Course Description
HH347 explores American expansion west and how that created sectional strains regarding slavery in the territories. It examines the course of the South to secession, the establishment of the Confederate States of America and closely details the military campaigns and how they influenced political, social and economic issues in both the Union and Confederacy. The course concludes with a study of the controversial period of Reconstruction.
Course Description
In 1941, Henry Luce, editor of Life Magazine, called the twentieth century "the American century". From 1945 to the present, the United States has been the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth—in fact, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in human history. Yet Americans have often been troubled, even angered, by the course of events over the past eighty years. Why have they been so dissatisfied in the midst of so much prosperity and success?
This course will explore answers to this question by examining: the relationship between the United States and the world through the Cold War, the Global War on Terror, and the return of great power rivalry with the rise of China; the performance of the American economy, especially the relationship between the federal government and the economy and the differential experience of prosperity by different groups of Americans; politics and the evolution of our two major political parties; social and cultural developments initiated and experienced by Americans; and the reactions of the American people to three generations of substantial and sometimes troubling change.
Course Description
HH354 explores the history of U.S. foreign relations, focusing on America's transformation from a small colony to the world's pre-eminent power. It examines the causes and consequences of this dramatic shift, devoting particular emphasis to the years since 1900, the period of greatest US influence in world affairs. The course aims to increase students' knowledge and understanding of America's involvement in the world; to improve their appreciation for the dilemmas of decision-making by putting them as much as possible in policymakers' shoes; and to deepen their insights into contemporary international issues. Finally, it encourages students to think and write critically and clearly about important historical issues and their contemporary relevance, not simply to memorize and recite names and dates.
Course Description
HH306 focuses on how ideas of race shaped the conduct of war in the British Empire. In the course, you will assess how and why the British Empire recruited certain peoples into their military and how the British waged war against their opponents in Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Focusing largely on the period since 1850, the course covers famous colonial campaigns such as the Maori Wars and the Zulu War as well as the role of soldiers such as the Gurkhas in the world wars and in the modern British military. At the end, you will come away with a new appreciation of how ideas shape historical approaches to war.
Course Description
Germany in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries involves the most problematic national case of political radicalism, military aggression, and genocidal persecution of minorities in recent historical memory. As such, it underpins any useful analysis of European affairs and Western Civilization more broadly in the past two hundred years. In this course students will survey the development of Germany after its unification in 1871 with an eye toward explaining the rise of Adolf Hitler at the head of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - NSDAP) and the nature of the war he initiated.
Course Description
This course examines how gender impacted violent conflict between colonists and colonized peoples in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will learn to identify key views about gender in European and colonial societies. They will also consider how gender ideals and practices shaped confrontations between European and non-European peoples.
The course will be taught as a skill-based seminar. We will focus on three case studies about Algeria, Indochina, and South Africa during imperialism and decolonization. Students will develop analytical and writing skills through short iterative writing assignments. These assignments will allow them to analyze the voices of Europeans and colonized peoples and to create their own interpretations of the connections between gender and violence in European empires.
Course Description
"Between the middle of the seventeenth century and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain was transformed from a marginal collection of islands into the seat of a powerful empire exercising hegemonic military and economic power over Europe and much of the world, becoming the first global superpower and paving the way for the "Pax Britannica".
Naval power featured prominently in Britain's rise, as the Royal Navy concurrently grew into far and away the largest and most capable naval force of its time. HH337B will explore this important period of transformation in British and global history, giving particular attention to the evolution of the Royal Navy and the centrality of sea power in the politics, society, and culture of Britain and its empire."
Course Description
Between classical and medieval, pagan and Christian, Roman and “barbarian,” the late antique and early medieval Mediterranean was a world in transition. The course will familiarize students with the cultures and societies that co-existed around the Mediterranean and in what is today western Europe from approximately 150 to 700 CE. The class begins in the late Roman empire and traces the intertwined histories of imperial Rome and Christianity through mutual suspicion, persecution, and conversion.
We will explore what "barbarians" were doing in the Roman empire, question whether Rome ever truly "fell," and survey the peoples of the post-Roman west from North Africa to Gaul to Ireland. In the east, we will follow the Byzantine and Persian empires as they fought to a stalemate and faced a new religious movement - Islam - from Arabia. We will explore themes such as religious violence and exchange, gender and authority, ethnicity and identity, imperial power and institutions, church and state, and continuity and change over time.
Course Description
This course covers the evolution of Western war from the legacy of the ideologically-driven nation in arms (Revolutionary France) through the pervasive warfare of industrial societies during the Second World War. The primary focus will be on land and air warfare with some relevant treatment of naval warfare.
You will be exposed to the evolution of strategic thought, the relationships among industrialization, technology, imperialism, and military policies during the nineteenth century, the shift from qualitative to quantitative warfare during World War I, the ideological basis of Soviet and Nazi military practices, the nature of combat within the industrially based conflict of the 1937-45 War, as well as military operations, per se.
By the end of this course, you to have an understanding of the evolution of strategic thought during the Age of Total War, the factors that influenced the development and evolution of total warfare, a general understanding of operations during the major wars of the era, as well as an overview of some of the institutional and social changes the military professions underwent during this period.
Course Description
This course is a study of the development and transformation of the Chinese military system from ancient to modern times. In addition to a survey of general course of human military experience, discussions will address the origins of Chinese military traditions, weapon application & innovations, evolution of military culture, transformation of strategic thinking, and military structure.
Part of the course will be devoted to investigating important military campaigns in Chinese history in terms of strategic planning, defensive (or offensive) organization, and technological improvement. More importantly, we will explore how Chinese culture and politics came to impact the “Chinese way” of fighting and military modernization.
