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Catalog Archive

2014–2015

Catalog

Academics > Catalog > 2014–2015 > Courses of Instruction > HIST

History

Professors Creighton, Grafflin (chair), and Jones; Associate Professors Hall, Jensen, and Melvin; Assistant Professors Barnett and Shaw; Visiting Assitant Professor Eason (History and Asian Studies); Visiting Instructor Saxine; Lecturers Nutting and Peck

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 differing 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 welcome in any history course, all students are encouraged to begin their study of history with 100-level courses. More information on the history department is available on the website (www.bates.edu/history).

Major Requirements



1) One of the following:
HIST 199. Introduction to Historical Methods.
HIST s40. Introduction to Historical Methods.

2) Eight additional courses, one of which may be an additional Short Term course.

3) HIST 457 or 458. Senior Thesis.

Primary Concentration. Majors choose a primary concentration from one of the following five fields:
East Asia
Latin America
Europe
United States
Premodern History

The primary concentration includes five courses in the chosen field: one 100-level survey course; two more specific courses in that field, which may include 200- or 300-level courses, a Short Term course, or a first-year seminar; a 390 seminar; and the senior thesis (HIST 457 or 458).

Majors must take two courses from one of either of the two following fields: East Asia or Latin America. Students whose primary concentration is in one of these two 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.

Students considering graduate study in history are advised to undertake some course work in U.S. and modern European history to prepare for the Graduate Record Examination. An intermediate level of competency in a foreign language (the equivalent of four semesters of college-level instruction) is a bare minimum for graduate work in history.

Mandatory Methods Course

All history majors must complete HIST 199, Introduction to Historical Methods, which focuses on critical analysis, research skills, and historiography. Students are strongly advised to take this course in their sophomore year, and must do so by the end of their junior year. This course is a prerequisite for registering for the senior thesis.

Senior Thesis

A senior history major writes a thesis in the fall (HIST 457) or winter semester (HIST 458). Thesis writing develops the skills learned in earlier courses and demonstrates the ability to work independently as a historian. To facilitate thesis planning and advising, all majors must complete a thesis abstract before taking either HIST 457 or HIST 458. Ordinarily, students should be on campus the semester prior to writing the senior thesis.

Pass/Fail Grading Option

Pass/fail grading may not be elected for courses applied toward the major.

Departmental Honors

Each spring, the department invites outstanding junior majors to become candidates for graduation with departmental honors. There are three principal advantages to this program for the qualified student: first, the two-semester schedule, with two course credits, allows more time for the maturation of the project and grants twice the academic credit for the related research and writing; second, the mutual understanding of the honors candidate and the thesis advisor that the completed work is to be presented to other interested readers also contributes to an enhanced relationship and a shared commitment that it be brought to a satisfactory conclusion; third, the quality of this relationship and of the completed work can inform much more substantive letters of recommendation, based on the student's demonstrated competence, discipline, and independence, the personal characteristics most sought by professional schools and potential employers alike.

Departmental invitees must discuss proposed topics with the preferred advisor before the beginning of the academic year. They must produce sufficient written work of sufficiently good quality by the end of the fall semester of the senior year to justify formal nomination by the history department to the college's honors committee. They must also present their work to a small faculty panel at the end of the winter semester in an oral defense.

External Credits

Majors must take a minimum of eight history courses from Bates faculty members. This means that students may use a maximum of two 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 or minor.

Minor

The minor in history consists of at least six courses, five of which must be taken from Bates faculty members. The history department's offerings cover an enormous range in space and time. Like history majors, minors 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 U.S. or European experience. The six courses must consist of:

1) At least three courses 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 a 100-level survey course.

2) At least one course must be in Latin American or East Asian 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 applied toward a minor in history may not be taken pass/fail.

