Department of History All - carleton.ca

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Department of History

Honours seminars to be offered in 2014-15

This brochure contains information on the 4000-level seminars we

expect to offer in 2014-15. Each seminar instructor has been asked to

provide a short description of the questions and topics he or she will

deal with, sample readings, some notion of how the seminar will

function and what sort of workload will be required. All 4000-level

History seminars should be scheduled in such a way as not to conflict

with one another. Times at which the seminars are scheduled should

be available in Carleton Central by May 26.

4000-level seminars are normally open only to Honours students. The

department recommends that students have completed a lower-level

course in the field(s) of the seminar(s) they intend to take. Some

instructors regard such preparation as very important; others do not. If

you have not taken a course that would provide preparation for a

particular seminar, you should always speak with the instructor first.

In working out your program for 2014-15, remember that

Honours students in History are required to take 2.0 credits in

History seminars.

Honours students combining History with another subject are

required to take 1.0 credit in History seminars.

Honours students from other departments may be granted permission

to enrol in History seminars, but this will depend on the availability of

spaces after History majors have enrolled.

All students who wish to take 4000-level History seminars must

obtain prior permission to register. The online registration system

will accept your course choices only if you have pre-registered with

the department beforehand. It is strongly recommended that you pre-

register in your seminars prior to the end of April. However, pre-

registration in seminars will continue throughout the summer and

permissions granted provide there is space available in the seminar(s)

you wish to take.

For more information about enrolling in 4000-level seminars, please

telephone the department at (613) 520-2828 or send an e-mail message

to [email protected]. Finally, it's always a good idea to check

for updates on the departmental website: www.carleton.ca/history

Students seeking permission to enrol in HIST 4100A, 4200A, 4302B,

4505A, 4603A, 4604A, 4605A, and 4915B should contact the

departmental chair or the undergraduate advisor for permission.

mailto:[email protected]

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HIST 4006A Seminar in Medieval History Marc Saurette

The topic for 2014-15 is

“Citadel of the Church: the social and spiritual power of the abbey of Cluny, 10th-13th centuries”

From the beginning of the twelfth century until the rebuilding of St. Peter's

by Renaissance popes, the small Burgundian village of Macon was the site of

the largest church in Western Europe, hidden behind the high monastery

walls of the abbey of Cluny. This architectural grandeur and attendant

splendour was a mark of Cluny's power, influence and importance to the

medieval Church. Its monks became bishops, cardinals and popes, its abbots

entertained kings and the highest nobility, and its writings determined

Church doctrine. From its centre in Burgundy, Cluny governed a network of

hundreds of dependent houses and was the head of thousands of monks

spread from England to the Holy Land. With vast agricultural estates and

unparalleled legal privileges, it oversaw an economic system rivalling that of

the king of France. From its scriptorium, abbots launched attacks on heresy,

Judaism and Islam. By the twelfth century, it was considered a citadel of

orthodoxy filled with an army of perfect monks.

While Cluny is now largely a footnote to medieval history, at its height of

power —its so-called "golden age" from the tenth to thirteenth centuries — it

was one of the most powerful institutions in Europe. By reading primary

sources in translation and recent studies, as well as examining architectural,

manuscript and visual evidence, students will explore how this abbey became

so powerful and how it embedded itself in local, regional and international

power structures.

Topics of the course include, but will not be limited to:

the history and nature of Cluniac monasticism

Cluny’s relations with aristocratic and royal networks of

power

its influence on ecclesiastical and papal institutions

its use and control of aristocratic power

ritual and ceremonial projections of spiritual power

implications of changes in literacy on the cultural position of

Cluny

charismatic and institutional power of the abbot of Cluny

monastic recruitment, training and learning

patterns of donations, aristocratic patronage and monastic

gift exchange

Readings Students will be expected to engage with a variety of sources, including

architectural and visual evidence, digitized manuscripts as well as primary

sources in translation — ranging from letters, lives of saints and chronicles to

polemic texts and epic poetry. Students will also be expected to read current

studies in light of our discussions of the primary sources and of broad

historiographical trends. There will not be a single assigned textbook for the

class.

Assignments

In the first term, assignments will focus on developing digital tools for the

study of Cluniac monasticism (including mapping institutional and personal

networks, and identifying online research tools and archival depositories) and

in the second half, students will be given a choice of assignment pathways -

one more focused on traditional research writing and another on the public

presentation of Cluniac history.

HIST 4100A Seminar in Early Modern European History Paul Nelles


“Travel & Mobilization in Early Modern Europe”

This seminar explores the experience of travel and mobility in the 16

th and

17th centuries. Early modern Europe experienced an unprecedented level of

mobility, both within Europe and globally. We will first consider the social

and economic context of early modern mobility at the local level through an

examination of urban streets, vagabonds, and itinerancy. We will then

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HIST 4100A cont’d

explore the technologies of travel – how did people move from place to

place? Where did they stay? where and what did they eat and drink? We will

then consider why merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, ‘gentleman travelers’

and others moved from one place to another.

