The material on this page is from the 2000-01 catalog and may be out of date. Please check the current year's catalog for current information.

Professors: Leamon (on leave, 2000–2001), Cole (on leave, winter semester and Short Term), Hirai, Grafflin, Jones, Hochstadt, Chair, and Tobin; Associate Professors: Carignan, Creighton, and Jensen; Assistant Professors Kanes and Guerra; Mr. Carter, Mr. Beam, Ms. Lovasz, and Mr. Garrison History has been defined as the collective memory of things said and done, arranged in a meaningful pattern. Such knowledge of the past supplies context, perspective, and clarity in a diverse and changing world. The members of the history department offer widely different views of the history of a broad variety of peoples, yet they agree that the study of the past provides meaning in the present and informed choices for the future. The study of history teaches an appreciation of both change and continuity, the critical examination of evidence, the construction of arguments, and the articulation of conclusions. In addition to teaching and to graduate studies in history and law, majors find careers in related fields, such as work in museums and archives, public service, indeed any profession requiring skills of research, analysis, and expression. Courses in the history department are designed to be taken in sequence: first, introductory survey courses (100-level), then more specialized intermediate courses (200- and 300-level), and ultimately advanced seminars (390). While nonmajors are welcomed in any history course, all students are encouraged to begin their study of history with 100-level courses. Major Requirements. Majors must complete at least nine courses and the mandatory Short Term unit or eight courses, the mandatory Short Term unit, and one other Short Term unit. Majors choose a primary concentration from one of the following five fields: East Asia, Latin America, Europe, the United States, and premodern history. The primary concentration includes six courses focused on the chosen field: one 100-level course, three 200- or 300-level courses (or two plus one Short Term unit), one 390 seminar, and a senior thesis (History 457 or 458). Majors must take two courses from any one of the three following fields: East Asia, Latin America, or premodern history. Students whose primary concentration is in one of these three fields must take two courses in any other field. Courses that are listed in two fields may be counted in either field, but not in both. Mandatory Short Term Unit. All history majors must complete History s40, Introduction to Historical Methods, which focuses on critical analysis, research skills, and historiography. Students are strongly advised to do so no later than the end of their sophomore year, and must do so by the end of their junior year. This requirement is a prerequisite for registering for the senior thesis. Majors must present to the department chair an acceptable plan for completing this requirement before being approved for study abroad in their junior year. Senior Thesis. All senior history majors write a thesis in the fall or winter semester (History 457 or 458). Thesis writing develops the skills learned in earlier courses and demonstrates the ability to work independently as a historian. To ensure that students have adequate background knowledge of their topic, the department recommends that a senior thesis grow out of an existing paper. The student should bring this paper to the thesis advisor when initially discussing the subject of the thesis. This works best when the paper has been written for a Junior–Senior Seminar (History 390), but students may also use papers written for 200-level courses. A major planning a fall thesis must consult with a thesis advisor in the previous spring; those planning winter theses must consult with thesis advisors in the fall of the senior year. Pass/Fail Grading Option. Pass/fail grading may be elected for courses applied toward the major except for the following courses: any History 390 course, History 457, History 458, and History s40. Departmental Honors. The honors program in history focuses on a major research project written during both semesters of the senior year (History 457 and 458), allowing more time for the maturation of a satisfying project. This also helps to indicate the competence, discipline, and independence sought by graduate schools and potential employers. The candidate presents the two-semester, double-credit thesis to a panel of professional readers. This increases the required number of history courses and units for an honors major to eleven. For honors students, there is also a foreign language requirement of competence at the intermediate level (most commonly met by satisfactorily completing the fourth semester of college language). This level of study should be regarded as the bare minimum for students considering graduate work in history. Successful completion of an honors major requires imagination, critical judgment, and good writing. Therefore the history department invites majors with exceptional academic records to consider the honors program. Invitees are informed toward the end of their junior year. Any invitee who intends to pursue an honors major must submit a preliminary proposal, defining the topic and providing a basic annotated bibliography, to the advisor by September 1 of the senior year. External Credits. Majors must take a minimum of six history courses and units from Bates faculty members. This means that students may use a maximum of four credits taken elsewhere (transfer or off-campus study courses) toward the major requirements. Advanced Placement credits, awarded for a score of four or five on the relevant examination, may count toward overall college graduation requirements, but do not count toward the history major. Students considering graduate study in history should achieve at least a two-year proficiency in a foreign language, and should take some work in American and modern European history prior to taking the Graduate Record Examination. Secondary Concentration. The secondary concentration in history consists of at least six courses or units. The history department's offerings cover an enormous range in space and time. Like history majors, secondary concentrators should focus their studies in one of the department's areas of specialization and also sample at least one other area outside of the modern Western experience. Secondary concentrators should also take at least one course at the highest level, the 390 seminars. The six courses and/or units must consist of: At least three courses and/or units in one of the history department's areas of concentration: United States, Europe, Latin America, East Asia, or premodern. Of these three, one must be at the 100 level and one must be a 390 seminar. One other course that deals with historical