-12:30pm
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 3642 Women and Gender in Modern Europe (1750-1950): Diversity in Context
Instructor: Soland, Birgitte
Days/Times: TR, 2:20-3:40pm
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, GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies, GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity
History 4625 Seminar in Women’s/Gender History
Instructor: Rivers, Daniel
Days/Times: M, 12:30-3:30pm
Description
In this seminar we will work extensively with primary documents in U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender history. As part of this work, we will also read and discuss selected secondary scholarship in the field as a way of grounding our own research and writing. Using audio, visual, and written primary sources from archives including the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society, ONE Institute and Archives, as well as digital collections increasingly available online, students will be asked to come up with a suitable research topic, develop the project through the production of an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources and a paper prospectus and then write a final research paper. Topics explored will cover a wide range of topics in LGBT history, including transgender communities and organizing from the 1950s to the present, bisexual activism, butch/fem lesbian experiences, LGBT social movements in the immediate postwar and post-Stonewall era, the experiences of LGBT people of color from the 1920s to the present, and the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
World, Global, Transnational History
History 1682 World History from 1500 to the Present
Instructor: TBD
Days/Time: Online, asynchronous
Second Session
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: TBD
Days/Times: 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 2675 The Indian Ocean: Communities and Commodities in Motion
Instructor: McDow, Dodie
Days/Times: TR, 9:35-10:55am
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 3676 Leadership in History
Instructor: Judd, Robin
Days/Times: WF, 9:35-10:55am
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.
This class will have one or more required texts.
General Education
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
History 4795 Seminar in History: An Introduction to Many Worlds History
Instructor: Anderson, Greg
Days/Times: T, 2:15-5:00pm
Description
Experts in a growing number of fields, from anthropology to international relations, now believe that humans across time and space have in fact lived in a “pluriverse” of many different worlds, not in a universe of just one. The seminar will introduce this exciting new idea, exploring its potentially momentous implications for the practice of History.
The main body of the course will be a kind of journey across history’s pluriverse, considering a series of case studies that immerse us in worlds profoundly unlike our own. They include the worlds of the ancient Greeks, the Chinese of the Ming era (1368-1644), the Aztecs, the Dogon and Mbuti of Africa, and Indigenous peoples of Amazonia, North America, and Scandinavia. Along the way, we will note some basic commonalities that seem to be shared by all of these non-modern worlds, perhaps helping us to explain their relative sustainability over time. How then might this journey change the way we view the very different world of our own modern experience, which has come to prevail across the globe over the past several centuries? And how might it also affect the way we imagine other possible futures?
The course requires no prior specialist knowledge, just an open mind, a curiosity about other ways of being human, and a willingness to consider alternatives.