The seminar seeks to re-create the mental and cultural world of early modern

travel – how was linguistic and cultural difference experienced? how did

travelers make sense of places, social customs, and cultural practices that

seemed unusual, exotic, or strange? what mental tools did early modern

travelers have at their disposal to describe and analyze the unfamiliar? The

seminar will also examine the material culture of travel. What objects and

instruments facilitated travel? What ‘things’ did travelers bring or send

home, whether as commodities or as collectibles? In the Fall Term, we will

examine travel in Europe and the Mediterranean world. In Winter Term, we

will explore European encounters with non-European places and cultures in

Asia and the New World.

Course readings will be based in part on primary source documents in the

form of travel journals, letters, and mission reports. Part of the challenge of

our weekly seminar meetings will lie in making sense of these sources and

assessing their value as historical sources. Assessment in Fall Term will be

based upon participation (including leading seminar discussion on a rotating

basis) and a 10-12 page historiographical essay. In the Winter Term,

assessment will be based upon continued participation, an individual

presentation on the theme of your major research project, and a major

research essay of around 20-25 pages. For more information please contact [email protected]

HIST 4200A Seminar in European History Susan Whitney


“Europe from War to War: Politics, Culture, and Society, 1914-1939”

The Great War left no aspect of European life untouched. By the early 1920s,

empires had collapsed; revolutionary ideologies, movements and regimes had

emerged on both sides of the political spectrum; intellectuals and artists were

bemoaning the death of civilization; and New Women danced across the

social, cultural and political landscapes. Europe had been transformed.

Taking the Great War as its starting point, this seminar will examine the

relationship between politics, culture, and society in Europe between 1914

and 1939. The majority of the course will be devoted to examining the major

political, cultural, and social developments of the 1920s and 1930s. The

course consider the emergence of new political ideologies such as

communism and fascism and the complicated attempts to build communist

and fascist states and societies in the Soviet Union and Germany. It will also

consider attempts to defend and reinvigorate democracy, particularly in

France, and the clash of ideologies that occurred at the 1937 World's Fair in

Paris. Politics, culture, and society were intimately connected during these

two decades, and this course will contemplate the diverse roles a range of

newly popular cultural forms and movements, including Bauhaus, jazz and

the cinema played in society and politics. In our examination, we will make

age and gender important categories of analysis, and we will pay attention to

the ways young people and ideas about youth intersected with broader issues

and developments.

The class will explore the issues suggested above through discussion of

diverse primary and secondary sources during the fall term. These will

include texts produced by the era's leading politicians and intellectuals,

contemporary accounts by participants and journalists, and works of

historical scholarship, most probably Leonard Smith et al, France and the

Great War, 1914-1918; William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power:

The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945; and Sheila



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HIST 4200A cont’d

Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times,

Soviet Russia in the 1930s. In January, the class will hold a debate set at the

Paris World's Fair of 1937 featuring government officials from the French,

German, Soviet and Spanish governments, trade unionists, journalists, and

interwar feminists.

Students will be evaluated on their informed participation in seminar

discussions and on their written work. Although the syllabus has not been

finalized, written work will most likely consist of two short papers during the

first term and a long (i.e. 20-25 page) research paper, based on extensive use

of primary sources, due near the end of the second term. Students will also

present their research to their classmates during the second term. The precise

organization of the course and the exact nature of assignments will be

specified on the course outline, which will be distributed at the first meeting

in September.

HIST 4210A [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] Greg Fisher

Topics in Ancient History


“The Turbulent Seventh Century: Rome, Persia, and Islam”

(cross-listed with CLCV 4210A)

Summary The so-called ‘Muslim conquests’ of the seventh century ushered in a series

of profound changes in the geopolitical map of the area we now call the

‘Middle’ East. Muslim armies defeated the forces of the Roman and Persian

empires, truncating the former state around the Balkans and Anatolia, and

utterly conquering the latter. Prior to these stunning events, though, occurred

one of the most intriguing conflicts in world history: the generational war

between Rome and Persia, which began in c. 602 with the overthrow of the

Roman emperor Maurice, and the opportunistic quest for ‘vengeance’ by

Maurice’s erstwhile friend and client, the Persian king Khusrau II.

This course will begin with an overview of the late sixth and early seventh

centuries to provide background and context, and will then offer the

following: a) an examination of the conflict through the lenses of some of its

primary source witnesses; b) a consideration of the relationship between this

war and the development of Islam; and c) a study of the wars between Rome,

Persia, and the new military force from Northern Arabia. Students will gain

an appreciation of the importance of this period for an understanding of

world history, as well as an understanding of the many ways in which the

‘Middle’ East was changed – and stayed the same – between the seventh and

eighth centuries. While most of the course will focus on the seventh century,

in the last few weeks of term, we will follow the course of events down to the

overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (c. 750). The focus on religious and

political strife, as well as the analysis of the important links between the

development of Islam and the ‘Hellenised’ Graeco-Roman east, will offer

context for understanding some of the problems currently afflicting the

region today.

