History
240 Hall of Graduate Studies, 432.1366
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Paul Freedman
Director of Graduate Studies
Joanne Freeman (236 HGS, 432.1361)
Professors
Jean-Christophe Agnew (American Studies), Abbas Amanat, Ivo Banac, Beatrice Bartlett, David Blight, Paul Bushkovitch, Jon Butler, John Demos, Carlos Eire, Laura Engelstein, John Mack Faragher, Paul Freedman, Joanne Freeman, Ute Frevert, John Gaddis, Glenda Gilmore, Robert Gordon (Law), Timothy Guinnane (Economics), Valerie Hansen, Robert Harms, Jonathan Holloway, Paula Hyman, Matthew Jacobson, Gilbert Joseph, Donald Kagan, Paul Kennedy, Daniel Kevles, Benedict Kiernan, Bentley Layton (Religious Studies), Ivan Marcus, John Matthews (Classics), John Merriman, Joanne Meyerowitz, Cynthia Russett, Lamin Sanneh (Divinity School), Stuart Schwartz, Frank Snowden, Jonathan Spence, Harry Stout, Frank Turner, John Harley Warner (History of Medicine & Science), Anders Winroth, Jay Winter, Keith Wrightson
Associate Professors
Mary Habeck, Susan Lederer (History of Medicine & Science), Stephen Pitti, Kevin Repp, Timothy Snyder, Steven Stoll
Assistant Professors
Michael Auslin, Jennifer Baszile, Brian Cowan, Seth Fein, Beverly Gage, Andrew Gregory (Classics), Lillian Guerra, Jennifer Klein, Mary Lui, Michael Mahoney, Carolyn Moehling, Ole Molvig, Nicole Neatby (Visiting), Carlos Noreña (Classics), Mridu Rai, Ronald Rittgers (Divinity School), Naomi Rogers (History of Medicine & Science), Youval Rotman, Celia Schultz (Classics), Francesca Trevellato, Kariann Yokota
Fields of Study
Fields include ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern Europe (including Britain, Russia, and Eastern Europe), United States, Latin America, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Jewish history; and diplomatic, environmental, ethnic, intellectual, labor, military, political, religious, social, and women's history.
Special Admissions Requirements
The department requires a short book review to accompany the application. It should cover the book that has most shaped the applicant's understanding of the kind of work he or she would like to do as a historian.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
All students must pass examinations in at least two foreign languages, one by the end of the first year. Students are urged to do everything in their power to acquire adequate linguistic training before they enter Yale and should at a minimum be prepared to be examined in at least one language upon arrival. Typical language requirements for major subfields are as follows:
African: Either (1) French and German or Portuguese or Dutch-Afrikaans; or (2) French or German or Portuguese and Arabic; or (3) French or German or Portuguese or Dutch-Afrikaans and an African language approved by the department.
American: Two languages relevant to the student's research interests, or a high level of proficiency in one language; competence in statistics may substitute for a natural language under appropriate circumstances.
Ancient: French, German, Greek, and Latin.
Chinese: Chinese and French; additional languages like Japanese, Russian, or German may be necessary for certain dissertation topics.
East European: The language of the student's concentration plus two of the following: French, German, Russian, or an approved substitution.
Japanese: Japanese and French or German; Chinese may be necessary for some fields of study.
Latin American: Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Medieval: French, German, and Latin.
Modern Western European (including British): French and German; substitutions are permitted as appropriate.
Russian: Russian plus French or German with other languages as required.
During the first two years of study, students normally take twelve term courses, at least eight of which shall be chosen from those offered by the department, and must achieve Honors in at least two courses in the first year, and Honors in at least four courses by the end of the second year, with a High Pass average overall. If a student does not meet this standard by the end of the first or second year, the relevant members of the department will consult and promptly advise the student whether the student will be allowed to register for the fall of the following academic year.
Three of the twelve courses must be research seminars in which the student produces an original research paper from primary sources. One of the second-year courses may be a tutorial resulting in a prospectus for the dissertation. In the third year, students are required to hold their prospectus colloquium with the proposed dissertation committee.
The prospectus colloquium offers the student an opportunity to discuss the dissertation prospectus with the faculty committee in order to gain the committee's advice on the research and writing of the dissertation and its approval for the project. The dissertation prospectus provides the basis of grant proposals for doing research away from Yale in the fourth year. The prospectus colloquium and any further language requirements must be completed before the student takes his/her oral examination.
The oral examination will cover three chosen fields of concentration: a major field and two minor fields, one of which is comparative or theoretical, or on a continent different from the student's ordinary field of specialization. U.S. historians must offer a minor field that addresses historiography outside the United States. If these do not include one field dealing with premodern history, then a year's work in that earlier period must have been included among the twelve required courses. Completion of these requirements will qualify a student for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D., which must take place by the end of the third year of study.
During the third year of study, almost all students serve as teaching fellows in order to acquire crucial professional training. During their first term of teaching, students must attend several training sessions run by the department in conjunction with the Graduate Teaching Center.
