Courses

*Fulfills Hunter Core Requirement. Please note that not all sections of a course may fulfill its listed requirement(s). Consult the CUNY Global Search Tool or Schedule Builder for specific section details.

*Fulfills Hunter Core Requirement.

• HIST 11100: World History to 1500
  
  This is a survey the history of human civilization from the end of the Stone Age to 1500 CE. The course examines the concept of civilization, the emergence of the earliest civilizations, and the distinctive features of ancient cultures, societies and governments. Other topics include the expansion of contacts among the early centers of urban society, and the emergence of civilizations in what had originally been peripheral regions. Particular attention is paid to the development of the religious and intellectual traditions of several classical civilizations, and the influence these traditions have had on later societies. The course ends roughly around 1500, on the eve of the tremendous changes that came about in the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world as a result of the European explorations and conquests that began with the voyages of Columbus.
• HIST 11200: World History 1500 to the Present
  
  This course is a survey of world history from the 16th century until the present. Our focus will be the evolution of global connections and interactions that led to unprecedented movements of people, ideas, technologies, and microbes during this time period. As novel forms of migration and rule crossed our world, they propelled new forms of domination and resistance. We will explore how these processes impacted the causes and consequences of the slave trade, imperial domination, decolonization, and nationalism. Specific case studies will illuminate these events by exploring how global processes effected local contexts and vice-versa. Particular emphasis will be placed on how historians analyze primary source material, interpret, and debate the past. Finally, this course will reorient students away from a western perspective to highlight global and alternative histories that are often ignored within broad historical surveys.
• HIST 11300: 20th Century World History (W)
  
  This course is designed to introduce students to major themes in the world’s history during the twentieth century. Some of the questions explored during the term include: What are the drivers of integration and unification? What forces have been divisive? What have been major fault lines of conflict? What visions have advocated peace and justice, and in what way?
• HIST 12100: Early Modern Europe 1500-1815
  
  The early modern period saw the Renaissance, the Reformations, the Age of Discoveries, the invention of print, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Contemporary observers interpreted these events as harbingers of new times, and speculated how society should or will be organized in the future. This course reads the major transformations of early modern Europe through the lens of these utopian visions. As we will see, the expectations of contemporaries were often not realized. Yet their writings reveal how scholars, priests, newswriters and ordinary people experienced and hoped to shape the world they were living in.
• HIST 12200: 19th and 20th Century Europe (W)
  
  An introduction to the history of modern Europe. Beginning with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the course traces the development of the Industrial Revolution, the dissemination of ideas and ideologies across the continent, imperialism, two world wars, and the global repercussions of the Cold War. We will raise a number of big questions: How do we explain European predominance and decline in the modern era? Was the nation-state inevitable? Were free markets inevitable? Were democratic systems inevitable? How did the two world wars change the international system? How did Europe’s global entanglements over the last two centuries shape its societies? How can we make sense (or not) of the past, and what does that say about the present?
• HIST 14167: Big Bang to Now: New Perspectives in World History (W)
  
  Historians study the past, of course, but most historians primarily focus on the events of the last few hundred years. Ancient histories generally only go back a few thousand years and the most sweeping world histories tend to begin not much earlier than 10,000 years ago or so.  What comes before that has traditionally been considered prehistory and left to others to study.   In recent years though a new historical approach has emerged.  Called “Big History” or “Deep History” it sets the study of the past in the broadest possible context, by widening its focus to the very beginning of time.  What can we learn about the human history by placing it within the history of the universe?  How does our view of world history change when we fully consider the history of our planet?  What can we learn about human impact on the natural world by considering how other life forms have changed the planet’s environment in the past? What might earlier “great extinction events” tell us about the precipitous loss of species across the world happening now?  How can identifying patterns across time and cultures in things like energy use, food production, gender relations, and technological development shed light on the human past?  This is a 100-level introductory course designed to stimulate big questions and foster the broadest possible historical perspective on the human past.
• HIST 15100: United States from the Colonial Era to the Civil War
  
  This survey course examines the development of the United States politically and socially through the Civil War. Specific topics include the foundation and development of the United States government, economic growth, immigration, slavery, social and intellectual thought, territorial expansion, and the place of women in American society.
• HIST 15200: United States from the Civil War Era to the Present
  
  American political, social, and cultural history from the Civil War to the present. Among the subjects covered are the struggles for justice of African Americans and women; the expanding scope and power of the federal government; and the increasing engagement of the United States with the world.

• HIST 25007: Europe in the Age of Total War 1900-1963 (W)
  
  This class explores the history of Europe between approximately 1900 and 1963 from a particular angle, that of the intersection of large-scale wars and military mobilization (the two World Wars and the Cold War) and processes of social, political, cultural and economic change. We will consider throughout what exactly the concepts of “total war” (and its near cousin, “totalitarianism”) really mean; and at the core of the course will be the question of how the World Wars were possible, and whether or not some similar kind of war remains possible – and if not, why not. We will also spend time considering important questions of historical causation – especially that of whether certain social or intellectual changes were results of the World Wars or instead causes of them. By the end of the course students should have a good grasp of the causes and consequences of these large scale historical events; they should be familiar with the use and analysis of primary sources and secondary sources such as are listed on this syllabus; and they should be able to formulate and sustain an argument on the basis of such sources.
• HIST 25011: African American History 2 (W)
  
