HISTORY (HIST)

This course introduces first-year students to the basic motions of the solar system as viewed from the Earth along with the mechanical and mathematical models used to reproduce them, while exploring the history of medieval and early modern education, theology, and natural philosophy.

This course explores the problem of revolutionary upheaval in Latin American history, from the revolutionary wars of the independence era (1810-1825) to revolutionary episodes of the 20th century.

This course will familiarize students with the background of this ongoing conflict. It will begin with the growth of political Zionism in Europe, continue through early Zionist settlement, the United Nations partition and resulting war, and the history of the conflict through the present.

This course examines the experiences of American writers who traveled and lived in European cities during the era between 1830 and 1930 with the goal of developing historical insights into these writers' fascination with famous European cities and the experience of travel.

How do scientists and humanists approach complex problems and work together to solve them? Team-taught by a doctor and a historian, this class explores how our state's health care system changed over the last fifty years, how those changes have affected people, and how history shapes both doctors and patients.

How do we find meaning in our lives? How should we think about our families, ambitions, and fears? How do individual lives fit into the grand sweep of human history? In this seminar, students will learn to read deeply and apply the tools of historical analysis in order to tackle the biggest possible questions.

This course examines how class experiences and debates over the meaning of work have shaped the postbellum Southern United States. Students will analyze how the South's technological innovation, politics, urban planning, consumer economy, and social movements have impacted the racial, gender, and sexual identities of its people.

This seminar will explore the ways people have identified themselves in relation to specific places, nation-states, and foreign "others." Examples may include the Kurdish nationalists, Islamist political parties, the Eritrean independence movement, and the Basque separatists.

Water has played pivotal roles in the histories, societies, and politics of Middle Eastern peoples. This course will survey the role of water in religious and cultural practices, technological innovations that facilitate agriculture, public health issues arising from water-borne diseases, and the contribution of water scarcity to cross-border political conflicts. Honors version available.

Examines Mikhail Gorbachev and the astonishing transformations that occurred while he governed the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991. Students will explore post-Soviet Russia's efforts at negotiating a new set of relations with the rest of the world and how Russia continues to shape our own destiny.

This course will examine major films in Europe and America from 1908 to 1968 in terms of how they shaped the medium and reflected important social trends.

Public figures ranging from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof have suggested women's increased entry into the labor market as a cure for the problems that face their families and their societies. But scholars have demonstrated that paid work has offered women new freedoms while subjecting them to new forms of control. This course will explore that paradox by examining women's diverse experiences as workers historically and today.

Our homes, our workplaces, our towns, our natural areas-all are products of history, shaped by people, rich with meaning and full of surprises. Using Chapel Hill as our living laboratory, we will explore new ways of understanding the past and how it shapes the world we live in now.

The course examines 20th-century European history through the lenses of women's autobiographical writings. It explores women's voices from different generational, social, and national backgrounds and asks what formed their memories. Honors version available.

Through a study of autobiographical texts, contemporary accounts, objects, architecture and later representations in scholarly works, films and novels, we will undertake a thematic investigation of the Mughal Empire (1526-1858), focusing on the period of the first six Mughal rulers of India.

This seminar will examine one of the most challenging topics in American and Latin American history: how to understand the conquest (la conquista) of Latin America by the Spaniards after the arrival of Columbus after 1492.

We will employ coming of age autobiographies to explore developments in the US during the 20th century. In these autobiographies the authors focus primarily on the periods of childhood and adolescence into young adulthood. We will consider many issues including: race, racism, immigration, religion, social class, and gender.

This course uses music to explore African-American life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will investigate how African Americans, across time and space and in search of opportunity, created, used and marketed music. The course will examine three core groups-artists, music entrepreneurs and audiences.

In ghettos and hiding places during the Holocaust, European Jews and other victims of Nazism recorded their experiences in diaries and other chronicles. Students will read diaries and memoirs as well as listen to testimonies to understand Holocaust history through life narratives, exploring tensions between history and memory.

Examines popular music as a way of understanding African history from the 1930s to the present. We will read background materials on African historical developments and musical styles, do a lot of listening, and try to learn what African musicians tell us about their societies.

Explores the distinctive features of microhistorical approaches to the past and the attractions of microhistory for the practicing historian. Students will read a rich sampling of recent work (much of it featuring monsters, murder, and mayhem) and try their hand at writing their own microhistories. Honors version available.

This is a seminar about reading so as to learn as much as we can from individuals expressing the inexpressible. It asks what (if anything) only camp survivors can tell us about the experience and what we can learn by exploring the effects of this experience on survivors. Honors version available.

This seminar explores early modern witchcraft and magic to introduce students to the ways in which historians think about questions of gender, power, and belief in historical perspective. The seminar will focus on how historians pose problems, collect evidence, and evaluate knowledge about how witchcraft and magic reveal broader tensions in the early modern world.

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

This course, geared towards undergraduate students at the beginning of their college careers, will give students the tools needed to critically evaluate information. Texts from different historical periods, newsreels and propaganda movies, and a variety of different websites will be examined and deconstructed to understand how content can be presented or manipulated.

This course explores major events and trends in U.S. history from the pre-colonial period to the 21st century. It offers students an introduction to some of the most important developments in the nation's past and the tools to understand them. We will examine the evolution of political participation and discourse, fundamental changes and continuities in economic life, and the rise and fall of numerous social movements.

This survey course explores major events and trends in global history from 1200 to the present. We will examine societies across six continents while focusing on several key themes and developments, including social and economic diversity and transformation; exchange, conflict, and evolution within and between societies; the rise and fall of imperial projects; and the parameters and consequences of global interconnectedness across time.

