Climate Change

HIST-W100 with Professor McGerr

The history of climate change involves not only science but also culture and politics. How have human beings imagined and portrayed natural catastrophes? How, in turn, have they agitated and organized to cope with the threat and the reality of apocalyptic disaster? Answering these questions from the Bible forward, we will explore how people have responded to the unfolding of climate change from the 1890s to the present.

• TR, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

The World in the 20th Century I

HIST-H101 with Professor Guardino

Momentous changes in the early twentieth century affected people all over the world and laid the groundwork for much of the human experience today. We will consider themes like industrialism, colonialism, gender, racism, nationalism, fascism, socialism and war. Students will learn to interpret evidence and form arguments. We will read selected short documents, the novels All Quiet on the Western Front and The River Between, and the memoir Behind the Urals.

• MW, 10:20 AM-11:10 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

The Making of Modern Russia

HIST-D103 with Professor Saburova

Let’s examine one of the world’s greatest empires! We look at late Imperial Russia, the Russian Revolution and Stalinism; the emergence, evolution and final collapse of the Soviet Union, and the newly emergent Russian Federation. We combine a survey of political events, economic and social processes at the “macro” level with a search to understand the lived experience of those people who made up this vast and diverse country. Readings include a textbook to purchase Russia’s Long Twentieth Century: Voices, Memories, contested Perspectives by Choi Chatterjee, Deborah A. Field, and Lisa A. Kirschenbaum. All other texts will be available on Canvas. Requirements include 3 response papers (@1200 words), a group research project online, attendance and preparation for class.

• MW, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

American History I

HIST-H105 with Professor Dierks

Has it ever been possible in American history to imagine equality without at the same time excluding some people? We will explore cultural tensions between equality and inequality, freedom and unfreedom, and prosperity and poverty in American history from the era of Columbus's exploration of the New World, up through the era of the American Civil War. In examining such cultural tensions, we will look in particular at how notions of gender, race, and class have changed over time, first in a colonial context in the collision of European, Native American, and African cultures in the challenging environment of North America, and then in a post-revolutionary context when competing social groups struggled for advantage in the young American nation. Throughout the course we will situate North America and then the United States not only in a multicultural but also in a global context. Special attention will be paid to how the lives of ordinary people intersected with broader sweeps of history. To test the continuing resonance of early American history in the modern world, we will scrutinize not only struggles for social dominance or self-determination by people in the past, but also struggles over the meaning of historical memory by people in the present.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H

American History II

HIST-H106 with Professor Ortega

Amid the debates on what constitutes U.S. history and what should be taught—students, instructors, and learning institutions—have grappled with the social, cultural, political, and economic events that have shaped U.S. history since the late nineteenth century. Major events and figures will be examined in relation to the lives of people of color, immigrants, women, and the working class. As this course engages contemporary events, I invite students to approach history as a dynamic relationship between the past and the present. The central purpose of this course is to encourage informed, thoughtful, and critical perspectives on the U.S. experience as encountered by diverse groups of people.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H

How to Get Away With Murder

HIST-W200 with Professor Black

• TR, 9:45 AM-12:15 PM
• 8W1
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, GenEd WC

Slavery in World History

HIST-W201 with Professor Machado

Who is a slave? How can we define slavery in a global context? What are the afterlives of unfreedom? These are some of the core questions that this course will aim to address. It examines the development of forms of slavery and ‘unfreedom’ in the human experience from a range of temporal and spatial perspectives. Understandings of slavery have, with relatively few exceptions, focused on the history of the Atlantic slave world and as a result have been dominated by the ‘plantation complex’ model of slavery. Besides looking in detail at the development of plantation slavery in the Atlantic world, this course will explore the very different forms of slavery and ‘unfreedoms’ that existed in social, cultural, political and economic systems in the Indian Ocean and Pacific worlds, and that predated the Common Era. The course thus aims ultimately to problematize and challenge the view of slavery as constituted exclusively by the dichotomous categories of chattel/free.

• MW, 10:20 AM-11:10 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

World War I: Global War

HIST-W203 with Professor Hsia

World War One is not only the seminal event of 20th century Europe, an Ur-catastrophe, but also a shattering and revolutionary moment around the globe. This course looks at but also beyond the western front and its trenches, and consider the experiences of soldiers, laborers, and non-combatants both within and outside of Europe in addition to the battles on land and at sea; and it treats the war as one waged between not just nations, but empires. Working with different kinds of historical sources that present a multitude of contemporary perspectives and experiences is emphasized. This course fulfills GenEd World Culture and S&H credits, and CASE S&H and GCC credits

• TR, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Medieval Heroes

HIST-B204 with Professor Shopkow

Yesterday’s heroes sometimes are today’s villains (I’m sure you can think of some). Sometimes they’re just forgotten (so who was Walter of Aquitaine anyway?) And someone you regard as a villain may be someone else’s hero. (Attila the Hun is a national hero in Hungary). We’ll explore how context makes someone a hero (or a villain), looking at three medieval heroes or types of heroes, saints (yes, saints are heroes!), warriors, and outlaws.

• MW, 4:45 PM-5:35 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Asian American History

HIST-A205 with Professor Wu

What’s the difference between an “Oriental” and an “Asian American”? If Americans usually think about race in black-white terms, where do “brown” or “yellow” people fit in? Why might asking someone who “appears” Asian, Arab, or Muslim “Where are you from?” be a loaded question? This course spotlights Asian American stories and vantage points to shake up conventional assumptions about being and belonging in US history.

• MW, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE DUS

Britain's Road to Modernity

HIST-H210 with Professor Kriegel

Great Britain is the country most visited by Americans today, with the exception of our North American neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Whether for our shared history or our shared language, for the monarchy and its celebrity, or for sports or maybe music, Britain has been a source of fascination for Americans across the centuries. In this course, we will study the culture, politics, and society of a nation that is at once strikingly similar to our own and also markedly different. Class meetings will include lecture, discussion, and interactive components. Readings will largely be primary sources available on Canvas. Assessment will be based on in-class tests or quizzes, writing exercises, online reading checks, attendance, and participation.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Latin American Culture & Civ I

HIST-H211 with Professor Diaz

• TR, 1:15 PM-2:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

The Black Death

HIST-H213 with Professor Craig

The bubonic plague has forced people all over the world to grapple with death, and the bacteria that caused these outbreaks is still with us today. We'll explore human response to crisis during these outbreaks by looking at art, written sources, clothing, and medical theory developed during plague outbreaks. From the sixth-century medieval Mediterranean world to 19th century China, from Renaissance England to 20th century Hawaii, we'll see how cultural similarities and differences shape plague response, and how these responses shape interactions between different cultures. From ancient primary sources to big-data analysis, we'll use a modern historian's tool box to explore the limits of what we can understand about the Black Death's past. We'll read approximately 40 pages a week of both primary sources and modern histories written by other historians, explore plague artwork as historical source, and write weekly reading reflections that connect personal experiences to pandemics. We'll do two individual projects, one mid-term and the other at the end of the semester, that can take the form of lesson plans, artwork, historical fiction, or historical essays but draw on all of the class readings to make a historical argument about change and continuity in responses to bubonic plague.

• ONLINE, ASYNCH-ASYNCH
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Ancient Leaders and Leadership

HIST-C220 with Professor Elliott

We investigate the lives and leadership of a diverse group of ancient Mediterranean leaders. How did these individuals rise to preeminence? Which ethical and cultural values shaped their choices? How did they change their world? Our subjects include Artemisia, Pericles, Socrates, Demosthenes, Alexander the Great, the Gracchi brothers, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Agrippina, Marcus Aurelius, Perpetua, Hypatia and Justinian the Great, among others. In addition to such leaders, Ancient Greek and Roman societies left behind compelling studies of leadership itself--a skill as valuable then as it is now. Leadership is fundamental to being human, and to cultivate leadership is to cultivate the best in humanity. Each week, students should expect to attend lectures and discussion sections, read around 30-60 pages and answer 4-8 multiple choice quiz questions. Writing assignments include several short papers and a final essay which evaluates the leadership qualities of an ancient leader.