  This course historicizes Black people's freedom struggle across time and different spaces. It surveys Black people's experiences in the United States, foregrounding how Black people have grappled with the promises and failures of American democracy. The course reveals the ways in which Black American culture, politics, communities, and protest have cohered and divided over deep questions of citizenship, belonging, racial advancement, resistance, and/or simply living as a "Black" person in the West. Through close readings of primary sources and historical debates, students will deepen their understanding of the travails and triumphs of Black Americans, develop critical analytical skills, and leave the course with a "usable history" that prepares them to be at once a critical thinker and critical actor in the history of today.
• HIST 25013: History of Humanitarian Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (W)
  
  This course is designed to offer students a historical understanding of humanitarian action that, while centered geographically in sub-Sarahran Africa, is applicable in a global framework. Beginning with the evolution of the concepts of 'humanitarian' as well as 'aid,' the class will explore the motivations behind humanitarian endeavors through the era of the slave trade, colonialism and the present. Students will also examine how terms such as 'refugees,' 'peacekeeping,' 'famine,' and 'gender,' have evolved in humanitarian discourse, and the consequences of these processes for aid endeavors. Throughout, questions will be posed regarding the interactions between humanitarian aid, international relations, exploitation, and violence.
• HIST 25015: Rabbis, Radicals and Racketeers: Jewish New York
  
  This course explores how New York's Jews profoundly shaped the city's experience during the American Revolution, the debate over slavery and the Civil War, large-scale immigration and machine politics during the Gilded Age, New Deal governance during the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement and today's modern urban social debates. This course will survey the Jewish history of New York City with a particular emphasis on their political and cultural impact while tracing the rise of America's largest metropolis over three centuries.
• HIST 25022: Gender in Modern Jewish History
  
  This course will explore how Jewish men and women, informed by intra-Jewish debates and interactions with the empires in which they lived, constructed the gendered norms of the larger Jewish world. This course will pay particular attention to the ways in which Jewish women carved out spaces in politics, economic activity, and religious life across the Jewish diaspora in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Students will also grapples with how Jewish masculinity has been conceived and performed during different moments of modern Jewish history.
• HIST 25084: Mapping Jewish New York (W)
  
  This course will explore the history of Jewish New York up close and in person. Each week will entail walking tours of historic neighborhoods in the city that reveal the story of American Jews in the nation's largest city. While students navigate the historic Jewish spaces in New York, they will also learn about the political, cultural, and economic history of American Jewry.
• HIST 25086: Women in the United States to 1869 (W)
  
  This course will examine women's role in American history beginning before European settlement and ending in 1869, the year the women's suffrage movement split over the issue of race. Over the course of the semester, we will answer the following questions: How have women of different, races, regions, and backgrounds influenced the American political narrative? How have shifting cultural ideas about gender affected women's experience in the American past? Finally, how does our understanding of the past change when we view it through women's eyes? We will pay close attention to the experiences of diverse groups of women and consider the ways in which race and class have shaped women's interaction with one another as well as with the American state.
• HIST 25089: History of Western Medicine to 1800 (W)
  
  This course examines the history of Western medicine from classical antiquity through the Middle Ages and early modern period. It traces the formation and evolution of the humoral medical tradition, which is the root of today’s biomedicine. We will explore health and healing in the pre-modern West from the perspectives of medical practitioners and sufferers. The course explores key themes in medical history including the organization of healthcare, growth of medical institutions, transmission of medical knowledge, experiences of the ill, theories of health and the body, ideas about bodily difference, and contact and exchange between medical cultures.
• HIST 26100: History of Modern India and South Asia, 1526 - Present (W)
  
  This course is designed to introduce students to the civilization(s) of the subcontinent from the coming of the Mughals in 1526 to the present. We will examine aspects of South Asia’s diverse political, social, and cultural histories. “South Asia” here refers to the contemporary countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. No prior knowledge of South Asian history or culture is expected or required.
• HIST 27100: Early History of Latin America
  
  This course provides an overview of the early political, economic, cultural and social history of Latin America (1490s to 1820s). The course encompasses the history of Spanish America as well as Portuguese Brazil, but emphasis will be on the former. Among the topics covered are pre-Columbian indigenous societies in the Americas; the personal, regional and transnational impact of the encounter between European, African and Native peoples; evolving land, labor and production arrangements; Christian evangelization and the role of the Catholic Church in colonial society; the character and reach of imperial authority; racial, ethnic, caste and gender relations; popular resistance and protest; and the ideological and material underpinnings of emergent independence movements in the early 19th century. 
• HIST 27200: History of Latin America in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  
  This course explores key topics in the History of Latin America from the struggles for independence through the present day. These include the rise of Latin American liberalism to upheavals like the Mexican Revolution, the birth of nationalist and populist mass politics, the Cuban Revolution and the counterinsurgency wars in Central America to the neoliberal and "pink tide" trends of recent decades, and today's turbulance in many parts of the region.
• HIST 27650: Middle Eastern History from the Beginning of Islam to 1800 
  
  History 276.50 is a survey that acquaints the student with the origins and development of the history and civilization of the Middle East since the advent of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula until 1800 when Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt changed the course of Middle Eastern (and European) history. As a result, the concentration of this course is on the Muslim experience in the Middle East. Non-Muslim populations are also considered in relation to the dominant Muslim culture. This course introduces Middle East history through the voices of the makers of that history and, consequently, the majority of the primary sources are translations of works written by scholars and intellectuals from the region. This course describes and analyzes the historical development of religious, educational, social, and legal institutions in the Middle East in the imperial and early modern periods, and the relevance of those institutions to the world today.
• HIST 27651: Modern Middle East: 1500 to the Present
  
