This page allows you to search a particular semester's course offerings in History and filter them by Major/Minor requirement. We also invite you to explore Penn History courses on the Pathways App. This fun, game-like platform allows you to see connections between History courses, so that you can better sequence them. It also encourages you to ask “how can History help us answer big questions?” Give it a try!

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Major Concentrations Major/Minor Requirements Fulfilled
HIST 024-401 Intro To Anc Near East Virginia Herrmann EDUC 200 TR 03:30 PM-04:30 PM See primary department (NELC) for a complete course description. ANCH025401, NELC101401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST024401 World Africa/Middle East, pre-1800
HIST 026-401 Ancient Greece Jeremy James Mcinerney ARCH 208 MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM See primary department (ANCH) for a complete course description. ANCH026401, CLST026401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST026401 European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 030-001 Emergence of Mod Europe Antonio Feros COLL 314 TR 08:30 AM-10:00 AM This course traces the formation of European society, politics and culture from its earliest days through the era of the Reformation, ca. 1000-1600 CE. Major themes will include: politics and power; law and the state; economics and trade; religion; learning and the rise of universities; social organization; everyday life. The reading and analysis of primary sources from each era will be important in understanding Europe's key features and development. History & Tradition Sector Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST030001 European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 036-401 Medicine in History Meghan L Crnic COHN 402 TR 01:45 PM-02:45 PM STSC002401, HSOC002401 History & Tradition Sector Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
HIST 046-401 Portraits of Soviet Society: Literature, Film, Drama Siarhei Biareishyk COLL 318 WF 10:15 AM-11:45 AM How can art and literature open a window on Russian lives lived over the course of the tumultuous twentieth century? This course adopts a unique approach to questions of cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organized around a medium-length film, text or set of texts by some of the most important cultural figures of the era (novella, play, memoir, film, short stories) which opens up a single scene of social history: work, village, avant-garde, war, Gulag, and so on. Each cultural work is accompanied by a set of supplementary materials: historical readings, paintings, cultural-analytical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. We will read social history through culture and culture through history. Prerequisite: All readings and lectures in English. REES187401, REES687401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Humanities & Social Science Sector
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST046401 European Europe
HIST 072-401 Intro Lat Am & Latino St Veronica V Brownstone BENN 244 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM Designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of Latin American and Latino Studies, this is a seminar oriented toward first and second year students. Readings will range widely, from scholarly work on the colonial world that followed from and pushed back against the "conquest"; to literary and artistic explorations of Latin American identities; to social scientists' explorations of how Latinos are changing the United States in the current generation. LALS072401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST072401 American, World Latin America/Caribbean, US
HIST 073-401 Colonial Pasts & Indigenous Futures: A History of Belize & Central America Richard M Leventhal CANCELED The small country of Belize (formerly British Honduras) represents the past history and ongoing story of Central America and the region. Belize has a colonial past and present with strong ties to the UK and emerging connections to the US. At the same time, there is a growing post-colonial debate within the country about the role of indigenous Maya people in the past, present and future of the country. This course will be the first of two courses which will lead to active work in Belize during the summer of 2021 with the development and creation of a Community Museum within the Maya village of Indian Creek in southern Belize. This course will be taught by Richard M. Leventhal who has worked in Belize for the past 20 years. Leventhal will be joined by 3 Maya activists from Belize who will co-teach the class for 5-6 weeks out of the semester. ANTH177401, LALS177401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST073401 World Latin America/Caribbean
HIST 076-401 Africa Since 1800 Lee V Cassanelli COLL 200 MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM Survey of major themes, events, and personalities in African history from the early nineteenth century through the 1960s. Topics include abolition of the slave trade, European imperialism, impact of colonial rule, African resistance, religious and cultural movements, rise of naturalism and pan-Africanism, issues of ethnicity and "tribalism" in modern Africa. AFRC076401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST076401 World Africa/Middle East
HIST 081-401 Hist Mid East Since 1800 Eve M. Troutt Powell COLL 314 MW 10:15 AM-11:15 AM A survey of the modern Middle East with special emphasis on the experiences of ordinary men and women as articulated in biographies, novels, and regional case studies. Issues covered include the collapse of empires and the rise of a new state system following WWI, and the roots and consequences of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Iranian revolution and the U.S.-Iraq War. Themes include: the colonial encounter with Europe and the emergence of nationalist movements, the relationship between state and society, economic development and international relations, and religion and cultural identity. NELC031401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST081401 World Africa/Middle East
HIST 089-601 Intro To Modern India Brian Thomas Cannon COLL 318 MW 05:15 PM-06:45 PM This introductory course will provide an outline of major events and themes in Indian history, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the re-emergence of India as a global player in the 21st century. The course will discuss the following themes: society and economy in Mughal India; global trade between India and the West in the 17th century; the rise of the English East India Company's control over Indian subcontinent in the 18th century; its emergence and transformation of India into a colonial economy; social and religious reform movements in the 19th century; the emergence of elite and popular anti-colonial nationalisms; independence and the partition of the subcontinent; the emergence of the world's largest democracy; the making of an Indian middle class; and the nuclearization of South Asia. SAST001601 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
World East/South Asia
HIST 096-401 Late Imperial China Si-Yen Fei MOOR 212 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM This lecture course -- the first of a two-part sequence -- examines the history of late imperial China through the early 19th century. We begin with the Song dynasty transformation: the rise of gentry society and imperial absolutism, the institution of Confucian orthodoxy, the shift of the population and the economic center of gravity to the south, the commercialization of the economy, and change in the relative status of women and men. We then trace China's subsequent political and social history, including the following themes: inner vs. outer court politics; law, government, and society; intellectuals and political dissent; gender, family, and kinship practices; patterns of peasant life and rebellion; traditional foreign relations and first contacts with the West; internal sources of the decline of imperial order. EALC041401 Cross Cultural Analysis Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST096401 World East/South Asia, pre-1800
HIST 097-601 History of Modern China Ting-Chih Wu CANCELED From an empire to a republic, from communism to socialist-style capitalism, few countries have ever witnessed so much change in a hundred year period as China during the twentieth century. How are we to make sense out of this seeming chaos? This course will offer an overview of the upheavals that China has experienced from the late Qing to the Post-Mao era, interspersed with personal perspectives revealed in primary source readings such as memoirs, novels, and oral accounts. We will start with an analysis of the painful transition from the last empire, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to a modern nation state, followed by exploration of a century-long tale of incessant reform and revolution. The survey will focus on three main themes: 1) the repositioning of China in the new East Asian and world orders; 2) the emergence of a modern Chinese state and nationalistic identity shaped and reshaped by a series of cultural crises; and finally, 3) the development and transformation of Chinese modernity. Major historical developments include: the Opium War and drug trade in the age of imperialism, reform and revolution, the Nationalist regime, Mao's China, the Cultural Revolution, and the ongoing efforts of post-Mao China to move beyond Communism. We will conclude with a critical review of the concept of "Greater China" that takes into account Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora in order to attain a more comprehensive understanding of modern China, however defined, at the end of the last century. History & Tradition Sector
HIST 104-301 Why College? Jonathan L Zimmerman BENN 323 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Course is available to Freshmen.