Courses
CM/HI 100. Introduction to the Ancient World.
A study of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, this course is the introduction to European history in the Department of History and is a fundamental course in the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies. It addresses themes and events extending from the eighth centruy B.C.E. until the second century C.E. Students consider the disciplines that comprise study of classical antiquity, engage with primary texts (literary, graphic, and epigraphical), and learn how ancient history has come to be written as it has been. Enrollment limited to 60. [W2] D. O'Higgins.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 102. Medieval Worlds.
Far from being an "enormous hiccup" in human progress, the medieval centuries (circa 350–1350) marked the full emergence of Islamic, Byzantine, and West European civilizations. These powerful medieval cultures shape our present. The central theme of this introductory survey course is the genesis and development of a distinct Western European medieval civilization including its social, economic, political, and cultural aspects. Important topics include the devolution of the Roman Empire; the Christianization of the West; the origins of the Byzantine world; the rise of Islam; and the history of medieval women. Enrollment limited to 48. Normally offered every year. M. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 103. Early Modern Europe.
This course surveys the history of Europe from the close of the Middle Ages to the dawn of the modern age. Early modern Europe witnessed the Renaissance; the discovery of the Americas; reformations, religious wars and political revolutions; the Printing Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment; the birth of capitalism and the transatlantic slave trade; and the spread of European commerce, religion, and political power across the globe. How did a tiny part of the globe remake itself and the world in just a few hundred years? Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every year. L. Barnett.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 104. Europe, 1789 to the Present.
What is modern Europe? How did the history of this small region impinge on peoples around the globe? What was particularly modern about this period? This course explores themes and events in European history from the French Revolution to the present. During this period of cataclysmic economic change, the world, once viewed as static, seemed dynamic: cities grew exponentially, new nation-states emerged, traditional hierarchies faded, and new inequalities grew up in their stead. How did Europeans respond, and how did those responses help to shape the world? Students consider these questions using secondary literature and a variety of primary sources, including newspapers, political tracts, novels, and films. Enrollment limited to 50. C. Shaw.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 108. Roman Civilization: The Republic.
In this course students explore the civilization and history of ancient Rome from the foundation of the Republic around 510 B.C.E. until its collapse in civil war and its transformation into a monarchy under Julius Caesar and his nephew, Octavian. Each week the class convenes for lectures devoted to the political, social, and cultural history of the Republic. In addition, students meet once a week to discuss in detail primary sources for the period. Enrollment limited to 60. M. Imber.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 109. Roman Civilization: The Empire.
In this course students examine the civilization and history of ancient Rome from the Principate, the monarchy established by Octavian in 27 B.C.E., until the end of Justinian's dynasty at the beginning of the seventh century of the Common Era. Each week the class convenes for lectures devoted to the political, social, and cultural history of the Empire. In addition, students meet once a week to discuss in detail primary sources for the period. Recommended background: CM/HI 108. Enrollment limited to 60. M. Imber.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AS/HI 110. East Asia between Tradition and Modernity.
China, Japan, and Korea each had a watershed moment in which they transformed themselves into modern, independent nations. This course first provides an introduction to traditional cultures, and then explores the violent changes that swept over East Asia from the mid-nineteenth century through the Chinese Civil War and the destruction of World War II. Imperialism, women's liberation, and cultural nationalism are examined through an interdisciplinary approach that draws from intellectual history, literature, and visual and performing arts. Not open to students who have received credit for ASIA 110. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every year. P. Eason.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 130. Food in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Participants in this course study food in ancient Greece and Rome: the history of the food supply for agrarian and urban populations; malnutrition, its probable impact on ancient economies, and its uneven impact on populations; famine; the symbolism of the heroic banquet—a division of the sacrificial animal among ranked members of society, and between men and gods; cuisine and delicacies of the rich; forbidden food; the respective roles of men and women in food production, and their unequal access to food supply; dietary transgression; and sacred food. Cross-listed in classical and medieval studies, history, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for CMS s28. Enrollment limited to 50. D. O'Higgins.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 140. Origins of the New Nation, 1500–1820.
This course examines how Americans, Europeans, and Africans cooperated with and confronted one another following 1500 and through the half-century following U.S. independence. The course focuses primarily on the British colonies that became the United States. Nonetheless, because the history of the United States is more than just the history of thirteen colonies, students learn about other North American colonies as a brief introduction to a much wider picture. By looking at a variety of sources and historical scholarship, students learn how members of these groups shaped the new nation, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. In addition, students gain an appreciation for the varied approaches that historians take when studying the past. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every year. J. Hall.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

AC/HI 141. America in the Age of the Civil War.
This course surveys United States history from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, focusing particularly on the experience of immigrants, women, the plantation South, and the urbanizing North. Special attention is also given to the history of the American Civil War. Enrollment limited to 48. M. Creighton.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 142. America in the Twentieth Century.
This course surveys the American experience in the twentieth century from a deliberately interpretive point of view, examining political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of life in the United States. Special attention is directed to the impact of war, corporate globalism, and movements for change upon the development of an increasingly complex, variegated modern society confronting the paradox of simultaneous social segmentation—by race, class, gender, ethnicity—and cultural homogenization. Students consider the disjunction between Americans' democratic ideals and their administered reality and what can be done to heal the split. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every year. H. Jensen.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

AS/HI 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. Enrollment limited to 48. Normally offered every year. D. Grafflin.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AS/HI 172. Japanese History: From Jōmon to J-Pop.
This course provides an overview of the history of Japan from the earliest evidence of human settlement to contemporary times. A mix of primary documents, secondary scholarship, literature, visual images, and occasional films are used to explore Japan's evolution from a collection of divided islands into a single nation, both politically and culturally. Major topics include the impact of continental Asian civilizations, the rise and centrality of both elite and broader popular cultures, political fragmentation and unification, and rapid transformations in social, cultural, economic, and political values and realities in the modern era. Enrollment limited to 48. Normally offered every year. P. Eason.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 181. Latin American History: From the Conquest to the Present.
Beginning with the first encounters between Europeans and Americans and ending with the challenges of globalization in the twenty-first century, this course offers a chronological and topical overview of 500 years of Latin American history. It examines individual lives within the frameworks of sweeping political, social, and cultural transformations. Students use primary documents, images, analytical texts, and films to explore the major themes of the course, including the nature of conquest; the mixing of European, African, and American cultures; independence and nation building; and twentieth-century social revolutions and military dictatorships. Special attention is given to issues of race, gender, religion, and the role of the United States. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every year. K. Melvin.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 199. Introduction to Historical Methods.
This course provides an intensive introduction to research skills, historical literature, and the principles and methods of historical critical analysis (historiography). The course is team-taught to acquaint students with a variety of methodologies. Together students and faculty explore what counts as history, how we access the past, and how the subject of history itself has changed over time. This course provides important preparation for the senior thesis. This course is intended for history majors and is a departmental requirement. Recommended background: a college-level course in history. Recommended background: a college-level course in history. Prerequisite(s): one Bates history course. Not open to students who have received credit for HIST s40. Normally offered every year. C. Shaw, M. Creighton.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

EU/HI 206. The Empire Strikes Back; Or, the Ends of European Empires in the Twentieth Century.
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson famously outlined his Fourteen Points emphasizing the right of subject peoples to self-determination. While Wilson's was hardly the first critique of empire, it provided a framework for increasingly organized anti-colonial movements. Just as European empires reached their zenith, older rationales for empire became harder to maintain. Yet the end(s) of European empires were long in the making. Many would argue that we have yet to live in a postcolonial world. This course explores the changing arguments over the future of European empires, the contests for power, and their effects on individuals' lives across the globe. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. C. Shaw.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 208. Introduction to Medieval Archaeology.
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 subsequent 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 archaeological studies of topics including medieval urban and rural lifeways, health, commerce, religion, social hierarchy, warfare, and the effects of global climate change. Cross-listed in anthropology, classical and medieval studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 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 three centuries (800–1100 C.E.), and the Vikings' world stretched from Russia to North America. Study of the myth and reality of Viking culture involves materials drawn from history, archaeology, mythology, and literature. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. M. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 210. Technology in U.S. History.
Surveys the development, distribution, and use of technology in the United States from colonial roadways to microelectronics, using primary and secondary source material. Subjects treated include sexual and racial divisions of labor, theories of invention and innovation, and the ecological consequences of technological change. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

INDS 211. Environmental Perspectives on U.S. History.
This course explores the relationship between the North American environment and the development and expansion of the United States. Because Americans' efforts (both intentional and not) to define and shape the environment were rooted in their own struggles for power, environmental history offers an important perspective on the nation's social history. Specific topics include Europeans', Africans', and Indians' competing efforts to shape the colonial environment; the impact and changing understanding of disease; the relationship between industrial environments and political power; and the development of environmental movements. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HI/WS 212. Gender and Knowledge from the Renaissance to the Present.
The Renaissance sparked a centuries-long debate about the education of women, becoming a forum for the articulation of new theories of gender difference regarding the relative moral and intellectual capacities of men and women and their appropriate social roles. During this same time, scientific theories of sex difference emerged which challenged women's increasing participation in the homosocial world of European intellectual life. This course explores how premodern theories of gender shaped the ideals and practices of knowledge making from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Guest speakers connect this history to the present by addressing the challenges women continue to face today in various fields of knowledge, including mathematics, philosophy, and the natural sciences. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. L. Barnett.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 215. The Environmental History of Japan: Pollution, Protection, and the Public Good.
This course looks at a range of environmental issues in the history of Japan from the late seventeenth century to the present. Key topics include managing scarce resources, the legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, heavy industrial pollution tied to breakneck industrial and economic growth, the rise of the environmental movement, and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and its implications. Students discuss conflicts between conservation and consumption, defining progress and growth, the individual costs behind larger societal and economic decisions, and balancing the material needs of human society with environmental preservation and ecological management. Cross-listed in Asian studies, environmental studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. P. Eason.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 216. Science and Science Fiction.
For most of history, science and science fiction were not clearly differentiated, if only because the modern categories of "fact" and "fiction" had not yet been invented. Scientific poems, mythological maps, and accounts of new worlds (whether microscopic, extraterrestrial, or on the other side of the ocean) open up a new way of thinking about the history of science in Europe from the Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century. This course interrogates premodern science as a creative and multifaceted enterprise with strong ties to literature, travel and colonialism, gender, and the "natural." Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. L. Barnett.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 217. Race in Modern Europe, 1750 to Present.
Categorical social differences are age-old. By contrast, the practice of social classification by race, is quite modern, dating to the eighteenth century. The idea that race biologically fixed a group's historical fate is newer still. How did notions of racial classification develop? When did these ideas gain traction? How were they institutionalized and with what consequences? In answering these questions, students chart the history of race in modern European thought, politics, and daily life. In so doing, they examine the consequences of changing notions of race in Europe and in the wider world. Recommended background: HIST 104 or one course in modern European or world history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Shaw.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