This course explores major events and themes in European history from the Early Modern period through the present. We will focus our attention on several key religious, social, and political developments, including the growth of the modern state and economy, the history and legacy of European imperialism, the rise and fall of various intellectual and social movements and their effects on society, and the making and unmaking of identities based on culture, nation, and region.

This course explores and compares premodern and/or modern empires on a global scale, inquiring into rulers' strategies and subject peoples' experiences. Empires studied will depend on instructor's area of expertise, but may include Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Incas, West Africans, Mughals, and Ottomans, among others. Previously offered as HIST 345.

A topical survey of the ancient world, especially the civilization of the Near East, Greece, and Rome.

A survey of Western Europe and the Mediterranean World, 300-1500.

An introductory-level survey of early medieval political, cultural, religious and social history between ca.500 and ca.1050 with a geographical focus on Europe. This course also considers eastern Christianity and Islam, as well as parts of Asia, for comparison. Throughout the course students will closely analyze the evidence for the period.

An interdisciplinary introduction to Native American history and studies. The course uses history, literature, art, and cultural studies to study the Native American experience.

This course is designed to be a thematic introduction to the study of global food history, from ancient times to the present, with particular emphasis on the food-ways of non-Western regions, such as Afro-Caribbean, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Mexican.

A survey of American sport history, from the colonial era to the present. Course will explore how sports have reflected larger trends in American life and analyze the different ways sports have influenced American history and shaped the world we occupy today.

Surveys religious thought and practice in the United States and Canada from the colonial era to the present day. Themes include continuities and changes in expressing ancient faiths; the relationship between religion and politics; the intersection of theology with everyday life; and evolving notions of religious truth and toleration.

Explores the history of the United States through films made about various historical eras. For each film, the instructor will lecture on the time period(s), the class will read relevant primary and secondary sources, and then the class will watch and discuss the film.

Explores the relationship between popular music and major developments in 20th-century America. The course's overarching focus is how popular music has simultaneously unified and divided the nation.

A survey of various aspects of American development during the colonial, revolutionary, and national periods, with stress upon major themes and interpretations.

A survey of various aspects of American development during a century of rapid industrial, social, political, and international change, with stress upon major themes and interpretations.

This course explores the history of the United States in the very recent past. Through a sustained analysis of key political, cultural, economic, and social developments, students will gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues and problems that shape American life today.

An overview of major developments in sub-Saharan African history since the late 19th century, focusing on colonialism, nationalism and decolonization, social change, and current issues, and drawing upon fiction, film, and primary sources.

This course will cover the history of the territories and peoples of Southeast Asia (comprising the modern-day countries of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Singapore and Vietnam), from earliest times to 1800. The course will also delve into debates about the past, who is engaged in such debates, and how to navigate these debates to find reliable historical sources and communicate analysis of those sources for a wide audience.

The history of Southeast Asia from the 19th century to the present. Long-term political, economic, social, and intellectual questions, including the impact of imperialism, the rise of nationalism, the transformation of the economy, the Cold War, and the coherence of Southeast Asia as a region.

Chinese history from its beginnings to the present, organized around the central theme of how the identity of China and 'Chineseness' was created.

Comparative and interdisciplinary introduction to China, Korea, and Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on impact of the West, nation building, industrialization, and evolution of mass society.

An introduction to major political, religious, social, and cultural events from 3500 BCE to 1750 CE with a focus on Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist groups before British colonial rule.

This course is an introduction to modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. We will investigate major political, social, economic, and cultural issues from 1750 to the present.

This course provides an introduction to the history of the Islamic world from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day. It seeks to expose students to key themes, individuals, and movements that have represented Islamic thought and practice, and enable students to engage directly with intra-Islamic debates.

A broad, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary introduction to the traditional civilization of the Muslim world. Students may not receive credit for both HIST 138/ASIA 138 and ASIA 180/RELI 180.

A broad interdisciplinary survey of the later Islamic empires since the 15th century and their successor societies in the modern Muslim world. Students may not receive credit for both ASIA 139/HIST 139 and ASIA 181/RELI 181.

This introduction to the contemporary world examines the Cold War and its international aftermath, decolonization, national development across a variety of cases, and trends in the global economy.

Course explores how commodities have connected people and places around the world since 1500. Lectures, readings, and recitations focus on tracing the histories of specific commodities (e.g., sugar, opium, and uranium) across different contexts. Significant sub-themes include the history of business, international human rights, and science and technology.

Social and economic development under colonial rule, especially in Mexico and Peru.

A general introduction to Latin American society, culture, politics, and economics from a historical perspective. Focus will be on the events of the past two centuries.

This course will survey the history of women, gender relations, and notions of sex difference in the United States from the colonial era to present times, with a special emphasis on women's varied experiences and expectations across divisions of class, race, and region. Key themes will include work, politics, citizenship, reproduction, sociability, and sexuality.

This course surveys the history of Latin American indigenous peoples from the conquest to the present. Focus is on indigenous struggles and survival strategies. Previously offered as HIST 527.

European history from Greek antiquity to the mid-17th century.

European history from the middle of the 17th century to the present.

This class surveys the history of the Jews from ancient to modern times. It focuses on the development of Jewish religion, culture identity, and politics in Jewish communities in the Western, Atlantic and Middle Eastern Worlds. It also explores the development of antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence.

This course explores the modern empire from slavery and abolition, through Independence and the Cold War. Focusing on parts of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the British Isles, we will consider issues of race, gender, religion, wealth inequality, war, and anti-colonialism.

Intellectual and social structures, dynamics of social and political change, principles of authority, and bases of revolution from the Reformation to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period.

