Global Arc

This course provides a topical survey of Chinese history between 1500 and 1800, highlighting key events and conflicts that culminated in the Ming-Qing dynastic transition and the systematic transformation of Chinese society in its aftermath. Lectures cover topics including imperial China's diplomacy and trade, intellectual culture, governance of family life, and ethnic relations. Precepts focus on skills of critical historical analysis based on primary sources and practice explorative learning using digital resources. First-year and sophomores are especially encouraged to enroll. No previous background in Chinese history is required.

This course is an introduction to the history of modern China, from imperial dynasty to Republic, from Red Guards to red capitalists. Through primary sources in translation, we will explore political and social revolutions, transformations in gender relations and intellectual life, and competing explanations for events such as the rise of the Communist Party and the 1989 democracy movement. Major themes include: the impact of imperialism, tensions between governance and dissent, the rise of nationalism, the political stakes of historical interpretation, and the significance of China's history for its present and future.

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.

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.

The course will focus on the formation of the Christian West from Ireland to the Eastern Mediterranean until ca. 1000 CE. We will start with the insignificance of the Fall of Rome in 476 CE, to move on to much more fundamental changes in the Ancient and medieval world: the Christian revolution in the 4th century, the barbarian successor states in the fifth, their transformation into Christian kingdoms, or the emergence of new nations and states whose names are still on the map today and which all came to be held together by a shared culture defined by the Rise of Western Christendom in the first Millennium.

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.