methods: either another 390 or History s40, Introduction to Historical Methods. At least one course must be in Latin American, East Asian, or premodern history, or if the focus is in one of these areas, at least one course must be in any other area of concentration. Pass/Fail Grading Option. Courses for a secondary concentration in history can be taken pass/fail except for History s40 and any 390 seminar. General Education. Any one history Short Term unit may serve as an option for the fifth humanities course. Courses 100. Introduction to the Ancient World. This course introduces the Greco-Roman world and serves as a useful basis for 200- or 300-level courses in classical civilization and ancient history. Within a general chronological framework, students consider the ancient world under a series of headings: religion, philosophy, art, education, literature, social life, politics, and law. The survey begins with Bronze Age Crete and Mycenae and ends in the first century B.C.E., as Rome makes its presence felt in the Mediterranean and moves toward empire. This course is the same as Classics 100. (premodern). D. O'Higgins. 102. Medieval Europe. A study of the genesis and development of Western European civilization from the later Roman Empire in 300 C.E. to the crisis and collapse of the medieval world in the fourteenth century. Attention centers around the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of an evolving western medieval civilization. (premodern). M. Davidson. 103. Early Modern Europe. What Europeans ate, what they wore, and how they were housed changed so slowly from the mid fifteenth century to the mid-eighteenth as to make at least their material history seem "immobile." There were other relative constants, love and war among them, if not death and not taxes. This course emphasizes more dramatic changes, including the Renaissance and the printing revolution; the Reformation and Counter Reformation; and the European discovery, imperial domination, and commercial exploitation of much of the rest of the world. J. Cole. 104. Europe, 1789 to the Present. An introduction to modern European history. The course analyzes major events, such as the French Revolution, the development of capitalism, and the two world wars. It also introduces students to the different kinds of evidence used by historians: original documents, books written by historians, novels, and films. Themes that run throughout the course are class conflict, gender relations, and racial conflict as expressed through imperialism. S. Hochstadt. 140. Origins of the New Nation, 1500–1820. The first course in a three-course sequence that presents the American experience from a deliberately interpretive point of view. The current theme is the continuous redefinition of liberty through the various stages of American development. The course employs primary and secondary sources, lectures, and discussion to examine political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of change and continuity and contrasts between ideals and reality. C. Kanes. 141. America in the Nineteenth Century. The second course in a three-course sequence that presents the American experience from a deliberately interpretive point of view. The current theme is the continuous redefinition of liberty through the various stages of American development. The course employs primary and secondary sources, lectures, and discussion to examine political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of change and continuity and contrasts between ideals and reality. M. Creighton. 142. America in the Twentieth Century. The third course in a three-course sequence that presents the American experience from a deliberately interpretive point of view. The current theme is the continuous redefinition of liberty through the various stages of American development. The course employs primary and secondary sources, lectures, and discussion to examine political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of change and continuity and contrasts between ideals and reality. H. Jensen. 144. The Social History of the Civil War. This course examines the many causes and courses of the Civil War in American historiography, but focuses on current interpretations that stress conflicts over issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality. The military campaigns of the war itself receive consideration, but particularly in their social dimensions. The contours of slave and planter culture are covered in some detail, and the Confederate myth of the "Lost Cause" and the enduring debate over Southern "difference" are examined in period literature, historical accounts, and contemporary film. M. Creighton. 171. China and Its Culture. An overview of Chinese civilization from the god-kings of the second millennium and the emergence of the Confucian familial state in the first millennium B.C.E., through the expansion of the hybrid Sino-foreign empires, to the revolutionary transformation of Chinese society by internal and external pressures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (East Asian) (premodern). D. Grafflin. 172. Japanese History: A Survey. This course explores the roots of Japanese civilization and its modern transformation, by studying the evolution of Japan's political, social, and economic institutions as well as cultural, intellectual, and literary achievements. It examines Japan in the global context through its contact with East Asia, South Asia, Europe, America, and the Pacific Rim at various moments of its history. (East Asian) (premodern). A. Hirai. New title as of 3/21/01. 173. Korea and Its Culture. The course examines the distinctive evolution of Korean civilization within the East Asian cultural sphere, from its myths of origin through its struggles to survive amidst powerful neighbors, to the twentieth-century challenges of colonial domination and its poisonous legacies of civil war and division, and the puzzles of redefining a hierarchical Neo-Confucian state in the context of global capitalism. (East Asian) (premodern). This course is the same as Asian Studies 173. M. Wender, D. Grafflin. 181. Latin American History: From the Conquest to the Present. This course explores the history of Latin America as a process of cultural transformation, political struggle, and drastic economic change. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches and primary source materials, this course seeks to understand the evolution of colonialism, the reasons for its collapse, and the complex challenges that its legacies have posed to emerging nation-states in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, students consider how the social construction of identities (in terms of race, class, gender, and culture) relate to systems of control, strategies of resistance, and ideological change over time. (Latin American). L. Guerra. 