1 - 10 of 88 results for: HISTORY

Introduces students to the rich history of military affairs and, at the same time, examines the ways in which we think of change and continuity in military history. How did war evolve from ancient times, both in styles of warfare and perceptions of war? What is the nature of the relationship between war and society? Is there such a thing as a Western way of war? What role does technology play in transforming military affairs? What is a military revolution and can it be manufactured or induced? Chronologically following the evolution of warfare from Ancient Greece to present day so-called new wars, we will continuously investigate how the interdependencies between technological advances, social change, philosophical debates and economic pressures both shaped and were influenced by war.

This course addresses capitalism in global perspective to identify the roots of our current economic system. We will consider theories about capitalism, the politics and policies of implementation, and the human and environmental consequences through topics such as the imperial political economy, consumerism, plantation economies, the East India Company, and the rise of credit. Embedding markets in a range of social relations, cultural practices, and institutional arrangements, reveals how capital became an -ism in specific and knowable historical circumstances.

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.

Information is power. From the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, a shadowy world of illicit communication challenged church and state. We'll explore the resulting communication wars as waged through print, art, architecture, and theatre. We'll read banned, scandalous and satirical works by Niccolò Machiavelli, Martin Luther and Benjamin Franklin among many others. From the archives to the digital humanities, students will gain new tools to explore the politics and historical development of information control.

This course provides an introduction to Medieval Europe from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. While the framework of the course is chronological, we¿ll concentrate particularly on the structure of medieval society. Rural and urban life, kingship and papal government, wars and plagues provide the context for our examination of the lives of medieval people, what they believed, and how they interacted with other, both within Christendom and beyond it.

(Same as History 140A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for History 140A.) What do people know and how do they know it? What counts as scientific knowledge? In the 16th and 17th centuries, understanding the nature of knowledge engaged the attention of individuals and institutions including Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, the early Royal Society, and less well-known contemporaries. New meanings of observing, collecting, experimenting, and philosophizing, and political, religious, and cultural ramifications in early modern Europe.

(Same as HISTORY 147. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 147.) Introduction, focusing particularly on the modern era. Topics include: precolonial African societies; European colonization; the impact of the mineral revolution; the evolution of African and Afrikaner nationalism; the rise and fall of the apartheid state; the politics of post-apartheid transformation; and the AIDS crisis.

Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Participation in class is required.

(Same as HISTORY 150A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 150A.) Survey of the origins of American society and polity in the 17th and 18th centuries. Topics: the migration of Europeans and Africans and the impact on native populations; the emergence of racial slavery and of regional, provincial, Protestant cultures; and the political origins and constitutional consequences of the American Revolution.