The West and its relations with the rest of the world are central topics today, but just what is the West and what is its history? This course surveys the history of the West from remote antiquity to the 16th century. We will consider developments in technology, economy, politics, religious institutions and faiths, cultural media and social ideals. Together, these themes add up to civilization in the west. We will acquaint ourselves with these dimensions of the past while seeking to acquire the basic skills professional historians use to learn about this past.

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for HIST 1510 - Introduction to Western Civilization I

This course will examine the often-neglected role of women in the history of war and peace. We will use women's writings—diaries, memoirs, letters, speeches, fictional accounts, and the like—to analyze World War I, World War II, and the Spanish Civil War from a female perspective. Through a thorough reading of British feminist Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, Holocaust victim Etty Hillesum's An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork, and Italian Resistance activist Ada Gobetti's Partisan Diary, we will explore the question of women's autobiographical writing and its political, social, and cultural implications. We will also study other topics, such as women's suffrage, motherhood and family, resistance to fascism, and the Holocaust.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for HIST 3662 - Women, War, and Peace in Europe, 1900-1950

This seminar examines the history of the United States' involvement with Middle East beginning with evangelical efforts in the 19th century and President Wilson's engagement with the colonial powers in the early 20th century during and after WWI. The discovery of vast Middle Eastern oil reserves and the retreat of the colonial powers from the region following WWII drew successive US administrations ever deeper into Middle Eastern politics. In due course the US became entrenched in the post-colonial political imagination as heir to the British and the French especially as it challenged the Soviet Union for influence in the region during the Cold War. And that only takes the story to the mid-1950s and the Eisenhower administration. Our discussions will be based on secondary readings and primary sources as we interrogate the tension between realist and idealist policies toward the Middle East and trace how these tensions play out in subsequent developments including the origins and trajectory of the US strategic alliances with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey and conflict with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the two Gulf Wars.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for HIST 3687 - The US and the Middle East