HISTORY 227G: A Global History of Eastern Europe
The course will present a survey of Eastern Europe's modern history in a global context. The themes of the course will include emergence of nationalisms and nation states, race and ethnicity, the discourse of rights, globalization, totalitarianism, as well as the role of the region in the planet's environmental history of the last three hundred years. From the Vikings to Snake Island, from the Rhine to the Caucasus, the course will examine the spatial and temporal limits of what we call Eastern Europe.
Last offered: Autumn 2023
| Units: 4-5
HISTORY 227K: Marx and Marxism: History and Social Change
This course examines the life and work of Karl Marx, his social and intellectual milieu, and the evolution of Marxism and historical materialism in theory and practice to the present. Basic concepts of Marxism will be discussed along with debates about orthodox or unorthodox extensions. Critiques of Marx and Marxism from the perspective of gender and race will be addressed. The learning outcomes anticipated include facility with Marxist terminology, a basic understanding of the biography of Marx, an overview of the historical development of Marxism and its role in shaping world history, and the development of critical tools for the evaluation and extension of Marxist concepts in contemporary settings.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 228: Circles of Hell: Poland in World War II (HISTORY 328, JEWISHST 282, JEWISHST 382)
Looks at the experience and representation of Poland's wartime history from the Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939) to the aftermath of Yalta (1945). Examines Nazi and Soviet ideology and practice in Poland, as well as the ways Poles responded, resisted, and survived. Considers wartime relations among Polish citizens, particularly Poles and Jews. In this regard, interrogates the traditional self-characterization of Poles as innocent victims, looking at their relationship to the Holocaust, thus engaging in a passionate debate still raging in Polish society.
Last offered: Autumn 2020
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 228C: Politics and Society in Early Soviet Russia: View from the Hoover Library & Archives (HISTORY 328C, REES 110, REES 211)
The course offers an examination of early Soviet history (1917-1924) based on the archival collections, digital records, and rare books and periodicals in the Hoover Library & Archives, with a focus on the papers of the American Relief Administration and the Soviet famine of 1921. Topics include Bolshevik ideology, the role of the Communist Party, Russian-Ukrainian relations, the formation of the USSR, Soviet economic policy, Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International, the secret police and political repression, culture under the Bolsheviks, demographic shifts and refugee movements, and the famine of 1921, in which six million people perished. Students will become familiar with how to research and interpret primary sources. Class will meet in Hoover Tower, in a secure room where students can work with archival and rare library materials, including early Soviet newspapers and journals. Course is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Students may take the course for either 3 or 5 units. Those enrolled for 5 units will submit a research paper. Russian language ability is not required. Offered in conjunction with the Hoover Library & Archives exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 3-5
HISTORY 229C: Political Exhumations: Killing Sites in Comparative Perspective (ANTHRO 137D, ARCHLGY 137, ARCHLGY 237, DLCL 237, HISTORY 329C, REES 237C)
The course discusses the politics and practices of exhumation of individual and mass graves. The problem of exhumations will be considered as a distinct socio-political phenomenon characteristic of contemporary times and related to transitional justice. The course will offer analysis of case studies of political exhumations of victims of the Dirty War in Argentina, ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, the Holocaust, communist violence in Poland, the Rwandan genocide, the Spanish Civil War, and the war in Ukraine. The course will make use of new interpretations of genocide studies, research of mass graves, such as environmental and forensic approaches.
Last offered: Spring 2025
| Units: 3-5
HISTORY 230L: Modern Irish History
| Units: 5
HISTORY 231: Leonardo's World: Science, Technology, and Art (ARTHIST 231, ARTHIST 431, HISTORY 331, ITALIAN 231, ITALIAN 331)
Leonardo da Vinci is emblematic of creativity and innovation. His art is iconic, his inventions legendary. His understanding of nature, the human body, and machines made him a scientist and engineer as well as an artist. His fascination with drawing buildings made him an architect, at least on paper. This class explores the historical Leonardo, considering his interests and accomplishments as a product of the society of Renaissance Italy. Why did this world produce a Leonardo? Special attention will be given to interdisciplinary connections between religion, art, science, and technology.
Last offered: Spring 2023
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 231D: Disasters: Environment, Disease, and War in Early Modern Europe
Famines, epidemics, natural disasters, and wars - all these impacted the lives of early modern Europeans. How did they react to these events? This course examines disasters in Europe, with a focus on the time period 1500-1800. We will discuss famines, outbreaks of diseases like plague, wars such as the 30 Years' War, severe weather events during the "Little Ice Age," and natural disasters such as earthquakes. By engaging with historical sources and scholarship, we will explore the impacts of these events, as well as how people interpreted and responded to them.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Coate, A. (PI)
HISTORY 231G: European Reformations, 1500-1650 (HISTORY 331G, RELIGST 231, RELIGST 331)
This advanced colloquium explores the transformed religious landscape of sixteenth-century Europe from an interdisciplinary perspective. Two professors, one from History and one from Religious Studies, contextualize the key theological and social aspects of the sixteenth-century reformations and provide a general introduction to the study of the reformation era. Students will read primary writings and documents from major reformers and reform movements and gain an overview of secondary scholarship in select classic studies of the period and in recent literature. Undergraduates register for
HISTORY 231G or
RELIGST 231 for 5 units; graduate students register for
HISTORY 331G or
RELIGST 331 for 3-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Pitkin, B. (PI)
;
Stokes, L. (PI)
HISTORY 231P: The View From Paris (FRENCH 101)
The Global Gateway course explores the history of Paris through its artistic and literary production from the eighteenth century through the twentieth century. In this course, students will trace the cultural, artistic, political, infrastructural, and commercial changes over three centuries that made Paris, for a time, the capital of the modern world. Beginning with the Enlightenment, the course asks what aspects of Paris and its cultures of sociability were conducive to such knowledge production. Moving into the nineteenth century, students will examine how Paris became a main character in literature, as writers grappled with urbanization, industrialization, and the modernization of a city in transformation - whether by revolution, Haussmann's renovation of Paris, or commercial innovation with the birth of the department stores or "grands magasins." Finally, the course concludes with a reflection on significant eras of artistic production in Paris, from the Belle Époque to surrealism,
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The Global Gateway course explores the history of Paris through its artistic and literary production from the eighteenth century through the twentieth century. In this course, students will trace the cultural, artistic, political, infrastructural, and commercial changes over three centuries that made Paris, for a time, the capital of the modern world. Beginning with the Enlightenment, the course asks what aspects of Paris and its cultures of sociability were conducive to such knowledge production. Moving into the nineteenth century, students will examine how Paris became a main character in literature, as writers grappled with urbanization, industrialization, and the modernization of a city in transformation - whether by revolution, Haussmann's renovation of Paris, or commercial innovation with the birth of the department stores or "grands magasins." Finally, the course concludes with a reflection on significant eras of artistic production in Paris, from the Belle Époque to surrealism, World War II and the Occupation, Americans in Paris, postwar art and literature, and classic French cinema. In this course, students will engage with a rich variety of literary texts, secondary sources, and film. Students will also have the opportunity to work with materials in Special Collections from the Roxane Debuisson Collection on Paris History, including rare maps, commercial ephemera, photographs, postcards, billheads, and more. Readings may include texts by authors such as Mercier, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, George Sand, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Zola, Colette, Breton, Gertrude Stein, and Barthes. Course taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Edmondson, C. (PI)