Department of history

(HS) A. Donson

A social, cultural, and political history of the German-speaking countries from the mid-eighteenth century to the present.  The course covers great social and political transformations, including the Enlightenment, rise of the modern state, the unifications and divisions of Germany, the emergence of modern urban culture, the role of women, the influence of Social Democracy, the course of National Socialism and the Holocaust, and Germany's place in postwar Europe.  Emphasis is on reading primary sources and writing historical arguments based them. This course is taught using a Team-Based-Learning classroom.

This general education course surveys the cultural, social, economic and political history of the Caribbean from the late fifteenth century to the present. This lecture and discussion course focuses on the Greater Antilles (i.e., Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will explore key historical moments in the region to better understand how the peoples of the Caribbean negotiated concepts of sovereignty, labor, economic independence, and self-determination. Topics include conquest and settlement, colonialism, slavery, independence, paternalism, informal and formal imperialism, Pan-Americanism,  Pan-Africanism, caudillismo, political and social revolution, and  neo-liberalism. This four-credit course fulfills both "HS" (i.e.,  

Historical Studies) and "G" (i.e., Global Diversity) general education requirements.

359 Modern Brazil
A. Dausch
MW 2:30-3:45

This course examines modern Brazil from independence through the present concentrating on the making of the nation given its massive geographical size and diverse population.  Topics include slavery and its historical legacy, Brazil's developmental challenges and traditions of dictatorship and democracy, U.S.-Brazilian relations, the rise of contemporary Brazil, and the role of cultural forces such as soccer, samba, and telenovelas in Brazilian society.

This honors general education course explores how queer individuals and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities have influenced the social, cultural, economic, and political landscape in United States history. Topics include sodomy charges, cross-dressing, industrialization, feminism, the construction of the homo/heterosexual binary, the "pansy" craze, the homophile, gay liberation, and gay rights movements, HIV/AIDS, immigration, and the on-going debate concerning same-sex marriage. This four-credit course fulfills both "HS" (i.e., Historical Studies) and "U" (i.e.,Diversity: United States) general education requirements.

This course examines aspects of American social, cultural, and intellectual history from the post-Civil War period to the recent past. Particular attention will be paid to the history of radicalism and repression, movements for social justice, and activism. In addition to the assigned readings, this course will explore popular culture (films, television shows, music, stand-up comedy) as a venue for political and social commentary. Students can expect to write approximately 3 short papers and produce a final research project for their grade. All students must also enroll in a discussion section. Note: Although this course fulfills a General Education requirement, it is a 300-level U.S. history class. As such, students should have a working knowledge of modern U.S. history, such as having passed History 151 (U.S. History from 1876 to the present) or its equivalent. Additional one credit honors colloquium available (History H373).

In this four-credit upper level general education course, you will learn how to make the informed connections between past events and present circumstances necessary to participate fully as a citizen of the nation and world. Specifically, we will be examining the history of the interaction of humans with the natural environment of North America since European settlement. We will examine how Americans acted to shape their environment over the past four centuries, as well as how they perceived the environment. The fundamental premise of the course is that how Americans have acted to shape their environment has been a consequence of their perceptions. The course is designed not only to help you think about the connections between past and present environmental circumstances, but also to give you practice using essential skills that will serve you well in other courses and in life after UMass. Among these skills are obtaining and critically evaluating information from a variety of sources, including lectures, maps, printed documents, works of art, and the landscape itself, and presenting that information effectively both orally and in writing.

This class examines the historical significance of social, cultural, and political roles played by women in the U.S. since 1890. The historical basis of inequalities of power created by intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as social movements that challenged these inequalities will be of special interest to us. With a focus on primary sources, modernity vs. tradition, the politics of motherhood, and the historical search for sisterhood are among the themes we will consider in the course. Student evaluation will be based on class participation, writing assignments, and a group oral history project.

This course explores the concept and practice of slavery in the Muslim World from the time of the Prophet Mohammed up to the 20th century.   We will begin by examining how the Quran and Islamic jurisprudence altered pre-Islamic forms of slavery.  The course will proceed chronologically, exploring the evolution of slavery through the early Islamic empires, the slave dynasties in Egypt and Delhi, the “gunpowder” empires of the Early Modern era, and the abolition of slavery in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Some of the themes that we will discuss are manumission, rebellion, notions of property and labor in Islam, the role of slaves as concubines, soldiers and rulers, and the slave trades in the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Sahara.  The course will compare Islamic forms of slavery to those that existed in Africa and the New World.  You will also engage with the incredible diversity of slavery in the Muslim World and will be pushed to think about whether we can sustain a concept of Islamic slavery despite these differences.  Discussions are an important component of the class, and participation will be an important component of your grade.  Graded assignments will include a research paper and mid-term and final exams.

