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 0012-301 First-Year Seminar: Why College? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Jonathan L Zimmerman BENN 139 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will explore controversies and dilemmas surrounding American colleges, from their birth into the present. What is the purpose of “college”? How have these goals and objectives changed, across time and space? What should college do, and for whom? And how can colleges be reformed to meet their diverse purposes and constituencies? Topics of discussion will include affirmative action, “political correctness,” fraternities and sororities, sexual assault and safety, online education, and the recent trend towards “college for all.” For first-year students only. History & Tradition Sector American US
HIST 0108-001 American Origins Emma Hart COHN 402 MW 10:15 AM-11:14 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. Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
History & Tradition Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST0108001 American pre-1800, US
HIST 1119-401 History of American Law to 1877 Sarah L H Gronningsater ANNS 110 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course is designed to explore major themes and events in early American legal history. Because of the richness of the subject matter and the wealth of sources available, we will be selective in our focus. The course will emphasize several core areas of legal development that run throughout colonial and early national history: 1) the state: including topics such as war and other military or police action, insurrection, revolution, regulation, courts, economic policy, and public health; 2) labor: including race and racially-based slavery, varied forms of servitude and labor coercion, household labor, industrialization, unionization, and market development; 3) property: including property in persons, land, and business, and the role of lawyers in promoting the creation of wealth; 4) private spaces: including family, individual rights, sexuality, gender, and private relations of authority; 5) constitutionalism: various methods of setting norms (rules, principles, values) that create, structure, and define the limits of government power and authority in colonial/imperial, state, and national contexts; 6) democracy and belonging: including questions of citizenship, voting rights, and participation in public life. By placing primary sources within historical context, the course will expose students to the ways that legal change has affected the course of American history and contemporary life. The course will be conducted primarily in lecture format, but I invite student questions and participation. In the end, the central aim of this course is to acquaint students with a keen sense of the ways that law has operated to liberate, constrain, and organize Americans. Ideally, students will come away with sharper critical thinking and reading skills, as well. *This course is a core requirement for the Legal Studies and History Minor (LSHM).* AFRC1119401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1119401 American, Intellectual pre-1800, US
HIST 1122-401 Witches, Rebels, and Prophets: People on the Margins in Early America Julia Marie Bouwkamp
Kathleen M Brown 		STIT 263 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course explores the lost worlds of witches, sexual offenders, rebellious enslaved people, rebellious colonists, and Native American leaders from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Using the life stories of unusual individuals from the past, we try to make sense of their contentious relationships with their societies. By following the careers of the troublemakers, the criminals, the rebels, and other non-conformists, we also learn about the foundations of social order and the impulse to reform that rocked American society during the nineteenth century. The lives of these unique “movers and shakers” help us to understand the issues that Americans debated in the years leading up to the Civil War. AFRC1122401, GSWS1122401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1122401 American, Gender pre-1800, US
HIST 1153-401 Transformations of Urban America: Making the Unequal Metropolis, 1945 to Today Nicole M Adrian
Randall B Cebul
Andres Villatoro 		MCNB 150 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM 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. URBS1153401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Society Sector 		https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1153401 American, Economic US
HIST 1155-401 Introduction to Asian American History Eiichiro Azuma
Nainika Dinesh 		MCNB 286-7 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will provide an introduction to the history of Asian Pacific Americans, focusing on the wide diversity of migrant experiences, as well as the continuing legacies of Orientalism on American-born APA's. Issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality will also be examined. ASAM0102401 History & Tradition Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. 		American, World US
