Course Catalog

Studies the social revolution in 19th-century France as it corresponded to the new sense of justice in French society. Examines the redefinition of France's place in the modern world in the 20th century, and focuses on French military defeat and the dismantlement of empire as well as on the present leadership of France in the building of a new Europe.

This course offers an introduction to the first century and a half of Islamic society, 600-700 AD. It builds on knowledge of ways of writing about the past which students have acquired in earlier courses. The focus of the course is the rise and development of the religion of Islam and the key events and figures in the process. They will read extracts by those who wrote history in the early Islamic centuries – and those who have approached early Islam and is history in the global North, notably since he nineteenth century.
Essentially, the course offers:
- Substantive detail about the rise of the last of the Abrahamic monotheism;
- Theoretical reflection on the interplay between mediated communication, history and organized religion;
- An exploration of the history writing practices of early Muslims;
- An introduction of the intellectual history of nineteenth and twentieth century historiographies of the early Islamic Middle East and North Africa;
- An introduction to pilgrimage practices in Islam.

Taking the founding of the Second Empire (1871-1918) as a point of departure, the course investigates Germany's historical transformations from Imperial Empire to Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the postwar Allied occupation, the creation of the two German states, and the unification of the country.

Discusses the growth of the United States as an urban, industrialized society and a global power. Themes include patterns and problems of immigration, the ending of the frontier, the emergence of labor and social movements, and cultural evolution. Examines how the rise of the US as a dominant world power in the 20th century has influenced social and political life there.