INDS 219. Environmental Archaeology.
Over the past two hundred years archaeologists, scientists, and humanists in many disciplines have worked together to understand the interactions of past human populations with the physical world, including plants, animals, landscapes, and climates. This course outlines the methods and theories used by archaeologists, geologists, biologists, physicists, chemists, and historians in reconstructing past economies and ecologies in diverse areas of the globe. The course also discusses how archaeology contributes to our understanding of contemporary environmental issues such as rapid climate change, shrinking biodiversity, and sustainable use of resources. Cross-listed in anthropology, environmental studies, and history. Recommended background: ANTH 103. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HI/RE 220. Race and Religion in the Early Modern Iberian World.
This course examines the intersections between race and religion in the early modern Iberian world. Both tolerance and violence shaped the relationships between religious and ethnic groups in medieval Iberia. The growing influence of Spanish and Portuguese culture in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in the early modern period resulted in the adaptation of Iberian ideas about religion, race, lineage, and blood purity to colonial contexts. Topics include the relationships among family identity, race and religion in a transnational context; conversion and proselytism; slavery; and colonial conceptions of racial difference. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. E. Nutting.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 222. History of American Popular Culture.
We live in a world surrounded by the trends of popular culture. What has defined American pop culture through history? This course examines the history of popular culture in America from the nineteenth century to the present. Students investigate the ways that Americans have popularized trends, with special focus on the following case studies: chapbooks, dime novels, blackface and minstrel shows, P. T. Barnum, burlesque and vaudeville, baseball and American visual culture, amusement parks, advertising, popular music, television, and film. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, art and visual culture, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. A. Bessire.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 226. Genocide in Our Time.
We live in a time of unparalleled instances of politically motivated mass murder, instances where governmental policies have resulted in well over 170 million deaths during the twentieth century alone, and this figure excludes war deaths. What are the psychological, cultural, and social roots of human cruelty and mass violence? What enables individuals collectively and individually to perpetrate crimes against other individuals in the name of national interest, racial hatred, or religion? In this course students analyze the nature of genocide by examining six examples of government or ideologically initiated murder: the Herero tribe of South-West Africa, the Armenians in Turkey, the Holocaust, the Cambodian "killing fields," the Rwandan genocide, and Bosnia. They seek to understand the historical background and reality of victim, bystander, and victimizer. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. A. Peck.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 229. The Holocaust in History.
The Holocaust was, if not unique, an unprecedented event in human history. How could it happen? How could a people who considered themselves a nation of "Denker und Dichter" (Thinkers and Poets) devolve into a nation of "Richter und Henker" (Judges and Hangmen)? We will look at this "twisted road to Auschwitz" from the perspective of its perpetrators, its victims, and its bystanders. When Hannah Arendt coined her famous term "the banality of evil" to describe Adolf Eichmann, a major architect and implementer of the "Final Solution" to the so-called Jewish problem in Germany and in much of Europe, she endured a constant stream of critical abuse. How could anyone describe evil as banal, as trite, especially when it had to do with the murder of millions. We will examine Nazi Germany’s dual war against the Jews and against human values and ask not only how it could happen but, now that it has taken place, could it happen again? Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. A. Peck.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 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 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. Open to first-year students. M. Imber.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 235. Britain in the World/The World in Britain, 1790-1990.
By the nineteenth century, Britain had the largest empire in history and was a self-professed icon of liberal progress. This course explores the evolution and ambiguous legacies of British liberalism at home and around the world. While connected to our modern notions of democracy and human rights, liberalism developed within the social assumptions of an imperial era. What did liberal progress mean for Britons and colonial subjects? Who advocated for reform? Who was meant to benefit? How did this ideology change over time, and with what consequences for Britain and the world at large? Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Shaw.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 241. The Age of the American Revolution, 1763–1789.
A study of the American Revolution from its origins as a protest movement to one seeking independence from Britain. Because the War for Independence transformed American society, the course examines differences among Americans over the meaning of the Revolution and over the nature of society in the new republic. The course considers the significance of the Revolution for Europeans and Latin Americans as well. Recommended background: History 140. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

