This course explores the origins of the modern Russian empire. Using primary sources including chronicles, folktales, legal codes, letters, and religious icons, students consider Russia’s development from a loose collection of princedoms into a powerful, multi-ethnic empire spanning 11 time zones. Topics include the impact of geography and climate, the Orthodox religion, Mongol rule, gender roles, the rise of autocracy, and social rebellion.

This seminar examines one of history’s most dramatic episodes:  the Spanish conquest and colonization of what is now Latin America.  Through reading and discussion, we will examine such topics as European and indigenous perceptions of the Conquest, the role of missionaries the imperial enterprise, the response of native peoples to the imposition of Christianity, indigenous efforts to resist Spanish domination, the  ecological/biological consequences  of 1492, and subsequent debates over the morality of the conquest. 

Ahoy, mateys!!  This course explores the rise and fall of English piracy in the Caribbean, from its origins during the reign of Elizabeth I to the emergence of the so-called “Golden age” of piracy in the early eighteenth century.   Students investigate the ways in which piracy advanced, and then later threatened the imperial goals of the English state, and examine the enduring appeal of pirates in the popular imagination.

This course introduces students to the historical forces leading to, and scholarly debates about slavery in African History.  Students examine the nature and development of domestic slavery to the nineteenth century as well as the slave trade systems across the Saharan Desert and the Atlantic Ocean.  Students "do history" using primary sources to retrieve the African voices and agency in discussions of the slave trade, and debating themes such as ethnicity, kinship, state formation, and colonialism.
We shall use African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade (2005) as a thread with which to center our discussion of African Agency and the silences inherent in the African slave trade.

This course examines the social, economic, and historical roles of women in colonial Africa based on selected case studies. Through discussions, films, and a varied list of intriguing primary sources and reading, the course introduces students to “doing history.” We reconstruct African women’s lives by exploring themes such as slavery, work, domesticity, marriage and kingship, social change, motherhood, and resistance and nationalism. The course pays particular attention to how women in colonial Africa coped with society and not how society coped with them. No prior study of African history required.

This course surveys Western history and culture from its origins in the Ancient Near East to the Italian Renaissance. Topics include the ancient world, the beginnings of Christianity, the emergence and disintegration of Rome as a unifying power, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Through original texts and historical studies, students explore relationships among religions, states, and societies and views of natural environments, family life, and gender roles.

Students use original texts, historical studies, and literature to examine, comparatively and chronologically, the evolution of selected cultures and societies before 1500. They explore topics such as political, cultural, and economic exchange, religious practices, human interaction with the environment, forms of political authority, family life, and gender roles.

This course examines the development of American culture and society from the Columbian encounter through the Civil War. Topics include the interaction of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous peoples in early America; the social development of the British colonies; the evolution of American slavery; the Revolution and the Constitution; industrialization, expansion and reform in the 19th century; and the Civil War.

Can tourists on a beach be instruments of empire?   How about Mickey Mouse and Kentucky Fried Chicken?   And what exactly do we mean by the term “empire”?  This course examines these questions by looking at  U.S.–Latin American relations through a cultural lens,  focusing how  Protestant missionaries, tourists, titans of industry, academics and Hollywood films have served to extend U.S. interests in that region.

Like all other human beings, Americans are consumers.  But like all other cultures, Americans have crafted particular ways of consuming.  This class explores the changes and continuities of American consumption from the 17th century to now, looking at how historians have interpreted our consumer history.  At the same time, the course invites students to refine their own skills as historians, practicing American consumer history with both a research project and an extended reflective essay.

This course surveys the history of Greece from the earliest days to the death of Alexander the Great.  Students will analyze how and why Greek culture developed as it did.  The goal of this course is to help the student gain an understanding and appreciation not only for the scope and scale of Greek history, but for the workings of human society in general. Throughout the semester we shall use Ancient Greece as a laboratory in which to acquire the critical skills and experience necessary to evaluate contemporary events and institutions.

This course examines European history during the period of about 300 to 1000.  Topics include the culture of late antiquity, the foundation of Christian institutions, the age of migrations, the Byzantine Empire and its relationship with the West, the emergence of Islam, the Carolingian revival, the manorial system, and the development of feudalism, with attention given to women’s roles in medieval society throughout the course.  History 190 recommended.