Course requirements and evaluation

Each student will provide a formal oral essay, delivered in class to their

peers, and to which a colleague in the class will offer a critical response. This

essay-and-response method will provide the basis for class discussion.

Students will also be expected to write a research paper on a topic developed

from class material and in consultation with the instructor. Students are

expected to attend class regularly, complete all required readings, and

participate in class discussions. 25% of the grade is allocated to participation.

Possible readings

The reading list will include a selection of seminal articles relevant to the

topics at hand, by authors such as Hugh Kennedy, James Howard-Johnston,

Robert Hoyland, and others. Course texts may include Kennedy’s The

Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates as well as Howard-Johnston’s

Witnesses to a World Crisis. Selections of primary sources will also be used

for class discussion. These will be drawn from English translations of Greek,

Latin, Syriac, and Arabic texts. A full reading list will be provided with the

course syllabus.

You do not need to pre-register for HIST 4210A /CLCV 4210A if you have

fourth-year standing. If you do not have fourth-year standing you must obtain

permission of the instructor in order to register. For more information, please

contact Professor Fisher directly at [email protected]


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HIST 4302A Canada: Ideas and Culture Norman Hillmer


“Nationalism, Internationalism and Political Culture, 1914-2015”

Office: Paterson Hall 446 E-Mail:[email protected]

Seminar Description:

The seminar will search for avenues into Canadian nationalism,

internationalism, and political culture from the First World War to the

present. Canadians celebrate themselves as a country of immigrants with

close personal, political, and economic links to the international community

and a tradition of responsible involvement in the world. Yet Canadians also

set themselves apart, insisting that they are a superior people living in

harmony with the United States on the North American continent, all the

while criticizing the US as a flawed experiment, entirely too violent, extreme

and materialistic. After 1919, Canadian nationalists promoted a country of

reconciliation coming into its own among the powers of the world –

moderate and democratic, protective of minorities, peaceful and united.

After the Second World War, Canada identified itself closely with the search

for a more co-operative global order and acquired a reputation as

international activists and peacekeepers par excellence. The country also

developed as a welfare state, and elaborated policies of bilingualism and

multiculturalism, congratulating itself as a modern country eager to share its

unique capacity for conciliation and compassion. The Conservative

government of Brian Mulroney (1984-1993) did not change that liberal

trajectory, but Stephen Harper (2006- ) has set a different course. The

seminar examines the historical evolution of nationalism and

internationalism, the relationships between those two impulses, and the

manner in which they became embedded in political culture and in the

national fabric more broadly. The canvass is broad, and can evolve into

discussions of (this being a matter for decision by seminar members) identity

and memory, culture, immigration and ethnicity, gender, the economy, the

environment, the monarchy, government and governance, law and justice,

public and media opinion, the military and defence, and the long nineteen-

sixties.

Course Requirements and Evaluation:

The most important course requirement is a 30-35 page research paper, based

on extensive use of primary sources, and due after reading week in the

second term. The research paper will be preceded by the handing in of a

detailed outline, and those two assignments will constitute half of the final

mark. There will also be an evaluation of two oral presentations, and of

regular seminar participation.

Reading: Some points of departure are Peter Russell’s Nationalism in Canada (1967);

Ramsay Cook, Canada, Quebec, and the Uses of Nationalism (1986);

Canadas of the Mind: The Making and Unmaking of Canadian Nationalisms

in the Twentieth Century, edited by Norman Hillmer and Adam Chapnick

(2007); Nelson Wiseman’s In Search of Canadian Political Culture (2007);

J. E. Igartua, The Other Quiet Revolution (2006); and Tarah Brookfield, Cold

War Comforts: Canadian Women, Child Safety, and Global Insecurity

(2012).

HIST 4302B Canada: Ideas and Culture Michael Ostroff


“Making Documentary History”

Seminar Description

This seminar is an opportunity to do something different––to make a short

documentary film. Combining your understanding of history with an

appreciation of the elements of storytelling, and working collectively in a

group of three to four students, this seminar prepares you to produce a short

narrative historical documentary on the subject of your choice.

Unlike most seminars you are not required to write a long research paper for

this course. Instead, the seminar emphasizes the need to integrate historical

research with archival images, interviews and a creative sensibility. You

learn to become effective and engaging storytellers in appreciating the


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HIST 4302B cont’d

complexities, dilemmas and idiosyncrasies of telling history in a visually

orientated medium.

The seminar explores the significant differences between the narrative

historical documentary and the work of academic historians. As the

documentary medium does not allow for rigorous intellectual

communication, the seminar challenges students to balance scholarly

rigorous research with the emotional and visceral experience that filmmaking

demands. Working in a visual, imaginative and creative manner, the goal is

to produce a documentary on an historical topic that will engage and hold the

attention of an audience––“enlightened entertainment” ––as it has been

referred to.