AA/HI 243. African American History.
People of African heritage 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 African Americans' quest for freedom and security. It surveys black American history from seventeenth-century African roots to current problems that remain in building an egalitarian, multiracial society for the future. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. H. Jensen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AC/HI 244. Native American History.
A survey of Native American peoples from European contact to the present, this course addresses questions of cultural interaction, power, and native peoples' continuing history of colonization. By looking at the ways various First Nations took advantage of and suffered from their new relations with newcomers, students learn that this history is more than one of conquest and disappearance. In addition, they learn that the basic categories of "Indian" and "white" are themselves inadequate for understanding native pasts and presents. Much of this learning depends on careful readings of native writers. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI 246. From Marrakesh to Barcelona: The Western Edge of Islam in the Middle Ages.
This course examines the history of the far western Islamic world from the seventh century to c. 1650. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula and western North Africa, this course takes a regional approach to history, examining the cultural, religious, and political ties that connected the northern and southern shores of the Western Mediterranean. Special attention is given to relationships between different religious and ethnic groups; the spread of Islam; connections with the wider Islamic, African, European, and Mediterranean worlds; migration, trade, and piracy. New course beginning Winter 2015. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. E. Nutting.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AC/HI 248. Back East, Down South, Out West: Regions in American Culture.
This course examines American regions as they have emerged as cultural entities from the eighteenth century to the present. Its primary texts are grounded in contemporary scholarship in history and cultural geography and in popular literature, film, music, and architecture. Students investigate the intersection of demographic and economic history with cultural invention. Beginning with a focus on "olde" New England and continuing with a study of the cultural power of the "wild" West, students devote considerable attention to the "deep" South to understand how region mediates the identities and experiences associated with race, class, and gender difference. Prerequisite(s): AC/HI 141 or HIST 243. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. M. Creighton.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 249. Colonial North America.
This course seeks to rectify the common misconception that American colonial history consists only of the thirteen British colonies of the Atlantic seaboard. Instead, students examine the colonial period from a continental perspective, examining a number of societies that Europeans, Americans, and Africans created in North America before 1800. Combining historical readings with primary sources such as documents, paintings, and architecture, students can appreciate the wide variety of American colonial experiences and some of the ways these societies were connected. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 254. Revolutionary Europe and Its Legacies, 1789-1989.
This course examines the European revolutions and their legacies—political, cultural, and ideological—over time. The French Revolution of 1789 brought unprecedented promises of political and social reform to Europe. Yet it also brought terror and authoritarian rule, a cycle that would seem to repeat itself, "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce," as Karl Marx said of the revolutions of 1848. In this course students consider these revolutions together with the Communist uprisings waged in Marx's name, and the "velvet" revolutions of 1989 that seem to have concluded this revolutionary cycle, at least for the moment. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Shaw.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 256. A Peculiar History? British Modernity, 1688 to the Present.
"American exceptionalism" is an imitation of the British original. Britain’s history from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to World War II has seemed to offer models for the development of an affluent, liberal, quintessentially modern polity. Yet ordinary Britons during this period seldom felt that they were living in a promised land. What is British modernity? This course explores the hallmarks of Britain's supposed exceptionalism, paying particular attention to the lives of ordinary subjects and how they thought about their relative freedoms and the need for further reform. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. C. Shaw.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HI/WS 260. Women and Gender in Middle Eastern and North African History.
This course examines debates about the history of women and gender in the Middle East and North Africa, from the origins of Islam in the seventh century until the present day, focusing on the social, cultural, political, and economic factors that have affected the experiences of Middle Eastern and North African women. The course has three parts: women and gender in the Islamic tradition; women’s history and the methods historians use to uncover women’s experiences; and women and gender in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. New course beginning Fall 2015. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. E. Nutting.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 261. American Protest: From the Haymarket Riot to Occupy Wall Street.
This course examines the persistent and uniquely American impetus toward individual liberty, equality, and collective moral reform by studying a variety of representative dissenters and protest movements from Emma Goldman to the contemporary Occupy Movement. Consequently, it investigates the development and interplay of American variants of anarchism, socialism, pacifism, syndicalism, racial egalitarianism, counterculture, feminism, radical environmentalism, sexual freedom, and the new anti-corporatism, along with their influences—intentional and fortuitous—upon the larger society. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. H. Jensen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 265. Wartime Dissent in Modern America.
Periods of war—whatever their justifications—have proven to be dangerous times for American civil liberties. The price of patriotic unity is often paid directly by American dissenters targeted—by political or racial profiling and repressive legislation—for government surveillance, harassment, prosecution, detention, internment, imprisonment, or deportation. This course explores whether such costs are ever defensible, why dissenters risk such sanctions, and what the long-term consequences of even short-term curtailments of freedom portend for the future of American democracy. Conflicts from World War I through the contemporary "War on Terror" are examined. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. H. Jensen.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

INDS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
Places recent popular and scientific discussions of human heredity and genetics in broader social, political, and historical context, focusing on shifting definitions of personhood. Topics include the ownership and exchange of human bodies and body parts, the development of assisted reproductive technologies, and the emergence of new forms of biological citizenship. Recommended background: course work in biology and/or women and gender studies. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

AC/HI 271. The New England Way?: From Witch-Hunters to Abolitionists, Investigating a Region and Its People.
This course addresses the question of New England distinctiveness, and how that region influenced American history to the Civil War. Ever since the Puritans decided to become a "City on a Hill," New Englanders insisted that they were different, even better than their neighbors. Their neighbors tended to agree, at least with the first part. This class asks if there was a definable New England Way, and what, if anything, distinguished New England from other American regions. Judging the interpretations of previous scholars and drawing on original sources, students will investigate how the land of Puritans and Cotton Mather became a bastion of Unitarianism and the home of P.T. Barnum. New course beginning Winter 2015. Not open to students who have received credit for AC/HI 248. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. I. Saxine.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AS/HI 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: AS/HI 171. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. D. Grafflin.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 279. The Age of Independence in Latin America.
Most areas of Latin America gained their independence from Spain or Portugal during the early nineteenth century, but were these political transformations accompanied by equally great social, economic, or cultural change? This course explores not just the struggles to overthrow colonial powers, but also what it meant to live in the decades surrounding these tumultuous events. The first Latin American novel, The Mangy Parrot, provides the basis for exploring topics that include education, family, and daily life. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. K. Melvin.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 282. The City in Latin America.
Today the majority of people in Latin America live in cities, but this was not the case 500 years ago when the first Europeans arrived. Since then cities have become home to people of all races and social strata. This course examines the development of cities as meeting grounds among different groups of people, as centers of wealth and power, and as sites where much of Latin America's culture was formed. It concentrates on major cities in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil from precolonial civilizations through twentieth-century mass urbanization. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. K. Melvin.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

