For information on registration, preregistration, and days and times, please refer to the Registrar's Schedule of Courses.

First Session – May 18, 2009 – June 26, 2009
Second Session – June 29, 2009 – August 7, 2009

HIST 372-00A: "Modern Japan"

This is an introductory survey of modern Japanese history, covering 1850 to 1950. There are no prerequisites. Topics include a brief survey of traditional Japanese society and politics; the fall of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration; industrialization and economic development; the rise of political parties; militarism and World War II; the American occupation and postwar recovery. Although the emphasis will be on major political events and institutional developments, we will trace social and cultural currents through literature, including dramas and novels.

HIST 489 SWR-00A: "Fundamentalism in East Asia"

This is an upper-level colloquium on East Asian history focusing on the "fundamentalist" movements in the 18th and 19th centuries. We will focus on three main movements: Japanese nativism and Mito-learning; the Chinese Taipings; and the Chinese Boxer rebellion. The bibliography on Korea is much more limited, but we will briefly cover the Tonghaks towards the end of class.

See more at http://history.emory.edu/RAVINA/489SWRSyllabus.html

HIST 489 SWR-00A: "Empires Past & Present"

We are, we are told, living in an age of empire.  A steadily increasing number of learned scholars, columnists and essayists have drawn parallels between the contemporary moment and the late nineteenth century pax Britannica.  The conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote recently that "People are coming out of the closet on the word 'empire'."  According to an editorialist for the Wall Street Journal, the September 11 attacks were "a result of insufficient American involvement and ambition; the solution is to be more expansive in our goals and more assertive in their implementation."  He continued: "Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodphurs and pith helmets."  Scholars such as Paul Kennedy and Charles Fairbanks have pointed to the great disparities in the distribution of world power and that America is "an empire in formation.”  Some have even called for the formation of the equivalent of a Colonial Office in Washington, D.C.

These statements should give us pause.  The past quarter century has seen an outpouring of scholarly writing on imperialism, particularly on the British Empire.  Much of this writing has been against the grain of earlier imperial and colonial studies, first the emphasis on politics and institutional histories and then, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s as the euphoria of decolonization turned into the postcolonial blues, a concentration on economic change and stagnation.  In the 1980s and the 1990s attention turned to the study of culture.  Any number of books and articles came out that explored the relationship between culture and colonialism.  Over the course of the semester we will read a number of works on the new history of empire.

The intention of this seminar is not simply to critically engage with a field of scholarly practice.  Rather, the seminar springs from a conviction that the problem of empire—the problem of the global organization of power—is a central part of the modern world, including the present.  Empire, then, is an ineluctable part of the world we inhabit.

This course is heavy on reading.  (Indeed, we may decide on reducing some of the reading as we move through the course, so don’t panic. . .yet!)  In addition to the readings, the requirements are:

1. A short paragraph response based on the readings (20%)
2. A 15 page research paper due TBA (40%)
3. Class discussion (40%)

HIST 202-00C: "The Making of Modern Europe"

This course acts as an introduction to the history and culture of Europe from the Reformation to the present. As such, it emphasizes broad themes and long-term trends of Europe as a whole, rather than individual countries. Subjects such as the reformation, the rise of absolutism, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the age of Revolutions, capitalism and socialism, nationalism and imperialism, total war, the holocaust, the Cold War, and decolonization are covered. Reading, discussion and writing is emphasized in this class. Class assignments include weekly one-page response papers, exams on class readings and quizzes. Readings include Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities, Art Speiegelman’s Maus, Paul Fussell’s Great War and Modern Memory and others. This class is not intended for history majors alone but anyone interested in a broad background in European political, cultural, and social history.

The course is open for pre-college enrollment.  For more information on Emory’s pre-college program click here.

HIST 241-00C: "Alexander: History, Biography and Romance"

This course will investigate in detail the life and legacy of Alexander the Great of Macedon.

The course is open for pre-college enrollment.  For more information on Emory’s pre-college program click here.