An overview of modern European history from the First World War to the present, covering major themes such as imperialism and decolonization; competing political ideologies; "hot" and "cold" wars; the Holocaust and Holocaust memory; gender and sexuality; migration and labor; race and religion; the European Union; local community-building; and efforts to redefine Europe and its place in the wider world.

Between 862 and 1861 Russia expanded from agrarian settlements into Europe's most formidable empire. Subjugated by Mongols in 1240, it recovered and absorbed territories from Poland to Alaska. Conquest came on the backs of an enserfed peasantry, whose emancipation began the next chapter in Russia's history.

This course surveys fundamental issues affecting the Russian/Soviet/post-Soviet multinational empire in the last century and a half, emphasizing regime failures, revolutions, wars, and ethnic challenges.

This course offers an introduction to the political, religious, cultural, and social history of ''Russia'' Central Asia (which you may have heard of as ''the five 'stans'') from the eighteenth century to the present day. We will conceptualize the Eurasian space across modern political boundaries by charting the evolution of several themes in different parts of the region. These themes include Islam, the state, ideology, gender, and the environment. Honors version available.

This course explores political, social, and cultural history from the Napoleonic Wars through the South African War. Surveys the history of the United Kingdom in the context of Britain's imperial expansion, including slavery, reform, women's suffrage, social movements, and Victorian wealth and poverty.

This course explores political, social, and cultural history from 1900 to the present: the two world wars, the declining empire, the extension of parliamentary democracy, the new welfare state, and a deeply diverse racial, ethnic, and religious society where social and economic differences remain. Who is British?

The American occupation of Afghanistan after 9/11/2001, the longest war in United States history, continues a long pattern of great empires attempting to control the country. This course asks why it has been challenging for Afghanistan's rulers, both foreign and domestic, to build a centralized state in an historically decentralized society.

Examines selected themes in the history of Africa, Asia, and/or the Middle East. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: colonialism, resistance movements, religion, gender, economic transformations.

Examines selected themes in the history of Latin America. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: indigenous societies, colonialism, religion, the family, economic transformations.

Examines selected themes in the history of Russia, Eurasia, and/or Eastern Europe. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: imperialism, revolution, the Soviet Union, war and society.

Examines selected themes in the history of Europe from ancient to early modern times. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: legacies of antiquity, philosophy and religion, feudal society, gender, and power.

Examines selected themes in the history of modern Europe. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: effects of industrialism, nationalism, history of ideas, consumer society, modern revolutions, imperialism.

Examines selected themes in American history. Theme(s) chosen by the instructor. Possible subjects: colonial diversity, emerging nation, intellectual traditions, labor and capitalism, slavery and race relations, markets and political power, war and society.

The class begins with colonial contexts before moving to the late Ottoman Empire. After consideration of genocides in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, the focus shifts to the violence of decolonization and postcolonial conflict. The class also asks whether genocide is a useful category of analysis.

This course deals with the establishment of the rules-based global order toward the end of the Second World War and analyzes the development of that order throughout the Cold War years and the post-Cold War era up to the present. Honors version available.

Subject matter will vary with instructor but will focus on some particular topic or historical approach. Course description available from the departmental office. Closed to graduate students.

This course will examine the relationship between Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the making of the modern world in the 20th century.

Global warming? Hurricanes, floods, fires, food security: focusing on critical issues of human rights and changing forces in our natural world, this course prepares students to explore different sources on a variety of topics for present-day environmental issues and the entangled relations between nature and society on our planet.

The history of European international politics from the outbreak of the Thirty Years War to the Congress of Vienna. Considers the sources of national power, the reasons for war, and the changing nature of diplomacy.

The history of international politics from the fall of Napoleon to the end of the Second World War, with special attention to European nationalism, imperialism, the emergence of non-European great powers, the reasons for war, and the search for peace.

A survey of the Cold War from its origins in the aftermath of the Second World War to its conclusion in the late 1980s. Focuses on the geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic aspects of the global superpower conflict.

Survey of international social, political, and cultural patterns in selected societies of Africa, Asia, America, and Europe, stressing comparative analysis of conflicts and change in different historical contexts. LAC recitation sections offered in French, German, and Spanish.

The influence of sea power on international affairs will be surveyed from ancient times to the present. Emphasis on United States naval history and its interaction with diplomacy, economics, and technology.

Examines air power theory and practice from 1914 to the present. Focuses on the application of air power as an instrument of war and the effectiveness of that application.

Peoples, Cultures, and Landscapes of Latin America explores the peopling of the Americas by Amerindian, African and Afro descendant peoples, and Europeans. It will consider the inequalities of power, wealth, and autonomy across gender, ethnicity, and class in Latin America to understand more fully their deep historical roots and their persistence into our own time. We will learn how Latin America takes on greater meaning, when we consider this subcontinent in different phases of globalization.

Course uses the history of the modern Olympic Games (1896-present) to explore both global sport and the history of international relations. Topics include sport and the Cold War; terrorism; human rights; the anti-apartheid movement; and issues of race, class, gender, disability; and the question of who is a "real" athlete. Honors version available.

A survey of Greek history and culture from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.

Origins to the first two centuries CE. Focuses upon Rome's growth as a world power and the shift from republican government to autocracy.

The decline and transformation of the Roman Empire, from its apogee in the second century until the rise of Islam in the seventh century. Covers topics like the Christianization of Rome, the barbarian invasions, the role of climate and pandemic disease, and the end of the ancient Mediterranean world system.

This course explores forms of scientific thinking before the modern era, focusing mainly on the intellectual tradition in medieval Europe ca. 500-1500. Special attention will be devoted to the intersections of scientific concepts and Christian religious ideas.

