Spring 2006 Course Descriptions
500-700 Level
HIS 502 - African American History: Selected Topics
M 6:30-9:20
Loren Schweninger
Examination of the African American experience from its beginning in Africa, through the slave trade, slavery in the Caribbean, Central and South America, British North America, the Gulf Coast, and the United States. Includes discussions of free people of color in the Americas, free women of color in the United States South, and free blacks in the North and South during the antebellum era as well as an analysis of emancipation during the Civil War.
HIS 511A - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "America Divided: The 1960s as a Watershed"
R 3:30-6:20
Tom Jackson
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Permission of the department required.
Student rebellion, an avalanche of controversial liberal social legislation, nuclear brinksmanship, civil rights, women's challenges to discrimination and traditional gender roles, the roots of contemporary conservatism, urban riots, Vietnam, the antiwar movement, "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll" -- no decade more than the 1960s compressed so much of the social and political history of the 20th century. And the sources are abundant for good student research. We will survey the major developments and turning points of the 1960s, then each student will pick a focused research problem with some element of interpretive controversy. I place no boundaries on the kind of history you want to do, only that it fall loosely within the decade, so others in the group can respond to, learn from, and evaluate your work.
HIS 511B - Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "Goodbye to All That": Britons and the Great War, 1914-1918
T 3:30-6:20
Kaarin Michaelsen
Writing and Speaking Intensive. Permission
of the department required.
In this course, students will examine how individual British men and women experienced the turbulent period between 1914 and 1918, focusing on the ways in which the social, cultural, political, and gender boundaries established during the nineteenth century were radically re-shaped by the events of those years. The course format will consist of a few weeks of group discussions of assigned readings selected from the work of historians (e.g. George Dangerfield, Mark Harrison), along with a variety of primary source documents (e.g. Vera Brittain�s Testament of Youth). Students will then begin meeting individually with the instructor on a weekly basis to assist their progress in producing the required 20 page research paper. Because the course's focus will be on broad socio-cultural and political changes produced by the war, possible topics for the research paper might include (but are by no means limited to) the experience of soldiers in the trenches, life on the "home front," new roles for women, the reception of conscientious objectors, or press coverage of the first "total war."
HIS 518 - American Economic History: 1865 to Present
TR 2:00-3:15
John Neufeld
Evolution of the American economy from the Civil War to the present. Emphasis on economic performance through time measured against the goals of full employment, price stability, and rapid growth. (Same as ECO 518)
HIS 520 - Southern History: Selected Topics
MW 2:00-3:15
Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie
This course examines emancipation in the American South from colonial America through the Civil War. Why did African slaves and Irish servants run way together in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake? Why did the Upper South states emancipate more slaves than the northern states after the Revolution? Were free blacks "slaves without masters"? What role did free and slave labor play in the coming of the Civil War? What was the Great American Slave Rebellion? Who were freedom's generations?
HIS 526 - Civil War and Reconstruction: Selected Topics
MW 3:30-4:45
Jeffrey Kerr-Ritchie
This course explores the origins, nature, and consequences of the American Civil War. Why did the South secede, why did the North and West resist, and what are the various historical explanations for civil war causation? What was the experience of war like on the battlefront and homefront? How did a war over union become a war for abolition? What was Republican Reconstruction at local, state, regional, and national levels? In what ways was the Civil War and Reconstruction a social revolution?
HIS 546 - American Cultural History: Selected Topics
MW 2:00-3:15
Lisa Tolbert
This course is designed as an advanced reading seminar focusing on the critical perspectives and methods of historians who study American cultural history. The course is designed with two basic goals in mind: 1. To introduce you to the interdisciplinary practice of cultural history, and 2. To explore key periods in the development of American culture from the colonial era to the early twentieth century. The central theme of the course this semester is "material culture and consumer culture." We will explore the evolution of consumer culture in the United States from the so-called "consumer revolution" of the eighteenth century through the development of a mass consumer market in the twentieth century. We will pay particular attention to the contributions of material culture scholars for our understanding of the social and political dynamics that have shaped consumer culture in American history.
HIS 547 - History Museum Curatorship: Collections Management
T 6:30-9:20
Jon Zachman
Professional practices in the care and management of historic site and history museum collections, including priniciples of collection development, object registration, cataloging, and preservation. Same as IAR 547.
HIS 548 - Architectural Conservation
T 2-4:50
Jo Leimenstoll
Overview of contemporary architectural conservation principles, practice and technology. A series of field exercises, group projects and investigation of an individual research topic expand upon lectures and readings. Same as IAR 548.
