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 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 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 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 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 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 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