Fall 2012 Course Descriptions
100gm The American Experience Perl-Rosenthal Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
This course will cover patterns of American development from colonial to the present.
101g The Ancient World Fischer-Bovet Tu/Th 12:00-1:50pm
Course Description:
This course fulfills the General Education requirement in Category I, Western Cultures and Traditions, and introduces students to the history and culture of the ancient world from the beginning of humankind until the fragmentation of the Mediterranean world around 500 CE. It will provide them with a global historical perspective and will teach students to think historically by connecting past and present and by asking questions of the past for a better understanding of the present. We will alternate between a comparative world approach and more in-depth investigations of the political, socio-economic and cultural developments occurring in the Mediterranean basin. Our unifying analytical framework will allow us to examine how human beings in different cultural areas responded differently to common problems and how this variety of responses shaped the society, economy, and polity over time.
Students will learn how to use and analyze primary sources, from the critical reading of literary texts, inscriptions, and papyri (in translation) to the examination of monumental buildings and tombs. Starting with the expansion of agriculture and the growth of the first empires in Mesopotamia and Egypt, we will explore processes behind imperialism, movement of population, and cultural interaction and we will point out the place of these different civilizations in the western imagination. We will observe the emergence of democratic city-states in Greece and the intellectual developments that took place in this context. We will scrutinize the growth of trade and the appearance of large cities. We will discuss the rise and fall of empires, compare the trajectories of Rome and China and trace the spread of Christianity.
Objectives:
By the end of the class, the students should feel comfortable in:
• Mapping the key events in the world history until around 500 CE.
• Developing critical thinking for analyzing and contextualizing the main original sources (in translation) and for comparing the range of human responses to common problems.
• Reflecting on their assumptions about their own culture and connecting historical debate to present issues.
102gm Medieval People: Early Europe and its Neighbors, 400-1500 Bennett Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
This course introduces you to the history of medieval Europe, with special focus on its diverse peoples and encounters. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we’ll focus on the nitty-gritty of history—you’ll prepare for class by reading a textbook, and I’ll build from that reading in lectures. On Fridays, discussion sections will allow us to read and discuss documents from the Middle Ages. Chosen for the light they throw on matters of diversity, these documents will help us discuss such things as how the Roman viewed the first Christians, how the English and Irish got along (or did not), how women and men negotiated medieval gender rules, how medieval people thought about differences of “class” and “rank,” and how medieval Christians, Jews, and Muslims interacted. I expect that your work will be assessed in weekly quizzes, two short papers, and a final examination.
104g Modern Europe Lerner Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
This course provides a thematic exploration of the history of modern Europe from the Enlightenment through the end of the Twentieth Century. We emphasize five major themes in our tour through the modern European past: (1) The Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the meaning of the Modern; (2) Industrialization, Social Class, and the Liberal Imagination; (3) Marxism and the Revolutionary Tradition; (4) Race, Empire and Europe’s Place in the World; and (5) Mass Death in the Twentieth Century.
Partial Reading List (subject to change):
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Roger Griffin ed., Fascism (Oxford)
G. E. Lessing, Nathan the Wise
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Voltaire, Candide
105g The Korean Past Hwang M/W 12:00-1:50pm
Course Description:
Several themes will run through our exploration of Korean history from the very beginning of historical records to the present day: 1. Korean Identity and Character; 2. Relationship to the Outside World; 3. Forms of Political Rule; 4. Social Order and Hierarchy; 5. Women and Family; 6. Religion; and 7. Economy and Daily Life. These themes, often interacting with each other, will appear repeatedly, and the challenge will be to determine how each theme remains consistent as well as how each theme develops in accordance with the historical context of any given time. A final important theme will be the country’s Modern Transformation, especially its history in the 20th century, when Korea, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, was bombarded with the full range of economic, political, social, and cultural change that characterized the modern world.
Readings:
KM Hwang, A History of Korea (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010; also available as Kindle ebook)
Atlas of Korean History (Stallion Press, 2004)
Various primary source readings
Assignments and Examinations:
A short chapter from both course books must be read before each lecture session to compare the two works to each other and, eventually, to the lectures. There will also be four short written assignments (2-3 pages each) that analyze and critique the primary source readings and the course texts. Students will take a traditional in-class midterm examination, which will be in essay format, and, in lieu of a final examination, they will pursue a final research project on a theme to be determined in consultation with the instructor or teaching assignments. Finally, all students will need to pass a map quiz by the third week of class.