AS/HI 291. World War II in the Pacific: Captors, Captives, Civilians, and Collaboration.
This course follows the history of World War II from the perspective of individuals who lived through the conflict. The primary focus is less on political and military strategy and more on the ordinary soldiers and noncombatants whose lives were transformed and defined by the waging of total war in the Pacific. Larger goals for this course include understanding the demands total war placed on all segments of the nations (and colonies) at war, the diversity of both individual and community experiences, and the historical lens through which the war continues to be remembered. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. P. Eason.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AC/HI 305. Walking in Indian Country: Early American History Through Native Eyes, 1600-1815.
This course examines the transformation of Native American communities after the arrival of Europeans in North America until the era of Removal. It explores various themes through a series of encounter studies. While buttressed by secondary literature, each encounter features one or more primary sources. Through these investigations, students gain experience in working firsthand with primary sources, and learn to deal with the special problems inherent in studying non-literate people. The encounters focus on a number of areas of cultural change and conflict in Indian communities, including material culture, diplomacy, religion, gender, and military culture. Course renumbered as AC/HI 390F. Enrollment limited to 40. One-time offering. I. Saxine.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 360. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 365. Special Topics.
A course or seminar offered from time to time and reserved for a special topic selected by the department. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 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.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 390A. Sex and the Modern City: European Cultures at the Fin-de-Siècle .
Economic and political change during the 1800s revolutionized the daily lives of Europeans more profoundly than any previous century. By the last third of the century, the modern city became the stage for exploring and enacting new roles, new gender identities in particular. This course examines the cultural reverberations of these cataclysmic changes by focusing on sex, gender, and new urban spaces the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Students consider the writings of Zola and Freud, investigate middle-class flirtations with the occult, and read about sensational crimes like those of Jack the Ripper. Cross-listed in European studies, history, women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] Normally offered every other year. C. Shaw.
HIST 390B. The Enlightenment.
Equal rights was one of the many exciting ideas to emerge from the intellectual, cultural, and political movement known as the Enlightenment. However, the revolutions that followed in France, Haiti, and America largely failed to enact equal rights for all. This course explores this central paradox of the Enlightenment by adopting a global framework. What kinds of people participated in the Enlightenment, and who was excluded? How did this inclusion and exclusion shape Enlightenment debates about race, women, education, the economy, religion, and government? Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] L. Barnett.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

CM/HI 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. Instructor permission is required. [W2] M. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AA/HI 390E. African Slavery in the Americas.
Of the millions of immigrants who arrived in North and South America during the colonial period, the majority came not from Europe but from Africa. They came not for freedom but as human property, facing a lifetime of bondage for themselves and their offspring. Far from being the "peculiar institution" that whites in the U.S. South called it, slavery existed throughout the Americas before its abolition in the nineteenth century. By reading contemporary scholarship and examining such primary sources as music, letters, autobiographies, and material artifacts, students gain a sense of the ways Africans and African Americans survived and influenced an institution that sought to deny their humanity. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] J. Hall.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AC/HI 390F. Walking in Indian Country: Early American History Through Native Eyes, 1600-1815.
This course examines the transformation of Native American communities after the arrival of Europeans in North America until the era of Removal. It explores various themes through a series of encounter studies. While buttressed by secondary literature, each encounter features one or more primary sources. Through these investigations, students gain experience in working firsthand with primary sources, and learn to deal with the special problems inherent in studying non-literate people. The encounters focus on a number of areas of cultural change and conflict in Indian communities, including material culture, diplomacy, religion, gender, and military culture. New course beginning Winter 2015. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] One-time offering. I. Saxine.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AS/HI 390G. East Asia: Crimes of Modernity.
Modernization came to East Asia in a context of violence. The academic abstractions of imperialism, colonialism, revolution, and civil war were experienced on the ground as shattering transgressions and transformations of the traditional social, political, and economic orders, generating shock waves that continue to spread. This seminar proposes as a model researcher the homicide detective, working to build an explanatory context around deadly ruptures of civilized existence. Prerequisite(s): AS/HI 171, 172, 273, 274, 276, 277, or 278. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] Normally offered every year. D. Grafflin.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 390H. The Mexican Revolution.
Although best known for the military phase that featured such colorful figures as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican Revolution encompassed a range of ideologies, state-building projects, and social movements. This course examines how scholars have explained the revolution and how its legacies have figured in the creation of modern Mexico. Students develop their own interpretations by analyzing books, articles, novels, and films; considering theories of revolution; and evaluating primary sources. Topics covered include the roles of popular classes and women, the creation of a postrevolutionary government, and the influence of the United States. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] K. Melvin.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