Freshman Seminar
HIST 106-301 Africa in World History Lee V Cassanelli VANP 305 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Cross Cultural Analysis Course is available to Freshmen.
Freshman Seminar
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST106301
HIST 106-302 Dumplings, Bows, & Fermented Milk: the Silk Roads in 10 Objects Oscar Aguirre Mandujano CANCELED Course is available to Freshmen.
Freshman Seminar
HIST 106-303 Private Life in China Si-Yen Fei VANP 526 T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Cross Cultural Analysis Course is available to Freshmen.
Freshman Seminar
HIST 106-304 Epidemic Disease in Modern History Alex Chase-Levenson CANCELED Course is available to Freshmen.
Freshman Seminar
Freshman Seminar
HIST 126-001 Europe: French Rev-Wwi Alex Chase-Levenson CANCELED It's old, it's new. It's unfamiliar, it's recognizable. This course investigates the collapse of the "old regime" and the birth of something like the Europe we recognize. The long nineteenth century witnessed the development of political, economic, and cultural phenomena we often see as characteristic of modern society. Topics considered include political revolution, industrialization, liberalism, imperialism, and new ideologies of gender, race, and class. Our focus will be consistently transnational. Where did Europe begin and end? How did borders and boundaries operate at the edge of nations, but also within societies? We will investigate these questions as we follow European history from the violence and optimism of the French Revolution to the chaos of the First World War.
HIST 133-001 Free Speech & Censorship Sophia A Rosenfeld COLL 314 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM This course will explore the idea of free speech - its justification, its relationship to various forms of censorship, and its proper limits - as a historical, philosophical, legal, and ultimately, political question. In the first half of the course, we will explore the long history across the West of the regulation of various kinds of ideas and their expression, from malicious gossip to heresies, and read classic arguments for and against censorship, copyright protections, and standards of taste and decency and of truth. In the second part of the seminar, after looking at how the idea of freedom of speech came to seem an existential prerequisite for democracy as well as individual liberty, we will take up the historical and philosophical questions posed by such recent dilemmas as whether or not hate speech deserves the protection of the First Amendment, the distinction between art and pornography from the perspective of freedom of expression, speech during wartime, and the transformative effects of the internet on the circulation and regulation of ideas. We will end the semester by thinking about the globalization of the idea of free speech as a human right and its implications, both positive and negative. Readings will range from Robert Darnton's The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, to D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, to documents concerning the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and law review articles about Citizens United v. FEC. We will also make considerable use of local resources, from museums to the library. Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Humanities & Social Science Sector
American, European Europe, pre-1800, US
HIST 134-401 Origins of Nazism: From Democracy To Race War and Genocide Anne K Berg COLL 314 MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM Where did the Nazis come from? Was the Weimar Republic bound to fail? Did the Treaty of Versailles or the Great Depression catapult the Nazis into power? What was the role of racism, of Anti-Semitism? How did the regime consolidate itself? What was the role of ordinary people? How do we explain the Holocaust and what kind of a war was the Second World War? Grappling with these and more questions, the first half of the course focuses on Germany's first democracy, the Weimar Republic and its vibrant political culture. In the second half, we study on the Nazi regime, how it consolidated its power and remade society based on the concepts of race and struggle. Discussions of race and race-making are crucial throughout the course. In the name of the "racial purity," the Nazi state moved ruthlessly against Germany's Jewish population and cleansed German society of all "undesirable" elements. These ideas and practices didn't originate with the Nazis and they didn't operate in a geopolitical vacuum. Thinking about Nazi racism and genocide in both its particular specifics and in a larger global historical context is the main goal of this course. GRMN134401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST134401 European Europe
HIST 135-401 Cold War: Global History Benjamin Nathans COHN 402 MW 10:15 AM-11:15 AM The Cold War was more than simply a military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union; it was the frame within which the entire world developed (for better or worse) for nearly five decades. This course will examine the cold War as a global phenomenon, covering not only the military and diplomatic history of the period, but also examining the social and cultural impact of the superpower confrontation. We will cover the origins of the conflict, the interplay between periods of tension and detente, the relative significance of disagreements within the opposing blocs, and the relationship between the "center" of the conflict in the North Atlantic/European area and the global "periphery". REES135401 Cross Cultural Analysis Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Humanities & Social Science Sector
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST135401 American, Diplomatic, European Europe, US
HIST 140-401 Med & Early Mod Jewry Anne O Albert COLL 318 TR 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Follow the journey of one global diaspora over a millennium of cultural, intellectual, social, and religious change. From the rise of Islam in the seventh century to the separation of church and state in the seventeenth, Jewish people were intimate parts of, and at the same time utterly othered by, the many societies in which they lived. This basic duality is at the heart of this course, exploring how Jewish religion and culture evolved in relationship with Muslim and Christian majorities. Students will develop an understanding of the rich dynamism of premodern Judaism and Jewish life, with an emphasis on global diversity and internal differentiation as well as change over time. We will look for threads of continuity and moments of transformation, decode illustrative texts, images, and documents (in English), and ask how the Judaism that faced modernity had been shaped by a staggering array of different cultural circumstances after antiquity. The course includes attention to anti-Jewish phenomena like expulsion and blood libel, but also at coexistence and creative cultural synthesis, avoiding any simplistic narrative and asking about their legacy in the present day. It will look at the Jewish past from the inside, including less familiar dimensions including philosophy, magic, messianism, and family life. JWST157401, NELC052401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST140401 European, Jewish, World Africa/Middle East, Europe, pre-1800
HIST 143-401 Foundations of European Thought: From Rome To the Renaissance Ann Elizabeth Moyer COLL 314 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course offers an introduction to the world of thought and learning at the heart of European culture, from the Romans through the Renaissance. We begin with the ancient Mediterranean and the formation of Christianity and trace its transformation into European society. Along the way we will examine the rise of universities and institutions for learning, and follow the humanist movement in rediscovering and redefining the ancients in the modern world. COML143401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST143401 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800
