Historical Study A-13. Tradition and Transformation in East Asian Civilization: China
Catalog Number: 5243
Peter K. Bol and William C. Kirby
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Modern China presents a dual image: a society transforming itself through economic development and social revolution; and the world’s largest and oldest bureaucratic state, coping with longstanding problems of economic and political management. Whatever form of modern society and state emerges in China will bear the indelible imprint of China’s historical experience, of its patterns of philosophy and religion, and of its social and political thought. These themes are discussed in order to understand China in the modern world, and as a great world civilization that developed along lines different from those of the Mediterranean.
Note: For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study A or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
Historical Study A-14. Tradition and Transformation in East Asian Civilization: Japan
Catalog Number: 5373
Andrew Gordon and Mikael Adolphson
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
The history of Japan from earliest settlements to the present. Japan’s pre-modern history presents the challenge of understanding distinctive forms of political activity and social relations, from court noblemen and women to samurai warriors, as well as religious traditions of great depth and literatures of unusual range and power. Japan’s modern history presents one of the most striking transformations in world history. For better and sometimes for worse, people in Japan since the mid-19th century have come to share in the dilemmas of modernity that challenge us all. The course examines the pre-modern and modern history of both institutions and ideas, with emphasis on reading selected literary documents as well as historical writings.
Note: For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study A or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
[Historical Study A-15. Politics and Society in the Making of Modern India]
Catalog Number: 8301
Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Devesh Kapur
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
This course examines the complex dynamics of India’s emergence and continuation as a vibrant if contentious democracy. It examines the ways in which the Indian democratic experience has shaped and been shaped by its society and economy by asking questions such as: how do India’s “traditional” institutions adapt or fail to adapt to modern circumstances? How does it weave itself together as a nation? What is the relationship between its politics and economic outcomes? What are the strengths and vulnerabilities of its institutions?
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study A or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
Historical Study A-17. Modern Political Ideologies
Catalog Number: 2692
Stanley Hoffmann and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Examines those ideas that moved large numbers of people in Europe and America to organized political action in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as democracy, liberty, nationalism, populism, socialism, authoritarian and totalitarian ideas.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-18. Science and Society in the 20th Century ]
Catalog Number: 5693
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 5
Case studies focus on the atom, the gene, the environment, and the computer. The changing nature of the scientific enterprise, its intellectual structures, and its social relations are examined. Aspects of science and war, science and the state, science and totalitarianism, and science and industry are treated. Additional topics include science and inequality; race and gender; and the competition for human and material resources.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-23. Democracy, Equality, and Development in Mexico
Catalog Number: 6861
John H. Coatsworth
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
Mexico has achieved high levels of democratic participation, social equality, and economic growth in the past, but has never managed to achieve all three at the same time. This course explores how history as a mode of inquiry and understanding can illuminate Mexico’s contemporary challenge, that of overcoming underdevelopment, inequality, and authoritarianism all at the same time. The course also addresses Mexico’s complex and ambivalent relationship to external powers, particularly the United States, but only to the extent that doing so can contribute to understanding these three contemporary problems.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study A or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
[Historical Study A-27. Reason and Faith in the West]
Catalog Number: 8149
Ann M. Blair
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 5
Examines from a historical perspective one of the central themes in the Western intellectual tradition: the desire to reconcile rational philosophy with religious and biblical authority. Discusses the transformations in conceptions of reason, science, biblical interpretation, and divine intervention (among other themes) in the context of the long period of change from medieval to modern. Readings emphasize primary sources—for example: Aquinas, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Spinoza, and Darwin—but also pay some attention to the historiography on “science and religion.”