• MW, 9:10 AM-10:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Law in America

HIST-A222 with Professor Gregg

How does legal history inform everyday life? Law in America examines the evolution of the U.S. legal system from the colonial era to the present through an emphasis on the shifting relationship between Americans and the state. Course materials include trials, judicial opinions, statutes, and films to study constitutional conflicts and other critical parts of the American legal experience. The course will help students understand why law has had a powerful role in the development of American society, and a comprehensive overview of U.S. legal history will complement the primary focus on the shifting interactions between Americans and the natural, social, and political resources upon which the nation was built.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H

Mafia & Other Italian Mysteries

HIST-B226 with Professor Ipsen

This is a course about the Sicilian mafia. The main text is John Dickie’s Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia. That work does also explore links to the US mafia, but our focus will be Italy (and more precisely Sicily). In addition to the mafia, we will look at related areas of Italian “deep politics” (or Italy’s mysteries) including: Salvatore Giuliano, right and left wing terror and the strategy of tension, the Vatican banking scandal, and the Tangentopoli scandal and Clean Hands investigation. Lecture and the main text is supplemented with assorted feature and documentary films and additional related fictional and non-fictional readings.

• ONLINE, ASYNCH-ASYNCH
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

African Civilizations

HIST-H227 with Professor Hanson

Do you want to know more about African history? Take this course to explore several African civilizations and to engage with African expressions in oral, written, visual, and musical formats. Class meetings include mini-lectures, discussions, and viewing video clips. Assigned readings include content on websites, accessible scholarly articles, and sections of historical texts written by Africans. Four exams assess knowledge of the African past and analytical skills. No prerequisite.

• TR, 1:15 PM-2:30 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

History of Birth

HIST-A240 with Professor Knott

What is the history to the dramatic scene that begins every life? What have been the experiences of American midwives and nurses, doctors and obstetricians, experts and neighbors, birthing mothers and anxious fathers? What changes came with the rise of medicine and hospitals, and the campaigns of reformers and critics? This course explores the birthing habits of Native, settler and enslaved women, the rise of male midwifery and obstetrics, the hospitalization of birth in the twentieth century, the natural childbirth and women’s liberation movements, and our contemporary scene of home and hospital birth.

• TR, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H

Jewish History: Bible to Span Expul

HIST-H251 with Professor Sidky

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, GenEd World Culture, CASE S&H, CASE GCC 

Inside Nazi Germany

HIST-B270 with Professor Pergher

To speak of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany is to conjure up images of marching automatons, extreme violence, war and genocide, all at the behest of a charismatic but perverse, brutal, deluded, and crazed dictator. But could this gigantic project really have been summoned into being by one man? What were the promises and goals that persuaded millions of Germans to support and fight for such a regime? Sign up and find out!

• TR, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills GenEd S&H, CASE S&H, CASE GCC, GenEd WC

Murder in America

HIST-A300 with Professor Gamber

What can murder tell us about American society and culture in particular times and places? How did trials, punishments, and media coverage shape and express ideas about crime, violence, justice, safety, class, race, gender, ethnicity, economy, and politics? And how did these ideas change over time? We’ll address these questions by investigating a variety of cases, some famous, some lesser known, over four centuries of American history.

• MW, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

US Advertising, PR & Propaganda

HIST-J300 with Professor Caddoo

How have advertising, PR, and propaganda attempted to influence the public's desires and opinions? How have ordinary people—workers, women, and racial minorities—responded? Our class will consider key moments in this strange and surprising history to better understand how public information and persuasion relate to Americans' contested definitions of citizenship, democracy, and capitalism. In doing so, this class aims to equip students will the tools they need to ask, research, and understand the history of advertising, PR, and propaganda for themselves. This is a writing-intensive course. Students are expected to complete weekly reading and writing assignments, actively participate in class discussions, and produce an original research paper based on primary and secondary sources.

• T, 3:00 PM-5:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Medieval Queens and Empresses

HIST-J300 with Professor Deliyannis

Queens and empresses in Europe and the Mediterranean, from the late Roman empire to the fourteenth century, could exercise a significant amount of authority. In this writing-intensive seminar, we will read about, write about, and discuss the way these rulers achieved political power, the kinds of authority they could exercise, who they married, what behaviors were expected of them, and how their personalities impacted their regions.

