Graduate Seminar Course Descriptions, Spring 2006
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Charles Payne - 299S.01
African American Activism, 1900 to Present
This course will examine the evolution of African American activism in the twentieth century, starting with Garvey in the '20s and labor struggles in the 1930s and '40s, and continuing on through civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's and the struggles around Black Power/Black Nationalism that intersected with the other movement strands. Special attention will be paid to the "new" bottom up literature on the 1960's movement and to developing a critique of that movement. Is that literature a departure from the Master Narrative that has dominated thinking about the subject or merely a reinscription of it. Readings may include Georgakas and Surkin, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying , (on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers); Robyn Kelley, Race Rebels ; Kenneth Andrews Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and its Legacy ; Charles Jones, The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) ; Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision ; Theoharis and Woodard, Freedom North : Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980 ; Paul Ortiz, Emancipation Betrayed : The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920.
Malachi Hacohen - 299S.02
Postwar Europe Politics, Society, and Culture
The postwar years 1945-1968 constitute a distinct period in European history, a time when a divided Europe lost its global hegemony and retreated from its colonial possessions, and two military alliances, controlled by the USA and Soviet Union, dominated much of its foreign politics. It was also a period when unprecedented economic growth created, in Western Europe, an affluent consumer society, and the welfare state and Keynesian economic management provided for a social security network that eliminated poverty and guaranteed stability. The postwar era represented a stark contrast to the preceding epoch of Fascism and World War, and to the succeeding period of student revolution, stagflation, social unrest, and what a prominent Cold War liberal, Raymond Aron, called European "decadence," i. e., reluctance to fight the Cold War.
This course is a readings colloquium on politics, society, and culture in Western Europe during the postwar years. It begins with general readings on Western Europe and establishes the main political, social, economic, and cultural features of the postwar years, then proceeds to the intellectual life of postwar Europe, focusing on Cold War liberalism and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The course also addresses the debate on the welfare state, its problems, and its critics on the left.
299S.03 - Gerda Lerner
Biography and Autobiography in History and Literature
(by permission only)
In this course we will study a variety of genres -- autobiography, biography, oral history, historical fiction - and learn to understand the different methods used by writers in order to tell the lives of individuals in a historical setting. We will explore literature as a source for history;
history as a source for literature; the problems of the biographer, and how best to evaluate each genre for truthfulness and accuracy. We will also compare different interpretations of a number of controversial figures.
Students will read a book a week ( or its equivalent) and do several short papers. There will be no final test. Grading will be based equally on class preparation and participation, on the papers; and on students' presentation to the class of their research on a historical figure they choose to study. The class will be open to juniors and seniors ( after an interview with the instructor) and to graduate students. It should appeal to students majoring in History, Literature, African American Studies and Women's Studies.
History 310.01 - Peter Wood
Readings in North American History: Early American History to 1800
This readings colloquium addresses early American history up to 1800. It provides an introduction to the main themes and issues surrounding the colonization of North America and the struggle for Independence. Attention will be given to the range of Native American contacts, the "Terrible Transformation" surrounding African enslavement, and the growth of ethnic diversity, religious toleration, and governing elites. Geographic exploration, epidemic disease, and the changing roles of women are all part of the story, as are the French and Spanish presence, the repeated military conflicts, and the rise of the American nation state. This class will help in the preparation of History graduate students, whether they plan to focus in the colonial era or simply to teach broadly in the American field. Interested students from other disciplines--from religion to literature to biology--are especially welcome, as are MAT students who are preparing to teach American History. Participants will read at least ten suggestive books, both new and old. There will be short written assignments and at least one presentation.
History 359.01 - Dirk Bonker
Readings in Military History: Gendering Military History
This course explores gender as a category of analysis in military history. Our discussions will begin with surveys and programmatic statements about the development, meanings, and boundaries of military history and gender history as academic fields and intellectual enterprises. We will then read outstanding examples of the growing literature that is gendering the study of war, military, and society, with a focus on work done within the context of modern European and U.S. histories. Among our readings are studies of the lived experiences and representations of militarized masculinities in times of war and peace; of the militarization of women's lives and their roles in war preparations and pursuits on the "home front" and in the military itself; of the identity politics and imagery of nations at war; of constructions of citizenship in the crucibles of military service and war; and of the sexual politics of civil defense and military-related prostitution.
History 361.01 - Susan Thorne
Research in European History: Research in British Archives
The sun never set on the British Empire, which continues to make British archival and other primary sources of interest to scholars working across an enormous expanse of time as well as space. This course will support students engaged in primary research utilizing British source material. In addition to early modern and modern British history, British sources are vital to the study of the British Empire and Commonwealth as well as many topics within colonial American, Caribbean, African, and Asian history, comparative women's history, comparative labor history, military history, intellectual history and the history of science and medicine. Emphasis will be placed on the surprisingly rich British source material available at Duke and at UNC or through Interlibrary loan, on the basis of which each student will produce an article-length paper. Students will also be introduced to the contents of collections not available in the US, enhancing the archival specificity of future grant proposals and the dissertation prospectus.
History 365.01 - Martin A. Miller
Research in Global Connections: World Terrorism and Problems in the Comparative History of Political Violence
This research seminar, open to students in all specialized fields, will be focused on the origins, evolution and development of the role of political violence in Western society over the course of the last two centuries. Our methodological focus will be comparative and transnational, with major attention devoted to events and theories in Western Europe, Russia and the U.S. Readings will include texts written by advocates of terrorism which will be framed in their historical contexts. We will also attempt to confront the ethical dimensions embedded in these texts. Students will conceptualize a proposal for a research paper midway through the term, and the latter part of the seminar will be centered on the completion of these projects.