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 001-001 The Making of the Modern World Frederick R. Dickinson PCPE AUD MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM From migration to the environment, equality to information flows, one may identify a handful of issues that have transformed human life across the globe from pre-history to modern times. This course will examine the development of the modern world through the prism of thirteen issues that continue to affect human well-being. Each is noteworthy for its global reach and for the power to transform the human experience.

This course is a gateway to the discipline of History and to the Department of History at Penn. As a Sector II class (History and Tradition), it highlights change and continuity in human action, belief, and thought. Following the Cross Cultural Analysis requirement, we do so over a broad geographic and chronological range. We aim to provide three essential things: 1) a useful overview of major developments in the making of the modern world (empire, war, revolution, industrialization); 2) a strong appreciation for the interconnectedness of human action, belief, and thought across seven continents and five oceans; and 3) an introduction to several notable personalities in the Department of History (we will have multiple guest speakers from the Department). Whether you’re a seasoned History major or complete neophyte, the class offers a glimpse of the power of History to explain our current world and of the broad geographic and chronological coverage available in our department.
History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Registration also required for Recitation (see below) https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST001001 World
HIST 009-401 Intro Digital Humanities Whitney A Trettien DRLB 2C6 MW 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course provides an introduction to foundational skills common in digital humanities (DH). It covers a range of new technologies and methods and will empower scholars in literary studies and across humanities disciplines to take advantage of established and emerging digital research tools. Students will learn basic coding techniques that will enable them to work with a range data including literary texts and utilize techniques such as text mining, network analysis, and other computational approaches. COML009401, ENGL009401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST009401
HIST 023-401 Intro To Middle East Matthew A Sharp MCNB 410 TR 08:30 AM-10:00 AM NELC102401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Objects-Based Learning Course World Africa/Middle East
HIST 027-401 Ancient Rome Campbell A. Grey ARCH 208 MW 12:00 PM-01:00 PM At its furthest extent during the second century CE, the Roman Empire was truly a "world empire", stretching from northern Britain to North Africa and Egypt, encompassing the whole of Asia Minor, and bordering the Danube in its route from the Black Forest region of Germany to the Black Sea. But in its earliest history it comprised a few small hamlets on a collection of hills adjacent to the Tiber river in central Italy. Over a period of nearly 1500 years, the Roman state transformed from a mythical Kingdom to a Republic dominated by a heterogeneous, competitive aristocracy to an Empire ruled, at least notionally, by one man. It developed complex legal and administrative structures, supported a sophisticated and highly successful military machine, and sustained elaborate systems of economic production and exchange. It was, above all, a society characterized both by a willingness to include newly conquered peoples in the project of empire, and by fundamental, deep-seated practices of social exclusion and domination. This course focuses in particular upon the history of the Roman state between the fifth century BCE and the third century CE, exploring its religious and cultural practices, political, social and economic structures. It also scrutinizes the fundamental tensions and enduring conflicts that characterized this society throughout this 800-year period. ANCH027401, CLST027401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Course is available to Freshmen and Upperclassmen.
Objects-Based Learning Course
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 031-001 The Ascent of Europe Since 1450 Walter A Mcdougall ANNS 111 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM HIST 031 will trace the dramatic rise and fall of Europe's global hegemony during the period roughly from 1450 to 1950. Among the major themes we will examine are: states and power, borders and resistance, race and genocide, economies and oppression, ideas and revolution, the building and change of hierarchies of gender and power. Truly, a dramatic story. The objectives of the course are: 1) To serve as an introduction to the study of history for majors and non-majors alike, and to teach the critical analysis of historical sources; 2) to teach substantive knowledge of European history; 3) to provide a foundation for further study of the European past. No previous background in European or World history is required. History & Tradition Sector https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST031001 European Europe
HIST 035-401 Modern Biology and Social Implications John Ceccatti COHN 337 TR 05:15 PM-06:45 PM See primary department (STSC) for a complete course description. STSC135401 Natural Science & Math Sector
HIST 045-401 Portraits of Old Russia: Myth, Icon, Chronicle Julia Verkholantsev MEYH B2 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM COML131401, REES113401, REES613401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST045401 European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 047-401 Portraits of Russian Society: Art, Fiction, Drama Molly Peeney WILL 203 TR 03:30 PM-05:00 PM This course covers 19C Russian cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organized around a single medium-length text (novella, play, memoir) which opens up a single scene of social history birth, death, duel, courtship, tsar, and so on. Each of these main texts is accompanied by a set of supplementary materials paintings, historical readings, cultural-analytical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. The object of the course is to understand the social codes and rituals that informed nineteenth-century Russian life, and to apply this knowledge in interpreting literary texts, other cultural objects, and even historical and social documents (letters, memoranda, etc.). We will attempt to understand social history and literary interpretation as separate disciplines yet also as disciplines that can inform one another. In short: we will read the social history through the text, and read the text against the social history. REES136401 Humanities & Social Science Sector European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 075-401 African History Before 1800 Cheikh Ante MBAcke Babou COLL 314 MW 10:15 AM-11:15 AM Survey of major themes and issues in African history before 1800. Topics include: early civilizations, African kingdoms and empires, population movements, the spread of Islam, and the slave trade. Also, emphasis on how historians use archaeology, linguistics, and oral traditions to reconstruct Africa's early history. AFRC075401 History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Registration also required for Recitation (see below) https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST075401 World Africa/Middle East, pre-1800