Experience in filmmaking is not required. Access to equipment is not

required. Throughout the year we watch and deconstruct narrative historical

documentaries, and students attend workshops to learn the basic principles

and skills of operating digital cameras and digital editing systems supplied by

the University.

At the end of the year the documentaries produced in the seminar are

premiered at a public screening on campus.

Students enrolling in this seminar must demonstrate individual initiative and

an ability to work effectively in a collective of three to four students. The

course especially appeals to students in the History, Journalism,

Communications, and Film programs looking for a creative outlet for

storytelling, or wanting to push the boundaries of their academic training.

Canada: Ideas & Culture – Making Documentary History is a chance to be

creative – to tell a story, discuss an historical issue, provoke debate, and to

have fun making some movie magic.


The autumn term is an introduction to a sample of the best documentaries of

this genre. The winter term is primarily focused on the practicalities of

producing a short documentary on an historical topic of each group’s choice.

Evaluation is based predominately on the collective work of each production

group (a documentary proposal, a treatment, and a shooting script) with a

few individual assignments, such as an essay detailing your understanding of

the basic elements of the narrative historical documentary process.

Although the major assignment of this course is the production of a short

documentary, it is very much a History course and expectations with regard

to such matters as the quality of research, analysis, contextualization and

interpretation are the same as for any other 4000-level seminar.

Possible Readings and Screenings

The screenings include films exploring the social, cultural and political

history of Canada, the United States and Europe. Among the topics covered

by these films are immigrate experience, racism, war, cultural development,

and the impact of modernity.

Required readings:

Hampe, Barry; Making Documentary Films & Videos, second edition, Holt

Paperbacks, 2007

Readings related to films and techniques are assigned on a regular basis.

Individual production groups determine reading lists for each documentary

topic.

The instructor of this seminar – Michael Ostroff – has forty years of

experience working in this genre.

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HIST 4304A Canada: Politics and Society Matthew Bellamy


"The Canadian Brewing Industry, 1670-2014“

to be offered in the evening

The mere mention of the history of beer drinking and brewing, to paraphrase

Richard W. Unger, a distinguished historian of the art, usually brings a

chuckle or, worse, a snicker. Why would one study the history of a

commodity which is so closely associated today with leisure, young people,

sports and student life? For some people the history of beer and brewing is

not a serious subject of study. To them it is frivolous, worthy perhaps of a

passing reference -- a historical footnote -- but not deserving of

comprehensive study. This perception, however, is a case of historical

myopia, an inability of people at the beginning of the twenty-first century to

picture a world different from their own, one in which beer was a daily

necessity of life and brewing an essential enterprise.

Each week we will meet to discuss a clearly defined theme in the history of

the Canadian brewing and beer drinking. Such themes will include: the birth

of the Canadian brewing industry; brewing and the spirit of Canadian

capitalism; the rise of teetotalism and the working-class saloon; the effect of

war on brewing and beer drinking; prohibition, bootlegging, and the role of

the brewers in creating a beer-drinking nation; beer advertising; the

relationship between beer and sport; the globalization of the Canadian

brewing; and the craft-beer revolution.

Students will be expected to have done the assigned readings and to

contribute to the discussion. During the first half of the course we will be

reading a series of historical works. Students will be asked to make weekly

presentations based on the reading material. During the second half of the

course, students will have the opportunity to research and write their own

papers (20-25 pages) on some aspect of the history of Canadian brewing and

beer drinking. The papers should reflect a solid grasp of the existing

historiography on that topic and should involve some amount of primary

research.

I look forward to exploring this intoxicating topic with you. If any further

information is requested, please do not hesitate to contact me at

[email protected] or drop by my office at 449 Paterson Hall.

HIST 4400A Seminar in U.S. History James Miller


"Popular culture in the nineteenth-century United States“

This seminar will explore the popular culture of the United States from the

early years of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth

century. The seminar will be shaped by several broad questions. What do we

mean when we call culture “popular”? Do we define it, for example, as a

form of entertainment with mass appeal (such as boxing or the minstrel

show) or as a framework of values, assumptions and practices that defines

broad, mainstream, understandings of everyday life; from family relations to

religious observances, from politics to consumerism. Or both? And if both,

what is the relationship between these two kinds of ‘culture’? What can the

historical study of that relationship tell us about U.S. society over the course

of a century that transformed the nation? How does popular culture not only

reflect but also shape the history of the U.S. in the nineteenth century?

In class discussions, presentations and assignments, students will have the

opportunity to explore some of these larger questions through close

examination and analysis of particular areas of culture, including music,

sport, publishing, advertising and public rituals. Specific topics will include

the minstrel show, gambling and sport, novels and magazines, theatres and

music halls, art and photography.