201. Greek Civilization. This course considers: 1) the archaic civilization of Homer, a poet celebrating the heroes of an aristocratic and personal world; 2) the classical civilization of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Phidias, the dramatists and sculptor of a democratic and political Athens; 3) the synthesis of Plato, celebrating the hero Socratesand attempting to preserve and promote aristocratic values in a political world. Open to first-year students. (premodern). J. Cole. 202. The Great Wars of Greek Antiquity. Much of the perennial appeal of the history of the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War lies in the storied confrontations of East and West, empire and freedom, rise and fall, folly and intelligence, war and peace, victory and defeat. But more of the interest for the attentive and reflective student lies in the critical study of the first contrasting masterpieces of Western history, the works of Herodotus and Thucydides, and in the qualifications that a historian must now make to those too-simple polarities, East/West, empire/freedom, rise/fall, folly/intelligence, war/peace, victory/defeat, and, of course, good/bad. Open to first-year students. (premodern). J. Cole. 207. The Roman World and Roman Britain. The Roman Empire is famous for its decline and fall. Stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, however, this remarkable multiethnic empire persisted for five hundred years. Its story is a fascinating example of what Theodore Mommsen tagged the moral problem of "the struggle of necessity and liberty." This course is a study of the unifying and fragmenting forces at work on the social, economic, and political structures of the Roman imperial world. Key themes include the western provinces and Roman Britain, the effects of Romanization on conquered peoples, and the rise of Christianity. The survey begins with the reign of Augustus and concludes with the barbarian invasions of the fifth century. Open to first-year students. (premodern). M. Jones. 208. Introduction to Medieval Archeology. The Middle Ages were a time of major cultural changes that laid the groundwork for Northwest Europe's emergence as a global center of political and economic power in more recent centuries. However, many aspects of life in the period from 1000 to 1500 C.E. were unrecorded in contemporary documents and art, and archaeology has become an important tool for recovering that information. This course introduces the interdisciplinary methods and the findings of archeological studies of topics including medieval urban and rural lifeways, health, commerce, religion, social hierarchy, warfare, and the effects of global climate change. This course is the same as Classical and Medieval Studies 208 and Anthropology 208. Open to first-year students. (premodern). Staff. 209. Vikings. The Vikings were the most feared and perhaps misunderstood people of their day. Savage raiders branded as the Antichrist by their Christian victims, the Vikings were also the most successful traders and explorers of the early Middle Ages. The Viking Age lasted for almost three centuries (800–1100 C.E.) and their world stretched from Russia to North America. Study of the myth and reality of Viking culture involves materials drawn from history, archeology, mythology, and literature. Prerequisite(s): History 102. This course is the same as Classical and Medieval Studies 209. (premodern). Staff. 215. The Jewish Diaspora of Latin America. This course explores the causes, culture, and experience of Jewish immigration to the Caribbean and Latin America. In particular, it compares the history of Jewish communities in Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, and the Dutch colony of Curacao, site of the first Jewish synagogue in the Americas. This course opens a window onto the diversity and contrasting responses of Jewish immigrants to Latin America. Moreover, it uses the experience of Jews, a small minority in Latin American societies, to illustrate common historical patterns in the development of these societies over time. The majority of Jews who arrived in Latin America from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries came as refugees fleeing persecution in Europe. As a result, this course takes a lateral view of events across the Atlantic, seeking to illuminate their impact on Latin America. Topics for study include the obsession of Latin America's ruling elites with "whitening" their countries as the first step toward modernization; the rise of the urban labor movement; revolutions in Europe and their connections to radical anti-imperialist and leftist politics in Latin America; and finally, the reliance of Latin American states on terror as a means of repressing calls for social change during the last two decades of the cold War (1970s-1980s). Recommended Background: Latin American, Jewish, Holocaust History; courses dealing with race and identity, immigration and nationalism. Open to first-year students. L. Guerra. New Course for 2001-2002. 221. History of Russia, 1762–1917. Despite a backward political and social structure, Russia has been a world power since the eighteenth century. This course considers how Russia's rulers from Catherine the Great to Nicholas II tried to prevent the forces of Western ideas and industrialization from weakening their power, causing radical intellectuals, peasants, and workers to join together in a unique revolutionary movement. The course ends with a study of the successful overthrow of the government in 1917 and the creation of a Bolshevik state. Recommended background: History 104. S. Hochstadt. 222. History of the Soviet Union, 1917–1991. The history of the Soviet Union has turned out differently from the hopes of the revolutionaries in 1917. Beginning with an analysis of the Revolution and its aftermath, this course studies the growth of the Bolshevik–Communist government under Lenin, the attempts to create a workers' state and culture in the 1920s, the transformation of state and society under Stalin, the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower after 1945, and the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s. Gender and class are used as important categories of analysis. Recommended background: History 104. S. Hochstadt. 