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-33. Women, Feminism, and History
Catalog Number: 3555
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
From Christine de Pisan in the 14th century to Virginia Woolf in the 20th, women writers have used history to question seemingly unchangeable differences between the sexes. This course examines classic works in Western feminism in the light of contemporary scholarship in women’s history. It emphasizes the range and variety of feminist appropriations of the past, from storytelling to legal briefs, and considers the strengths and pitfalls of historical argumentation. Discussion will focus on close analysis of primary materials.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-34. Medicine and Society in America
Catalog Number: 1552
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Surveys major developments in the history of American medicine since the discovery of the New World. Emphasis placed upon setting the practice of medicine as well as the experience of health and disease into broad social, cultural, and political contexts. Topics include the social and cultural impact of epidemic disease; the nature of demographic and epidemiological change; the development of medical therapeutics and technologies; the growth of health care institutions; the rise of the medical profession; and debates about the allocation of health care resources. Evaluates the role of medicine in addressing social needs as well as the social and economic determinants of patterns of health and disease.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-40. The Middle East and Europe since the Crusades: Relations and Perceptions
Catalog Number: 5423
Cemal Kafadar
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 14
Nine centuries of interaction between two neighboring world civilizations centered around the Mediterranean basin. Examines the transformation of the terms of coexistence and competition over time from an asymmetry in favor of the Islamic world to one favoring Europe in terms of power and prestige. Surveys major events and broad patterns of human activity (wars, migrations, conversions, trade, cultural exchange); compares institutions and worldviews; studies the variety of ways in which the two civilizations perceived and imagined each other. Focus on common roots and mutual influences. Analysis of (mis)perceptions as historically constructed cultural categories and of their legacy in the modern world.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-51. The Modern World Economy, 1873–1998]
Catalog Number: 1263
Jeffry Frieden
Half course (fall term). M., W., 2–3:30, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
The past 125 years have seen more rapid economic growth, and more global economic integration, than ever before. Yet the gap between rich and poor countries has widened, and “globalization” has alternated with attempts at national self-sufficiency under fascist, communist, and other banners. The course explores the impact of technological, economic, social, and political trends, at both global and national levels, on the development of the world economy since 1873. Topics include free trade and the gold standard in the 19th century, European colonialism, the depressions of 1873–1896 and 1929–1939, and the postwar economic order.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-53. The Chinese Revolutionary Tradition
Catalog Number: 1667
Elizabeth J. Perry
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
The Chinese revolutionary tradition began with peasant uprisings in the mid-19th century and continues to this day. From late imperial times to the present, a steady stream of dramatic revolutionary efforts have exerted a major impact on the direction of Chinese politics. This course examines continuities and changes across successive phases of the process: the quasi-Christian Taipings, the anti-Christian Boxers, the 1911 Revolution, the rise of Communism, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Uprising, contemporary tax riots and labor strikes, etc. It focuses on ways in which earlier repertoires of contentious politics have influenced the aspirations and actions of later generations of protesters.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-68. The Making and Remaking of the Modern Middle East]
Catalog Number: 1845
Edward Roger Owen
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
Examines the political and social history of the Arab countries of the Middle East (including North Africa) as well as Iran, Israel, and Turkey. Provides a basis for the understanding of the politics of the region in the late 20th century. Major themes are the creation and transformation of the modern states and of their political systems in the period since World War I, and the transformation of Middle Eastern society during this same period under the impact of colonialism, independence, regional wars, and oil. Attention also paid to theoretical discussions concerning modernization and development, including those which seek to define the role of the state.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-70. International History: The Last Century]
Catalog Number: 2517
Akira Iriye
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Examines the contemporary world against the background of international relations since the 1890s. Topics include European imperialism and decolonization, the origins and consequences of the two World Wars, the Americanization of the globe, and the rise of a multicultural world. Stresses the interplay of states and non-state actors.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-72. The Development of the Modern State
Catalog Number: 2909
Peter A. Hall and Thomas Ertman
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
Explores the way in which the political institutions of the Western world have changed over the past eight centuries. Examines the social and political factors that lie behind the institutional developments of the modern state. Concentrates on Britain, France, and Germany. Discusses both the developmental patterns common to these nations and the divergence in their institutions at critical points in time.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study A-74. Continuity and Change in Contemporary China: The People’s Republic and Taiwan in the Modern World
Catalog Number: 0893
William C. Kirby
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 14
What are the enduring problems of modern China? How do different Chinese governments confront them? This course assumes that the basic question of 20th-century China remains unanswered: what kind of government, society, and economy will ultimately replace the old imperial system? Part I defines basic themes: quests for national unity and international importance; population and ecological pressures; competition between capitalism and socialism; problems of democracy in Chinese political culture. Part II contrasts the revolutionary experiments of two “new Chinas” after 1950. Part III discusses contemporary reforms in the P.R.C. and Taiwan, and explores the future of “Greater China,” in the light of its past.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-76. Germany 1871–1990: From Unification to Reunification]
