New Courses for fall 2012
American Exceptionalism: The History of an Idea - 15324 - HIST 0510 - S01
For four centuries, the theme of America having a special place in the world has dominated American politics and culture, though many have questioned or challenged American distinctiveness. This course examines articulations and critiques of American exceptionalism, using sources from American history and literature, from comparative history and literature, and from modern American culture and politics. It is intended both as an introduction to American history and as a thematic class, focused on the U.S. in a global context, which is different from a traditional high school or first-year college American history class. WRIT E
Michael Vorenberg M, W, F 1-1:50pm Bio Med Center 291
The Long Fall of the Roman Empire - 15822 - HIST 1030 - S01
Once thought of as the "Dark Ages," this period of western European history should instead be seen as a fascinating time in which late Roman culture fused with that of the Germanic tribes, a mixture tempered by a new religion, Christianity. Issues of particular concern include the symbolic construction of political authority, the role of religion, the nature of social loyalties, and gender roles. P
Jonathan Conant T, Th 1-2:20pm Watson (CIT) Center 219
Empire and Nation: Violence and Cosmopolitanism in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1856-1922 - 16438 - HIST 1361 - S01
With Greece in crisis and the Middle East experiencing an "Arab Spring" the Eastern Mediterranean is again hitting the headlines. This course offers a historical perspective to current developments by examining the social, political and cultural transformations between the mid-19th century and the 1922 Greco-Turkish exchange of populations while questioning the current image of the Eastern Mediterranean as a model of cosmopolitan conviviality and an archetype of unbridled violence. Topics include state-building in Greece, the modernization of the Ottoman Empire, colonialism in Egypt, nationalism and coexistence, the Balkan wars and population movements, and, finally, contemporary nostalgias for fin-de-siècle Mediterranean.
Paris Papamichos-Chronakis M, W, F 12-12:50pm J. Walter Wilson 501
Russia in the Era of Reforms, Revolutions, and World Wars - 15310 - HIST 1410 - S01
This course examines the rapid industrialization, modernization, and urbanization of Russia from the era of the "Great Reforms" (1860s) through the Second World War. We will examine both the growing discontentment among the population with autocracy's efforts to maintain power and the Bolshevik effort to recreate the economy, society, and everyday life. Topics will include Russian Marxism and socialism, terrorism, the Russian revolutions of 1917, the rise and consolidation of Soviet socialism, famine, the red terror, and World War II. M
Ethan Pollock T, Th 1-2:20pm Smith-Buonanno Hall G12
Gandhi's India: South Asia Before 1947 - 15325 - HIST 1580 - S01
This course will examine the making of modern South Asia, from the decline of Mughal rule and the emergence of Company Raj, up to present. The course will particularly focus on colonialism and nationalism, the relationship between the colonial state and post-colonial nation-states of South Asia, to understand concepts of empire, resistance and 'postcoloniality'. M
Vazira Zamindar T, Th 10:30-11:50am 101 Thayer Street (Inn@Brown) 116D
Religion, Politics, and Culture in America, 1865 - Present - 15289 - HIST 1801 - S01
Religion has played an undeniable role in the contemporary American cultural landscape. This course lends some perspective on the present by investigating the various and, at times, surprising role religion has played in history in the shaping of American culture from 1865 to the present. M
Linford Fisher M, W, F 2-2:50pm Rockefeller Library 412
Capitalism, 1500 to the Present - 15315 - HIST 1845 - S01
This course will study capitalism as a historically-specific and contingent system of economic organization. By "denaturalizing" capitalism, we will seek to embed markets in a wide range of social relations, cultural practices, and institutional arrangements. The course begins with early modern Europe and the Atlantic Slave Trade, before moving into Enlightenment political economy and the Industrial Revolution. The nineteenth-century focus is on empire, law, and the rise of the corporation, before culminating in the twentieth-century of mass consumption, the IMF, deindustrialization, and the rise of the securities industry. This course presumes no economics background. E
Seth Rockman M, W, F 11-11:50 Bio Med Center 291
The Ottoman Empire & Europe: Interactions and Representations in the Long Early Modern Era - 15283 - HIST 1977E - S01
The rise to power of the Ottoman Turks and their conquests of Constantinople in 1453 and Cairo in 1517 reconfigured the dynamics of power as well as religious, commercial, and cultural relations in the Afro-Eurasian world. That reconfiguration was expressed in rituals, diplomatic reports, religious tracts, maps, paintings, chronicles, harem tales, and histories, as well as in battle narratives. In this course, going beyond the image of "The Terrible Turk" invoked in Reformation literature, we study the nature of the Ottoman system, evaluating the ways in which Europeans crafted a vision of the empire, its power, and "the Islamic threat." Enrollment limited to 20. P
Palmira Brummett M 3-5:20pm J. Walter Wilson 502
3.11: Building a History of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake - 15323 - HIST 1977I - S01
The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March 2011 left some 20,000 people dead or missing, devastated communities and infrastructure all along Japan's northeastern coast, and triggered a series of catastrophic events at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. This seminar studies this crisis within both a global history of disastrous encounters with natural and man-made hazards, and within Japan's own history of such encounters. We will explore the emergence of modern, scientific explanations of how and why disasters happen, and analyze the role played by popular culture in shaping the meanings assigned to disasters past, present and future. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors. WRIT E
Kerry Smith W 3-5:20pm J. Walter Wilson 302
Decolonizing Minds: A People's History of the World - 15443 - HIST 1977Q - S01
This seminar will explore the knowledge-production and military-financial infrastructures that maintain empires, as well as the means through which people have either resisted or embraced empire. While some attention will be made to the 19th and early 20th century colonial context, the bulk of the course will focus on the Cold War liberal era to the neoliberal regime that continues today. Possible topics include: popular culture and ideology, the Cold War university, area studies, international anti-war networks, transnational labor activism, the anti-colonial radical tradition, and the Arab Spring/Occupy Movements. Weekly readings; evaluation based on participation and analytical essays. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors. M
Vazira Zamindar W 3-5:20pm Smith-Buonanno Hall G01
The Rise of the Middle Class: Modernity, Nationalism, and Globalization - 16439 - HIST 1977R - S01
With the present economic crisis depicted as a crisis of the middle class, this course revisits the middle classes in Europe, the Americas, and the colonial world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It explores the local renderings of a global social category and analyzes a set of historiographical approaches to middle-class formation from Marxism to post-social history. Topics include the transnational constitution of the middle classes; the gender, ethnic and religious dimensions of middle-class identities; middle-class politics and political representations of the middle; and, finally, the troubled relations between the middle classes and nationalism, imperialism, and modernity.
Paris Papamichos-Chronakis M 3-5:20pm Wilson Hall 109
American Monuments and Memorials: From Slavery to September 11 - 16440 - HIST 1977S - S01
This course will investigate the role memorials play in society and examine the politics of memorialization in order to better understand the dynamic nature of creating meaning in the past and present from American monuments. We will broaden our conception of monuments beyond stone statues to include museums, national parks, music, art, film and the web. Movies and viewings of local memorials will supplement our seminar experience. Case studies include the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the United States Holocaust Museum, and memorials to 9/11, women's rights and slavery (including the commissioned Brown University memorial), among others. Enrollment limited to 20.
Nicole Eaton M 3-5:20pm Wilson Hall 103
Science and Technology in Modern Chinese History - 16580 - HIST 1977V - S01
In this reading seminar, we will explore how different regimes that ruled China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from imperial to socialist, mobilized science in their governance of a society in rapid transition. At the same time, we will examine the scientists, doctors, and engineers involved in the process of producing scientific knowledge, and the impact that their ideas then had on ordinary Chinese men and women. In so doing, we seek not only to deepen our understanding of China's recent past, but to also rethink, more broadly, the relationship of science, technology, and society in modern states. Enrollment limited to 20. M
Victor Seow T 4-6:20pm Sayles Hall 105
Europe During World War II and the Holocaust - 16458 - HIST 1977W - S01
World War II marked a dramatic period of crisis and transition in twentieth-century Europe. The correlation of regional and global conflicts reshaped the political, social, economic and ethnic map of the continent. The material and moral losses provoked by the war impacted individual and collective lives for decades to come. This course discusses how Nazi Germany and its allies ruled occupied Europe, and analyzes the Holocaust as a modern, state-promoted, massacre. Movies and memoirs provide insightful perspectives on divided, even, conflicting memories of World War II, and their significance for the postwar reconstruction of European states and society. Enrollment limited to 20. M
Lidia Santarelli Th 4-6:20pm Wilson Hall 303