CM/HI 390J. Law and Society in Ancient Rome.
This research seminar introduces students to the range of academic skills necessary to conduct research and write scholarly papers on topics in ancient Roman law. In addition to considering the actual substance and procedures of Roman law, students explore different methodologies that consider Roman law and the relationship of Roman law to the historical and social contexts in which Roman law evolved. Prerequisite(s): CM/HI 100, 102, 108, or 109. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] M. Imber.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 390L. Exhibiting American Culture.
How is America defined through cultural exhibitions and performances of national identity? This course examines the politics of exhibiting American culture. Each week the course investigates distinct exhibitions of visual culture and the cultural body, such as historic house museums, plantations and American slavery museums, Colonial Williamsburg, world expositions, the phenomenon of the wild west show, cowboy culture, Native American exhibitions, and displays of American culture in music videos, film, and television. Through these types of exhibitions, students consider issues of stereotype, race, and national and local identity. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, art and visual culture, and history. Enrollment limited to 40. [W2] A. Bessire.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

ES/HI 390M. Maine: Environment and History.
This course introduces students to Maine history from its beginnings to the twentieth century, emphasizing the state's most pervasive theme, the environment. From aboriginal people to European colonists, different people have relied on the state's natural resources. Indeed, the environment shaped Maine's most prevalent industries. By the twentieth century, Maine emerged as a popular vacation destination, causing many to reflect on conservation efforts. This seminar explores the significance of locality in understanding the interaction between the environment and different people through time. Students develop a deeper sense of place in our community. Enrollment limited to 15. J. Hall.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 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 America's bellwether minority.Course reinstated beginning Fall 2015. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] H. Jensen.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HI/WS 390Q. A Woman's Place: Gender and Geography in the United States, 1800–Present.
Using a case study approach, this course looks at diverse American women from the early 1800s to the present and how they shaped, traversed, and contested the spaces they inhabited or were assigned, whether public or private, rural or urban, temporary or lifelong. Recommended background: AC/HI 141, HIST 142, or WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] M. Creighton.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

ES/HI 390R. Nature and Empire.
This seminar course explores the dynamic relationship between science, environment, and empire from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. During this period, European colonies in Africa, India, and the Americas became laboratories for scientific and environmental experimentation, provoking confrontations between diverse cultures over patterns of land use and ideas about the natural world. Students read widely in recent historical scholarship in order to understand how the environment shaped colonial settlement and expansion; how imperial expansion then changed natural environments; and how the natural and human sciences bolstered and profited from imperial expansion. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] L. Barnett.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 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. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. (Community-Engaged Learning.) [W2] H. Jensen.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HIST 390X. "Self-Evident Truths": A History of Human Rights and Humanitarianism.
In today's world, activists and newscasters assume that we will care about the fate of peoples remote from ourselves. This was not always the case. Only in the eighteenth century did basic rights begin to seem "self-evident" and universal. Even then, the implementation of those rights was far from straightforward given the limits of an imperfect world. This course studies these developments, drawing on case studies from European and European imperial histories from the late eighteenth century to the present. Students examine how rights have been defined and how those definitions have changed over time. Recommended background: courses in European history and/or the history of European empires. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] C. Shaw.
ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)

HI/RE 390Y. The Spanish Inquisition.
Were witches and heretics really tortured in the Spanish Inquisition's infamous jails? This course examines both the institution of the Spanish Inquisition and the lives of those who came before it. The sins that concerned the Inquisition depended on the time and place, and the crimes prosecuted in sixteenth-century Spain or eighteenth-century New Spain reveal a great deal about early modern (ca. 1500–1800) culture and society. Students read and analyze original Inquisition cases from Spain and New Spain as well as consider the ways historians have used cases to investigate topics such as sexuality and marriage, witchcraft, and the persecution of Jews and Muslims. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] K. Melvin.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