• TR, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

The East India Company

HIST-J300 with Professor Dodson

In the year 1600, a group of English merchants banded together to form a company to pursue the spice trade in the East Indies. By 1800, that same company - the East India Company - sported an army of 250,000 men, a fleet of hundreds of ships, and ruled large portions of the Indian subcontinent. How did a company come to be world’s greatest imperial power in the nineteenth century? How did the pursuit of trade turn to the ruling of an empire? This course will examine the rise, and fall, of the East India Company between 1600 and 1858. Through a series of close readings of primary sources, we will examine the cultural, social, and economic strategies of the Company and try to understand how the Company changed India during these two centuries. Topics will range from financial corruption, personal avarice, near-fatal duels, land grabs, and racial discrimination to imperial art, fiction, and cross-cultural love affairs. And our cast of characters will include Robert Clive, a man whose ambition was matched only by his pathos, and Begam Samru, a wealthy female ruler in northern India who was not only ruthless but also a great patron of the arts. Your grade will be determined on the basis of class participation and several writing assignments. SHORT: In 1800 the East India Company, a British for-profit corporation, sported an army of 250,000 men, a fleet of hundreds of ships, and ruled large portions of the Indian subcontinent. In this class we will investigate how a company came to be world’s greatest imperial power in the nineteenth century.

• T, 1:15 PM-3:45 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Russian Expansionism

HIST-J300 with Professor Griffin

During the 2022-23 Russia-Ukraine war the Russian government has repeatedly justified its actions with references to Russian and East European history, including premodern history. Medieval Kyivan Rus’, the hetmanate of Ukraine, the takeover of Central Asia, and the colony of Russian America have all been woven into Russian propaganda. This course takes contemporary Russian propaganda as the starting point to look at the real history of the Russian Empire to better understand why the twenty-first-century Kremlin finds premodern history so useful.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Life and Times of Evita Peron

HIST-J300 with Professor James

• W, 4:30 PM-7:00 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Reproduction in the Archives

HIST-J300 with Professor Knott

What story of reproduction emerges from the archives? This new course in recent history investigates reproduction in two broad senses: pregnancy/birth and children/care. To do so, we will visit a series of Bloomington archives, from the photographic holdings of the Monroe County History Center, to oral histories held at IU’s Center for Documentary Research and Practice, to the live-in childcare program documented in the IU Archives, to the modern memoirs of the Wells Library Collection. We will spend particular time in the feminist birth archive newly arriving at the Kinsey Institute, which holds everything from activist materials to midwifery records to the experiences of birth givers. We will talk with visitors to the class – experts in archiving or in activism or in care and birthwork.
This is an upper-level intensive writing course. Alongside investigating the kinds of primary sources left behind by the twentieth and twenty-first-century pasts, we will think about writing in the present day. Participants will have the opportunity to explore different forms of writing and to undertake research and writing of their own on a topic that emerges from our archival explorations. The course should be of especial interest to a variety of majors interested in the topics of reproduction, birth and care, from any angle; to former students of H270 What Is History? or A240 History of Birth or W300 Working in the Archives; and to those who love to read, to talk and to write.

• R, 1:15 PM-3:45 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Cradle of Globalization

HIST-J300 with Professor Machado

Often described as the ‘cradle of globalization’, the Indian Ocean encompasses a vast area of diverse societies (one-third of all the countries of the world, and one-third of the world’s population are located around its shores) whose extensive and deep interactions were crucial in shaping the emergence of a globalizing world by the 12th and 13th centuries. The range of social, economic and cultural networks that these societies created across the ocean – scattered from Australia and Southeast Asia, to South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and the East and South African coast – wove peoples together and structured the dynamics that allowed the later coexistence of European, Asian and African exchange. We explore some of the history of the people and societies who have "made" the global worlds of the Indian Ocean over more than 5,000 years, and will look closely at the interactions between regions and powers, at commercial exchange and the voluntary and involuntary movement of peoples, ideas and things around the ocean from ancient to modern times.

