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Historical research doesn't always lead to an essay, an article, or a book. Sometimes, research leads to filmmaking, playwriting, the curation of museum exhibits, choreography, or... music. The genres in which we disseminate historical research shapes the research we do. For example, when one is preparing a museum exhibit, a researcher must think about the visuality and three-dimensionality of objects in ways they might not if they were planning to write an essay. Likewise, filmmakers and dramaturges must think about how their subjects might have moved through space, and how their voices might have sounded. Genre and research are linked. What about music? What happens when we try to set the past to music, capturing and conveying historical complexity in the span of just a few minutes? How can a song convey historical information without coming across as didactic and wooden? How can one make full use of the songwriting toolkit - repetition, call and response, arrangement, phrasing, and more - to capture history in ways that only music can - as opposed to making a song that feels like a pale comparison to some other for of historical narration? When one succeeds in this venture, the effects can be haunting. Throughout this course, we will be encountering works such as "Strange Fruit" (the disturbing reflection on the lynching of African-Americans, written by Abel Meeropol, and immortalized by Billie Holiday); "Ohio" (by Neil Young, protesting the killing of unarmed student protestors at Kent State University in 1970); "I Don't Like Mondays" (by Bob Geldof, about the 1979 school shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego); "Mr. President" (by El General, considered an early anthem of the Arab Spring); and "The Donald" (the last track on the final album by A Tribe Called Quest), among many others. These "critical listenings" will be accompanied by critical readings that help us frame, compare, and challenge. Most importantly, however, we will make music. We will collaborate to write, record, and produce original works of popular music based on original research in Stanford's wealth of archives and Special Collections, which students will learn how to access and use.[1] Through a recursive process of writing, recording, sharing, and editing our own original compositions, we will constantly be asking: How does music elicit different kinds of imagery - and generate different kinds of questions - than other forms of historical narration? What makes a song work? Note: A background in music is not required, but openness, supportiveness, and (a little bit of) bravery are. Regarding the definition of "popular music," this course adopts the broadest possible definition. Any of the following genres are welcome (and even this list is only partial): [1] Archives include, but are not limited to, rare materials on the 2017 Women's March, Solidarity, Tiananmen Square, the NAACP, the United Farm Workers of America, the Black Panthers, the Gay Activists Alliance, Martin Luther King Jr., and more.

Oceans cover two thirds of the world's surface and play a vital role in global carbon storage, biodiversity, and food stocks. But who owns the oceans and their resources? And what rights and duties do countries, corporations, and individuals have at sea? In this course, we will examine histories of commercial fishing and whaling, nuclear testing, seabed mining, human rights at sea, and sea-level rise as avenues for understanding developments in international law over the course of the 20th century.

What does it mean to start a country, or to acquire and possess sovereignty over a territory? This course will examine the historical evolution of fundamental concepts in our international system: state formation, statehood, and sovereignty. Each week will spotlight a case-study in which sovereignty and statehood have appeared greatly confused and hotly contested. These include: the UK-China lease for control of Hong Kong; the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay; the corporate state of the legendary British East India Company; and Disney World.

Is there any possibility of hearing silenced voices of enslaved people? If it is so, how and where can we find their own voices? If we find the sources, to what extent can our findings help us differentiate between the lived and remembered experience of bondage? Can experiences of enslaved people fall under one category or can we talk about differences in defining their statuses? Throughout this course, we will be endeavoring to answer these questions by looking at individual experiences. Moreover, we will aim to see whether we can sympathize with the members of this exploited class by arguing that it is of value to know about their experiences. As much as the course benefits from different historical methods and thoughts, the overarching agenda is to contribute to global history through the life stories of enslaved Africans.

(Same as HISTORY 110B. HISTORY 10B is 3 units; HISTORY 110B is 5 units) Few historical settings offer a more illuminating perspective on our world today than old-regime Europe. Few cast a darker shadow. Science and the enlightened ambition to master nature and society, the emergence of statehood and its grasp for human mobility, bloodshed and coexistence in the face of religious fragmentation, as well as capitalism and the birth of modern finance: this course surveys some of the most consequential developments in European societies between the late fifteenth and the early nineteenth century.

(Same as HISTORY 110C. 10C is 3 units; 110C is 5 units.) From the late 18th century to the present. How Europeans responded to rapid social changes caused by political upheaval, industrialization, and modernization. How the experience and legacy of imperialism and colonialism both influenced European society and put in motion a process of globalization that continues to shape international politics today.

This course offers an introduction to the history of modern Europe with special attention to the connections between Europe and the rest of the world. We will discuss major landmarks in modern Europe cultural, political, social, economic, and intellectual history and situate these developments within a global context. Key topics include the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the First and Second World War, the Holocaust, Decolonization, and the fall of communism. Throughout we will explore recurrent themes such as war and peace, reform and revolution, nationalism and national identity, democracy and fascism, colonialism and imperialism, the dynamics of economic and political change, race and migration, and terror and violence. By studying modern Europe and its historic relations with the rest of the world we are better able to understand a host of contemporary issues, from global inequality, to the rise of far-right parties, to climate change.

This course examines classic approaches to war as an intellectual problem, looking at how a matter of such great physical violence and passions can be subjected to understanding and used in philosophy, political theory, and art. Questions to be examined include the definition of war, its causes, its moral value, the nature of its participants, its use in the self-definition of individuals and societies, its relation to political authority, warfare and gender, and the problem of civil war.

An age defined by lofty goals of progress, improvement, and perfection also saw the colossal expansion of race-based slavery in the Atlantic world. This course explores how people living in the 1700s reconciled the ideals of the Enlightenment with the realities of slavery. Characters include Caribbean enslavers lining their deadly plantations with coconut trees, Black slaves tracking the developments of the Haitian Revolution from American newspaper offices, and European political thinkers questioning imperial rule. With an Atlantic-focused but global perspective, we will use ideas about betterment to examine a notoriously brutal history.