Early America (circa 1500-1820) was a cosmopolitan place, a cultural meeting ground for Indigenous, African, and European peoples. As people of diverse backgrounds encountered one another, “identity”—how people understood themselves, especially in relation to others—took on new significance. All kinds of identities came into question in early America, but especially those concerning sex, gender, and sexuality; race and ethnicity; and family. Was Thomas(ine) Hall a man or woman? Where was Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa) born: Africa, the West Indies, or North America? Did Thomas Jefferson father children with Sally Hemings, the woman he enslaved? Contemporaries asked and answered these questions in their own ways, just as historians have continued to offer different answers in the centuries since. In this first year writing seminar, we will dig into controversial episodes surrounding identity and belonging in early American history. As we do so, we will pay attention both to how early Americans negotiated identity claims as well as how later historians have interpreted and re-interpreted these disputed histories.

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

What and where is Asia? Maps have constructed the borders of and within 'Asia' as much as they have reflected their realities on the ground. In questioning the objectivity of maps, this seminar examines how various conceptions of space and cartographic practices have legitimized colonial, national, and imperial claims in the region from the seventeenth century to the present. Topics include the Mercator projection, Jesuit Atlas of China, Great Trigonometric Survey of India, aerial photography in Japan and Vietnam, postcolonial partition in India and Korea, and the global positioning system (GPS). Multiple sessions involve working with original specimens in the College’s Department of Special Collections. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Colonial Worlds, East Asia, and South Asia. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 1003)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Offers an introductory history of the American Revolution while considering why the founding era persists as a crucial touchstone for modern US politics. Students will work extensively with a selection of primary sources to address such questions as: How are twenty-first-century students to judge figures who lived 250 years ago? Is it appropriate to judge historical figures by modern standards? Or can they only be judged within the cultural norms of their own times? How can we expand our study of “the founders” beyond the experience of elite, white men to embrace the history of a diverse American population? How can we create a “usable past” (a sense of history capable of informing modern events) that encompasses questions of gender, race, and class? Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Explores the history of forensic science and medicine in western Europe from the Renaissance through the present. Begins by examining medical and scientific practices such as handwriting analysis, autopsies, poison detection, and phrenology and asks how science and medicine came to exercise a prominent role in criminal investigations. Concludes by analyzing the representation of forensic medicine in literature and popular culture through the study of detective novels and TV shows. Topics include: Can scientific methods detect lying and truth-telling? How reliable is DNA evidence? How did racism and sexism shape the theory and practice of legal medicine? And, above all, what role do scientists have in the courtroom, and what are the historical roots of their authority? Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Just over a century ago, Russian revolutionaries promised to turn the capitalist world upside down and replace it with a modern socialist order based on the equality and dignity of all working people. Explores socialism in practice between 1917 and 1932, with an emphasis on both the utopian imagination and 'lived' experience. Discussions and assignments will draw heavily on visual sources (art, posters, film, photography) to examine the radical transformation of Soviet culture and society. Topics include labor practices, education, family and gender roles, religious culture, science and technology, healthcare, housing and urban planning, and fashion and the arts. No previous knowledge of Russian history is necessary. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Russian. (Same as: REEES 1013)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester

Examines the German experience of Nazism from its origins in WWI through twelve years of Hitler’s rule (1933–1945). Working with a diverse set of primary sources, including film, photography, art, posters, letters, diaries, and memoirs, students will explore: the rise of the National Socialist movement under Hitler’s “charismatic” leadership; the use of propaganda and terror in the Nazi Revolution; race, gender, class, and disability in the transformation of everyday life; forms of collaboration and possibilities of resistance; the waging of war and the “Final Solution”; and the Nazi era in German collective memory. While placing the Third Reich in historical context, this course will also encourage reflection on the ways that “Nazism” continues to resonate today, and the many lessons the German experience can offer.  

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Interdisciplinary exploration of the rise and fall (and reappearance) of the affirmative action debate that shaped so much of the American culture wars during the 1970s and 2000s. Students primarily study affirmative action in the United States, but comparative analysis of affirmative action systems in societies outside the United States, such as South Africa and India, is also considered. Examines important Supreme Court cases that have shaped the contours of affirmative action, the rise of diversity discourse, and the different ways political and cultural ideologies -- not to mention historical notions of American identity -- have determined when, where, and how affirmative action has existed and whom it benefits. Study of law, economics, sociology, anthropology, history, and political science introduces students to different methodological approaches that inform Africana studies and the field’s examination of the role people of African descent have played in contemporary and historical American society. Writing intensive. Analytical discussions of assigned texts. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: AFRS 1012)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Examines moments of scientific controversy in modern United States history. From teaching evolution to legalizing abortion to accepting climate change, science has been at the center of some of our most persistent political debates. But science is neither as objective nor as detached from society as we commonly assume; it is inextricably bound to cultural, social, and even moral norms. This course uses moments of legal and political tension to explore the complexities of how scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, and accepted (or rejected). Case studies include the Scopes Trial, the eugenics-era decision in Buck v. Bell, lawsuits against the tobacco industry, and Roe v. Wade—as well as the making of environmental policy on questions of pesticide use and radiation exposure. Course writing gives students the opportunity to engage with a range of historical sources in science, law, policy, and media. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester

This first-year writing seminar explores how digital games represent the past. We begin by focusing on the emergence of digital culture in recent decades, seeking to understand the role electronic simulations play in our lives. We move on to exploring the representation of history in commercial video games, from Sid Meier’s Civilization series, to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Why are video games such a popular way of depicting past events? What constraints does the digital game format impose on these representations? How are these constraints conditioned by the nature of these games as commercial products sold in a global marketplace? Finally, how should we approach some games’ representation of difficult histories—those that may involve war, colonialism, and racism? Along the way, we will learn how to access campus information sources, use intellectual property responsibly, and write essays for the college level. This course includes a weekly required evening lab for dedicated gaming time and film screenings. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Digital and Computational St. (Same as: DCS 1025)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester

What kinds of meanings and histories are held within objects? Uses the lens of four objects in the Indian subcontinent—rice, textiles, yoga, and photography—to trace histories of knowledge and skill, of commodification and global circulation, of power relations, and of personal attachments that these objects have generated. Central is thinking through the creative but also power-laden processes of making, using, and interpreting objects. This approach to the creative potential of analysis infuses class writing, revision, and discussion. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: South Asia. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 1036)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

This seminar explores ideas of civility and barbarity. Who decides who is civilized or barbaric? And what is at stake in identifying oneself or others as civilized or barbaric? Are these relative terms, that one person’s civilized society is another’s barbaric; or are there objective ways to think about civilizations and barbarians? How have these concepts evolved through history, from the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in the sixteenth century to the post-9/11 age of American imperialism in the early twenty-first century? We read primary historical documents of various encounters between European, African, American, and Asian societies, as well as scholarship about them.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

First-Year writing seminar. Delves into the lives of everyday people facing the Inquisition. They were accused of witchcraft, heresies, sexual deviance, and other offenses. The stories they left behind through court records offer a unique insight into the lives of everyday people who do not make it into historical records otherwise. These “microhistories” make a single individual the center of the story, placing them in their historical context, to understand social and cultural structures. Microhistories are particularly well-suited to showing how non-elite individuals understood their own place in society, how they contested existing power structures, and how their own identities were constructed in relation to those structures. Assignments include critical essays, revisions, an exploration of microhistories in the College, and a student portfolio. The course is focused on Latin America but does not require any prior knowledge of the region. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: LACL 1047)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Surveys the history of Greek-speaking peoples from the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1100 B.C.E) to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E. Traces the political, economic, social, religious, and cultural developments of the Greeks in the broader context of the Mediterranean world. Topics include the institution of the polis (city-state); hoplite warfare; Greek colonization; the origins of Greek science; philosophy and rhetoric; and fifth-century Athenian democracy and imperialism. Necessarily focuses on Athens and Sparta, but attention is also given to the variety of social and political structures found in different Greek communities. Special attention is given to examining and attempting to understand the distinctively Greek outlook in regard to gender, the relationship between human and divine, freedom, and the divisions between Greeks and barbarians (non-Greeks). A variety of sources -- literary, epigraphical, archaeological -- are presented, and students learn how to use them as historical documents. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Classics and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: CLAS 1111)

Surveys the history of Rome from its beginnings to the fourth century A.D. Considers the political, economic, religious, social, and cultural developments of the Romans in the context of Rome’s growth from a small settlement in central Italy to the dominant power in the Mediterranean world. Special attention is given to such topics as urbanism, imperialism, the influence of Greek culture and law, and multiculturalism. Introduces different types of sources -- literary, epigraphical, archaeological, etc. -- for use as historical documents. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: CLAS 1112)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Introductory-level lecture. A wide-ranging introduction to pre-modern European history beginning with the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 306–337) and concluding with the Council of Trent (1545–1563). Particular attention is paid to the varying relations between church and state, the birth of urban culture and economy, institutional and popular religious movements, and the early formation of nation states. Not open to students who have credit for History 2049 (Early Modern Europe) or 2048 (Medieval Europe). Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also meets the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Explores the nature of warfare from the fifteenth century to the present. The central premise is that war is a reflection of the societies and cultures that wage it. This notion is tested by examining the development of war-making in Europe and the Americas from the period before the emergence of modern states, through the great period of state formation and nation building, to the present era, when the power of states to wage war in the traditional manner seems seriously undermined. Throughout, emphasis is placed on contact between European and non-European peoples. Students are required to view films every week outside of class. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe; United States.

Examines the coming of the Civil War and the war itself in all its aspects. Considers the impact of changes in American society, the sectional crisis and breakdown of the party system, the practice of Civil War warfare, and social ramifications of the conflict. Includes readings of novels and viewing of films. Students are expected to enter with a basic knowledge of American history, and a commitment to participating in large class discussions. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 1241)

Surveys the history of the United States from its founding in 1783 to the secession that sparked civil war in 1861. Topics covered will include the nature of the federal compact, the expansion of slavery, the divergence of South and North, the formation of the two-party political system, the reform impulse, and questions of national expansion. While we will explore a range of issues, our focus will be on understanding the origins of the Civil War. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

How do we know what we know? Science and scientists have remade both our understanding of the natural world and our experience of living in it. But “science” is not one thing; it varies considerably across temporal, geographic and disciplinary contexts. This course combines an overview of major developments in scientific practice with case studies that focus intensively on the production of knowledge during selected moments in the history of science. Examples include the work of Charles Darwin on evolution, Rachel Carson on pesticides, and contemporary climate change research.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester

American cities have been historic cauldrons of racial and ethnic conflict. Concentrates on urban violence in American cities since 1898. Students study moments of conflict during the early republic and the nineteenth century. Topics examined include the post-Reconstruction pogroms that overturned interracial democracy; the Red Summer and its historical memory; the ways race and ethnicity shaped urban residential space; the effects of immigration on urban political economy and society, and the conflicts over space, labor, and social relations that arose; and the waves of urban violence that spread across the country in the mid-1960s. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: AFRS 1320, URBS 1320)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester

Introduces students to college-level historical thinking, writing, and analysis. Covers the history of New York City from the geological formation of what became Manhattan Island through the present; however, most of the history covered spans the 1600s through the end of the twentieth century. In part, narrates a history of the United States from the colonial era to the present through the story of New Amsterdam and New York City. Another focus is the history of modern, capitalist cities and the cultures, people, economies, and governments they produce. Students work mostly with primary sources and learn how New York City became one of the preeminent modern cities in the world. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Urban Studies. (Same as: URBS 1321)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester

This course uses history and literature to study changing ways America dreams. Students begin in the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s. Then, America dreams about new worlds, and Native Americans and newcomers will collide as they create new societies, cultures, and economies. The second unit covers dreams about a new nation in the late-1700s and early 1800s. During the third unit, students investigate ways America dreams of new freedom that develops from the mid-to-late-1800s through the early 1900s. The final unit explores how America dreams about new power throughout the 1900s, and into the present. The New worlds, nation, freedom, and power did not become real without tremendous conflict, contradiction, negotiation, and nuance. When America dreams, nightmares abound. Through diverse sources, this course teaches students to analyze what and how America dreams throughout history; whose dreams become real; whose dreams break; and how the nation’s diverse people’s dreams change over time.