HIST 148-401 Warriors,Concubines,And Converts: the Ottoman Empire in the Mid East & Euro Oscar Aguirre Mandujano CANCELED For almost six hundred years, the Ottomans ruled most of the Balkans and the Middle East. From their bases in Anatolia, Ottoman armies advanced into the Balkans, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, constantly challenging the borders of neighboring European and Islamicate empires. By the end of the seventeenth century, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, Baghdad, Sarajevo, Budapest, and nearly Vienna came under Ottoman rule. As the empire expanded into Europe and the Middle East, the balance of imperial power shifted from warriors to converts, concubines, and intellectuals. This course examines the expansion of the Ottoman sultanate from a local principality into a sprawling empire with a sophisticated bureaucracy; it also investigates the social, cultural, and intellectual developments that accompanied the long arc of the empire's rise and fall. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and discuss major currents of change in the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. The student will have a better understanding of the roles of power, ideology, diplomacy, and gender in the construction of empire and a refined appreciation for diverse techniques of historical analysis. NELC148401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
HIST 149-401 Filming the Middle East Eve M. Troutt Powell CANCELED This course will take us through the history of the modern Middle East as told by the region's many film-makers. We will explore how cinema developed and grew throughout countries like Egypt, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. Unusually for a typical course on the Middle East, we will also pay close attention to North Africa's film industry, with a deep exploration of the cinema of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Sudanese films will be an important part of our study as well. What does it mean to have a national cinema? Many of these countries' film industries grew under European occupation and colonialism. With independence, were more markets available to Middle Eastern films? Where did directors and screenwriters train? Who were the intended audiences for these films? We will watch canonical films from the region, many of which focus on or reflect the political turmoil and aftermath of wars. But we will also examine the lightness of comedies, which were usually much more popular with Middle Eastern audiences, and which reveal every bit as much about the region's histories. And we will watch and discuss a phenomenon not found in Western cinema - the Ramadan soap operas and historical reenactments that are unique to the Middle East. CIMS149401, NELC149401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. Intellectual, World Africa/Middle East
HIST 151-401 Race,Space in Am Hist Mia E Bay CANCELED This course provides with a historical introduction to America's racial and ethnic groupings by examining the social, spatial and historical forces that have defined these groups. Weekly lectures and readings trace American racial formations, identities and experiences from the age of Columbus to the present day. Following the work of historians and geographers who emphasize the importance of space and place in constructions of racial and ethnic identity, most of the class readings chart the evolution of such identities within specific regions or communities. Early readings illuminate the origins of categories such as "white," black, "Native American" and "Asian" by exploring the colonial encounters in which these identities first took shape; while later readings trace how these identities have been maintained and/or changed over time. Less a product of racial attitudes than of economic and political interests, early American conceptions of race first took shape amidst contests over land and labor that pitted European immigrants against the indigenous peoples of North America, and ultimately led to the development of racial slavery. Colonial legal distinctions between Christians and Heathens were supplanted by legislation that defined people by race and ethnicity. Over time these distinctions were reinforced by a variety of other forces. Distinctive from place to place, America's racial and ethnic groupings have been shaped and reshaped by regional economies such as the slave South, political initiatives such as Indian Removal and Chinese Exclusion Acts, a changing national immigration policy, and sexual and social intermixture and assimilation. Course readings will examine the links between race, region, labor, law, immigration, politics, sexuality and the construction and character of racialized spaces and places in America. AFRC154401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. American US
HIST 155-401 Intro To Asian Amer Hist Eiichiro Azuma COHN 402 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM This course will provide an introduction to the history of Asian Pacific Americans, focusing on the wide diversity of migrant experiences, as well as the continuing legacies of Orientalism on American-born APA's. Issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality will also be examined. ASAM003401 History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diversity in the US
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST155401 American, World East/South Asia, US
HIST 164-001 American Monuments: Designs For the Future (SNF Paideia Program Course) Jared Farmer COLL 314 TR 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Recent protests about monuments have exposed this truth: arguments over the past are arguments about the future. This place-based course examines U.S. public memory in relation to the built environment. Students will learn about the making of the nation's memorial landscape in the long nineteenth century, its remaking in the twentieth century, and its possible futures in the (un)making. Lectures and readings will cover a variety of commemorative structures and practices, from the permanent and the material to the ephemeral and the virtual. Working in teams, students will create proposals for innovative monuments of their own design. While contextualized in national and international history, student projects will be grounded in present-day Philadelphia, with the goal of joining the academic and the civic. Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Designated SNF Paideia Program Course
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST164001 American US
HIST 170-401 The American South Maria Hammack MCNB 150 MW 05:15 PM-06:45 PM Southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to seccession. Traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War. AFRC172401 History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diversity in the US
American pre-1800, US
HIST 173-401 Urb Univ-Community Rltns: Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban Univ-Comm Relations Ira Harkavy NETT CONF W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week. AFRC078401, URBS178401 Cultural Diversity in the US Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Permission Needed From Instructor
An Academically Based Community Serv Course
Benjamin Franklin Seminars
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST173401