Assignments will include:

Research project, worked on throughout the course and due in the

winter term.

Research project proposal, due in the fall term.



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HIST 4400A cont’d

Regular written responses to the weekly readings, viewings, etc.

Class presentations of assigned readings and of research findings.

Readings will consist of three or four required books as well as weekly

required materials including secondary articles and primary sources.

HIST 4500A Seminar in British History Aleksandra Bennett


"British Society and the Experience of the First World War”

Seminar description

Twenty-fourteen marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

It is a particularly interesting moment, therefore, for critical engagement with

the extraordinarily rich historiography examining British society’s

experience of the First World War. A glance at two websites, sponsored by

Oxford University, the ‘First World War: New Perspectives’

[ http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/first-world-war-new-perspectives] and

‘World War I Centenary – Continuations and Beginnings’

[http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/] provides an accessible introduction to

the innovative research and the variety of theoretical tools and methodologies

which characterize so much of the current work on the First World War. I

would invite students to begin by reading Dr. Dan Todman’s essay, ‘The

First World War in History’ [http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/war-as-

revolution/the-first-world-war-in-history/]. This essay, and the questions it

raises, will serve as the seminar’s point of departure. Over the course of the

year we will not only look at Britain’s experience of the war and its impact

on society and culture, but also at First World War commemoration,

remembrance and the social construction of memory.


The fall term will be devoted to historiographical discussion and to the

honing of bibliographical and research skills. Students will begin work on their

seminar papers (20-25 pages: 40%) in September, by selecting a topic in

consultation with the instructor and preparing a draft proposal and preliminary

bibliography (10%- mid-October). This will be followed by an historiographical

review of the seminar paper topic and final draft of the proposal (20%- late

November). In both terms, regular informed participation will constitute an

important component of the seminar’s work and, together with oral

presentations, will likely be worth about 30%. The winter term seminar

meetings will focus on the historiographical reviews and the seminar papers. A

first draft of the paper will be due at the start of the study break in mid-

February, 2015; the final draft will be due at the end of the winter term. In

preparing the seminar papers, it is expected that students will seek out, to the

fullest extent possible, the widest variety of available primary sources – print

and electronic. (N.B. The items of work and the percentages assigned to them

are still under consideration and may be changed.)

Readings: Arthur Marwick, The Deluge (1965); Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War

*(2008); Dan Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory (2005); Catriona

Pennell, A Kingdom United (2012); M. Roper, The Secret Battle (2009); Tony

Ashworth, Trench warfare, 1914-1918: the live and let live system (1980);

Mark Connelly, Steady the Buffs! A Regiment, a Region, & the Great War

(2006); Janet Watson, Fighting different wars: experience, memory, and the

First World War in Britain (2004); Stephen Heathorn, Haig and Kitchener in

Twentieth-Century Britain. Remembrance, Representation and Appropriation

(2013)

[*Required reading for each member of the seminar]

Best wishes for balance of the winter 2014 term, enjoy your summer ... and

perhaps I'll see you in HIST4500 in 2014-2015

Y.A. Bennett ([email protected])

http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/first-world-war-new-perspectives

http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/war-as-revolution/the-first-world-war-in-history/

http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/war-as-revolution/the-first-world-war-in-history/


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HIST 4505A Seminar in Women’s & Gender History Pamela Walker


"Gender and Victorian Culture”

In 1888, author Mona Caird published an article in the Westminster Review

where she declared marriage a “vexatious failure”. Her article received over

27,000 responses from men and women across Britain and the empire who

debated the future of marriage. In 1909, the novel Ann Veronica caused a

sensation with its depiction of a New Woman, committed to a woman’s right

to choose love over social convention. Feminist activists campaigned for the

repeal of laws regulating prostitution and organized a suffrage movement so

militant that women landed jail on hunger strikes. Victorian is frequently

used as a synonym for repressed, conservative or staid and it is contrasted to

a modern, liberated society. We will reflect critically on that depiction by

examining gender, class, race and empire in everyday life in Victorian

Britain. Many of the readings focus on London and consider its diversity, as

one historian has described “a space of intimate and sometimes tumultuous

encounters between men and women from many walks of life: rich and poor,

unschooled émigrés and Bloomsbury literati, moral purity campaigners and

libertarian anarchists, … queers and heterosexuals, Italians, Jews, Greeks,

Americans, Germans, Swiss, and Britons.”

Course Requirements and evaluation:

During the fall semester, we will read a range of scholarly articles, book

chapters and primary sources. This will provide an understanding of current

historiography and will introduce various questions suitable for the larger

research essay. Each student will give a short class presentation on assigned

readings and will submit three papers of two to three pages each on selected

readings. In January, students will begin research on their selected topic.