  History 27651 is a survey of Middle East history spanning from the 16th century, during the period of the time of the great Ottoman and Persian empires, to the present. This course introduces modern Middle East history through the voices of the makers of that history and, consequently, the majority of the primary sources are translations of works written by scholars, intellectuals, and artists from the region. In addition, films in English or subtitled will be shown during the semester. Geographically, the course concentrates on lands of the former Ottoman Empire, particularly present day Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa, plus Iran. Thematically, topics covered are concerned with state formation and the impact of European imperialism on Middle East politics and society. The primary focus of the course is on intellectual history and examines the views of scholars on issues such as nationalism, pan-Arabism, political Islam, women’s rights, colonization, decolonization, and revolutions.
• HIST27700: East Asia to 1600 
  
  A survey history of the traditional cultures and sociopolitical structures of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam to about 1600 AD. This course tracks East Asian history from the regionally diverse evolution of early Neolithic cultures into more complex hierarchical polities. It examines the evolution of distinctly Chinese schools of thought regarding proper social/political relations and structures, and both traces how Chinese ideology evolved over time and how Chinese classical thinking affected and was adopted by the regionally diverse and distinctive societies with their own rich autonomous traditions located in modern Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
• HIST 27800: East Asia, 1600 to the Present 
  
  A survey history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam from 1600 AD to the present day. The course examines the cultural, economic and material attainments of the Qing empire, and the Choson, Tokugawa and Nguyen regimes. We trace the rising presence of Western powers in East Asia during this period, note the differing challenges and varied responses in these different regions to Western challenges, examine the fall of traditional polities and the rise of new ones. Finally we examine the reconstructed modern East Asian identities, the renegotiated power relations (among East Asian states and vis-à-vis the international order), the rise of new and types of political orders, as well as economic developments and cultural trends.
• HIST 29000: History Practicum
  
  A writing intensive seminar intended to help history majors develop their skills as historians. Each section of this course may focus on a different historical theme or themes and so students will encounter different readings and topics. But in all sections of this course students will learn to locate, critically assess, and interpret primary sources, both textual and non-textual; analyze and critique a range of secondary sources for both methodological and historiographical purposes; and develop, draft, and revise a strong and effective research paper by learning how to construct a thesis, organize a paper, devise a bibliography, and cite sources following the Chicago Manual of Style.
  Prereq: ENGL 12000; 6 cr in history and permission of the department.

Note: Courses at the 300-level and above not offered to freshmen.

• HIST 30000 (W) 
  
  Independent research related to a prior upper-level course already completed under the supervising instructor. The research will result in an extensive paper.
  Prereq.: HIST 29000 and departmental permission. Writing intensive course.
• HIST 31700: History of the American City from the Colonial Period to the Present 
  
  In this course, we will explore the relationship between the growth, use, and regulation of urban spaces, and the creation and transformation of gendered, class-based, ethnic, racial, religious, and civic identities in the United States from the colonial period to the present. By understanding the city as both a physical landscape and a human community we will be able to examine the process of the social and historical construction of identity there, something perhaps less easily visible than the construction of tenements, parks, and opera houses. Over the course of the semester we will address a series of related questions. How did these cities take shape, in terms of their infrastructure and their diverse subcultures? What did the development of these cities mean to those who built them, those who were drawn to them, and those who fled from them? What were the social, cultural, and political possibilities of the new modern city, and what were its problems? How did urban middle-class, elite, and working-class dwellers define those hopes and anxieties and how did they change over time?
• HIST 31800: History of the American Working Class from the Colonial Period to the Present (W) 
  
  In this course we will examine the history of labor and working-class life in America since the colonial period. Working with both primary and secondary sources we will explore some of the major themes of this history. We will examine the different ways that American laborers organized themselves and struggled for control over their work and their lives, not only on the shop floor, but also in community organizations, through ethnic associations, and by their particular partisan affiliations. We will consider the nature and evolution of labor and of the working-class cultures that existed in America from the colonial period to the late-twentieth century, and the extent to which those working-class cultures both drew from and influenced a broader American culture.
• HIST 32100: History of the Holocaust
  
  This course examines the fate of European Jewry between 1933 and 1945. Following an introduction to Jewish history and the historical background of anti-Semitic ideology, we will cover: the rise and fall of the democratic Weimar Republic in the 1920s; the Nazi seizure of power; anti-Jewish policy and legislation in Nazi Germany; ghettoization in Nazi Europe; and the conception and implementation of the Final Solution during the Second World War. Additional topics will include discussions of the Jewish Councils, Jewish resistance, life in the ghettos and camps, the Jewish Question and public opinion in Nazi-occupied Europe, and postwar developments after the Holocaust.
• HIST 32900: History of European Diplomacy 
  
  What is power? Who enables it? Can it be completely taken away? Can a big state lack power? Can a small state effectively exercise power? How? Are states the only legitimate sources of power? Can anyone else have it? In tackling these questions, this course offers a broad overview of modern European international relations since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Major themes include international stability and instability, ideas and ideology, alliances, world war, the establishment of international organizations, Cold War confrontation, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the making of post-Cold War Europe. Students will engage with a variety of texts, including original sources, and they will be expected to actively participate in debates on major themes.
• HIST 33600: History of 20th Century Germany (W)
  
  This course is an introduction to the major themes in German history in the 20th Century. We will cover such topics as the impact of the First World War, the incredible culture of the Weimar Republic, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the Second World War, and Germany’s place in the Cold War. The course will place particular emphasis on understanding the controversies which have arisen out of Germany’s turbulent recent past, and on encouraging students to develop their skills in participating in such arguments. We will also put much emphasis on reading and understanding primary texts: eyewitness accounts from people involved in these dramatic historical events.
• HIST 33800: History of Italy (W) 
  
  This course introduces students to the history of modern Italy, from the Risorgimento to the present. Topics covered include: unification, industrialization, Italian colonialism, migration, religion, fascism, communism, world wars, decolonization, political competition, demographics, race, regionalism, crime, and corruption. Readings and class discussions place Italian history in a broader Mediterranean, European, and global context.  Students will engage with a variety of texts, including primary sources, fiction, and films, and they will be expected to actively participate in debates on major themes.
• HIST 34103: Berlin: Capital of the 20th Century (W)
  
  This class explores the central importance of the city of Berlin to the course of German, European, and world history in the twentieth century. The local and national politics of Berlin will be traced through the five different German regimes of the twentieth century: Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally the course will examine the distinct local culture of the city of Berlin, and Berlin’s role as a center of artistic, scientific, and social innovation in the twentieth century. Themes of the course will include the tensions between the local, national and world dimensions of Berlin’s story, and the various questions of identity – urban, Prussian, west versus east German, “red” versus “national” – which Berlin’s history raises.
• HIST 34108: US Colonial History to 1763 (W)
  
  This course explores the fascinating history of colonial North America from initial encounters between Native Americans and Europeans in the sixteenth century through the Seven Years’ War in the 1750s. Through the study of Spanish, French, Dutch, and English settlements in North America, the course emphasizes themes of encounter, exchange, conflict, and community, while embracing both a continental approach and Atlantic world framework to understand what historians have increasingly come to call “Vast Early America.” The worlds of familiar historical figures, such as Pocahontas and Anne Hutchinson, and some, who are perhaps less well known, like Olaudah Equiano and Petrus Stuyvesant, will be examined in this wide-ranging course that looks at settlements from Santa Fe to Boston and Quebec to Saint Augustine. Equally sweeping is the thematic approach of the course, which covers topics including European-indigenous relations, slavery and race, religious culture, commercial activity, and gender construction. Seminal events like Bacon’s Rebellion, King Philip’s War, the Salem Witch Trials, the Great Awakening, and the Stono Rebellion will also be examined.
• HIST 34120: Women and Gender in Islam (W)
  
  For centuries the position of women in the Middle East has aroused much interest in the West and generally been defined by negative stereotypes. In this class we present a more balanced, better-informed view that utilizes translated works of women from the region to investigate a wide range of topics concerning women's status, rights and responsibilities, and experiences in political and social life across the centuries and into the modern world.
• HIST 34136: The United States since 1945 (W)
  
  This class explores some of the key developments in the history of the United States since the end of World War II. Particular attention is paid to postwar politics and culture, the freedom struggles of African-Americans and women, U.S. engagement with the world, and the ways in which foreign affairs shaped social and cultural life in the United States.
• HIST 34152: Art, Politics and Culture in Twentieth Century Latin America (W)
  
  Latin American artists (poets, musicians, painters, writers, artisans) were often in the vanguard of challenging the status quo, offering alternative visions of the nation, exposing and criticizing social inequalities, and spearheading popular expression and resistance when formal political participation in parties, elections, or free speech was constrained by repression or limited only to a privileged few. This course uses the lens of culture and the role of the artist to examine the processes of revolution, reaction, repression, and reform that characterized twentieth century political contention in Latin America over such issues as the definition of national identity and citizenship, ideology and values, and persistent racial/ethnic, class, and gender inequalities. We will explore the connections between politics and culture through different mediums (film, music, plays, painting, photography, etc) in different countries (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina, Cuba) from the early 20th through the 21st centuries.
• HIST 3411F: Cold War: Global History (W)
  
  The Cold War evokes images of an imminent military confrontation and the terrifying prospect of nuclear weapons deployment. The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was intense, its impact profound. But competition between the two super-powers also extended to other areas and had global repercussions. This seminar examines these entanglements. Rather than exhaustive in coverage, it underscores the relationship between centers and peripheries. The European theater is central to our discussions, but we will also venture beyond it. Central themes include the making of a Communist world system from Eastern Europe to East Asia, the rise of China in global affairs, Third World revolutions and solidarity, economic advising and technological exchange, reform and failure, the unexpected dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the legacy of Cold War conflicts in the world we live in today—from the Balkans to Afghanistan
• HIST 3411U: China Since 1911 (W)
  
  An overview of post-imperial China.  Major themes include: the historical legacies and unfulfilled promises of China's republican period; the rise of the Communist party and the rule of the Communist party/state; Maoist and post-Mao period policies; social, cultural, political trends; and China's changing position in the world order over time.
• HIST 3411R: U.S. Latino History (W)
  