HIST 086-401 Hist,Cltr, Early India Daud Ali WILL 201 TR 01:45 PM-03:15 PM This course surveys the culture, religion and history of India from 2500 BCE to 1200 CE. The course examines the major cultural, religious and social factors that shaped the course of early Indian history. The following themes will be covered: the rise and fall of Harappan civilization, the "Aryan Invasion" and Vedic India, the rise of cities, states and the religions of Buddhism and Jainism, the historical context of the growth of classical Hinduism, including the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the development of the theistic temple cults of Saivism and Vaisnavism, processes of medieval agrarian expansion and cultic incorporation as well as the spread of early Indian cultural ideas in Southeast Asia. In addition to assigned secondary readings students will read select primary sources on the history of religion and culture of early India, including Vedic and Buddhist texts, Puranas and medieval temple inscriptions. Major objectives of the course will be to draw attention to India's early cultural and religious past and to assess contemporary concerns and ideologies in influencing our understanding and representation of that past. RELS164401, SAST003401 History & Tradition Sector East/South Asia, pre-1800
HIST 097-601 History of Modern China Ting-Chih Wu WILL 203 M 05:15 PM-08:15 PM 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 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST097601 World East/South Asia
HIST 098-401 Introduction To Korean Civilization CANCELED This gateway course surveys the history of Korea from early times to the present. We will study the establishment of various sociopolitical orders and their characteristics alongside major cultural developments. Covered topics include: state formation and dissolution; the role of ideology and how it changes; religious beliefs and values; agriculture, commerce, and industry; changing family relations; responses to Western imperialism; and Korea's increasing presence in the modern world as well as its future prospects. Students will also be introduced to various interpretive approaches in the historiography. No prior knowledge of Korea or Korean language is presumed. History & Tradition Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
HIST 108-001 American Origins Emma Hart COLL 200 TR 10:15 AM-11:15 AM The United States was not inevitable. With that assumption as its starting point, this course surveys North American history from about 1500 to about 1850, with the continent's many peoples and cultures in view. The unpredictable emergence of the U.S. as a nation is a focus, but always in the context of wider developments: global struggles among European empires; conflicts between indigenous peoples and settler-colonists; exploitation of enslaved African labor; evolution of distinctive colonial societies; and, finally, independence movements inspired by a transatlantic revolutionary age. History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diversity in the US
Registration also required for Recitation (see below) https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST108001 American pre-1800, US
HIST 117-401 Science & Literature Zachary Meir Loeb WILL 319 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course will explore the emergence of modern science fiction as a genre and the ways it has reflected our evolving conceptions of ourselves and the universe. We will explore sci-fi as not only the future-mythos of a technological civilization, but as a space for cultural, social, and political critique of the modern age. We will discuss such characteristic themes as utopias, the exploration of space and time, biological engineering, robots, aliens, and other worlds, contextualized within the history of science and alongside themes like gender, race, and class. Authors include: H. G. Wells, Le Guin, Herbert, Clarke, Asimov, Okafor, Delany, Chiang, and others. HSOC110401, COML074401, ENGL075401, STSC110401 Arts & Letters Sector Intellectual
HIST 123-001 Economic Hist of Euro I Thomas M. Safley MCNB 395 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM This course concentrates on the economy of Europe in the Early Modern Period, 1450-1750. It was a time of great transition. Europe developed from an agriculturally-based to an industrially-based economy, with attendant changes in society and culture. From subsistence-level productivity, the European economy expanded to create great surfeits of goods, with attendant changes in consumption and expectation. Europe grew from a regional economic system to become part--some would say the heart--of a global economy, with attendant changes in worldview and identity. Economic intensification, expansion, globalization, and industrialization are our topics, therefore. Beginning with economic organizations and practices, we will consider how these changed over time and influenced society and culture. The course takes as its point of departure the experience of individual, working men and women: peasants and artisans, merchants and landlords, entrepeneurs and financiers. Yet, it argues outward: from the particular to the general, from the individual to the social, from the local to the global. It will suggest ways in which the economy influenced developments or changes that were not in themselves economic, shaped, and deflected economic life and practice. Humanities & Social Science Sector https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST123001 Economic, European Europe, pre-1800
HIST 139-401 Jews & Judaism in Antqty Simcha Gross MUSE 329 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM A broad introduction to the history of Jewish civilization from its Biblical beginnings to the Middle Ages, with the main focus on the formative period of classical rabbinic Judaism and on the symbiotic relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. RELS120401, NELC051401, NELC451401, JWST156401 History & Tradition Sector Jewish, World Africa/Middle East, pre-1800
HIST 142-401 1947-49: British Empire and the Partitions of South Asia and Palestine Eve M. Troutt Powell
Ramya Sreenivasan
COLL 314 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM The partitions of South Asia and Palestine marked the end of the British Empire in those regions. British colonial rule in India ended in 1947 with the emergence of not one, but two nation states, India and Pakistan. Decolonization was marked by mass migration and ethnic cleansing along their borders. An estimated million people died in the violence in less than a year, and 12.5 million people migrated from their homes. The British Empire also gave up its claims to Palestine in 1947, exhausted by the two nationalisms of Zionists and Palestinians. This partition set up the declaration of the state of Israel, and the War for Palestine. By 1949, almost a million Palestinians found themselves displaced over many borders, some also within the borders of Israel. This comparative course is organized around three themes - the prehistories of these cataclysmic events, the role of Empire in catalyzing them, and the afterlives of these events that continue to haunt us into the present, seventy-five years later. It explores the political history - and the collapse of politics - that led to violence on a scale that was without precedent in the history of the Indian subcontinent. It examines the political, social and cultural events that led to decades of war and exile, and shaped the lives of generations of Palestinians, Israelis and the wider Middle East. Primary sources will help to explore the perspectives of ordinary people whose lives were turned upside down in both places. SAST117401, NELC142401 Diplomatic, World Africa/Middle East, East/South Asia