This course traces the first three-quarters of London's rich two-thousand-year history, from the Romans to the Great Fire. Students examine how London evolved as an urban environment. They also study London's many and varied relationships with the wider world, including, in the latter part of the course, North America. Honors version available.

This course explores the uses of history and historical perspectives for public policy. Students will learn how historical processes have shaped today's public policies and examine how the origins and development of a policy can inform current policy decisions.

Covers the histories of American Indians east of the Mississippi River and before 1840. The approach is ethnohistorical.

Deals with the histories of Native Americans living west of the Mississippi River. It begins in the pre-Columbian past and extends to the end of the 19th century.

This course introduces students to a tribally specific body of knowledge. The tribal focus of the course and the instructor change from term to term. Honors version available.

This course deals with the political, economic, social, and cultural issues important to 20th-century Native Americans as they attempt to preserve tribalism in the modern world.

Does sex have a history? This course argues that it does. Exploring American history from the earliest encounters of Indians, Europeans, and Africans through the aftermath of the sexual revolution, we will consider diverse perspectives, important dynamics of change, and surprising ways in which the past informs our present--and our selves.

An in-depth history of colonial North America. Topics include: interactions among Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans and the founding and development of English, French, and Spanish colonies in the lands that eventually became the United States.

An in-depth history of the American Revolution. Topics include: causes of the split between Britain and 13 of its colonies, the fighting of the Revolutionary War, and the creation of the United States.

A survey of modern religion in the United States and Canada. Themes include religious pluralism; new religious movements, immigrant faiths; the relationship between religion and urban life, industrialization, and new science; religion and foreign affairs; questions of church and state; and the conflict between secular modernity and religious fundamentalism.

History of Mexico seen through four moments of change: conquest, independence, 19th-century reforms, and 20th-century revolution. This course is an introductory survey for students who want to know more about Mexico, its place in Latin America, and its relations with the United States.

A comparative examination of the historical experiences of Latinos in the United States, from the 19th century to the present, drawing on experiences of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Central Americans. Special emphasis on the events, people, and ideas that have made distinctive contributions.

This course examines the history of United States involvement in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lectures will cover two centuries of United States intervention, from the wars of the 19th century to the covert CIA operations of the Cold War and the more recent wars on drugs and terror.

This course traces changing relationships between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa from the 17th century to the present. Topics include the trans-Atlantic slave trade, back-to-Africa movements and the colonization of Liberia by African Americans, United States policies toward decolonizing and postcolonial African countries, and contemporary links between Africa and America. Honors version available.

This course examines the historical evolution of the United States presidency and its role in government and society. The class is especially concerned with the ways that the office and its occupants have been shaped by the aspirations of the American people and the global challenges of the modern era.

This is both a wide-ranging and detailed course that looks at the origins, the evolution, and the termination of the Cold War from 1945 to 1989/90. It also considers the "New Cold War" with Russia that developed in 2014. The course is based on an international and multinational perspective.

This is both a wide-ranging and detailed lecture course which looks at the rise of the U.S. to world power status and the evolution of U.S. foreign relations from the late 19th century to the very present. The course is based on a multinational and global perspective.

From the 1603 establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa family in an unusual early modern federation, with a balance of power between the warrior government in Edo and the domanial governments spread across the archipelago. This resemblance of this system to the U.S. balance between federal and state power frames our examination of the early modern period.

This course examines the leftist guerrilla movements that swept Latin America and the Caribbean during the latter half of the 20th century. Students will analyze the origins, trajectories, and legacies of these insurgencies, paying particular attention to the roles of race, class, and gender. Previously offered as HIST/PWAD 528.

An intermediate survey of global Christianity from the late Middle Ages to the present day that traces evolving theology and worship; the role of religion in the politics of empire; modern challenges to traditional religion; and the international expansion of the faith.

A critical examination of the significance of the Thirty Years' War for 17th-century Europe's social, religious, military, and geopolitical history. The representation of the conflict in art and literature also receives attention.

This course explores the history of Modern Germany, by focusing on Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. We will study continuities and changes in politics, society, and culture and examine the lasting impact of World War I, World War II and the Holocaust.

A critical examination, from the Renaissance to the Napoleonic period, of the changes in European land and naval warfare and their impact on society and government.

From agriculture to industry, Europe's march to industrialization. Survey from the medieval manor through revival of trade, rise of towns, credit and capitalism, overseas expansion and mercantilism to the Industrial Revolution.

Three events shaped contemporary France: collaboration and resistance in occupied France; the Algerian War; and the political, cultural, and social movements in the late 1960s and 1970s. This class will examine these events, how they are remembered and given meaning, and their role in making the France we know today. Honors version available.

The interdisciplinary seminar will explore cultural, historical, and political issues of contemporary Germany and analyze German developments from the postwar period to the present. Readings and discussions in English.

This course focuses on the history of modern Italy and examines changes in political, social, economic structures. Students will engage in the search for an "Italian identity." Topics will include unification, World War I and II, Italian fascism, the postwar Italian Republic, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and Silvio Berlusconi.

This course examines and compares the situation of women in politics, the work force, society and family from the French Revolution to the new women's movement in the 1970s with a focus on Britain, France and Germany. One major theme is the history of the struggle for women's emancipation.

A study in the emergence of nations of Eastern Europe, their internal development, mutual conflicts, and struggle for independence. Honors version available.

Third Republic France was riven with conflict. This course examines these conflicts, how the men and women of France and its colonies gave them meaning, and how we in turn can interpret these struggles to develop our understanding of the longest-lived republic in French history (1870-1940).

Anti-Semitism; the Jews of Europe; the Hitler dictatorship; evolution of Nazi Jewish policy from persecution to the Final Solution; Jewish response; collaborators, bystanders, and rescuers; aftermath.

