2014 Fall Departmental Seminars Listing
HIST 113J
Cultural Capital: New York in the Twentieth Century
Jean-Christophe Agnew
Th 1:30-3:20
An interdisciplinary study of New York City as a global cultural capital in the twentieth century. Social, political, and
economic forces shaping the principal institutions of the city's patrician, popular, and mass cultures. The formation of
identifiably "New York" styles in the arts, architecture, photography, literature, and film. The changing geography of
cultural creation, reproduction, and distribution in the city.
+++ HIST 119J
Antebellum America
Ed Rugemer
Tues 9:25-11:15
Pre-Ind
History of the United States from the Age of Jackson through the Civil War with an emphasis on race, slavery, and the
coming of the Civil War.
+++ HIST 126J
Politics and Capitalism in the Early U.S.
Michael Blaakman
M 1:30-3:20
Pre-Ind
Mired in an economic rut, facing increasing income inequality, and grappling with the consequences of deep political
partisanship, twenty-first century Americans are returning to age-old debates: What is the ideal relationship between
capitalism and democracy? How can we perfect both our politics and our economy? And what should be the
government’s role in that process? This seminar approaches those questions from an historical perspective, focusing on
the years between the American Revolution and the Market Revolution of the early 19th century, the era when capitalism
and democracy became embedded as defining features of the United States.
+++ HIST 129J
Topics in California History
Genevieve Carpio
Th 1:30-3:20
This course investigates 20th century California with an emphasis on Latino/a history. Themes include car culture,
ethnic quarantines, tourism, and immigration enforcement at the U.S-Mexico border. Students are also invited to
develop their digital literacy through assignments that combine traditional historical methods with new media.
HIST 134J
Yale and America
Jay Gitlin
T 3:30-5:20
Relations between Yale and Yale people—from Ezra Stiles and Noah Webster to Cole Porter, Henry Roe Cloud, and
Maya Lin—and American society and culture. Elihu Yale and the global eighteenth century; Benjamin Silliman and the
emergence of American science; Walter Camp, Dink Stover, and the all-American boy; Henry Luce and the information
age; faith and ideology in postwar Yale and America.
HIST 135J
The Age of Hamilton and Jefferson
Joanne Freeman
W 9:25-11:15
Pre-Ind
The culture and politics of the revolutionary and early national periods of American history, using the lives, ideas, and
writings of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton as a starting point. Topics include partisan conflict, political
culture, nation building, the American character, and domestic life.
HIST 139J
The American South
Glenda Gilmore
W 3:30-5:20
A thematic approach to the history of the American South since Reconstruction. Focus on the political, social, and
cultural history of a region that has undergone dramatic change. Topics include white supremacy and African American
resistance; industrialization and labor activism; music and literature; the civil rights movement and the rise of the
Republican South; and changing regional identity.
+++ HIST 141J
Science from Newton to Neutrons
William Summers
T 7:00-8:50
A study of major themes and ideas in science from the 17th century through the 20th century, with a focus on evolving
descriptions and theories of matter and energy, physics and chemistry. The evolution of Newtonian ideas to the world of
modern physics and the transition from alchemical thinking to the chemical revolution.
HIST 142J
Women and Medicine in America
Naomi Rogers
T 9:25-11:15
American women from the colonial era to the present as midwives, patients, healers, reformers, revolutionaries,
innovators, and entrepreneurs. Ways that women have shaped American health care and medical research.
+++ HIST 143J
Mental Illness in American Culture
Stephen Vider
W 2:30-4:20
The history of mental illness, its conception and treatment, in the United States, from the mid-1800s to the present.
Topics include asylums, the emergence of homosexuality as a clinical category, the pathologization of gender and racial
difference, social welfare movements, the Americanization of psychoanalysis, social psychiatry, humanistic psychology,
psychopharmacology, and the politics of diagnosis.
