Course Description 
Democracy. Naval Empire. Philosophy. Tragedy. Architecture. Few cities in history have enjoyed a history so rich in artistic and intellectual creativity along with political and military dominance as ancient Athens. Indeed, much of what is now considered western civilization was formed in Athens. And few cities have left such a mark in the literary and archaeological record. Through the writings of the Athenians themselves and their contemporaries, HH311: Athens: Military Democracy will explore the history of Athens from its mythical origins to its decline in the fourth century, as well as its revival as an influence on modern America.
Course Description 
This course will provide an opportunity to consider the profound social, cultural, political, and economic upheaval that resulted from the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, World War I, the Civil War, the New Economic Policy, the Great Terror, World War II, and the Cold War. We will tackle questions such as: How would these events impact someone who survived the 50-year period of 1905 to 1955? How do Russian Imperial and Soviet legacies transform our understanding of current events, particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine? What kind of empire was the USSR? How did you become a Soviet? Covering Russian Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet history from 1905 to the present, this class will enable midshipmen to judge how the USSR continues to influence politics, diplomacy, everyday life, and culture.
Course Description 
The Crusades were a central phenomenon of the Middle Ages. The traditional narrative of the Crusades is that of multiple European expeditions to the Holy Land between 1099 and 1291, as well as the foundation and fate of Crusader states in the Levant. But the crusading movement came to encompass a much wider array of military expeditions - against Jews, Spanish Muslims, European heretics, and Baltic pagans. The crusading ideology of religious warfare not only needed constant defense against Christian critics, but it also generated twin ideological developments in the Islamic world. And the experience of crusading varied widely, from soldiers marching to the Holy Land to Muslim residents of Crusader states to the families and loved ones the crusaders left behind.
This course examines the origins and developments of the medieval Crusades, focusing in particular on disputed ideologies of crusading, multiple geographies of crusading, diverse experiences of military expeditions, and cultural interaction and exchange between Christians and Muslims. The course will present the Crusades not sole ly as a European narrative, but as a phenomenon that simultaneously affected the Western, Byzantine, Islamic, and pagan worlds. At the end of the course, students should not only know the history of the medieval Crusades, but should also be able to interrogate traditional definitions of crusading and to evaluate its resonance in modern political discourse.
Course Description 
Democratic Revolutions in Modern Europe explores the uneven history of democracy in modern Eu rope. Almost two hundred years after French revolutionaries celebrated the victory of liberty and democracy, Europeans still struggled to free themselves from authoritarian rule. From the French Revolution to the European Union, midshipmen w ill investigate how Europeans supported democratic reforms and resisted efforts to restrict liberty. They will also examine how authoritarian regimes, from the Napoleonic Empire to the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic, used the institutions of democracy to justify the exclusion of the people from political power. We will analyze democratic institutions, revolutions, and political movements in order to understand the development of democracy in modern Europe. Finally, we will consider what the history of European democracy can teach us about the future of democracy in the twenty-first century.
Course Description 
Students will conduct an exploration of early 20th Century American historiography, construct a comparative analysis between populist movements in the first half of the century and today, exercise examining current events in a historical perspective, and effectively deliver multiple written argumentative essays throughout the semester.
Course Description 
This course explores the origins and evolution of the modern Civil Rights Movement in American history. The chronology begins during the era of Reconstruction, when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution offered African Americans social and political equality, and explores how those constitutionally guaranteed rights were subverted at the local and state level following the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court ruling, which ushered in the age of Jim Crow segregation. We will examine how multi-racial groups of activists challenged the legitimacy of Jim Crow between the beginning of the twentieth century through the late 1960s. Using analytical tools from social movement theory we will discuss how activists used a combination of social pressure and the legal system to press local, state, and federal policy makers to pass laws protecting the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all Americans.
Course Description 
Latin America has experienced more revolutions than any other world region in the past century. The origins of these revolutions often stem from long-term socioeconomic inequality, which many scholars argue are legacies of the colonial era. Others point to weak political institutions, which formed in the years immediately after independence in the early nineteenth century. In this course, students will examine the cases of the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1917), the Guatemala Democratic Spring (1944 – 1954), the Cuban Revolution (1953 – 1959), and the Allende Social Revolution (1970 – 1973). Moreover, students will pay attention to the counterrevolutions in response to the revolutionary movements. This course will conclude with some attention to the revolutionary-inspired guerrilla movements that arose in places like Colombia and Peru. The course will ask students to consider the following questions: What were the goals of these revolutions? How did they seek to transform society? Who participated and why? Did these movements need charismatic leaders to inspire people to action? Could everyone contribute to the revolutionary project on an equal footing? How did these revolutions change societies, and with what consequences? Was armed struggle necessary to achieve these changes? Finally, what did they achieve?