HIST 1179-001 Precious Lord, Take My Hand: America in the Sixties William Sturkey FAGN 110 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM The Sixties are mythologized in American memory. From social movements to hippies, the Sixties are often portrayed as a decade of unfettered idealism, chaos, and revolution. The Sixties were indeed a dramatic era of conflict and change, but the experiences of Americans who lived during the Sixties were also remarkably diverse and complex in ways that transcend stereotypes of the decade. More than merely a series of conflicts between activists and racists or hawks and doves, the Sixties represented a turning point in American life. The society that emerged in the wake of this profound decade was completely different than anything that had ever existed before. Through a variety of themes—especially gender, race, foreign policy, and consumer culture—this class will move beyond generic Sixties narratives to offer a multi-faceted examination of American life during the Sixties and explore how the decade has shaped the contemporary United States. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1179001 American US
HIST 1190-001 American Diplomatic History Since 1776 Walter A Mcdougall
Kaleb Bloxham Nygaard 		ANNS 111 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Survey course tracing the origins and evolution of the great traditions of U.S. foreign policy, including Exceptionalism, Unilateralism, Manifest Destiny, Wilsonianism, etc., by which Americans have tried to define their place in the world. Three hours of lecture per week, extensive reading, no recitations. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST1190001 American, Diplomatic US
HIST 1733-001 Free Speech and Censorship Edward M Chappell
Sophia A Rosenfeld 		BENN 231 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will explore the idea of free speech - its justification, its relationship to various forms of censorship, and its proper limits - as a historical, philosophical, legal, and ultimately, political question. In the first half of the course, we will explore the long history across the West of the regulation of various kinds of ideas and their expression, from malicious gossip to heresies, and read classic arguments for and against censorship, copyright protections, and standards of taste and decency and of truth. In the second part of the seminar, after looking at how the idea of freedom of speech came to seem an existential prerequisite for democracy as well as individual liberty, we will take up the historical and philosophical questions posed by such recent dilemmas as whether or not hate speech deserves the protection of the First Amendment, the distinction between art and pornography from the perspective of freedom of expression, speech during wartime, and the transformative effects of the internet on the circulation and regulation of ideas. We will end the semester by thinking about the globalization of the idea of free speech as a human right and its implications, both positive and negative. Readings will range from Robert Darnton's The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France, to D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, to documents concerning the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and law review articles about Citizens United v. FEC. We will also make considerable use of local resources, from museums to the library. Humanties & Social Science Sector American, European, Intellectual Global Issues, pre-1800, US
HIST 2104-401 American Books/Books in America James N Green
John Pollack 		VANP 605 R 12:00 PM-2:59 PM This course investigates book histories and the worlds of readers, printers, publishers, and libraries in the Americas, from the colonial period through the nineteenth century. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ENGL2604401 American pre-1800, Seminar, US
HIST 2154-301 The State of the Union is not Good: The US in Crisis in the 1970s Randall B Cebul BENN 25 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Vietnam. Watergate. Deindustrialization. Inflation. Disco. These events and forces only begin to scratch the surface of the social, cultural, political, and economic transformations that remade American life in the 1970s and which, by 1975, forced President Gerald Ford to concede “that the state of the union is not good.” Beyond these familiar topics, this reading seminar will explore a range of developments that are crucial for understanding why the 1970s was perhaps the pivotal decade in making modern American politics, economics, and culture. Topics will include the fate of the Civil Rights movement and the war on crime; the rise and impact of second wave feminism; the rise of the modern conservative coalition (e.g., its religious, economic, and white working-class components); the emergence of the finance economy; the reorientation of organized labor and the remaking of the Democratic Party; the explosion of “therapeutic” cultures of self-help, individualism, and entrepreneurialism; and the rise of the Sunbelt as the nation’s dominant cultural, political, and economic region. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2154301 American Seminar, US
HIST 2159-401 The History of Family Separation Hardeep Dhillon COHN 204 R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This course examines the socio-legal history of family separation in the United States. From the period of slavery to the present-day, the United States has a long history of separating and remaking families. Black, Indigenous, poor, disabled, and immigrant communities have navigated the precarious nature of family separation and the legal regime of local, state, and federal law that substantiated it. In this course, we will trace how families have navigated domains of family separation and the reasoning that compelled such separation in the first place. Through an intersectional focus that embraces race, class, disability, and gender, we will underline who has endured family separation and how such separation has remade the very definition of family in the United States. ASAM2159401, GSWS2159401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST2159401 American, Gender Seminar, US
HIST 2160-401 Remembering the Good Old Days: Slavery, the Civil War, and the Creation of an American Fantasy Derek Litvak VANP 305 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM As the Civil War came to an end a concerted campaign formed to re-imagine and revise the origins and reasons for the war. Within just a couple of decades, former enslavers, their sympathizers, everyday southerners, and many northerners had joined forces to rewrite history. All the while, formerly enslaved people and new generations of free Black people pushed back against the rising tide of collective, and voluntary, historical amnesia in the country. From 1865 to the present day, Americans have continued to wage battles in the Civil War. This course examines American history through a variety of mediums, including newspapers, textbooks, court cases, movies, monuments, and holidays to understand for formation of historical memory. We will examine the national memory of slavery and the Civil War, what they did, could, and would mean, and how this process has been integral to creating an American historical and national identity. AFRC2160401 American Seminar, US
HIST 3150-401 The Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans Eiichiro Azuma PWH 108 T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This research seminar will consist of a review of representative studies on the Japanese American internment, and a discussion of how social scientists and historians have attempted to explain its complex backgrounds and causes. Through the careful reading of academic works, primary source materials, and visualized narratives (film productions), students will learn the basic historiography of internment studies, research methodologies, and the politics of interpretation pertaining to this particular historical subject. Students will also examine how Japanese Americans and others have attempted to reclaim a history of the wartime internment from the realm of “detached” academia in the interest of their lives in the “real” world, and for a goal of “social justice” in general. The class will critically probe the political use of history and memories of selected pasts in both Asian American community and contemporary American society through the controversial issue of the Japanese American internment. ASAM2100401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. American, Diplomatic Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3158-401 ¡Huelga! The Farmworker Movement in the United States Amy C Offner JAFF 104 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This intensive research seminar invites students to explore the history of farmworkers in the United States during the twentieth century. Research will primarily but not necessarily exclusively focus on the west coast, a region in which many archival sources have been digitized. Students may explore a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to: farmworker unions; the relationship between farmworker mobilizations and other movements in the US and abroad; the experiences of workers from the Philippines and Latin America and the role of US imperial and immigration policies in the lives of farmworkers; farmworkers' confrontations with and participation in systems of racism; the Great Depression in rural communities; the history of gender and family in farmworker communities; the history of environment and health; struggles over citizenship and social rights; counter-mobilizations of growers and the right; religion in farmworker communities; legislative and legal strategies to obtain rights denied agricultural workers in federal law; artistic, musical, and cultural production; or the relationship between consumers and the workers who produced their food. LALS3158401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3158401 American, Economic Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3173-401 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar Kathleen M Brown CANCELED This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial orientation to archival research, students will plunge in to doing actual research at the Kislak Center, the University Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company, and various online sources. During the final month of the semester, students will begin drafting research reports and preparing for a public presentation of the work. During the semester, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a certified genealogist, a data management and website expert, a consultant on public programming, and a Penn graduate whose research has been integral to the Penn Slavery Project. AFRC3173401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3173401 American Research, Seminar, US
HIST 3910-401 Immigration and the Making of US Law Hardeep Dhillon BENN 231 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course examines the legal history of the United States to illuminate one of the most urgent issues of our time: immigration. From the late nineteenth century, immigration to the United States changed the legal landscape of the country by challenging the bounds of national citizenship, “separate but equal,” Congressional powers, home ownership, and an array of other topics. In this course, we will trace how immigrants challenged existing orders of their time through major state and federal supreme court cases, and the subsequent aftermaths of their trials. In addition to considering the key legal issues at stake in these cases, this course compels us to consider the dynamics of race, disability, gender, and labor that define the construction of US law in the context of immigration. ASAM3110401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=HIST3910401 American US