HIST 174-401 Capitalism, Socialism and Crisis in the 20th Century Americas Amy C Offner FAGN 114 MW 01:45 PM-02:45 PM From the crisis of the Great Depression through the 1970s, the United States and Latin America produced remarkable efforts to remake society and political economy. This course analyzes the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions, as well as social movements that transformed the United States: the black freedom movement, the labor movement, and changing forms of Latino politics. In all three countries, Americans looked for ways to reform capitalism or build socialism; address entrenched patterns of racism; define and realize democracy; and achieve national independence. They conceived of these challenges in dramatically different ways. Together, we'll compare national histories and analyze the relationships between national upheavals. In studying the US and Latin America together, the class allows students to explore central questions in both regions' histories. What did capitalism, socialism, and communism amount to? What did democracy mean? What were the roots of racial inequality and how did Americans address it? Why were Americans so enticed by economic growth, and how did they pursue it? How did the Cold War shape social movements? What purposes did unions serve? How did Christianity inform movements for and against social change? Studying these regions together also allows us to explore international interactions. How did the black freedom movement in the US relate to the Cuban revolution? How did Latin American immigration shape the US labor movement? How did US Cold War policy influence Latin American revolutionary movements? The goal of this class is for you to interpret the readings and decide what you think. What you learn in this class, and the quality of our experience together, depends on your reading closely, coming to class with informed ideas and questions, and being prepared to help your classmates answer theirs. We will read approximately 100 pages per week. No background is required. LALS174401 History & Tradition Sector Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST174401 American, Diplomatic, Economic, World Latin America/Caribbean, US
HIST 197-401 Era of Revolutions in the Atlantic World Roquinaldo Ferreira CANCELED This class examines the global ramifications of the era of Atlantic revolutions from the 1770s through the 1820s. With a particular focus on French Saint Domingue and Latin America, it provides an overview of key events and individuals from the period. Along the way, it assesses the impact of the American and French revolutions on the breakdown of colonial regimes across the Americas. Students will learn how to think critically about citizenship, constitutional power, and independence movements throughout the Atlantic world. Slavery and the transatlantic slave trade were seriously challenged in places such as Haiti, and the class investigates the appropriation and circulation of revolutionary ideas by enslaved people and other subaltern groups. AFRC197401, LALS197401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. Diplomatic, Intellectual, World Latin America/Caribbean, pre-1800
HIST 209-401 Industrial Metropolis Daniel Sidorick MCNB 286-7 T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Although we no longer think of most U.S. cities as industrial cities, metropolitan areas today are all products of industrial economies, technologies, and social systems. This course explores the industrialization and deindustrialization of American cities within their evolving global context from the era of European colonization to the present. It includes weekly readings and discussion, regular response papers and walking tours, in- class exercises, and a research paper using primary sources. Themes include energy and ecology, labor and production, inner city and suburban development, globalization, and economic restructuring. Ultimately, the class aims to give students a broad knowledge of 1) the history of industrial capitalism, 2) its effects on cities and regions over the past three centuries, and 3) analytical tools for understanding the past, present, and future of metropolitan economies, geography, and society. URBS103401 History & Tradition Sector https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST209401 American US
HIST 216-401 Religion & Colonial Rule in Africa Cheikh Ante MBAcke Babou VANP 305 R 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This course is designed to introduce students to the religious experiences of Africans and to the politics of culture. We will examine how traditional African religious ideas and practices interacted with Christianity and Islam. We will look specifically at religious expressions among the Yoruba, Southern African independent churches and millenarist movements, and the variety of Muslim organizations that developed during the colonial era. The purpose of this course is threefold. First, to develop in students an awareness of the wide range of meanings of conversion and people's motives in creating and adhering to religious institutions; Second, to examine the political, cultural, and psychological dimensions in the expansion of religious social movements; And third, to investigate the role of religion as counterculture and instrument of resistance to European hegemony. Topics include: Mau Mau and Maji Maji movements in Kenya and Tanzania, Chimurenga in Mozambique, Watchtower churches in Southern Africa, anti-colonial Jihads in Sudan and Somalia and mystical Muslim orders in Senegal. AFRC215401 Cross Cultural Analysis Benjamin Franklin Seminars https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST216401 Diplomatic, Intellectual, World Africa/Middle East, Research, Seminar
HIST 216-402 Re-Reading the Holocaust Beth S. Wenger BENN 322 M 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This course explores how the Holocaust has been constructed as an historical event. Beginning in the mid-1940s, with the first attempts to narrate what had transpired during the Nazi era, this seminar traces the ways that the Holocaust became codified as a distinct episode in history. Taking a chronological approach, the course follows the evolution of historical and popular ideas about the Holocaust and considers the different perspectives presented by a variety of sources. We will examine documentary films, memoirs, survivor testimonies, as well as other scholarly and popular representations of the Holocaust. Students will be introduced to unfamiliar sources and also asked to reconsider some well-known Holocaust documents and institutions. JWST216402 Benjamin Franklin Seminars https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST216402 American, European, Jewish Europe, Research, Seminar, US
HIST 225-401 Introduction To Business, Economic, and Financial History Marc R Flandreau CANCELED Business, Economic and Financial History plays a crucial role today in informing the views of business leaders, policy makers, reformers and public intellectuals. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to acquire a command of the key elements of this important intellectual field. The seminar format enables us to do this engagingly through reading and discussion. Students acquire a knowledge of the fundamental texts and controversies. Each meeting focuses on one foundational debate and provides a means to be up to date with the insights gleaned from rigorous economic history. We will examine twelve important debates and students will be asked to write a paper. The debates will include such questions as: What is growth and how can it be measured? What caused the "great divergence" in long run development among countries? How can we "understand" the rise and fall of slavery and its long shadow today? What is globalization and when did it begin? Did the Gold Standard and interwar fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy cause the great depression? How can we explain the evolution of inequality in the very long run? ECON029401 Economic Research, Seminar