Students usually complete the requirements for admission to candidacy in the sixth term, but it is also possible for students who have completed extensive graduate work prior to entering the Ph.D. program to petition for candidacy sooner. Students may petition for credit for previous graduate work only after successful completion of the first year.
In the fourth year, once students have advanced to candidacy, they may continue their studies while serving as teaching fellows or they may decide to pursue their research, either at Yale or elsewhere, using external funding.
In the fifth year, strongly preferably in the fall term, students are required to submit a chapter of the dissertation (not necessarily the first chapter) to the dissertation committee. This chapter will then be discussed with the student by members of the committee, preferably in a colloquium, to give the student additional advice and counsel on the progress of the dissertation. This conference is designed to be an extension of the conversation begun in the dissertation colloquium and is not intended as a defense: its aim is to give students early feedback on the research, argument, and style of the first writing accomplished on the dissertation.
Students are eligible to receive the University Dissertation Fellowship (UDF) provided that they have advanced to candidacy. Students may take the UDF in the fifth year, but they must take the fellowship no later than the sixth year. They should apply for the fellowship in the term prior to which they wish to receive it. Students may serve as teaching fellows when they are not on the UDF.
The department strongly recommends that the student apply for a UDF only after completing the first chapter conference, and that students on a UDF should have completed at least two dissertation chapters before starting the fellowship. Many students apply for jobs in the year in which they receive the UDF, and the department urges that students apply for academic positions only when they have two chapters ready to send out to potential employers.
In short, a student making timely progress should expect to finish at least one chapter by December of the fifth year, and to complete the dissertation in the sixth year, when the submission deadline for May graduation is March 15.
Registration in the seventh year is not required for students submitting their dissertations by the October deadline (which the majority of students do). If students are unable to make the October deadline, they can petition the Graduate School for extended registration in exceptional cases where unique personal circumstances or substantial difficulties in obtaining archival sources have prevented normal progress. The petition, delivered first to the History DGS, will explain the particular circumstances that have prevented completion of the dissertation within the normal timetable and offer a specific plan that describes how the dissertation will be completed in the seventh year. Half of the dissertation chapters should be complete and must be submitted with the petition.
Combined Ph.D. Programs
History and African American Studies
The Department of History also offers, in conjunction with African American Studies, a combined Ph.D. in History and African American Studies. For further details, see African American Studies.
History and Renaissance Studies
The Department of History also offers, in conjunction with the Renaissance Studies program, a combined Ph.D. in History and Renaissance Studies. For further details, see Renaissance Studies.
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. Students who have completed all requirements for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. may receive the M.Phil. degree. Additionally, students in History are eligible to pursue a supplemental M.Phil. degree in Medieval Studies. For further details, see Medieval Studies.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program may qualify for the M.A. degree upon completion of a minimum of six graduate term courses at Yale, of which two must have earned Honors grades and the other four courses must average High Pass overall. Students must also pass an examination in one foreign language. A student in the American Studies program who wishes to obtain an M.A. in History, rather than an M.A. in American Studies, must include in the courses completed at least two research seminars in the History department.
Master's Degree Program. For this terminal master's degree students must pass six term courses, four of which must be in History; substantial written work must be submitted in conjunction with at least two of these courses, and Honors grades are expected in two courses, with a High Pass average overall. All students in this program must pass an examination in one foreign language.
Program materials are available upon request from the Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Yale University, PO Box 208324, New Haven CT 06520-8324.
Courses
HIST 516a, Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan.
T 2.30–4.20
A study both of the great war between Athens and Sparta that transformed the world of the Greek city-states and of the brilliant historian and political thinker who described it. Also CLSS 880a.
HIST 525b, Topics in Roman History and Culture. John Matthews, William Metcalf.
F 4–6
A weekly program of research papers on various topics, given by faculty members, graduate students, and visitors to Yale, followed by formal and informal discussion. Graduate students may acquire a course credit by presenting a paper to the seminar or by writing a term paper on one of the topics chosen, together with regular participation and contributions to discussion. Suggestions for and offers of papers are welcome. Also CLSS 850b.
HIST 527a, The Worlds of Bede and Paul the Deacon. Walter Goffart.
T 1.30–3.20
The English Ecclesiastical History of Bede (ca. 733) and the History of the Lombards by Paul the Deason (ca. 795) are major monuments of historical writing, as well as principal sources for the earliest centuries of the Middle Ages. A close reading of the histories of Bede and Paul, along with attention to their historical contexts, provides a springboard to consideration of England, Italy, and the wider world they lived in. A reading and discussion course. The sources are assigned in translation, but use of readings in Latin and modern foreign languages in written work and class reports is strongly recommended for those qualified.
HIST 531b, Seminar: The Making of Monasticism. Bentley Layton.
T 2.30–4.20
The history of Christian monasteries, hermits, ascetics, and monastic institutions and values in late antiquity, with special attention to the eastern Mediterranean world. Also CPTC 504b, RLST 659bu.
HIST 532bu, Jews in Muslim Lands: Seventh to Sixteenth Century. Ivan Marcus.