Terms offered: 2022 Summer Semester

From the fifteenth century through the early nineteenth, global economic forces integrated the lands, ecosystems, and communities of North America into an increasingly tightly-knit network of commerce, migration, and ideas. Topics covered while exploring these early global networks include: the spread of peoples, crops, and diseases; the role of colonial conquest in creating modern capital and commodity markets; the importance of addictive substances (like sugar and tobacco) in the development of the transatlantic slave trade; and how a drought in Bangladesh sparked the American Revolution. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States, Atlantic Worlds. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester

Introductory exploration of the history of the Indian subcontinent and its connections to the broader world in an era shaped by the vibrant movement of people, goods, and ideas across the Indian Ocean, Europe, and Central Asia. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: South Asia. It also fulfills the non Euro/US and pre-modern requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 1560)

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

African peoples are often imagined as victims of history. This course challenges such stereotypes by introducing students to the great civilizations of medieval and early modern Africa. Includes the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, Mali, Oyo, Dahomey, Asante, Kongo, Lunda, Swahili, and Zulu. Various themes include political power and governance; culture and society; trade and economy; women and gender; and youth and generational conflict. Content is explored by reading fiction, poetry, myth, artwork (including art in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art), and historical scholarship. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It also meets the non-Euro/US requirement and pre-modern requirements. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 1461)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

The Pacific Ocean demands our attention. Over two billion humans live on its shores and islands, and countless more organisms live under its waters. Yet much of history remains rooted in a terrestrial view of the world, despite the importance of the sea. Treating the Pacific as more than vast, empty space between continents invites new questions: How has the Pacific both opened up and closed off the movement of life, commodities, and capital? How does an oceanic perspective change how we define national, regional, or other scalar frames? How does thinking with, about, and against the sea alter how we understand history? This course brings together disparate narratives from Oceania, Asia, and the Americas to consider the Pacific as a whole from 1500 to the present. By taking the ocean as its framework of analysis, it explores how maritime trade, free and forced migration, imperial expansion, and industrial capitalism transformed and were transformed by the Pacific’s ecology. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Environmental Studies. (Same as: ASNS 1855, ENVS 1850)

Examines the changing nature of the urban built environment in four major European cities from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Course considers a wide range of factors that have contributed to shaping the cities’ spaces and forms, among them: politics, money, war, environmental degradation, spatial inequities, industrialization, immigration, public health, heritage, tourism, and gentrification. Explores the changing role these capital cities have played on the world stage while also exploring everyday life at street level, housing from slum life to mansion, urban infrastructure, and the impact of grand schemes of urban planning and design. This course satisfies the non-US requirement for the urban studies minor. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: History; Urban Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2427, URBS 2427)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

Explores the evolution of the American city from the beginning of industrialization to the present age of mass communications. Focuses on the underlying explanations for the American city’s physical form by examining cultural values, technological advancement, aesthetic theories, and social structure. Major figures, places, and schemes in the areas of urban design and architecture, social criticism, and reform are considered. Semester-long research paper required. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: ENVS 2444, URBS 2444)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester

Examines in depth the approaches to leadership within the governmental system that enabled a small, Italian city-state to take eventual control of the Mediterranean world and how this state was affected by its unprecedented military, economic, and territorial growth. Investigates and re-imagines the political maneuverings of the most famous pre-Imperial Romans, such as Scipio Africanus, the Gracchi, and Cicero, and how political institutions such as the Roman Senate and assemblies reacted to and dealt with military, economic, and revolutionary crises. Looks at the relationship of the Roman state to class warfare, the nature of electoral politics, and the power of precedent and tradition. While examining whether the ultimate fall precipitated by Caesar's ambition and vision was inevitable, also reveals what lessons, if any, modern politicians can learn about statesmanship from the transformation of the hyper-competitive atmosphere of the Republic into the monarchical principate of Augustus. All sources, such as Livy's history of Rome, Plutarch's “Lives,” letters and speeches of Cicero, and Caesar's “Civil War,” are in English, and no prior knowledge of Roman antiquity is required. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Classics and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: CLAS 2214)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

When the Second World War finally came to a close in 1945, an estimated 36.5 million Europeans lay dead, many of Europe’s cities were burned out, economies were left in disarray, and refugee camps brimmed with displaced persons. How did Europe rebuild after this unprecedented cataclysm? Explores the history of Europe—from Great Britain to the Soviet Union, Greece to Scandinavia—from the end of the war to the present. Investigates such themes as the origins of the Cold War, the construction of socialism in the East, the reconstruction of capitalism in the West, decolonization, the postwar economic “miracle,” the social struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, the rise of neoliberalism, the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the emergence of the European Union, and the contemporary political conjuncture. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

The Indigenous peoples of North America have long and diverse histories stretching back over 15,000 years. Since the uniting of the world’s two hemispheres at the turn of the sixteenth century, Native communities have faced numerous challenges and fallen victim to often unimaginable hardship. Native cultures have shown considerable adaptability in the face of these challenges. Through centuries of imperial oppression, Native Americans proved determined in fighting for their rights and insisting on their proper place in an evolving environmental, political, and social landscape. These shared struggles led to a dawning sense of a pan-Indian racial and cultural identity in the early nineteenth century. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

From Berkeley to Berlin, social movements in the 1960s and 1970s pushed democracy in new directions, overturned social roles, and redefined the meaning of politics. Investigates that wave of transatlantic social, political, and cultural contestation, exploring such themes as youth protest, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, feminism, and the counterculture. Taking a transnational approach, considers not only how these decades unfolded in different countries, but also unearths the many flows¬ ¬of ideas, objects, and people that wove diverse movements together. Focuses on developments in North America and Europe and situates them in a fully global context. Note:This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe, United States, and Atlantic Worlds.

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

The Cold War was not simply a rivalry between two superpowers, but a fully global competition between different models of social, political, and economic development. After reviewing the consolidation of fascism, welfare capitalism, and Stalinism in the 1930s, we study how the precarious alliance between American capitalism and Soviet communism devolved after WWII. Since this competition unfolded on a planetary level, with each side struggling to convince the world that its model was superior, this course takes a global approach, surveying such events as the division of Europe, decolonization in Asia and Africa, the wars in Korea and Afghanistan, the Cuban and Iranian revolutions, the civil war in Angola, the rise of Reagan and Gorbachev, and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. In so doing, this course explores such themes as imperialism, revolution, modernization, nation-building, internationalism, non-alignment, human rights, and neoliberalism. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Traces the origins of the scientific revolution through the interplay between late-antique and medieval religion, magic, and natural philosophy. Particular attention is paid to the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the meaning and function of religious miracles, the rise and persecution of witchcraft, and Renaissance hermeticism. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also meets the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.. (Same as: REL 2204)

What does it mean to lead a good life, a happy life? Examines changing responses to this question from the ancient Greeks to the twenty-first century. Primary sources include (among others) Plato, Aristotle, Christine de Pizan, Martin Luther, and Albert Camus. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also meets the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester

The end of imperial Rome was not the end of the Roman empire. From its mighty capital at Constantinople, the Eastern Roman (or "Byzantine") empire survived the fall of the city of Rome by nearly a millennium. Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Byzantine state combined Roman law and military traditions with Greek culture and Christian religion. This course introduces students to one of the greatest civilizations the world has known, tracing the experiences of its majority and minority groups through dramatic centuries of Islamic conquests, religious disputes, and the Crusades, until its final fall to the Ottoman Turks. Meetings combine medieval texts with new discoveries in archaeology, ancient DNA, climate science, and field trips to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, to help students experience the Byzantine past firsthand and explore its lasting importance.

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

Charts the different trajectories taken by societies stretching from Iceland to Iran during the “Middle Ages,” a millennium stretching from the fall of Rome in 476 to the fall of New Rome (Constantinople) in 1453. We will meet Northern barbarians, Arab armies, Vikings, Mongols, and the Ottomans; we will witness the birth of Islam and Charlemagne’s revival of a Western Roman empire; we will study the formation of institutions such as banks and universities, the invention of new alphabets and art forms, and the growth of state-sponsored persecution of minorities, whose baleful legacy lives on today. Class sessions will involve a variety of activities, such as seeing medieval manuscripts from the Bowdoin Department of Special Collections & Archives, engaging in role-playing debates, and using a range of historical sources (including texts, objects, and art) to unlock the medieval past. Not open to students who have taken HIST 1140. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also meets the pre-modern requirement for history majors.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

A survey of European culture and society from the later Middle Ages to the origins of the Enlightenment. Topics include the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. Not open to students who have credit for HIST 1140. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

In 1789, the French people shocked the world by overthrowing their absolute monarchy, launching a decade of wildly new political experiments that shaped the modern world. Why did France have a revolution? What were the global implications of events in France, especially for the enslaved populations of French colonies? Why did the French Revolution become radical and—all too often—violent? Class sessions will incorporate lecture, discussion, and role-playing. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the premodern requirement.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Examines a series of intellectual, political, and cultural feuds in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the so-called Age of Enlightenment. Thinkers aspired to implement sweeping changes in politics and society, but disagreed fiercely over what and how to change. Students will consider the production of categories of difference (religion, sex, gender, race, and social class) but also look at how historical individuals attempted to navigate—whether to defend, to contest, or to subvert—those categories, and how their agency to do so was shaped by the larger historical context in which they lived. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester

The practice of European politics changed dramatically during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. National governments became more centralized and more powerful. At the same time, Europeans attempted to found empires that stretched around the globe. Focuses on Britain, France, and Spain; specific topics include cross-cultural encounters, fiscal crisis and reform, policing, commerce, war, and rebellion. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe, Atlantic Worlds, and Colonial Worlds. It also fulfills the premodern requirement for history majors.