HIST 144-401 Belief and Unbelief in Modern Thought Warren G. Breckman COLL 314 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM "God is dead," declared Friedrich Nietzsche, "and we have killed him." Nietzche's words came as a climax of a longer history of criticism of, and dissent toward, the religious foundations of European society and politics. The critique of religion had vast implications for the meaning of human life, the nature of the person, and the conception of political and social existence. The course will explore the intensifying debate over religion in the intellectual history of Europe, reaching from the Renaissance, through the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, to the twentieth century. Rousseau, Voltaire, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. These thinkers allow us to trace the varieties of irreligious experience that have emerged in modern European thought and their implications for both historical and philosophical understanding. Rather than drawing a straight line from belief to non-belief, however, we will also consider whether religion lingers even in secular thought and culture. COML144401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST144401 European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 153-401 Transformations of Urban America: Making the Unequal Metropolis, 1945-Today Kristian Taketomo VANP 124 F 10:15 AM-01:15 PM The course traces the economic, social, and political history of American cities after World War II. It focuses on how the economic problems of the industrial city were compounded by the racial conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s and the fiscal crises of the 1970s. The last part of the course examines the forces that have led to the revitalization and stark inequality of cities in recent years. URBS104401 Society Sector https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST153401 American, Economic US
HIST 160-001 Strategy,Policy & War Arthur Waldron EDUC 203 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM Analysis of the political use of force, both in theory and in practice, through analytical readings and study of selected wars. Readings include Sun Zi, Kautilya, Machiavelli, Clauseqitz and other strategists. Case studies vary but may include the Peloponnesian War, the Mongol conquests, the Crusades, the Crimean War, Russo-Japanese War, World War II, Korea, or the Falklands, among others, with focus on initiation, strategic alternatives, decision and termination. Some discussion of the law of war and international attempts to limit it. Diplomatic, World
HIST 168-401 Hist of Amer Law To 1877 Sarah L. H. Gronningsater DRLB A2 TR 01:45 PM-03:15 PM The course surveys the development of law in the U.S. to 1877, including such subjects as: the evolution of the legal profession, the transformation of English law during the American Revolution, the making and implementation of the Constitution, and issues concerning business and economic development, the law of slavery, the status of women, and civil rights. AFRC168401 Cultural Diversity in the US https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST168401 American, Intellectual pre-1800, US
HIST 169-401 History of American Law Since 1877 Karen Tani MEYH B3 MW 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course covers the development of legal rules and principles concerning individual and group conduct in the United States since 1877. Such subjects as regulation and deregulation, legal education and the legal profession, and the legal status of women and minorities will be discussed. AFRC169401 Cultural Diversity in the US https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST169401 American, Intellectual US
HIST 173-401 Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban Univ-Comm Relations Ira Harkavy SLCT 120 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 An Academically Based Community Serv Course
Benjamin Franklin Seminars
HIST 177-401 Afro Amer Hist 1876-Pres Kim Gallon STHN AUD MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM A study of the major events, issues, and personalities in Afro-American history from Reconstruction to the present. The course will also examine the different slave experiences and the methods of black resistance and rebellion in the various slave systems. AFRC177401 History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diversity in the US
American US
HIST 188-401 Civilizations At Odds? the US and the Middle East Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet COLL 314 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM Foe or friend, Satan or saint - America has often been depicted in the Middle East either as a benevolent superpower or an ill-meaning enemy. In America, too, stereotypes of the Middle East abound as the home of terrorists, falafels, and fanatics. This undergraduate lecture course will explore the relationship between the United States and the Middle East by moving beyond such facile stereotypes. Our goal is to understand why a century of interaction has done little to foster greater understanding between these two societies. By reading novels, memoirs, and historical accounts, we will examine the origins of this cultural and diplomatic encounter in the twentieth century. The readings wills hed light on America's political and economic involvement in the Middle East after the Second World War. We will consider the impact of oil diplomacy on U.S.-Middle East relations, as well as the role of ideology and religion, in our effort to comprehend the current challenges that face these societies. NELC188401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST188401 Diplomatic, World Africa/Middle East
HIST 197-401 Era of Revolutions in the Atlantic World Roquinaldo Ferreira COLL 314 MW 05:15 PM-06:45 PM 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 Diplomatic, World Latin America/Caribbean, pre-1800
HIST 200-301 History Workshop Sophia A Rosenfeld VANP 627 R 12:00 PM-03:00 PM This course introduces newly declared History Majors to the History Department and lays the foundation for future coursework, including research seminars, in History. Students will be introduced to various methods used to reconstruct and explain the past in different eras and places. Drawing on the rich resources available at Penn and in the Philadelphia region, students will also learn how to research and write history themselves. Throughout the semester, small research and writing assignments will allow students to try out different approaches and hone their skills as both analysts and writers of history. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST200301 Seminar
HIST 210-401 The City Nina A Johnson
Michael P Nairn
MCNB 150 M 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Urbs/Hist 210 will focus on Baltimore and use The Wire as one of its core texts. The course will explore the history and development of the city and its institutions, with a thematic focus on issues such as industrialization and deindustrialization; urban renewal and the role of universities; public education and youth; policing and the criminal justice system; drugs and underground markets; public housing and suburbanization; and Baltimore's so- called renaissance amidst persistent poverty. The seminar will include field trips both in Philadelphia and a concluding all-day trip to Baltimore. URBS210401 Permission Needed From Instructor
Humanities & Social Science Sector
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST210401 American US
