History Courses
This course provides working familiarity with the major ideas and developments of European civilization from antiquity to the present. Offered every semester.
This course will prepare prospective elementary-school teachers in the fields of European and United States history, as required by the public school standards of the State of California. It will cover European history from the ancient civilizations of the Near East up through the Enlightenment and United States history from the colonial era up through the industrial revolution. Open only to students in the Dual Degree program.
The course will acquaint students with the political, social, economic, ethnic and international dimensions of the history of the United States. It aims to stimulate both analytical and moral understanding of critical issues from the nation's past. Offered every semester.
This course introduces students to the diverse experiences of African Americans throughout U.S. history and their impact on American politics, economy and culture. Topics will include slave life and resistance, quests for citizenship, military involvement, and the rise of the Black Nationalist and Civil Rights Movements.
This course provides an introduction to the historic struggles of diverse Americans to be recognized as citizens of the United States. Using the framework of citizenship, the course explores the ways that systems of power and inequality have been both constructed and challenged throughout American history.
Introductory survey of the three East Asian civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea. The course offers a selective treatment of key issues and important achievements of these societies. Its methodology is historical, analyzing the political, economic, social, and cultural institutions as they have developed from antiquity to the present. The emphasis will be on the modern period, primarily after the middle of the nineteenth century. Offered every semester.
A broad survey of South Asian history from antiquity to modern times. Beginning with the rise of the Indus valley civilization, the course considers topics like European colonialism and imperialism, nationalism, and the post-independence period. Offered intermittently.
A social and cultural survey from pre-Columbian roots to the present, focusing on how Latin Americans have shaped their lives within colonial, authoritarian, and paternalistic societies. Offered every semester.
This course introduces students to the diverse history of Africa from 1450 to the present. Topics examined include the development of African societies and political systems, internal and external slave trades, African societies and politics, African resistance to foreign rule, European colonization, nationalist struggles for independence, and legacies of colonial rule.
This course offers a broad survey of world history, focusing especially on the period from 1400 to the present. Limited to History majors.
An interesting introduction to a topic in the field of History.
A study of the history of historical writing based on primary sources, and devoting attention to the theories, philosophies, methodologies, and issues of interpretation that arise from the texts. Completion of a research paper on an approved topic. Required of all History majors and suggested for History minors. Offered every semester.
Systematic approach to the spatial distribution of resources, populations, cultural features, processes, and relationships. Required of students who would like to obtain a teaching credential in the Social Sciences. Offered every other year.
Explores the history of the civil rights movement in the U.S. through scholarship and film. Considers historical scholarship and historical films as complementary ways of understanding the history of the movement.
Introduction to oral history, its evolution, methodology, and application. Students will learn about the many facets of the oral history process, interview techniques, the nature of oral historical evidence, transcribing and editing, legal and ethical concerns, and the various uses of oral history. Offered intermittently.
This course explores sexuality and transgression in the
pre-modern, colonial, and modern Muslim world including the Ottoman and Qajar
Empires, and the modern Middle East.
Experimental course focusing on exploration and discussion of various sources, methods, and interpretations in the study of history. Topics are variable, but these courses are designed to have students work extensively with primary sources, and/or explore a particular method of historical research, and/or undertake an in-depth or comparative study of interpretations of a particular subject or field of historical inquiry.Offered intermittently.
An interpretive political history of the world since 1945, focusing on major actors, events, and international affairs, both Western and non-Western. Offered intermittently.
The rise and development of the societies, cultures, religions and governments of the eastern Mediterranean (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Minoan Crete and Mycenean Greece), from the fourth millennium to about 1000 B.C. Offered every other year.
A study of the new forms of society, culture, economy, and government that arose in the central and eastern Mediterranean after the collapse of ancient civilization around 1200 B.C.; the origins of the Greek city-states; the creations of the new empires by Athens, Alexander the Great, and the Romans; the creation of classical literature, philosophy, and art. Offered every other year.
The origins and evolution of Roman imperial society, government, and culture, from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D. The class also examines the interrelationship between archaeology and history as a means of discovering the past. Offered every other year.