Catalog Number: 3594
David Blackbourn
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Examines the forces that have shaped modern German history from the Empire created in 1871, through the Weimar Republic and Third Reich, to division and reunification. The continuities as well as discontinuities of this history provide a major theme, particularly the roots of the Nazi period and the question of how far the two postwar Germanys broke with the past. The course is built around three interrelated themes: politics, economy and society, and culture. The principal focus is domestic affairs, but the nature of the “German question” means that attention is given to the international dimension where appropriate.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-78. Nationalism and Socialism (1772–1991)]
Catalog Number: 4411
Roman Szporluk
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15
Examines nationalism and socialism as ways of interpreting the world and as programs for changing it. Locates nationalism and socialism in relation to other intellectual and political currents. Reviews the communist treatment of ethnicity in the USSR and the Soviet impact on Eastern Europe thereafter.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-80. The Cold War]
Catalog Number: 5222
Ernest R. May
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
The East-West Cold War that followed World War II forms the background for all thinking about current and future international relations. This course surveys the Cold War’s origins and development, the crises at its climax, and the course of events from the subsequent détente down to the present.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-81. Chinese Emigration in Modern Times]
Catalog Number: 0303
Philip A. Kuhn
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Explores one of the great historic migrations, from the 16th century to the present. Topics include: how migration was related to conditions of late imperial Chinese society; how Chinese interacted with European empires in Southeast Asia and with native peoples; how they developed their economic roles in host societies; and how acculturation and conflict shaped their identities. The experience of Chinese migrants to North America is placed in a world context. Readings emphasize the analysis of primary sources in English.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study A-83. Civic Engagement in American Democracy]
Catalog Number: 2361
Theda Skocpol
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Are Americans withdrawing from public life, or just engaging shared concerns in new ways? Changes in U.S. civil society and democracy are lively topics of debate, with attention usually restricted to the period since the 1960s. A longer-term perspective can sharpen our sense of what is changing and why. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, this course considers how America became a “nation of joiners” and the world’s first mass democracy. The course surveys voluntary associations and political changes from the 19th century through the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in a reexamination of the health of American democracy today.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study B-13. Charlemagne and the Birth of Medieval Civilization]
Catalog Number: 2567
Michael McCormick
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
For 200 years, the family of Charlemagne welded together the disparate fragments of a fallen Roman Empire and free Germania. The result was a new civilization, called Europe; a new cultural movement, called Renaissance. “Charlemagne” investigates how a new civilization arose in the countryside and in the conquests of the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. with consequences that endure down to our own time. But “Charlemagne” is also about historical analysis: the techniques by which today’s historians wrest new data and insights from manuscripts, memorandums, and mud to rediscover the lives of the men and women who created the first European civilization.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
Historical Study B-18. The Protestant Reformation
Catalog Number: 0623
Steven Ozment
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
In the 16th century, hundreds of thousands of people surrendered religious beliefs, practices, and institutions that had organized daily life and given it meaning for the greater part of a millennium. “The Protestant Reformation” attempts to explain why this happened and how it changed the course of history. Lectures and readings concentrate on seven major areas: (1) the “causes” of the Reformation; (2) its inception and development in representative cities and lands; (3) competing theologies and social philosophies; (4) the variety of linguistic and visual propaganda; (5) the impact on contemporary society and culture; (6) the Catholic response; (7) the Reformation’s legacy to the modern world.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study B-19. The Renaissance in Florence]
Catalog Number: 4631
James Hankins
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
The Renaissance has been described by historians as a revival of antiquity, as a revolt against the Middle Ages, and as the beginning of the modern world. This course examines these claims in the context of a detailed examination of the society and culture of Florence, the most important Renaissance center, from the time of Dante to the time of Machiavelli.
Note: Expected to be given in 2001–02. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study B or Literature and Arts C, but not both.
Historical Study B-27. The English Revolution
Catalog Number: 5234
Mark A. Kishlansky
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Explores the causes, development, and consequences of the English Revolution of the 17th century. The English Revolution is one of the pivotal events in Anglo-American and European history. It marks the first constitutional challenge to an absolute monarch and is the crucial forerunner to the American and French Revolutions. Studies the origins of a revolutionary crisis, the dynamics of revolutionary change, and the actions and aspirations of revolutionaries within the context of 17th-century English society. Readings, drawn from contemporary and historical literature, include works by Milton, Hobbes, Clarendon, and Pepys. Discussion sections focus on reading primary materials.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study B-35. The French Revolution: Causes, Processes, and Consequences
Catalog Number: 0525
Patrice Higonnet
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