HIST 212-301 Utopia Margo Todd VANP 627 W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Western thinkers from the ancient Greeks to the present have speculated about what the ideal human society would look like. We can study the resultant utopias as works of literature, philosophy, religion, psychology or political science; we must understand them in their historical contexts. This seminar will take a multidisciplinary approach to utopian thought from Plato's Republic to the ecological utopias of the 1980s. Works to be examined include More's Utopia; seventeenth century scientific utopias like Bacon's New Atlantis; the political theory of Rousseau (Social Contract); essays of the French utopian socialists and Hawthorne's version of the Brook Farm experiment; Morris' News from Nowhere; its American counterpart, Bellamy's Looking Backward; Gilman's feminist blueprint, Herland; BF Skinner's psychological utopia, Walden Two; and the utopian science fiction of LeGuin. Huxley's dystopia, Brave New World, will be set against his later utopia, Island. Benjamin Franklin Seminars https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST212301 American, European, Intellectual Europe, Seminar, US
HIST 212-302 World War I: Its Course and Consequences in the Making of the Modern World Peter I. Holquist MCES 105 M 12:00 PM-03:00 PM The First World War marks a watershed in European and world history. We will examine the preconditions for the war--such as European imperialism, the arms race, and the rise of international law. We then move to study the outbreak of the war, and the debate over "war guilt." Our seminar covers the key battles and the course of the war on the various fronts (Western Europe, Italian Front, the Eastern Front, the Middle East), and the war on sea and in the air. We close with an examination of the war's outcome--fascism, communism, revolution, the mandate system and postwar European and colonial order. We will read classics and recent works on what many consider to be the foundational moment for the twentieth century. No prior knowledge is assumed. Benjamin Franklin Seminars https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST212302 Diplomatic, European Europe, Seminar
HIST 220-401 Russia and the West Siarhei Biareishyk WILL 421 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course will explore the representations of the West in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century Russian literature and philosophy. We will consider the Russian visions of various events and aspects of Western political and social life Revolutions, educational system, public executions, resorts, etc. within the context of Russian intellectual history. We will examine how images of the West reflect Russia's own cultural concerns, anticipations, and biases, as well as aesthetic preoccupations and interests of Russian writers. The discussion will include literary works by Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Tolstoy, as well as non-fictional documents, such as travelers' letters, diaries, and historiosophical treatises of Russian Freemasons, Romantic and Positivist thinkers, and Russian social philosophers of the late Nineteenth century. A basic knowledge of nineteenth-century European history is desirable. The class will consist of lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, and two in-class tests. REES220401, COML220401, REES620401 Humanities & Social Science Sector https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST220401 European Europe
HIST 231-301 The History of U.S. Baseball, 1840-Present Sarah L. H. Gronningsater R 10:15 AM-01:15 PM This course explores the history of baseball in the United States. It covers, among other topics, the first amateur clubs in the urban North, the professionalization and nationalization of the sport during and after the Civil War era, the rise of fandom, baseball’s relationship to anxieties about manhood and democracy, tensions between labor and management, the Negro Leagues, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Nisei baseball during World War Two, Jackie Robinson and desegregation, and the Latinization of baseball. The history of baseball is, in many respects, the history of the United States writ large as well as the history of the myths that Americans tell about themselves.
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST231301 American Seminar, US
HIST 231-401 The Chinese Diaspora(S): Culture, Conflict, & Cuisine, 19c To the Present Xia Yu COHN 203 R 03:30 PM-06:30 PM This course is an undergraduate seminar on Chinese migration and migrant communities from the middle of the 19th century to the present. 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 modern 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.
ASAM203401 Communication Within the Curriculum https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST231401 American, World East/South Asia, Seminar, US
HIST 232-401 Migration and Refugees in African History Cheikh Ante MBAcke Babou COLL 217 W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This seminar will examine the experiences of recent African emigrants and refugees within and from the continent Africa from a historical and comparative perspective. We will look at the relations of overseas Africans with both their home and host societies, drawing on some of the extensive comparative literature on immigration, ethnic diasporas, and transnationalism. Other topics include reasons for leaving Africa, patterns of economic and educational adaptation abroad, changes in gender and generational roles, issues of cultural, religious, and political identity, and the impact of international immigration policies. Students will have the opportunity to conduct focused research on specific African communities in Philadelphia or elsewhere in North America, Europe, or the Middle East. We will employ a variety of sources and methodologies from different disciplines--including newspapers, government and NGOs, literature and film, and diaspora internet sites--to explore the lives, aspirations, and perceptions of Africans abroad. History Majors may complete the research requirement if their paper is based on primary sources. Students not seeking credit for the research requirement may write papers drawing on secondary sources exclusively. Class will consist of a combination of lectures (including several by invited guests), discussions, video screenings, and presentations by students of their research in progress. AFRC233401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST232401 World Africa/Middle East, Research, Seminar
HIST 232-402 Rastafari To Haile Selassie: A Global History of Ethiopia Lacy Noel Feigh VANP 305 MW 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Before Emperor Haile Selassie became known worldwide for his public resistance campaign against the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, prior to his splashy coronation in 1930, he was known by another name: Ras Tafari Makonnen. In the 20th century, Ethiopia underwent rapid processes of expansion and modernization in the highlands of Northeast Africa, and at the same time became a beacon of hope for global Black movements, perhaps made most visible through Rastafarian culture and beliefs. This course introduces students to the history of the modern imperial Ethiopian state from its place in Northeast Africa and its role shaping moments and movements in global history. By focusing on Ethiopia, this course highlights the way African histories are essential to, but often ignored (or erased) in the telling of modern world history. Students will engage with primary and secondary historical texts, literature, and film.