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Examines the history of medicine in the late medieval and early modern period and uses diseases as case studies. This focus allows us to cut across regions and explore the social and cultural forces that shape health and sickness, life and death, cures and treatments. Diseases studied include plague, syphilis, smallpox, cholera, and cancer. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the premodern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Fall Semester

Survey course of the nineteenth century in Europe, from 1815 to the end of the First World War, with an emphasis on the social, cultural, and political impact of industrial and technological progress. Explores the way people lived and thought about the world around them as Europe industrialized, as well as the ambivalence that many Europeans came to attach to modernity by the end of the Great War in 1918. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Examines European society in the era of the cataclysmic “Great War” (1914—1918) and the war’s lasting impact on the foundations of the twentieth century. Topics include: the war’s short and long term causes and the crisis of July 1914; the meaning of “total war” as experienced by continental and colonial soldiers in the trenches, and by worker, refugee, and civilian populations on the “home fronts”; varieties of pacifism and the controversial postwar peace settlements; postwar changes in culture and class, gender, and race relations; the war’s transformation of Europe’s political landscape, including the fall of empires and the rise of fascism and communism; and the war in modern memory. In addition to major historical debates, the course will introduce a diverse set of contemporary voices and perspectives on the war through memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, art, photography, and film. Open to all students. Note: This course is part of the following field of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Explores the history of Imperial Russia under the Tsars, from Peter the Great’s declaration of empire in 1721 through the demise of the tsarist regime during the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Key themes include Russia’s evolving relationship with the West, the shifting dynamics between rulers and the ruled as the empire modernized, and the experiences of both Russians and non-Russians in the context of a vast, multiethnic empire. Through a rich array of primary sources—including novels, letters, memoirs, petitions, official proclamations, visual texts and ethnographic accounts—we will examine Russian society, culture, and politics from multiple perspectives. Designed for students of all backgrounds, this course assumes no prior knowledge and provides essential historical context for understanding Russia and Russian identity today. It also fulfills the non-Euro requirement for History majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Russian. (Same as: REEES 2108)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

The Russian Revolution ushered in the world's first socialist society. This course explores the origins, evolution, and eventual collapse of the Soviet experiment. Topics include: the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and Civil War; the “building of socialism” under Lenin and Stalin; the origins of the Terror and Gulag system; the Great Patriotic War (WWII); the Soviet Union’s influence in Eastern Europe and the Cold War; the unraveling of the Soviet system under Gorbachev; the challenges of post-Soviet society in the 1990s; and the Soviet past in Russian memory today. By engaging closely with visual and written texts produced by and for the peoples of Russia and the Soviet Union, the course seeks to understand the experience of lived socialism from diverse perspectives. It is designed for all students; no background is necessary. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Russian. (Same as: REEES 2109)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

An examination of modern European history centered on women’s voices, experiences, perspectives, subjectivity, and agency. Drawing largely on primary sources (including memoirs, letters, art, literature, photography, and film), lectures and discussions will explore how women from across Europe navigated and challenged the gendered norms of their societies to shape unique and diverse identities; examine and acknowledge women’s accomplishments in different spheres of society and culture; and consider the major debates, obstacles, and achievements related to women’s political, economic, and cultural liberation. Lectures will also emphasize ways in which a gendered lens enhances our understanding of European history, including the experience of industrialization, secularization, imperialism, socialism, fascism, and the two world wars. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: GSWS 2110)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

A social history of the emigration to and founding and growth of the colonies in British North America. Explores the difficulties of creating a new society, economy, polity, and culture in an unfamiliar and already inhabited environment; the effects of diverse regional and national origins, and often conflicting goals and expectations on the early settlement and development of the colonies; the gradual adaptations and changes in European, Native American, and African cultures, and their separate, combined, and often contested contributions to a new provincial, increasingly stratified (socially, economically, and politically), and regionally disparate culture; and the later problems of maturity and stability as the thirteen colonies began to outgrow the British imperial system and become a new American society. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States, Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

From Disney’s Jack Sparrow to Stede Bonnet, real and fictional pirates have long captivated American audiences. But what about the real history of piracy? This course will consider the history of piracy, smuggling, and maritime conflict in the era of European imperial expansion and the colonization of the Americas. From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, the Atlantic seas were awash with pirates, smugglers, and all manners of rogues. While some certainly were rebellious criminals who challenged societal norms, others acted as agents of empire, and many assumed normative lifestyles in and among colonial communities. Diverse and “motley crews” plied the seas, including women and Black and Indigenous pirates. Course themes will include piracy and the law, imperial politics, illicit trade, the social worlds of pirates, and pirates in popular culture. Classes will include a mix of discussion and lecture as well as hands-on history labs and trips outside of the classroom. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States, Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

Examines the history of African Americans from the origins of slavery in America through the death of slavery during the Civil War. How could anyone (let alone the Founding Fathers) have traded human beings as chattel? How did African-descended people in America come to be both part of and yet perpetually marginalized in America? What does this say about the nature of American democracy and the mythologies of American history? How much agency did African Americans have in crafting their own experience, and what does this say about the nature of both their oppression and their resistance? In what ways have African Americans contributed to the formation of American society? We will be concerned not simply with the important task of reinserting the African American past into our national historical narrative. We will also be interested in understanding the depths to which American society has been predicated on the intersections of race, economy, and society. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2140)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Explores the history of African Americans from the end of the Civil War to the present. Issues include the promises and failures of Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, black leadership and protest institutions, African American cultural styles, industrialization and urbanization, the world wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and conservative retrenchment. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2141)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester

An interdisciplinary introduction from the perspectives of art history, literary history, and history to the political, economic, and social questions arising from American Reconstruction (1866-1877) and Reunion (1878-1900) following the Civil War between the North and South. Readings delve into a wide array of primary and secondary sources -- including photographs, novels, poetry, and government documents -- in order to understand the fierce political debates rooted in Reconstruction that continue to occupy conceptions of America today. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: English; History. (Same as: AFRS 2142, ENGL 2900)

An interdisciplinary study of the first hundred years of the United States. Explores a range of topics through the lenses of economics, politics, and history: the formation of the American system of governance, the implications of a growing market economy and the territory it encompassed, the politics and economics of slavery, notions of civic inclusion and exclusion, and the shifting intellectual bases of American economic and political life. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Economics; Government and Legal Studies. (Same as: ECON 2143, GOV 2090)

Explores the nature of democracy in two distinct historical eras: ancient Greece and the founding of the United States. Employs well-developed classroom simulations. The first half of the semester runs 'The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BCE'; the second, 'America’s Founding: The Constitutional Convention of 1787.' Students take on roles of historical personae in both of these simulations, which permit them to explore critical events and ideas in novel ways. Pairing games that explore the foundations of democracy in both ancient and modern times permits exploration of this important topic across time and space. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Classics. (Same as: CLAS 2210)

This course explores the United States Civil War. Beginning with an overview of causes and ending with prospects for Reconstruction, it focuses on the key issues raised by the war: the relationship between military and political factors, the social changes wrought by war, and the crucial issues of slavery and emancipation. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2145)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

Survey of what came to be called the Western United States from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include Euro-American relations with Native Americans; the expansion and growth of the federal government into the West; the exploitation of natural resources; the creation of borders and national identities; race, class, and gender relations; the influence of immigration and emigration; violence and criminality; cities and suburbs; and the enduring persistence of Western myths in American culture. Students write several papers and engage in weekly discussion based upon primary and secondary documents, art, literature, and film.This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Surveys the history of Asian Americans from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Explores the changing experiences of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans within the larger context of American history. Major topics include immigration and migration, race relations, anti-Asian movements, labor issues, gender relations, family and community formation, resistance and civil rights, and representations of Asian Americans in American popular culture. Readings and course materials include scholarly essays and books, primary documents, novels, memoirs, and films.This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2880)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Focuses on Asian American experiences from an interdisciplinary perspective, including history, English, Asian studies, and sociology. Examines major issues in the experiences of Asian Americans, including immigration, the politics of racial/ethnic formation and identity, the political and economic forces that have shaped the lives of Asians in the US, historical experiences and influences, and ways that Asian Americans have resisted and accommodated these influences. Uses a variety of lenses to gain critical perspective, including history, social relations and practices, and cultural production. This course originates in Sociology and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; English; History. (Same as: SOC 2266, ENGL 2757, ASNS 2811)

Asian America encompasses a diverse and dynamic population. This interdisciplinary course explores the complexities of Asian America by focusing on key historical and contemporary issues. Recognizing that much Asian American experience comes from the processes and history of US empire building, we will examine topics such as immigration, citizenship, the politics of race and ethnicity, identity formation, literary and cultural self-representation, community building, class and generational divides, gender and sexuality, and political mobilization. We will use a variety of lenses to gain critical perspective, including history, social relations and practices, and cultural production, such as literature, film, media, and art. Beginning with the Class of 2025, this class will fulfill the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. This course is U.S.-based. This course originates in Asian Studies and is crosslisted with: English; History; Sociology. (Same as: ASNS 2882, ENGL 2906, SOC 2264)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Spring Semester

Survey of the making of North America from initial contact between Europeans and Africans and Native Americans to the creation of the continent’s three largest nations by the mid-nineteenth century: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Topics include the history of native populations before and after contact; geopolitical and imperial rivalries that propelled European conquests of the Americas; evolution of free and coerced labor systems; environmental transformations of the continent’s diverse landscapes and peoples; formation of colonial settler societies; and the emergence of distinct national identities and cultures in former European colonies. Students write several papers and engage in weekly discussion based upon primary and secondary documents, art, literature, and material culture. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States, Atlantic Worlds, Colonial Worlds, and Latin America. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Environmental Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2425, LACL 2180)

Explores relationships between ideas of nature, human transformations of the environment, and the effect of the physical environment upon humans through time in North America. Topics include the “Columbian exchange” and colonialism; links between ecological change and race, class, and gender relations; the role of science and technology; literary and artistic perspectives of “nature”; agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization; and the rise of modern environmentalism. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: ENVS 2403)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Explores the impact of nuclear energy on American society, politics, and culture. Few aspects of post-World War II United States history were unaffected by the atomic bomb, which decisively shaped the Cold War, helped define the military-industrial complex, and contributed to profound changes in the place of science in American life. Examines the surprisingly varied effects of the atomic bomb throughout American society: on the Cold War, consumer culture, domestic politics, education, family life, and the arts. Uses a wide range of sources—such as newspaper articles, memoirs, film, and policy debates — to examine the profound effects of nuclear energy in United States history. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester

Examines the intertwined scientific, political, and social histories of climate change. It traces the increasing use of fossil fuels since the late eighteenth century, paying attention to the way that producing and consuming energy has transformed human societies and their physical environments. The course explores these changes in both their global manifestations and their local effects, centering the stories of people who lived through the energy transitions of the past two centuries—for better or worse. It also chronicles the surprisingly long history of the scientific quest to understand and document our changing climate. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Environmental Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2420)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

How did the United States become the nation it is today? Explores how the US emerged as a global super power after World War II (1945); navigated through contentious domestic socal movements, such as the civil rights movement and feminism; changed culturally and socially; fought--and won--the global Cold War; responded to the terrorist attacks of 9-11; elected Barack H. Obama as president in 2008; and then elected Donald J. Trump as president in 2016. Through a close study of specific political, economic, social, and cultural themes; how they changed throughout six distinct time periods; and with attention to key primary sources from the eras under consideration; provides an analytical narative survey of how the United States changed since 1945 and arrived at its current moment in national and global history. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

Covers US history from Reconstruction through the end of World War II. During these decades, the United States changed dramatically. Economic, political, cultural, and social history receive equal consideration. Specific units cover military history and foreign policy; presidential and national party politics; race, ethnicity, women, and immigration; American cities and the rise of industry; constitutional and legal history; and the rise of mass culture. From 1877 to 1945, the historical changes that led to the United States becoming a global superpower with a pluralistic civic identity are, in essence, the focus.