HIS 564 - Modern Britain: Selected Topics:�Rule Britannia� to �Cool Britannia�: Britain in the Twentieth Century
TR 2:00-3:15
Kaarin Michaelsen
In this course, students will examine how Britons managed � though not entirely successfully � to navigate the tumultuous twentieth century, focusing on how the social, political, gender, and racial boundaries established during the Victorian period were radically re-shaped by the events of the years 1901-2001. Among the topics covered will be Britain�s experiences with the First and Second World Wars, the dissolution of the empire, post-war immigration, the �mod� culture of the 1960s, feminism, the punk movement, the Thatcher Revolution, New Labour�s �Cool Britannia� campaign of the late 1990s, and the on-going efforts to forge a peaceful, multi-racial, multi-cultural Britain in the 21st century. The course format will consist primarily of group discussions of assigned readings selected from the work of historians (e.g. Angus Calder, Marcus Collins), as well as a rich variety of primary sources (e.g. political speeches, music, novels). Students will be expected to participate extensively in the discussions and debates and will also be required to write several short (5-7 pages) essays based upon the course readings.
HIS 575 - Modern Russian History: Selected Topics
MW 2:00-3:15
Jeff Jones
This course will explore in depth the historiography on the Stalin era, focusing on Stalin's rise to power; his "Stalin Revolution" (industrialization & collectivization); the purges of the late 1930s; the war and postwar reconstruction periods (late Stalinism); and the legacy of Stalinism for the Soviet Union.
HIS 625-01 - Preservation, Planning, and Law
W 3:00-5:30
Autumn Michael
An examination and analysis of the relationship of government programs and policies, community and regional planning strategies, and legal case precedents to the field of historic preservation. Same as IAR 625.
HIS 627 - Museum and Historic Site Interpretation: Principles and Practice
R 2:00-4:50
Eve Duffy
Theory and practice of interpreting history to the public in the context of museums and historic sites. Topics include exhibit planning and technologies, living history, research methods, and audience evaluation. Same as IAR 627.
See the M.A. FAQ for more information about the following:
HIS 692 - Advanced Topics
HIS 697 - Independent Study
Written permission of the instructor and/or the department head is required.
HIS 702 - Colloquium in American History
702-01 Lisa Levenstein W 6:30-9:20
702-02 Tom Jackson T 6:30-9:20
Issues of historical interpretation from Reconstruction to the present.
HIS 704 - Seminar in American History
Time/Location TBA
Staff
Research and writing on selected topics in American history.
HIS 706 - Colloquium in European History since 1789
M 6:30-9:20
Paul Mazgaj
Interpretations of selected historical problems from the French Revolution to the present.
HIS 709 - Introductory Research Seminar
709-01 Robert Calhoon T 3:30-6:20 (American)
Each student will conceive and conceptualize a chapter. The seminar will discuss each bibliographical, historiographical, literary, critical step in this process. The seminar will culminate in the writing and repeated revision of a five page section of that chapter--life in the trenches of historical scholarship.
709-02 Karl Schleunes W 6:30-9:20 (European)
Will focus on methods, sources, and writing; research paper based on primary and contextualized in secondary sources.
HIS 710 - Colloquium in the Atlantic World
R 6:30-9:20
Colleen Kriger
The Atlantic World brought together four continents � Europe, Africa, North America, and South America � into one enormous zone of human exchanges, migrations, and interactions. This course is designed to be an introduction to the history of the Atlantic trading system, with a focus on major topics in the historiography of Atlantic World studies. Examples of topics and themes that will be examined include: the Indian Ocean trade and European exploration; the rise of plantation agriculture and slave labor; Old and New Worlds � the Columbian exchange; economic development and underdevelopment; migration, gender, and demography. Landmark studies will be included in the course readings as well as important recent scholarship.
HIS 711 - Experimental Course: From Old South to New South
R 6:30-9:20
Peter Carmichael
Written permission of the instructor is required.
This seminar focuses on the construction and destruction of the South as a slave society. Understanding the nature of slavery as a social system will be the focus of the first half of the semester. The transition to a free labor society, beginning in the Civil War, and continuing into the post-Civil War South will be the primary line of inquiry during the second half of the semester. Special emphasis will be given to the struggles over the meaning of freedom in the New South and the emergence of a plantation economy based on sharecropping and tenant farming.
HIS 712 - Slavery in the Americas
M 3:30-6:20
Watson Jennison
Comparative analysis of slavery and race relations in South and Central America, the Caribbean, British North America, and the United States, 1501-1888.
200-400 Level Courses | Advising Center | Catalog | Courses