  This course surveys the histories and diversity of Latino communities in the United States from the colonial era to the present. It considers the legacies of conquest, imperialism, and colonialism; processes of racialization, (im)migration, and labor market participation; and the predicaments of citizenship and Americanization. It also focuses on community formation; civic action and social movements; and the cultural politics surrounding gender relations, family life, and sexuality.
• HIST 3411V: The History of Arab-Israeli Relations
  
  This course traces the origins and development of Arab-Israeli relations from the late 19th century to the present. Through the use of primary and secondary sources, this course examines major issues such as colonialism, modernity, and nationalism, as well as the development of Zionism, Palestine under Ottoman Rule, the Yishuv, the Palestinian Mandate, the 1948 War of Independence, as well as other conflicts, settlements, and the Peace Process.
• HIST 3412M: The Sounds of Black Folks: Debating Aural History (W)
  
  Where there are silences in the archive, Sonic Scholarship unearths, recovers, imagines, and represents critical voices and soundscapes. This class fuses the academic and artistic, the critical and creative, to challenge students to interrogate questions of the historical record, state power and white supremacy, racial justice, the possibilities of popular culture as a political and autonomous space, Black activism and public rhetoric and speech-making, Neoliberalism, and the connections between Black soundscapes and liberation politics, using, perhaps, a people’s archive—what this course posits as “aural” history. Working through diverse readings, documentaries, films, close listenings, discussions, soundscapes and lyrics that center on Black people’s freedom struggles from the Civil Rights era to Black Lives Matter, assignments involve critical writing, research, creative thinking, and live student performances. Students will leave the course with a “usable history” that empowers them to produce research and knowledge in textual and sonic form intended to raise a critical voice at this present historical moment.
• HIST 3412R: Modern China and the World: History of Chinese International Relations (W
  
  This course focuses on the history of modern China’s interaction with the world. It includes such topics as China’s place in the emerging world trade system of the late 16^th century, Qing-period (1644-1911) expansion into predominantly non-ethnically Han Inner Asian territory and efforts to define territorial boundaries. It covers late-imperial conceptions of proper foreign relations, Qing attempts to respond to growing Western presence, China’s nineteenth century struggles with imperialism, semi-colonialism, and the legacy of China’s “Century of Humiliation”. The bulk of the course focuses on China’s evolving interactions with the world during the twentieth century and thereafter.  Topics covered include the impact of the two world wars on China’s standing internationally, republican China’s diplomatic legacy, the vicissitudes of China’s foreign policy under Mao Zedong, China’s re-engagement with the world in the post-Mao reform period, and more recent efforts to redefine the international system in ways perceived to be more conducive to policy goals of the contemporary Chinese party/state. Both state-to-state interactions and the role of non-governmental actors in international relations are considered.
• HIST 3412S: Africa in the Cold War (W)
  
  This course centers the history of sub-Saharan African states and peoples during the Cold War.  Such histories reveal how struggles over decolonization fundamentally altered the “balance of power” following World War Two—in Africa but also in Europe and the United States.  Tensions over what kind of nations would emerge from colonization in Africa became central to conflicts over control—of people and of resources—in Africa.  We will explore struggles over communism and capitalism, democracy and development, through case studies ranging from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ghana and Angola (among others).  Through such analysis, students will explore the history of how Cold War rivalries impacted different African communities, and how those contestations in turn affected the tenor of the Cold War itself.
• HIST 3412V: Gender, Sex, and Reproduction in American History (W)
  
  This course examines how sexuality has been socially constructed, how understandings of sexuality have changed over time, and how ideas about sexuality have interacted with ideas about other social identities, including motherhood. We will seek to understand how individual understandings of gender, sexuality, and reproduction have changed across time as well as how questions about reproduction and sexuality have been shaped by public debates about categories like race and class. Topics will include sexual violence, sexual rights, and the regulation of sexuality and reproduction by the state.
• HIST 3412W: Queer Europe (W)
  
  This course examines queer history, gender, and sexuality in Europe from classical antiquity to the present. It explores evidence of sexual and gender behavior and evolving categories for describing, organizing, and explaining sex and gender. We will consider individual lives and sources that allow us to trace people's lived experiences as well as perspectives from philosophy, religion, law, medicine, and the arts. This course explores key themes in queer history including the instability of descriptive categories, acts versus identities, gender and sex systems, stigma and normalization, regulation, medicalization, and sexual disease. Students will learn and use important methods in queer studies including creating and preserving ephemera and conducting oral histories.
• HIST 34400: Georgian and Victorian England
  
  This course explores the history of Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It focuses on broad transformations to the state and their relationships to everyday life in the British Isles and Britain’s empire from the Revolution of 1688 to the death of Queen Victoria. We will survey political, economic, social, and cultural history that shaped the modern world, and we will also closely examine the history of British imperialism and colonialism. Key course themes include class conflict; racial thought; gender, sexuality, and the body; popular nationalism; and developments in science, medicine, and technology.
• HIST 34600: Churchill’s Britain
  