This course examines gender in the religious lives of premodern Europeans from 500-1700, both in daily life (marriage, sexuality, devotions) and among the religious elite (clergy, monks and nuns, mystics). Feminist history, masculinity studies, and sexuality studies will all be taught as historical methods, paired with primary source documents from medieval Christians. Honors version available.

Traces the development of sexual identities and changes in masculine and feminine ideals from Tsarist Russia through the post-Soviet period with emphasis on politics, society, and popular culture.

This course explores the culture and society of imperial China (pre-1912) through objects. Six kinds of objects - silk, wooden beams and brackets, precious stones, ships and stirrups, silver, and tea - will each form a module that introduces students first to key historical activities associated with the object and then to the diverse sociocultural, economic, and political spheres that they played important roles in.

The history of warfare from its prehistoric origins to the present. The focus is on interactions between peoples around the world and particularly on the problems of innovation and adaptation. Previously offered as HIST/PWAD 351.

Explores the history, culture, and politics of London from the decade before the First World War, through the "Swinging" 1960s, to the recent Olympics fever. Surveys the architecture, cultural institutions and the arts, against the background of the city's changing racial, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic composition. Honors version available.

In this course we will investigate one of the most well-known of South Asian polities, and the grandest and longest lasting empire in Indian history, the Mughal Empire (1526-1858), whose rulers and elites were responsible for much of the iconic architecture and painting associated with India today.

This course surveys Japanese history and cultural development from the prehistoric period, rich with archaeological evidence, to the reunification of Japan in the late sixteenth century. One major topic is the mythology or and historical evidence for early state formation, including the role that Japan's long "unbroken" history plays in modern debates about national identity, xenophobia, and relations with regional neighbors. Another focus is the emergence of women's literature.

Provides students with a critical understanding of the political, economic, and social dynamics of contemporary South Asia. Themes explored include the development (or lack of) democratic structures, continuing relevance of caste and religion, emergence of right wing movements, contesting representations of the past, and the prospects and challenges confronting the region.

Water has played many pivotal roles in the societies and politics of Middle Eastern peoples. This course will survey the history of water in the region, including its uses in agriculture and ritual, transport, and technology. We will explore water's impact on public health and the effects of water pollution on local societies. Finally, we will focus on the effects of the region's water scarcity in cross-border political conflicts.

Approaches the history of the Ottoman Empire from a world historical perspective. Situates the Ottoman imperial experience in relation to Muslim, Mongolian, and Byzantine traditions. Discusses the early modern and modern transformation of the Ottoman Empire and its legacy for contemporary Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Course explores history of the African continent from before agriculture to the era of the Transatlantic slave trade. Particular attention given to themes such as trade, religion, and politics as well as the sources and methods for knowing about the premodern African past.

This course introduces students to the recent history of the Middle East, including a comparison of the Middle East to the United States.

Explores the conflict over Palestine during the last 100 years. Surveys the development of competing nationalisms, the contest for resources and political control that led to the partition of the region, the war that established a Jewish state, and the subsequent struggles between conflicting groups for land and independence.

Focused on one of the most tragic and horrifying phenomena in world history, this course examines the Atlantic slave trade and its demographic, economic, political, and cultural impact on four continents over three centuries.  Through interactive lectures, discussions, and a variety of written assignments, students will learn about this monumental and far-reaching system while sharpening critical thinking and communication skills. Honors version available.

Beginning with the discovery of gold and diamonds in the mid-19th century and reaching to the present, this course considers colonialism, industrialization, social change, and political protest in South Africa, with particular attention to the rise, fall, and legacies of apartheid. Honors version available.

Examines the experiences of women and gender relations in Latin American societies from pre-Columbian times to the present, providing a new perspective on the region's historical development.

An examination of the origins of the Pacific War, the course of this bitter and momentous conflict, and its complex legacy for both Asia and the United States.

This course explores the evolution of China as a geopolitical entity from global perspectives, 1350 to the present.

To put the recent transformation of the People's Republic of China in context, the course examines the different facets of Maoism that governed the country in its early years. It highlights Maoism as a global force that paved the way for China's re-integration into the world order. Honors version available.

This course introduces undergraduates to significant themes of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Topics include family, religion, art, fiscal change, trade networks, conquest, emperorship, Manchu ethnicity, the examination system and book culture, legal codes, gender, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxer Uprising, among others. No prior coursework required.

China today is poised to become the next world superpower. What is the story of its modern transformation? This lecture course will introduce undergraduates to the history of 20th-century China, through a thematic approach to its culture, politics, and society. No prior coursework required.

Explores Japan's history, culture, and society from the Meiji Restoration of 1868 to the present.

This course will explore how Americans in the 1970s responded to crises, challenges, and opportunities, and how they ultimately remade ideas of identity, citizenship, work, family, and culture.

Dialogues between historiographic and fictional treatments of important historical problems. Explores works of history and literature to determine how different genres of writing give meaning to the past. Honors version available.

What are empires, and how do they fall? This course examines the collapse of the three historical empires, explores discussions of modern decolonization, and addresses the question of what empire looks like in the contemporary world.

This course explains how and why certain films helped shape the medium even as they reflected broader aspects of historical change. Beginning with the development of narrative film in 1908, the course looks at those nationally specific genres that had repercussions beyond national borders, ending in about 1968. Honors version available.

This course explores the history of conquest and the political-military process of establishing control in the British Isles (including Ireland) and how those processes created expectations and policies as the English moved into the New World. We will examine both European precedents and colonial transformations. We will explore how European (especially English) society functioned, and how it was transformed in the New World.