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
Discover the diverse places, people, and cultures that are present in the Middle East. Travel throughout this vast, diverse region, and discover how varied each place can be.
Course Description 
The course focuses on the history of Egypt over the last 500 years, with particular attention paid to the 19th and 20th centuries. It approaches Egyptian history through multiple historiographic lenses including: environmental, gender, intellectual, military, medical, economic, and subaltern histories.
Course Description 
This course introduces Midshipmen to the momentous transformation of China from a traditional agrarian society of Confucian political and moral order to a powerful nation of modern political ideology, formidable industrial, military and economic might with an ever-changing set of social mores, and its implication to global order and balance of power.
In addition, we will study the evolution of modern Chinese strategic culture and its interactions with traditional Chinese art of war. The course will also trace the development of a complex Chinese nationalism that is replete with violent interactions between tradition and modernity. and between foreign and domestic ideas and forces. Unlike the modern period in the West that starts with the Renaissance and the geographical discovery of the 15th century, China's modern begin with the early 19th century with China's dramatic encounters with the West through such events as the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Self-Strengthening Movement, the late Qing reforms and the Boxer Rebellion.
Course Description 
This course examines major developments and transformation in traditional China from ancient Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-) to the last Qing Dynasty (-1911). Accordingly, this course surveys the long process of political transformation, cultural adaptation, social changes, economic expansion, as well as military establishment in imperial China. The course discussions will engage midshipmen, with a comparative approach, to explore the roots of Chinese traditions including dynastic cycle (Mandate of Heaven concept), imperial bureaucratic structure (Zhou rituals & the Examination System), philosophical ideas (Confucianism, Daoism, & Legalism), social issues (women & the bound feet), and military development (military service systems & Zhen He’s maritime voyages) in response to challenges both at home and abroad. Throughout the course conversations, historical events and current affairs will be interconnected to further explore China’s political traditions, cultural values, and national identity.
Course Description 
The course covers three important historical periods in modern China: imperial time (the last Qing Dynasty especially 17 th - 1911), Republic of China (1912-1949), and the People’s Republic of China (1949-present). Class discussions and readings will be devoted to analyzing and exploring significant historical figures (Emperor Kangxi, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai- shek, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, etc.), important movements (Self-strengthening Movement, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, etc.), conflicts and wars (The Opium War, The Boxers Uprising, Sino-Japanese Wars, the Korean War, etc.), and social & cultural developments (New Cultural Movement, One-Child policy, etc.). Issues addressed in this course include political institutions, social structure, cultural traditions, major historical developments in economy, education, Western impact, military modernization, economic reforms and China’s role in international affairs. Modern Chinese history is about how a nation struggles persistently in her search for modernity.
Course Description 
"Japan and the Second World War" examines Japanese experiences and responses related to prewar concerns, wartime challenges, and postwar consequences of Japan's 15-year war of aggression in the Asia-Pacific region (1931-1945). Rather than focus on military tactics and operations, this course draws attention to how Japanese society participated in and reacted to the conflict. Readings will focus on social, cultural, and political developments, with attention to the experiences of military personnel and everyday people on the Japanese home front. You will also study the effects of the postwar Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) and how the war has been remembered and memorialized in Japan since 1945. In addition to historical scholarship about Japan's long war, course readings include wartime diaries, newspaper articles, fiction, and other forms of private and popular culture. Specific course topics range from prewar imperialism in China and Korea to wartime experiences including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and postwar issues such as the creation of war memorials.
Course Description 
HH376 examines the rise and evolution of engineering starting in the Middle Ages but with the majority of the course focused on the history of engineering in America. We will examine how engineers conceive of designs ranging from things as seemingly simple as a paperclip to advanced aircraft. You will learn about the effects of national culture on engineering practice; the epistemology of engineering including case studies of engineering designs; the rise of science-influenced modern engineering; the creation of the engineering profession; the external factors that have shaped engineering and engineers; the changing nature of engineering education; engineering specialization and the practice of engineering; and the evolution of engineering culture. No engineering expertise, graph paper, or calculators are required.
