Introduction

Courses for Fall 2009
    100 level
    200 level
    300 level
    First Year Seminars

History courses taught at Wake Forest
  

History Courses for Fall 2009

100 Level Courses

History 101A & 101B. Western Civilization to 1700 (3h). TR 8-9:15 & 9:30-10:45. B117. Williams. At light speed (in one class period) we will traverse the prehistory of our species and then set about a more intensive review of the next 5200 years (3500 B.C.E to 1700 C.E). Our journey will carry us from Sumeria and the appearance of that form of culture historians call civilization to the eve of industrialization and political revolution in Western Europe.  While examining the the communal structures, achievements, tribulations, and transformations of peoples who, for the most part, spoke Indo-European languages and who, from their origins somewhere north of the Caucasus, came to control not only Europe, but the Americas and the whole of northern Asia, we will try to determine what sense it makes to speak of the tangible and intangible worlds they made as a single civilization and on what bases we might distinguish this civilization from others that appeared elsewhere.

History 102A. Europe & World in Modern Era (3h). MWF 9-9:50. A208. Raley. This course surveys the history of Europe in its global context from the rise of the early modern state to the present day. Using both primary and secondary sources we examine the period through the interdisciplinary and transnational lenses of political, social, economic, and cultural history as well as intellectual thought. Major themes addressed in the course include the confessionalization of Europe and Absolutism; the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment; the French Revolution and the evolution of rights theory; the Industrial Revolution and the advances of technology; labor laws and the rise of leisure; European diplomacy; warfare and disease; political theory and competing visions concerning the interaction between the individual, society, and the state; issues related to gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation; Europe and the Cold War; and Europe in the post–9-11 world. Of course, we shall also devote considerable time to the historiography surrounding these various issues and to gaining familiarity with different historical approaches and methodologies.

History 102B & 102E. Europe & World in Modern Era (3h). MWF 9-9:50 & 11-11:50. A102. Rupp. This course provides a survey of European history in the modern era. Broad themes addressed in the course include the following: differing forms of government and the principles upon which they have been based; the role of ideas in influencing historical change; the impact of social structures and struggles on forms of political power; the rights and powers of the individual and how these have been defined relative to the community and the state.

History 102F & 102G. Europe & World in Modern Era (3h). MWF 11-11:50 & 1-1:50. A103 & B117. Raley. This course surveys the history of Europe in its global context from the rise of the early modern state to the present day. Using both primary and secondary sources we examine the period through the interdisciplinary and transnational lenses of political, social, economic, and cultural history as well as intellectual thought. Major themes addressed in the course include the confessionalization of Europe and Absolutism; the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment; the French Revolution and the evolution of rights theory; the Industrial Revolution and the advances of technology; labor laws and the rise of leisure; European diplomacy; warfare and disease; political theory and competing visions concerning the interaction between the individual, society, and the state; issues related to gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation; Europe and the Cold War; and Europe in the post–9-11 world. Of course, we shall also devote considerable time to the historiography surrounding these various issues and to gaining familiarity with different historical approaches and methodologies.

History 103A. World Civilizations to 1500 (3h). TR 1:30-2:45. B117. Zhang. This course provides a selective overview of human history from the very beginning to 1500 CE. Within a roughly chronological framework, it seeks to highlight the broad patterns of development among major human communities, especially those on the Eurasian continent, with respect to their political and social institutions, economic life, cultural values, intellectual traditions and religious beliefs. The goal of this course is to help the students to (1) better understand the distinct characteristics and common patterns of development of major world civilizations; (2) better recognize and appreciate the profound connections and interactions among diverse human communities and cultures throughout the pre-modern world and the extent to which all of them shaped the material and cultural world we now live in; and (3) better understand and practice the historian’s craft, in particular, the skill to analyze a wide variety of primary sources and to develop and/or evaluate a historical argument.

History 106. Medieval World Civilizations (3h). MWF 12-12:50. A102. O'Connell. Rome and the Renaissance, or rebirth of classical knowledge. One of the questions of this course is to examine cultures and societies in east Asia, India, Africa, and the Americas as well as Europe during the same time frame and to ask if there is such a thing as a “medieval” world history.  Are there patterns, transformations, and developments common to all these societies in the medieval period?  What characteristics do these widely differing cultures and geographic areas share, and where do they differ? At the end of the course, you should be able to distinguish the significant similarities and differences between the world’s major civilizations and to identify the relationships and points of cultural exchange among these societies. This course is also intended to introduce you to the art of historical inquiry and practice.  What types of questions do historians ask?  What kinds of evidence do they use to answer these questions?   At the end of the course, you should be able to interpret a primary source and to identify the way historians build arguments and create historical narratives. 

History 107. The Middle East and the World (3h) MWF 10-10:50. B117. Wilkins. The Middle East and the World. Examines in its global context the history of the Middle East from the inception of Islam in the seventh century to the twentieth century.  Over the course of the semester we will consider the struggle of the early Muslim community to define itself against the older monotheistic religions; the phenomenal spread of Muslim institutions and customs across Afro-Eurasia; the apparent paradox in the late medieval period of a fragmenting Islamic political power on the one hand, and the continuing florescence of Islamic social and cultural institutions on the other; the complex and multi-sided interactions of religious communities during the European Crusades and Turco-Mongol migrations; the resurgence of Middle Eastern geo-political power under the last Muslim empires (1500-1800); and finally, after 1800 the economic and political ascendancy of Europe and the varied political, social, and intellectual responses of Middle Eastern peoples to that challenge.

History 108A & 108B. The Americas and the World (3h). MWF 10-10:50 & 12-12:50. A208. Hayes. This course explores major developments in the history of the Americas, with consistent attention to the changing global context. Through memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, monographs, and films, we will seek to put a human face on such familiar abstractions as colonialism, slavery, republics, industrialization, and globalization. Class sessions will mix lecture, discussion, film, debate, and source interpretation to uncover the human aspirations, ideals, and struggles of the past five centuries.

History 108C & 108D. The Americas and the World (3h). TR 9:30-10:45 & 12-1:15. A102. McGraw. This course provides an introduction to the global patterns that have shaped the Americas since the late fifteenth century.  We will explore the enduring impact of contact between Native American, European, and African peoples in the crafting of new identities, cultures, and polities.  Next, the era of revolutions offers an occasion to question why emancipation and independence both aligned and conflicted in the Americas.  The global circulation of ideas, people, and products furnish the backdrop for this examination.  Capitalist development, nationalism, and new imperial rivalries join civil conflicts and the final wars for independence as important topics in our discussion of the diverging American societies of the nineteenth century.  Finally, our class will assess critically the so-called “U.S. century,” as the United States attained first Great Power and then Superpower status.  African American freedom struggles and the Cuban Revolution will be placed in the context of Cold War politics and decolonization in Africa and Asia.  Although our lens will encompass much of the hemisphere – and, indeed, the world – the weight this course attaches to slavery, emancipation, and the structure of racial inequality will place special emphasis on the places where economic and political development were most firmly rooted in human bondage, including Brazil, Cuba, and the United States.

History 108E. The Americas and the World (3h). MWF 11-11:50. B117. Ventura. This course explores major developments in the history of the Americas and globalization. Beginning with the “Columbian exchange,” we will ask how interactions between indigenous Americans, Europeans, and Africans created new identities, cultures, and polities as we explore the role of the Americas in the formation of a modern global economy. Moving into the period of liberal revolutions and independence movements, we will investigate the proliferation of nation-states in the late 18th and 19th century, the persistence of and challenges to un-free labor, and the place of politics, trade, and the environment in the growing divergence between North and South America. We will next consider the role of Latin America in the rise of the United States to global power in the 20th century. Through memoir, film, and visual material, in addition to scholarly works, we will ask how ordinary people experienced and influenced world events as we seek to understand the relationship between local places and global processes.

