Global Arc

China's transformations and continuities from the civil wars of the mid-19th century to the economic reforms of the 1980s. Topics include the opium crisis, the impact of natural disasters, the fall of the imperial dynasty, China's struggle with Western and Japanese imperialism, and experiments in government and society on mainland China and Taiwan since 1949. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Far from being an isolated place, medieval and early modern South Asia was an important world region connected to Central Asia, Persia, and Europe by trade, politics, migration, and culture. Complex interactions between Indic and Islamic traditions shaped its popular and elite culture from the 11th century. This course provides an overview of the intriguing composite society and dynamic political culture of India prior to the British Victorian Empire and re-examines the processes by which the subcontinent was colonized by the British East India Company.Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course examines the history of modern Brazil from its independence in the 1820s to the present day. The lectures, readings, and discussions chart conflict, change, and continuity within Brazilian society, highlighting the role played by disenfranchised social actors in shaping the country's history. Topics include the meanings of political citizenship; slavery and abolition; race relations; indigenous populations; uneven economic development as well as Brazil's experiences with authoritarianism and globalization.

Who is a minority? In contemporary South Asia, "minority" often defined by religion, linguistic identity, caste, ethnicity, or other social markers. But the category of "minority" is not static. It has been constructed, remade, and enforced through both colonial and post-colonial legal and political projects. In this course, we study the ways that minorities have been defined in South Asia over the last two centuries. We historicize the fraught categorization of religious, linguistic, caste, and other minority groups, and we ask how minoritized people have attempted to avert or contest forms of majoritarian rule.

Provides an introduction to Southeast Asia and its prominent place in global history NES 343 through a series of encounters in time, from Marco Polo in Sumatra to the latest events in such buzzing cities as Bangkok, Jakarta, and Hanoi. For the early modern period we will read various primary sources before turning to consider a series of diverse colonial impacts across the region (European, American, and Asian), and then the mechanisms underpinning the formation of some of the most vibrant, and sometimes turbulent, countries on the world stage. Two 90-minute classes.

A study of the emergence of a distinctive Western European civilization out of Christian, Greco-Roman, and Germanic institutions and ideas from the decline of the Roman Empire to about A.D. 1050. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An analysis of typical institutions, social and economic structures, and forms of thought and expression from about 1050 to about 1350. Emphasis is placed on the elements of medieval civilization that have influenced the subsequent history of European peoples. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The Crusades were a central phenomenon of the Middle Ages. This course examines the origins and development of the Crusades and the Crusader States in the Islamic East. It explores dramatic events, such as the great Siege of Jerusalem, and introduces vivid personalities, including Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. We will consider aspects of institutional, economic, social and cultural history and compare medieval Christian (Western and Byzantine), Muslim and Jewish perceptions of the crusading movement. Finally, we will critically examine the resonance the movement continues to have in current political and ideological debates

This course charts the history of international order from the 1815 Congress of Vienna to today's world system. It is a saga of grand schemes for world parliaments and universal peace, as well as imperial domination and dismal violence. Can the globe be governed? Can great power politics be squared with global ethics? And how do the rights of states relate to the rights of individuals? We will investigate shifting answers to these questions in conversation with figures like Kant, Marx, Wilson, Ho Chi Minh, Arendt. As we track the struggle between power and morality from Metternich to the IMF, we uncover the origins of the world we know today.

The political and social history of France from Napoleon to the Fifth Republic. The impact of revolution, industrialization, and war on French society in the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular attention will be paid to movements of popular revolt and the efforts of elites--rural, bourgeois, and technocratic--to maintain control in the face of social ferment. Two lectures, one preceptorial.