TTh 11.30–12.45
Introduction to Jewish culture and society in Muslim lands from the Prophet Muhammad to Suleiman the Magnificent. Topics to be discussed include Islam and Judaism; Jerusalem as a holy site; rabbinic leadership and literature in Baghdad; Jewish courtiers, poets, and philosophers in Muslim Spain; the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.
HIST 533a, Augustine. Marcia Colish.
T 3.30–5.20
A reading and discussion seminar designed to familiarize students with a broad range of issues in the oeuvre of Augustine through the reading and discussion of selected Augustinian works written across his career. Students also give oral reports treating interpretive issues in the secondary literature and write a paper investigating some aspect of Augustine's thought and the historiography attached to it. Reading knowledge of Latin, French, and German required.
HIST 534b, The Augustinian Tradition in the Middle Ages. Marcia Colish.
T 3.30–5.20
Research seminar. After two initial weeks during which general reading is discussed, the seminar focuses on the individual research projects pursued by students on chosen aspects of Augustine's influence during the millennium following his death. His influence in the Renaissance may also be considered. Students present two oral reports on their projects, the first a progress report and the second reporting their final findings. The second report is written up after presentation as a formal paper. Prerequisites: HIST 533a or demonstration of equivalent background and a reading knowledge of Latin, French, and German. Knowledge of Italian desirable.
HIST 535au, History of Jewish Culture to the Reformation. Ivan Marcus.
TTh 11.30–12.45
Undergraduate lecture course open to graduate students with permission of instructor. Also RLST 773au.
HIST 536b, Martyrs, Prostitutes, and Fools: The Making of a Religious Saint.Youval Rotman.
F 1.30–3.20
The seminar focuses on the question of the creation of a saint: the special character of the holy man in different religions throughout the Middle Ages, the social needs that call for the making of a saint, and the new role of hagiography as a medieval literature. The seminar starts with models of Byzantine saints of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and offers a comparative approach in introducing different types of sainthood in Latin Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
HIST 539b, The Manichaean World Religion. Bentley Layton.
w 4–6
Recent research on the world religion of Mani, founded in the third century, its spread to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and central Asia, as attested in text, art, and archaeology. An exploratory seminar with no special prerequisites. Texts are read in modern translation. The grades of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory will be designated. Also NELC 736b, RLST 661b.
HIST 541b, Jews in Christian and Muslim Lands from the Fourth to the Sixteenth Century. Ivan Marcus.
T 1.30–3.20
Research seminar that focuses on a comparison of the two medieval Jewish subcultures of Ashkenaz (northern Christian Europe) and Sefarad (mainly Muslim and Christian Spain). Issues in historiography and comparative methodology complement discussions about the symbols and reality of literary, political, and economic features of each society. Also RLST 776b.
HIST 547b, Spain and Southern France in the Middle Ages. Paul Freedman.
T 1.30–3.20
Society, politics, and culture in the Iberian kingdoms (particularly but not exclusively Aragon-Catalonia), Provence, Languedoc, and other regions and principalities of what became southern France. Topics include church and society, heresy, trade, differing development of state institutions, and comparisons among rural conditions of tenure and lordship.
HIST 559b, The Life and Thought of Martin Luther. Ronald Rittgers.
W 1.30–3.20
This course examines the intellectual biography of Martin Luther from a theological as well as a historical perspective. Its goal is to understand both the man and his ideas. The course stresses close reading of select theological treatises and critical engagement of recent trends in Luther scholarship. Enrollment is limited to fifteen graduate students. Permission of instructor required.
HIST 560a, Society and the Supernatural in Early Modern Europe. Carlos Eire.
T 1.30–3.20
Readings in primary texts from the period 1500–1700 which focus on definitions of the relationship between the natural and supernatural realms, both Catholic and Protestant. Topics include mystical ecstasy, visions, apparitions, miracles, and demonic possession. All assigned readings in English translation.
HIST 580a, Encounters: Ourselves and Others in the Early Modern World. Stuart Schwartz.
M 1.30–3.20
An examination of the encounters between Europeans and other peoples 1480–1800, with attention to the role of perception, conceptions, and events on both sides of such meetings. Both the history of such encounters as well as the theories of alterity and cultural perception are discussed.
HIST 600a, Readings in Early Modern European History. Keith Wrightson, Francesca Trevellato.
T 10.30–12.20
Introduction to modern European history. Readings focus on major works and problems in the field as it has evolved from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. This course also serves as an introduction to many Yale faculty members currently writing and researching the history of early modern Europe and its relations with the wider world.
HIST 609b, Mutualities and Obligations: Social Relationships in Early Modern England. Keith Wrightson.
Th 10.30–12.20
Relationships of mutual obligation were the most fundamental of all bonds in medieval society. In their various forms, they provided both the template of social relations and the coordinates of individual identity. In the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many such bonds are deemed to have undergone transformation. The seminar reexamines this theme by discussing recent approaches to a variety of relationships of mutuality and obligation: relationships within the household; between kinsfolk, “friends,” and neighbors; in female networks and trade brotherhoods; in the institutional settings of manor and estate, the parish, voluntary associations, and the marketplace. The aim is to encourage fresh thinking about continuity and change in a range of vital social relationships; their conduct, their idioms, their defining contexts, and their meanings.