• M, 1:50 PM-4:20 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Making A Living in North America

HIST-J300 with Professor Nichols

1492 initiated not the discovery of a New World, but the colonization of a very old world, where tens of millions of people had been making their livings for thousands of years. Focusing on North America, HIST J 300 will examine how Indigenous Americans subsisted and prospered before 1492, and how they changed their economic cultures in the aftermath of the deadly European encounter. Among other subjects, we will study regional subsistence practices (fishing, hunting, plant food processing), pre-Columbian trade, wealth redistribution, the impact of disease and land loss, and Indigenous peoples’ adaptation to commercial debt, wage labor, and assimilationist policies.

• TR, 11:30 AM-12:45 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

Fields, Factories, Food Vendors

HIST-J300 with Professor Ortega

Workers, workers’ rights, and unionizing efforts have gained traction in the last few years as politicians, pundits, and the public have grappled with and reevaluated the meaning of “workers.” Yet this history of labor organizing in the U.S. dates back to the late nineteenth century and it captured national attention for much of the twentieth century. By focusing on the historical meanings of work and working-class cultures, we will look at the methods and practices of labor history, social history, and cultural studies, to examine the lives of working people. Throughout the course, we will be examining relations of power by looking closely at ideas about race, class, ethnicity, and gender. Specifically, we will explore how these ideas have shaped working-class lives, informed class relations, and organized communities.

• TR, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

The Case of Prostitution

HIST-J300 with Professor Roos

By focusing on the example of prostitution, this course explores how we can use gender history to shed fresh light on a range of major aspects including class relations, state structures, scientific and medical beliefs, the market, colonialism, and race. Students will engage with a variety of analytical approaches to the study of prostitution, thus learning about the different ways in which historians define their subject matter and go about examining it. Topics include, for example, prostitution in the age of industrialization, historical efforts to legalize commercial sex, feminist campaigns against state-regulated prostitution, twentieth-century movements for prostitutes’ rights, and prostitution under colonialism. We will also address more recent debates about the question of whether selling sexual services is “a job like any other.” The course offers comparative perspectives on modern Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa. This is a writing-intensive course aiming to help students improve and polish their writing skills. Requirements: regular participation; short oral presentations; several short papers; one 12-15 page essay. Select readings: Timothy J. Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920; Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations; Luise White, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi.

• W, 10:20 AM-12:50 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, IW

World Cities

HIST-W300 with Professor Dodson

The experience of the city is the defining experience of the modern age. Indeed, the twentieth century is a time of astonishing urbanization, with a ten-fold increase in the world’s urban population. About 4.5 billion people - more than half the population of the globe - now live in cities. This course is devoted to exploring the evolution of urban space in a range of different contexts, from New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City, to Tokyo, New Delhi, and Lagos. We will enquire into the conditions that have driven the growth of cities, the problems cities often face, and the attempts over the past two centuries to plan the growth and structure of cities. In addition, this course will examine the ways people have experienced and conceptualized the city; how they have lived, worked, and died in them. The city has been understood by many as a center of vice, crime, and immorality, for example, and by others as the pinnacle of a civilized modern life – the place where the best of a society’s culture is produced and consumed, in other words. Lastly, we will pay special attention to the way in which cities are destroyed, whether in the literary or filmic imagination, or by all too real natural and man-made phenomena. We will draw on a range of source to illuminate the history of the modern city and the urban experience, including literature and film, ranging from the work of Charles Dickens, George Orwell, and Suketu Mehta, to ‘Metropolis’, ‘Blade Runner’, and ‘Salaam Bombay’. Your grade will be determined by a series of short essays and exams. SHORT: The experience of the city is the defining experience of the modern age. This course is devoted to exploring the evolution of urban space in a range of different contexts, from New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City, to Tokyo, New Delhi, and Lagos.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

Rise and Fall of Roman Republic

HIST-C320 with Professor Elliott

We study the rise of the Romans, their institutions, culture, society and the course of their impressive history—from the mythical founding of the city of Rome until the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. We examine transformations in slavery, urbanization, shifting loyalties in the military from the state to individual generals, the spread of Roman goods and coins throughout the Mediterranean, religious innovations and the rise of warlords. We also consider daily life. What was it like to live, work and practice religion in a world which was surprisingly very different to our own? Finally, we will learn how to critically and conscientiously evaluate the evidence left behind by Romans themselves—2,000+ year old words of Roman authors along with a variety of other primary source material. This course will involve roughly 40-80 pages of reading per week, two research papers and regular quiz questions.