They will submit a proposal with a historiographical review of the topic and

a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. A draft of the paper will

be submitted at the middle of winter term and each student will present the

research essay in class. Because there is an abundance of primary source

material readily available, including newspapers, government documents,

correspondence and other personal papers, fiction, and periodicals, students

will have the opportunity to engage in substantial historical research,

culminating in a polished research essay. Students will be expected to attend

all seminars and to participate in class discussions which will be a significant

percentage of their final grade.

Possible Reading List:

Readings will draw on the wide and rich literature in British women’s and

gender history. The readings may include selected chapters from Leonore

Davidoff, Thicker Than Water: Siblings and Their Relations, 1780-1920

(2012), Laura Doan, Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of Modern English

Lesbian Culture (1998), Seth Kovan, Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics

in Victorian London, (2004), Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race,

Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest, (1995), Billie Melman,

Women's Orients: English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918:

Sexuality, Religion, and Work, (1997), Claire Midgley, Feminism and

Empire: Women Activists in Imperial Britain (2007) Erika Rappaport,

Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London’s West End (2000),

Sarah Abravaya Stein, Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and the Lost World

of Global Commerce (2008), and Judith R. Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in

Cosmopolitan London (2012.

For the past three years, I have served as the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies

at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa and I have not taught in

the history department. I look forward to returning to the department in July

2014 and to working with students in this seminar.

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HIST 4603A [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] Carter Elwood

Seminar in Russian and East European History

"Revolutionary Russia, 1900-1921"

(cross-listed with EURR 4203A)

The first decade of the twentieth century was a period of contrasts in Imperial

Russia. The industry of the nation was booming but the urban proletariat

suffered from harsh working conditions, abysmal housing and a lack of trade

union protection. The rich soil of the Russian steppe made the country the

“bread basket of Europe” but the peasantry who produced the grain rarely

owned their own land and were tied to their commune. Pre-war Russia was

seemingly a strong multinational empire but its minorities suffered from

ethnic or religious oppression and often dreamed of independence. Russian

ballet and theatre were second to none in Europe and its well-educated upper

class gloried in the literary and musical output of the “Silver Age”. Many of

the same intelligentsia, however, exposed to the democratic and

constitutional currents of western Europe, chaffed at the lack of

parliamentary government and meaningful civil liberties in their autocratic

homeland. Women, who at last had gained limited access to higher

education, were excluded from most professions and suffered from the

inequities of living in a very patriarchal society. Not surprisingly,

revolutionary, nationalistic and liberal movements grew up seeking to appeal

to these discontented elements of the Russian population.

Had Russia possessed a strong, reform-minded tsar, these grievances might

have been resolved in an evolutionary manner. Unfortunately, Nicholas II

was determined to preserve the privileges of his class and the autocracy

which he had inherited. In 1905 he was forced by urban unrest to grant a

semi-constitution and to create a restricted parliamentary Duma. The

ensuing “experiment in constitutional monarchy” failed to produce results

owing to Nicholas’ intransigence and the unwillingness of the moderate

opposition to compromise. These unresolved grievances and Nicholas’ poor

handling of the First World War only increased the gulf between state and

society. In February 1917 striking factory workers and discontented women

in bread lines, backed by war-weary soldiers in the Petrograd garrison, forced

Nicholas to abdicate. Power passed to two new bodies: a Provisional

Government formed by inexperienced Duma liberals and a Soviet of

Workers and Soldiers Deputies controlled by moderate socialists and backed

by the people who had made the February Revolution. The Provisional

Government unwisely chose to continue the war and to postpone calling the

Constituent Assembly which was to have resolved the land question. These

failures, plus growing class tensions, led to the undermining of the

government both by more radical socialists on the left and by conservative

army officers on the right. The helpless and impotent Provisional

Government soon lost the support of the Soviets and fell to the Bolsheviks in

a popular but surprisingly bloodless upheaval in October 1917.

These are some of the themes and problems this seminar is going to address.

Students will be asked to pick a particular topic relevant to the history of

revolutionary Russia and to investigate it through a consultation of primary

and secondary sources in the library or available electronically. Each student

will present an oral report on his or her findings to the class (worth 10% of

the overall grade) and a written paper of 20 pages to the instructor (worth

50%). The remaining 40% will be determined by the quality of participation

in seminar discussion.

There are no prerequisites but some knowledge of modern Russian history is

desirable. Students lacking this background should consult Rex Wade’s The

Russian Revolution, 1917 (Cambridge, 2000). All participants should obtain

a copy of Ronald Suny and Arthur Adams (eds.), The Russian Revolution

and Bolshevik Victory (Lexington,

1990) which raises important interpretive questions that will be discussed in

class. A reading knowledge of Russian is not required but students who

know the language are encouraged to use it in their research. The instructor

will discuss research techniques, bibliographical aids and historiographical

trends early in the semester.

For further information, please contact me at [email protected].