The evolution and reorganization of the late Roman Empire, and a study of its social, cultural, religious, and political transformations. Offered every other year.
The social, economic, political, cultural and administrative revolutions of the twelfth through the early fifteenth century in Western Europe. Offered every other year.
During the Renaissance, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci
began to experiment
with new visual techniques, theorists such as Machiavelli
forwarded bold and
new political ideas, and Italian merchants began to perfect an
economy based on
currency and trade. These developments helped end the Middle
Ages and, in
the long run, paved the way for the rise of secularism,
individualism, mass
communication, and capitalism – in short, the rise of modern
society. Yet, as this course will reveal, there is more to
the
Renaissance than beautiful art and the beginnings of progress. Themes include the
persistence of the “medieval”;
princely and papal courts; gender and religion in everyday
life; early printed
books; politics and conspicuous consumption; European
encounters with Islam; art
and society; and the value of the idea of the Renaissance
today. Offered
intermittently.
How did an arcane theological dispute explode into what some call the first successful mass media campaign in history? We trace the massive cultural, political, and social changes that the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reform wrought in sixteenth-century Europe, not only in the realm of religion, but also in politics, popular culture, gender roles, and printed communications. Taught intermittently.
We examine the first major wave of European exploration, conquest, and colonization in the Americas from 1492 to 1700, a complex series of encounters that profoundly changed European, American, and African peoples and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. Themes include religious and cultural interactions; violence and coexistence in everyday life; constructions of race, gender, and ethnicity; slavery and other forms of labor; trans-Atlantic migration, both voluntary and forced; and European and indigenous anthropologies of the ‘other.’ Focus is on Spanish, French, and Portuguese territories in Latin America.
Tumultuous transformations marked the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. We examine the period that began with the Black Death, and led to the Renaissance, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the New World discoveries, scientific thought, and, finally, the French Revolution. Themes include witchcraft; sexuality, gender, and everyday life; women and religion; heresy and the Inquisition; and European encounters with the New World and Islam. Additional topics: the emergence of print; attitudes toward the poor and poverty; politics and the papacy; peasant revolt and religious change; and new consumer products such as coffee and sugar.
Examines interactions between members of the three religions in Islamic and Christian Spain through Muslim, Jewish, and Christian historical sources, literature, art, and architecture. Also analyzes mythologizations of medieval Spain in modern films, literature, and scholarship. Offered every other year.
The origins of European anti-Semitism and the history of Germany with focus on the persecution of Jews which culminated in genocide during World War II. The course examines the machinery of death as well as the bystanders, perpetrators and victims. The course also addresses the latest scholarly literature on the topic. Offered intermittently.
A study of the breakthrough to modernity. The course covers major philosophical, cultural, and literary currents from Romanticism to the present day. Offered every other year. Prerequisite: HIST - 110 or equivalent.
This class examines the archaeology and history of Britain from about
10,000 BC to the Norman Conquest in 1066. Topics examined include the
rise of the Neolithic period and its associated monuments, such as
Stonehenge and Orkney; the social, economic, and political
transformations of the Iron Age; and the Roman conquest. The second
half of the class will consider the the collapse of the Roman empire and
its impact on Britain, and the appearance and rise of the Anglo-Saxons.
An examination of the various and changing western attitudes towards human sexuality. While we might think that most men and women in western history have shared our own sexual beliefs, or at least those of our parents, we will discover that both the biological and the social understanding of this important human drive has been very contested over time and space. To this end,we will look at various sorts of sources: scientific and medical, philosophical, practical, theological, and literary. We will at the same time encounter some of the major trends in the historiography of sexuality, especially feminism and post-modernism, and see how these challenge our traditional understanding of the past. Offered intermittently.
The development of France from the Revolution of 1789 to the present. Offered intermittently.
A survey of the most important developments in Germany from the Bismarck Reich to the unification of 1990. Particular emphasis on the social, economic and cultural conflicts of the second Empire; the Weimar Republic; competing interpretations of the rise of Nazism; the Holocaust; and the post-World War II period. Offered intermittently.
The course of Russian history from the time of Peter the Great to the fall of the Soviet Union. Offered intermittently.