This class explores the world of Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603) through three complementary lenses: the queen as powerful political actor; gender; and emergent globalization. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Elizabeth fashioned the images that she projected, and how she was perceived by others.

Examines the major late medieval religious, social, and political developments plus the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Topics include Luther's theology, the German Peasant's War, Jewish-Christian relations, witch-hunting, and family life. Previously offered as HIST 460.

Examines major political, social, and cultural developments. Topics include the growth of absolutist government, Prussia's militarism and rivalry with Austria, German Jewry, Baroque music, the Enlightenment, and the Napoleonic wars. Previously offered as HIST 461.

The Renaissance (1300-1600) is known as a time of great artistic, scientific, and political renewal. But did Jews, the only religious minority in Europe, get an opportunity to benefit from and participate in that progress? This class studies the history of the Jews at a time of great cultural change.

This course focuses on the period in French history between the ascendancy of absolute monarchy in the middle of the 17th century and the collapse of absolutism at the onset of the French Revolution.

The French Revolution was a source of much that the modern world recognizes as its own: nationalism, human rights, class conflict, ideology, communism, conservatism, show trials, citizen armies, terrorism, and the concept of revolution itself. This course probes issues that underlie the continuing relevance of the French Revolution today.

The migration of Jewish populations from small towns to large cities in Eastern Europe altered notions of Jewish community, space, cultures, and identities. This course will explore the roles of ghetto and shtetl in both history and memory of the Jewish past, drawing on memoirs, literature, film, and photography. Honors version available.

This course covers France's conquest, rule, and loss of Algeria, and the relationship between French and Algerian people in Algeria and France from 1830 to the present. Topics such as modern French and North African history, colonialism, Islam, immigration, terror/torture, and cross-cultural exchange are all featured in this transnational course.

Explores women's and men's engagement with colonial and post-colonial legal systems with a focus on the 19th through 21st centuries. Topics include customary law, Islamic law, women's rights as human rights, disputation and conflict resolution. We will ask the question: "how does gender influence how women and men navigate legal systems?" Course previously offered as WMST 289.

This course considers how a wide variety of groups in Latin America including indigenous people, Afro-descendant communities, women and religious minorities used the law to shape and challenge larger structures of imperial rule.

This course focuses on Mexico, several Caribbean and South America countries, and the U.S. as examples of the major debates that have arisen in the past and in our own time over citizenship and the nation-state in the multi-ethnic and culturally complex societies of the Americas. It explores history and memory around issues of human rights, gender, enslavement and emancipation, Indigenous peoples, religion and secular society, territory, and the nation-state. Previously offered as HIST 529. Honors version available.

Focusing on art, history, and ethnography museums in Europe and North America, this course considers the emergence and development of museums as powerful social and cultural institutions from the mid-18th century to the 21st century. A variety of perspectives on museums showcase their connections to larger political and cultural trends.

Technology's impact on American thought and society and the response it has engendered. Topics will include the factory town, search for utopia, impact of Henry Ford, war, and depersonalization. Previously offered as HIST 625.

An examination of how food, its production, distribution, and consumption have shaped the history of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the world at large. The course will study how these nations and their empires have been intertwined but remained distinctive from colonial times to the present.

This course surveys the long history of computer technology and its social, political, economic, and cultural consequences, with a particular focus on the experience of the United States.

This course underscores the ways in which Western medicine has become a global political and cultural phenomenon in history, and discusses evidence of how different social actors have parsed the distinction between sickness and health over time. Honors version available.

This class will study the history of the claim that the Jews are responsible for Christ's death. Students will examine the power of this idea to travel through time and space and discuss how it is portrayed differently and with different purposes throughout history. Honors version available.

Which of the following would you consider potentially political issues: celibacy; semen retention; body-building; depiction of gods/goddesses; or bomb making? Well, they all are. This course examines debates over sex, religion, and violence that constituted a key part of revolutionary thought and anti-colonial struggles in modern South Asia.

This course explores diverse experiences of modernity among Jewish populations from the mid-18th century to the present under the influence of political, cultural, and socioeconomic changes. Diaries, memoirs, literature, and film challenge students to develop their own analyses while becoming familiar with arguments among scholars of Jewish life.

This course will study the social, political, and cultural history of early India, through a focus on love and desire. It will examine a range of primary sources from the period: erotic manuals, inscriptions, literature, legal and medical textbooks, art and architecture.

The turn of the 20th century was characterized by a highly stylized angst, and nowhere more so than in Russia. This course explores how the political, social, cultural, and economic transformations that vibrated throughout Russia provided a fertile context for the burst of creativity that spawned its modernist artistic movements.

What happened when the British carved Pakistan out of the predominately Muslim corners of India? Readings and films focus on the causes and consequences of this event, the Partition of India. Honors version available.

Explores sub-Saharan Africa both as a historical site of exploitative, extractive labor practices and initiatives to make business more ethical. Starting in the precolonial period, it considers topics such as ending the slave trades, the foundations of colonial economies, development projects postindependence, and the use of conflict minerals. Previously offered as HIST 540. Honors version available.

This course introduces students to the history of empire, the role of race in creating and sustaining it, and the ways that people have resisted the imposition of outsider control. It will also introduce students to the methods historians use to understand the past.

This course deals with the establishment and development of the rules-based global order towards the end of World War II. The course will help us to understand the driving forces, fears, and ideas that have led to the post-war global order and the emergence of new states and international organizations. We will discuss this system as well as the forces of nationalism, imperialism, just war ideas, great power theories, and many related themes.

Dictators are typically viewed as brutal individuals who wield absolute power over their state. But, are these stereotypes true? The aims of this seminar are to dispel the myths that shroud dictators, to give students a more nuanced understanding of dictatorships in the 20th century, and to introduce them to biographies as a genre of historical writing.

The course focus on theories on fascism, national cultures of fascism (e.g. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary) as well as selected topics which are essential to understand the attraction and functioning of fascist movements and regimes since 1918 in Europe (e.g. racism, war, culture, charismatic leadership).

This course places the act of human migration at the center of modern history. Through case studies of various migrant groups, students will explore important questions at the center of migration history: why some people move and some stay; how the movements of people shape political, economic, social, and cultural life; and how ideas about migration, immigration, nation, and place have developed historically.

This course will examine the history of how empires uses grand claims of civilizational, moral, and religious claims in their foreign policy and grand strategy with a focus on the British, Ottoman, and Japanese imperial strategies. The course will also discuss contemporary legacies of British-Ottoman confrontation in WWI and British-Japanese conflict in WWII.

This course uses the digital technology of the 21st century to analyze the interactions of past civilizations by creating a "story map" that will visualize the ebbs and flows of peoples and civilizations throughout a geographical place, the Black Sea.

This course will assess visions for social change during the Great Depression, evaluate New Deal reforms, and address the legacy Depression-era Americans made on institutions and succeeding generations. Honors version available.

After the First World War, culture in Germany became a forum for radical experimentation and a source of deep conflict. Through a consideration of art and literature, and with emphasis on mass cultural forms such as film and newspapers, this course explores the complex relationships between politics and culture and how such relationships were understood and debated in both the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

The course examines and compares the images of war and gender that movies from different time periods and countries propagate and explores the different factors that influence these images and thereby the perception and recollection of war. Honors version available.

This course will explore women's experiences in America from 1500 to 1865. Topics will include the ways in which women have shaped American politics, economy, society, and culture.

This course will examine the changing lives of women in the United States after 1865: Their contribution to economy, society, cultural change, and political struggles.

Economic, cultural, and social history of the antebellum South. The region's political history will serve as a supporting part of the study. Previously offered as HIST 586.

This course explores the transformation of the South from the time of the Civil War and emancipation to the contemporary rise of the Sunbelt. Previously offered as HIST 587.

The society and politics of the United States during the period dominated by President Andrew Jackson. Topics include economic development, the expansion of slavery, religion and reform, the changing roles of women, and the political movements associated with 'Jacksonian democracy.' Previously offered as HIST 563.

This course surveys questions that have preoccupied leading thinkers and shaped intellectual culture in America since 1870. Themes include the problem of defining American identity, the clash between faith and reason, social injustice, the meaning of "modernity," the power and pitfalls of ideology, conceptions of human nature. Honors version available.

This course investigates the history of people who might today be defined as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) in the United States. Key themes will include identity formation, culture, politics, medical knowledge, discrimination, and community.

Course explores the historical significance of baseball in American life, using the history of the game to investigate topics such as industrialization, urbanization, and immigration; conflicts between labor and capital; racial prejudice and integration; patriotism and American identity; evolving gender ideals; and the role of myth in American culture.

Study of the popular arts and entertainments of the 19th and 20th centuries and the ways in which they illuminate the values, assumptions, aspirations, and fears of American society. Honors version available.

A survey of the rise and development of the major financial, commercial, manufacturing, and transportation enterprises that transformed the United States from an agricultural into a leading industrial nation.

From the experience of colonial artisans to contemporary factory and office workers, organized and unorganized, this course examines the effect of the industrial revolution on the American social and political landscape.

The history of North Carolina from the original Indian cultures to the end of the Civil War. Important topics include colonization, the American Revolution, evangelical religion, slavery, economic and political reform, the rise of sectionalism, and the Civil War.

The history of North Carolina from the end of the Civil War to the present. Important topics include Reconstruction, agrarian protests, disfranchisement and segregation, industrialization and workers' experience, the civil rights movement, and 20th-century politics.

The American military experience from colonial times to the early 20th century. Major themes include the problem of security, the development of military policies and institutions, and the way in which the country waged and experienced war.

Survey of America's military experience in the 20th century, focusing on national security policy, military institutions, World Wars I and II, the Cold War, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and recent interventions.

This course explores the political history of the United States from the New Deal in the 1930s to the present. Topics include the trajectories of liberalism and conservatism and the origins of today's most protracted political debates--from McCarthyism to 9/11, from Watergate to Obamacare. Honors version available.

A history of the United States in World War II (1941-1945): home front and military front.

A survey of the growth and development of the American West from the nineteenth century to the present as a culture, economy, and society. Considers the interactions between Native Americans and other people of different races, national origins and genders as agents and contributors to the forging of the American West.

This course will explore how Americans from 1600 to the present have defined what is masculine and what is feminine and how they have constructed their identities around those definitions.

Survey of African American history to abolition of slavery in North America with some attention to experiences of people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Survey of African American history since emancipation in North America with some attention to experiences of people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Honors version available.

This course examines the history of the modern African American civil rights movement, focusing on its development and processes, historical significance, and continuing legacy in the United States of America and abroad. Honors version available.

The evolution of college sports since the Harvard-McGill football game of 1874. Key turning points include the football crisis of 1905 and the creation of the NCAA, the reform efforts of the 1930s, the 1984 Supreme Court case on television money, and the emergence of an "athletes' rights" movement.

Through a variety of interconnected themes, this course focuses on the wide-ranging experiences of life in the United States of America during the 1960s to explain major shifts in postwar modern American history and explore the origins of contemporary American society. Honors version available.

The course covers the history of black women in the United States from the 18th century to the present. It deals with such themes as work, family, community, sexuality, politics, religion, and culture. Previously offered as HIST/WGST 569.