106g Chinese Lives: An Introduction to Chinese History Sheehan Tu/Th 12:30-1:50pm
Course Description:
This class looks at Chinese history from the beginning of recorded history to the present by focusing on three themes: 1) What is China and what does it mean to be Chinese? Is there a single geographical or political entity that can, over time, be identified as China, or are there beliefs, family structures, ideologies or cultural patterns which can be defined as Chinese? Alternatively, is “China” just a modern construct? 2) Who were the Chinese elites, how did they exercise dominance and how did hierarchies change over time? How can Chinese history help us understand the concept of monarchy or “kingship”? 3) What has been China’s place in the larger world context and how does that affect our understanding of Chinese and world history?
The class teaches critical thinking by asking students to read and analyze primary sources (in English) and then use those sources in a series of short papers.
Readings:
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, China: a Cultural, Social, and Political History, Houghton Mifflin, 0-618-13387-9
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, ed., Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, second edition, Free Press, 0-02-908752
Selections from Sang Ye, China Candid: People on the People’s Republic, available through the USC library as an electronic resource. Just search for “China Candid” on Homer and follow the links.
Selections from Sang Ye, China Candid: People on the People’s Republic, available through the USC library as an electronic resource. Just search for “China Candid” on Homer and follow the links.
180 The Middle East Rouighi Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the historical study of the Middle East. It will examine ancient, medieval, and modern sources in context.
225g Film, Power, and American History Ross M/W 10:00-11:50am
Course Description:
Course Description: Few contemporary institutions have a greater effect on molding popular understandings of the world than film and television. Yet, most citizens lack the critical tools to contextualize, analyze, and critique the images and ideologies conveyed on the screen. This course is designed to join elements of film studies with various schools of historical thought to provide students with the critical skills needed to analyze the images and ideologies they see on the screen and understand how those images effect our views of the past and present. This course is part of the Social Issues category of GE. We examine many of the fundamental social, political, and economic problems that have shaped the 20th century: industrialization, urbanization, war, poverty, crime, politics, success, race, class, and gender conflict. We will analyze these issues from three different perspectives: (a) films made during the period that address those issues; (b) primary documents that shed light on those issues; (c) historical overviews of those issues. It is the student's job to figure out which of these perspectives seems most convincing, why it seems so, and the implications of one form of knowledge being more powerful than another.
Class Format: Monday meetings will provide students with a broad overview of the era. They feature a lecture and clips from various news films and documentaries about the era. Wednesdays will generally be spent viewing and discussing films (two caveats on films: films listed in syllabus are subject to change depending on availability; my goal is to show repetition of certain kinds of images—consequently we will often see only parts of listed films). Students will learn how to "read" the political ideology embedded in films. ALL Students must enroll in a weekly discussion section. Discussion sections will be run as seminars in which students will analyze the week's readings and discuss the similarities and dissimilarities in what historians, primary sources, and filmmakers say about a particular era. We will also try to reach some final synthesis concerning the popular images and realities of the age. What can movies tell us that history books cannot? What can history books can tell us that movies cannot?
Requirements: The course includes a midterm (20%), final exam (30%), and term paper due April. 146(20%); class participation (including written assignments) will constitute an additional 30% of the final grade. We expect students to attend ALL classes and discussion sections; unexcused absence from class or discussion section will affect your grade. All work submitted must be written entirely by the student. Plagiarism will result in an F in the course and the initiation of expulsion proceedings. Discussion readings must be completed by Friday.
Required Readings:
Robert Marcus & David Burner, America Firsthand, VOL II (*course packet at bookstore)
Steven J. Ross, Movies and American Society
Steven J. Ross, Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America
Elaine May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (20th anniversary edtn.)
Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (4th edtn)
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (Centennial edtn; Thomas Pynchon preface)
240g The History of California Deverell Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
History 240g is a broad survey of the history of California. Moving quickly through historical periods across, especially, the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, our aim is to get hold of, and analyze, the shifting meaning and significance of California through time. The course will pay particular attention to social, cultural, and political history, but we will also zero in on such issues as environmental and economic history. History 240g is also designed to highlight the remarkable diversity and ethnic/racial complexity of the California past; as such, we can expect to examine such closely such themes as Native American history, African American history, and the histories of other diverse peoples here on the Pacific Coast. History 240g is a lecture-driven course, and you must also enroll in a discussion section accompanying the lectures.