HIST 634a, Cultural and Intellectual History of European Modernism. Kevin Repp.
Th 1.30–3.20
Reading and discussion. The aim is to explore recent methodological approaches to intellectual and cultural history while also learning something about the state of historical research on twentieth-century European modernism. Topics include media, markets, and modernism; modernism and the First World War; “fascist modernism”; and “postmodernism.” Authors include Peter Fritzsche, Paul Fussel, Mark Antliff, Raymond Williams, Jörgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Bourdieu.
HIST 637a, Research Seminar in Modern French History. John Merriman.
T 10–12
HIST 648a, Civil Society in Nineteenth-Century Europe: A Transnational Perspective. Laura Engelstein, Ute Frevert.
M 1.30–3.20
This seminar examines the notion of civil society as developed in recent historiography and political theory, by comparing the cases of Germany and Russia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Topics include associational life, legal traditions and institutions, the public sphere, the gender system, commercial culture, civil-military relations, and political participation. Options of research or historiographical papers.
HIST 666a, Russia to 1725. Paul Bushkovitch.
W 1.30–3.20
The major phases of Russian history from the tenth century, covering the major historiographical controversies and sources. Russian or German helpful but not required.
HIST 667b, Issues in Early Russian History. Paul Bushkovitch.
Th 1.30–3.20
An examination of the main sources and historiography of a particular era or theory in Rus-sian history to 1825. For spring 2005 the topic is state and society of eighteenth-century Russia in theory and practice.
HIST 676b, Research Topics in Twentieth-Century Russian History. Laura Engelstein.
T 1.30–3.20
This seminar explores a variety of research avenues in the history of twentieth-century Russia. Readings sample innovative works of scholarship, but most of the course is devoted to students' own projects. Reading knowledge of Russian required.
HIST 700a, Introduction to the Historiography of the United States. John Mack Faragher.
TTh 10.30–12.20
Readings and discussion of scholarly work on U.S. history from the settlement era to the pres-ent. Members of the department faculty visit the class on a rotating basis. Also AMST 700a.
HIST 703b, Readings in Early National American History. Joanne Freeman.
T 1.30–3.20
This seminar is an introduction to the early national period and its scholarship, exploring major themes such as nationalism, national identity, the influence of the frontier, the structure of society, questions of race and gender, the creation of a national politics and a national culture, and the evolution of political cultures. Also AMST 802b.
HIST 704b, Readings on Early American History. John Demos.
T 1.30–3.20
Reading and discussion of the scholarly literature. Also AMST 825b.
HIST 708a, Readings in African American History to Emancipation. Jennifer Baszile.
Th 1.30–3.20
This seminar surveys classic and recent scholarship on the African diaspora in North America. Topics include regional and temporary varieties of slavery and freedom, gender, religion, race, work, resistance, and emancipation. Attention is given to urban and rural communities. Also AFAM 758a, AMST 706a.
HIST 715b, Readings in Nineteenth-Century American History, 1820–1877. David Blight.
W 1.30–3.20
This course explores recent trends and historiography on several problems through the middle of the nineteenth century: sectionalism; expansion; slavery and the Old South; northern society and reform movements; Civil War causation; the meaning of the Confederacy; why the North won the Civil War; the political, constitutional, and social meanings of emancipation and Reconstruction; violence in Reconstruction society; the relationships between social/cultural and military/political history; problems in historical memory; the tension between narrative and analytical history writing; and the ways in which race and gender have reshaped research and interpretive agendas. Also AFAM 761b, AMST 715b.
HIST 721b, Research Seminar in United States History. Jon Butler.
T 9–11
This seminar focuses on producing the draft of a publishable article based on original sources in any century or topic in U.S. history. Enrollment limited to eight students.
HIST 726b, The Culture of the Gilded Age. Cynthia Russett.
Th 1.30–3.20
Although the politics of the Gilded Age may seem somewhat jejune (who today has lively memories of Chester A. Arthur or James Garfield?) its society and culture were undergoing dramatic and challenging developments. Industrialization and urbanization brought new immigrants to our shores; labor unions grew and flexed their muscle in a series of major strikes. In the world of thought the impact of Darwinism was still being absorbed, especially in the new academic disciplines of the social sciences: sociology, economics, and psychology. Some important names from the period: William James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henry George, Andrew Carnegie, W.E.B. Dubois, Jane Addams, Edward Bellamy, Samuel Gompers (and, of course, many more). Research seminar. Also AMST 798b.
HIST 731b, Readings in Southern History since 1865. Glenda Gilmore.
W 10.30–12.20
The course revisits traditional themes in southern historiography, matching classics of southern U.S. history with recent work. The course expands the definition of “southerner”; challenges the narratives and periodization of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement; and brings theories on the construction of gender and race into dialogue with southern history. The readings place the U.S. South in a global discourse of white supremacy, imperialism, Communism, Fascism, and Pan-Africanism. The course requires book reviews and an historiographical paper that reviews an issue in southern history and suggests opportunities for future research on the topic. Also AFAM 721b, AMST 735b.
HIST 735a, Readings in Twentieth-Century American Political and Social History. Jennifer Klein.
T 1.30–3.20
Readings in American social and political history from the late nineteenth century to the pres-ent, with an emphasis on political economy. Major topics include changing relationships between the state, economy, and communities over time; the role of social movements of the left and right in political, social, and economic transformations; definitions and boundaries of citizenship; development of social policy, labor policy, politics, and the “New Deal Order”; America's rural and urban economies in regional, national, and international context. Also AMST 717a.
HIST 736a, Research in Twentieth-Century American Political and Social History. Glenda Gilmore.
W 10.30–12.20
Projects chosen from the post-Civil War period, with emphasis on twentieth-century social and political history, broadly defined. Research seminar. Also AFAM 709a, AMST 709a.
HIST 742a, Readings in North American Environmental History. Steven Stoll.
W 10.30–12.20
Introduction to the essential scholarship of North American environmental history. The seminar assumes no previous course work, and students with a wide variety of backgrounds are welcome. We read books and articles with an eye to exploring the different themes, theories, and methods that have shaped environmental history. Our goal is to evaluate these works while trying to discover ways in which each approach might be helpful to our own work. At the same time, we use readings and discussions to think about the more general process of conceiving, conducting, and writing historical research. Subjects include colonialism, capitalism, American Indians, conservation, ecology, and environmentalism. Also AMST 839a.
HIST 744a, American Women's History. Joanne Meyerowitz.
Th 3.30–5.20
Selected topics in American/U.S. women's and gender history. Themes include concepts of womanhood and manhood; gendered hierarchies of citizenship and labor; class, racial/ethnic, and regional differences; and women's participation in religion, politics, social reform, and women's rights movements. Readings, writing assignments, and classroom discussions emphasize recent historical literature, historiographic trends and debates, and theoretical and methodological approaches. Also AMST 786a.
HIST 748b, American Conservatism in the Twentieth Century. Beverly Gage.
W 3.30–5.20
An examination of historical and historiographical problems in the study of American conservatism. Topics include mass politics, free-market ideology, neoconservatism, anticommunism, and the Christian right.
HIST 751a, Race and Races in American Studies. Matthew Jacobson.
M 1.30–3.20
This reading-intensive seminar examines influential scholarship across the disciplines on “race” and racialized relations in American culture and society. Major topics include the cultural construction of race; race as both an instrument of oppression and an idiom of resistance in American politics; the centrality of race in literary, anthropological, and legal discourse; the racialization of U.S. foreign policy; “race mixing”; vicissitudes of “whiteness” in American political culture; and “race” in the realm of popular cultural representation. A lengthy review essay due at the end of the term gives students a chance to explore in depth the themes, periods, and methods that most interest them. Also AFAM 687a, AMST 701a.
HIST 758a, Research Seminar in U.S. International and Transnational Histories.Seth Fein.
M 11.30–1.20
This seminar emphasizes interdisciplinary methods and cultural analysis for research and writing based in a wide variety of primary (including audiovisual) sources about the history of the United States outside the United States and the history of other nations within the United States. Term project is a publishable, article-length essay. Also AMST 777a.
HIST 763a, Readings in Latina/o History. Stephen Pitti.
W 1.30–3.20
A reading of historical works that focus on Latino communities in the United States. We focus particular attention on Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American communities, and we look at topics such as racial identity, border conflict, 1960s activism, patterns of residency and migration, transnationality and citizenship, labor struggles and class formation, and gender and sexuality. Readings bring together scholarship from several disciplines and emphasize both the critical importance of this developing field and its contemporary challenges. Also AMST 649a.
HIST 765au, Jews in America, 1654 to the Present. Paula Hyman.
MW 10.30–11.20
A survey of the development of American Jewry from the colonial period to the present. Topics include the Americanization of Judaism, constructing identity and community, political and economic participation, and Jews in American culture. Also RLST 764au.
HIST 766bu, Jewish Immigration and American Society. Paula Hyman.
W 1.30–3.20
An exploration of the Jewish immigrant experience in America in the context of American immigrant history. Topics include work and family, constructing identity, the role of religion, and political and cultural participation in American society. Also RLST 766bu.
HIST 768b, Asian American History and Historiography. Mary Lui.
M 1.30–3.20
This reading and discussion seminar examines new trends in Asian American history through a selection of recently published texts and older “classics” from the field. Major topics include the racial formation of Asian Americans in U.S. culture, politics, and law; U.S. imperialism; U.S. capitalist development and Asian labor migration; and transnational and local ethnic community formations. The class considers both the political and academic roots of the field and its evolving relationship to “mainstream” American history. Also AMST 768b.
HIST 780b, Methods and Practices in U.S. Cultural History. Matthew Jacobson.
