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History

• HIST E-10a/W World History I: The Dawn of Civilization (Fall)
• HIST E-10b/W World History II: The Rise of the East (Spring)
• HIST E-1010 History of Western Christianity, 100-1100 (Fall)
• HIST E-1015 History of Western Christianity, 1100-1500 (Spring)
• HIST E-1146 Medieval Warfare and the Crusades (Fall, Spring)
• HIST E-1208 Introduction to the Renaissance (Spring)
• HIST E-1355 Western Ascendancy: The Mainsprings of Global Power from 1600 to the Present (Fall)
• HIST E-1402 Kingdoms to Empire: The Rise of Early Modern Britain, 1485-1714 (Fall)
• HIST E-1505 Mexico and the Difficulties of Rule: A Historical Inquiry (Spring)
• HIST E-1600 Encounters: Early Modern British Exploration and Settlement in the Atlantic World (Spring)
• HIST E-1607b The American Revolution in Boston (January)
• HIST E-1632/W The History of Boston (Spring)
• HIST E-1650/W American Constitutional History I (Fall)
• HIST E-1660 Major Themes in Twentieth-Century US History (Spring)
• HIST E-1661 The United States During the New Deal (Fall)
• HIST E-1685/W From Ripon to Roosevelt: American Political History, 1856-1945 (Spring)
• HIST E-1825 China: Traditions and Transformations (Fall)
• HIST E-1832 China and Chinese Emigration in Modern Times (Spring)
• HIST E-1840 Chinese Societies at Home and Abroad: Linked Routes to Modernity? (Spring)
• HIST E-1851 Japan: Tradition and Transformation (Spring)
• HIST E-1889 World War and Global Transformation in the Twentieth Century: World War I (Fall)

HIST E-10a/W World History I: The Dawn of Civilization (13304)

This course analyzes developments in, and controversies about, the study of world history to AD 200. Topics include theories of cosmic beginnings and the beginning of life; Africa and theories of human origins; material and agricultural development and diffusion in Eurasia; ancient Egypt and Nubia; Mesopotamian, Harappan, and Western Hemispheric civilizations; the beginnings of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism; the unification of China; the Bible as historical source; foundations of ancient Greek thought and culture; the Roman Republic; and origins of Judaism and Christianity. (4 credits)

HIST E-10b/W World History II: The Rise of the East (23162)

This course analyzes developments in, and controversies about, the study of world history from AD 200 to 1500. Topics include theories of the fall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires; the rise and fall of Mayan civilization; the development of Christianity, Confucianism, and Buddhism; the rise of Islam; African monarchies and trade; Tang and Sung cultural and technological innovations; impact of the Mongol empire; origins of the Ottoman Empire; the nature of the European Middle Ages; and the origins of the Renaissance. (4 credits)

HIST E-1010 History of Western Christianity, 100-1100 (13303)

This course focuses on the church and society in western Europe from the second through the twelfth centuries. Early and high medieval Christianity in social and cultural context is explored, with attention to popular religious belief and behavior as well as to the institutional church and its leaders. (4 credits)

HIST E-1015 History of Western Christianity, 1100-1500 (23161)

This course examines the church and society in western Europe during the high and late Middle Ages. We pay particular attention to theological and institutional change and continuity and to popular religious movements. (4 credits)

HIST E-1146 Medieval Warfare and the Crusades

*** HIST E-1146 Fall term (13461) has been CANCELED. ***

This course surveys the military landscape of medieval Europe and examines the most important wars and battles as well as military aspects of important broader topics (the fall of Rome, the Germanic invasions, the Vikings, the Crusades, the Hundred Years War). A trip to the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, one of the largest collections of medieval arms and armor in the Western Hemisphere, is included. (4 credits)

HIST E-1208 Introduction to the Renaissance (23323)

Spanning the wane of the Middle Ages to the scientific revolution, the period that we used to call the Renaissance witnessed an extraordinary transformation in European society and mentality. A novel curiosity and willingness to question the values and assumptions of the past gave birth to Machiavelli, Luther, Michelangelo, and Galileo. Their accomplishments, as much as their failures, founded modernity and today's western civilization. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, this course explores the history, art, philosophy, religion, science, and politics of two tumultuous centuries, and analyzes the challenges that Renaissance men and women had to face and overcome in order to invent our world. (4 credits)

HIST E-1355 Western Ascendancy: The Mainsprings of Global Power from 1600 to the Present (13480)

From the scientific revolution to the industrial revolution, from democracy to the consumer society, from imperialism to nationalism and socialism, the ideas and institutions of the West (meaning Europe and its colonies of settlement) came to dominate the world in the four centuries after around 1600. But what were the mainsprings of Western power? Taking a comparative historical approach, this course seeks to identify the key economic, cultural, social, political, and military differences between the West and the rest. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Societies of the World 19. (4 credits)

HIST E-1402 Kingdoms to Empire: The Rise of Early Modern Britain, 1485-1714 (13333)

This course surveys the rise of Britain from a disparate group of medieval kingdoms, including England, Scotland and Ireland, to a world power. Major topics include religious upheaval and reformation, constitutional transformation and the emergence of parliamentary supremacy, the rise of print culture, and Britain's larger involvement in the European and Atlantic worlds. Readings include Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Spenser, and More. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course History 1117. (4 credits)

HIST E-1505 Mexico and the Difficulties of Rule: A Historical Inquiry (23357)

This course is a survey of Mexican history since 1810 that focuses on the development, successes, and failures of the Mexican state. It seeks to use history as a tool to understand recent controversies about the viability of the Mexican state, and its relation with economic development,political mobilization and organization, social unrest, cultural developments, international relations, natural disasters, and public health. (4 credits)

HIST E-1600 Encounters: Early Modern British Exploration and Settlement in the Atlantic World (23190)

This course is structured around voyages to the Americas by early modern British explorers, including expeditions by John Cabot, Sir Francis Drake, and the establishment of Virginia and other colonies in the Americas. Excited by the wonder and possibility of the Americas, our voyagers expressed their hopes in travel narratives and diaries. These sources revealed as much about the fundamental cultural assumptions and biases of the Europeans who wrote them, as the actual state of the Americas they encountered. As they yearned to establish commercial, religious, and social utopias in the New World our explorers confronted other peoples with frequently conflicting visions of the world. The course surveys the initial English contact with the Americas up to the establishing of colonies and their rapid growth in the mid-seventeenth century. Topics include cross-cultural encounters, slavery, travel narratives, the technology of early modern exploration, colonialism, and piracy. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course History 1118. (4 credits)

HIST E-1607b The American Revolution in Boston (23307)

Why did the American Revolution begin in Boston? This course takes an in-depth look at the political and social climate in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s, and the events that transformed resistance into revolution: the Stamp Act riots, the Boston Massacre, and the destruction of the tea. (2 credits)

HIST E-1632/W The History of Boston (22211)

This course examines the history of Boston from the 1620s to the Big Dig. We discover the people who built, rebuilt, and transformed the city, from the days of the Puritans through the era of the American Revolution, nineteenth-century immigration and industrialization, and twentieth-century decline and revival. (4 credits)

HIST E-1650/W American Constitutional History I (13301)

This course charts the development of American constitutional government. Topics include the drafting and ratifying of the state and federal constitutions in the 1770s and 1780s, problems of individual liberty versus government power, state rights, race and slavery, war powers, and pluralism. (4 credits)

HIST E-1660 Major Themes in Twentieth-Century US History (23356)

The study of the United States in the twentieth century is a vibrant and flourishing field. This seminar introduces students to the central questions, problems, and debates in the history of the American century. Students learn how the literature of history has developed through reading both older and newer approaches. Readings focus on questions of politics, political culture, the state, and social life. The course is both thematic and chronological, as well as necessarily selective. (4 credits)

HIST E-1661 The United States During the New Deal (13484)

The New Deal wrought fundamental changes in American life, transforming citizen-state relations and creating the basis for the welfare state we know today. Looking at the United States from 1929 to 1945, this research seminar offers students an opportunity to explore the historical literature on this significant period of social, economic, political, and cultural change with an eye toward conducting their own investigation into one aspect of the New Deal. Each student chooses a topic on some aspect of New Deal reform, or the broader social, economic, and cultural changes of the period, formulates a historical question, becomes familiar with the secondary literature on the subject, and engages with a body of primary sources with the goal of writing a research paper of 20-25 pages. (4 credits)

HIST E-1685/W From Ripon to Roosevelt: American Political History, 1856-1945 (22917)

*** HIST E-1685/W has been CANCELED. ***

HIST E-1825 China: Traditions and Transformations (12357)

Modern China presents a dual image: a society transforming itself through economic development and social revolution; and the world's largest and oldest bureaucratic state, coping with longstanding problems of economic and political management. Both images bear the indelible imprint of China's historical experience, of its patterns of philosophy and religion, and of its social and political thought. These themes are discussed in order to understand China in the modern world and as a great world civilization that developed along lines different from those of the Mediterranean. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Historical Study A-13. (4 credits)

HIST E-1832 China and Chinese Emigration in Modern Times (23192)

*** HIST E-1832 has been CANCELED. ***

HIST E-1840 Chinese Societies at Home and Abroad: Linked Routes to Modernity? (23346)

This seminar explores the social history of China since the mid-1500s, analyzing domestic and overseas communities as parts of a single historical development. Selected readings include primary documents in translation. No prior study of China or of the Chinese language is presumed. (4 credits)

HIST E-1851 Japan: Tradition and Transformation (23072)

From the emergence of a court-centered state 1500 years ago to a warrior-dominated society centuries later, Japan's premodern past fascinates people around the world. The people, institutions, and ideas behind these traditions are the focus of the first half of the course. We then turn to Japan's modern era, which presents one of the more striking transformations in world history. We examine the invention of new traditions as one crucial aspect of the tumultuous changes that occurred from the mid-1880s through the present and explore how people in Japan have dealt with the dilemmas of modernity that challenge us all. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Historical Studies A-14. (4 credits)

HIST E-1889 World War and Global Transformation in the Twentieth Century: World War I (13319)

Viewed together, the two world wars shattered Germany's bid for European domination, revolutionized Russia and extended her influence over Eastern Europe for more than 40 years, helped dissolve the colonial empires and create the modern welfare state, and made the US the world's preeminent power. This course examines the origins of World War I, the grand strategies of the belligerents and the actual nature of combat, the war economies, response of intellectuals, and the dilemmas of peacemaking. It focuses particularly on critical decisions, frontline experiences, cultural responses, political radicalization, and the fragility of the interwar global order. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Historical Study B-53. (4 credits)

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