The Middle Ages was a culturally and religiously diverse period rich in interconnections that spanned vast geographic distances. However, the millennium from 500 to 1500 has been mischaracterized as insular, stagnant, and ethnically homogenous. This course challenges these outdated assumptions by situating Europe within the histories of the Mediterranean, Near East, and beyond. We explore the vibrancy of this period through sources that cover everything from powerful women writers to the conquests of Genghis Khan, from the Black Death to the Islamic rulers in Europe, and from the art of illuminated manuscripts to the trade in exotic animals. Readings from a range of human experiences and all major religions demonstrate that the Middle Ages illuminate our understanding of modern issues. Indeed, such an expansive approach to the medieval presents an opportunity to explore the histories of gender, conquest and settlement, art, frontiers, intellectual exchange, power, and interfaith relations. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also meets the pre-modern requirement.

For those who lived through it, the American Revolution was a very personal experience. The struggle for American liberties pitted colonial neighbors against neighbors, enslaved African Americans against their white enslavers, and Indigenous Americans against encroaching settlers. Colonial men and women were forced to choose sides as they watched their local communities being torn apart. The war ruined livelihoods and ended lives. But the revolution was also a global phenomenon. Its ideological origins lay deep in European history. The economic and political events that triggered the revolution stretched around the globe. The War for Independence spawned battles fought from the icy sub-Arctic to the tropical waters of the Caribbean. Only by studying the complexity of the American Revolution can this formative stage of United States history be fully understood. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors and is part of the following field of study: US.

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

Explores the rich and diverse landscape of early American families from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Atlantic exchanges through the early Republican era. Over the course of the semester, we will survey contested claims to family by people of European, African, and Indigenous backgrounds as they shaped diplomacy, cultural exchange, and nation building in what came to be the United States. There is no textbook on the history of families in early America—instead, we will bring these stories together ourselves, working with primary and secondary readings from diverse individuals. Some class periods will be spent on “history labs”: opportunities to learn about and practice skills of transcribing, analyzing, and making arguments about primary sources. Course topics will include the relationship between family and the state, family economies, gender and sexuality, and race and citizenship. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: GSWS 2232)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Most Greek city-states entered the Archaic Period as aristocracies, but exited the Classical Period as democracies. This transition was marked by the brief but widespread emergence of individual rulers: tyrants. Analyzes how tyranny, surprisingly, was a precursor to democracy. Readings include Herodotus and Plato, as well as drinking songs, inscriptions, and curse poetry. Secondary scholarship includes studies of modern popular resistance to despotic regimes, networks of economic associations as foundations for popular governance, and game-theoretic approaches to collective action problems. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Classics and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: CLAS 2777)

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

Thucydides is arguably the classical author who speaks to our present moment most clearly. He is cited as an authority on US-China relations, on the twin crises of democratic governance and ideology, on the rise of populist politics, and is generally recognized as the founder of the study of international relations. A sustained and focused reading of the Peloponnesian War is central to this course of study. Students also read selections from other ancient Athenian authors, such as Euripides, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as modern scholarly interpretations. All readings in English. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Classics and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: CLAS 2787)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

As modern categories, religion and science cannot exist without each other, but the boundary has shifted over time. Traces the prehistory of these categories from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment and analyzes the conversations and arguments between religion and science in modernity. Focuses on the West with frequent comparisons to the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Pays attention to religious discussions of astrology, alchemy, and other occult disciplines. This course originates in Religion and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: REL 2212)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester

A survey of Brazilian history from colonization through the present day. Topics include colonial encounter between Africans, Portuguese, and indigenous peoples; transitions from colony to empire to republic; slavery and its legacy; formation of Brazilian national identity; and contemporary issues in modern Brazil. Particular attention paid to race, religion, and culture. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: LACL 2170)

Surveys the early history of China from the rise of complex society and state-level polity in the third millennium BCE to the fall of the Tang Empire in the tenth century CE. Focuses on the relationship between state and society and delineates the historical processes of their coevolution. Examines the formative era of political experimentation and social formation, the emergence of the bureaucratic state and agrarian society, and the development of imperial rule and multiethnic cultures. Also introduces major political and social institutions, economic systems, technological innovations, law, cosmology, philosophy, and religion, as well as arts and literature that became foundational to the Chinese state and Chinese society. Students will critically engage with a variety of source materials: archaeological data, historical writing, literary works, and visual culture. Note: This course fulfills the pre-modern and non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. (Same as Asian Studies 2013.) This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2013)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Brazil is a country of paradoxes. Often hailed as an example of egalitarian race relations and a model for accepting difference, Brazil is also frequently cited for its economic inequality, incidence of violence, and uneven development—all of which cut along the lines of race and class. Explores the unique contradictions shaping Brazilian society, from the colonial period until the present. Discusses the visual representations of conquest, slavery, the creation of republican symbols, authoritarianism, race and racism, and social movements, as well as the construction of a national identity though music and other artistic expressions. Pays close attention to the ways in which Brazilian culture and society have been shaped by race, class, and other relations of power and exclusion. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: LACL 2171)

By looking at the history of key cities and the challenges of urban life in Latin America, this seminar examines how the city has served as a site of contestation and politics throughout the region. Topics discussed in the seminar will include top-down efforts to impose order and discipline on the city and the response of urban dwellers; planned and unplanned urban spaces; the rise of slums; marginality; informality; and the formation of urban identities. We will also analyze the role of cities in the construction of social and political rights and explore the city as a site of creativity. The course will focus primarily on twentieth-century cities but will also explore urban life in the nineteenth century and the colonial period, to a lesser extent. Special attention will be paid to the following cities: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Caracas, and Brasilia. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: LACL 3142)

Surveys the history from the Middle Period to the end of Imperial China (1000-1911). Focuses on the emergence of a distinct consciousness of Chinese-ness and its changing relations with an ever-expanding known world. Examines issues surrounding ethnicity, cultural identity, territorial borders, foreign relations, diplomacy, and war, as well as local societies, commercial revolution, and technological innovations that made China one of the earliest nations stepping into modernity. Students will critically interrogate a variety of sources: historical writing and literary works, as well as material and visual culture. Students are expected to learn to think historically and globally, analyze primary sources and critique secondary scholarship, and craft compelling historical narratives that grapple with significant historical questions. [Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the pre-modern and non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors]. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2030)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

The concept of revolution, though a defining concept of our time, seems at once urgent and dated. The challenges of the term are blatant in the study of the Middle East and North Africa, which has been so often perceived as a passive place of inactive subjects and enduring “despotisms.” This course asks how might we open the concept of revolution onto histories it has been shielded from? Considers concept histories, and what it means to think about revolution from the colonial and postcolonial world. Works through the long history of revolution in the region, including the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, the Algerian War of Independence, the Palestinian Revolution, the Iranian Revolution, and the Arab Spring. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Arabic and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: MENA 2353)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Often called “The City of Dreams,” today’s city of Mumbai has had a reputation for cosmopolitanism, glamor, and opportunity but also for violence, corruption, and extremes of wealth and poverty. From its supposed origins as a swampy archipelago of seven islands to its rise to prominence in the British imperial economy, to industrialization at the hands of an emergent Indian capitalist class, to hub of anti-colonial and radical politics, popular Hindi cinema (“Bollywood”), and increasingly, in recent decades, opulent urban spaces enclosed in sparkling towers of glass and steel, the story of Bombay/Mumbai is often told through a series of highly romanticized (or dystopian) dramatic flourishes. But the history of the city in fact offers a powerful vantage point to trace the history of global capitalism, as well as histories of modern political movements and popular creative expression of all kinds. This course takes up these latter concerns, centering the voices of the city’s everyday actors: Parsi, Muslim, and Hindu trading families, migrant textile-mill workers and women street vendors, anti-caste activists, nativist politicians, social workers, and urban planners. From neighborhood to nation and beyond, we will see how lines of gender, race, ethnicity, caste, and class were frequently consolidated, but also creatively undone. Counts toward the Non-Euro/ US requirement in history and fulfills the Introductory Survey, Humanities, and non-US requirements in urban studies. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Urban Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2341, URBS 2341)

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

Traces the history of India and Pakistan from the rise of British imperial power in the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Topics include the formation of a colonial economy and society; religious and social reform; the emergence of anti-colonial nationalism; the road to independence and partition; and issues of secularism, democracy, and inequality that have shaped post-colonial Indian and Pakistani society. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: South Asia and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement of history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2581)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

Examines the new forms of politics and of popular culture that have shaped modernity in India. Topics include the emergence of mass politics, urbanization, modern visual culture, new media technologies, and contemporary media and democracy. Course includes a film component. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: South Asia and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2582)

Examines the history of the British Empire from its origins in the sixteenth century through its collapse in the mid-twentieth century, with a focus on the period after the American Revolutionary War. Explores the forces that drove colonial conquest, the shaping of colonial economies and societies, as well as the ideologies of race, gender, and sexuality that sustained colonial rule. Devotes considerable attention to the creative responses of colonized peoples to imperial rule, the rise of anti-colonial thought, the mobilization of popular anti-colonial movements, and histories of decolonization. Considers critical debates about the Empire's legacies, which continue to the present. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe, Colonial Worlds.

Surveys history of Africa after conquest by European powers until independence in the 1960s, with a focus on west and central Africa. Includes the global precursors to colonialism, African resistance to European encroachment, and the violence of conquest. The nature of the colonial endeavor, in terms of the type of colonial regime (concessionaire, settler, or trade) is explored alongside the policies of British, French, Belgian, and Portuguese colonists and early resistance to colonialism. Covers the rise of anti-colonial nationalism and decolonization and why European powers quit Africa after only sixty years of formal colonialism. Addresses the diverse hopes and visions of the first independent generation of African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Sénghor, Nnandi Azikiwe, Julius Nyerere, and Patrice Lumumba. Concludes with colonial legacies in the form of the postcolonial “gatekeeper” state. Within this time frame, considers the politics of gender, race, and class. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2354)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

The study of apartheid in South Africa, the system of racial and ethnic segregation that began in 1948 and ended with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. Explores the many different facets of apartheid: how and why it emerged; its social and economic aspects; how people lived under, resisted, and collaborated with apartheid, and its similarities and differences to other forms of racial and identity-based governance, including European colonialism in Africa, US segregation, and Zionism in Israel / Palestine. The readings, lectures, and class discussions focus on the voices of diverse South Africans, activists, youth, workers, artists, soldiers, and students, exploring their different gendered, ethnic, and racial perspectives. NOTE: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa; and Atlantic Worlds. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2366)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

The end of European colonialism was a revolutionary moment across the African continent. This course explores not only how this revolution was betrayed and compromised, but also how the anti-colonial revolution continued to inspire struggles for political and economic justice. Topics of study may include African socialism and nationalism; post-colonial predatory states; underdevelopment and globalization; the politics of aid; civil society and the African nation-state; inter-state and civil wars; eco-struggles; gender; music, movies and popular culture; health and healing; contested sovereignties and citizenships; and African diasporas. A general survey of continental trends south of the Sahara with particular emphasis on Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Nigeria. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2367)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

Lecture course on seminal works in African and African diasporic thought since the decline of Atlantic slavery in the nineteenth century to the period of decolonization after the Second World War. Topics include anti-slavery movement, mission Christianity, Islamic reformism, Pan-Africanism, Negritude, colonialism, nationalism, neocolonialism, and black feminist thought. Lectures presented in the context of global and regional historical currents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: AFRS 2841)