11

HIST 4604A [0.5 credit – Winter 2015] tba


"Central Europe, Past and Present"


This course will analyze the turbulent nineteenth and twentieth centuries in

Central European history. During this period, the peoples of this region

fought to establish their own identity, forms of community and paths of

development in opposition to various degrees of external domination. The

Habsburg, Ottoman, Prussian/German and Russian states dominated the

region in the 19th century and Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union contended

for it in the 20th. Central Europeans have also had to confront various

internal divisions, as the boundaries of modern states and ethnic nationalities

have rarely coincided.

The course will examine the issues of what is a nation, nation-building and

the treatment of national minorities. We will also analyze other social and

political developments. Significant attention will be paid to the issue of

historical memory and its role in shaping the identity of the peoples living in

what have been called the “Lands Between” or “the Other Europe.” We will

monitor significant economic and social progress, even though this is

frequently punctuated by ethnic cleavages and outbreaks of horrific violence.

The course will conclude with an assessment of events following the fall of

the Berlin Wall and the progress of Central Europe in achieving something

like “normalization.”

A package of readings will be posted on the course website and materials

will also be reserved at the university library. Students may want to consider

purchasing (online is cheapest) some of the texts that we will be relying on

most heavily. Those unfamiliar with the basic background of Eastern

European history may want to consult a basic background text, such as:

Ian D. Armour, A History of Eastern Europe 1740-1918 (Hodder

Arnold, 2007)

Robert Bideleux. A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change

(Routledge, 1998)

R.J. Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century and After

(1997)

Joseph Held (Ed.), The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the

Twentieth Century (Columbia University Press, 1993)

All students will be graded on in-class participation and written assignments.

Active and consistent class participation is vital to succeeding in this class.

Students will be required to make one presentation in class on a topic of

interest related to the syllabus topics and readings for that topic.

Presentations can be accompanied by a Power Point deck illustrating the

subject.

Students will also be required to submit the following items:

A discussion paper addressing the required readings for one specific

week.

A research proposal (1-2 pages).

A bibliographic discussion of the sources to be used in the research

paper.

A research essay on a topic related to the course.

HIST 4605A [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] tba


"The Balkans in Transition – 1918-1989"


The seminar employs the concept of transition to examine the Balkan

Peninsula’s encounter with modernity. It proposes that the modern political,

social and economic history of the Balkans might best be understood through

a series of twentieth century transitions, and that the post-1989 transition is

only the most recent in a series of modern transitions. The first transition

was the period between 1878 and 1912, during which the Balkans emerged

as a distinct post-imperial space, and the Balkan states began to model their

societies on the modern European nation-state. The second transition was


12

HIST 4605A cont’d

the interwar period, the two decades between the Great War and Second

World War (1918-39), when the Balkan states attempted to recover

economically from war and occupation while simultaneously constructing

genuinely democratic societies. The third transition was the period after the

Second World War, when a new political, social and economic order –

Communism – was imposed everywhere, except in Greece.

The seminar will give priority to political and intellectual history but

incorporate social and economic themes in order to measure the nature and

extent of the transitions and their continuities. Similarly, it will assess the

role of the Great Powers in shaping and determining the region’s character

and fate. It is hoped that upon completion of the seminar that students will

have a better understanding of the region’s recent historical development and

nation-building efforts, and how the twentieth century fit into the general

course of the region’s long-term Europeanization.

The seminar grade is based on four distinct components: participation, a class

presentation, research proposal, and research paper.

HIST 4700S Seminar in World History Audra Diptee

"The Invention of ‘Race,’ the History of Racism”

Offered in Summer 2014

May-August, Tues. & Thurs., 0905-1155

What is ‘race’? How have ideas of ‘race’ changed throughout history? In

what ways did different ideas of ‘race’ shape the experiences of people in the

past?

This course aims to answer these questions. In so doing, it will explore the

ways in which notions of ‘race’ changed between the fifteenth and twentieth

centuries, and it will look at the invention of racial categories. Using specific

historical examples, drawn from Africa, Europe, and the Americas, students

will explore how these changing definitions have served to shape the social,

political, and economic landscapes of the modern world.

This is a research based seminar. Class meetings will be grounded in

intensive discussions of the assigned readings. Other course requirements

will be as follows:

1) Research proposal

2) Draft version of essay

3) In-class presentation of research findings

4) Final research paper

HIST 4700A Seminar in World History Audra Diptee


"The Power of the Past: History in the Present”

(precludes additional credit for HIST 4915B offered in winter 2014)

"He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past

controls the future." George Orwell (1903-1950)

Seminar Description

This course explores the power of the history. As the quote above suggests,

history may be about the past, but interpretations of the past are something

we contest everyday. We use our understanding of the past to interpret our

contemporary reality. Historical assumptions are embedded in politics, the

media, and popular culture. How accurate are these historical narratives? If

we were to look at them critically, would we discover that there are other

untold stories? What we know (and do not know) about the past affects the

ways in which we interpret, understand, and imagine the present day. It

affects the stories that we individually tell, our politics, and even our

attitudes towards public policy.