• MW, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

Modern Ukraine

HIST-D320 with Professor Saburova

It is Ukraine, not the Ukraine! What do you know about the country that has been on the front pages since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine? Why did Putin want Ukraine and how did he distort history to contest Ukrainian statehood? We will explore the history of Ukraine, the second largest sovereign state in Europe, learning about its geography and people, times of political turmoil, wars, and nation-building. We examine how the history of Ukraine was entangled with that of Poland, Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, and look at twentieth century history through the prism of Ukraine, from a Soviet republic to an independent state, from the Orange Revolution to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidency. But our course is not a simple linear narrative, we will explore the Ukrainian past through the history and culture of different places, “traveling” to Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Odesa, Mariupol, Lviv, and Sevastopol, to hear the voices of people and see history in these cities. We will read excerpts from Ukrainian literature and memoirs, watch films, and study maps and museum collections. Readings: Serhy Yekelchyk, Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) to purchase, all other readings will be available on Canvas. Requirements: two writing responses (@1200 words), a final StoryMap project, preparation, and participation in class discussions.

• MW, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

The Habsburg Empire, 1780-1918

HIST-D327 with Professor Hsia

You can’t find it on the map, but it started WWI and shaped your world! The Habsburg Empire in its last stage, the modernization of Central and Eastern Europe. Was it a prison of nations? Was it a wantonly ruined opportunity of liberal multiculturalism? Was it a doomed anachronism, or a unique modernizing state? The Habsburg Empire, with 50 million of people of diverse cultures and a dozen official languages, looked uncannily like an EU before the EU in both its problems and promises. Or as Arthur Schnitzler suggested, it was “a laboratory for world destruction?” We will explore the transformation of East Central Europe from the age of Enlightenment to the end of the First World War. This class fulfills CASE S&H and GCC credits

• TR, 4:45 PM-6:00 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

Modern Argentina

HIST-F340 with Professor James

• TR, 3:00 PM-5:30 PM
• 8W2
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

Byzantine History

HIST-B348 with Professor Deliyannis

For over a thousand years (AD 330-1453), the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful and splendid societies in the world, far overshadowing the emerging countries of western Europe. This class surveys the political, cultural, religious, and social life of this medieval empire, and its capital city, Constantinople.

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

Hoosier Nation: Indiana History

HIST-A363 with Professor Sandweiss

Our Subject: The history of Indiana--and of the people who lived, died, came to, or departed from here, in the days from 1760 until next week. Our Goals: To see with new eyes a place that we look at every day…To understand how regions and states have been set apart, or brought together, in American history, and to ask if they still matter…To build knowledge of the past that helps us to understand our present…To read, write, research, and converse--fearlessly, clearly, empathetically, effectively. Our Work: We’ll read a mix (c. 50-75 pp. per week) of primary documents, fiction, essays, and other historical evidence, combined with one text: James Madison’s Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana. We will hear from guest speakers and take a few nearby field trips. We’ll share opinions in regular online dialogue. We’ll produce original tour itineraries, introducing the public to sites that relate to a historical theme of each student’s choosing. Oh, and we’ll take a midterm and a final.

• TR, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

Greek History: Bronze Age to the Persian Wars

HIST-C376 with Professor Robinson

Learn about ancient Greek history from the legendary Bronze Age to the flourishing city-states of Classical Greece. Topics will include the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, the Trojan War, the Greek Dark Age, the rebirth of Greek culture in the Archaic period, the age of tyrants, the beginnings of philosophy, the world’s first democracies, and Herodotus’ history of the Persian Wars.