300 Approaches to History Block Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the academic discipline of history. The goal of the course is to introduce students to multiple approaches to history and methods of doing history. Many of the readings are classics in the field, intended to acquaint you with a range of scholarship. Students are encouraged to think independently and originally – therefore student participation in class discussions is required. Written work will also emphasize students’ own thinking about history. We will pay particular attention to past and present trends in studying the history of the American West.
300 Approaches to History Ethington Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
This is a small seminar (limit 15 students) class with an emphasis on in-class discussions and intensive, student-focused reviews of written work.
How do know about the past? How do historians and others decide how to interpret the past of their own nation? When (and where, how and why) does the transition from “current events” to “historical events” take place? When issues of great moral gravity are involved, can historical representation achieve any sort of neutral, objective, or factual status? What should be the goal of historical interpretation when intrinsically ethical questions of justice, loyalty, national identity, national defense, war crimes, and human rights are concerned?
The reading assignments for this course have been selected with a twofold intent. Several assigned readings provide a grounding in the general “approaches to history” typical of the last several generations of professional historians. The rest of the assigned readings focus on the particular case of interpreting the past of the Second World War. Based on these readings, students are expected to develop their own answers to the questions posed above, and apply them to the case of the deliberate mass killing of civilians by the United States and the Allied forces during World War II.
300 Approaches to History Bitel W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course will cover intellectual and personal dimensions of the historian’s work. This course is required of all history majors.
300 Approaches to History Sheehan Tu/Th 3:30-4:50pm
Course Description:
Students in this course will learn the methods of historical inquiry through practice in finding and using both secondary and primary sources.
Each week we will discuss a different kind of primary source and through a series of assignments students will learn how to use these different kinds of sources in historical inquiry. The idea is to practice the skills of history. How do you read a scholarly article? How do you find one? What’s a monograph? How can we use objects of material culture as primary sources? Is Wikipedia a help or a hindrance? What are the pitfalls of oral history? This class will help you answer these and many more questions by giving you an opportunity to practice the methods yourself.
Students will complete a final assignment revising a Wikipedia article.
313 France and the French from Napoleon to Mitterand Accampo Tu/Th 12:30-1:50pm
Course Description:
Why study France? In the relatively brief span of two hundred years in French history, one can find examples of almost every kind of political development in western civilization, ranging from absolute monarchies and right-wing oligarchies to radical democratic and socialist republics. Like the United States, the modern era in France began with democratic revolution, lending in some respects a common heritage to the two nations and long-standing affinities between them. But as we have seen with recent events, these two nations also have profound differences rooted in the divergent paths their respective histories have taken. While the U.S. had one revolution, and has had the same constitution for over 200 years, the French road to democracy was far more twisted—and in fact more typical of the modern world. It included four revolutions and a civil war, two Empires and a fascist (or fascist-like) regime. The goal of this course is to understand how repeated revolution and reaction in France shaped several currents within national identity—political, cultural, military, and gendered—and how French national identity in turn shaped the course of its history. Beginning with a brief overview of the 1789 Revolution and Napoleonic regime, we will examine economic, social, cultural, and intellectual developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that resulted in the paradoxical coexistence of revolutionary and reactionary traditions, and such tragedies as the rapid military defeats by Germans in 1870 and in World War II, collaboration with the Nazis, and imperialistic wars whose roots dated back to the nineteenth century. The course will end with an assessment of French colonial and race relations, the Algerian War, and current issues of ethnic tensions including the reason murders in Toulouse.
Readings will be selected from the following:
Vanessa Schwartz, Modern France: A Very Short Introduction
Lynn Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History
Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil
Michael Burns, France and the Dreyfus Affair
Emile Zola, Ladies’ Paradise
Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Française
Fadela Amara, Breaking the Silence
Mehdi Charef, Tea in the Harem
Films:
Life and Nothing But (Bernard Tavernier, 1989)
The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 1969)
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
324g Islam in Russian and the Soviet Union Rorlich M/W 10:00-11:50am
Course Description:
This course is designed for General Education credit in the category Cultures and Civilizations II. It focuses on the study of those Inner Eurasian societies whose cultures and identities were shaped by Islam, as well as by their encounter with the colonial ”other”, be it in its Tsarist or Soviet form. Consequently, it is aimed at equipping students with the basic empirical information and analytical approaches that will enable them to understand the dynamics of religion, culture, and politics in shaping one of the world’s major civilizations. Guided by a comparative perspective, this class focuses on an area outside the “core” Middle Eastern countries, and makes a contribution to better understanding the cultural diversity of the “Muslim World” against the background of its unity of faith. Its focus on an area outside the “core” makes it possible to identify the remarkable diversity of “Russian Islam”, forged as it was, by the interaction of the settled and nomadic, urban and rural, Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
325 Early Modern Britain Herrup Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
This course provides an introduction to the history and culture of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Britain (primarily England.) We will devote time to the traditional "milestones" of the period (the Reformation, Colonization, the English Civil War), but we will try to understand these events in their social context rather than as the achievements of great individuals or as the reflection of innate national character. Using a combination of contemporary documents and recent scholarship, we will explore the tensions (and the public discussion of these tensions) between male and female, rich and poor, English and non-English, Protestant and Catholic that shaped events and were in turn shaped by them. We won't ignore constitutions, monarchs and great battles, but we will also pay particular attention to gender relations, family life, and community structure.
Reading will be a mixture of primary and secondary documents. The class will combine informal lectures, discussion and hands-on work with documents. Assignments will include two exams, three brief essays and a 10-15 page research paper. Readings will include material by Thomas More, Elizabeth I, and Samuel Pepys, but also the histories of some less familiar contemporaries as well as fictional characters such as Robinson Crusoe.
327 Twentieth Century Britain O’Neill M/W 10:00-11:50am
Course Description:
Through the course of the twentieth century Britain went from having an empire upon which the sun never set to being reduced almost to the size of Shakespeare’s “blessed plot.” Yet, Britain today is obviously not Shakespeare’s England and the twentieth century left indelible marks – the “lost generation” of World War I, Churchill and the Blitz, the growth of the welfare state and the loss of empire. The century was one of vast change and, if not decline, than of reconfiguration. The twentieth century forced the British to reconceptualize the place of the state in their lives and the place of their country in the world. In this course we will try to figure out why these changes occurred, how the British dealt with them, and what they say about Britain’s future. To do so we will focus upon Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world, upon the economic, social and psychological consequences of two world wars, upon the British people’s ideas about class and the growth of the welfare state and finally upon Britons’ conception of themselves and their own history.
Readings & Films:
John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps
Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth
George Orwell, The Orwell Reader
Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags
Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners
Julian Barnes, England, England
Gunga Din (1939)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Look Back in Anger (1958)
Seven-Up (1964)
The Filth & the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film (2000)
28-Up (1984)
The Queen (2006)
49-Up (2005)
331 The British Empire O’Neill Tu/Th 3:30-4:40pm
Course Description:
Everyone knows that at some point “the sun never set on the British Empire,” but rarely do we think about how it rose in the first place, this is the question this class seeks to explore. We will begin by looking at how social, religious and economic impulses slowly pushed the British to establish colonies and trading connections across a wide segment of the globe. We will examine how people thought about these colonies and the people they encountered (and how those people thought about them). We will then turn to the establishment of an intertwined Atlantic economy and the rise of the slave trade. Then the implications of this empire will be brought under consideration: Did it create alternate societies? How did it impact people’s sense of identity? Did gender play a role? How confident in their supposed superiority were the British? Next, we will look at the eruption of the American Revolution and the abolition of slavery and whether the period following it saw the birth of a second British Empire.
Readings:
Nicholas Canny, ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 1: The Origins of Empire
P.J. Marshall, ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 2: The Eighteenth Century
Stephen H. Gregg, ed., Empire and Identity: An Eighteenth Century Sourcebook
Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600-1850
Peter Mancall, Envisioning America
Alpha Behn, Oroonoko
335 History of Japan to 1550 Piggott M/W 12:00-1:50pm
Course Description:
History 335 explores the history of Japan up to 1600. In addition to a textbook, we will read and discuss a wide array of primary sources including works of literature and art as well as artifacts unearthed by archaeologists. The course is particularly designed to help you practice a variety of skills useful for the study of history and other fields for which close reading, analysis, and report writing are necessary. Regular class attendance—preceded by careful preparation--is required, as is writing occasional short essays with a midterm and a final examination. Reading for the course averages 120 pages weekly. For every hour spent in class, you are expected to spend two hours preparing—whether reading, writing, or reviewing.
336 History of Japan, 1550-1945 Godart Tu 3:30-6:20pm
Course Description:
In this course, we will follow the story of the emergence of modern Japan, from the age of warring samurai to the end of the Japanese Empire in 1945. This trajectory can be divided into two large periods. During the Tokugawa period (1603-1867), Japan was ruled by the samurai class, was divided into domains, and largely at peace with its neighbors. In the Imperial period (1868-1945), Japan became a nation state unified under the Emperor, embarked on a rapid modernization, became a regional superpower, engaged in a series of wars, and created a colonial empire. The main aim of this course will be to understand the changes and continuities between these two periods. A major theme that will run through the course will be how notions of national identity are subject to historical change, and in Japan’s case through changing relations with both Asia and the West. We will see in detail how a unified “Japanese” identity was constructed in the process of the creation of a modern nation-state. The course will be a mix of lecture and discussion. We will read a variety of texts, with a special emphasis on original Japanese texts in English translation.