This course offers a survey of modern Scandinavian history from the period of the Protestant Reformation to the present with special attention to recent developments.  Foreign Language Across the Curriculum course available in Norwegian. 

This course provides a survey of the history of Germany with emphasis on the period from 1700 to the present. Through primary sources, literature, and historical accounts, students examine Germany’s development from a collection of independent states to a great power, focusing on the social, cultural, and political impact of national unification, rapid industrialization, world wars, and European union.

History 226 surveys French history from the 1780s to the present and examines the forces of stability and instability that account for France's tumultuous past.  Students begin with the French Revolution and its role in shaping both future consensus and division within the new nation.  They consider the ways in which the establishment of a Republic in the 1870s brought an end to the cycle of revolution and reaction in the nineteenth century, and how republican regimes since then have met the challenges of industrialization, mass democracy, and world war--sometimes with great success, sometimes with great shame.  Finally, in order to understand today’s France and current issues such as immigration and France’s role in world affairs, students examine politics and society since 1945.

Russia’s modern history from Peter the Great to the revolution of 1917 centers on the tsarist autocracy and popular movements to limit its power. Students assess Russia’s economy, culture, and religion against the background of the country’s westernization. Foreign Language Across the Curriculum course available in Russian.  

This course provides an overview of Chinese history and culture from the emergence of Chinese civilization to the late nineteenth century, providing an overview of traditional Chinese thought, institutions, society, and culture.  History 250 examines social, economic, and political change, intellectual and religious history, and the development of Chinese arts and literature, as well as China's relations with its neighbors and, in late imperial China, with the West.  The goal of this course is to give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of the historical heritage of modern China.

Students examine the limitations and the enormous potential of film in depicting and interpreting past events in U.S. history. They analyze films using a variety of theoretical models and explore the connection between the present and the interpretation in film of famous past episodes in U.S. history, like the American Revolution, the Civil War, Custer’s “Last Stand,” and the turbulent events of the 1960s. Required writing assignments enable students to demonstrate their analytical skills. Group projects offer the opportunity to write screenplays.

This research seminar explores the origins and development of the kingdom of Macedon from our earliest sources down through Philip II, father of Alexander the Great (550-336 BCE).  Throughout the semester we will examine the literary and archaeological evidence to determine how the Macedonian rulers constructed their "Homeric" identity and inserted themselves into the social, economic and political lives of their southern neighbors. Since Macedon played such an important role in the history of the best known Greek polis, Athens, our examination with be comparative by nature and will probe the Athenian-centered sources such as Thucydides, Isokrates, Aischines, Aristotle, Demosthenes and Xenophon to determine both Athenian and Macedonian policy.  Because the evidence is varied and unusually biased, the course will focus on historical methodology as well as narrative construction and argument analysis.

This course focuses on issues that have emerged in modern European history when ideas and assumptions about the body politic and the social body intersect with ideas about the physical bodies of individuals.  Medical thought and practice have played a key role in defining and sustaining categories of “race” and “gender” since the Enlightenment.  We’ll see that the embedding of notions of race and gender in modern science at its origins was not accidental, but tied to emerging political ideas in Europe about rights, order, and liberty.  We’ll track the impact of medical notions of race and gender on nationalism and imperialism in the nineteenth century, explore medicine’s contribution to anti-Semitic ideology, and examine the role of Nazi medicine in the Final Solution.

This seminar examines World War II in Asia and the Pacific, beginning with the Japanese seizure of Manchuria in 1931 and concluding with the surrender of Japan in 1945. Its focus is not military history as much as issues of diplomacy and politics and the way the war affected society and culture in East and Southeast Asia. In particular we will study the causes and nature of Japanese ultranationalism, Japanese ambitions in China, Japan's relationship with Germany, and the expansion of the war into Southeast Asia and the Pacific after Pearl Harbor. We will pay special attention to Asian responses to Japanese invasion and occupation, the nature of the war between the United States and Japan, and the ways in which we remember World War II.

There are no prerequisites for this seminar, although some prior study of modern East Asia is recommended. If you have no background in this subject, I encourage you to begin the course by reading a survey text.

This class is a seminar for junior and senior History and American Studies majors that will look at the decade of the 1970s from a variety of perspectives.  The intention is to provide all of you with a basic narrative of the era, some interpretive frameworks from which to consider aspects of the decade, and an individualized primary research experience.

