printer friendly pageHISTORY 200K: Doing Literary History: Orwell in the World (ENGLISH 224)
This course will bring together the disciplines of history and literary studies by looking closely at the work of one major twentieth-century author: the British writer and political polemicist George Orwell. In 1946, Orwell writes, "What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art." In these years, Orwell writes about-- and often participates in or witnesses first-hand--a series of major events and crises. These include British imperialism in Burma, urban poverty in Europe, class inequality in England, the conflict between Socialism and Fascism in Spain, and the rise of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union. In engaging all of these events, Orwell experiments with different literary forms, moving between fiction and non-fiction, novel and autobiography, essay and memoir, manifesto and fable, literature and journalism. Few writers demand such sustained and equal attention to text and context: in this course we will move back-and-forth between Orwell's varied writing and the urgent social and political contexts it addresses.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
HISTORY 201D: History Goes Pop! Songwriting the Past (HISTORY 301D)
Historical research doesn't always take the form of a thesis, an article, or a book. Sometimes, research leads to film, museum exhibits, works of art, or... music. In this class, students will collaborate to write, record, and produce original pop music (perhaps even an entire album) based on original research in Stanford's wealth of archives and Special Collections. Background in music is NOT required.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
HISTORY 204A: Reimagining History: Or, Finding the "I" in History (HISTORY 304A)
This class explores, through analysis and practice, the ways in which history can be told and experienced through means other than traditional scholarly narratives. Approaches include literary fiction and non-fiction, digital media, graphic arts, maps, exhibitions, and film. A final project will require students to produce their own innovative work of history.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Daughton, J. (PI)
HISTORY 206D: Global Humanities: The Grand Millennium, 800-1800 (DLCL 52, HUMCORE 52, JAPAN 52)
How should we live? This course explores ethical pathways in European, Islamic, and East Asian traditions: mysticism and rationality, passion and duty, this and other worldly, ambition and peace of mind. They all seem to be pairs of opposites, but as we'll see, some important historical figures managed to follow two or more of them at once. We will read works by successful thinkers, travelers, poets, lovers, and bureaucrats written between 800 and 1900 C.E. We will ask ourselves whether we agree with their choices and judgments about what is a life well lived.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
HISTORY 206E: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)
This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 210J: Fascism and Authoritarianism
This course introduces students to the history of fascist and authoritarian movements in modern Europe, from their origins through the post-WWII era. Germany and Italy will serve as central case studies, though the course will consider other examples as well. Through analytical consideration of secondary sources, primary texts, and art as political propaganda, we will interrogate the meanings and applications of these fraught and complex terms, the different forms taken by fascist and authoritarian movements, and their relationship to nationalism, race, religion, gender, and economic and political institutions. Why did millions of Europeans accept -- and even enthusiastically support -- fascist and authoritarian regimes? To what extent was a single, charismatic leader central to the success or failure of such governments? The course will conclude with an opportunity to reflect on the degree to which fascism and authoritarianism are concepts that remain relevant to political discourse in the twenty-first century.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Daly, J. (PI)
HISTORY 213F: Medieval Germany, 900-1250 (GERMAN 213, GERMAN 313, HISTORY 313F)
(Undergraduates may sign up for
German 213 or
History 213F, graduate students should sign up for
German 313 or
History 313F. This course may be taken for variable units. Check the individual course numbers for unit spreads.) This course will provide a survey of the most important political, historical, and cultural events and trends that took place in the German-speaking lands between 900 and 1250. Important themes include the evolution of imperial ideology and relations with Rome, expansion along the eastern frontier, the crusades, the investiture controversy, the rise of powerful cities and civic identities, monastic reform and intellectual renewal, and the flowering of vernacular literature.nnTo satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or "CR" grade satisfies the Ways requirement.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 214C: Renaissances: Living, Learning, and Loving around the Mediterranean (800-1500 CE)
This course explores three watershed moments in Mediterranean history: the Carolingian Renaissance, the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, and the Italian Renaissance. The class examines how each renaissance redefined a specific place and how those changes influenced connections across the Mediterranean world.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 215B: Race and Ethnicity in Premodern Europe (ARTHIST 207D, ARTHIST 407D, HISTORY 315B)
How do historians, art historians, and literary historians of premodern Europe shape their research and their teaching around questions of race? How do current debates on race theory shape our perception of the past and deepen historical inquiry? This graduate colloquium focuses on the most recent publications on race in medieval and early modern studies to reflect on such questions while examining the challenges that race studies put on historical definitions, research methodologies, as well as teaching institutions.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Griffiths, F. (PI)
;
Lugli, E. (PI)
HISTORY 216D: Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Lord of the Rings: The Middle Ages in the Modern World
From its inception the term "Middle Ages" carried negative connotations. Renaissance humanists bewailed the fall of the Roman Empire and its replacement with "barbarian" kingdoms. Enlightenment philosophes abhorred the Middle Ages even more intensely than their Renaissance forerunners and decried medieval "superstition" and "barbarism." Nevertheless, as part of their rejection of the Enlightenment, nineteenth-century Romantics embraced the Middle Ages and sought inspiration for political and cultural renewal within medieval civilization. From nationalist movements, to colonialism, to movements within high and popular culture interest in the Middle Ages helped fashion the modern world in important ways. This class will explore the complex history associated with the images of the Middle Ages in the modern world.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Bacich, C. (PI)
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