Course Descriptions
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History
6HIS 151, 152 (I, II-3) Twentieth-Century Europe
A survey of the major political, diplomatic, and socio-economic developments in Europe from about 1890 to the present.
6HIS 201, 202 (I, II-3) European Intellectual History
The principal intellectual currents that have characterized Western Europe from antiquity to the present.
6HIS 210 (I, II-3) Constructing Utopias
This course considers the history of real and imagined utopian communities from medieval monasteries through contemporary science fiction. Sometimes utopian communities succeed, providing interesting case studies in the effects of social planning. Even when they don't succeed, their design and discussion represents an important form of social criticism. Studying their history provides a window into the political, economic, and social development of Europe and the United States from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present day. Cross-listed as WST 210.
6HIS 213, 214 (I, II-3) American Intellectual History
6HIS 220 (I, II-3) Comparative Revolutions
What makes a revolution? Why does it start? How does it end? What difference does it make? This course answers these questions by comparing three great revolutionary periods: the American Revolution through the Civil War, the French Revolution through the Revolutions of 1848, and the Russian Revolution through the present.
6HIS 222 (I, II-3) Modern France
Alternately friends and rivals, modern France and the United States have had a complicated relationship ever since both nations were born in revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. This course will seek to understand France on its own terms by considering a series of formative events such as the Revolution of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair and the birth of the intellectual, the very different experiences of World Wars I and II, the post-colonial conflicts in Algeria and Vietman, the near-revolution of May 1968, and contemporary agruments over French foreign and domestic policy.
6HIS 230 (I, II-3) Men, Women, and War in the Twentieth Century
An exploration of major historical changes of the twentieth century by focusing on the social impact of modern war, especially World Wars I and II. Topics include the crisis of liberalism, the rise of fascism, the horror of the Holocaust, occupation and resistance, comparisons of military and civilian experience, pacifist politics, women in the military, the birth of psychoanalysis, the spread of modernist art and culture, the rise of the welfare state, and contemporary international affairs. Cross-listed as WST 230.
6HIS 250 (I, II-3) Conflicts in Feminism
People often think of feminism as a relatively recent phenomenon, but in fact arguments for sexual equality have existed since at least the eighteenth century. This course studies the history and theory of different kinds of feminism by considering a series of "conflicts in feminism": historic moments when feminists have disagreed over how to address given social situations. Topics will be drawn from the experience of women and men in Europe and the United States from the eighteenth century through the present. Cross-listed as WST 250.
6HIS 270 (I, II-3) Topics in Social Thought
This course offers students the chance to concentrate on the work of one or two important social theorists. We consider these thinkers in their intellectual, social, and political context. While using these thinkers as a window into the issues of their own time, we also consider what implications their ideas might have for us today. Selected figures include Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud.
6HIS 281, 282 (I, II-3) Topics in History
Topics vary from year to year. Recent topics have include American expatriates in Paris, feminist texts, existentialist philosophy and politics, Enlightenment thought, and the French revolution in history, literature and popular culture. May be repeated for credit.