Course Description
This course covers the evolution of Western war from the legacy of the ideologically-driven nation in arms (Revolutionary France) through the pervasive warfare of industrial societies during the Second World War. The primary focus will be on land and air warfare with some relevant treatment of naval warfare.
You will be exposed to the evolution of strategic thought, the relationships among industrialization, technology, imperialism, and military policies during the nineteenth century, the shift from qualitative to quantitative warfare during World War I, the ideological basis of Soviet and Nazi military practices, the nature of combat within the industrially based conflict of the 1937-45 War, as well as military operations, per se.
By the end of this course, you to have an understanding of the evolution of strategic thought during the Age of Total War, the factors that influenced the development and evolution of total warfare, a general understanding of operations during the major wars of the era, as well as an overview of some of the institutional and social changes the military professions underwent during this period.
Course Description
This course examines the military exploitation of the third dimension, and its consequent effects on warfare development in the twentieth century.
While readings focus predominantly on U.S. air power history, the course also exposes students to the efforts of other western and nonwestern nation states to acquire the ability to fight in the skies.
Course Description
A long-range historical approach to the Middle East's role in world affairs and the development of its cultural, political and military institutions. Emphasis is placed on strategic and diplomatic considerations.
Course Description
This course traces the historical development of several Latin American countries from the early 19th to late 20th centuries. It provides a general understanding of economic, political, and social factors that have shaped the region of Latin America as a whole. It covers the independence wars, neocolonialism, revolutionary movements, military regimes, and race relations.
Course Description
The United States has had a long and meaningful relationship with the region of sub-Saharan Africa, yet many Americans would probably fail an elementary quiz of the continent's geography. This course explores a history that has shown American society at its best, and its worst. We will study the formulation of American policies, and their consequences. We will see the impact of individual Americans, as both public and private citizens. We will examine America's role in the slave trade, as well as the founding of Liberia as a pseudo American colony.
Our primary emphasis, however, will be on the post-World War II era. As Europeans withdrew from their African colonies the region became a crucial arena in the Cold War confrontation between East and West. With the end of the Cold War the United States gained a position of unprecedented influence. For several decades, Americans have vacillated over whether to intervene in African conflicts, as well as how to ameliorate some of the continent's most pressing issues of health and poverty.
Course Description
Major themes of Modern Chinese history are CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION. This course surveys the Chinese social and cultural history and examines how traditions have evolved over time and transformed into modern time through different historical periods. Students will have a multidimensional understanding about Chinese culture and traditions developed from antient time to impact modern China in the areas of literature, education, religion, philosophy, society, food culture, administrative structure, party politics, economic & legal systems, and military establishment.
Discussions will also be devoted to issues such as women’s issue, family relations, bound feet, human rights, “one child” policy, religious beliefs, etc. The course adopts a comparative approach in studying Chinese traditions and cultural developments. This course will be taught thematically.
Course Description
This course will explore processes of change as well as broad continuities in Iranian history and culture that have shaped this nation from ancient times to the present day. The course will examine this development through six distinct eras: the culture and history of ancient Iran, the coming of Islam to Iran, the Safavid era, the impact of Europe on Iran, nationalism in early modern Iran, and the Iranian Revolution that led to the current Islamic Republic.
Course Description
"Medicine and War" examines medico-military responses to modern-day warfare, focusing on the U.S. Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Course sessions will explore "signature wounds" (injuries and illnesses) associated with particular wars; medical innovations that responded to changing methods and weapons of war; healthcare institutions created to contend with combat-related casualties, such as mobile field hospitals; and individuals with first-hand experiences with military medicine, namely, patients and military doctors, nurses, and medics.
The course also investigates the lasting effects that warfare has on human bodies and minds by discussing not only the experiences of disabled veterans but also the development of military welfare services. Course materials include historical scholarship, primary-source documents, historical literary accounts of war injury and military medicine, and popular and documentary films. Due to the at-times graphic nature of course content, students who enroll in "Medicine and War" need to be prepared to engage with representations and discussions of pain and medical trauma.
Course Description
Barbarians. Ezekiel. Mircea Eliade. Ibn Arabi. Ride Captain Ride. Roger Bacon. Heaven's Gate. Zarathustra. John Day. George Washington. Henri Corbin. Mannerbund. Mithrais. Marilyn Manson. Berserker. Zalmoxis. Kabbalah. Dacians. Carlos Castaneda. Seer stones. Avicenna. Gematria. Catal Huyuk. Augury. Templars. Gene Scott. Elchesai.
Course Description
Franz Fanon ends Black Skin, White Masks with these words: My final prayer: ""O my body, always make me a man who questions!"" This course follows Fanon and many others, tracing the lineage of their deep and sharp critique of the modern world, capitalism, and their hope for a better, socially just, future. ""History is the subject of a construction whose site is not homogenous, empty time, but a time full by now-time,"" Walter Benjamin tells us. He writes of a person, a historical materialist in this case, who is ""man enough to blast open the continuum of history."
For this course, we will be ""human enough"" to see what might be revealed should we blast open that continuum, and do so with a variety of approaches."
Course Description
U.S. global diplomacy are complex multilateral efforts to pursue national interests to sustain security, enhance global economic ties, and support political groups which desire a transition to democracy. With the so-called end of the Cold-War in the 1990s, international relations experts claim that the U.S. is uniquely positioned to actively use its diplomacy to directly support civil society organizations that will produce 'global citizens' who will usher in liberal democracies, transparent principles of governance and open markets.
By studying influential political theorists, case studies, and current global affairs this course examines the assumptions and complexities tied with global diplomacy and civil society, and the practical limitations of the role of civil society organizations.