HIST 230-301 War and Conquest in Medieval Europe Ada M Kuskowski CANCELED This course will focus on wars of conquest in the medieval period. The code of chivalry demanded that knights not only display great prowess in battle, but also adhere to Christian virtue. How did these square in practice? What constitutes acceptable violence and military intervention? We will seek to understand the medieval mentality of warfare in order to think about the place of war in society, how war was justified, why war was fought, and how it was fought. War, however, cannot be separated from its goals. We will thus go beyond the battlefield to look at how conquest of territories was cemented with the establishment and enforcement of a new order. Themes will include the rise of knighthood, ideas of just war, crusade, laws of war, territorial control and colonization. The course will also include two fabulous field trips to visit Penn’s manuscript collection and the arms and armor collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Research, Seminar
HIST 230-302 Capitalism and Charity: the Long, Complicated Connection Thomas M. Safley COHN 204 W 03:30 PM-06:30 PM Capitalism and charity seldom appear in the same sentence, much less the same title. They seem diametrically opposed. While capitalism is commonly understood as “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit”, according to Merriam-Webster, charity refers to “generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering, also aid given to those in need”. The former implies self-interest, while the other breathes common interest. Yet, the two are closely, dynamically connected. As capitalism has emerged and evolved historically, so has charity changed to meet new circumstances and find new legitimations. From simple charity in the form of indiscriminate almsgiving have emerged “poor relief”, “work relief”, “social welfare” and, more recently “effective altruism” to name but a few permutations. Charity as a personal, face-to-face interaction between rich and poor has become cloaked in varieties of impersonal programs and institutions. This research seminar will explore the tensions (and synergies) between capitalism and charity over time. Through readings and discussions of primary sources, students will come to understand something of this historical dynamic. By completing independent research projects, they will deepen that understanding and learn methods of historical analysis. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST230302 Economic, European Europe, pre-1800, Research, Seminar
HIST 230-303 The History of Truth Sophia A Rosenfeld CANCELED Topics vary
HIST 230-304 From Scrolls To Scrolling: A Long History of Technology and Communication Andrew E Starling VANP 629 R 03:30 PM-06:30 PM The invention of new media is often accompanied by a swell of hope. Enthusiasts expect people to become more connected, new ideas to become more accessible, and information to be shared more rapidly and in more fixed forms than ever before. While there are always nay-sayers, who warn against the effects of such inventions, the narrative linking media and progress is so strong that these detractors are most commonly painted as luddites, and the narrative itself is used to justify and promote yet newer media as well as new configurations of state and media relations.

In this class, we will examine some of the most significant transformations in media forms and the ways in which media are and were produced—from orality to writing, from scroll to codex, manuscript to print, hand-press to steam-press, print to radio, radio to tv, and tv to streaming. How were these technologies used? How did they impact the ages in which they came into use? How did contemporaries perceive these transformations? Does the invention of new media lead inherently to progress? If so, what does progress mean? By examining past revolutions in media and past actors’ perceptions of those revolutions, we will historicize our own age and experience.
European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 230-401 Florence in History Ann Elizabeth Moyer WILL 723 T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Florence is justly famous for its art and learning, especially during the era of the Renaissance. It was also one of the most literate states in Europe during this era; thanks to the city’s 3 abundant records, it is one of the best-studied cities in Europe from the later Middle Ages through the early modern era. Our course readings present a mix of major primary sources, synthetic summaries, and important modern scholarship. Most of our class time will focus on the information and issues they raise. ITAL230401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST230401 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 231-301 Hamilton's America: US History 1754-1804 Sarah L. H. Gronningsater CANCELED In this course, students will learn about the political, constitutional, and social history of the American colonies and the United States from 1754-55 (the outbreak of the Seven Years War and the year of Alexander Hamilton’s birth) to 1804 (the year Hamilton died and Thomas Jefferson, one of his chief rivals, won re-election to the presidency). Hamilton will be our guide to the many events and transformations that occurred during this period. The course is not, however, a narrowly-focused biographical course about Hamilton. Students will read a wide range of primary sources, exploring the ideas and experiences of both famous and ordinary people. These sources will allow students to consider multiple perspectives on historical moments and transformations. Topics covered include: the Seven Years War and other events leading up to the American Revolution, the politics of American independence, the Revolutionary War, the development of state and national republics, the creation and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the role of ordinary people in the politics of the time period, the problem of slavery in the new nation, Native American power and loss, diplomatic affairs, the impact of revolutions in France and Haiti, the rise of partisan politics in expected and unexpected places, and the expansion of American sovereignty and settlement on the North American continent. American pre-1800, Seminar, US
HIST 231-302 Voting Rights & Wrongs in American History Gideon Dashiell Cohn-Postar COLL 315A T 05:15 PM-08:15 PM It is impossible to tell the history of the United States without grappling with the expansion and contraction of voting rights over the last 230 years. Moments of democratic expansion during Reconstruction, the women’s suffrage movement, and the Civil Rights movement receive much scholarly and popular attention. Yet the moments of democratic erosion, voter suppression and intimidation, and complex struggles that result in the expansion of political rights for some but their loss for others, have defined American history just as much as the rare moments of democratic expansion.

This course begins with the exclusionary election rules that shaped the ratification of the Constitution and ends with the ongoing battle over ballot access currently being waged in Congress and in nearly every state in the nation. In between, we will read about and discuss the long struggle over property, gender, citizenship, and race restrictions of the franchise and the heroic men and women who fought to expand the right to vote to all Americans. We will read and analyze primary sources, scrutinize scholarly debates, and learn about the current battle-lines in the ongoing fights to preserve democracy. Students will be graded on their enthusiastic participation in class discussion and the nuance and analytical rigor of their written assignments. Students will write three 4-6 page analytical papers based on the course readings and one 1,000 word op-ed on an ongoing voting rights issue/proposed law/court case/contested election of their choice.