**History Majors may use the seminar to fulfill the research requirement with the approval of the instructor.**
AFRC233402 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST232402 Diplomatic, World Africa/Middle East, Seminar
HIST 232-403 Migration in the Medieval Mediterranean, 450-1450 Joel Pattison COLL 318 MW 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Historians have often defined the Mediterranean basin by its "connectivity": that is, the relative ease with which people, objects, and ideas moved back and forth between the islands and coastlines of the sea, from prehistory to the present. This course looks at the medieval period from the perspective of migration, or the movement of people as individuals and groups. As we discuss the very different circumstances that brought people across the sea, we will examine several sub-groups: enslaved people taken far from their homes, merchants living in far-flung diasporas, missionaries and religious scholars seeking converts or knowledge, and mercenary adventurers, all of whom contributed to a distinctly Mediterranean medieval history that often blurs the distinctions drawn between "European," "Islamic," or "Byzantine" history. We will read travel narratives, commercial documents, political histories, and excerpts from medieval literature revealing how these migrants changed and were changed by the societies who lived around the Mediterranean, and we will learn how the experiences of migrants in the medieval period shaped later developments in international law, slavery, race, and capitalism. NELC282403 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST232403 European, World Europe, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 233-401 Us-China Relations: From Open Door To Trade War Amy E Gadsden COLL 318 MW 10:15 AM-11:45 AM The list of issues shaping the US-China relationship is extensive. Trade and investment, the status and future of Taiwan, China’s expansion into the South China Sea and its relationships with East and Southeast Asian neighbors, human rights, technology transfer, intellectual property and cyberespionage, the status of people-to-people engagement in fields like education, health and cultural exchange and many others are ongoing points of discussion between the two great powers. Understanding these issues requires exploring the decades of interaction between the United States and China and how these issues have evolved over time. How does America’s open door policy of the late 19th century inform its position on trade with China today? What are the prospects for Taiwan policy given the complicated diplomatic history surrounding the recognition of the People’s Republic in the 1970s? When and why did human rights come to be a defining issue in the US-China relationship and how has it evolved over time? How have people-to-people exchanges been understood to undergird the relationship? This course will look at a series of issues that are at the center of the US-China relationship through an historical lens, providing students with insight into the forces that have shaped positions on both sides. Students will develop an understanding of key issues in the relationship; course assignments will include readings, leading discussion sessions, a longer seminar paper that explores an aspect of the US-China relationship from an historical perspective, and a policy memo that asks students to summarize the historical context and its relevance for policy-makers today. EALC141401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST233401 American, Diplomatic, Economic, World East/South Asia, Seminar
HIST 233-402 Cities in Chinese Hist Si-Yen Fei COLL 318 T 05:15 PM-08:15 PM This seminar will study the development of Chinese cities over the past two millennia with respect to their spatial structure, social constitution, economic system, political functions, and cultural representation (including cityscape paintings, maps, and films).As China transitioned from a collection of city-states to a united empire to nation state, Chinese urbanism underwent transformations as drastic as those of the country itself. Cities, which serve as a critical mechanism for the operation of a vast agrarian empire/nation like China , offer a unique vantage point for us to observe and analyze the continuities and discontinuities between dynastic empires as well as the radical transition from empire to modern nation state. Topics include: the city-state system in ancient China; the creation and evolution of imperial capitals; the medieval urban revolution and the subsequent collapse of classic city plans; the development of urban public sphere/public space in late imperial China; the rise of commercial power in urban politics; the negotiation of urban class and gender relations via cultural consumption; the role of cities in the building of a modern Chinese nation state; the anti-city experiment under the communist regime; urban citizenship in the reform era; as well as the expanding urbanization and shifting urbanism of Greater China as reflected in cinematic representations of Shanghai, Hongkong, and Taipei. EALC141402 World East/South Asia, pre-1800, Seminar
HIST 234-301 Capitalism and Humanitarianism Marc R Flandreau COLL 318 R 12:00 PM-03:00 PM Reviewing David Brion Davis’ Problem of Slavery in Western Culture for the New York Review of Books in 1967, the great ancient historian Moses Finley concluded that Davis’s book was “one of the most important to have been published on the subject of slavery in modern times.” Yet he found the book inconclusive on the “decisive question” of why slavery was finally abolished in the West. “Nothing is more difficult perhaps than to explain how and why, or why not, a new moral perception becomes effective in action,” Finley wrote. Almost 50 years after this statement was made, the complicated processes that are being played out at the heart of capitalism, mobilizing both ethical issues and the pursuit of profit are still imperfectly understood, yet more fascinating than ever. This course’s working hypothesis is that, from a better understanding of the entanglements of capitalism and humanitarianism a better understanding of the nature of the “material civilization” can be achieved. For this purpose, the course does provide a multi-pronged approach including sessions discussing analytical arguments about the reasons for the entanglements of capitalism and humanitarianism, sessions devoted to historical turning points and sessions devoted to case studies and the exploration of specific mechanisms whereby capitalism and humanitarianism connect with one another. I wish in particular to try and make students aware of the problem of “quality” and its social construction, which is found at the heart of both capitalism and humanitarianism. By awakening them to this question, I also hope to provide an engaging way to understand the importance of economics in cultural history. Last, while the course will make verbal references to work on more recent periods, the focus is on a time frame that ends with World War I. This seems warranted given that the purpose is to unpack the entanglements of finance and humanitarianism “as they got intertwined.” Nota Bene, some a few non-mandatory readings in French.
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST234301 Economic, World Research, Seminar
HIST 234-302 Uses and Abuses of History Lee V Cassanelli WILL 301 W 03:30 PM-06:30 PM This course is designed for junior and senior history majors in any regional or thematic concentrations. Using case studies from around the world, it will explore the roles of history and historians in shaping national and ‘ethnic’ outlooks and identities; in offering ‘lessons’ to guide policy makers in a variety of diplomatic, political, and social contexts; and in contributing to the numerous controversies surrounding the most appropriate ways to remember and represent painful events in a society’s past.

Because nations, regimes, and interest groups invariably want to believe that ‘history is on their side,’ they typically produce partisan narratives which use historical evidence selectively and subjectively. How effective have historians been—or can they be—in countering egregious ‘myths’ about the past, in uncovering ‘silences’ in the historical record, and in acknowledging that the same ‘objective’ events can leave different memories and carry different meanings for the various parties involved. Does fuller knowledge of the past constrain or empower our capacities to deal with challenges in the present and future?

In examining these and other ‘meta-questions’ through a series of specific case studies, you will almost certainly learn something about contested histories in parts of the world you may not be familiar with, but which should help you situate your own regional interests in a wider comparative framework. During the last five weeks of the course, students will have an opportunity to research a topic of their choice and to present their findings to the class.