Norwegian folklore tells of a place east of the moon and west of the sun where dreams are realized.  For hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Norway this fabled place was America.  They called it, as does the St. Olaf’s own Fram, Fram, “a home in the west.”  This course explores the stories of Norwegian America through its literature and other forms of popular writing created from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries.  It considers, among other forms, novels, short stories, drama, children’s literature, memoirs, letters, diaries, travel accounts, biographies, journalism, popular history, and film.

Why has the era of Elizabeth I remained so fascinating? Why did England emerge by 1603 as the major Protestant state of Europe with visions of overseas empire, a strong national culture, and a flourishing literature? Students will examine relations between the monarchy and parliament, warfare with Spain, religious disagreements, Scotland and Mary Stuart, and the social order. Reading will include historical writing, primary sources, and literature, with attention to several film treatments.

What is Cuba really like? In this course, students visit health clinics, government agricultural cooperatives, and schools and take extended field trips to the countryside. The program focuses on the Revolution and historical memory, as students explore – through visits to museums and monuments – how the Cuban government has sought to shape the citizenry’s understanding of the past. Offered periodically during Interim.

This interim course introduces students to the rewards and challenges of public and local history.  As the title suggests, we will learn by not only studying but also by doing public history.  Focusing on Northfield and Rice County at the beginning of the 20th century, we will work with the local and state historical organizations to develop materials for the wider public, including possibly a display, educational resources, and articles.  We also will work to place these local histories in broader contexts, by studying migration and immigration, the history of childhood and schools, and Progressive-era America.

This course surveys Nordic history from the time of the Viking expansion to the period of the Kalmar Union. Topics include Viking expansion and conquest, Nordic cultural and religious life, the coming of Christianity, the sagas and other literary sources, and later medieval developments.

This course looks beyond the traditional diplomatic and military history of World War I to consider the social, cultural, and intellectual contexts that made it the "Great War" to contemporaries.   We analyze poems, novels, films, memoirs, official documents, newspapers, posters, and scholarly works to answer the following questions:  How did ideas from the late nineteenth century influence the way Europeans thought about the war that began in August 1914?  What was life like in the trenches and on the home front, and how did these realities change the way in which Europeans understood modern war?  What differences did class and gender make in an individual's experience of the war?  How did these different experiences influence postwar expectations?  What is the larger significance of the Great War for modern society?

This seminar examines one of history’s most dramatic episodes:  the Spanish conquest and colonization of what is now Latin America.  Through reading and discussion, we will examine such topics as European and indigenous perceptions of the Conquest, the role of missionaries the imperial enterprise, the response of native peoples to the imposition of Christianity, indigenous efforts to resist Spanish domination, the  ecological/biological consequences  of 1492, and subsequent debates over the morality of the conquest. 

This Seminar examines American Society since 1945, with particular emphasis on the years between 1945 and 1975.  The main focus is social history. Topics include the impact of the Cold War, migration to the suburbs, post-industrial society, the culture of the 1950’s, civil rights, the Vietnam War, the student movement, the sexual revolution, and Watergate.  Sources include novels, essays, magazine stories, films, and documentaries. 

American history rises and falls through periods of prosperity and privation, and one of the most important was the interval between the two World Wars of the 20th century. In that era, Americans dealt with economic expansion and depression, consumer culture and mass media, conservative Republicanism and liberal Democracy, gender-bending and race-baiting, immigration reform and 100-percent-Americanism. Critics and artists of the era offered perspectives that are still relevant today, and students will explore these topics in a seminar setting, with research in original sources.

This course surveys European history and culture since the Renaissance. Topics include the impact of Protestantism, the development of nation-states, the Enlightenment, revolutionary ideas and experiences, the Napoleonic era, imperialism, mass political movements, and global warfare. Through original texts, historical studies, and literature, students explore relations among religions, states, and societies, and understandings of liberty and reason, natural environments, family life, and gender roles.

This course takes a comparative and chronological approach to studying the diverse cultures of the modern world. Through original texts, historical studies, and literary sources, students examine such themes as the rise of American imperialism and its impact on the native peoples of the Americas, Asia, and Africa; the emergence of the nation state and new ideologies; the spread of American influence in the world; human interaction with the environment, challenges to religion and traditional life-styles; and innovation in family and gender structures.