+++ HIST 149J
Science and Politics of Pollution
Rachel Rothschild
Th 3:30-5:20
The history of pollution problems, from concepts of “foul air” and smog to climate change and global warming. Topics
include the changing definition of “pollutants” over time, the ways in which science, politics, and economics have
influenced our perceptions of environmental dangers, and how various pollution problems have shaped ideas about what
levels of risk, damage, and costs to the environment are acceptable.
HIST 159J
Spies, Secrets and Science
Paola Bertucci
T 1:30-3:20
The relationship between secrecy, intellectual property, and science from the Middle Ages to the Cold War. Topics
include alchemy and esoteric knowledge; the Manhattan Project and other secret scientific projects run by the state; the
history of patents and copyright laws; and scientists as spies.
HIST 170J
Ideas and Ideologies in U.S. International History
Patrick Cohrs
M 1:30-3:20
The influence of American and foreign ideas and ideologies on U.S. international history. American assumptions about
peace and international order from the days of the early republic and the Federalist Papers to the height of the Cold War.
Emphasis on American responses to war and international crises, and on the impact of exceptionalist, imperialist,
isolationist, "exemplarist," and capitalist ideologies on U.S. policymaking.
+++ HIST 199J
Writing Narrative History
Edward Ball
TBD
Introduction to writing narrative nonfiction, including history, biography, and narrative journalism. The craft of turning
real events, past or present, into plot- and character-driven stories. Reading of model texts, with attention to their use of
character, making of scenes, point of view, structure, and dramatic moves. Students research, write, and revise their own
nonfiction texts.
HIST 207J
Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War
Donald Kagan
T 2:30-4:20
Pre-Ind
A study both of the great war between Athens and Sparta that transformed the world of the Greek city-states and of the
brilliant historian and political thinker who described it.
+++ HIST 217J
The Book in Britain
Kathryn James
M 1:30-3:20
Pre-Ind
The influence of the book, in manuscript and print, on early modern Britain. In the roughly two centuries spanned by
this course, Britain saw the rise and fall of two political dynasties, the overthrow of an established religious order, the
execution of two monarchs, and national civil war. This course asks what role the book—as material, cultural, and
political object—played in these transformations. Based at the Beinecke Library.
+++ HIST 219J
Crime, Order, and Violence in the British Atlantic
Matthew Lockwood
Pre-Ind
To Be Determined
HIST 232J
Medieval Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conversation
Ivan Marcus
T 1:30-3:20
Pre-Ind
How members of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities thought of and interacted with members of the other two
cultures during the Middle Ages. Cultural grids and expectations each imposed on the other; the rhetoric of otherness—
humans or devils, purity or impurity, and animal imagery; and models of religious community and power in dealing with
the other when confronted with cultural differences. Counts toward either European or LAAA distributional credit
within the History major, upon application to the director of undergraduate studies.
+++ HIST 233J
The Emergence of Modern Paris
John Merriman
T 1:30-3:20
Dimensions of the economic, social, political, architectural, and cultural transformation of Paris from the Old Regime to
the contemporary era. Topics include revolutionary Paris, the impact of rapid migration, and the changing social
geography of Paris in the time of Balzac and Zola, the rebuilding of Paris in the Second Twentieth-century planning.
Reading knowledge French helpful but not required.
+++ HIST 236J
The First World War
Pierre Purseigle
T 3:30-5:20
An introduction to the history of the conflict that George Kennan described as the “great seminal catastrophe” of the 20th
century. Emphasis on the comparative understanding of the First World War between 1912 and 1923.
HIST 247J
The Invention of Modern Democracy
Yiftah Elazar
T 3:30-5:20
Pre-Ind
The reinvention of the classical idea of democracy as both a political institution and an ideal, from the seventeenth to the
nineteenth century. Classical and neoclassical critiques of democratic government; revival and conceptual
transformation in the Puritan, American, and French revolutions. Readings focus on Anglo-American political thought
of the period, including its relation to classical, humanist, and contemporary continental sources.