Introduction to South African history from the 16th century to the present. Topics examined include the interaction between African societies and European settlers, economic development, apartheid, the struggle for majority rule, and the problems plaguing the New South Africa. Offered every other year.
A comparative study of how food has shaped human societies and the environment. Topics include: food production, role of technology, food cultures, famine, and politics of food distribution. Case studies from Africa and the United States. Offered every other year.
Introduction to the environmental history of Africa from 1800 to the present. Topics examined include Africa's physical environment, role of natural resources in the development of African societies, demography, agriculture, desertification, deforestation, conservation, famine, and economic development. Offered every other year.
This course introduces students to the diverse history of pre-colonial Africa. Topics examined include the development of African states, spread of Islam, economic development, slave trades, and European interests in Africa. Offered every other year.
An examination of the epic conflict between Northand South in 19th-century America. This course will analyze the causes of the war and explore the war's meaning to its varied participants: whites and African Americans, women and men, soldiers and civilians. It will trace the war's aftermath and its legacy for race relations in the United States. Offered every other year.
A study of the era named for its conspicuous display of wealth: an era of ascendant capitalism, the rise of big cities, racial segregation, and the acquisition of Hawaii and the Philippines.
A survey and analysis of critical events in American foreign policy, focusing on Mexican-American relations, the Spanish-American War and Cuba, the policies of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, World War II and the Cold War. Offered every other year.
This course presents women's history both as an integral part of U.S. history and as a distinct subject of historical study. Using a variety of sources, it explores the private lives and public roles of women of different class, race, ethnic and religious backgrounds from the colonial period to the present. Offered every other year.
An overview of women's involvement in social and political movements in the U.S. from the 1880s to the 1990s. Topics include: the women's suffrage movement, social reform, anti-lynching campaigns, peace movements, labor politcs, feminism and anti-feminism, the civil rights and black power movements, and women in right-wing politics. Offered every other year.
A survey of the development and effect of popular culture in America, focusing on the rise of the Western, pulp fiction, popular music, the urban comic tradition, inspirational literature, movies, radio, and television. Offered every other year.
An examination of the central themes and issues in the history of American religion, emphasizing the links between religious experience and American society and culture. Offered every other year.
An exploration of the major racial and ethnic groups that have contributed to the making of American history, focusing on their distinctive cultures and patterns of interaction with one another. Offered every other year.
A study of California's development from the American conquest and statehood to the present time of its social, economic, and political pre-eminence. Offered once per year.
The blending of indigenous, European, and African cultures during the colonial period to form and create Latin America. This survey explores the tensions and richness embedded in this diverse and dynamic history and tracks how colonial attitudes and ideologies shape the region today. Offered every other year.
A survey of Latin America from the late colonial period to the present. Major themes include: political instability, authoritarianism, and the struggle for democracy; economic dependency, underdevelopment, and the search for national sovereignty; social inequality, culture wars, and recent religious transformations. Offered every other year.
A comprehensive analysis of the social, political, economic and cultural history of colonial Mexico. Questions of power, identity, gender, race, ethnicity, and popular culture among Mexico's indigenous and colonial societies are central to the class. Course themes focus on pre-colonial societies, patterns of colonization in Northern, Central, and southern Mexico, development of a Spanish-Mexican society and culture, and the process leading to independence from Spain. Offered every other year.
A comprehensive analysis of the social, political, economic and cultural processes that shaped the growth and development of modern Mexico. Questions of power, identity, gender, race, ethnicity, and popular culture are central to the class. Course themes will focus on: nation building; the search for order, stability, industrialization, progress, modern development, popular upheaval, social reform, and national identity. Offered every other year.
A comprehensive analysis of the historical processes that have shaped the lives, values, beliefs, and practices of the people of Central America and the Caribbean. It focuses on the region's response to global trends: colonization, integration into the world economy, imperialism, modernization, development, the cold war, and revolutionary movements. Offered every other year.
Interdisciplinary survey of the geography, culture, and history of Brazil and Amazonia since 1500. Course themes include indigenous cultures, the impact of European expansion on the native people and the land, African and indigenous slavery, colonialism and its legacies, development, extractive economies, and nationalism. Offered every other year.