The cultural, social, and political life of France before 1789; the rise of a public sphere; the Revolution in its development from the decentralized “consensus” of 1789 to Jacobin terrorism in 1793–94; the structures of Jacobin thought; the ideological, social, and administrative effects of the Revolution in France. The roles of Mirabeau, the Montagnards, the Girondins, Robespierre, Babeuf, and Napoleon are considered, as well as more general themes such as the effect of public opinion and the redefinition of gender roles.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study B-42. The American Civil War, 1861–1865
Catalog Number: 3386
William E. Gienapp
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
An examination of the experiences of both the North and the South during the Civil War and the legacy of the war for the United States. Topics include the origins of the war, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders, Union war aims and emancipation, dissent and opposition to the war in the Union and the Confederacy, the Confederate transformation of the South, the northern and southern home fronts, race, the spiritual and economic costs of the war, and the imprint of the war on American politics, society, and values. This is not a course in military history.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study B-46. The Darwinian Revolution
Catalog Number: 5988
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 5
An examination of the intellectual structure and social context of ideas of evolution as they developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include the backgrounds to various forms of evolutionary thought; Darwin’s methodology; the relations between biological and social evolutionary thought; the comparative reception of Darwinian evolutionary theory in Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S.; social Darwinism, eugenics, biological determinism, race, religion, conflict and cooperation.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
Historical Study B-53. World War and Society in the 20th Century: World War I
Catalog Number: 4388
Charles S. Maier
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Viewed together, the two world wars shattered Germany’s bid for European domination, revolutionized Russia and extended her influence over Eastern Europe for over 40 years, helped dissolve the colonial empires and create the modern welfare state, and made the United States the world’s preeminent power. Historical Study B-53 and B-54 examine the problem of war origins; grand strategies of the combatants and the actual nature of fighting; organization of war economies; response of writers and intellectuals; and the nature of the peace settlements and legacies for postwar culture and politics. This course also focuses on the issue of inevitability; the static trench combat; transformation of the state; demographic effects; literary perception and political radicalization of Left and Right; postwar bitterness and disillusion.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[Historical Study B-54. World War and Society in the 20th Century: World War II]
Catalog Number: 6497
Charles S. Maier
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Examines the failure of the Versailles system, the Pacific conflict after 1937, the continental European war of 1939–41, the vast coalition struggle of 1941–45, and the bipolar postwar settlement. Topics include the strategic demands of multifront warfare; the role of city bombing, intelligence, and partisan warfare; occupation regimes, collaboration and resistance; America’s “good war” —the politics and culture of the home fronts; war costs, including the civilian toll; postwar purges, liberation movements, and commemoration.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[Historical Study B-60. France’s Decline and Renovation (1934–1946)]
Catalog Number: 5393
Stanley Hoffmann
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 2–3:30, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
The decadence and rebirth of France in the 20th century. The decline and destruction of the Third Republic confronted with the great depression, the social, political, and intellectual divisions around the Popular Front, and Nazi Germany. The Vichy regime’s attempts at domestic counterrevolution and external collaboration with Germany. The liberation of France by the Resistance movements and General de Gaulle. Successes and limits of post-Liberation political, economic, and social transformations, and of France’s intellectual and diplomatic adaptation to a world dominated by the Cold War and the revolt against colonialism. Special emphasis on historical controversies and on the moral dilemmas faced by the French. Readings include memoirs and literary works.
Note: Expected to be given in 2001–02. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study B or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
[Historical Study B-61. The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice, 1953–1969]
Catalog Number: 6840
Morton J. Horwitz (Law School)
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 5
Examines the significance of the Supreme Court during the Chief Justiceship of Earl Warren in the broader context of the development of American thought and society. Explores the basic premise that the Warren Era represented not only a major constitutional revolution but that it produced a fundamental transformation in the conception of the role of law in American society. Subjects to be studied are Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Movement, and the history of race relations; McCarthyism and civil liberties; the emergence of a right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut; and the “rights” revolution in jurisprudence.
Note: Expected to be given in 2001–02.
Historical Study B-64. The Cuban Revolution, 1956–1971: A Self-Debate
Catalog Number: 6974
Jorge I. Domínguez
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
Focus on the insurrectionary war, the consolidation of power, Fidel Castro’s role, the role of organized labor and the peasantry, the U.S.-Cuban conflict, the alliance with the Soviet Union, the choice of economic strategy, the “remaking of human beings,” the role of intellectuals, the support for revolutions in Africa and Latin America, and the change toward “orthodox” policies. The instructor will debate himself, presenting two or more views on each issue. Readings include original documents in translation.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Historical Study B or Foreign Cultures, but not both.
[Historical Study B-68. America and Vietnam: 1945–1975]
Catalog Number: 3447
Hue-Tam Ho Tai and Ernest R. May
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
Examines modern conflicts in Vietnam and their implications for the United States from 1945–1975, from both Vietnamese and American perspectives. Seeks to provide an understanding of the complexity of the war and the ethical dilemmas it raised by examining issues ranging from the power-politics assumptions of decision makers to the personal experiences of those caught in the war. Covers both background and consequences of the war, but the main focus is on the 30-year period during which the fortunes of America and Vietnam became intertwined.
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.