HIST 253J
Culture, Dissidence, and Control in Golden Age Spain
Maria Jordan
T 10:30-12:20
Pre-Ind
Aspects of Spanish culture and society in the Golden Age (c 1550-1650_ that demonstrate discontent, dissidence, and
suggestions for reform. Emphasis on the intersection of historical and literary sources and the dynamic between popular
and elite cultures.
+++ HIST 270J
Philosophy of History in Central Europe
Marci Shore
W 1:30-3:20
This intellectual history seminar focuses on how philosophers before, during and after the communist period grappled
with the meaning of history, the role of the individual within history, and the space for ethics within historical
determinism. Philosophy of history is approached as an aspect of—and response to—the totalitarian experiments of the
20th century.
+++ HIST 271J
Communist Takeovers in Eastern Europe
Timothy Snyder/ Sara Silverstein
Th 3:30-5:20
The origins and evolution of communism in eastern Europe after World War II explored from political, cultural, social,
and intellectual perspectives. Methods of establishing authoritarian government; the effects of such govenrment on
different social groups; the dynamics of national versus Soviet communism; the legacy of interwar nation-states and
wartime occupation by Nazi and Soviet regimes.
HIST 272J
Russia in the Age of Revolution, 1890-1924
Sara Brinegar
M 1:30-3:20
This course will examine the end of the Russian Empire and creation of the Soviet Union, a dramatic period that
spanned World War I, the Russian Civil War, and three major revolutions. We will explore the processes and forces that
led to such massive changes and look at the connections between radical ideas, social movements, war, and political
change.
+++ HIST 326J
Yale and Japan
Daniel Botsman
W 9:25-11:15
This class provides students with an opportunity to explore Yale’s rich historical connections to Japan, and to use the
university’s museum and library collections to learn about various aspects of the Japanese past, from ancient times to the
post-World War II era.
HIST 347J
From the Great Game to the Great Satan: Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia in the Age of Empires
Abbas Amanat
M 3:30-5:20
Encounters of Iran and its neighbors with Britain, Russia, and the United States since the nineteenth century. Special
attention to Western imperial interests in the region and to indigenous forms of resistance to imperial hegemony. Topics
include travel, diplomacy, war and hegemony, postcolonial sovereignty, the Cold War and regional power, and the
Islamic Republic's demonizing of America.
HIST 362J
The Cold War in the Third World
Jeremy Friedman
T 1:30-3:20
The collapse of colonial empires and the emergence of Asia, Africa, and Latin America during the Cold War. Attempts
to develop political and economic systems while negotiating factors such as revolution, socialism, religion, and
geopolitics. Conceptual discourses within and without the developing world surrounding issues such as independence,
nationalism, racial identity, violence, social and political order, and economic justice and growth.
+++ HIST 371J
Inquisitions: Europe and the Americas
Stuart Schwarz
To Be Determined
HIST 332J
History and China's Environment, 1660-present
Jonathan Schlesinger
TBD
Recent scholarship on climate change, resource management, water conservancy, public sanitation, and the shifting
meanings of nature in Chinese culture and science from the early modern period to the present. Ways in which Chinese
history and the natural environment have shaped one another; relations between China’s environmental history and
contemporary global trends.
HIST 372J
Revolution and Cold War in Latin America
Gilbert Joseph
T 1:30-3:20
Analysis of revolutionary movements in Latin America against the backdrop of the Cold War. Critical examination of
popular images and orthodox interpretations. An interdisciplinary study of the process of revolutionary change and cold
war at the grassroots level.
HIST 377J
Freedom and Abolition in Latin America
Marcela Echeverri
W 9:25-11:15
Pre-Ind
The history of freedom in Latin America, with a focus on issues surrounding slavery and abolition. The rise of slavery
and slave societies across the region, including the founding of European empires in the Americas. Relations between
black politics, revolution, liberalism, and opposition to slavery.