Intellectual Research, Seminar
HIST 234-401 On the Move: Landscapes of Migration, Mobility, and Racialization Alec Stewart COLL 314 R 03:30 PM-06:30 PM International border closures, stay at home orders, and protests against police violence during the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted daily patterns of movement, reminding us that mobility and immobility are defining features of the urban experience. This course explores how movements of people shape the built environment and how governance as well as design influences those movements. Focusing on the nexus of mobility, immobility, and racialization, we will explore how spaces of migration, tourism, detention, and logistics are imbricated in processes of social inclusion and exclusion. In thinking through the ways that mobility shapes places and perceptions of their inhabitants, we will engage with a variety of global and American cases, as well as those from the Mid-Atlantic region. Scholarship in urban studies, architectural and urban history, geography, and anthropology will inform discussions about conceptions of citizenship, transnationalism, assimilation, and cosmopolitanism.

This seminar examines everyday urban mobilities and incremental modifications to the urban landscape made by non-design practitioners. As such, we will focus on the city as an archive. Fieldtrips in Philadelphia and exercises in primary source analysis, participant observation, interviewing, and mapping will provide source material for final student projects that will investigate local landscapes of migration, mobility, and racialization.
URBS234401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST234401 American, World Seminar, US
HIST 238-401 Modern Spain: Civil War and Postwar, 1930-1970 Antonio Feros COLL 315A TR 03:30 PM-05:00 PM This RESEARCH SEMINAR is divided into three parts. Part I centers on the Spanish CIVIL WAR, 1930-1939. The beginnings of the conflict, the main causes and motivations, the debates in the international arena, the main events and ideologies, some of the main characters, personal experiences (men and women) during the war, violence and repression. Part II focuses on the consequences of the Civil War (1939-1970), both from internal and international perspectives - the constitution of the Francoist regime and its internal politics; the repression of political dissidence; the situation of the Francoist regime during WWII and during the Cold War, how political and cultural dissidence started under Franco's regime, the social history of Spain, and the construction of the historical memory of the Civil War. Part III, Research and Writing: this course is designed to model the research and writing process professional historians use, beginning with a paper proposal and bibliography of primary documents and secondary sources. It then proceeds through the various stages of the research process to produce drafts of the essay and finally the finished essay. All written work is for peer review. LALS238401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST238401 European Europe, Research, Seminar
HIST 239-301 American Conservatism From Taft To Trump (SNF Paideia Program Course) Brian Rosenwald COLL G09F W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM The early 1950s may have been the nadir for modern American conservatism. Conservative hero Robert Taft had lost the Republican nomination for President to a more moderate candidate for the third time, many in the Republican Party had moved to accept some of the most popular New Deal programs, and a moderate, internationalist consensus had taken hold in the country. Yet, from these ashes, conservatism rose to become a potent political force - maybe the driving force - in the United States over the last half century. This seminar explores the contours of that rise, beginning with infrastructure laid and coalitions forged in the 1950s. We will see how conservatives built upon this infrastructure to overcome Barry Goldwater's crushing 1964 defeat to elect one of their own, Ronald Reagan, president in 1980. Reagan's presidency transformed the public philosophy and helped shape subsequent American political development. Our study of conservatism will also include the struggles that conservatives confronted in trying to enact their ideas into public policy, and the repercussions of those struggles. Designated SNF Paideia Program Course https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST239301 American Seminar, US
HIST 253-401 Freud Liliane Weissberg ARCH 208 MW 01:45 PM-03:15 PM No other person in the twentieth century has probably influenced scientific thought, humanistic scholarship, medical therapy, and popular culture as much as Sigmund Freud. This course will study his work, its cultural background, and its impact on us today. In the first part of the course, we will learn about Freud's life and the Viennese culture of his time. We will then move to a discussion of seminal texts, such as excerpts from his Interpretation of Dreams, case studies, as well as essays on psychoanalytic practice, human development, definitions of gender and sex, neuroses, and culture in general. In the final part of the course, we will discuss the impact of Freud's work. Guest lectureres from the medical field, history of science, psychology, and the humnities will offer insights into the reception of Freud's work, and its consequences for various fields of study and therapy. GRMN253401, COML253401, GSWS252401 Humanities & Social Science Sector
Registration also required for Recitation (see below)
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST253401 European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 263-401 National Antiquities Julia Verkholantsev WILL 214 MW 03:30 PM-05:00 PM Human societies have always wanted to know about their origins, the reasons for their customs, the foundations of their social institutions and religious beliefs, and the justification of their power structures. They have conceived of creation myths and of origins stories for their communities in order to position themselves within the past and present of the natural and human worlds. The newly Christianized kingdoms of Medieval Europe faced the challenge of securing a place in the new vision of universal Providential history, and they inscribed their own histories into the narratives they knew from the authoritative sources of the time - biblical genealogies and heroic stories inherited from the poets of classical antiquity. The deeds and virtues of saintly kings and church hierarchs provided a continuity of historical narrative on the sacred map of time and space. In the 19th century, while interest in medieval antiquity as a source of inspiration for political and cultural renewal brought about a critical study of evidence, it also effected reinterpretation and repurposing of this evidence vis-a-vis a new political concept - that of a nation. This seminar will focus on central, eastern and southeast European nations and explore three categories of "national antiquities" that have been prominent in the workings of their modern nationalisms: (1) stories of ethnogenesis (so-called, origo gentis) that narrate and explain the beginnings and genealogy of peoples and states, as they are recorded in medieval and early modern chronicles, (2) narratives about holy people, who are seen as national patron-saints, and (3) material objects of sacred significance (manuscripts, religious ceremony objects, crowns, icons) that act as symbols of political, cultural and national identities. Our approach will be two-fold: On the one hand, we will read medieval sources and ask the question of what they tell us about the mindset of the authors and societies that created them. We will think about how the knowledge of the past helped medieval societies legitimize the present and provide a model for the future. On the other hand, we will observe how medieval narratives and artifacts have been interpreted in modern times and how they became repurposed - first, during the "Romantic" stage of national awakening, then in the post-imperial era of independent nation-states, and, finally, in the post-Soviet context of reimagined Europe. We will observe how the study of nationalistic mentality enhances our understanding of how the past is represented and repurposed in scholarship and politics. COML229401, REES229401 Benjamin Franklin Seminars https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST263401 European Europe