History 108F. The Americas and the World (3h). MWF 1-1:50. A305. Blee. This course examines how the histories of the Americas developed in conversation with the larger world from 1500 to the present. The primary focus of the class will be on the relationship between changing global, regional, and national trends and individual experience over time.  Course readings will highlight studies of commodities and trade systems along with personal memoir and testimony through contact, slavery, colonialism, revolution, nationalism, and globalization.  Although the course will cover historical trends that affected the hemisphere as a whole, it will center most heavily upon peoples and commodity studies in Central and North America.

History 109A. Asia and the World (3h). MWF 1-1:50. A208. Rahman. This class will take a thematic approach to the history of Asia and its connections with global history. In this course, we will discuss South, Southeast, and East Asia in order to obtain a rather comprehensive and comparative understanding of the Asian continent. The aim of this course is to appreciate the diversity within Asia and understand the history of this continent as linked with world history. Although we will cover different time periods, our focus will largely be the last five centuries. What are the different societies and traditions within Asia? What have been their contributions to the world? What historical incidents have linked Asia to the rest of the world? Such questions will be considered to explore the political, economic, social, and cultural history of Asia and its interactions with the outside world. Specific topics will include different religious traditions, imperialism, global trade and commerce, the Indian Ocean, cross-cultural interactions, modernization, nationalism, and decolonization movements.

History 109B & 109C. Asia and the World (3h). TR 12-1:15 & 1:30-2:45. A103. Fasan. This course will provide a broad survey of the modern history of China, Korea and Japan within a global context.  Topics to be covered include the common cultures of Confucianism and Buddhism, European and Japanese imperialism, the Pacific War, Chinese communism and post-war economic development.  Along with learning the general outline of East Asian history, students will learn to interrogate a variety of historical documents.   The course will consist of lectures supplemented by student led discussion and presentations. 

Credit cannot be received for both 101 and 103 or 102 and 104.
All classes held in Tribble Hall unless otherwise noted.

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

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200 Level Courses

History 206. The Early Middle Ages (3h). MW 2-3:15. A102. O'Connell. The central question of this course is one of identity: at what point can we speak of a distinctively “European” identity?  In order to answer this question, we will investigate the political, cultural, religious, and material history of Europe from the later Roman Empire to the end of the Viking invasions around the turn of the millennium.  Once dismissed as the “Dark Ages,” scholars now point to this as an era when some of the key cultural, political, and artistic foundations of later European history were forged.  Indeed, these centuries saw the “birth” of a distinctive Western European civilization that arose from the ashes of ancient Greece and Rome.  Major themes will include the rise of Christianity and contests over its institutions, the division of the old Roman Empire into Western Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, the emergence of the Carolingian Empire and the tenth century fragmentation, intellectual themes and developments, and changes in gender roles across the period.

History 223. The British Isles to 1750 (3h). MWF 12-12:50. A103. Staff.

History 230. Russia: Origins to 1865 (3h). MWF 1-1:50. A102. Rupp. This course provides a general survey of the political, social and cultural history of Russia from its origins to the Great Reform era. Topics for examination include the nature of the Kievan, Muscovite and Imperial polities, the structure of Russian society and its relationship to the state, and the impact of westernization and modernization on the development of state and society in the imperial period.

History 240. African-American History (3h). TR 1:30-2:45. A102. Parent.

History 242. The Middle East before 1500 (3h). MWF 12-12:50. A305. Wilkins. This course surveys the major political, social, and cultural changes in the Middle East from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century through the early development of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires.  We examine the question of Orientalism; the formation of early Muslim communities in Arabia; the expansion of Islamic state power, religious practice, and cultural influence across North Africa and Eurasia; the development of Islamic law and religious orthodoxy; the florescence of science, literature and the arts in the courts of Muslim elites; the cultivation of mysticism and the formation of mystical brotherhoods; the shifting status of religious and ethnic minorities, changes in gender roles; the Turco-Mongol  migrations and their political legacies; the European crusades; and the intellectual contributions of outstanding medieval Middle Eastern scholars.

History 246. Japan before 1800 (3h). TR 9:30-10:45. A208. Fasan. This course will provide an in-depth look at the history of Japan from Neolithic times to the Tokugawa shogunate.  Topics will include Buddhism and the Heian court, the growth of feudalism, warrior society, Christian missionaries and the growth of urban popular culture.  The goal of the course is to help students to understand the richness of Japanese civilization through reading a wide variety of historical materials.  Student led presentations and discussion will supplement lectures. 

300 Level Courses

History 311AA. Special Topics: Race and the Courts(3h). TR 12-1:15. A208. Hopkins. This course will use the historical method to examine the impact of state and federal court cases upon the evolution of race relations in this country.  Topics for consideration will include  the impact of Dred Scott  and Plessy v. Ferguson  upon social relations in the United States;  Reconstruction, lynchings, and the emergence of the KKK; the analysis  of civil  rights during the Great  Depression and the New Deal; separate but equal applications in American life; voting rights issues; school desegregation before and after Brown with a particular emphasis on the Michigan college desegregation case and ending with the landmark case regarding racial balance in the public school system, Parents v. Seattle. Further, other subject areas will be devoted to race and the military, race and sports, and the rights of immigrants. The goal of the course is to demonstrate the historical evolution of race relations in the United States which are  predicated upon the judicial interpretation of the rights of its citizens.

History 311AB. US World Power to 1898(3h). MWF 1-1:50. A103. Ventura. This course examines nineteenth-century United States history in global perspective. Though the official position of the U.S. towards the rest of the world was isolationist, Americans also believed that the U.S. offered the world a universal model of national development. We will explore how the tensions between these two positions animated American political development and culture. American life, moreover, was deeply bound with events taking shape overseas and on the borders of the expanding nation. We will consider how international politics, foreign revolutions, transnational abolition and women’s suffrage movements, imperialism, global trade, the growth of industrial capitalism, and immigration further informed American politics and identity. Through the study of memoir, travel narratives, and visual materials, and scholarly works, we will ask how the United States and its peoples understood the world and how foreigners viewed the United States. By placing American development within larger patterns of world history, and by drawing on insights from our own “global moment,” we will critically assess the evolving relationship global processes and national and local politics and culture.

History 311AC. US West to 1850(3h). MWF 11-11:50. A305. Blee. This course explores the history of the western portion of North America, from pre-European contact to 1850. Class begins with focused study of the era of American Indian dominance; continues with European invasions and colonial occupation of Mexico and the United States; and ends with U.S. conquest of land reaching to the Pacific Ocean. Through readings, film, and images, this course will emphasize the diversity of perspectives on the Western past drawn from various social and cultural contexts. Key themes include economic and kin systems, immigration and migration, natural resources and the environment, religion, and gender. 

History 316 & 616. Rome: Republic and Empire (3h). TR 1:30-2:45. A208. Lerner. The course considers the history of Rome, a city-state, which constructed one of the most durable empires the Mediterranean Basin has ever known.  We will survey the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean during the first millennium BCE: the growth of Roman power in Italy and then, beginning in the second century BCE, throughout the Mediterranean; changes in Mediterranean life under Roman domination; and the breakdown of Roman power during the first millennium CE.  The main themes emphasized throughout the course include: Roman conquest of Italy and the Mediterranean; the internal political struggle and the evolution of the Republican state; the fall of the Republic and the growth of autocracy; Roman adjustments in attempting to hold the empire together; and finally, the culture of the peoples subject to Roman rule.

History 319 & 619. Poland and the Baltic Region (3h). TR 3-4:15. A305. Duke.

History 334 & 634. Islam in South Asia (3h). MWF 11-11:50. A208. Rahman. This course considers the history of Muslim communities in South Asia. We will take a chronological as well as thematic look at Islam and Muslims in South Asian social, political, cultural, and intellectual history. South Asia is home to more than one third of world’s Muslim population with millions of Muslims living in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Maldives. While they share a common faith, they also reflect the diversity of religious beliefs and practices in Islam. The aim of this course will be to understand Islam as a faith in the context of South Asia and develop a better sense of the lived history of Muslims in the subcontinent. Specific topics will include origins and early history of Islam, arrival of Islam in South Asia, political Islam, Sufism, literature, Islam and nationalism, Muslim nationalism, religious pluralism and conflicts, Islamic sects and beliefs, education, women, social reform, revivalism, and Islamism.

History 336 & 636. Africa's Cities and Urban History (3h). TR 3-4:15. A102. Plageman. This course examines the long history of African cities, with a primary focus on cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead of framing cities as extraneous to the “real Africa”, this course prioritizes them as a vital arena of historical experience. Major topics for the course include the formation and structure of urban settlements in precolonial Africa, colonial and government efforts to regulate and reshape Africa’s urban landscapes, cities as arenas of economic struggle, cultural transformations and political debates, urban gendered relations, and the contemporary conditions and challenges of African urban areas.

History 357 & 657. The Civil War and Reconstruction (3h). TR 9:30-10:45. A305. Escott. This course focuses on America’s most destructive war, the changes it produced, and their meaning for national values and freedom. The scope of the course is broad, embracing political, social, economic and military history. The questions with which it deals have been and remain central to American values and government
Assigned reading includes the following:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
William Gienapp, ed., This Fiery Trial: The Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Emory Thomas, The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience
Stephen Budiansky, The Bloody Shirt
and documents found or posted in our course shell, Blackboard.

History 359 & 659. US History Gilded Age Prosperity to Depression (3h). MWF 10-10:50. A102. Caron. This course will examine the post-reconstructed nation with special attention to the politics of equilibrium; the economic impact of industrialization and agricultural revolutions; the positive and negative aspects of rapid urbanization; immigration and the class, ethnic, and religious clashes that ensued; Jim Crow and civil rights; the growth of Big Business and labor’s response; Populism; the acquisition of an empire; Progressive reforms at city, state and federal levels; World War I at home and abroad; and the changing notions of femininity and masculinity.  The course will end with the onset of the Depression and Hoover 's response to it.  The class is a combination of lecture and discussion, with an emphasis on the latter.

History 362 & 662. American Constitutional History (3h).TR 3-4:15. B117. Zick.

History 376 & 676. Civil Rights and Black Consciousness Movements (3h). T 4:30-7. A102. Parent.

History 380 & 680. America at Work (3h). TR 3-4:15. A208. McGraw. This course broadly examines the workplace as well as the family and community lives of workers over the last two centuries.  Students should note that a wide range of paid and unpaid labor has shaped North American life.  Although both forms of work receive attention in this course, wage labor provides our primary focus.  After a brief survey of the ways that scholars have distinguished the history of work in the United States from other industrial contexts, we will explore the meanings associated with “free labor” and “wage labor” in both slave and post-emancipation contexts.  The emergence of a “living wage” will introduce our unit on consumer culture and the myriad strategies that have guided workers and their families through the marketplace.  Winston-Salem’s tobacco industry furnishes our central case study of labor organizing in the United States, even as it reveals the historic intersection of unionization, African American freedom struggles, and second-wave feminism.  Finally, our review takes in the history of itinerate and seasonal work as a way of understanding the roots of movement as an essential feature of the global economy.

History 390A & 690A. Research Seminar: Civil War Leaders (3h). T 2-4:30. A104. Escott. Through primary research, students will explore revealing and often surprising aspects of the political, social, or military history of the Confederacy.

History 390B & 690B. Research Seminar: China and the West (3h). T 2-4:30. B116. Zhang. This seminar explores the dynamics of cultural encounters between China and the West since the sixteenth century that occurred within the context of travel, trade, diplomatic and religious missions, Western colonial and imperialist involvements in China, Chinese drives to modernize, and the ongoing processes of globalization. “Culture” is broadly defined here to include science, technology, medicine, philosophy and religion, arts and literature, popular culture, political ideologies, values, and ways of life, among other things.  After an intensive 6-week survey of secondary literature in this field, each student will pursue his/her own research project using primary sources in Western languages (including translations of Chinese sources) and complete a 25-30 page paper.

History 390C & 690C. Research Seminar: The Long Decade of the 1960s: 1956-1974 (3h). TH 2-4:30. B116. Caron. This research seminar allows students to fulfill the department's required 25-30 page research paper.  Students will choose their own topic with assistance from the professor.  Possible topics include electoral politics, civil rights, women's rights, student movements, antiwar protest, the counter culture, poverty and welfare, medical advancements, and scientific/technological advancements (space exploration, etc.)

History 390D & 690D. Research Seminar: Slavery and Memory (3h). TH 3-5:30. A104. Parent.

History 391 & 691. Honors Seminar(3h). W 3-5:30. B116. Williams.

History 392 & 692. Individual Research (3h).

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

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First Year Seminars

FYS 100. The New South: Promise and Prison (3h). MW 3-4:15. A208. Hayes. This seminar explores what it was like to live in the “New South,” a society marked by severe poverty, rigid racial hierarchies, and oligarchic politics, as well as by capitalist opportunities, social mobility, and cultural creativity. Using a wide variety of sources—novels, memoirs, photographs, films, oral histories, songs, field studies, material culture—we will zoom in on the U.S. South 1880-1940 and analyze the open possibilities and inclosing confinements that different people faced in their everyday lives in this distinct society.

FYS 100. African Expressive Culture as History (3h). TR 12-1:15. A305. Plageman.This course uses a number of African popular expressive forms—such as music, theater, art, sport, and clothing—to reveal local views and interpretations of historical events during the twentieth century. Historical sources often relay the perspective of empowered actors (or those in power), but in this course we will examine the views and realities of African citizens who are often “invisible” in broader historical narratives. More specifically, we will consider the historical perspectives of a wide range of men and women, including musicians, artists, and actors. As we analyze the ways in which these individuals have represented events of the last 100 years, we will garner a greater understanding of the ways in which Africans have creatively used the resources at their disposal in order to engage with the past, present, and future.

FYS 100. Image of Wealth and Poverty (3h). MW 4-5:15. A305. Smith. In the first decades after World War II, the economic promise of the U.S. was that prosperity would grow so much that poverty could be abolished without lessening the prosperity of those who had money. By 2007 that optimism had faded, and the statement that “The poor you will have with you always” has become more prevalent. The election of 2008 accentuated the role of community government in the treatment of the rich and the poor.
The seminar will study what Americans have said about who should be wealthy and who should be poor. What are the burdens of being identified as rich or poor? How have we depicted the rich and the poor in art and literature? Is there any reason a person should give away power and prestige? By what right does a community take money from the rich and give it to the poor—as in graduated income tax? What is the function and nature of philanthropy and volunteerism? Do the wealthy and the poor need each other?
Short weekly projects or papers and one extended project or paper, which we will all critique, will guide discussions of what Americans in the past and present believed about the meaning of being wealthy or being poor. When admiration of wealth and respect for volunteerism and charity come in conflict, what do the sparks of the collision illuminate about us?

FYS 100. Dirt on Development (3h). TR 12-1:15. A104. Wakild. Have you ever wondered how some individuals make a big difference? In this course, we will examine what strategies these difference-makers use to solve the world’s problems and investigate how they can be applied elsewhere. To do so, we will analyze and debate problems of development regarding disease, hunger, finance, sustainability, and environmental change in various areas of the world including our own community.

FYS 100. The Mystery of Qi (3h). TR 12-1:15. B117. Zhang. This seminar investigates how cultural constructs inform the ways in which people think about, experience and govern their bodies.  In particular, we will examine the conceptions of Qi (Ch’i), primordial or vital energy, in classical Chinese cosmology and medicine and the critical roles they played in the development of Chinese food culture, a variety of therapeutic methods, religious practices, styles of artistic performance, visual and literary representations of the body, and the martial arts traditions.  We will highlight the distinctive features of the Chinese Qi-centered view of the body through comparisons with those in classical Greek medicine and modern biomedicine.  We will also explore the scientific and epistemological issues involved in the efforts by modern laboratory scientists to capture and measure Qi. This course will be an interdisciplinary exercise drawing on the analytical tools from anthropology, the history of science, art history, literary studies, philosophy and religion

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

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