M 1.30–3.20
This reading-intensive seminar examines the cultural turn in the discipline of history over the past several decades, and the rise of cultural history as a subfield in its own right. What precisely is meant by terms like “culture,” “subculture,” “dominant culture,” “cultures of resistance,” and “cultural hegemony”? And where do such concepts get us in our investigations of U.S. history? What is their explanatory power? Readings sample a wide range of methods and philosophical approaches within the field, arranged across a variety of periods and thematic topics: nationalism, consumption, empire, class formation and labor, radicalism, gender arrangements, cultural production, and genre. Students produce a significant historiographical essay by term's end, either treating the literature on a given topic, or analyzing a particular cultural theorist (e.g., Gramsci, Hall, Spivak) and his/her influence on contemporary historiography. Also AMST 731b.
HIST 807a, Resistance, Rebellion, and Survival Strategies in Modern Latin America and the Caribbean. Gilbert Joseph, Patricia Pessar.
Th 3.30-5.20
An interdisciplinary examination of new conceptual and methodological approaches to such phenomena as peasants in revolution, millenarianism, “banditry,” refugee movements, and transnational migration. Also ANTH 510a.
HIST 812b, Race, Nation, and Imperialism in Modern Latin America. Lillian Guerra.
HTBA
Focus on works exploring the relationship between interpretations of race, nation, and modernity in Latin American societies deeply affected by direct and indirect forms of U.S. imperialism. Topics covered include blackness, whiteness, and mestizage as discursive constructions and political ideals in comparative processes of nation building. Reading knowledge of Spanish desirable.
HIST 829au, The History of the Islamic Near East from Mohammad to the Mongol Invasion. Adel Allouche.
TTh 11.30–12.45
An examination of the shaping of society and polity from the rise of Islam to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258. The origins of Islamic society; conquests, and social and political assimilation under the Ummayyads and Abbasids; the changing nature of political legitimacy and sovereignty under the caliphate; provincial decentralization; and new sources of social and religious power. Also NELC 830a.
HIST 837a, Becoming the Middle East. Abbas Amanat.
W 3.30–5.20
An inquiry into the emergence of the modern Middle East from the heterogeneous peoples and cultures of Western Asia and North Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with emphasis on Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Topics include Western imperial strategies and Ottoman and Qajar responses, new readings of Islam and secularism, historical memories and national identities, dilemmas of modernity, nation-states' sovereignty, and popular revolutions.
HIST 840b, Colonialism in Africa. Robert Harms.
W 1.30–3.20
Discussion of the theory and practices of colonialism in Africa. Topics include the motives for European expansion, the scramble for Africa, early colonialism, direct and indirect rule, “colonization of the mind,” the colonial state, the developmental state, late colonialism, and paths to decolonization.
HIST 844a, Memory and Orality in African History. Michael Mahoney.
Th 1.30–3.20
This graduate seminar introduces the student to oral research methodology, as well as to particular debates about that methodology within African historiography. We also discuss memory and popular historical understandings, and how this non-guild historiography interacts with what academics do. Though the focus is on Africa, we cover the material in a suffi-ciently general manner so that the course may be of interest to non-Africanists. In addition, the final project requires practical oral research, and this may very well be non-Africanist in nature, since so few African respondents are available in the area.
HIST 849a, Agrarian History of Africa. Robert Harms.
T 1.30–3.20
This course examines changes in African rural life from precolonial times to the present. Issues to be examined include land use systems, rural modes of production, gender roles, markets and trade, the impact of colonialism, cash cropping, rural-urban migration, and development schemes.
HIST 851b, The Vietnam Wars since 1920. Benedict Kiernan.
W 1.30–3.20
The origins, course, and aftermath of the Vietnamese-American conflict. War and society in Vietnam, from the formation of a national identity and French colonial rule, to the rise of communism, independence and division, the U.S. intervention, escalation and defeat, the postwar Cambodian conflict and the 1979 Chinese invasion, regional integration, and economic reform. Readings, discussion, and research.
HIST 857b, Intellectual Themes in the Warring States Period. Ann-Ping Chin.
M 3.30–5.20
The course focuses on those ideas and discussions in the Warring States period (481–221) that have become central to our understanding of Chinese political and moral thought. We consider the history of these ideas, their relation to society and politics, and how they overlapped or played against each other. We also consider the thinkers who took them to extraordinary heights—not just the cognitive powers of these men but also their skills of persuasion and their art as analogists and ironists. Readings include sources from the Confucian, Taoist, and Legalist traditions and also the recently excavated texts dated to the Warring States period. Knowledge of Chinese is not required.
HIST 861a, Issues in Tang, Song, and Yuan History. Valerie Hansen.
W 1.30–3.20
An introduction to the secondary literature in English about the major issues in Chinese history, 600–1400. Permission of instructor required.
HIST 867b, Social History of the Chinese Silk Routes. Valerie Hansen.
W 1.30–3.20
An introduction to artifacts and documents excavated from the most important sites on the Northern and Southern Silk Routes in China including Niya, Kizil, Turfan, and Dunhuang. All assigned readings in English, but given sufficient student interest, a separate section can be formed for those wishing to read documents in classical Chinese from Turfan and Dunhuang.
HIST 872b, Taiwan History, 1600 to the Present. Beatrice Bartlett.