• TR, 1:15 PM-2:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

The Sixties

HIST-A382 with Professor McGerr

• TR, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

China: the Later Empires

HIST-G383 with Professor Schlesinger

This course provides an overview of Chinese history in the period 755-1850. It surveys the events, processes, and people that defined imperial China during its second millennium: the rise of the south, the coming of the Mongol and Manchu empires, the flourishing of the exam system and print culture, and dramatic environmental, social, and international upheavals that brought the old order to its heals. Through this long stretch of history, we ask: what traditions bound China together, and what transformations tore it apart? What were the key turning points, and what were the engines of change? The course finds answers across a broad range of human experience. Themes covered include the shifting identities and roles of men and women, the debates surrounding love, war and foreign relations, environmental pressures, and trends in popular culture, fashion, ethics, and law.

• TR, 1:15 PM-2:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE GCC

Evolution/Creation Controversy

HIST-A388 with Professor Weinberg

Nearly a century after the historic 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial about the teaching of evolutionary science in public schools, the issue refuses to go away. Millions watched online as Bill Nye “the science guy” debated evolution with Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis. Ham’s group built a multi-million-dollar Creation Museum in Kentucky and recently opened a gigantic Ark Encounter theme park. At the same time, over 150 years after Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, evolutionary scientists have accumulated a vast amount of evidence for evolution, which is now the bedrock of modern biology. Why does the controversy persist? How has it evolved over the past century? Why do people care so much about this issue? How can it be resolved? This course will explore these questions and more through readings, films, discussions, and field trips.

• TR, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM

Honors Seminar

HIST-K392 with Professor Schlesinger

An intensive, practical exploration of the nature of professional history and the pleasure of pursuing your own research. Looking closely at how historians think and work, you will frame, investigate, draft, and revise a written project of your choice. The course is prerequisite for History’s Honors Paper (K498) and Honors Thesis (K499).

• M, 3:00 PM-5:30 PM
• Fulfills IW

Sex, Lies, & Diaries

HIST-A395 with Professor Myers

Interracial Sex. It’s a topic that continues to generate intense public debate. Based on the understanding that sex lies at the heart of US History, and that narratives about interracial sex have been fundamental to the creation and maintenance of core societal beliefs, this course focuses on sex in the US South prior to 1865. Designed to deepen our understanding of the Old South, we go beyond traditional examinations of the region, which focus on enslaved Black women and white male plantation owners, to engage in a more multi-faceted analysis. Class materials will bring Native peoples, free Blacks, non-slaveholding whites, urban dwellers, and women of various backgrounds into conversation with enslaved persons, rural folks, slaveowners, and white men in order to construct a more detailed portrait of life in the antebellum South.

• TR, 1:15 PM-2:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H, CASE DUS

Environmental History

HIST-J400 with Professor Gregg

Environmental history examines the changing relationships between human beings and the natural world. Students in this class will use an environmental lens to open new vantage points on the familiar stories that compose our knowledge of world history, illuminating different patterns and opening fresh questions about historical change. This course focuses particularly on exploring the intersections between race, economics, migration, and nation building across time and space. Over the semester we will seek to better examine contemporary and historical environmental issues though a more critical and nuanced understanding of historical contingency and its lasting impacts on planetary life.

• M, 10:20 AM-12:50 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

Empires in World History

HIST-J400 with Professor Pergher

Do you have a favorite empire in world history? Join this class and explore in depth a topic that you feel passionate about. Learn how to develop a research question, identify and analyze primary sources, formulate an argument, and write cogently about your favorite empire.

• W, 3:00 PM-5:30 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

Women's History

HIST-J400 with Professor Ransford

• T, 11:30 AM-2:00 PM
• Fulfills CASE S&H

History Capstone Seminar

HIST-J425 with Professor Diaz

• W, 10:20 AM-12:50 PM

History Capstone Seminar

HIST-J425 with Professor Roseman

This is the capstone course for the History and Social Studies major, enabling students to pursue whatever aspect of history interests them, and to do so in one of many different formats, including a paper, a documentary film, a museum exhibit, or an online production. Course participants also share their expertise with other members of the seminar by means of an oral presentation.

• W, 3:00 PM-5:30 PM

History Capstone Seminar

HIST-J425 with Professor Sandweiss

Working together and individually, you will plan and complete an original research essay or similar project (eg a podcast, exhibition script, etc.).

• W, 10:00 AM-12:30 PM