The world changed forever when the Europeans arrived in the Caribbean. This course considers the worlds that were made and destroyed when Europeans and Indigenous people met. Why did Indigenous elites join Europeans in subjugating their neighbors? What happens to societies when epidemic diseases and new forms of knowledge destroy the legitimacy of their rulers? Why did pirates risk their lives to sail around the Caribbean raiding ports and waiting for gold? How can we begin to understand what Aztec warriors might have felt when they ceremonially wore their defeated rival’s skin over their own? Why are steak burritos the quintessential example of cultural hybridity? During the semester we will grapple with the implications of complicity with colonial rule, learn how to piece together incomplete sources to imagine incomprehensible lives, try to foreground indigenous agency without ignoring structural violence and systematic oppression. Working in a collaborative environment that embraces uncertainty and intellectual playfulness, this course equips you with the tools to understand how people came to grapple with the end of the world. You will discover the story of how a handful of Spaniards managed to defeat the mighty Indigenous empires in Mexico and Peru. You will also come to understand how that story was a myth, created to frame an “intolerably cruel” conquest and you will become familiar with how that story continues to be used to justify subjugation of “others.” You will work with your classmates to critique modern representations of colonial relationships in film with your own video production. Using 500-year-old documents by indigenous people, you will hone your ability to analyze primary sources and practice how to use them to advance your own historical interpretations. In one fateful class meeting, you will recreate a scholarly debate from 1553 about the shared humanity of Europeans and Americans, laying the ground work for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Note: This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It meets the pre-modern requirement, and contributes to the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. It fulfills the history requirement for LACLaS majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. (Same as: LACL 2401)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

This course surveys the 'long nineteenth century' in Latin America. This is a period characterized by conflict, racist policies, and indigenous dispossession, but it is also a period of radical political imaginings, of economic development, and profound social change. Topics covered include the efforts by Spain and Portugal to reform their colonies in the Americas; the independence movements of the 1810s-1820s & the ensuing 'post-colonial Blues'; the end of slavery & campaigns against independent indigenous peoples; the development of export-led economic models; the implementation of social policies to 'whiten' the population; the US invasion of Mexico, the destruction of Paraguay by its neighbors, and a war between Peru and Chile over guano; the triumph of liberalism and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This is the second in a series of three surveys of Latin American history, but no prior knowledge or prerequisites necessary. This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: LACL 2402)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

Examines revolutionary change in Latin America from a historical perspective, concentrating on four successful social revolutions-- Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia-- as well as several revolutionary movements that did not result in social change-- including Argentina, Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Popular images and orthodox interpretations are challenged and new propositions about these processes are tested. External and internal dimensions of each of these social movements are analyzed and each revolution is discussed in the full context of the country’s historical development. This course fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Latin American Studies. (Same as: LACL 2403)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

A megalopolis of 37 million people, Tokyo is the largest city on the planet, a title it has held on and off since the early eighteenth century. Yet Tokyo as we know it today—as a futuristic city of glass, steel, cement, and neon—obscures its deeper past. From its founding four hundred years ago, it has endured fires, earthquakes, epidemics, and bombings, reinventing itself each time. This course takes Tokyo as its subject of study, from its supposed origins as a fishing village to its explosive growth as the castle headquarters of the Tokugawa shoguns, the command center of the Japanese empire, and finally an essential node in the global economy. Considering Tokyo as a series of transformations reveals both the power and problems of capitalism, consumerism, and industrialization, especially through the analytics of gender, class, and ethnicity. Lectures, readings, and films pay close attention to Tokyo’s design, architecture, and infrastructure as shaping and being shaped by the shifting political and cultural landscape of Japan and the wider world. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Urban Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2410, URBS 2525)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Traditionally written history has been dictated by the victors. This statement implies that written history has been authored by the white male elites that hold power in any given territory. On the contrary, oral history compiles the voices that are often left out of the predominant narratives. This course will present students different methods developed to address and document these realities. It will introduce students to the distinct aspects of the interview process, including general oral history theory and methodology, in-person and remote interviewing techniques, legal and ethical issues, transcription practices, and other relevant topics. It will also discuss the power of testimonies when attempting to understand the world through the perspectives of the marginalized and the underprivileged. Finally, it will allow students to juxtapose dominant ideas with marginalized views to rewrite Latin American history. This course originates in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: LACL 2140)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

How did Japan become Japan? This course introduces the origins of Japan from the archeological record until industrial modernity. Lectures survey the unification of Japan under a court-centered state, the rise and demise of the samurai as its ruling order, and the archipelago's shifting relationship to the larger world. We will not only focus on the culture of conquest by the warrior class, but also conquest via culture as inhabitants of the archipelago transferred and transformed material commodities, knowledge systems, and sacred beliefs from beyond its horizons. Readings emphasize voices that comment on gender, status, religion, science, and nature. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It also meets the pre-modern and non euro/us requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2252)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Japan with four naval warships and issued an ultimatum: open up to trade or face foreign invasion. Charts Japan’s swift emergence from its feudal origins to become the world’s first non-Western, modern imperial power out of its feudal origins. Lectures introduce the origins, course, and consequences of building a modern state from the perspective of various actors that shaped its past: rebellious samurai, anarchist activists, the modern girl, imperial fascists, and office salarymen. Readings complicate dichotomies of East and West, modern and feudal, nation and empire through the lens of ethnicity, class, and gender. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2311)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

An introduction to Latin American history between 1400 and the present, using the lens of gender to reinterpret the region's history. Some key events include the arrival of Europeans, mestizaje, honor and race, independence, civil wars, liberalism, populism, dictatorship, and issues of memory and redemocratization. This course works on two registers. The first is that of “women’s history.” Here, we will survey the experiences and impact of women in Latin America from the pre-conquest period to the present, through the lenses of cultural, social, and political history. In other words, we will tell the stories of Latin American women and investigate how changes small and large affected their everyday lives. The second register is “gender history.” In other words, we will not just discuss women’s experiences, but also the ways that gender ideologies have influenced Latin American history. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St; Latin American Studies. (Same as: GSWS 2430, LACL 2420)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Islamic medieval writings of travelers, explorers, and exiles present a cosmopolitan world of encounters of peoples and cultures. This 2000-level course uses these accounts as an entryway to the history of medieval Islam. We will consider how and why Islam emerged in seventh-century Arabia and follow its path through the Mongol expansion in the fourteenth century. We will examine the impact of the Islamic empire on the medieval Middle East, as it spread across most of the known world from Spain to India, and the cultural practices that it developed to manage cultural difference. The readings, lectures, and class discussions will focus on primary sources: the accounts of Muslims, Jews, and Christians who traveled the length and breadth of the Islamic empire. Emphasis on the interconnectedness of the medieval world and on narratives of inclusion and exclusion. Taught in English. For advanced Arabic students, Arabic 3354 with an Arabic reading and writing component will be offered concurrently with this course. Note: This course fulfills the premodern and non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Arabic and is crosslisted with: History; Religion. (Same as: ARBC 2354, REL 2354)

Examines modern Middle Eastern and North African history from the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the nation-state to the present conjuncture of revolution and war. Proceeds chronologically with attention to the main events and turning points in the region. Considers how the over-arching questions about the region have been posed. Key themes are empire and nationalism; colonialism, anticolonialism and revolution; war, humanitarianism, and migration; and oil and the history of capital. This course will satisfy the non-Euro requirement for the history major/minor. This course originates in Arabic and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: MENA 2350)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Surveys the history of China from the end of the imperial rule to the rise of Xi Jinping. Focuses on the different paths taken by the republican, nationalist, and communist governments to modernize China and their impacts on the development of China as a nation-state in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. At the core of a historical understanding of the past hundred-years of China is to situate it both in the longue durée of Chinese history and in the broader world history. To do so, this course examines the interplay between enduring institutions such as sovereignty, government, bureaucracy, fiscal regimes, and education that grow out of China’s imperial past and their continuous transformations as the basis of national recovery and means of adaptation to engage the modern world. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It also fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. It also fulfills the Modern China course for Asian Studies majors and minors concentrating on China. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2056)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. Different scholars have presented the American Revolution as either a radically egalitarian movement for universal human rights or as a fundamentally conservative rebellion led by elite men striving to protect their wealth and power from both the British Parliament and those occupying the lower rungs of American society. Unraveling the often-competing motives of Americans during the Revolution requires an understanding of the words and actions of Revolutionaries in light of their contemporary cultures and societies. Frequently this necessitates putting aside modern claims about what the Revolution means to better understand the interests and ideologies that underlay this foundational era of US history. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester

Seminar. Although modern humans tend to think of themselves as above nature, they are in fact part of it: partners in a myriad of relationships that have tied them to other members of the animal kingdom throughout their history. Examines a number of these relationships, focusing on North America from the sixteenth through the twentieth century. Topics considered include the role of animals in the development of the American economy, how domestic and wild animals have shaped the American environment, how Americans have conceived of the boundary between humanity and animality, and how pets have come to be viewed as part of the modern family. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Environmental Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2504)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Seminar. The Vietnam War is among the most important events in postwar world history. Yet despite the enormous attention paid to the war in American popular culture, the history of the Vietnam War, which was in fact one of three interconnected wars, remains poorly understood. Explores the history of the Vietnam Wars by situating them in their broader historical context. Begins with French colonialism in the late nineteenth century and ends with the Third Indochina War in the very late 1970s. Along the way, investigates such themes as decolonization, nationalism, internationalism, the Cold War, nation building, counterinsurgency, antiwar activism, and human rights. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe; United States; Colonial Worlds.

Intermediate Seminar. Corporal punishment has long been seen as important for judging whether a society is civilized or barbaric, advanced or backward, primitive or modern. According to a classic myth of western civilization, the tortures and mutilations typical of the premodern past gave way, over time, to more enlightened penalties such as imprisonment. The purpose of this course is to examine this myth in the light of historical evidence. It compares approaches to punishment, deviance, and the human body across a range of premodern societies, including the biblical Near East, ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, and the empires of the Islamic world. It examines how corporal punishment was contested throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages and asks how studying violence in the past challenges ideas about progress in the present. Class discussions, assignments, and field trips converge on a set of common themes, including law and vengeance, beliefs about mercy, definitions of disability, and the relationship between bodily violence and identity.

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. History studies the past, but what does it teach us about the past? What is the nature of historical knowledge? How does the historian go about their work? Why do we care about the past? Investigates the craft of history through an examination of both classic historical works and theoretical and philosophical reflections of the discipline of history itself. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Seminar. Examines the culture, politics, religion, and art of both the Italian and Northern Renaissance, with an emphasis on close reading of original sources and recent scholarly work. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. This course fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Intermediate seminar. Today, the Vikings are remembered as savage raiders. But these “Northmen,” as their European neighbors called them, were not just warriors but also traders, inventors, artisans, and explorers. They colonized the far edges of the known world, shaped societies from Ireland to Russia, experimented in democratic government, and built settlements in North America half a millennium before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. This seminar explores the different sides of the Vikings’ legacy by studying them from two perspectives. On the one hand, we will examine how the Vikings were perceived by their contemporaries; on the other hand, we will delve into Viking society on its own terms. As we do this, you will learn the tools of medieval history that help us understand the numerous, complicated, and often conflicting sources for the Viking Age—not only the histories that bemoaned “Viking pirates,” but also the religious rituals, buried treasure, medieval sagas, and modern science that reveal the other side of this story.

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

Seminar. Uses major scandals and cults of celebrity to illuminate the cultural history of early modern Europe. Questions include: What behaviors were acceptable in private but inexcusable in public? Why are people fascinated by scandals and celebrities, and how have those categories evolved over time? How have the politics of personal reputation changed with the rise of new media and new political cultures? Topics include gossip, urban spaces, gender, sex, crime, and religion. Uses a variety of materials, such as cartoons, newspaper articles, trial transcripts, memoirs, and novels, to explore the many meanings of scandal in early modern Europe, especially France and England. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It also fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: GSWS 2450)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. Crime provides a useful lens through which historians can understand the past because defining and punishing transgressions forced people to articulate their values and ideals. Considers criminal figures such as miscreant nuns, unfaithful wives, impostors, and murderers by examining celebrated court cases in Europe from 1500 to 1800. Students conduct independent research projects. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Centuries before abortions were safe and legal in France, women still found ways to prevent or interrupt pregnancy. While abortion and birth control were not encouraged, they were often tolerated as shadowy practices. Until, that is, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when abortion was prosecuted more systematically. The tides turned again when abortion was decriminalized in 1975; in 2024, France became the first country to add the right to seek an abortion to their constitution. How have a variety of historical actors – ordinary people, kings, priests, doctors, and the police – understood pregnancy, birth control, abortion, and infanticide? How have those understandings changed since the seventeenth century, and why? What does a focus on the French past teach us about reproductive politics in the United States? As this course is a seminar, class sessions will focus on discussion. Students will explore the complicated history of reproductive politics by writing research papers and recording podcasts, with a focus on communicating clearly and succinctly for broad audiences.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Fall Semester

Seminar. An in-depth inquiry into the troubled course of German history during the Weimar and Nazi periods. Among the topics explored are the impact of the Great War on culture and society in the 1920s; the rise of National Socialism; the role of race, class, and gender in the transformation of everyday life under Hitler; forms of persecution, collaboration, and resistance during the third Reich; Nazi war aims and the experience of war on the front and at “home,” including the Holocaust. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Seminar. Explores the ideas and events that led to the Holocaust, the diverse experiences of the victims, European and Soviet responses to the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people, and issues related to the Holocaust and historical memory. In addition to secondary scholarship, discussions and papers will draw on a range of primary materials, including literature, memoirs, photography, art and film. Students will have the opportunity to do a short research project. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. Examines the evolution of various Maine social and ecological communities -- inland, hill country, and coastal. Begins with the contact of European and Native American cultures, examines the transfer of English and European agricultural traditions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and explores the development of diverse geographic, economic, ethnic, and cultural communities during the nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Environmental Studies. (Same as: ENVS 2447)

Seminar. Close examination of the decade following the Civil War. Explores the events and scholarship of the Union attempt to create a biracial democracy in the South following the war, and the sources of its failure. Topics include wartime Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, Republican politics, and Democratic Redemption. Special attention paid to the deeply conflicted ways historians have approached this period over the years. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2621)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester

Seminar. Can board games teach history? Is it possible to analyze them as historical interpretations? What would such analyses reveal about both history and the way it is represented in popular culture? Which game mechanics or approaches to design seem to be better able to promote historical arguments? What factors may impede the representation of the past in games? Explores the past while addressing these questions. Examines six topics in history and plays one game related to them. Topics may include: the age of exploration and discovery, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, frontier exploration, slavery, and the American Civil War. Assignments consist of three structured game analyses and a final project. Prospective students should be familiar with modern board games. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

In this intermediate seminar we will use Geographic Information Systems to explore historical problems in 19th-century US history. We will introduce and practice basic statistical techniques, and use the class GIS database to investigate problems, construct our own historical datasets, and make our own maps. Class projects will challenge students to develop critical thinking skills in historical and computational methods, and practice effective data presentation. We will work with a wide array of history data, including information on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, agriculture, slavery, and voting behavior in the period in question. Throughout, we will probe the possibilities and limitations of GIS as a digital technology and methodological approach to historical analysis. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Digital and Computational St. (Same as: DCS 2550)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Explores the canon of public protest thought developed by African Americans from the time of the American Revolution through World War I. Examines how black thinkers have conceptualized their relationship to a nation predicated on universal liberty that nonetheless enslaved and proscribed people of African descent. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2627)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Seminar. Sunshine, beaches, shopping malls, and movie stars are the popular stereotypes of California, but social conflicts and environmental degradation have long tarnished the state’s golden image. Unravels the myth of the California dream by examining the state’s social and environmental history from the end of Mexican rule and the discovery of gold in 1848 to the early twenty-first century. Major topics include immigration and racial violence; radical and conservative politics; extractive and high-tech industries; environmental disasters; urban, suburban, and rural divides; and California in American popular culture. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Seminar. Examines the mass imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Focuses on how historians have interpreted this episode and how Japanese Americans have remembered and reclaimed it. Topics include government justifications for incarceration, the operation of the camps, the diverse experiences of Japanese Americans, the postwar redress movement, and historical memory and commemorations. Also analyzes the political application of this history in discussions of contemporary immigration policy and social justice more broadly. Readings include secondary and primary sources, such as court cases, government documents, films, photography, art, oral histories, memoirs, and fiction. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2881)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester

Seminar. America is an urban nation today, yet Americans have had deeply ambivalent feelings toward the city over time. Explores the historical origins of that ambivalence by tracing several overarching themes in American urban history from the seventeenth century to the present. Topics include race and class relations, labor, design and planning, gender and sexual identity, immigration, politics and policy, scientific and technological systems, violence and crime, religion and sectarian disputes, and environmental protection. Discussions revolve around these broad themes, as well as regional distinctions between American cities. Students are required to write several short papers and one longer paper based upon primary and secondary sources. Note:This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender Sexuality and Women St. (Same as: GSWS 2662, URBS 2660)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. Which matters more: what happened, or what people think happened? Starts with the assumption that cultural reaction to an event is as consequential -- perhaps more so -- than what actually happened. Examines the cultural reception and changing historical memory of people, events, and ideas that have been central to modern American history and history of science. Seeks to answer questions about the nature and construction of public opinion, popular images, and historical memory -- and what the consequences of such processes and understandings have been. Introduces the themes and methods of studying popular and cultural history, drawing principally from examples in the history of science and post-World War II American culture. (Possible examples include nuclear weapons, evolution, genetics, climate change, student activism, feminism, abortion, education, and presidential politics.) Then follows a workshop format, in which classes revolve around the reading and writing that students do as part of self-designed research projects -- projects that may be on any subject in modern United States history. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Seminar. Examines how modern societies have confronted disaster. Such crises have been surprisingly common in recent history, and they take multiple forms: natural, technological, medical, industrial, and environmental. How a society responds to disaster tells us much about its values, politics, and culture; such crises can also act as catalysts for social and historical change. This course examines a range of disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the 1918 flu pandemic, nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima, and devastating earthquakes in both San Francisco and Haiti. Students who have taken this course at the 2000-level (HIST 2203) or at the 3000-level (HIST 3200) are not eligible to take this course.

Seminar. Although the term "fascism" appears everywhere today, it seems to have lost its specific meaning. In this course, we examine the history of fascism in Europe from the late 19th century to the present, exploring such questions as: Why did fascist movements first emerge? Is fascism a coherent ideology? How did fascists take power? How does fascism vary from country to country? Is fascist internationalism possible? And how have anti-fascists organized against fascism? While we focus on the years between two World Wars, the period of fascism’s height, we will pay special attention to how fascism not only survived, but successfully reinvented itself after 1945. The course ends by investigating the new wave of right-wing movements across Europe and the United States to determine whether they really constitute fascism. Note: this course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2024 Spring Semester

In the twentieth century, millions of people came to believe that it was possible to create a new world free from exploitation, domination, and inequality. That conviction carried the name “communism.” Although communist movements inspired people to make extraordinary change, and made possible egalitarian innovations that transformed the globe, they fell short of their goals, created new oppressions, and collapsed. This course surveys communism’s history to explain why. We begin with Marx and Engels in the 1840s and end with the crisis of communism in the 1980s, paying particular attention to historical episodes like the Paris Commune, the October Revolution, and the Cultural Revolution, while exploring such themes as the party, ideology, revolution, internationalism, universalism, anti-imperialism, and everyday life. Questions include: What was communism? Why was it so popular? How was it lived? How did it change over time? How was it adapted to diverse contexts? Why did it fail? Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester

Seminar. Examines the lives and thoughts of Martin L. King Jr. and Malcolm X. Traces the development in their thinking and examines the similarities and differences between them. Evaluates their contribution to the African American freedom struggle, American society, and the world. Emphasizes very close reading of primary and secondary material, use of audio and videocassettes, lecture presentations, and class discussions. In addition to being an academic study of these two men’s political and religious commitment, also concerns how they inform our own political and social lives. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. (IRBW) This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: AFRS 2700)

Terms offered: 2025 Spring Semester

Studies the Crusades as both historical event and object of memory. We will trace the development of crusading in the medieval world, starting with its origins and continuing through the fortunes of crusader states and Islamic empires, and assess how crusading changed in its practices and beliefs. We will move beyond lists of battles and kings to explore the cultural, economic, colonial, gendered, and spiritual dimensions of the Crusades. Later weeks will also consider modern appropriations of crusading, to ask why this medieval event remains so relevant—and so contested—today. Topics include the Protestant Reformation, European colonization of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, nationalist and pan-Arabist movements in the Middle East and Africa, and the use of crusader rhetoric and imagery by right-wing extremists in the twenty-first century. The course culminates in a final project that uses historical forgery as a way to engage with the mentality of people of the past. Note: this course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors.

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

The American North—and New England especially—has long been associated with freedom and free labor, held in stark contrast to the “slave South.” Tides are changing, and a spate of reinterpretation projects from academic historians and public humanities organizations have fueled a conversation about how slavery and unfreedom profoundly shaped the North’s early history. This course will explore the North’s ties to slavery, beginning with early colonial development and concluding in the late eighteenth century as a revolutionary generation grappled with questions of freedom and abolition. We will also survey local and regional efforts by public historians to bring these stories to a wider audience in museums, digital projects, and other public forums. Topics will include Native dispossession and enslavement, New England’s ties to the Caribbean, the Atlantic slave trade, household slavery, microhistory and biography, and freedom and emancipation.

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Intermediate Seminar. Since the emergence in the 1970s of a field dedicated to women’s history, early American historians have made strides to “Remember the Ladies.” The field has in recent years been re-energized by questions about the violence of an archival record and scholarly tradition that allows us to tell some women’s stories but not others. In this course, we will explore the lives and experiences of diverse women in colonial and Revolutionary America. As we do so, we will pay close attention to primary sources, methods for critically approaching these sources, and narrative strategies for centering women in the stories we tell of early America. We will ask how we might balance our responsibilities to both the past and present as we consider topics—from sexual violence to reproductive healthcare—that have continuing resonance in our daily lives. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. (Same as: GSWS 2331)

Hard work has long been considered an American virtue—but whose work has historically been rewarded? And upon whose backs was America built? In this intermediate seminar, we will examine the colonial and founding era of American history, when unfreedom was the norm. We will explore how race, gender, status, age, and ability shaped ideas about work, compensation, and freedom as well as the reverse: how labor itself played a role in shaping these developing categories of difference. We will also consider how laboring people shaped work conditions well before formal labor unions or the concept of “worker’s rights” emerged. In “history labs,” students will perform hands-on historical research with indentured servant contracts, early account books, popular prints, and colonial newspaper advertisements for runaway wives, servants, and slaves. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States, Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the pre-modern requirement for history majors and minors.

Seminar. Explores three interrelated aspects of mortality—death, burial, and the afterlife—in ancient China. Questions include: How was death conceptualized in magico-medical literature and philosophical treatises? What were the differences between ghosts and ancestors and why they matter? What can burials tell us about how the dead were treated physically and ritually? What do changes in tomb designs and funerary artifacts tell us about the development of material world and religious traditions in ancient China? How did the imaginations and representations of the afterlife evolve along with the changes in the discourses of death and burial practices over time? Textual, visual, and archaeological sources will be used. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It also fulfills the non-Euro/US and pre-modern requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2014)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester; 2023 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Explores the deep history of foodways in China. Takes students on a historical journey to visit the earliest rice paddy of Neolithic villages in southern China, witness the elaborate food preparation and lavish feasting of the Han elites, meet the exotic ingredients and foreign peoples on the Silk Roads, and experience family and community meals of ordinary Chinese today. Through the lens of food, meals, and cuisine, this seminar engages students to make connections between a variety of topics—agriculture, environment, and food production; cooking utensils, recipes, and domestic labor; feast, famine, and politics; and food, region, and identity—to understand the history of China. This course fulfills the pre-modern and non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2105)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Fall Semester

Seminar. Addresses Chinese thought from the time of Confucius, ca. sixth century B.C.E., up to the beginning of the Common Era. The first half of the time period nurtured many renowned thinkers who devoted themselves to the task of defining and disseminating ideas. The latter half witnessed the canonization of a number of significant traditions, including Confucianism. Major problems that preoccupied the thinkers include order and chaos, human nature, the relationship between man and nature, among others. Students instructed to treat philosophical ideas as historically conditioned constructs and to interrogate them in contexts. Note: This course is part of the following filed(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the pre-modern and non Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in Asian Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: ASNS 2002)

Traces the emergence of ideas of universal humanity and human rights as these took shape in the context of European imperial expansion from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. Uses case studies of Europeans and their interlocutors in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to explore the seeming contradiction and actual historical connections between empire and appeals to humanity. Examines the operation of transnational institutions like the United Nations since the mid-twentieth century, as well as recent critiques of rights frameworks and of the distinction between humans and the rest of the natural world. Students will engage in original research on a topic of their choice. This course satisfies the non-Euro/US requirement in the history major and is part of the following field(s) of study: Colonial Worlds. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2959)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Seminar. Examines the history of science and technology by exploring how these knowledges have defined and shaped human and nonhuman life in South Asia in the modern era. Considers debates about scientific evidence, the making of scientific authority and expertise, and the cultures of technology, as well as the circulation of popular knowledges and their entanglements with privileged sciences. Focuses on how people have thought—and produced knowledge—about nature, the human body, and bodily differences (such as race, caste, gender, sexuality, ability). Topics may include: science and technology in the service of empire, nation, or capital (such as race science, tropical medicine, plantation agriculture, nuclear power, natural resource extraction); modern yoga and Ayurveda; the pharmaceutical industry and bioprospecting; theories of the origins of castes, tribes, or linguistic communities; and new reproductive and assistive technologies. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: South Asia, Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2586)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester

Seminar. Examines major contemporary cities shaped by histories of colonialism, the Cold War, and contemporary neoliberalism. Considers how these large-scale forces interacted with local, regional, and national cultures and economies to produce specific spatial politics and patterns of urbanization (such as through race, class, caste, gender, sexuality, and ability). Course materials to include primary sources from a range of genres (e.g., film, personal narrative, municipal regulations, planning documents, graffiti), as well as secondary source works of recent historical and ethnographic scholarship and selected critical readings in urban theory. Key themes include segregation and urban mixing; urban infrastructures and technological change; formally recognized and unrecognized economies; impacts of war, mass migration, and mass violence; and the everyday sensory life of the city. Medium-length independent research project developed in stages over the semester. Fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. Not open to students who have taken HIST 2346. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Urban Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2583, URBS 2805)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

How do South Africans remember their past? Begins with the difficulties in developing a conciliatory version of the past during Nelson Mandela’s presidency immediately after apartheid. Then explores the changing historiography and popular memory of diverse historical episodes, including European settlement, the Khoisan “Hottentot Venus” Sara Baartman, Shaka Zulu, the Great Trek, the Anglo-Boer War, the onset of apartheid, and resistance to it. Aims to understand the present-day social, economic, and cultural forces that shape the memories of South Africans and the academic historiography of South Africa. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2821)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

Seminar.The African continent has an unmatched percentage of young people in relation to total population. Over the last sixty years, these youth have driven a continent-wide revolution against an intersection of traditional, gerontocratic, and neo-colonial structures. By studying student activism in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, youth movements against colonialism and neocolonialism in central Africa, the “blood diamond” wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone, the child soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and youth protests against policy brutality in West Africa, this course nuances oft-ascribed youth roles as changemakers and as child soldiers. It considers the gendered and political identities that have emerged through this continental societal revolution. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2822)

Terms offered: 2024 Fall Semester

Seminar. The art of Central Africa inspired European avant-garde artists from Pablo Picasso to Paul Klee. This course explores art as a historical source. What does the production, use, commerce, and display of art reveal about politics, ideology, religion, and aesthetics? Prior to European colonialism, what was the relationship between art and politics in Central Africa? How did art represent power? What does it reveal about gender relations, social divisions, and cultural ideals? The course then turns to the Euro-American scramble for Central African art at the onset of European colonialism. How did the collection of art, its celebration by European artists, and display in European and American museums transform patterns of production, cultural functions and aesthetic styles of Central African art? The course ends with current debates over the repatriation of African art. Note:This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa. This course meets the non-European/ US History requirements. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Art History. (Same as: AFRS 2823, ARTH 2390)

Knowledge of the history of the slave trade to the Americas has grown immensely. This course pivots from viewing the Atlantic World through the lens of the trade in slaves to how a diverse Atlantic World developed through Afro-Portuguese encounters from the age of Henry the Navigator to the formal abolition of slavery in Brazil and the extension of colonization in Portuguese-ruled Africa. How and why did early modern Africans and Portuguese participate in the Atlantic trade? What other forms of commerce, such as ivory and rubber, proliferated? What cultural systems, cosmologies, religions, and identities emerged through these Atlantic World exchanges, including the formation of Afro-Portuguese identities? What are the legacies of the early modern Afro-Portuguese Atlantic world? In exploring these and other questions, this course introduces students to the histories of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil. It fulfills the non-Euro/US and premodern requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Ltn Am, Caribbean & Latinx St. (Same as: AFRS 2824, LACL 2824)

Terms offered: 2023 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Millennium-old interactions between peoples of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia forged cosmopolitan and diverse civilizations stretching from Mogadishu to Madagascar. As with recent phases of globalization, these older cosmopolitan civilizations created landscapes of inequality. This course considers how interactions between different peoples contributed to structures of power and privilege in the history of East Africa. Themes covered include: dhow-based maritime trade across the Indian Ocean; coastal Swahili civilizations; empires such as Axum, Ethiopia and Great Zimbabwe; the spread of Islam; the slave trade and slavery; concubinage and gender-based hierarchies; and Omani, Portuguese, British, Italian, and German colonialisms. Concludes with late colonial conflicts including the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya; the revolution in Zanzibari; post-colonial states; and rebel Islamic insurgencies from Mozambique to Somalia. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Middle Eastern & North African. (Same as: AFRS 2375, MENA 2365)

Seminar. Examines one of the most significant and yet neglected revolutions in history. Between the years 1791-1804, Haitian revolutionaries abolished slavery and ultimately established a free and independent nation. Explores the Revolution’s causes and trajectory and connects Haiti to the broader Atlantic world. Likewise, studies the revolution's aftermath and its impact on world history. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America, Atlantic Worlds, and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the premodern and the non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Latin American Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2862, LACL 2162)

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester

Seminar. The form of slavery pioneered by Europeans who brought Africans to the New World occupies a unique place in the institution's long story. Examines the rise and demise of New World slavery: its founding, central practices, and long-term consequences. Just as New World slavery deserves to be considered a unique historical practice, so too do the impulses and transformations that led to its ending. Explores slavery as it rose and fell throughout the Atlantic basin, focusing particularly on Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland North America. Investigates a range of issues: the emergence of market economies, definitions of race attendant to European commercial expansion, the cultures of Africans in the diaspora, slave control and resistance, free black people and the social structure of New World slave societies, and emancipation and its aftermath. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US, Europe, Atlantic Worlds and Colonial Worlds. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 2870)

Seminar. The Anthropocene defines an epoch in which humans have become the dominant force in shaping their environment. Examines the role of East Asia in the emergence of this new era, from the seventeenth century to the present. In debating the narrative of ecological change in China, Japan, and Korea, readings and discussions focus on how successive regimes transformed their environments, and conversely, how those environments also structured modern human society. Questions what specific political, social, and economic changes triggered the Anthropocene in East Asia; how cultural, religious, and intellectual constructs have conditioned its arrival and acceleration. Weekly topics include: commodity frontiers, environmental sustainability, public health, industrial pollution, and nuclear technology. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Environmental Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2890, ENVS 2491)

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

Seminar. Explores the indispensable role of Chinese archaeology in the nation-building and national history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Considers critical development in theory and practice in the discipline alongside discoveries of national and global significance, and examines debates and controversies related to the origin of Chinese civilization, national history, and cultural identity. Through the lens of Chinese archaeology, students critically engage modern China from the perspectives of how its past have been unearthed, reconstructed, and narrated. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the pre-modern and non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 2055)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2024 Spring Semester

Do people have more or less power when government is weak? Borderlands between empires, nations, and indigenous groups offer a window into the ways legitimacy and power are deployed. How were structures of race, class, and gender established, maintained, and negotiated in places without political, cultural, or economic control by a single group? The long nineteenth century—when European empires in the Americas gave way to aggressive independent nations, offers a unique entry into the worlds of fragmented power, of shifting identities, and unexpected alliances. This course helps you challenge simple narratives of national progress, of indigenous barbarism, and genocide, by focusing on the experiences of “borderlanders” (the everyday people living in borderlands). Explore the Patagonian desert, where young women eager to marry, pitted their overbearing fathers against government officials. Or follow indigenous canoers as they lead imperial officials deep into the Amazon exploring for resources and weakening their own communities in the process. Or discover how Comanche cattle raids gave rise to Texan independence and the Gold Rush. You will analyze a children’s story through theories of frontier expansion, help shape weekly conversations on the assigned readings, lead a seminar discussion, and sharpen your ability to write decisive and compelling analysis of different essays (what we call historiography). The final assignment includes a significant component of independent reading on a course topic of your interest. Note: This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It contributes to the non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. It fulfills the history requirement for LACLaS majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Latin American Studies. (Same as: LACL 2100)

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

Seminar. This course is a study of race and ethnicity in Latin America, focusing on how Latin Americans themselves have understood and articulated these categories, as well as how scholars have interpreted their articulations. We will cover topics from African slavery to indigenous activism and mass immigration. Our focus will be on peoples of indigenous and African descent—the majority of Latin Americans—which will allow us to address questions of national identity, racial mixture, and cultural exchanges. We will trace themes familiar to students of the broader Atlantic world (themes such as race and nation, freedom and slavery, citizenship, and inequality) across the less-familiar setting of modern Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and even Argentina. This course will tackle fundamental questions about the intersection of race, identity, and power in Latin America. Besides reading some of the classic analyses, we will look at some of the cutting-edge scholarship to assess how ideas of race and national belonging have changed through the centuries and across national contexts. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Latin American Studies. (Same as: LACL 2110)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

This seminar explores the various institutions of slavery in the North African and Middle Eastern (MENA) region beginning with the trans-Saharan slave trade, and ending with the contemporary manifestations of slave markets in Libya. Students will examine the theoretical definitions of slavery as they confront the range of paradigms that existed for slave systems. Slavery existed in varying contexts such as the royal courts in the case of eunuchs in Ottoman courts, in the Janissary army in Egypt with “voluntary” conscript soldiers, and in varying socio-economic classes in North Africa, where slave owners considered slaves “members of the family.” Students will grapple with: the implications of, and association with, an “African” identity for descendants of slaves; the application of an “African diasporic” lens to this group and region; and the ways in which the legacy of slavery shapes the experiences of recent sub-Saharan Africans within these contexts. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: African and African Diaspora. It fulfills the non-Euro requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies; Middle Eastern & North African. (Same as: AFRS 2911, MENA 2911)

Rivers are more than just bodies of water—they define (and defy) borders, fuel economies, and spark conflicts. They shape history. Great rivers connect people, goods, and ideas across vast distances, yet they also divide, creating contested sovereignties and struggles for control. This seminar examines the transformative role of four major rivers—the Amur, Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong—in Northern, Central, and Southern East Asia, exploring how they have shaped geography, migration, politics, and identity along their courses. From imperial hydraulic projects to current-day hydropower disputes, we explore how rivers have been forces of both prosperity and destruction. How have communities along these waterways developed distinct identities, economies, and societies? And how have rivers themselves resisted control—shifting courses, flooding cities, and defying human engineering? Students will engage with theories of water societies, transregional connectivity, and hydropolitics while critically assessing concepts such as “river civilization,” “hydraulic state,” and “oriental despotism.” Through historical case studies, we uncover the hidden currents of power that have shaped East Asia’s landscapes and societies and add critical context for understanding humanity’s next climate and energy challenges. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies; Environmental Studies. (Same as: ASNS 3011, ENVS 3011)

A research seminar for majors and interested non-majors focusing on Medieval and Early Modern Europe. After an overview of recent trends in the historical analysis of this period, students pursue research topics of their own choice, culminating in a significant piece of original historical writing (approximately thirty pages in length). This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Capstone seminar. What can bad histories teach us about the nature, practice, and purpose of history? This seminar attempts to answer these questions through close readings of various forms of bad history, including conspiracy theories, pseudo-histories, and the tradition of apocalypticism. Possible topics include ancient astronaut theory, young earth creationism, and conspiracy and antisemitism. For their final project, students will pursue research topics of their own choice related to the themes of the course, culminating in a significant piece of original historical writing (approximately 25 pages in length). This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2021 Fall Semester

Seminar. An analysis of cultural traditions in Britain and Europe. Explores the impact of immigration on Britain and the Continent, notions of cultural pluralism, and the changing definitions and implications of gender in Britain and Europe from the late eighteenth century to the present. Students undertake a major research project utilizing primary sources. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Gender and Women's Studies. (Same as: GSWS 3322)

Compares and contrasts the nature of society and culture under two of the twentieth century’s most “totalitarian” regimes—fascism under the Nazis in Germany, and socialism under the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union. Prior course work in either modern Germany or Russia is strongly recommended, and students may focus their research project on either country, or a comparison of both. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

Explores questions of power, identity, and belief in Soviet society under Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian system of rule from 1928 to 1953. Readings, drawn from recent scholarship and primary documents, engage topics such as Stalin’s dictatorship and cult of personality; the project to build socialism; mechanisms of state violence and political terror; popular conformity/resistance; gender, family, and everyday life; mass culture and socialist realism in the arts; Stalinism at war (1941-1945), in post-war Eastern Europe, and in historical memory. Students expected to write an original research paper. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

Seminar. Explores the ideas and events that led to the Holocaust, the diverse experiences of the victims, European and Soviet responses to the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people, and issues related to the Holocaust and historical memory. In addition to secondary scholarship, discussions and papers draw on a range of primary materials, including literature, memoirs, photography, art, and film. Students have the opportunity to conduct a short research project. Taught concurrently with History 2586. Students registering at the 3000 level expected to complete a more substantial primary research paper. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe.

A research course for majors and interested non-majors that culminates in a single 25-30 page research paper. With the professor’s consent, students may choose any topic in Civil War or African American history, broadly defined. This is a special opportunity to delve into Bowdoin’s rich collections of primary historical source documents. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 3140)

This upper level seminar challenges students to conduct original historical research relying on Bowdoin College’s extensive holdings in the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives. Working closely with the archives staff as well as the instructor, students learn the basics of archival research and embark on research projects founded on selected collections, which culminate in a paper of approximately twenty-five to thirty pages in length. Topics may include a range of subjects related to nineteenth-century American history, the Civil War era broadly construed, slavery and race, and Bowdoin College itself. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

What are the historical origins of our modern system of mass incarceration? This research seminar explores the relationship between race and justice from the end of the Civil War through the early twentieth century. We will begin by framing our concerns in light of recent scholarship on the phenomenon (such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow), and then dig into the archives ourselves to craft 25-30 page research papers on aspects of the problem. Our sources will include Congressional documents, the Department of Justice Peonage Files, records of the NAACP, and other major collections. Students will benefit from prior coursework in African American history or Africana Studies. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: US. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 3142)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Examines social and cultural changes on the United States home front during World War II. While some Americans remember World War II as the good war, an examination of this period reveals a more complicated history. By analyzing a variety of historical sources -- scholarly writings, government documents and propaganda, films, memoirs, fiction, and advertising -- investigates how the war shaped and reshaped sexuality, family dynamics, and gender roles; race and ethnic relations; labor conflicts; social reform, civil rights, and citizenship; and popular culture. Also considers the war’s impact on the immediate postwar years and how Americans have remembered the war. Students write a major paper based on primary source research. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States.

Explores relationships between humans, environment, and health in the United States and North America in their global context from the sixteenth century to the present day. Overall focus is on how the history of health and the environment in the US connects to global and transnational history. Topics may include the evolution of public health interventions, biomedical research, and clinical practice; folk remedies and popular understandings of health; infectious and chronic diseases; links between landscape, health, and inequality; gender and reproductive health; occupational health and safety; the effects of agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization on human and ecological health; state and federal policies in the United States; and the colonial and transnational dimensions of public health and medicine. Students write a major research paper based on primary sources. Environmental Studies 1101, 2403, and at least one history course numbered 2000-2969 recommended. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Environmental Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: ENVS 3980)

Terms offered: 2025 Fall Semester

Complete a semester-long research project in United States metropolitan history. During the first weeks, students learn about some major research methodologies historians use when researching and writing history of US metropolises. Addresses how historians use demography, spatial theory, and histories of LGBT communities; financial, political, and cultural institutions; electoral politics; public policies; popular culture; African Americans; immigrants; women; workers; and capitalists to uncover the ways cities and suburbs change over time. Students design a topic, research primary historical sources, locate a historical problem relating to the topic from secondary historical sources, and develop a hypothesis addressing the question. The result is a paper of at least twenty-five pages. Choose any feasible topic on the history of modern US cities and suburbs that takes place during the twentieth century. The coursework involved is advanced, but the greatest challenge is the need for self-direction. 3000-level research course fulfills the capstone requirement for Africana studies and history majors. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: United States. This course originates in Africana Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: AFRS 3230, URBS 3230)

Was the twentieth century the 'American Century?' How did this understanding of the 20th century emerge? Profound changes within American culture and society shaped domestic life. US foreign policy remade the world. Students will explore key historiographical debates and examinations of all sides of twentieth-century US history. Course materials include significant secondary sources (mostly scholarly articles by historians) and two or three noteworthy books that cover key themes and questions relevant to US history in the twentieth century. Topics explored in this course include how women's lives changed; the emergence of a consumerist economy; environmental changes; changing roles of science and technology; religion in American life; fluctuations in conservativism; foreign policy and the Cold War; race and citizenship; and developments in American capitalism. Students will research and write an independent work of historical scholarship (about twenty pages long) based on primary and secondary sources.

Terms offered: 2024 Spring Semester

In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall put an end to the bloody ideological battles of the twentieth century, promising a new era of liberty, peace, and prosperity. Thirty years later, we live in a world of economic uncertainty, political instability, climate catastrophe, and violent social conflict. How did we get here? This course tells the history of the present by exploring three questions. First, how do you write the history of your own time? We reflect on the challenges of handling new sources and living the history one seeks to understand. Second, who can write this history? We discuss the problems of authorship and the possibility of collective research. Third, what is our time? We will collectively map our present by tracing the history of Europe and North America from 1989 to 2020, synthesizing transnational trends into a coherent narrative. We conclude by considering whether historicizing the present might help predict the future. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Europe, US and Atlantic Worlds.

Terms offered: 2022 Fall Semester; 2024 Fall Semester; 2025 Spring Semester

The history of international aid to the third world through the twentieth century. Seminar considers the imperial mission and white man’s burden, aid during modern colonialism, the post-colonial aid community, the Bretton Woods Institutions, the rise of small-scale NGO aid interventions, aid in modern warfare, and the varied contemporary impacts of aid. Readings focus on Africa, along with examples from Latin America and South Asia. Participants should have some background in the history of at least one of these regions. Each student writes an original research paper on the history of an aid project. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Colonial Worlds. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Africana Studies. (Same as: AFRS 3306)

Examines how law and justice in East Asia became markers of modernity and sovereignty from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.The kinds of punishment used in a society often act as a measure in judging whether that society is civilized or barbaric, advanced or backward. Major themes include: stereotypes of “oriental barbarism,” torture and capital punishment, village law and gender, extraterritoriality and imperialism, sentiment and mass media, war tribunals, and thought reform. Students analyze legal documents in translation alongside recent scholarship in the field and write a major paper based on primary source research. No prior knowledge of an Asian language necessary Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. This course originates in Asian Studies and is crosslisted with: History. (Same as: ASNS 3820)

Terms offered: 2022 Spring Semester

Seminar. Explores how and why the only non-white modern empire with overseas colonies achieved and maintained domination in the absence of racialized difference. Examines debates over whether the postwar order in East Asia emerged from the violent oppression and subsequent resistance of colonized subjects or from economic and infrastructural development under the Japanese regime. Traces how these fraught issues continue to provoke controversy in East Asia to this day. May cover topics such as ethnic ideologies, travel and consumerism, print media, comparative fascism, comfort women, repatriation and decolonization, and memory wars. Requires a major research paper based on primary sources written during the semester. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: East Asia. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. This course is not open to first-year students. This course originates in History and is crosslisted with: Asian Studies. (Same as: ASNS 3421)

Terms offered: 2023 Fall Semester