A survey and thematic comparison from the histories of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Most of the material will date from the last two centuries with some attention given to the colonial period. Course themes include the impact and legacy of colonialism, the process of nation building, militarism and civilian politics, and the significance of women and modernization. Offered intermittently.
A survey and thematic comparison of the histories of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, focusing mostly on the national period. Salient themes include Andean civilizations and cultures, the impact of European colonialism, the process of nation building in multiethnic societies, violence and social change, and the tensions between dictatorship and democracy. Offered every other year.
A study of the historical experiences of Mexican Americans/Chicanos, Central Americans, Puerto-Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans, as well as other Latin Americans living in the United States. Topics: identity, prejudice, immigration, social and political experiences, and participation in film, art, music, and other artistic expressions. Offered every other year.
A broad survey of China's history prior to 1840, covering social, political, economic, and cultural developments. Offered intermittently.
A broad survey of China since 1840, emphasizing China's response to the West and the impact of the Revolutions of 1911 and 1949. Offered every other year.
A survey of Japan's history after 1868, emphasizing its rapid modernization and its rise to great power status. Offered every other year.
A comprehensive survey of the enormous changes, yet also important continuities, in China's domestic and foreign policy since 1978. Important themes include the transition to a market economy or "market Leninism"; environmental impacts and the sustainability of growth; population policy; military modernization and the "China threat" scenario; village democracy and human rights issues; changing attitudes to sex and sexuality; and the search for values both new and traditional. Offered every other year.
A study of the United States-China relations from the 1780s to the present day, with special emphasis on the period since 1945. Offered every other year.
Consideration of a broad variety of political, social, economic, and cultural issues concerning America's relationship with Japan, beginning with Commodore Perry's visit in 1853 and including contemporary economic and security concerns. Offered every other year.
This is an upper-division course that addresses empire in the Islamic world. This course focuses on three Islamic Empires, the Ottoman Empire (1300-1922), the Safavid Empire (1501-1722), and the Mughal Empire (1526-1707) and is arranged both chronologically and thematically. While the focus of this course is pre-modern empire, this course will examine how a study of the pre-modern Islamic world challenges current narratives of empire, imperialism, and Islamic identity.
This upper-division course provides students with a historical framework for understanding current political events in the Middle East and examines the intellectual trends that influence representations of the region. This course begins by framing the modern Middle East within the context of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries, discusses decolonization and nationalism during the two World Wars, and concludes with the impact of American foreign policy on the Middle East today.
Experimental course focusing on exploration and discussion of material which complements that found in the regularly offered history curriculum. Topics are variable; the course involves the study of rarely-taught subject matter and/or innovative approaches to traditional historical themes. Offered intermittently.
Provides an overview of the many ways that history is practiced in the field of public history. Includes supervised work at a public history placement, such as museums, archives, and historical sites. Offered once per year. Prerequisite: HIST - 210 or permission of instructor.
The written permission of the instructor and the dean is required. Offered undeer special circumstances. Prerequisite: one or more upper-division courses in the area of the proposed topic for directed study.
Topics will be announced before the seminars are offered, and range from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Early Modern period, to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cross-listed with ENVA 441. Offered once per year.
Topics vary. Offered once per year.
Readings and discussions of major recent works exploring the place of Native American peoples in the history of the United States. The course will survey the field both chronologically and geographically, but will focus intensively on the impact of the dominant American culture on a selection of particular tribes. Offered intermittently.
Exploration of the history and meaning of the American Revolution through readings and discussion of major recent works. Covers the causes of the Revolution, the war years, and the political events up through ratification of the Constitution. Offered intermittently.
A reading and research seminar focused on specific geographical areas - the Southern Cone, Brazil, the Andean Region, Central America and the Caribbean, Mexico, the Borderlands - or on particular comparative themes relevant to Latin America - Revolution, Religion, Labor and Politics, Women, Race and Class. Offered once per year.
Topics will be announced. Offered intermittently.
Topics will be announced. Offered intermittently.
Offered every Fall.