+++ HIST 385J
Reformers and Revolutionaries in the Arab World
Rosie Bsheer
Th 2:30-4:20
This course aims to contextualize the major social and intellectual trends of the Arab world in their colonial,
postcolonial, and neocolonial background and to link them to the major events and movements of the twentieth century.
It will introduce students to the kinds of questions and issues that activists, lawyers, feminists, leftists, nationalists,
Islamists, secularists and liberals were dealing with, the imperial and colonial worlds they were caught in, and how these
struggles shaped their social lives, leading up to current Arab uprisings.
HIST 388J
Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa
Robert Harms
W 1:30-3:20
Pre-Ind
The slave trade from the African perspective. Analysis of why slavery developed in Africa and how it operated. The
long-term social, political, and economic effects of the Atlantic slave trade.
+++ HIST 405J
What Is a Nation-State?
Ariel Ron
Th 9:25-11:15
What is a nation-state? Is a nation endowed with moral or spiritual significance? What is the relationship between
nationalism and ethnicity? How important are state institutions to the development of national identities? Where and
how do economic markets fit into national political structures? This course asks students to consider the origins and
sustaining conditions of nation-states through both theoretical works and historical studies.
+++ HIST 409J
Global Black Power
Daniel Magaziner
W 2:30-4:20
During a march across Mississippi in 1966, black civil rights activists' demands for 'Black Power' signified a new stage
in the struggle against white supremacy in the US South. But there was nothing new about idea of black power as a
political force in the white dominated 19th and 20th centuries. This course considers the global phenomenon of black
power in its multiple manifestations, from the Haitian Revolution through the Back to the Africa Movement, Garveyite
nationalism, religious expression, African independence, armed revolution and urban politics. May count toward
geographical distributional credit within the History major for any region studied, upon application to the director of
undergraduate studies.
HIST 411J
The Global 1960s
Jenifer Van Vleck
Th 9:25-11:15
A comparative, transnational study of the social, political, and cultural upheavals that occurred during the 1960s,
including decolonization, the African American freedom struggle, the Prague Spring, China's Cultural Revolution, and
protest movements in the United States, eastern and western Europe, and Latin America. The "other" side of the 1960s—
a decade that ended with the presidency of Richard Nixon and the ascendance of conservative regimes in numerous
Western countries—and its representation in contemporary culture. May count toward geographical distributional credit
within the History major for any region studied, upon application to the director of undergraduate studies.
HIST 415J
The Problem of Global Poverty
Joanne Meyerowitz
T 1:30-3:20
Large-scale plans to end world poverty from 1960 to the present, from modernization to microcredit. Topics include the
green revolution, population control, the "women in development" movement, and the New International Economic
Order. Extensive work with primary sources. May count toward geographical distributional credit within the History
major for any region studied, upon application to the director of undergraduate studies.
+++ HIST 420J
Photography and the Sciences
Chitra Ramalingam
T 1:30-3:20
Does photography belong in the history of art, or does its status as an “automatic” or “scientific” recording technique
and its many uses in the sciences distinguish its history from that of earlier visual media? How does photography look
when we approach it from the cultural history of science? How might role in the sciences have shaped photographic
aesthetics in the arts? This course will examine the making of photography’s discursive identity as an experimental and
evidentiary medium in the sciences, from its announcement to the public in 1839 to the digital innovations of the present
day. We take a historical and archival perspective on uses for (and debates over) photography in different fields of the
natural and human sciences, grounded in visits to photographic collections at Yale.
+++ HIST 464J
Law and History
Rohit De
Th 1:30-3:20
How do law and legal institutions shape everyday life? Drawing on materials from the Roman Empire to Ottoman Egypt
to the US civil rights era, the seminar introduces students to different approaches to thinking about the role of law in
society and trains them to read and locate legal sources (statutes, judgments, trial records, contracts) in their historical
context. May count toward geographical distributional credit within the History major for any region studied, upon
application to the director of undergraduate studies.