HIST 308-401 Renaissance Europe Ann Elizabeth Moyer COLL 318 TR 10:15 AM-11:45 AM This course will examine the cultural and intellectual movement known as the Renaissance, from its origins in fourteenth-century Italy to its diffusion into the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century. We will trace the great changes in the world of learning and letters, the visual arts, and music,along with those taking place in politics, economics, and social organization. We will be reading primary sources as well as modern works. ITAL308401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST308401 European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800
HIST 322-401 Am Slavery and the Law Heather A Williams VANP 305 W 01:45 PM-04:45 PM In this course, we will work both chronologically and thematically to examine laws, constitutional provisions, and local and federal court decisions that established, regulated, and perpetuated slavery in the American colonies and states. We will concern ourselves both with change over time in the construction and application of the law, and the persistence of the desire to control and sublimate enslaved people. Our work will include engagement with secondary sources as well as immersion in the actual legal documents. Students will spend some time working with murder cases from the 19th century South. They will decipher and transcribe handwritten trial transcripts, and will historicize and analyze the cases with attention to procedural due process as well as what the testimony can tell us about the social history of the counties in which the murders occurred. Students will have the opportunity to choose a topic and conduct original research using both primary and secondary sources, resulting in a 20-page research paper. We will spend a good deal of time throughout the semester learning how to research, write, and re-write a paper of this length. At the end of the semester students will present the highlights of their research to the class. AFRC322401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST322401 American Seminar
HIST 329-301 The Great War in Memoir and Memory Warren G. Breckman VANP 626 T 03:30 PM-06:30 PM World War One was the primordial catastrophe of twentieth-century history. For all who passed through it, the Great War was transformative, presenting a profound rupture in personal experience. It was a war that unleashed an unprecedented outpouring of memoirs and poetic and fictional accounts written by participants. In its wake, it also produced new forms of public commemoration and memorialization - tombs to the unknown soldier, great monuments, soldiers' cemeteries, solemn days of remembrance, and the like. One hundred years after World War One, this course will explore the war through the intersection of these processes of personal and public memory. (Please note: This is not a seminar in military or diplomatic history, but rather an exploration of personal experiences of the War, representations of experience, and the cultural and political dimensions of memory.) The course will end with a one week visit to the Western Front region of northern France. Travel to sites in northern France will allow us to consider the scale and topography of some of the major battles, visit cemeteries and ossuaries and reflect on their various forms of secular and sacred organization, various national war monuments, and WWI museums, including the pathbreaking museum in Peronne and the national WWI museum in Meaux. Permission Needed From Instructor
Penn Global Seminar
https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST329301 European, Intellectual Europe, Seminar
HIST 333-401 Napoleonic Era & Tolstoy Peter I. Holquist BENN 401 TR 01:45 PM-03:15 PM In this course we will read what many consider to be the greatest book in world literature. This work, Tolstoys War and Peace, is devoted to one of the most momentous periods in world history, the Napoleonic Era (1789-1815). We will study both the novel and the era of the Napoleonic Wars: the military campaigns of Napoleon and his opponents, the grand strategies of the age, political intrigues and diplomatic betrayals, the ideologies and human dramas, the relationship between art and history. How does literature help us to understand this era? How does history help us to understand this great novel? This semester marks the 200th anniversary of Napoleons attempt to conquer Russia and achieve world domination, the campaign of 1812. Come celebrate this Bicentennial with us! Because we will read War and Peace over the course of the entire semester, readings will be manageable and very enjoyable. COML236401, REES240401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST333401 Diplomatic, European, Intellectual Europe
HIST 350-401 History of the International Monetary System and the US Dollar Marc R Flandreau MCNB 150 TR 03:30 PM-05:00 PM The course will cover the modern evolution of the international monetary system going all the way back to the era when sterling became the leading international currencies. It is arranged thematically and chronologically both. The lessons and readings will introduce students to the principal evolutions of the international monetary system and at the same time, it will give them an understanding of regimes, their mechanics and the geopolitical economies behind systemic shifts. Students need not have an economic background but must be prepared to read about exchange rates (and world politics). Special focus on: The early modern international monetary system. How Amsterdam and London captured the Spanish treasure. Beyond the West (Ottoman Empire, India, China). The Napoleonic wars and the rise of sterling. Hong-Kong: Silver, Opium, and the Recycling of Surpluses. The emergence of the Gold Standard. Bimetallism: The US election of 1796. Sterling and Key Currencies before WWI. The First World War and the origins of dollar supremacy. When the dollar displaced sterling (1920s). The collapse of the international gold standard (1930s). The Bretton Woods System. The rise and rise of the US dollar. Currency competition (Dollar, Euro, Yuan Renminbi). The meaning of cryptocurrencies. ECON027401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST350401 Economic, World
HIST 372-401 Aid and Intervention in Africa Lee V Cassanelli COLL 318 M 03:30 PM-06:30 PM This course examines the history, politics, and significance of foreign aid to Africa since the late 19th century. While we do not typically think about the European colonial period in Africa in terms of 'foreign aid,' that era introduced ideas and institutions which formed the foundations for modern aid policies and practices. So we start there and move forward into more contemporary times. In addition to examining the objectives behind foreign assistance and the intentions of donors and recipients, we will look at some of the consequences (intended or unintended) of various forms of foreign aid to Africa over the past century. While not designed to be a comprehensive history of development theory, of African economics, or of international aid organizations, the course will touch on all of these topics. Previous course work on Africa is strongly advised. AFRC373401 Diplomatic, Economic, World Africa/Middle East
