History 330-349, Asian, Eurasian, and Middle Eastern History

 

HIS 330/Topics in Asian, Eurasian or Middle Eastern History

(periodically)
Focuses on differing topics of historical significance having to do with Eurasia and the Middle East. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes. May fulfill departmental distribution requirements.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 331/Silk and Religion

(periodically)
The course of Silk and Religion explores material transactions and the thought of peoples who followed various religious paths from the beginning of the Common Era to the 12 century CE. When Buddhism, Christianity and Islam carved out their domains of dominance on the Afro-Eurasia landmass, their religious institutions became hubs of communication and transaction between those regions. Using silk trade as a clue, the course will examine how the three major religions applied their values in international and intercultural commerce and interacted with regional cultural systems.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 334/Modern East Asia

(periodically)
The course will focus on the interrelated modern histories of China and Japan.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL; RACE & ETHNICITY
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 335/Modern Japan

(periodically)
The course will examine the social, political, and economic development of modern Japan from 1800 to the present.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 336/Late Imperial China

(periodically)
A history of China from the 17th century to the early 20th century.

Liberal Learning:

• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 337/Twentieth Century China

(periodically)
The course will examine Chinese history from 1911 to the present, focusing on social and political movements.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 341/Islamic History from Muhammad to the Ottomans

(periodically)
Focuses on the development of social, political, and religious institutions in Islamic societies from Muhammad up to the Ottoman Empire. Special attention will be placed on understanding the development of political systems, the military-patronage state, the relationship between religion and politics, and the problem of political legitimacy in the medieval period.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL; RACE & ETHNICITY
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 342/Modern Middle East

(periodically)
An introduction to the history of the modern Middle East. The first half of the course focuses on the social, religious, and political foundations of the modern states of the Middle East, the impact of the West on the development of nationalism, and the colonial experience. The second half of the course examines the post-colonial experience and the character of the modern Middle Eastern states with special attention paid to contemporary political and social issues in a local as well as international context.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL; RACE & ETHNICITY
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 343/Early Iranian Pastoral Nomads of Eurasia

(periodically)
The course will examine the Iranian pastoral nomads, the formation of the Greater Iranian World stretching from the western borders of China and southern Siberia to Spain, and its role in shaping outside societies in pre-modern history (from the Neolithic Period through the early Middle Ages). The formation of the Iranian language and religion, pastoral economy, material culture, social organization, and political structure will be of particular importance to the course. The class will also focus on the interaction between the Iranian nomadic world and other nomadic, sedentary, and hunting-gathering peoples.

Liberal Learning:

• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 344/Commodities, Commerce, and Exchange of Ideas in Medieval Eurasia

(periodically)
The course will focus on how, when, and why Inner Eurasia (the northern section) came to be connected with Outer Eurasia (the southern section) during the Middle Ages through expanding commercial connections which, in turn, led to intellectual, cultural, epidemiological, religious, and technological borrowings between the two regions between ca. 500-ca. 1000 CE. It will investigate the processes by which this diffusion provided the key link by way of which the two sections of Eurasia irrevocably fused together into one. The course will underscore the profound importance of central Eurasia as the principle intermediary vehicle by which the two sectors of Eurasia came to be interlinked and will explore its early history and link it to modern times.

Liberal Learning:

• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 347/Siberia

(periodically)
The course covers the history of Siberia from the initial human settlement of this part of Inner Eurasia in the Ice Age to the modern period. Specific emphases will be given to the diverse cultures, economies, and religions of the Native Siberian peoples and their contacts with the outside world. About half of the course will examine the fate of the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia after their incorporation into the Russian state.

Liberal Learning:

• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 348/Imperial Russia, 1584-1917

(periodically)
Examines the history of the Russian state as it was transformed from the European Grand Principality of Muscovy to the trans-Eurasian Russian Empire. Among the key issues considered in this course are: the territorial expansion of Russia, the development and growth of bureaucracy and autocracy, the entrenchment of serfdom as an institution, Russia’s attempts to reform and modernize, and the many fates of Russia’s national minorities.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

 

HIS 349/The Soviet Union, 1917-1991

(periodically)
This course traces the history of the Soviet Union from last years of the old tsarist regime and the developments that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917, through the Russian Civil War, the Stalin era and World War II, the Cold War, to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

Liberal Learning:

• GLOBAL
• SOCIAL CHANGE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES