Global Arc

A study of the development of the English Constitution to 1600, with special emphasis on the institutions and ideas that form the background for American constitutional history. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

In the twentieth century, Europe underwent a range of wrenching social and political upheavals that brought into question received truths about subjectivity, the nature of society, the forms and purpose of politics, the role of religion, the relationship between the sexes, and the place of Europe within the wider world. Over the course of the semester, we will study a range of intellectual movements--Marxism, feminism, psychoanalysis, critical theory, existentialism, structuralism, and postmodernism--examining how European thinkers responded to the historical events happening around them.

Thematic survey of the social, cultural, and political transformations in the lives of women and men in Britain from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Topics include Britain's rise and fall as the first "modern" society and imperial power; national identities and civil society, gender, and class; democracy and imperialism; Irish nationalism and contemporary culture. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An overview of European colonization in North America, covering New France, New Spain, New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake area, South Carolina, and the sugar islands. Special emphasis upon social structures, labor systems, race, gender, religion, political cultures, and the problem of imperial control from Jamestown through the Great Awakening of the 1740s. Particular attention will be paid to the various and changing encounters of Africans, Native American, and Europeans, and to the importance of slavery in the colonization process. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A survey of the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution, from the Seven Years War to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Topics include colonial protest and the crisis of the British empire; the politics of war and independence, including the significance of slavery; the relationships between war, society, and ideology; the roles of Loyalists and Native Americans; and patriot experiments in republican government. Particular attention will be paid to how gender, race, region, status, Indigeneity, and class shaped experiences of the revolutionary era. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A survey of society, culture, and politics in the United States from the ratification of the Constitution to the Compromise of 1850. Topics include the rise of cotton slavery, Northern capitalism and class formation, the politics of cultural change, Jeffersonianism, Jacksonian democracy, and the political economy of sectionalism. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The history of the place we now know as the U. S. West, from European contact to the mid-twentieth century. Primary focus on the struggles over access to land, resources, and power in old and new Wests, with particular attention given to the role of visual and popular culture in shaping the national imagination of the region. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course examines the history of the United States through its intellectuals and major ideas. Starting with the Puritans and progressing through to the contemporary intellectual scene, it hopes to introduce students to major debates, themes, and intellectual movements in the history of American ideas. We will complement the thought of these great thinkers with attention to the institutions and social contexts in which those ideas developed. Students will leave this class understanding the inner logistics and social contexts of the major intellectual systems that have marked American life.

Surveys the causes, issues, and consequences of the nation's bloodiest conflict. Topics include slavery and antislavery, Manifest Destiny, the growing sectional conflict, the clash of arms, the transforming impact of the Civil War, the transition from slave to free labor in the South, and postslavery race relations. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The rise of the modern corporate state in America. Primary focus on the development of big business in the years following the Civil War, accompanying social processes such as immigration and urbanization, and the political responses to these phenomena, particularly populism and progressivism. Other topics include labor, blacks and racism, women in progressive America, and the intellectual response to modernity. Concludes with the United States' entry into World War I. Two lectures, one preceptorial.