What are the roots of ethnic prejudice and racism? DNA and genetics, neuroscience and environmental studies, classical studies and anthropology—all have contributed to this important question. Students will learn how definitions of ethnicity arose in the Mediterranean world. This involves two interrelated questions. First, how did people construct their own sense of peoplehood, and second, how did people construct that of others? Greek and Roman understandings of ethnicity were deeply rooted in the authority of texts and continued to define peoples, communities, and territories throughout antiquity. These questions, of course, are relevant today. Who we think we are today has much to do with how various forms of racial identity were forged in the pre-modern past. We will analyze these ancient sources in light of recent scholarly discussions from a variety of disciplinary points of view.

This course examines the ongoing struggles of indigenous communities in the Northeast with a focus on what we can learn from individuals who have been active during their own lifetimes (although not all of them accept the label of "activist"). We expand the popular image of Red Power with examples of indigenous activism from the 1600s to the present. Graded work includes a short paper, oral histories of guest speakers, and a final project.

While the last apparent vestiges of colonial rule are fast becoming historical artifacts, few people in the former colonizing countries have more than an impressionistic understanding of what colonialism was. This course is designed to disabuse the intelligent layperson of erroneous ideas about the nature of colonial rule and the legacy it bequeathed to the contemporary world. We will examine the origins of colonial policy, as well as its conjuncture with other economic and political problems, through a series of case studies and intellectual histories.

This course will examine the nexus of science, technology, and war in the 20th century United States and Europe. This course will cover topics such as the development and use of chemical and biological warfare; scientific, political, medical, and philosophical implications of nuclear technology; the Manhattan Project and Big Science; Nazi science; Soviet agriculture; Cold War technology and the Space Race; missile technology; and psychological research and the military. As a unifying theme we will consider the impact of technological determinism and the centrality of science and technology in wartime politics and practice. Readings will consist of primary and secondary sources as well as historical and contemporary films. Requirements will include writing several short papers as well as a longer historiographical essay.

This class is about 1. Ideas that have changed the discipline of history. 2. Ideas that have changed the larger flow of history.  3. Ideas that have changed you, the student, and your relationship to history.  4. Ideas that have changed your personal history. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Hist majors.

This IE class seeks to uncover some of the folk history of the American past. Folklorist Simon Bronner dubbed the United States a "folk nation" because of the ways in which the American past is a complex mix of actual events and imposed meanings. Some of the latter were once dismissed as mere tall tales, though skilled humanists know that surface narratives are seldom the deeper story. This course will look at American historical tales, legends, visual images, and material culture with an eye toward analyzing how 'meaning' is created and recreated. It will also probe the use of unconventional historical sources, ideological constructions of heritage, and hidden subtexts within master narratives

We are now living in the throes of the “Arab Spring” and the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. This General Education IE course seeks to integrate students’ contemporary understanding of these events against the backdrop of analogous moments in world history over the past three centuries. The core mission of the course is to examine why economic underdevelopment, in combination with weak or dependent state formations, often induces popular instances of rebellion and revolution in the modern era. We will also examine why revolutions do not always usher in genuine social reform. The class will be particularly focused on comparative models of social change and revolution found in the works of Gregor Benton, Crane Brinton, Edmund Burke, Jean Chesneaux, Richard Cobb, Eric Hobsbawm, Barrington Moore, Edmund Morgan, James Scott, Theda Skocpol and William T. Vollman. The course will afford students an opportunity to improve their speaking and writing ability, while critically assessing the course material through an interdisciplinary lens

In this 4 credit IE class, students investigate the history of Genghis Khan and the Great Mongol Empire, the Mongol Successor Empires, and the copycat Temürid Empire, covering the time period 1150-1500. Students learn about the rise, expansion and fall of these empires, and the complexities that make this history so gripping. For the IE component, students also reflect on themselves as students and history majors, and on their college careers and what they have learned in them, and then connect these reflections to topics in Mongol and Turkish history.

How different is the Middle East and North Africa from Europe? Is Islam, as a religion and as an ethical system, really so very different from Christianity and Judaism? By looking at the Mediterranean world from antiquity to today, we will query notions of separate and unequal, the reasoning behind them, and their historicity. Classes will proceed by discussion and students will be required to give short reports and to participate in structured debates focused on the causes and impact of the fall of Rome, the rise of Islam, the Crusades and the reconquista, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the shift in world trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the shift in political structures from empires to states, the ‘othering’ of Africa and the Middle East, and so forth as decreed by what we as a class decide to think about and study.

This course introduces students to the societies and cultures of the Mediterranean world from the third to the seventh century CE. Students will read modern scholarship and primary sources on issues such as the disintegration of the Roman empire into successor states in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and the transformation of cities, art, religions, and ethnic identities in a post-Roman world.

The Global history of Sport is devoted to the modern history of international sport. The course examines the ways that sport has influenced and been influenced by important social, political, and economic institutions or ideologies. Class material will address the emergence of international sporting institutions and tournaments such as the Olympic games and the World Cup while also examining several individual case studies including baseball and soccer. Students analyze historically important events, developments, and processes as a way of gaining an awareness of and appreciation for an historical perspective. The readings of the course include a variety of primary and secondary sources in order to better analyze and understand the diversity of global norms and values and the way they change over time.  The course work emphasizes the development of critical thinking and writing skills and assignments include short essays, exams and digital projects.

This course explores varied themes in the environmental history of Latin America. Beginning with the Pre-Columbian era, the course moves on to examine the intertwining of environmental, social, and cultural transformations brought about by the European colonization of the Americas, and finally the environmental and related social repercussions of the emergence of modernity, urbanization, and industrialization in the era of independence. The course focuses not only on environmental change, its causes and social repercussions, but also on examining cultural attitudes and ideas towards the environment and the changes that these ideas have undergone at different phases in Latin America's history.

This course examines the assertion of U.S. power from the conquest of the Philippines to the “global war on terror.” What are the causes and consequences of America’s cultural, political, military, and economic empire? Has the U.S. been a force for democracy and freedom, as its leaders have claimed, or has it more often acted in opposition to self-determination and human rights?

This course will explore the history and development of reproductive rights law in the 20th and 21st century United States, centering primarily on the reading of statutes, court decisions, amicus briefs, and law review articles.  We will look at the progression of cases and legal reasoning involving a wide variety of reproductive rights issues, including forced sterilization, contraception, abortion, forced pregnancy/c-sections,  policing pregnancy (through welfare law, employment policies and criminal law), and reproductive technologies.  We will pay particular attention to how differently situated women were/are treated differently by the law, especially on the basis of age, class, race, sexual orientation, relationship status, and ability.  We will also examine the role lawyers have historically played in advancing (or constraining) the goals of the reproductive rights movement(s) and explore the effectiveness of litigation as a strategy to secure these rights.  Finally, we will explore the relationship between reproductive rights and reproductive justice and consider whether reproductive justice can be obtained through advocating for reproductive rights.  Prior law-related coursework helpful, but not required.

This class is designed to help students think about life after the BA. The class will explore a variety of subjects, including what jobs history majors have gotten in recent years, what qualifications history majors bring to the job market, what your interests and skills suggest about the sort of employment you might find rewarding, opportunities for pre-professional training (UMass courses, internships, study abroad, and graduate school), resume writing, job search strategies, and interview skills.

The foundations of modern science and scientific method were laid in the Scientific Revolution of the late sixteenth and seventeenth century. This period would be seen as a golden age by the philosophes of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the founders of the history of science in the twentieth century. Yet the period from 1550 to 1650 also saw widespread interest in occult powers and natural magic, and it was the height of the “witch craze” in Europe, a period in which about fifty thousand Europeans, most of them women, were tried and executed for the crime of diabolical witchcraft.

Are these trends contradictory or complementary? Historians have disagreed vehemently about whether the Scientific Revolution, a triumph of rational thought, was opposed to the Renaissance interest in the occult, demonology, natural magic, and witchcraft, or whether these aspects were part and parcel of the intense study of the natural world that characterized early modern science. For example, Isaac Newton was both the founder of modern physics and a dedicated alchemical adept. Were these aspects of his life compatible? Or did they coexist in an uneasy tension, reflected in the fact that Newton never published his alchemical writings?

This course will address these questions on the basis of intensive study of the primary sources and selected readings from modern historians of science, European culture, and occult knowledge. Though our focus will be on early modern Europe, we will look to the High Middle Ages for the origins of many European concepts of demonic and occult powers

and the origins of modern notions of scientific explanation. On the most fundamental level, this course is about the history of reason and rationality: what did it mean to approach a problem reasonably, and what—if anything—did modern science add to the ways in which human beings justify their claims to know something?

JUNIOR WRITING SEMINARS (591-595)
592K History of Contraception and Abortion

J. Berkman

Wed 2:30-5:00

This Junior Seminar, although primarily focused on the history of contraception and abortion in the United States, is open to student research and writing on the related history in other countries. The course is organized into two parts. Prior to spring break, students will read widely in reproductive control, beginning with two court decisions spanning centuries -- the recent Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision concerning contraception and a court decision about abortion in colonial Connecticut. An essay, ca. 10-15 pages, based upon assigned readings, lectures and class discussion will climax this first half of the semester. During the weeks after spring break, the seminar turns into a workshop, engaged in the study of research and writing techniques and student presentations of the first draft of their term paper. The term paper builds on the readings of the first half of the semester along with research begun during March.   The final draft of the paper will be due a week after the last day of the Seminar.

Junior Writing Seminar: As their nations struggled to find their places in a new world order dominated by Western nations, East Asians saw the variety, visibility, and impacts of religion explode in their everyday lives. We need only think of the bulletproof Chinese Boxers who defied the Qing Dynasty and the entire Western world in 1900 or the hyper-patriotic, militaristic Emperor-worship cultivated by State Shinto in Japan. From European Jesuits in China to American Protestants in Japan to Japanese Buddhists in Korea to the place of religion in racial and national identity formation and state-building, religion has been a very big deal in modern East Asia over the past five centuries. To understand these developments, we will read from history monographs, academic journal articles, diaries, newspapers, and magazines that illustrate East Asian religious heterogeneity and its intellectual, socio-cultural, and political repercussions. This writing-intensive course will culminate with a short secondary source-based research paper.

This course looks at ancient warfare from many angles (emotional, psychological and sociological). We will begin even before the beginning. We will deal with the relationship between prey and predatory behaviors in primates, hominids, and humans and in the relationship of hunting and warfare among foragers and farmers. We will deal with the kinds of structures of leadership and hierarchy created among brigands, war bands, and armies. We will deal with the varieties of cultic behaviors of hunters, warriors and soldiers - the varieties of “holy wars.” We will be reading both primary and secondary sources on a great variety of cultures including: the foragers of Africa, Australia and New Guinea, the war bands of ancient Germany, the Americas and medieval Japan, the armies of the Aztecs, Greeks and Romans. Three 7-10 page papers.

This writing seminar focuses on 19th-century African American women's involvement in political issues such as abolition, women's suffrage, public health, worker's rights and education.  Students will read both primary sources and current scholarship on the subject.  Students will work on independent research projects through the semester and will present that research in their final paper and an oral presentation to the class. 

In this seminar, we will examine the roles race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality have played in U.S. immigration history and policy from the arrival of the first large wave of immigrants to the U.S. (the Irish), through the first racially-based immigration act (the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which eliminated quotas based on national origins. Students will read and engage with both primary and secondary source material. During the first third of the semester, students will read scholarly articles and monographs on selected topics and lead group discussions. A short paper will be required for each reading. In the remainder of the semester, students will select their own topics and research and produce an original paper (approximately 20 pages). Students will also engage in peer review and evaluation of their work as they move through the research, drafting, and writing stages of their papers.

Junior Writing Seminar. Idealized and despised, outsiders, both real and imagined, define a society through negative and positive examples. We will examine numerous primary sources including Babylonian epic, Greek tragedies, paintings, sculpture, histories, geographies, saints? lives, theology, Viking poems, manuscript illumination, Arthurian legends, and witch-hunting manuals. By placing our sources in their historical contexts, we will examine the ways that a society represents and uses its outsiders. The structure of the class will be roughly chronological beginning in the Ancient Near East and continuing through the Classical world, and medieval Europe, but will also proceed thematically to examine different kinds of outsiders. The subjects of our inquiry will be the fantastic?monsters, zombies, revenants, wild men?but we will also consider the related representations of real peripheral groups and individuals including Jews, Muslims, saints, heretics, and those accused of witchcraft. Students will write several papers, including a term paper.