  This course looks at the history of Britain in the 20th century through the life of Winston Spencer Churchill, 1874-1965, Prime Minister of Britain 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. The emphasis will be on the world wars and their impact on British military and diplomatic power, as well as on the changes the wars brought to the British economy, society and culture. The major theme of the course will be on how to understand Britain’s “decline” in the 20th century: can we really speak simply of such a decline, or is the reality of Britain’s 20th century more complicated than that? By the end of the course, students should understand the periodization of Britain’s 20th century history and the key facts, themes, issues and individuals and groups involved; they should be familiar with the main facts of Churchill’s biography; they should be familiar with the use and analysis of primary sources such as those listed on this syllabus; and they should be able to formulate and sustain an argument on the basis of such sources.
• HIST 35100: Terror and the Constitution: Free Speech in the U.S. Since 1886 (W)
  
  This course explores the history of free speech in America and the various attempts to curtail it in the name of national security from the turbulent decades of the Progressive era through the uneasy years since the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.  It pays particular attention to key moments of stress during which the national security state first emerged (in the wake of the McKinley assassination in 1901), expanded (during the first red scare after WWI), and took on a life of its own (first, in response to the “fifth column scare” of 1939 - 1941, then during WWII, and finally, and most extensively, during the Cold War decades and in the decade since 9/11). In this class we will consider various real and alleged threats to America’s security, including anarchism, socialism, communism, and modern variants of domestic and foreign terrorism.  We will also explore the evolving government responses to such threats and the rise of modern free speech constitutional theory in landmark Supreme Court cases, like Schenck, Dennis, and Brandenburg.
• HIST 35600: The Early Republic
  
  This upper-level lecture and discussion course examines the history of the United States from the drafting of the Constitution in 1787 through the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848, an era that saw the country transform from thirteen loosely confederated states located along the Atlantic coast into an empire that spanned the continent. Focusing on political, economic, social, and cultural developments, the course explores several topics, including the growth of democracy during the First and Second Party systems, the Market Revolution, Indian Removal, the expansion of slavery and the rise of the Cotton Kingdom, the Second Great Awakening, reform movements, and sectional divisions. Along the way, we’ll study how diverse groups of Americans – Indigenous peoples, African Americans, women, and immigrant communities – faced the challenges of unprecedented development and change to remake their lives and the nation during this period.
• HIST 35900: Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States
  
  In this course we will examine the historical experiences of immigrants and their families in the United States with an emphasis on the variety of experiences among migrants, and the reasons for them. Learning Objectives include an understanding of the chronological sequence and historical context of foreign migration to the United States, the major issues and events of American immigration history, and the ability to analyze and contextualize relevant documents.
• HIST 36100: America and the World in the 20th Century
  
  This class considers the interrelationship between the United States and the twentieth-century world. In examining the trajectory of American foreign relations during the last century, the class considers how and why the United States engaged other nations and peoples as it did. At the same time, the class explores how developments overseas helped shape American domestic life. The aim of the class, then, is to develop an understanding of America’s impact on the twentieth-century world and also to consider the myriad ways in which the world influenced life in the United States.
• HIST 36300: American Cultural History
  
  In this course we will explore several significant themes in American cultural history from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Through close readings of selected primary and secondary works (both written and visual) we will consider the meaning of popular, proto-mass, and mass culture in modern American history. Reflecting on the broader social and political contexts of these cultural expressions we will study a range of topics. These may include, but will not be limited to, the historical significance of the myth of the self-made man evoked in Horatio Alger novels, the role of the frontier and the cowboy popularized in Owen Wister's The Virginian, the resonance of early Disney films, such as The Three Little Pigs, during the Great Depression, and the critique of mass consumer culture found in the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Central to our historical examination of American culture will be an effort to appraise how American writers, artists, orators, cultural critics and everyday people constructed narratives (written, spoken, musical, visual) of identity for themselves along ethnic, racial, gendered, class-based, and national lines, how the construction of those narratives were related to each other and to their particular context, and, how those narratives changed over time.
• HIST 37300: History of the Ottoman Empire (W)
  
  History 373.00 explores the history of the Ottoman Empire from the beginnings of Turkic migrations into Byzantine Western Asia in the 11th century through the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. At the end of the semester, we also look at the emergence of Turkey, the country that took over from the empire and sought different directions to mark its own path in the world. The approach to this survey includes chronological overviews of Ottoman history; geographical focus that examines the role of the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Arab lands in the Empire; and selected topics, such as religion, law, education and statescraft, that highlight broader issues and transformations of the period under study. The course also concentrates on Ottoman decentralization, the rise of European colonialism, and Ottoman responses to the new nationalisms of the 19th century. Finally we will consider the question of the historical legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the world today.
• HIST 37800: China Since 1800 
  
  Of the many reasons to study modern Chinese history three are especially relevant today. The first is that China is becoming (or more accurately is re-emerging as) an enormously important force on the world stage. People outside of China should learn more about that country, and given geopolitical realities, Americans have a special obligation in this regard. The second reason is that knowledge of China's past should be considered an indispensable part of any educated person's understanding of history. No one who aspires to even a very basic and general understanding of the universal human condition can ignore such a major portion of humanity. Scholars estimate that in the year 1800 when our course begins approximately one third of all human beings were subjects of the Qing Empire, and even today Chinese citizens represent close to one fifth of the world’s people. Of course, China’s claim to universal human significance goes beyond numbers of people; more important is China's social/culture attainments, its economic power over centuries, and its great regional and increasingly global political influence. Particularly notable are China's efforts to achieve modernity on its own terms, reacting to and learning from but not slavishly following the west.
• HIST 38218: U.S. Social History
  