Course Description 
This course introduces both data science majors and history majors into the complicated but rewarding world of historical data. All data is constructed, but some data is more constructed than others, and that’s the kind of data the course will focus on. In this class, students will learn how to read historical data and the arguments that can be made from it, how to create historical data, and then how to use it for themselves. We’ll consider questions such as the ethical use of historical data, the problems of fragmentary or biased numbers, and the power of numbers to tell a compelling visual story.
Course Description 
The first reported "flying saucer" was sighted in 1947 over Mt. Rainier less than a decade after Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938. but recent studies claim that reports of UFOs (UAPs) go back to the Bible and Greek antiquity. More recently, the US government released a series of reports confirming the existence and study of UAPs as an issue of national security following a series of secret government UFO investigations (Sign, Grudge, Bluebook) and a growing number of UFO mythologies in popular culture. This course examines the UFO phenomena in three main areas: religious and cultural (UFO cults, conventions), scientific and other government investigations, conspiracy theories and popular mythologies (including literature and films). Students will do research in several areas including primary documents, ethnographies, psychological studies, and others.
Course Description 
Rather than studying history almost exclusively through print sources, every day millions of viewers are turning to YouTube for a compelling audio-visual treatment of past events. Not only does YouTube serve as the world’s leading repository of a vast assortment of documentaries produced since the mid-20 th century, it also functions as a platform for both amateur and trained historians to interpret the past, and exercise public influence. In this course, students will produce their own YouTube videos, and while doing so learn the technical, creative, and historiographical aspects of the process. And they will personally contribute to a revolutionary medium that is permanently changing the way we understand the past.
Course Description 
Surveys the dimensions of warfare and civil-military relations from the end of World War II to the present. The course will focus on the military aspects of Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Falklands conflict, US military involvement in the "Long War" against Islamist extremism, and close with a preliminary assessment of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Course Description 
This course is a history of the United States Marine Corps from its founding in 1775 until the twenty-first century. Its purpose is to familiarize students with the basic narrative concerning the growth and development of the Marine Corps over time. In this class, we will examine how the Marine Corps has existed and adapted within the context of American economic, social, and cultural changes and as the United States has gained economic, military, and naval power. We will explore the development of Marine Corps traditions, rules and regulations, missions and roles, identity, and culture.
Particular emphasis will be given to the combat operations of the Marine Corps throughout American military history, the evolution of the Marine role from naval guards to amphibious readiness force to the requirements of Force Design 2030, and the unique tradition of leadership within the Marine officer corps and noncommissioned officer corps throughout its history.
Course Description 
Over the course of centuries, naval strategy and professionalism has developed through the active and intellectual writings and engagement of officers and civilian maritime leaders. Including subjects such as strategy, leadership, policy, and professional conduct, the intellectual history of navies in general and the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in particular have been expressed through professional and historical writing. This activity accelerated at the close of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth.
The development of a "naval mind" requires an understanding of this history of naval thought and maritime intellectualism. This course will study the development of that naval strategy and thought. It is particularly focused on the long 20th century as a period of intellectual development for the U.S. sea services and world naval understanding. This course is not designed as a program to "teach you what to think" about the past and present of strategy and the naval profession. Instead, by reading and discussing the naval professional writing of the past the goal is for you to begin synthesizing it to do your own thinking about the services you will be joining.
Course Description 
While most military history deals with strategy, tactics, logistics, weapons, leaders, and campaigns, this course examines the historic function of the military as a social and cultural institution that is shaped by (and in turn) shapes society. A variety of topics will be considered including race, gender, sex, class, religion, value inculcation, combat motivation, professionalism, recruitment, conscription, training, socialization, morale, propaganda, GI protests, prisoners of war, the home front, and veteran’s issues.
Course Description 
This course will discuss a wholistic cultural and academic history of the U.S. Naval Academy, its origins and development as the primary commissioning source for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. This course will include aspects of its history such as architectural changes, faculty, the evolution of academics, evolving cultures such as the inclusion of women and persons of color, institutional relationships with the City of Annapolis, the staff who have supported midshipmen life, traditions and extracurricular activities.