HIST 398-301 Junior Honors in History Ann C. Farnsworth VANP 625 R 12:00 PM-03:00 PM Open to junior honors candidates in history. Introduction to the study and analysis of historical phenomena. Emphasis on theoretical approaches to historical knowledge, problems of methodology, and introduction to research design and strategy. Objective of this seminar is the development of honors thesis proposal. Permission Needed From Instructor
Majors Only
Seminar
HIST 406-401 Existence in Black David K. Amponsah GLAB 102 M 12:00 PM-03:00 PM Racial, colonial, and other political formations have encumbered Black existence since at least the fifteenth-century. Black experiences of and reflections on these matters have been the subject of existential writings and artistic expressions ranging from the blues to reggae, fiction and non-fiction. Reading some of these texts alongside canonical texts in European existential philosophy, this class will examine how issues of freedom, self, alienation, finitude, absurdity, race, and gender shape and are shaped by the global Black experience. Since Black aliveness is literally critical to Black existential philosophy, we shall also engage questions of Black flourishing amidst the potential for pessimism and nihilism. AFRC406401, AFRC506401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST406401 Intellectual
HIST 411-401 Popular Cultures, Europe and America, 1500 To the Present Kathy Peiss
Roger Chartier
VANP 605 M 01:45 PM-04:45 PM This course explores the history of popular culture across a long durée of four centuries. We will chart key transformations in cultural forms, popular practices, and the meanings given to them. Throughout the semester we use a comparative method in examining popular culture in Europe, especially the early modern period, and in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will study many forms of print culture, drawing upon the remarkable primary materials in Penn’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts. We will also explore visual culture (paintings, engravings, photographs, movies, television) and musical /sound cultures. Topics include: the concept and uses of ‘popular culture’; folklore and vernacular culture; popular print culture and readings habits; popular knowledge and practices of working-class people and people of color; leisure and sports; gender, sexuality, style, and fashion; cultural destruction and preservation; the emergence of mass media and mass culture. In addition, we will introduce students to some of the classic theoretical works on popular culture. ENGL234401 https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST411401 American, European, Intellectual Europe, pre-1800, Seminar, US
HIST 412-401 War and the Arts Arthur Waldron COLL 311A T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM War, it is often forgotten, is powerfully reflected in the arts. This highly flexible student-driven seminar will examine the phenomenon. Each student will choose a topic and materials for us all to examine and then discuss after an interval of 1-2 weeks. With benefit of discussion they will write a paper 10pp maximum, summing up topic and reactions, as we seek broader understanding.

The material is very rich. Goya (1746-1829) Picasso ( 1881-1973) both dealt with war in ways that scholars have examined, as did John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) whose immense canvas “gassed” (1919) not yet received monographic treatment. Of musicians, Shostakovich (1906-1975) is very promising; sculptor and artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) is of an inexpressible profundity that takes us to issues of mourning. Novels of Zola (1840-1902) and Proust (1871-1922) are great literature that deals in places with military issues. Students are of course strongly encouraged to choose their own topics.

We will begin with several weeks on Vietnam, our understanding of which has been completely transformed by the pivotally important work of Lien-Hang Thuy Nguyen, Penn Grad and Professor at Columbia, who may join us. For the first two classes we should read a short play, “The Columnist” by David Auburn, about Joseph Alsop (1910-1989) a highly influential writer of the Vietnam era, and relative of the professor. That should get things started. Then dig into “The Centurions” (1960) by Jean Laterguy (1920-2011) an absorbing novel
During this time we will prepare our topic choices and roster.
EALC442401 World Seminar
HIST 463-401 History of American Education Jonathan L Zimmerman WILL 3 MW 01:45 PM-03:45 PM This course will examine the growth and development of American schools, from the birth of the republic into the present. By 1850, the United States sent a greater fraction of its children to school than any other nation on earth. Why? What did young people learn there? And, most of all, how did these institutions both reflect and shape our evolving conceptions of "America" itself? In an irreducibly diverse society, the answers were never simple. Americans have always defined their nation in a myriad of contrasting and often contradictory ways. So they have also clashed vehemently over their schools, which remain our central public vehicle for deliberating and disseminating the values that we wish to transmit to our young. Our course will pay close attention to these education-related debates, especially in the realms of race, class, and religion. When immigrants came here from other shores, would they have to relinquish their old cultures and languages? When African-Americans won their freedom from bondage, what status would they assume? And as different religious denominations fanned out across the country, how would they balance the uncompromising demands of faith with the pluralistic imperatives of democracy? All of these questions came into relief at school, where the answers changed dramatically over time. Early American teachers blithely assumed that newcomers would abandon their old-world habits and tongues; today, "multicultural education" seeks to preserve or even to celebrate these distinctive patterns. Post-emancipation white philanthropists designed vocational curricula for freed African-Americans, imagining blacks as loyal serfs; but blacks themselves demanded a more academic education, which EDUC599401 Cultural Diversity in the US American US
HIST 620-301 Topics in European Hist: Europe 1550-1850 Sophia A Rosenfeld BENN 20 W 03:30 PM-06:30 PM Reading and Discussion course on selected topics in European History. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST620301
HIST 620-302 Topics in European Hist: Cultur Hist:Reappraisal Roger Chartier VANP 605 T 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=2022A&course=HIST620302
HIST 640-301 Topics in Mid East Hist: Comparative Frontiers Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet COLL 315A M 03:30 PM-06:30 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Middle Eastern history. https://pennintouchdaemon.apps.upenn.edu/pennInTouchProdDaemon/jsp/fast.do?webService=syllabus&term=2022A&course=HIST640301
HIST 670-301 Topics:Transregional His: Transnatnl Asian Pacific Eiichiro Azuma MCNB 395 M 05:15 PM-08:15 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History Permission Needed From Instructor
HIST 670-302 Topics:Transregional His: Teaching World History Frederick R. Dickinson MCES 105 T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History
HIST 670-303 Topics:Transregional His: Atlantic Histories Roquinaldo Ferreira VANP 305 F 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History
HIST 770-301 Res Sem: Transregional: 19c Legacies of Slavery Eve M. Troutt Powell VANP 305 R 01:45 PM-04:45 PM Research seminar on selected topics in Transregional history.