223. The French Enlightenment. The eighteenth-century men of letters who thought of themselves as "Philosophers" broke radically from traditional and previously authoritative ideas, values, and beliefs. Simplifying outrageously, they challenged the sovereignty of the Christian faith, advocating instead a cultural relativism, a rational utilitarianism, and a liberal rehabilitation of human nature. Their opponents have always thought that this was for them to put the dear self in the place of God; their followers think that this makes them the precursors of modernity. The course centers on the works of five great figures: Descartes, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot. All assigned reading is in English; research projects can be defined to suit the capacities and interests of French majors. This course is similar to French 353. Not open to students who have taken French 353. Open to first-year students. J. Cole. 224. The French Revolution. This course devotes approximately equal time to each of three periods and problems: 1) the pre-Revolutionary eighteenth century and its most important social, political, and religious structures; 2) the more "moderate" Revolution of 1789, which destroyed the old order of throne and altar, nobles and commoners, in attempting to create a new order based on liberty and equality; 3) the more "radical" Revolution that climaxed in the Year II (1793–1794) without managing to secure the "blessings of liberty" — and equality — to such groups as women and blacks. Open to first-year students. J. Cole. 225. England, France, and Modernity. This course concerns the interrelated histories of England and France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The general emphasis of the course is on political history and culture, and particular attention is paid to the first classics of British liberalism and conservatism, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690) and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Each of these works defined British ideals in reaction against what the author perceived as French realities. Open to first-year students. J. Cole. 227. Germany in the Era of the Two World Wars. Between 1914 and 1945, Germany's diplomacy and territorial ambitions precipitated two world wars, with terrible consequences for soldiers and civilians; during the same time period Germany experienced one socialist revolution, an experiment in democracy, and a racist dictatorship. Between the wars, German dramatic and visual artists were among the most exciting in Europe. This course examines Germany during this period of extraordinary cultural and political ferment, seeking to understand its causes and its legacy for us today. Recommended background: one history course. E. Tobin. 229. The Holocaust in History: The Genocide of European Jews. No event has shocked Western sensibility as much as the mass murder of European Jews by Nazis and their collaborators. How could Europeans, who considered themselves the most highly civilized people on earth, have engaged in premeditated genocide? This course begins by contrasting the rich culture of European Jews around 1900 with the rise of modern anti-Semitism. The focus of the course is the gradual escalation of Nazi persecution, culminating in concentration camps and mass murder. The varied reactions of Jews and non-Jews in Europe and America are a central subject. The question of the Holocaust's uniqueness is discussed, as well as its continuing effects on European, Jewish, and Middle Eastern politics. Recommended background: History 104 or 227. Enrollment limited to 130. S. Hochstadt. 231. Litigation in Classical Athens. This course studies the practice of law in ancient Athens. About 100 speeches survive from the fourth century, B.C.E., in which Athenians contested everything from wills and property disputes to the worthiness of political candidates for office and the proper conduct of domestic and international affairs. Study of these speeches illuminates not merely the procedural organization of law in the Athenian democracy, but also the nature of political, social, and cultural structures in Athens. Consequently, the course concentrates as much on the various methodological approaches scholars have applied to the orations as on learning the mechanics of Athenian legal procedure. This course is the same as Classical and Medieval Studies 231. Open to first-year students. M. Imber. 240. Colonial New England, 1660–1763. This one-hundred-year period in New England's history is filled with crises: a new imperial system, the Glorious Revolution in England, accompanied by rebellions in the colonies, wars against the Indians, the French, and — in Massachusetts — against the Devil. Less dramatic but equally traumatic were economic and social changes that struck at the heart of Puritan self-confidence. By the end of this era, however, New England had regained a new self-image and revived sense of "mission" as a chosen people. Recommended background: History 140. (premodern). C. Kanes. 241. The Age of the American Revolution, 1763—1789. A study of the Revolution from its origins as a protest movement to one seeking independence from Britain. The course examines differences among Americans over the meaning of the Revolution and over the nature of society in the new republic. The debates over state and national constitutions help to illustrate these differences. The course considers the significance of the Revolution for Americans and for Europeans as well. Recommended background: History 140. Staff. 243. African American History. Blacks in this country have been described as both "omni-Americans" and a distinctive cultural "nation within a nation." The course explores this apparent paradox using primary and interpretive sources, including oral and written biography, music, fiction, and social history. It examines key issues, recurrent themes, conflicting strategies, and influential personalities in the African American's quest for freedom and security. It surveys black American history from seventeenth-century African roots to present problems remaining in building an egalitarian, multiracial society for the future. Recommended background: one of the following: History 140, 141, or 142. Open to first-year students. H. Jensen. 244. Native American History: Contact to Removal. In this course, students consider how we study groups of people who had no formal written language, and what happens when different civilizations meet. How did Europeans and Indians affect one another? The course focuses on the fifteenth through the middle of the nineteenth centuries, from pre-contact native groups through the early national period and the effort of the new American nation to remove Indians from the eastern part of the country. Students study both Native American voices and European voices to explore the meanings for both of these groups of the encounters. They also consider the lasting effects of these interactions. Recommended background: History 140 or 141. Open to first-year students. C. Kanes. 246. Gender and Religion in Early America. How did religion shape roles for men and women in Early America? How did men and women and their roles in Early American society shape religion? In this course, both questions help students examine Early American society and the place religion played in that society. Students examine the diversity of religious expressions in Early America, especially in the context of gender. Topics for study include Native Americans, African Americans, women preachers, Puritans, Quakers, Shakers, and Revivals. Recommended background: History 140. Open to first-year students. C. Kanes. 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century. This course examines the persistent and uniquely American impetus toward individual liberty, equality, and collective moral reform by studying a variety of protest movements and representative dissenters from Emma Goldman to Jesse Jackson. It consequently investigates the development and interplay of American variants of anarchism, socialism, pacifism, syndicalism, anticommunism, racial egalitarianism, feminism, and radical environmentalism and their influences — intended and fortuitous — upon the larger society. Recommended background: History 142. H. Jensen. 271. The United States in Vietnam, 1945–1975. This course examines United States military and political intervention in Vietnam, which became a dominant — and divisive — issue in the post-World War II era. Topics explored include the origins and development of Vietnamese anticolonial resistance movements, the Cold War and the evolution of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia, the U.S. decision to intervene and later withdraw, domestic opposition to the war, and the impact of the conflict on Americans and Vietnamese. The objective of the course is to develop a coherent historical understanding of what became one of the costliest conflicts in U.S. history. Enrollment limited to 50. (East Asian). C. Beam. 274. China in Revolution. Modern China's century of revolutions, from the disintegration of the traditional empire in the late nineteenth century, through the twentieth-century attempts at reconstruction, to the tenuous stability of the post-Maoist regime. Recommended background: History 171. (East Asian). D. Grafflin. 275. Japan in the Age of Imperialism. A course on Japan's modern transformation necessitated by the global expansion of the West's imperialism and colonialism in the nineteenth century. In the spirit that "imitation is the best defense," Japan adopted many Western institutions and technologies in government, law, defense, industry, and foreign affairs. Along with them came cultural and social changes. But not all was well with this Westernization as modernization. This course examines the nature of nineteenth-century imperialism, Japan's adaptation to it, and the vast majority of Japanese who bore the burden: peasants, industrial workers, women, and children. Recommended background: History 172. (East Asian). A. Hirai. 276. Japan since 1945 through Film and Literature. A course on Japan since World War II. A brief survey of Japan's prewar history is followed by a detailed analysis of postwar developments. The focus is cultural and social history, but these aspects of postwar Japan are examined in their political, economic, and international context. Study materials combine great works of literature and film with scholarly writings on related subjects. Kurosawa's Rashomon is viewed in conjunction with a book on the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. Kobo Abe's novels and their film renditions are coupled with excerpts from Marx's treatises on alienation in capitalist society. Open to first-year students. (East Asian). A. Hirai. 278. Taiwan. On 20 May 2000, with the inauguration of a president from the opposition, Taiwan added political democracy to the list of Chinese historical achievements. This course surveys the history of the island from the seventeenth-century piracy to the emergence of the world's twelfth-largest trading power. Open to first-year students. D Grafflin. 280. Revolutiuon and Conflict in the Caribbean and Central America. This course focuses on the Caribbean and Central America, a region whose internal struggles for national sovereignty and social change have been shaped by the interests and interventionist policies of the United States. Specifically, it seeks to explain the origins, development, and dialectical relationship between United States imperialism and the emergence of nationalisms in Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. By understanding the conditions under which certain groups were included and excluded from power in these national states, students explore ideologies of modernity and civilization, the growth of corporate capital, labor struggles, and the role of the Cold War in changing the terms of political debate. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for History 390H. (Latin American). L. Guerra. 281. U.S. Relations with Latin America. This course focuses on the Caribbean and Central America, a region whose internal struggles for national sovereignty and social change have been shaped by the interests and interventionist policies of the United States. Specifically, it seeks to explain the origins, development, and dialectical relationship between United States imperialism and the emergence of nationalisms in Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. By understanding the conditions under which certain groups were included and excluded from power in these national states, students explore ideologies of modernity and civilization, the growth of corporate capital, labor struggles, and the role of the Cold War in changing the terms of political debate. Open to first-year students. Not open to students who have received credit for History 390H. L. Guerra. 288. Environment, Development, and Power in Latin America. This course traces how models of development, discourses of nation and images of the environment became linked to national and international systems of unequal power in Latin America. Covering the nineteenth century through the present, students study such topics as the rise of coffee, the Amazonian rubber boom, myths of modernity, the evolving struggles of indigenous peoples for control of natural resources, the politics of conservation and the commodification of environmentalism itself. Case studies include Brazil, Argentina, and Costa Rica. Recommended background: History 181, 280, and/or related study. L. Guerra 360. Independent Study. Independent study of selected topics by individual students. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Departmental permission is necessary prior to registration. Students are limited to one independent study per semester. Staff. 365. Special Topics. A course or seminar offered from time to time and reserved for a special topic selected by the department. Staff. 374. Understanding Chinese Thought. Reading (in translation) the three greatest books ever written in Chinese, as a way of understanding the foundations of East Asian culture. The works are the philosophical/religious anthologies known as the Analects (attributed to Confucius), the Chuang-tzu (commonly labeled Taoist), and the Buddhist scripture, Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law (as translated in 406 from a source now unknown). Willingness to engage in the close reading and discussion of a wide variety of philosophical materials is required, but no background in Asian studies is assumed. (East Asian) (premodern). D. Grafflin. 