This course will introduce undergraduates to Chinese strategic and military thought through the translated writings of some of China's most significant philosophers, intellectuals, and political leaders, from antiquity to the present. Students will explore historical characteristics of Chinese strategy and consider the influence of these ideas in current international relations.

Subject matter will vary with instructor but will focus on some particular topic or historical approach. Course description available from departmental office. Closed to graduate students. Repeatable for credit. Honors version available.

Subject matter will vary with instructor but will focus on some particular historical methodology, approach, and/or practice. Course description available from the departmental office.

Permission of the department. Directed reading under the supervision of a faculty member.

The course is in general limited to 15 students. The subject matter will vary with the instructor. Each course will concern itself with a study in depth of some historical problem. Students will write a substantial research paper. Permission of the department. Honors version available.

This course explores family and kinship in early modern China and Korea through the lens of gender and sexuality. In particular, it invites students to think beyond the bias that women in premodern East Asia were victims of patriarchy to understand their active participation in their world-making as well as their dynamic imagination and expression through writing, working, learning, loving.

The rise of Macedonia; the careers of Philip II and Alexander (with emphasis on the latter's campaigns); the emerging Hellenistic Age. The course integrates computer (including Web site) and audiovisual materials throughout.

War and the warrior in the archaic and classical Greek world, seventh to the fourth centuries BCE. Honors version available.

HIST 225 strongly recommended. Topical approach to the social and cultural history of the ancient Greek city states, ca. 800-336 BCE.

HIST 225 strongly recommended. The life and times of the ancient Athenians from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE.

Explores the transformation from Republic to Principate. Conducted in considerable part by student reports and classroom discussions.

Focuses upon administrative, social, and economic themes. Conducted in considerable part by student reports and classroom discussions.

Focuses upon administrative, social, and economic themes. Conducted in considerable part by student reports and classroom discussions.

This course deals with the complex topic of ancient sexuality, which includes courtship, marriage, family structure, public and private morality, and law enforcement. In terms of historical method, this course teaches students how to discover evidence for social history in both diverse documentary and literary sources.

The nature and workings of the Western church between roughly 600 and 1300. Emphasis on the church "from within," organization, missionary strategies, liturgy, monasticism, popular religion.

Students in this course will examine Christian attitudes toward holy war, crusading, and other forms of coercive violence from the 11th until the 15th centuries, with a focus on the major crusades to the Holy Land.

A consideration of England's origins, unification, and development as a national monarchy. Primary emphasis is on political, ecclesiastical, and cultural aspects.

The origins and development of the university during the period 1100 to 1400; types of organization, curricula and degrees, intellectual life, town-gown and student-master relationships.

This course has as its theme the lives of aristocratic men and women in western Europe between about 850 and 1200 CE. Discusses the nature of aristocratic identity, the trends that shaped the lives of aristocratic men and women, and the different roles of men and women within aristocratic culture.

This course examines the multifaceted constructions of masculinity found in narrative texts produced in medieval western Europe. Focuses on topics such as gender relations, male self-fashioning, homosocial bonding, family structures. Sources studied range from epic and romance to chronicles and visual records. Honors version available.

This course explores the history of premodern China from an environmental perspective. Based on mini-lectures and intensive discussions, it investigates diverse modes and sites of human-nature interactions such as agriculture, forestry, marine activities, natural disasters, and landscape cultivation.

An analysis of the roles of women and men in Indian societies from the early to the modern periods. Topics include the cultural construction of gender and sexuality; beauty and bodily practices; gender and religion; gender and politics; race, imperialism, and gender. Previously offered as HIST/ASIA 556.

This course will discuss theories of beauty and the body in Indian History (c. 3 - 17th centuries) and their relation to differing constructions of gender.

This course traces the fascinating history of material, cultural, and theological exchanges and conflicts between individuals belonging to two of the world's major religions: Hinduism and Islam. Throughout the course we will also analyze how modern commentators have selectively used the past to inform their understandings of the present. Previously offered as HIST/ASIA 555.

This seminar introduces the field of settler colonial studies and history. It investigates how settler colonial polities consolidated during and after the global "settler revolution," how they managed relations with the imperial metropole and dealt with the Indigenous populations, whose resistance, adaptation, survival and agency also feature.

This seminar examines humanitarianism in global context around 1800, beginning with the formation of humanitarian movements dedicated to alleviating suffering and especially ending slavery. It traces the movement's complicated relationship to empire in the 19th century, and the professionalization of humanitarian aid in the 20th century.

This course will explore how the law in America has defined and regulated gender and sexuality. Significant topics will range from marriage, reproduction and the family to suffrage, work, and social movements. Honors version available.

A study of the people, culture, and intellectual achievements of the Italian Renaissance with emphasis on the interaction between culture and society.

A picture of Mediterranean social and economic life 1300 to 1600, with special focus on rural and urban society, family structure, patronage, work and wages, public and private finance.

Examines a movement of religious reform that shattered Latin Christendom and contributed many of the conditions of early modern Europe. Emphases: religious, political, social.

This seminar will familiarize students with foundational works of Holocaust historiography as well as with newer works that challenge old interpretations and methodologies. Throughout the course we will look at the mutual influences of historical writing and memory of the Holocaust as societies have come to terms with the dark past of the Second World War; the course will also examine historical writing as a form of representation and memory. Previously offered as HIST 743.

This seminar examines liberal, socialist, communist, and fascist political systems in Europe during the twentieth century by comparing and contrasting their ideologies and approaches to their citizens' welfare. The seminar compares European and US experiences, and also attends to conservative critiques of the expansion of government activity in the 1940s.