Course Format: This course will consist of a mix between lectures and discussions, with mostly lectures on Tuesdays, and discussion on Thursdays. The textbook for this class is Andrew Gordon’s A Modern History of Japan, which will give you a general overview. In class, we will focus on specific texts, mostly primary sources.
348 The Dynamics of American Capitalism Block Tu/Th 12:30-1:50pm
Course Description:
This course will explore changes and continuities in American capitalism from the Colonial era to the present. Students will look at the economy of the past through many lenses, including consumption and production, labor and management, market formation and globalization. The course will pay particular attention to the upheavals of industrialization, and will also investigate various American alternatives to capitalism including utopian movements. Readings will include selections from fiction such as Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and the writings of Ambrose Bierce, as well as works by historians such as T. H. Breen and Steven J. Ross.
349 Colonial North America 1600-1760 Finucane Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
In this course we will cover the history of North America from early settlement to the eve of Revolution. This includes the histories of the English, Spanish, and French empires on the continent and in the Caribbean; the native groups with which these empires interacted; and the enslaved African laborers brought to North American shores. We will explore the area from Canada to Mexico, from the Puritan colonies of New England to the fortifications in Virginia, and from the plantations of Jamaica to the revolts in the American southwest. In colonial North America, Europeans, Africans, and native groups encountered each other in a changing landscape, and together created a new world.
360 19th Century U.S. History Woodhouse Tu/Th 12:30-1:50pm
Course Description:
This course will cover the nineteenth century, perhaps the most pivotal in American history. This was the century in which the United States began as a minor economic power and ended as the most productive nation in the world; in which the nation more than doubled in size geographically; and in which Americans fought each other and nearly split the country apart. Our major themes will be race and democracy; capitalism and industry; expansion and imperialism; and politics and the federal government. We will try to understand the choices Americans made in the nineteenth century - choices that both determined the direction of American society and questioned the achievement of American ideals.
374 History of Mexico Becker Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
In this course students enter the worlds Mexican men and women of multiple ethnicities have made from before the sixteenth century Spanish conquest until the 21st century. The class includes Mexican political and economic history, but its focus is the astonishing ways that both elite and particularly ordinary Mexican men and women have shaped their worlds. Students are encouraged to develop a historically empathic approach to Mexicans as distinctive as the pre-conquest Aztec indigenous people the twentieth century popular revolutionaries, the artist Frida Kahlo. In particular, the course introduces students to Mexican political culture, Mexican art and literature, and to patterns of Mexican resistance to elite domination.
380 American Popular Culture Ross W 12:00-1:50pm
Course Description:
Focus for Fall 2012: “Hollywood, Politics, and Popular Culture, 1920s-1950s”
Preface: Americans today like to talk nostalgically about World War II as the “Good War,” a war where the forces of “good” and “evil” were easy to identify. But in the mid 1930s, the real horror for politically engaged citizens was how few people wanted to hear about the lurking dangers of Nazism. Whatever we might wish to think today, during the 1930s the vast majority of Americans preferred to turn a blind eye to evil outside their borders: 95 percent of those polled in November 1936 opposed U.S. participation in any European conflict. As late as July 1941, another Gallup poll reported 79 percent of the respondents opposed the U.S. entering war against Germany and Italy.
Description: This fall, instead of offering a broad survey, the course will run as an introductory research seminar that focuses on the theme of Hollywood, Politics, and Popular Culture from the 1920s to the 1950s. The course will examine how the forces of fascism, communism, and democracy often clashed during this era—especially as the world got closer to the onset of World War II, and most notably in the arena of mass culture. In particular, the seminar will examine the rise of fascism in the 1920s, the rise of communism in the 1930s, how Hollywood actors and studios alerted the nation to the dangers of both, how Hollywood created the myth of the “Good War,” and how the movie industry was punished in the Cold War era of the 1950s for what its anti-Communist critics labeled as their “premature anti-fascism.”