390. Junior–Senior Seminars. These seminars provide opportunities for concentrated work on a particular theme, national experience, or methodology for advanced majors and nonmajors alike. Junior and senior majors are encouraged to use these seminars to generate thesis topics. 390A. World War II in the Pacific. Social, political, and diplomatic history of and between the United States and Japan before and during the war. Western imperialism; Japanese aggression; the war and the Great Depression; biographies of national leaders; oral history of women, children, and soldiers; atomic bombs; Tokyo War Crimes Trial; and other topics are addressed. The course includes weekly discussion, occasional short written assignments, and a seminar paper. Enrollment limited to 15. (East Asian). A. Hirai. 390C. Gender and the Civil War: Abolition and Women's Rights. This course focuses on women's activities in the anti-slavery and women's rights movements of nineteenth-century America, looking especially at issues of race and gender within those. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. M. Creighton. 390D. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon's classic Decline and Fall is the most famous work of history written in English. This course uses it as an introduction to the problem of the collapse of complex, premodern societies and specifically the end of the Roman West. Changing historical explanations for the fall of Rome are a microcosm of Western historiography. Students also explore basic questions on the nature of history and historians. Enrollment limited to 15. (premodern). M. Jones. 390F. The American West. Focusing in particular on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this course considers the changing cultural, economic, and social landscapes of the American West. Class discussion and readings pay special attention to the way that the West as an imaginary construct intersected with the West as a social "reality," and to the history of contact between Native Americans and whites. After completing an intensive overview of the subject, participants are expected to produce a carefully researched paper of substantial length. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Creighton. 390I. Anglo-Saxon England. This seminar concentrates on Dark Age Britain, from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century C.E. to the consolidation of England in the face of the Viking invasions in the ninth century. The field of study is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Ignorance and obscurity offer one advantage to students: the sources for this period are so few that they may be explored in a single semester. The course is designed to present typical kinds of early medieval evidence (saints' lives, chronicles, annals, charters, poetry, genealogy, archeology), introduce students to their potentials and difficulties, and then set a series of problems that requires application of these materials to gain an answer. The course culminates in a research paper. Enrollment limited to 15. (premodern). M. Jones. 390J. Laboring Classes, Dangerous Classes. Since the nineteenth century, sociologists and historians have worried about the connections between laboring classes and dangerous classes. Workers who did not follow the rules and expectations of established governments and of wealthier classes caused trouble, whether by crime, refusal to work, or outright resistance. This course looks at the ways in which European workers tried to deal with industrialization, from adaption to revolution. What united and what divided groups of workers? Which conditions encouraged accommodation and which encouraged resistance to employers? How did the experiences of female and male workers differ? Students concentrate on the period between 1815 and 1920. Enrollment limited to 15. E. Tobin. 390K. Modern American Intellectual History: From Cultural Pluralism to Multiculturalism and Beyond. If the problems of delineating and constituting an American intellectual "tradition" have become more exasperating in the past few years, they are not new. Conflicting definitions of the inclusive or exclusive characteristics of that tradition and its significance to the development and maintenance of a strong multicultural democratic community have been at the heart of our civic conversation for most of the last hundred years. Armed with that insight, students explore a variety of influential primary sources — social theory, historiography, biography, and literature — by American thinkers whose distinction lies in their having thought long, hard, and critically about the nation's most pressing problems without regard to disciplinary bounds or personal consequences. The course endeavors to balance close textual reading with a sensitivity to the individual quirks, social origins, and temporal contexts of representative thinkers from 1917 to the present. Enrollment limited to 15. H. Jensen. 390L. Shanghai, 1927–1937. The Nationalist government of the Republic of China had a single decade in power before full-scale Japanese invasion threw it on the defensive. One spot in particular where it had to prove its ability to govern a modern society and economy was the special Shanghai municipal zone. Scholarly attention in recent years has focused on the surviving archives of the British-controlled police force in the International Settlement. Students have the opportunity to evaluate recent scholarship and pursue their own projects in the microfilm edition of the archives. Recommended background: History 171 and 274. Enrollment limited to 15. (East Asian) D. Grafflin. 390M. Holocaust Memoirs: Gender and Memory. In this course students use close textual readings, discourse analysis, and scholarship on memory to think about Holocaust memoirs as sources of our knowledge about what camp inmates experienced at the hands of the Nazis, how inmates responded to Nazi actions, and how inmates interacted with each other. A principal concern is thinking about potential gender differences. Students look both at women's and men's experiences in the camps and also at the ways each has chosen to write about them. Did the different kinds of socialization women received at home mean they behaved differently from men in the camps? To what extent do male and female survivors describe similar experiences differently? How should historians regard texts written from memory? Recommended background: coursework in German history, Holocaust studies, or gender analysis. Enrollment limited to 15. E. Tobin. 390P. Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement. This course explores the forgotten years of the civil rights movement, the seedtime of black protest and insurgency, from the New York Riot of 1900 to the Supreme Court's landmark desegregation decision in 1954. Emphasis is placed upon the development of protest techniques, conflicting organizational strategies of advance, leadership struggles, and the flowering of distinct and innovative cultural forms. Harlem, the cultural capital of black America, is examined as a paradigmatic case study of the effects of northern migration, urbanization, and proletarianization on AmericaÕs bellwether minority. Enrollment limited to 15. H. Jensen. 390Q. Rogues, Rebels, Revolutionaries. This course examines people in early American history who rejected the status quo of their time and place. Some, like Roger Williams or Phillis Wheatley, successfully broke through the restraints of society to attain a new dignity for themselves and the causes they represented. Others were "losers," such as Nathaniel Bacon, Virginian rebel; William Kidd, who was hanged as a pirate; or the notorious adventurer, Aaron Burr. By means of readings and research papers that are submitted to peer review, this course examines backgrounds, aims, and consequences of a wide range of men and women, white, black, and indigenous, who refused to conform. Enrollment limited to 15. Written permission of the instructor is required. C. Kanes. 390S. History Wars: History and Theory. Competing historiographical views and perennial philosophical questions (causation, objectivity, moral judgment) have always underpinned the craft and practice of history. Since the 1960s, however, upheavals in historical theory have cast doubt as to whether anything can be learned from the past or if it is even possible to recreate or recapture any serious understanding of past cultures. Using substantive examples of historical prose and the experience of doing history by practicing historians, this seminar course explores the theory and pursuit of history in the new millennium. Prerequisite(s): History s40. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Jones. 390T. Women in Japanese History. The seminar examines women in Japanese history from ancient to modern times. Study materials are taken from various sources: myths, government documents, literary works, scholarly writings, and films. Some of the women portrayed in these sources are historical figures, others are fictive. The course attempts to follow the evolution of women's lives in Japan and identify religious, economic, political, biographical, and other variables that best explain women's roles in historical as well as contemporary Japan. It also introduces perspectives comparing Japanese women and ideas about them with women in other parts of the world. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Hirai. 390U. Colony, Nation, and Diaspora: Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. This seminar explores the cultural and political dimensions of national struggles for liberation and their connections to the U.S. Latino experience. Using scholarly texts as well as novels, poetry, and plays, students engage the historical dynamics between U.S. imperialism and Caribbean nationalisms in the twentieth century. In particular, they study the cases of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic and their exile/ migrant communities in the United States. History 181, 280, and/or relevant study in related fields. Enrollment is limited to 15. L. Guerra. 390W. The Civil Rights Movement. Between 1954 and 1968, the civil rights movement rearranged the terrain and composition of American social relations, altered the domestic agenda of American politics, created a hopeful climate for change, unleashed hidden turbulences of racial nationalism and gender division, and broached still unanswered questions about the nation's uneven distribution of wealth. It enunciated the moral vocabulary of a generation. By critically examining primary documents, film, audio records, social history, and participant testimony, this course seeks to deflate the mythology surrounding this subject and comprehend it as "living history" infused with new meaning for the present. Written permission of the instructor is required. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for History s24A. H. Jensen. 390X. French Diseases, English Cures. Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690) and Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) established opposite traditions that still largely define political choices for Anglo-Saxons: liberalism and conservatism. Yet both books were published to support the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Settlement in England, and each author defined his own position in reaction against contemporaneous French thought and practice. This seminar considers the two political thinkers, their great books, and the French ideals and realities against which they reacted, "the French disease" of monarchical absolutism with Louis XIV and the Revolutionary fevers of the National Assembly and rioting crowds in 1789. Not open to students who have received credit for History 225. Enrollment is limited to 15. J. Cole. New course for 2001-2002. 390Y. Understanding Stalinism. This course takes a multifaceted approach to various phenomena, collectively referred to as "Stalinism," which occurred in the Soviet Union roughly between 1928 and 1953. Through monographs, memoirs, and film, students explore the psychological persona of Stalin, the Kremlin's policies during this time, and their impact on average Soviet citizens. Students also consider the value of Stalinism as an heuristic device. Recommended background: course on Soviet history. Enrollment is limited to 15. A. Gentes. New course for 2001-2002. 