  This seminar will focus on the lived experience of peoples in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will underscore the linkages and intersections between everyday life, politics, economy, and culture.  Specific topics of inquiry include family and community life; the changing nature of work and labor organizing; (im)migration and Americanization; and leisure, consumption, and mass culture, among others.
• HIST 38223: The Balkans in the Twentieth Century 
  
  This seminar examines the history of the Balkans from the last decades of Ottoman rule through the Cold War and the collapse of Communists regimes — and especially the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Does it even make sense to think of the Balkans as one region to be studied separately? Does it make sense to think of Balkan history primarily through the angle of nationalism? Or war? Or ethnicity? We will read some of the best fiction from southeastern Europe, in addition to primary sources and other historical analyses. Central themes include the role of major European powers in the nineteenth century, national ideologies, authoritarianism, fascism, revolution, communism, non-alignment, solidarity, globalization, disintegration, and explanations for violence.
• HIST 38226: Death, Sex and Memory
  
  This seminar deals with the history of memory in 20th century Europe. We will look at some of the important theorists of historical memory – Renan, Halbwachs, Nora – and consider how the major events of mass killings such as the World Wars and the Holocaust have been remembered across the 20th century. One of the important themes as well will be the ways in which issues of sexuality and gender tend to be caught up in questions of memory. Since films tended to be one of the main ways in which collective memories were transmitted in the 20th century the class will feature the study of several important moves, along with fiction, art, architecture, monuments, and historical literature and historians’ debates. Students should gain a good understanding of the theory and practice of historical memory as well as greater skill in identifying the ways in which various sources construct memory.
  
  
• HIST 38228: Refugees and the Making of the Modern World
  
  Following the mass popular displacements of WWII, a group of diplomats came together to create the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees-- the bases of the international refugee regime that has endured to the present. We will explore the processes that led to the creation of the modern international refugee regime and how international refugee law has evolved in response to conflicts and emergencies "on the ground." Throughout, we will question the category of the "refugee," and interrogate the methods by which refugees, as individuals and as groups, have sought to control and alter their positions under national and international authorities. Topics will include notions of migration and asylum, the creation and evolution of international refugee law, refugees, stateless people, economic migrants, and decolonization. We will have case studies of European, Palestinian, Thai, Ethiopian, Haitian, and Cuban "refugees," among others.
• HIST 38262: Gilded Age and Progressive Era
  
  In this course we will explore the major social, political, economic, and cultural developments in the transformative years between the late nineteenth century and the 1920s,  often described as “The Gilded Age” (1870-1890) and “The Progressive Era” (1890-1920).  The “Gilded Age” is often understood as a moment characterized by so-called robber barons, who acquired unimaginable riches while industrial workers suffered grinding poverty.  The “Progressive Era,” then, is named for the new “progressive” reformers in the early twentieth century, who tried to ameliorate the inequities of capitalism. The questions we will address this semester include: What counts as “progressive” reform?  How "progressive" was the Progressive Era? How does racial segregation and greater government control over individuals’ private lives fit with American ideas about progress?  What other, often more radical, solutions to capitalist inequality did Americans consider in this period?
• HIST 38266: Leisure/Pleasure in US History
  
  This undergraduate seminar will be driven by a quotidian yet meaningful question: How have Americans had fun in the past, and why does it matter? Using the themes of leisure and pleasure, we will study the emergence, popularity, and significance of amusement parks, bars and saloons, dance clubs, movies and television, and fairs and festivals, among other sites of recreation and merriment. We will connect our study of these spaces and mediums to questions of labor, industrialization, and capitalism; family life, gender relations, and sexual identity; and inclusion, equality, and freedom. Our key goal is to understand how leisure and pleasure illuminate the evolution and complexity of American society and culture over the past two centuries. The course will include field trips to museums, Central Park, and neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and Harlem.
• HIST 38461: Hitler’s Germany
  
  This seminar will deal with some of the major issues in understanding this catastrophic period in human history: the atmosphere of the Weimar Republic that gave birth to the Nazi movement, the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, the major aspects of the history of the Third Reich – the nature of Hitler’s rule, Nazi society, foreign policy, the Second World War and the Holocaust, and some of the efforts after the war to hold Nazis accountable for what they had done. Readings will include both primary sources in translation and secondary sources. By the end of the course students should have a good command not only of the basic narrative history of the Nazi era, but of some of the debates which it has aroused among historians and others. Students should also improve their skills in research and writing.
• HIST 38700: 20^th-Century India (W)
  
  This seminar will explore the history of India in the twentieth century. Guided by the visions and legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, “India” as a concept and idea has come to mean different things to varying groups and individuals, dependent upon their own agendas. This course explores these divergent visions as a means to better understand the making of the world’s first major non-Western postcolonial state, and its “largest democracy.”

Note: Courses at the 300-level and above not offered to freshmen.

• HIST 40000: Historical Research [H] Staff
  
  The origins of history writing and the modern historical profession; modes of historical research; the evaluation of historical evidence; the historical and social uses of history. Required of students who wish to graduate with honors in history.
  Prereq: Not open to students who have completed fewer than 80 credits.

• HIST 48300: Problems in U.S. History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair. Prereq or coreq: ENGL 12000.

• HIST 48400: Problems in European History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• HIST 48500: Problems in Non-Western History (Honors) (W)
  Staff
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• HIST 49200: Honors Seminar in Historical Studies
  Staff

• HIST 49300: Individual Tutorial Research Project
  Staff
  Research paper under individual supervision of faculty member.
  Prereq: Perm. chair and instr.