Class Organization: Over the years, I have found that many students taking 300 level courses have never done primary research or written an original research paper. I have structured this course as a once a week seminar that will have common readings during the half of the class. We will also watch political films of the era, listen to music, and discuss the ways in which scholars of popular culture have conducted research in these mediums. We will also visit some film archives on campus. During the second half of the semester, students will work on an original research paper of approximately 15 pages. These papers could be used as the basis of a more ambitious 400 level seminar paper or honors thesis either in History or another department.
Readings will cover the ways in which film, music, radio and other forms of popular culture were used to promote a wide range of political agendas. Students will work with the professor in selecting a research topic—one that can be done using primary sources we have at USC and the area.
Requirements include several brief proposals, a paper prospectus, and a final research paper. Final grades will be based upon the following combination: proposals and drafts (20%), final paper (50%) and class participation (30%).
386 American Legal History Gross Tu/Th 11:00-12:20pm
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the study of law from a historical perspective exploring the interaction of law, culture, and politics from the Revolution through the New Deal.
403 Carolingian Europe Glenn W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
In this seminar, we shall examine the evolution of the social, political, religious, and intellectual complexion of European lands from the time when we first encounter a family — Charlemagne’s family — which, in the words of one scholar, “made Europe” to the time when that family is no more. We begin with a quick introduction to the Franks who set up perhaps the most successful of the barbarian kingdoms in the wake of Roman imperial rule in the west and witness the rise to power of the Carolingians, a rise which reached its apex in the late eighth and early ninth centuries as their imperium extended across much of the continent. This Carolingian empire—or at least the Carolingian dynasty—and the institutions on which it stood dominate the imaginative landscape of Europe through tenth century, into the eleventh and, arguably, beyond. But just as the Roman Empire had, this empire too eventually evolved into smaller, more autonomous units which developed, in time, their own national identities.
As we move from week to week, we shall use a wide range of primary sources which enable us to witness this process and to speculate about its various causes and significance. More so, we shall also use these sources to explore, indeed, to feel the texture of the Carolingian world. In a series of weekly readings, we shall therefore study contemporary histories, chronicles, annals, and biographies not merely to trouble over what happened in this period, but also to consider how those who wrote them, and perhaps more generally, those who lived in Carolingian Europe recall, reconstruct, and use the past. These narrative sources also will help us to see the norms and institutions of Carolingian culture, some of which are prescribed by collections of laws and decrees (both secular and ecclesiastical) which we shall also read, and some of which appear to ignore these prescriptions. Administrative records, letter collections, poems, lives of saints, a variety of manuals, images of art and architecture, and philosophical tracts will enable us both to glimpse the inner workings of the court, of the monastery, and, indeed, of the minds of elite men and women and to reflect on the experiences not merely of this elite, but also of men and women with less power and scant resources at their disposal.
This course requires extensive reading and writing. Reading assignments range from 125 to 175 pages per week, and there will be periodic written assignments of anywhere from a paragraph to two pages — from time to time, these written assignments will be submitted by email and circulated among the class participants before our class meeting. There will also be a final paper of fifteen to twenty pages in length. This paper will be based principally in the readings done for our class meetings, but in most cases it will require some addition reading of texts selected in consultation with the instructor.
Students are expected to attend all class meetings and to come to those meetings prepared to contribute to class discussion.
404 Seminar in Korean History Hwang Tu 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This seminar, for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, is designed to facilitate the pursuit of an individual research project in Korean history. To ensure that everyone is familiar with the important events and themes, we will spend the first seven weeks of the course reading some of the important historical scholarship published over the past few years, in conjunction with an examination of a few primary sources that correspond to those secondary works.
This will provide a foundation for each student to develop thereafter an individual research project, based substantially on primary sources, that will culminate in a research paper of about 25 pages (double-spaced) for undergraduates and 30 pages for graduate students. In consultation with the instructor, each student will choose a topic that is related to her or his interests or specialty and designed to further the student’s academic growth. The research project will progress through several stages of written work, with the results of each stage—as well as the source materials--being presented to the rest of the class for feedback.
The purpose of this approach is to cultivate your ability to plan, write, and revise research papers over several set stages. Just as important will be developing your skills in critically analyzing someone else's work, through which you can improve your method of devising and revising your own papers. This means that the proper functioning of this course depends on every student's participation in the feedback process. Likewise, a substantial portion of your grade--30%--will come from your contributions to this joint enterprise.
424 Family, Work, and Leisure in Russian History Rorlich W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course aims to investigate the major patterns of economic, social, and cultural development in Russia from the ninth to the twenty first century as a setting for discussing the changing status of women, the dynamics of family life, as well as the evolution of leisure, its gendered and class nature, and its relationship to socio-economic and political changes.