Cultural Diversity in the US https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST231302 American Seminar, US
HIST 231-401 Japanese-American Internment Eiichiro Azuma MCES 105 T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This research seminar will consist of a review of representative studies on the Japanese American internment, and a discussion of how social scientists and historians have attempted to explain its complex backgrounds and causes. Through the careful reading of academic works, primary source materials, and visualized narratives (film productions), students will learn the basic historiography of internment studies, research methodologies, and the politics of interpretation pertaining to this particular historical subject. Students will also examine how Japanese Americans and others have attempted to reclaim a history of the wartime internment from the realm of “detached” academia in the interest of their lives in the “real” world, and for a goal of “social justice” in general. The class will critically probe the political use of history and memories of selected pasts in both Asian American community and contemporary American society through the controversial issue of the Japanese American internment. ASAM203401 Cultural Diversity in the US American, Diplomatic Research, Seminar, US
HIST 231-402 Archives and Afterlives of Slavery Bradley L Craig VANP 305 R 10:15 AM-01:15 PM What is an archive? How do archives shape the narratives that we can construct about the past? What are the ethical demands of engaging with archives produced by histories of violence? In recent years, historians of Atlantic slavery have begun to reflect on a set of problems related to the historical archive and their implications for writing histories of the enslaved and dispossessed. Often referred to as the “archival turn” in slavery studies, this renewed attention to the archive has resulted in a robust and ongoing exchange between the fields of history, black feminist thought, and archival theory. In particular, this scholarship has conceived of historical research as an embodied, affective encounter with the archive. This course maps the contours of this multidisciplinary discussion, guiding us through a conversation between history, anthropology, and literary studies to consider the archive as a site of both limit and possibility. Students will learn how considerations of the archive and the politics of knowledge shape historical method as they analyze and practice different forms of historical storytelling. AFRC229402 Cultural Diversity in the US https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST231402 American, Intellectual Seminar, US
HIST 231-403 The Chinese Diaspora(S): Culture, Conflict & Cuisine 19c To the Present Xia Yu WILL 23 M 03:30 PM-06:30 PM This course is designed as an undergraduate seminar course on migration and migrant communities from the middle of the 19th century to the present, using Chinese migration examples as key case studies throughout the course. While at times heavily focused on the Chinese in the United States, the course also draws comparative examples from Australia, Britain, and Southeast Asia, among other localities to which the Chinese migrated. Even though the current day “Chinese diaspora” is made up of diverse linguistic, ethnic, and class groups, its national place of origin was a unifying identifying feature, both internally and externally, throughout the history of this migration.

Prior coursework in 20th century Chinese History, World History, Asian American Studies, and other humanities fields will be helpful for students in this course, but not necessary. Any students in this course who would like to explore other migrant communities, especially ones that have been particularly prominent locally (to the Philadelphia area) will also be welcome to propose alternative assignment topics that do so.

The assignments for this course largely require students to exercise their critical communication and speaking skills in a variety of genres, from academic presentations, interview skills, to leading tours of historically-significant places. Through the study of history, students will be able to practice important critical speaking skills that will serve them not only in academia, but beyond the classroom.
ASAM203403 Cultural Diversity in the US Communication Within the Curriculum https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST231403 American, World East/South Asia, Seminar, US
HIST 232-401 Iran, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet MCES 105 M 12:00 PM-03:00 PM The Persian Gulf, a body of water separating the Iranian plateau from the surrounding territory, has for over 2000 years served as a conduit of commerce, culture, and diplomacy. This course will explore the historical significance of the region as a distinct geographic entity connected to African, Arabian, Ottoman, Persianate, and South Asian societies. It will also discuss the contemporary history and historiography of the region, paying some attention to the impact of nationalism on the writing of local histories and the emergence of cultural contestations. How did minorities respond to new citizenship and property regulations? In what ways did the balance of power shift with the departure of Britain from the region? What changes did the discovery and impact of oil impose on the region? The last part of the course will discuss the Iran-Iraq War; America’s Persian Gulf wars; and the evolution of diplomatic alliances such as the Abraham Accords, as well as Chinese and Russian relations, in the region today. NELC282401 World Africa/Middle East, Seminar
HIST 245-401 Petrosylvania: Reckoning with Fossil Fuel Jared Farmer VANP 625 W 10:15 AM-01:15 PM Fossil fuel powered the making--now the unmaking--of the modern world. As the first fossil fuel state, Pennsylvania led the United States toward an energy-intensive economy, a technological pathway with planetary consequences. The purpose of this seminar is to perform a historical accounting--and an ethical reckoning--of coal, oil, and natural gas. Specifically, students will investigate the histories and legacies of fossil fuel in connection to three entities: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the City of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania. Under instructor guidance, students will do original research, some of it online, much the rest of it in archives, on and off campus, in and around Philadelphia. Philly-based research may also involve fieldwork. While based in historical sources and methods, this course intersects with business, finance, policy, environmental science, environmental engineering, urban and regional planning, public health, and social justice. Student projects may take multiple forms, individual and collaborative, from traditional papers to data visualizations prepared with assistance from the Price Lab for Digital Humanities. Through their research, students will contribute to a multi-year project that will ultimately be made available to the public. ENVS245401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST245401 American Research, Seminar, US
HIST 258-401 Extreme Heat: White Nationalism in the Age of Climate Change Anne K Berg VANP 629 W 03:30 PM-06:30 PM The Amazon is burning. The glaciers are melting. Heat waves, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and droughts devastate ever larger swaths of the earth, producing crop failures, air pollution, soil erosion, famine and terrifying individual hardship. At the same, time the so-called Western World is literally walling itself off from the millions who are fleeing from disaster and war with what little they can carry. White militants chant "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us," social media spreads memes and talking points about "white genocide" and "white replacement" and online ideologues fantasize about building white ethnostates. Are these developments connected? Is there a causal relationship? Or are these conditions purely coincidental? Increasingly, arguments about limits to growth, sustainability, development and climate change have come to stand in competitive tension with arguments for social and racial equality. Why is that case? What are the claims and underlying anxieties that polarize western societies? How do white nationalist movements relate to populist and fascist movements in the first half of the 20th century? What is new and different about them now? What is the relationship between environmentalism, rightwing populism and the climate crisis? And how have societies responded to the climate crisis, wealth inequality, finite resources and the threat posed by self-radicalizing white nationalist groups? ENVS258401 Permission Needed From Instructor https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST258401 American, European Europe, Research, Seminar, US
HIST 260-401 Women in Mod. South Asia Ramya Sreenivasan CANCELED This course on women in South Asian history has four objectives - 1. To acquaint ourselves with the historiography on South Asian women. 2. To gain an understanding of evolving institutions and practices shaping women's lives, such as the family, law and religious traditions. 3. To understand the impact of historical processes - the formation and breakdown of empire, colonialism, nationalism and decolonization - upon South Asian women between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. 4. To become familiar with some of the significant texts written about and by women in this period. We will read a wide variety of primary sources including a Mughal princess' account, devotional verse authored by women, conduct books, tracts, autobiographies and novels. GSWS260401 Gender, World East/South Asia, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 273-401 Penn Slavery Project Res CANCELED This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial orientation to archival research, students will plunge in to doing actual research at the Kislak Center, the University Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company, and various online sources. During the final month of the semester, students will begin drafting research reports and preparing for a public presentation of the work. During the semester, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a certified genealogist, a data management and website expert, a consultant on public programming, and a Penn graduate whose research has been integral to the Penn Slavery Project. AFRC277401
HIST 274-401 Exploring African American Life and Culture in Slavery Heather A Williams WILL 321 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM This course will examine the lives of enslaved African Americans in the United States, both in the North and the South. We will engage historiographical debates, and tackle questions that have long concerned historians. For example, if slaves were wrenched from families and traded, could they sustain family relationships? If slaves worked from sun-up until sun-down, how could they create music? We will engage with primary and secondary sources to expand our understanding of values, cultural practices, and daily life among enslaved people. Topics will include: literacy, family, labor, food, music and dance, hair and clothing, religion, material culture, resistance, and memories of slavery. Several disciplines including History, Archaeology, Literature, and Music, will help us in our explorations. Written, oral, and artistic texts for the course will provide us with rich sources for exploring the nuances of slave life, and students will have opportunities to delve deeply into topics that are of particular interest to them. This course will also count as the AFRC 176 requirement for the AFRC major. AFRC276401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST274401 American US
HIST 275-401 Faces of Jihad in African Islam Cheikh Ante MBAcke Babou MEYH B7 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course is designed to provide the students with a broad understanding of the history of Islam in Africa. The focus will be mostly on West Africa, but we will also look at developments in other regions of the continent. We will explore Islam not only as religious practice but also as ideology and an instrument of social change. We will examine the process of islamization in Africa and the different uses of Jihad. Topics include prophetic jihad, jihad of the pen and the different varieties of jihad of the sword throughout the history in Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. AFRC274401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST275401 Intellectual, World Africa/Middle East
HIST 307-401 Love, Lust, & Violence in the Middle Ages Ada M Kuskowski CANCELED Medieval Europe was undoubtedly gruff and violent but it also gave birth to courtly culture - raw worries transformed into knights who performed heroic deeds, troubadours wrote epics in their honor and love songs about their ladies, women of the elite carved out a place in public discourse as patrons of the arts, and princely courts were increasingly defined by pageantry from jousting tournaments to royal coronations. This course will trace the development of this courtly culture from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, from its roots in Southern France to its spread to Northern France and then to various kingdoms in Europe. Central themes will include the transformation of the warrior into the knight, the relationship between violence and courtliness, courtly love, cultural production and the patronage, and the development of court pageantry and ceremonial. This is a class cultural history and, as such, will rely on the interpretation of objects of art and material culture, literature as well as historical accounts. COML307401, GSWS307401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 331-001 Am Diplo Hist Since 1776 Walter A Mcdougall ANNS 111 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM Survey course tracing the origins and evolution of the great traditions of U.S. foreign policy, including Exceptionalism, Unilateralism, Manifest Destiny, Wilsonianism, etc., by which Americans have tried to define their place in the world. Three hours of lecture per week, extensive reading, no recitations. Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST331001 American, Diplomatic US
HIST 343-401 19th Cent Eur Intel Hist Warren G. Breckman COLL 318 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Starting with the dual challenges of Enlightenment and Revolution at the close of the eighteenth century, this course examines the emergence of modern European thought and culture in the century from Kant to Nietzsche. Themes to be considered include Romanticism, Utopian Socialism, early Feminism, Marxism, Liberalism, and Aestheticism. Readings include Kant, Hegel, Burke, Marx, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Darwin, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. COML343401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST343401 European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 391-401 The Vietnam War Arthur Waldron COLL 318 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM A thorough historical, military, and social history of the Vietnam war, which lasted in one form or another from the end of WWII in 1945 to 1975, in which occurred the longest and most humiliating defeat in our history. Since that time the Vietnamese have published hundreds of documents, some in English, which provide an entirely new perspective on what we believed during the war. These, supplemented by other primary and secondary materials, as much as possible written by Vietnamese or by Americans having first-hand knowledge, will form the backbone of the course. The various American and Vietnamese strategies will be scrutinized carefully, and a good deal said about the home front in America. The actual fighting, thatdetermined the outcome, will not be slighted. We expect at least some guest speakers having long diplomatic or military experience in Vietnam. The present will be our conclusion. Lectures TTH 12-1:30; midterm in class, short paper, anregular final. If you want to understand the world you now live in, this coursea good place to start. EALC196401 American, Diplomatic, World East/South Asia, US
HIST 395-401 East Asian Diplomacy Frederick R. Dickinson BENN 419 MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students (EALC 505) should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements. EALC105401, EALC505401 Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST395401 Diplomatic, World East/South Asia
HIST 400-301 Senior Honors Kathy Peiss VANP 623 W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Open to senior honors candidates in history who will begin writing their honors thesis during this seminar. Permission Needed From Department Research, Seminar
HIST 400-302 Senior Honors Kathy Peiss VANP 629 R 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Open to senior honors candidates in history who will begin writing their honors thesis during this seminar. Permission Needed From Department Research, Seminar
HIST 411-401 Tpcs History of the Book: American Books/Books in America James N Green
John Pollack
VANP 605 R 12:00 PM-03:00 PM How did Benjamin Franklin strike it rich in the printing business? Did Common Sense really start the American Revolution? What does it mean to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin on a deck of playing cards? This course will investigate book histories, and the worlds of readers, printers, publishers, and libraries in the Americas, from the colonial period through the nineteenth century.

We will ground our studies in the rich collection holdings of the Kislak Center at the Penn Libraries and the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Franklin and still a leading research library today. Some class sessions will be held at the Library Company, a quick trip away in Center City. The course will be organized around case studies. Each week we will look at books, newspapers, pamphlets, pictures, broadsides—big and small, famous and forgotten. We will think about how books work, not just as texts but as cultural artifacts, and we learn to decode their languages, from title pages to typography to bindings. Readings will include key source texts from early America and modern scholarship. Students will also have the opportunity to develop original research projects based on the collections we will study together.
ENGL234401 American, Intellectual pre-1800, Seminar, US
HIST 412-401 Issues in Chinese Hist Arthur Waldron COLL 217 T 05:15 PM-08:15 PM Our topic will be Chinese constitutionalism, from its narrow failure in the late Qing through the establishment of a parliamentary government 1912-1925; the autocratic Nationalist government with its sincere attempt to liberalize, and the Communists who initially proclaimed but never practiced democratic government. We will seek to understand why all these ventures failed- this despite the quest for such a system and anger that it has never been achieved have been the gravamen of Chinese political discussion since the nineteenth century. We will make comparisons to similar patterns in the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Russia about which some excellent analyses have been written. Our conclusion will be China today, where the issue becoming unavoidable. Readings, presentation and research paper. If you have interest join. We assume no previous knowledge. EALC442401 World East/South Asia, Research, Seminar
HIST 414-301 Human Rights and History Benjamin Nathans VANP 626 M 01:45 PM-04:45 PM The idea of universal, inalienable rights--once dismissed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham as "nonsense upon stilts"--has become the dominant moral language of our time, the self-evident truth par excellence of our age. Human rights have become a source of inspiration to oppressed individuals and groups across the world, the rallying cry for a global civil society, and not least, a controversial source of legitimation for American foreign policy. This seminar asks: how did all this come to be? We will investigate human rights not only as theories embodied in texts, but as practices embedded in specific historical contexts. Are human rights the product of a peculiarly European heritage, of the Enlightenment and protestantism? How did Americans reconcile inalienable rights with the reality of slavery? Did human rights serve as a "civilizing" mask for colonialism? Can universal rights be reconciled with genuine cultural diversity? Through case studies and close readings, the seminar will work toward a genealogy of human rights. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST414301 European, Intellectual Europe, Seminar
HIST 418-401 Euro Intellct Since 1945 Warren G. Breckman VANP 626 T 03:30 PM-06:30 PM This course concentrates on French intellectual history after 1945, with some excursions into Germany. We will explore changing conceptions of the intellectual, from Sartre's concept of the 'engagement' to Foucault's idea of the 'specific intellectual'; the rise and fall of existentialism; structuralism and poststructuralism; and the debate over 'postmodernity.' COML418401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST418401 European, Intellectual Europe, Seminar
HIST 425-001 World War I Peter I. Holquist BENN 231 MW 01:45 PM-02:45 PM This survey course examines the outbreak, conduct, and aftermath of the First World War. The First World War put an end to the world of the 19th century and laid the foundations of the 20th century, the age of destruction and devastation. This course will examine the war in three components: the long-term and immediate causes of the First World War; the war's catastrophic conduct, on the battlefield and on the home front; and the war's devastating aftermath. While we will discuss military operations and certain battles, this course is not a military history of the war; it covers the social, economic, political and diplomatic aspects that contributed to the war's outbreak and made possible its execution over four devastating years. No preliminary knowledge or coursework is required. Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST425001 Diplomatic, European Europe
HIST 436-401 Love, Anger, Madness: History and Silences in Modern Haiti Grace Louise B Sanders Johnson BENN 201 M 10:15 AM-01:15 PM On the stage of modern world history, Haiti plays the unique role as both the exceptionally victorious and tragic character. This course interrogates archival documents, oral histories, historical texts, and prose created within the nation and her diaspora in order to establish a nuanced image of the projection of Haiti's modern history. Using two classic Haitian texts, Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Love, Anger, Madness (1968) and Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995),this course examines how, why,and to what end Haiti's history and popular narratives about the country have served to construct and dismantle global movements, popular culture, and meanings of race, gender, and citizenship in the Americas. In our historical examination, we will question some of the iconic representations of Haiti through literature that deepen the affective historical profile of Haiti with interrogations of culture, sexuality, political, and media performance. Students will become familiar with the post -colonial history of Haiti and the region, meanings of race, and the production of history. The course is a research and historical methods seminar. Students will conduct archival research and write narratives from primary source material. This course qualifies as a "methods" course for LALS437401, AFRC436401, GSWS436401 World Latin America/Caribbean
HIST 440-401 Perspectives On Urban Poverty Robert P Fairbanks MCNB 395 M 05:15 PM-08:15 PM This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to 20th century urban poverty, and 20th century urban poverty knowledge. In addition to providing an historical overview of American poverty, the course is primarily concerned with the ways in which historical, cultural, political, racial, social, spatial/geographical, and economic forces have either shaped or been left out of contemporary debates on urban poverty. Of great importance, the course will evaluate competing analytic trends in the social sciences and their respective implications in terms of the question of what can be known about urban poverty in the contexts of social policy and practice, academic research, and the broader social imaginary. We will critically analyze a wide body of literature that theorizes and explains urban poverty. Course readings span the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, urban studies, history, and social welfare. Primacy will be granted to critical analysis and deconstruction of course texts, particularly with regard to the ways in which poverty knowledge creates, sustains, and constricts meaningful channels of action in urban poverty policy and practice interventions. URBS420401, SOCI420401 Cultural Diversity in the US https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST440401
HIST 610-301 Topics in American Hist: Race in America Mia E Bay CANCELED Reading and discussion course on selected topics in American history.
HIST 610-302 Topics in American Hist: Amer Empires 1763-2000 Amy C Offner VANP 402 M 05:15 PM-08:15 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in American history.
HIST 620-301 Topics in European Hist: Imperial Russian Hist Peter I. Holquist JAFF 113 R 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Reading and Discussion course on selected topics in European History. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST620301
HIST 630-301 Beyond Subaltern Studies: Modern South Asia Ramya Sreenivasan COLL 315A T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Asian History.
HIST 670-301 Topics:Transregional His: Readings in Global Hist Roquinaldo Ferreira CANCELED Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History
HIST 670-302 Topics:Transregional His: City in Atlantic History Emma Hart MCES 105 R 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2021C&course=HIST670302