As they study the development of U.S. society from the Civil War to the present, students examine changing race, gender and class relations as well as U.S. relations with the world. Students will pay special attention to different interpretations as history is approached by political, social, cultural and diplomatic historians; we will also study first-hand accounts and primary documents. Topics will include Reconstruction, the frontier, industrialization, immigration, U.S. imperialism, two world wars, domestic and global anti-communism, first and second wave feminism, the Vietnam War and U.S.-Middle East relations.

History 210 examines the experience of occupation, collaboration, and resistance in France during World War II, an individually and nationally painful episode for the French.  During four years of hardship and uncertainty, both the Vichy regime and French Resistance groups attempted to remake France by developing competing visions of the nation.  Upon the Liberation of Paris, a victorious Charles de Gaulle spoke of a nation of resisters “from the first hour.”  The historical record and contested nature of French national memory, however, make clear that the truth is more complex.   In this course we’ll use both primary and secondary sources to examine the perspectives of the historical actors and the interpretations of historical scholars.  We’ll also consider the distinctive ways in which literature and film shape an understanding of French experience during the war years.  Finally, since this course is a Majors Seminar (M-sem), we’ll pay particular attention to the way historians do their work.

Benjamin Franklin – satirist, printer, inventor, and statesman – has long been regarded the most endearing of our “Founding Fathers,” the “First American” at home and abroad.    What many people often forget about Franklin, though, was that he was already seventy years old by the time America declared its independence.  Franklin was born, came of age, prospered in business, and achieved fame in science as a subject of three different British kings (and one Queen).  If we look carefully at the first seventy years of Franklin’s life, we see him not as an American, but as a colonial Briton.  Franklin’s life, therefore, captures the essence of that world as much as it does revolutionary America.
Through the life of Benjamin Franklin, this course examines the varied, rapidly changing world of eighteenth century British North America.   While we briefly touch on the revolutionary movements that led to American independence, it will focus more specifically on life as it was lived in the colonies prior to 1776.  It will explore subjects such as the rise of civic life in America, provincial politics, intellectual and cultural life, religious awakenings, imperial wars, the frontier, and the African slave trade.  It also offers students the opportunity to engage in research using original eighteenth century source material – the material of Ben Franklin’s America.

This course examines the history of Rome from the earliest days of the reign of the Severan Dynasty.  Using primary and secondary sources the students will gain an understanding and appreciation for the scope and scale of Roman history as constructed by the Romans themselves.

For a description of this course, see the "Major Seminars" section above.

Students examine intellectual, political, social, and spiritual currents, 1300 to 1550, particularly in the city of Florence, but also in broader Italian and European Renaissance contexts.  Topics include humanism, the political life of the northern Italian city states, changes in spirituality and in the life of the church, the status of women, and the development of political theory.  Readings include Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Erasmus. 

Why and how did Great Britain emerge as the first modern "super power"?  We will examine British history from the Revolution of 1688 to the present.  We will explore the social world of aristocracy, the impact of the Industrial and French Revolutions, liberalism and capitalism, Victorian culture, the working class and political reform, the imperial achievement, the issue of Ireland, the challenge of two World Wars, the creation of a social welfare state, and Britain’s decline and recovery in the age of the Cold War. 

This course begins with the Communist revolution of 1917 and traces the growth of the Soviet Union under Lenin, Stalin, and their successors.  Students analyze the “crisis” of the Soviet system in order to explain why the last of the European empires collapsed in 1991.  Foreign Language Across the Curriculum course available in Russian. 

For most of us, the words “environment” and “Latin America” conjure up images of devastated rain forests, dying wildlife and dispossessed Indians.   Such issues, however, make up but a small part of the new and rapidly expanding field of Latin American Environmental History.  This course provides an overview of this exciting new area of study by introducing students to the major topics and debates that currently engage scholars.  Specific themes to be considered include: changing understandings of agricultural practices of   pre-Columbian indigenous peoples, the environmental impact of conquest,  the destruction of the Amazon, Latin American visions of wilderness, resource management and the tragedy of the commons,  sustainable agriculture, the pesticide problem, and eco-tourism.