437 Seminar in Modern Chinese History Goldstein Tu/Th 9:30-10:50am
Course Description:
Confronting Imperialism through Chinese History:
Topic: The History of China’s Borderlands, c. 1600 - Present
China’s economic rise has reshaped the global economy, but China also faces many great challenges, perhaps none more urgent of late than internal relations with the diverse people who live along the country’s borders, particularly in Tibet, Xinjiang and nearby self-immolations have become distressingly common recently. This course will try to trace the historical roots of some of these deep tensions within China today. Recommended preparation: a class in Chinese history.
440 Early Modern World History Hwang W 3:00-5:50pm
Course Description:
Designed for students preparing for careers in teaching, as well as for graduates and advanced undergraduates studying history, international relations, political science, and other fields, this course explores issues and themes surrounding the history of the world from about 1450 to 1850, the period commonly called the “early modern” era.
Why “early modern,” and why those particular dates? This gets to the heart of a larger topic that we will have to deal with: What preceded and laid the foundations for the modern--and by extension, the contemporary--world as we know it? The challenge for us is to frame the myriad events and developments into a coherent understanding of larger patterns. What patterns can we discern, and which patterns were paramount in the changes taking place in this era? Hence this course is not simply an introductory survey of “what happened,” although an overview is provided in the first few weeks. Rather, this course demands that each student carefully consider the balance of various historical forces to arrive at an informed understanding of what happened, how it happened, and why it matters.
The course will be centered on the close reading of six books, each demanding the same set of analytical inquiries: What is the central theme(s) that the author wishes to establish in the book? How does she go about doing this? Consider her narrative style, the organization of the chapters and of the book, the type of sources she uses, etc. You will be given a handout of study questions for each book in advance. Your ability to analyze, interpret, and understand each book, and to express this understanding both verbally and in writing, will determine your course performance. You will write three essays, each comparing a set of two books, which will constitute 60% of your grade. The other major basis for evaluation will be contributions to to class discussion, which will be integral to not only your grade, but to the proceeding of the course itself. Our class meetings will also incorporate short lectures and presentations, film viewings, and other activities, but we will spend most of the time in discussion.
441 Modern World History Gruner Tu/Th 2:00-3:20pm
Course Description:
During the first decade of the 21th century, we heard terrible news about how people hunted down other people of different origins during pogrom like riots in various countries, as Spain, South Africa or Australia. If we look back, we find cases of racist persecution and religious violence against minority groups throughout modern history in all parts of the world: Peruvians attacked Japanese, Chinese Africans, Indians other Indians, Germans Jews, English Germans, “white” US-Americans other US-Americans, Mexicans Chinese. What are the aims of such widespread segregationist violence and where can we trace the causes? Is it racial prejudice or religious furor which drives the attacks? Are there other political, social and economical factors involved? Many of the violent acts did not happen in dictatorships, but in so called democratic societies. Are such riots spontaneous eruptions of people’s anger or rather organized pogroms driven by certain interests? While studying a variety of cases during the 19th and 20th century in Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas we will also discuss theoretical approaches to collective violence and racial segregation.
Tentative Literature:
Charles L. Lumpkins, American Pogrom: The East St. Louis Race Riot and Black Politics. Ohio University Press, 2008
Alan Steinweis, Kristallnacht 1938, Cambridge 2009.
Eduardo O. Pagan, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A., New York: The University of North Carolina, 2006.
Jaskaran Kaur, Twenty Years of Impunity. The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India. A Report by Ensaaf, 2nd Edition October 2006. (download)
452 Beauty and the Body in Historical Perspective Banner Th 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
In addition to its physical properties, the body has cultural and social meanings. This course will explore these meanings historically, from 1800 to the present. It will focus on their changes over time and on the ways in which medicine, media, the fashion and beauty industry, and notions of class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual variation construct our changing images of beauty and the body over time.
458 History of California Starr W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course is intended to introduce undergraduates to the broad outline and important issues of the California experience, from Native American times to the present. Within the framework of a one-semester course, it will seek to be as inclusive and variegated as possible in terms of topics and perspectives. The fundamental premise of this course is that California represents a significant instance of the larger American experience and is hence an essential component of our national heritage. At the same time, California is intimately linked--- past, present and future --- with the ongoing sagas of Native America, Latin America, the Asia/Pacific Basin, and Europe. It will also stress the history of federal, state, and local relationships in the governance of California.
461 19th Century American Thought Fox W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
In the nineteenth century the United States produced an astonishing array of creative and influential thinkers, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Margaret Fuller before the Civil War to William James, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and John Dewey after the war.
This course combines the reading of these and other writers with an original 15-page research paper, using primary and secondary sources, on a thinker or theme of your choice. Special attention will be devoted throughout the course to the topics of race, religion, politics, and gender. But many other themes will intersect with these, and you are invited to pursue any of them in your research paper, which will be produced in stages over the course of the term. A final exam covers the reading for the semester.
473 Colonial Latin America Seminar Becker W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course traces the complex historical worlds developed by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas before the Spanish conquest and the material and cultural worlds these peoples re-created after the Spanish conquest. The course consistently analyzes the concrete nature of the lives these people created, focusing on political and religious worlds views, specific approaches to worlds divided by class, ethnicity/race, gender and age, the character of daily lives often characterized by poverty but often too revealing depths of artistry, community life, loyalty. In addition, the class focuses on the worlds Brazilian slaves created during the colonial period.
484 The United States, 1919-1939 Ethington Th 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course gives students a chance to explore the thrilling and tumultuous the period of U.S. history between the two World Wars: a period of extraordinary changes, stresses, and contradictions. Students will read interpretive texts, documents from the period, and novels. We will also screen movies and listen to radio programs and recorded music from the era. Students are expected to gain a combination of empirical knowledge and interpretive skills, sufficient to explain both major currents and minor episodes of this period of North American history. The actual period covered differs slightly but significantly from the official title of the course. We will cover the period from 1919 until full mobilization during the Second World War.
492 Honors Thesis Herrup Th 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
The honors program is intended as a capstone experience for majors. The end result is a thesis, which may involve research in original sources or extensive analysis of a methodological problem or of a historiographical development. WORK ON THE THESIS BEGINS IN AN APPROVED 400-LEVEL SEMINAR WITH A FACULTY MEMBER WHO HAS AGREED TO DIRECT THE WORK THROUGH THE ENTIRE PROCESS. THIS SEMINAR SHOULD BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE STUDENT’S SENIOR YEAR BEGINS. The faculty member and student should establish a track that will allow the student not only to fulfill the requirements of the course, but also to lay out all the necessary methodological and historiographical groundwork for an honors thesis. This means that students will come into History 492 ideally with a first draft of a significant piece of the thesis.
The thesis is completed during the fall semester of the senior year in HIST 492 a seminar devoted entirely to the last stages of research and writing, and to the discussion/critique of each student’s evolving work. Since the emphasis is on practical steps towards this objective, we spend the bulk of class time engaging with your drafts. The goal is to create a supportive community within which we can all work to resolve organizational problems, improve writing, and increase analytical rigor. ALL THESES ARE COMPLETED BY THE END OF FALL CLASSES.
Admission to History 492 is by application. Application forms are available in the History Office, SOS 153. After completing the form, return it to Ms. La Verne Hughes, the undergraduate secretary in SOS 153. THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY, APRIL 13. Professor Herrup will supervise the selection process and notify all applicants of their status as soon as possible, and certainly before the end of classes.
Candidates for the honors program are expected to:
- maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in all USC history coursework (a USC honors requirement)
- earn a grade of B+ or better in HIST 300
- have completed at least one 400-level seminar in their area of concentration
- be supported by a faculty member from that concentration who is willing to advise the thesis
For further information, please contact Professor Herrup via email (she is on leave and out of town). The History Department website includes a list of past Honors students and their thesis topics.
494 Seminar in New Historical Writing Becker W 2:00-4:50pm
Course Description:
This course we will cover historical writing experiments combining historical specificity with more fluid approaches to time, characterization and objectivity associated with 20th century artists.
History 498 (Seminar on Selected Historical Topics)
498 Modern Africa Rouighi Tu/Th 2:00-3:20pm
Course Description:
This is an intensive reading seminar that covers some of the most salient issues in African history from 1800 to the present. At the end of the course students will be familiar with major figures, dates, and movements as well as the most important historical problems as they posed themselves to Africans.
498 Japan in the China Sea Sphere Piggott W 4:00-6:50pm
Course Description:
We will focus on the regional and world history of Japan through medieval times. Interactions involving Buddhism, monarchy, diplomacy, and trade will be the focus. Japan’s ongoing relationship with China, and how Japan’s history fits into the larger frame of world history will also be major concerns. Those interested in developing their knowledge of East Asian and world history should take this course.