• HIST 49800: Internship
  Work in professional institutions.
  Prereq: Perm. chair.

• Hist 72700 – History of African Americans in the US: Black Powers
• Hist 74151 – Era of American Revolution
• Hist 75000 – History of the American Labor Movement
• Hist 76602 – History of US-Lat Am Relations
• Hist 77207 – Race and Racism in US History
• Hist 77211 – Free Speech in the United States
• Hist 77213 – Power and Culture in Cold-War America
• Hist 77214 – Dancers, Singers, Sax Players
• Hist 77215 – 20th Century US – War & Society
• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77217 – King v Kanye: Civil Rights, Hip Hop, and Racial Justice
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77219 – Labor & Migration in US History
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 7741M – America and World in 20th Century
• Hist 77418 – The United States in the Twentieth Century
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

• Hist 72700 – History of African Americans in the US: Black Powers
• Hist 74151 – Era of American Revolution
• Hist 75000 – History of the American Labor Movement
• Hist 77207 – Race and Racism in US History
• Hist 77211 – Free Speech in the United States
• Hist 77215 – 20^th Century US – War & Society
• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77217 – King v Kanye: Civil Rights, Hip Hop, and Racial Justice
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77219 – Labor & Migration in US History
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741M – America and World in 20th Century
• Hist 77418 – The United States in the Twentieth Century
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

• Hist 75400 – Contemporary Europe
• Hist 77306 – Dictatorships in Modern Europe
• Hist 77307 – French Revolution & Napoleon
• Hist 77400 – Modern Jewish Social and Intellectual History
• Hist 7741H – Women in Modern Europe
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 77485 – Problems in Modern European History

• Hist 73000 – Mexico Since Independence
• Hist 76602 – History of US-Lat Am Relations
• Hist 76803 – Gandhi
• Hist 76808 – Modern Mid-East: Arab-Israeli
• Hist 76901 – Violence and Nationalism in African History
• Hist 7741C – Internationalism
• Hist 7741D – Social Movements in Latin American History
• Hist 7741F – Jerusalem in the 20^th Century
• Hist 7741J – Refugees & Making of Modern World
• Hist 7741L – Nations and Nationalism in Global Context
• Hist 77411 – Colonial Latin America
• Hist 77412 – Topics and Themes: Debating the Rise of the West
• Hist 77435 – Modern Latin America: Political and Social History
• Hist 77444 – Women and Gender in Islam
• Hist 77472 – Human Rights and the Non-Western World

• Hist 77216 – American Colonies to 1821
• Hist 77218 – LGBT History & the American Narrative
• Hist 77409 – Gender and Sexuality in the US
• Hist 7741D – Social Movements in Latin American History
• Hist 7741H – Women in Modern Europe
• Hist 77444 – Women and Gender in Islam
• Hist 77497 – Major Works and Themes in US History

Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense which will result in penalties ranging from reduction of class grade to failure in the course. Plagiarism occurs when the ideas and words, published or unpublished, of others are presented as one’s own without citing the original source. Plagiarism also occurs when the papers, research, or works of another person are presented as one’s own work.

All direct quotations require a citation. The form of the citation varies according to the directions of the individual professor. In general the Department of History follows the Chicago Manual of Style Documentation I. A work sheet of citations in this style is given to each student enrolled in a history course. Most direct quotations are set off by quotation marks. If the quotation is longer than four typed lines it is indented by six spaces. The block quotation may be single or double-spaced, depending on the requirements of the individual professor. Use block quotations sparingly. Quote the source exactly; check it against the original to be sure everything is exactly the same. When taking notes always use quotation marks when you are copying directly from the source.

Paraphrasing is usually preferable to all but the shortest direct quotation. Paraphrasing material means that it is re-stated clearly and accurately in your own words. Sources must always be cited for paraphrased material. Material which requires citation, in addition to books and articles, includes: statistics, book reviews, dissertations, master’s essays, government documents, oral statements including tapes and interviews, unpublished written works, and internet sources. When your professor allows internet sources to be used the address must be complete and clearly indicate authorship and date.

The internet both makes plagiarism easier and allows plagiarism to be more easily recognized. Individual professors may use the internet and other means to guard against plagiarism. For example, they may require the student to Xerox the page or pages from which a particular source is taken, require note cards be turned in with the paper, or call numbers and location of each work cited be included in the bibliography.

Citing sources clearly and accurately is a scholarly courtesy, which shows respect for your own work and for that of others. It says to your reader: my conclusions are based on these sources; use them yourself – here is where they can be found – and then see if you agree or disagree. Academic honesty and scholarly values are at the heart of education. Plagiarism demeans yourself and devalues your degree.

If a student is found to have plagiarized a substantial amount of material in a paper, the penalty depends on the individual professor’s stated policy in the syllabus; after discussion, it may involve:

1. no credit or failure for the assignment or
2. failure in the course.

Students may appeal to Student Services where the problem is reviewed by a disciplinary committee, which is unpleasant and time consuming, and can be avoided by scrupulous care in the research and writing of papers.

1. Go to the CUNYfirst website.
2. Log in with your CUNYfirst credentials.
3. Click on Student Center > Course Planning & Enrollment > Class Search and Enroll.