printer friendly pageHISTORY 225G: Propaganda Century: 20th-Century Preoccupations with Mass Influence
The course explores the idea of propaganda as one of the central obsessions of 20th-century thought and politics. It traces the history of propaganda, from the early 20th century optimistic ideas about mass manipulation and political education to post-WWII anxieties around totalitarianism and capitalist public opinion manipulation. The course examines just how malleable or resistant various 20th-century belief systems considered societies to be. It also explores how they have thought of the ethics and desirability of mass persuasion and how they struggled with adjacent concepts such as the crowd, mass society, totalitarianism, false consciousness, manufactured consent, etc. It concludes by exploring the waning of propaganda discourse in the late-1980s. As an epilogue, we will discuss propaganda's modified resurgence a generation later in today's concerns over "new media," "viral misinformation," and "indoctrination." The course aims to help students historicize the concept of propaganda and contextualize it transnationally, bridging cultural, political, and theoretical divides.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
HISTORY 226D: The Holocaust: Insights from New Research (HISTORY 326D, JEWISHST 226E, JEWISHST 326D)
Overview of the history of the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews. Explores its causes, course, consequences, and memory. Addresses the events themselves, as well as the roles of perpetrators and bystanders, dilemmas faced by victims, collaboration of local populations, and the issue of rescue. Considers how the Holocaust was and is remembered and commemorated by victims and participants alike. Uses different kinds of sources: scholarly work, memoirs, diaries, film, and primary documents.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Jolluck, K. (PI)
HISTORY 226E: Famine in the Modern World (HISTORY 326E, PEDS 226)
Open to medical students, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Examines the major famines of modern history, the controversies surrounding them, and the reasons that famine persists in our increasingly globalized world. Focus is on the relative importance of natural, economic, and political factors as causes of famine in the modern world. Case studies include the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s; the Bengal famine of 1943-44; the Soviet famines of 1921-22 and 1932-33; China's Great Famine of 1959-61; the Ethiopian famines of the 1970s and 80s, and the Somalia famines of the 1990s and of 2011.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Patenaude, B. (PI)
HISTORY 227: East European Women and War (FEMGEN 227, HISTORY 327)
Thematic & chronological approach to conflicts in the region 20th & 21st centuries: Balkan Wars, WWI, WWII, Yugoslav wars, & current Russo-Ukrainian War. Ways women in E. Europe involved in and affected by wars; comparison with women in W. Europe in the two world wars. Examines women during war as members of military services, underground movements, workers, volunteers, mothers of soldiers, subjects and supporters of war aims and propaganda, activists in peace movements, and objects of wartime destruction, dislocation, and sexual violation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender, GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Jolluck, K. (PI)
HISTORY 227B: The Business of Socialism: Economic Life in Cold War Eastern Europe (REES 205)
This colloquium investigates the processes of buying, making, and selling goods and services in Cold War Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We will familiarize ourselves with a variety of approaches to writing the history of economic life and discuss to what extent they are applicable to state socialist systems. Our focus will not be on theories of socialism but on empirically grounded studies that allow for insights into how the system operated in practice and interacted with capitalism. We will, among others, explore the following questions: What was the role of the state in the economies east and west of the Iron Curtain? Are socialism and capitalism two incompatible systems? How did women experience and shape economic life after the Second World War? What had a greater impact on the economies of the region: Cold War politics or globalization?
Last offered: Autumn 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 227D: All Quiet on the Eastern Front? East Europe and Russia in the First World War (HISTORY 327D, REES 227, REES 327)
Until recently history has been comparatively quiet about the experience of World War I in the east. Far from being a peripheral theater of war, however, the experiences of war on the Eastern Front were central to shaping the 20th century. Not only was the first shot of the war fired in the east, it was also the site of the most dramatic political revolution. Using scholarly texts, literature and film, this course combines political, military, cultural and social approaches to introduce the causes, conduct and consequences of World War I with a focus on the experiences of soldiers and civilians on the Eastern Front. Topics include: the war of movement, occupation, extreme violence against civilians, the Armenian genocide, population exchanges, the Russian Revolution and civil war, and the disintegration of empires and rise of nation-states.
Last offered: Winter 2018
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
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
| 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
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 230C: Paris: Capital of the Modern World (FRENCH 140, FRENCH 340, URBANST 184)
This course explores how Paris, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, became the political, cultural, and artistic capital of the modern world. It considers how the city has both shaped and been shaped by the tumultuous events of modern history- class conflict, industrialization, imperialism, war, and occupation. It will also explore why Paris became the major world destination for intellectuals, artists and writers. Sources will include films, paintings, architecture, novels, travel journals, and memoirs. Course taught in English with an optional French section.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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