This class examines reform and revolution at the end of Qing dynasty; the creation and collapse of the first Republic; warlordism, the New Culture Movement, social and cultural change, and the rise of Chinese nationalism; Japanese invasion, civil war, and the Communist victory; the People’s Republic since 1949; economic and social change, conflict with the Soviet Union, the Cultural Revolution, Maoism and Mao’s legacy, and China’s recent economic and political transformation.  Applied Foreign Language Component available in Chinese for students at the third-year level in the language.

A study of Japan from the origins of the Yamato state culture to the emergence of modern Japan, this course provides an overview of traditional Japanese thought, values, and culture.  The course examines social, economic and political change, intellectual and religious history, and the development of Japanese arts and literature, as well as Japan’s relations with China, Korea, and the West. 

For a description of this course, see the "Major Seminars" section above.

This course surveys women’s experience in American life from the colonial period to the present. Students examine the changing economic, social, and legal status of women, society’s attitudes towards women, and the growth of a women’s movement.

By examining the interaction of people and environment on the North American continent from the 15th century to the present, this course shows how history “takes place” in ecological contexts that change over time. Students compare Native American and Euro-American religious beliefs, social values, economic aspirations, and technological developments and examine their consequences for the flora, fauna, and peoples of the continent.

Spanning at least twelve thousand years and involving more than five hundred indigenous nations the history of Native America is complex and diverse. This course focuses on significant themes, time periods, or geographical regions, with emphasis on the peoples of modern-day continental United States. Examples include "Colonial Encounters in Native America," "Pontiac's America," "Native American Women," and "Native America through Autobiography".

This course interrogates the nature and development of Muslim societies in sub-Saharan Africa from the earliest times to the present. With a varied list of reading, students explore questions of authenticity and “historical truth,” and examine current debates on themes such as patterns of Islamization, “African Islam” and Islam in Africa, the invention of Muslim identities, the expansion of Sufism, women in Islam, Islamic education, Islam and colonialism, and revivalism in Islam.

This course surveys the history of the medical profession in Europe and the US from 1700 to the present, with attention to legacies from earlier periods.  “Vocation” provides the unifying theme, and is understood as a lived experience shaped by the values and expectations of practitioner, profession, and society, manifested in various settings.  Students examine scientific, cultural, institutional, ethical, and personal factors influencing the development of physicians and their practice in specific historical contexts.  Topics include:  secular and religious definitions of medical vocation; changing attitudes toward/uses of the Hippocratic Oath; the rise of scientific medicine; the public health revolution; the historical experience of illness and “going to the doctor;” race, class, and gender as factors in medical careers and practice; perennial criticisms of doctors and medicine; medical narratives in context; and images of the doctor in popular culture. 

Topic for Spring 2012: Medieval Italy, 1050-1350. This seminar will consider divergent developments in north, central, and southern Italy during a formative period in the history of the west. Topics include the medieval papacy and Rome, Sicily, the city-states of northern Italy, Dante, and the Franciscan order.

Many American historians would argue that the American Revolution was the defining event in United States history.  Take away the colonists’ rebellion and hard-fought separation from Great Britain and what is left is a country devoid of much of its political and cultural character.   The problem, as John Adams recognized, is that the Revolution, then as now, meant different things to different people, making it a difficult subject about which to write.   As a result, generations of historians have interpreted the origins and consequences of the Revolution in a variety of creative and contradictory ways.  The aim of this course is not only to examine the American Revolution's key events, but also to explore the various interpretations of its origins and consequences.  Students will read from a diverse body of literature derived from several scholarly traditions, addressing questions such as: How radical was the revolution? Who made the Revolution happen?  Who benefited most? Why did some refuse to support it? Why 1776?  As we will see, the debates surrounding such questions remain heated and contested to this day, proof positive of the Revolution’s enduring legacy.  What we may find is that the Revolution’s final chapter, in some sense, has yet to be written.

Rather than focus on a region or period of time, we will look at how historians from many different fields explore and understand “everyday life.”  What do historians have to say about eating, work, rumors, fear, night, noise, bingo, and more?  What sources do they use for this research?  What significance do we find in these histories of everyday life?  Much of this study is defined by changes in social and cultural history, with an emphasis on local and micro-histories.  Students will produce a substantial research paper, based on primary sources and focused on a theme or problem related to histories of everyday life.  Seniors are welcome.  Juniors especially are encouraged to consider this course, especially those considering academic internships, participation in the summer undergraduate research program, or distinction.