INDS 390Z. Race and U.S. Women's Movements.
This course focuses on how racial formations develop in women's movements and how gender ideologies take shape through racialization. Some of the movements examined include the woman's suffrage movement, the anti-lynching movement, the civil rights movement, moral reform movements, the welfare rights movement, the women's liberation movement, and the peace movement. Students analyze how the intertwined categories of race and gender shape various women's responses to debates about issues including citizenship, U.S. foreign policy, reproductive rights, and immigration. Students consider current theoretical and methodological debates and examine the topic through the perspectives of women in various ethnic and racial groups. Cross-listed in history, politics, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): one course in women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for PT/WS 389 or 390. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] M. Plastas.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 457. 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 HIST 457 in the fall semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both HIST 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST 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 HIST 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both HIST 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Short Term Courses
HIST s10. Web World 1.0: A Short History of Humanity.
History courses at Bates are limited in space and time. What if those bounds were pushed as far back as possible? This course examines two attempts at a historiography of humanity. Ernst Gombrich’s A Little History of the World (1935) was written for Austrian school children and has had a devoted readership in nineteen languages. J. R. and William H. McNeill’s The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (2003) insists on history as a story of "patterns of interaction and exchange." Students compare Gombrich's pre-World War II Eurocentric history of leaders and innovators to the McNeills' contemporary conception of human existence as a dynamic web of ideas, goods, and power across cultures, societies, and nations. Enrollment limited to 30. Normally offered every year. D. Grafflin.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AS/HI s11. Pacifism, Militarism, Environmentalism, and Giant Robots: Exploring Postwar Japan through Film.
Japan's film industry, the world's fourth largest and 115 years old, has produced a range of both critical and commercial successes. It also offers a window into the circulation of ideas in modern Japanese society and culture at large. This course looks at issues in the history of Japan since 1945 through a range of films, including comedies, space operas, animated films, and—of course—Godzilla, as well as framing readings. Key themes considered include Japan's own historical self-image and attitudes toward militarism and pacifism, environmental and technological anxieties, consumerism, and individualism in postwar Japan. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. P. Eason.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s13. Muslims in Europe and America.
This course examines the history of Muslims in Europe and America from the Middle Ages to the present. Premodern people debated whether Muslims could ever be “Western” in ways that seem remarkably familiar to us today. The course considers themes such as the Crusades and medieval conceptions of Muslims; the enslavement of Muslims; Muslim migration; and post-9/11 debates about terrorism, citizenship, and exclusion. In addition to more traditional classroom learning, students engage with the Muslim community of Bates, Lewiston, and New England through community- engaged learning, including field trips, local archival research, invited panels and speakers, and a final public history project. New course beginning Short Term 2015. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. One-time offering. E. Nutting.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s14. Pirates of the Caribbean: Violence on the High Seas in the Early Modern World.
This course investigates what scholars have called the “Golden Age of Piracy” in the Atlantic World. Pirates like Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, William Kidd, and their contemporaries have become fuel for countless stories on the page and screen. Nor have scholars been able to resist the appeal of these sea rovers, arguing that pirates subverted early modern conventions of race, religion, sexuality, economics, and order. Were pirates challenging nascent capitalism? Did they create a racially egalitarian—albeit criminal—world aboard their vessels? In this course, students examine the rise, nature, and demise of early modern piracy, focusing on the Caribbean, but including brief forays into other pirate havens around the globe. New course beginning Short Term 2015. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. One-time offering. I. Saxine.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

ES/HI s17. Natural Disasters: History, Politics, Culture.
Are natural disasters ever really natural? From Vesuvius to climate change, social, cultural, and political realities have always shaped the way that "natural" disasters play out on the ground. These "unnatural" realities have also profoundly shaped the way that people imagine and prepare for future disasters. After considering the long history of cultural responses to disaster, students analyze contemporary representations of global climate change. The course culminates in clustered research projects on disasters in transnational and transhistorical contexts. New course beginning Short Term 2015 Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Normally offered every other year. L. Barnett.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s20. Visions of the Past: Political Film and Historical Narrative.
History need not be done on a page. Visual imagination—captured in photographs and documentary film—has often proved an indispensable pathway to historical, social, and political understanding. But have historians been well-served by Hollywood feature film portrayals of politically charged situations "based on a true story" that mix fact and consumer titillation to sell tickets? This course compares representative films of the "historical" genre to traditional written evidence about some controversial events in recent history. Can cinematic techniques truthfully illuminate dimensions of moral imperative and resonances of the human condition that printed words cannot? Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. H. Jensen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s28. Wabanaki History in Maine.
The peoples of Maine known as the Wabanakis, including the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, and Maliseet nations, are pivotal players in Maine's history. Their early relations with Europeans shaped the colonization of the region and their more recent legal efforts to regain land and build casinos have affected everyone in the state. This course looks at the long history of Maine's Wabanakis, examining the ways that they have adapted to, fought with, and lived alongside European invaders and their descendants. Students examine some of the ways that European Americans' racism has erased Wabanakis' presence in the state and its history, the meanings of sovereignty in a state that still retains a great deal of influence over native peoples, and the role of environmental change in shaping Wabanakis' changing cultural practices. Students are strongly encouraged to link their final research project to contemporary Wabanaki efforts to recover their past. There is an extra fee for this course for travel to visit with Wabanaki community scholars and leaders. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Hall.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s41. Introduction to Archives and Archival Science.
This course explores the history and significance of archives and archival records in our society, specifically how they shape the writing and remembering of history. The course includes an overview of record-making and -keeping practices from antiquity to the present and introduces students to the fundamental aspects of the archival profession, such as appraisal, acquisitions, arrangement, description, preservation, reference, and access. Class discussions of archival theory are paired with a practicum allowing students the opportunity to accession, arrange, describe, and publish online the holdings of a local historical association. Field trips to one or more archival repositories are scheduled. Recommended background: HIST s40. Enrollment limited to 10. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

HIST s50. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

CM/HI s51A. Studies in Ancient Greek History.
This course examines Greece in the context of the ancient Mediterranean, from the Bronze Age to the death of Alexander. Topics include interactions between Greece and its neighbors through conflict, religious practice, trade, and language. Students consider developments that distinguished Greece from its neighbors such as its varied political structures, philosophies, literature, and modes of warfare. Recommended background: coursework in classical and medieval studies or history. New course beginning Short Term 2015. Instructor permission is required. D. O'Higgins.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations