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Upcoming Graduate Courses
Note: This is only a partial selection. For a complete
listing, go to the Office of the Registrar's
Course Offerings page. For courses offered in past semesters, please
scroll down the
page. For other courses (both undergraduate and graduate) and recent
additions, see the History Department's
News and Events page.
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HST
542: The Enlightenment in Europe |
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"The Enlightenment in Europe"
Professor Doina Pasca Harsanyi
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:20
Fall 2008 |
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The German philosopher Immanuel Kant chose the motto "Dare to know" to
characterize the eighteenth century movement of ideas called the
Enlightenment. Every generation needs to rediscover the
intellectual daring of the Enlightenment and take up the challenge to
think for oneself. The achievements as well as the shortcomings of
this phenomenon left their mark on every aspect of modern Western
civilization. This course aims at providing, in the spirit of the
Enlightenment itself, the intellectual setting for each student to
respond on his or her own to the ideas and values communicated by the
Enlightenment. |
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HST
597L: Special Studies |
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"Ethiopia and the Horn (Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:20
Fall 2008 |
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This course
explores the sub-region in light of the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is
one of the oldest nations and a country that has never been colonized.
It is also one of earliest and oldest Christian nations which also
became one of the first to accept Islam. Such oddities coupled with
maritime trade, migration and wars made the country in particular and
the Horn of Africa in general a melting pot as well as a center of
competing ideologies and nationalisms.
Throughout the semester, we will study the evolution and development of
the Ethiopian state since the earliest times to the present. While doing
so, we will critically examine the role of competing interests such as
the rise of Europe (Portugal and Spain) and the Ottoman challenge of the
16th century and its impact on political developments in the Horn of
Africa, the legacies of colonialism, Cold War politics, globalization
and the rise of ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalism in the
making and unmaking of the states in the Horn of Africa. |
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HST 713A: Seminar in Nineteenth Century American History |
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"Race and Sport in America"
Professor Lane Demas
Mondays, 3:30-6:20
Fall 2008 |
Credit: Public Domain
Image from Wikipedia |
This writing seminar
examines popular sport and its usefulness in exploring dominant themes
in African American history. Emphasis will be placed on how multiple
disciplines have appropriated sport as a lens to examine race, identity,
nationalism, socio-economic class, technology/media, and
gender/masculinity. Students will also identify and explore specific
links between the popular culture of sport and the dominant
historiography of twentieth-century African American history, including
the modern Civil Rights Movement.
The course will also address the techniques of historical research and
writing. Students will complete three brief review papers (2-3 pages)
and one final research paper (15-25 pages). Students will also be
expected to participate in class discussion, present their research, and
complete various small reading/interactive assignments announced in
class. |
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HST 744: Seminar in Nineteenth Century European History |
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"London, The
Seminar"
Professor James Schmiechen
Tuesdays, 7:00-9:50
Fall 2008 |
Credit: George Arents Collection,
Humanities
and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library |
In its heyday of the
19th century, London was not only the capital of Britain, but also the
world’s largest city, the financial and cultural capital of the world,
and the center of the world’s largest empire. This seminar looks at how
the physical makeup of the city—including the character of its people,
its spatial layout, architecture, housing, and services
infrastructure—was shaped and reshaped by industrialization, new
cultural/political values, population growth, and war. It is also an
attempt to discover how and why “London” was a hotbed for great
invention and creativity and architectural wonder.
Each student in the seminar will participate in collective
reading/discussion and take on a specific research sub-topic—anything
from street entertainment and food/housing for the lower classes to the
building of great concert halls, new Houses of Parliament, the role of
the monarchy in the history of the city, and the rebuilding of London
following the Great Fire of 1666, the onset of industrialization, and
the bombing ‘Blitz’ of World War Two.
For each student the outcome of the seminar will be a seminar paper.
Course assessment will include, as well, seminar discussion
participation and analysis of select readings. |
Past Graduate Courses
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HST
597D: Special Studies |
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"From Thermopylae to Iraq"
Professor Paul Schulten
Professor Henri Beunders
Tuesday-Thursday, 11:00-12:15
Spring 2008 |
Credit: Image from the
film 300 (2007), copyright Warner Bros. Pictures |
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In this course, warriors and armies will be analyzed over a long period
of time, in respect to their organization and action, but also as
important factors in the social, economic, and political lives of people
and societies. The focus will be on the wars of the twentieth
century, but pre-modern wars, especially those in classical antiquity,
will be studied as well, as a comparison and as a foil for understanding
modern warfare. Special attention will be given to topics such as
the relations between army commanders and politicians; between soldiers
and civilians; and the various ideologies that fuel wars. We will
also be exploring the increasing importance of the mass media to the
conduct of modern warfare. |
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HST
697A: Special Studies Colloquium |
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"Nationalisms, State Creation, and the Search for Identity in the Middle
East, ca. 1800 to the Present"
Professor John Robertson
Tuesdays, 3:30-6:20
Spring 2008 |
Credit: Image from
Wikipedia under
Creative Commons license |
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This course
will explore the rich historiography of the Modern Middle East (from the
late 18th century) with a focus on its inherently
transnational and comparative character. Themes will include the
construction of - and threats to - transethnic and transectarian
identities (such as Ottomanism, Iraqi nationalism, and Lebanese
nationalism) and trans-nation-state movements (Arab nationalism); the
comparative uses of religion in defining national identities; the impact
of European-American intervention and hegemony in the history of modern
Middle Eastern nation-state; and the impact of economic and cultural
globalization on Middle Eastern politics and culture. |
| HST 742: Seminar
on Eighteenth Century European History |
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"Napoleon"
Professor Doina Pasca Harsanyi
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:20
Spring 2008 |
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The short period dominated by Napoleon Bonaparte (1795-1815) brought
together a beginning and an end: it concluded the eighteenth century era
of Enlightenment and Revolution while opening the modern age of
nationalism and mass politics. Napoleon used to assure his
contemporaries that the "gains of the Revolution were safe" with him but
boasted of founding an empire like no other in history. This course will
examine the historical significance of various aspects of Napoleon's
rule -- famous military expeditions, social and political motivations,
artistic representations -- and attempt to uncover the ambiguities
behind the myth. |
| HST 758A: Seminar
on Twentieth Century European History |
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"The Third Reich and Genocide in Comparative Perspective"
Professor Eric A. Johnson
Tuesdays, 3:30-6:20
Spring 2008 |
Adolf Eichmann on trial
in Jerusalem (1961) |
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This course focuses on The Third Reich in
broad perspective. The goal is for students to write high quality
research papers of 25-40 pages dealing with a specific aspect of the
history of dictatorship and genocide whether in Nazi Germany or
elsewhere. Of particular interest for this semester are papers based on
correspondence between Europeans and Americans during the years of the
Third Reich, but other topics can be arranged with the instructor’s
approval.
Required Texts:
Hannah Arendt,
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the
Banality of Evil
Samantha Powers, A Problem
from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide
Eric A. Johnson, What We
Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany
Elie Wiesel, Night
Jan Gross,
Neighbors
Richard J.
Evans, The Third Reich in Power |
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HST 763: Seminar in Latin American
History |
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"The Conquest of Mexico:
Ancient Mesoamerica and Early New Spain"
Professor Thomas Benjamin
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:20
Spring 2008 |
Credit: Western History/Genealogy
Dept., Denver Public Library |
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This seminar will investigate the
collision of empires and cultures in central Mexico in the early
sixteenth century. Students will be required to read some of the
classic conquest narratives and develop a topic for research. This
course, as will all seminars, is not primarily concerned about this
particular time and place. It is designed to develop the skills
and methods of serious historical research in primary and secondary
sources.
Preliminary
Required Texts:
Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New
Spain, Translated with an Introduction by J.M. Cohen (London:
Penguin Books, 1963).
Ross Hassig,
Mexico and the Spanish Conquest, Second Edition (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2006).
Miguel León-Portilla, The Broken
Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, Expanded and
updated edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).
Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the
Spanish Conquest (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Stuart B. Schwartz, ed., Victors and
Vanquished: Spanish and Nahua Views of the Conquest of Mexico
(Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000). |
| HST 791: Graduate
Research Seminar |
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"Seminar on the History of the New African Diaspora"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:20
Spring 2008 |
So far, African Diaspora studies have been focused on the forced
migration of people from the African continent into the New World,
primarily the US to some degree the Caribbean. As a result, African
Diaspora studies have always been associated with the saga of slavery
and the Atlantic slave trade.
While both the Disapora and Transatlantic studies are essential in
understanding the history of Africans in America and beyond, they do not
explain the post-1960s migration of Africans to the US and other parts
of the world; and the formation of New African Diaspora identities such
as Nigerian-Americans, Ethiopian-Americans, and Senegalese-Italians,
etc.
In this seminar, however, we will explore the historical circumstances
and recent socio-economic and political developments that triggered the
post-1960s African migration to the US and other parts of the world.
By examining US Congressional hearings, US Census Bureau data, INS (the
now Homeland Security) figures and reports, and by interviewing
contemporary African immigrants, we will map the whereabouts of the New
African Disapora in the United States. Using the available literature on
immigrants in America, we will also analyze African immigrants'
relationships with the mainstream society in general and African
Americans in particular. |
| HST 652A: Colloquium in Modern
European History |
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"Major Debates in Modern
German and Holocaust History"
Professor Eric Johnson
Wednesdays, 3:30-6:20
Fall 2007 |
Credit: Print Collection, Miriam and Ira
D. Wallach
Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, Humanities
and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library |
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This course will examine several of
the major debates and controversial works in modern German
historiography and in the historiography of the Holocaust. Among
these are: the issue of whether Germany followed a "Sonderweg" or
special path in its historical development that led it to an an
authoritarian modern society instead of a democratic one (Wehler and
Blackbourn and Eley); the debate over Germany's role in the causation of
World War One and World War Two (sometimes called the "Fischer
Controversy" and the "Taylor Controversy"); the nature of terror and
fear in Nazi society and the role of ordinary Germans in the Holocaust
(Browning and Johnson); the so-called "Historikerstreit" (or battle of
the German historians) over the uniqueness of Nazism and the Holocaust
(Evans and Finkelstein); the particular role of women in the Third Reich
and whether they were victims or also often perpetrators (Koonz); and
the manner in which the Third Reich has been dealt with and how a new
civil society has been developed in Germany in the last half of the
twentieth century (Jarausch).
Required Texts:
Hans-Ulrich Wehler, The German
Empire
David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History
Fritz Fischer, From Kaiserreich to Third Reich: Continuities in
Germany History
A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War
Richard J. Evans, In Hitler's Shadow
Eric A. Johnson, Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans
Claudia Koonz, Mother's in the Fatherland
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Police Battalion 101 and the
Murder of the Jews in Poland
Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry
Konrad Jarausch, After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1990
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