This course examines the British Empire both as a political and economic institution and as a lived reality for millions of individuals of widely diverse backgrounds. It acquaints students with those broad economic, political, social, ecological and technological factors that permitted the Empire's rise (and those that led to its more recent decline). It also examines the interactions and experiences through which new identities and cultures were created, both in Britain and abroad.

This course addresses war as a major force in European history from the early Middle Ages to c.1650. Taking a 'war and society' approach, the course focuses less on strategies, tactics, and generalship than on the ways in which war has shaped, and been shaped by, variables such as social and political hierarchies, gender roles, and religion. Students explore the relationship between war and social, cultural, political, and technological change, and attempt to reconstruct the experience of war for combatants and non-combatants.

The Reformation touched off a series of revolutions whose repercussions still echo through our society 500 years on. Using the new medium of print, reformers and their opponents appealed to public opinion, spurring a communications revolution with far-reaching implications for literacy and the democratization of knowledge. Out of these debates emerged new models of citizenship and popular resistance, as well as new understandings of marriage and family life.

The military campaigns that comprised the Crusades lasted only two centuries, but their impact on Europe and the Middle East was far more lasting, and the post-medieval legacy of the Crusades continues to be debated. This course focuses on European military expeditions to the Levant between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, attempting to understand these events and their consequences from a number of perspectives through firsthand accounts by Eastern and Western Christians, as well as Muslims and Jews.

This course explores the great cultural revolution known as the Renaissance from a number of perspectives, considering new developments in the arts, political theory, historical awareness, material culture, science, and technology as interrelated phenomena.

This course offers students a broad outline of political, economic and social developments in Africa; topics covered will include ancient trade between Africa and the Mediterranean region, the rise of the great medieval empires of Ghana and Mali, the creation of a distinctive Swahili Coast culture and the impact of slavery and slave trade upon African societies. Second, the course will introduce students to the specific tools used by historians in the study of early Africa.

In recent years, the status of monuments and the ways the United States remembers its history in public have come under intense public scrutiny. Statues have been toppled and debates have erupted over the way history is taught and remembered in this country. At the same time, new and more inclusive histories have flourished that challenge whitewashed versions of American history. In this course, we explore how major events and topics in the broad sweep of U.S.

This course surveys the history of England from the Roman conquest to the end of the Tudor dynasty, following England's rise from remote imperial backwater to incipient world power. We begin by reconstructing the successive invasions of the island by Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans, and assessing the impact of these conquerors on the people, culture, and institutions of England.

This course covers Russian Imperial state and society; revolutionary movements; causes of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions; Russian and Soviet political cultures; Soviet Union and totalitarianism; Russian and Soviet foreign policy; the collapse of communism and the Soviet empire; post-communist Russian society and politics.

This course is designed to introduce prospective majors to the discipline and Department of History. In it, students learn what history is and how historians think and work. The course teaches students to do the two things that historians do: develop interpretations from primary sources and critically evaluate the interpretations advanced by other historians. Emphasis is placed on the methods and skills of reading, analyzing, discussing, and writing history. Reading assignments expose students to a variety of current approaches to history.