M 1.30–3.20
Taiwan history from the first immigrations to the present. Topics include Koxinga and the Dutch, Qing pioneers and rebels, Taiwan as a Qing province, the Japanese colonial experience (1895–1945), Nationalist rule, the modern economic miracle, foreign relations, and democratization since the 1960s. Problems of conflicting historical interpretations. Reading and discussion.
HIST 924a, Bodies and Machines in Medicine and the Mind Sciences. Susan Lanzoni.
T 9.30–11.20
This seminar examines the varied ways bodies and machines have been imagined and represented in the modern period in Europe and the United States with examples from biology, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, and computer science. With primary materials from a variety of scientific and cultural sources, including literature and film, topics include the organism in nineteenth-century biology and romanticism; standardized and mechanized bodies; prosthetics, body enhancements, and movement technologies; machine models of the mind and their critics; the cyborg as technological and cultural icon; and virtual bodies in cyberspace. Also HSHM 626au.
HIST 926a, The Grounding of Modern Medicine. John Harley Warner.
M 1.30–3.20
An exploration of the shaping of modern medical culture, focusing on the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Readings engage the recent historiography. Themes include struggles over the place and meanings of “science,” and the intersection of lay and professional understandings of the body; shifting understandings of purity and danger in the social and physical environments; attention to region, gender, class, ethnicity, race, and religion; orthodox and alternative professional identities and consumer expectations in the medical marketplace; the role of imperialist ventures and European impulses in fashioning American biomedicine and public health; the medicalization of American society; and the ethical, epistemological, and aesthetic choices that were constitutive of medical modernity. Also AMST 880a, HSHM 733a.
HIST 927b, The Making of the Modern Mind: History of Psychiatry and Psychology, 1800–2000. Susan Lanzoni.
TTh 11.30–12.20
We explore a range of scientific conceptions of the self that emerged from the use of experimental psychology, the application of evolutionary models to the mind, and empiricist and behaviorist methods in psychology. Topics include studies of hysteria and trauma and Freud's delineation of the domain of the unconscious, and holistic visions of the self developed in neurology, existential psychiatry, and psychotherapy. This course examines these developments in the mind sciences across a variety of national contexts, and relies on materials from psychological, philosophical, psychiatric, and aesthetic sources, including literature and film. Also HSHM 627bu.
HIST 928b, Infection, Public Health, and the State. Frank Snowden.
W 3.30–5.20
This course is a comparative examination of public health strategies adopted by Western nations since 1800 with regard to high-impact infectious diseases—cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, polio, and HIV/AIDS. The course begins with “plague regulation” and then explores such alternative policies as vaccination, the sanatorium, the sanitarian idea, the regulation of prostitution, health education, and the reporting and tracing of cases. Attention is also given to state planning to confront the threat of bioterrorism and to the present emergency in sub-Saharan Africa of malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS. The class considers the strategies of the World Health Organization and of national governments to confront the crisis. Reading and discussion, or research seminar with permission of the instructor. There are no prerequisites and no prior knowledge is assumed. Also HSHM 732b.
HIST 931b, Introduction to the History of Science. Daniel Kevles, Ole Molvig.
T 1.30–3.20
Study of secondary literature, recent and older, in the history of the physical and life sciences from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Students acquire familiarity both with the development of science in general and of its major branches, including its content, instruments and methods, and social-institutional settings, and an acquaintance with various approaches that historians have followed in interpreting these events. Also HSHM 702b.
HIST 934au, Technology and Society from the Industrial Revolution. Ole Molvig.
W 3.30–5.20
Can the design of a printing press reveal as much as what it prints? This seminar explores the social impulses behind—and consequences of—technological innovation from roughly 1800 to 1975. Seminar members examine in depth three technological sectors: manufacturing, transportation, and communication. These explorations prepare participants for substantive research of their own. Sample topics include military equipment, medical instruments, domestic appliances, mass entertainment, and agricultural machinery. Also HSHM 636au.
HIST 938bu, The Engineering and Ownership of Life. Daniel Kevles.
M 1.30–3.20
The development of biological knowledge and control in relation to intellectual property rights in living organisms. Topics include agribusiness, medicine, biotechnology, and patent law. Also HSHM 676bu, LAW 21441.
HIST 939au, Biology and Society in the Twentieth Century. Daniel Kevles.
MW 11.30–12.20
A history of the interplay of modern biology, especially evolution, genetics, and molecular biology, and its social, economic, legal, and cultural context. Topics include eugenics and sterilization, the Scopes trial, contraception and abortion, the new reproductive technologies, medical genetics, the human genome project, and human cloning. Also HSHM 677au.
HIST 944bu, Science, Feminism, and Modernity. Naomi Rogers.
Th 9.30–11.20
This seminar examines scientists and science in post-1800 Europe and North America with a particular focus on interpretations of the transformation and “progression” of the natural world, drawing on recent feminist and science studies theorists including Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Evelyn Fox Keller, Londa Schiebinger, and Bruno Latour. Among questions raised: Has feminism changed science? Is there a feminist science? Is science multicultural? And were we ever modern? With an emphasis on biology, genetics, anthropology, and physics, we discuss the work and lives of women scientists, including analysis of their representations in popular culture. Also HSHM 624bu.