457–458. Senior Thesis. The research and writing of an extended essay in history, following the established practices of the discipline, under the guidance of a departmental supervisor. Students register for History 457 in the fall semester and for History 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both History 457 and 458. Staff. Short Term Units s12. Film, Food, and Baseball in Cuba. This unit explores the social and political codes embedded in the cultural rituals and practices of sport and leisure in Cuba. In the unit, hands-on cooking lessons mesh with intellectual debates over the cultural implications of socialist food rationing and the nationalist underpinnings of Cubans' love of baseball. In addition to completing readings on the politics of sport, students view and analyze how Cuban films illuminate themes of state power and the changing meanings of social justice from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Recommended background: Study of Latin America. Enrollment is limited to 20. L Guerra. s13. Witch Hunts. American culture is loaded with references to witch hunts, and especially to witches in Salem, Massachusetts, more than three hundred years after the Salem witch-hunting events of 1692. Historians still are writing new books with new arguments to explain why such hysteria struck when and where it did. Through primary documents, a variety of historical monographs, several films, and a trip to Danvers and Salem, students explore how race, class, and gender are intertwined with witch-hunting, and why and how so many different explanations have been proffered for the events in Salem. Students also consider the ways in which "Salem" and "witch hunts" have become a part of popular culture. There is a travel fee of approximately $100 per student. Recommended background: History 140. Open to first-year students. C. Kanes. s14. Writing to the Future. Standing on the cusp between two millennia has had effects that reverberate through our politics, religions, and popular culture, not to mention the world of embedded microprocessors and software designers. These effects tantalize us with suggestions of transformative changes and threats of looming disaster. By looking at these issues as historical events, this unit builds a foundation for thinking forward in time, and considering one's own historical agency. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. D. Grafflin. s16. Leadership Studies. Students review recent theories of leadership as presented by Gardner, Heifitz, and Burns. The unit emphasizes different perspectives on the nature of leadership drawn from other historical epochs, distinctive cultures, and different disciplines. Students spend three days each week associated with a leader in a local organization studying leadership and engaging in leadership activities and issues. J. Carignan. s17. The Several Sides of the Cold War. This unit reexamines the history of the Cold War in light of new evidence from Soviet, Chinese, German, and other sources. In addition to secondary material, students examine archival documents and memoirs (in translation) pertaining to such events as the division of Germany, the Korean War, the Sino-Soviet conflict, the building of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The unit uses these cases to discuss crisis bargaining and conflict resolution, the sources of misperception in international politics, and the interaction between foreign and domestic policy. This unit is the same as Political Science s17. Open to first-year students. J. Richter. s24. Social History of War. Through historical studies, memoirs, and film this unit addresses the phenomenon of war from prehistory to the present, with an emphasis on Western civilization during the twentieth century-the most violent hundred years in recorded history. Of particular concern is the psycho-social impact war has on both soldiers and non-combatants. Broader topics include why wars happen, longterm implications of organized violence, and whether or not war is inevitable. Open to first-year students. A. Gentes. New unit for short term 2001. s25. A Brief History of Korea. An overview of the history of Korea, starting from ancient Korea, continuing through the Silla Kingdom, the Koryo Kingdom, and the Chosen Kingdom, ending with the annexation of Korea by Japan, the division of the peninsula during the Korean War, and a look at Korea today. Recommended background: History 171. Open to first-year students. (premodern) D. Grafflin. s25A. Japanese American "Relocation" Camps. This unit examines the United States' policy of "relocating" Japanese Americans during World War II. It probes the connection between the racially prejudicial government policy — the American version of Europe's concentration camps — and the social and economic interests of the people involved in the formulation and execution of that policy. (premodern) A. Hirai. s30. Food in Japanese History. This unit examines the food and dietary practices of the Japanese from prehistoric times to the present. Of particular concern is the connection between food and religious rites and beliefs. Students study what people ate and avoided on which occasions of life and for what reasons. They also inquire into the dietary habits of the deities and the dead. Students sample local eateries as well as their own culinary skills to sample Japanese food. Open to first-year students. Enrollment is limited to 12. A. Hirai. s39A. Wollstonecraft: First Feminist. In the 1970s, toward the beginnings of the vigorous, sustained, and institutionalized academic study of women, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was finally established in the pantheon of modern feminism as a sort of Founding Mother. Her remarkably liberated personal life, as much as her radical works, had long offended traditionalists. But in an era of women's liberation and self-conscious radicalism, these very qualities won her newly respectful attention from a generation of younger scholars. This unit studies her life and works in the historical context of the French Revolution. The unit is intended to support majors in English, French, history, political science, and women's studies by preparing underclass students for related research projects. Enrollment limited to 15. J. Cole. s40. Introduction to Historical Methods. This unit provides an intensive introduction to research skills, historical literature, and the principles and methods of historical critical analysis (historiography). The unit is team — taught to acquaint students with a variety of historical assumptions and methodologies ranging from the perception of history as fiction to the belief that history is the accumulation of objective data about an ascertainable past. This unit provides important preparation for the senior thesis. Recommended background: a college-level course in history. Required of all majors. Open to first-year students. Written permission of the instructor is required. Staff. s42. Historical Archeology. This program combines a theoretical and practical introduction to historical archeology. Practical experience comes from excavating a seventeenth-or eighteenth-century site in Maine, from recording and interpreting artifacts and features, and from field trips to other archeological sites. Recommended background: History 240 and 241. Enrollment limited to 12. Written permission of the instructor is required. J. Leamon. Curriculum and Calendar Committee approved reinstatement of this unit 1/20/01. s50. Individual Research. Registration in this unit is granted by the department only after the student has submitted a written proposal for a full-time research project to be completed during the Short Term and has secured the sponsorship of a member of the department to direct the study and evaluate results. Students are limited to one individual research unit. Staff.