HIST 945au, Science, Arms, and the State. Daniel Kevles.
T 1.30–3.20
A history of chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons in the twentieth century that focuses on the integration in the United States of national security policy making, scientific research, and military innovation, including its consequences for the scientific community, the civilian economy, public attitudes toward weapons of mass destruction, and political movements to control them. Also HSHM 635au.
HIST 946b, History of the Modern Sciences in Society. Ole Molvig.
MW 11.30–12.20
An introduction to the history of science from the Enlightenment to the present. The course focuses primarily on the physical sciences, but includes major developments within the life sciences. Topics include the clockwork universe, the Chemical Revolution, evolutionary theory, thermodynamics, and quantum theory as well as colonial empires, industry, professionalization, cultural modernism, and nuclear fear. Also HSHM 623bu.
HIST 948a, Readings in the History of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy. Susan Lanzoni.
Th 1.30–3.20
This seminar examines the history of psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy, with special emphasis on epistemological, moral, and therapeutic views of empathy and social cognition in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics include aesthetic theories of empathy; empathy as a source of knowledge and healing in psychotherapy and in the doctor-patient relationship; empathy as a gendered capacity in the mother-infant bond; and the psychopathology of autism. We also engage broader cultural and normative views of empathy and the understanding of others in photography, film, and popular culture. Also HSHM 734a.
HIST 951au, Memory, Memoirs, and Modern Jewish History. Paula Hyman.
W 1.30–3.20
An exploration of the representation of Jewish historical experience from the seventeenth to the twentieth century through a selection of memoirs. Focus on the construction of identity, with special attention to the interaction of minority status, gender, and class in a variety of historical contexts. Also RLST 762au.
HIST 956b, Canadian Women's History. Nicole Neatby.
T 3.30–5.20
An exploration of the history of Canadian women from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Special emphasis on the diversity of women's experience as it pertains to their class, age, ethnic origins, and place of residence in Canada, and to the various manifestations of feminist activism to emerge during the period.
HIST 965a, Agrarian Societies: Culture, Society, History, and Development.Michael Dove, Linda-Anne Rebhun, James Scott, Steven Stoll.
M 1.30–5.20
An interdisciplinary examination of agrarian societies, contemporary and historical, Western and non-Western. Major analytical perspectives from anthropology, economics, history, political science, and environmental studies are used to develop a meaning-centered and historically grounded account of the transformations of rural society. Team-taught. Also ANTH 541a, F&ES 753a, PLSC 779a.
HIST 971b, History and Memory. Jay Winter, Katerina Clark.
T 5.30–7.30
The seminar explores facets of the historical literature surrounding issues of individual memory, collective memory, and commemoration. The focus is on modern Europe, though the literature surveyed addresses issues beyond the confines of Europe. After a survey of interdisciplinary approaches to the field, focusing on social agency, representations, trauma studies, and cognitive psychological research, two different kinds of evidence are examined. The first relates to historical sites (monuments, ruins, battlefields, landscapes) as well as social spaces (families, trials, museums); the second to representations and languages of remembrance, through the narratives of trauma, fiction, memoir, testimonial literature, photography, and film. The focus is on civil society rather than primarily on the manipulation of commemorative forms.
HIST 974a, Identities: Aspects of American and European Social and Cultural History. Jay Winter, John Demos.
W 1.30–3.20
This seminar addresses the historical literature surrounding problems of identities, defined in a host of ways—racial, gendered, ethnic, regional, national, psychological, and age-related. Both American and European scholarship is considered. Also AMST 823a.
HIST 980a, Genocide: History and Theory. Benedict Kiernan.
Th 9.30–11.20
Comparative research and analysis of genocidal occurrences from ancient times to the pres-ent; theories and case studies; an interregional, interdisciplinary perspective. Readings and discussion, guest speakers, research paper.
HIST 985a, Studies in Grand Strategy, Part II. John Gaddis, Paul Kennedy.
M 3.30–5.20
Part II of the two-term linked seminar offered during the calendar year 2004. Research seminar. Also PLSC 715a.
HIST 985b, Studies in Grand Strategy, Part I. John Gaddis.
M 1.30–3.20
This two-term course begins in January with readings in classical works from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz to Kissinger. Students identify principles of strategy and examine the extent to which these were or were not applied in historical case studies from the Peloponnesian War to the post-Cold War period. During the summer students undertake research projects or internships designed to apply resulting insights to the detailed analysis of a particular strategic problem or aspect of strategy. Written reports are presented and critically examined early in the fall term. Students must take both terms, fulfill the summer research/internship, and attend additional lectures to be scheduled throughout the spring and fall terms. Admission is by competitive application only; forms are available at International Security Studies. Also PLSC 715b.
HIST 995a/b, Prospectus Tutorial. Faculty.
HIST 998a/b, Directed Readings. Faculty.
Offered by permission of instructor and DGS to meet special requirements not met by regular courses.
HIST 999a/b, Directed Research. Faculty.
Offered by arrangement with instructor and permission of DGS to meet special requirements.
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