Focusing primarily on the global south (Caribbean, Latin America, and

Africa), this course looks at the way in which history is both produced and

consumed in the public arena. Through specific case studies, the seminar

will engage in debates about historical consciousness, it will look at specific

cases in which history was misrepresented for political purposes, and study

the outcome of those misrepresentations.


13

HIST 4700A cont.d

Course Requirements and Evaluation

Course assignments will include in-class presentations and written

assignments. The final assignment will be a research paper (approximately

20 pages) based on a topic relevant to the course. Students will also be

evaluated on their class participation.

Possible Readings

Students will be exposed to readings that equip them to address historical

myths , the shaping of historical consciousness, and the politics of history.

The readings have not yet been finalized but they will include Margaret

MacMillan, The Use and Abuse of History (2008) and Michel Rolph-

Trouillot, Silencing the Past (1997).

HIST 4802A Seminar in International History Andrew Johnston


"The United States and the collapse of the European order, 1898-1920”

Seminar description

American diplomat George F. Kennan once called the First World War the

"great seminal catastrophe" of the 20th century. It ended much of the liberal

optimism of the European 19th century and created a series of economic and

ideological after-shocks that defined the contours of the global 20th century.

One of these consequences was the emergence of the United States as the

preeminent world power in the 20th century. This course examines that

emergence, traced through America's role during the collapse of the

European order from the close of the 19th century to the end of the First

World War. It is thus an international history of the Great War itself, while

serving also as a comparative investigation of the social and cultural history

of the world's main imperial states at the beginning of this century. Because

the underlying focus is on the peculiar contribution of the United States to

this evolution, the course will spend time examining the origins of American

liberal internationalism, its indebtedness to the intellectual and cultural

tendencies of Progressivism, and its full-flowering under Woodrow Wilson's

ambitions for a "new diplomacy" to replace the European system. The

seminar will therefore engage the rich debates on the origins of the First

World War and close with a careful account of the Paris peace conference of

1919, assessing its implications for understanding the 20th century.


As in most seminars, students will be asked to write a long research paper

based on primary materials. There is an abundance of such material readily

available on the First World War, much of it translated, so the expectations

are high that such papers can indeed be largely based on such documentary

materials. This paper will be due in the middle of the second term, and then

subject of revision before the end of the year. You will be asked to submit

and proposal/outline and a major historiographical review of your topic in the

first term. Students will also be asked to make oral presentations in both

terms. We may even attempt to re-construct the Paris Peace conference itself.

Students, finally, will be expected to attend all seminars and receive a

substantial percentage of their final grade from their in-class participation.

Readings

Some of the works we read are:

Antoine Prost and Jay Winter, The Great War in history: debates and

controversies (2005); D. Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As

Political Tragedy (2004); Erez Manela, The Wilsonian moment: Self-

Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism

(2009); Christopher McKnight Nichols, Promise and peril: America at the

dawn of a global age (2011), Ross A. Kennedy, The will to believe:

Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and America’s strategy for peace and

security (2009); David S. Patterson, The search for negotiated peace:

women’s activism and citizen diplomacy in World War I (2008), R. Craig

Nation, War on war: Lenin, the Zimmerwald Left, and the origins of

communist internationalism (1989/2009); and William Mulligan, The origins

of the First World War (2010).

14

HIST 4805A Transnational or Thematic Topic Joanna Dean


"Beastly Histories: Considering the Animal Kingdom”

Seminar Description

Animals permeate human history as labourers, as companions, as food, as

entertainment, as vermin, and as threats, but until recently non-human

animals were ignored by historians, or seen as static objects rather than active

agents and sentient participants in the past. This class tracks the emerging

field of animal history and asks how we might make non-human animals

subjects of their own histories. What would it mean to write Jumbo the

elephant, Laika the Soviet space dog, Flipper the dolphin, and all their

nameless cousins into the past?

The fall term will be weekly seminars built around six lectures on animal

history given by leading international scholars for the 2014 Shannon Lecture

Series. Students will have an opportunity to meet and discuss the work of

these historians. In the intervening weeks, we will talk about how to write

the history of animals: we will read the best work in animal history; discuss

posthumanism, actor-network theory, and assemblage theory; look at the

philosophical divide between humans and the rest of the natural world; and

consider the question of animal agency. These seminars will provide the

framework for the research essay.

The winter term will focus on researching, discussing, writing and presenting

research essays. Animal history is an interdisciplinary and international field

and students are encouraged to think broadly in choosing their essay topics.

Topics might include:

The history of individual species in a specific place and time: the

draft horse in the First World War, the tiger in colonial India, the

wolf in Banff.

The transnational history of circus elephants, migratory birds, or

influenza viruses.

The display of the animal body in taxidermy, in zoological

gardens, and on film.

Industrial organisms such as Holstein cows, the “Chicken of

Tomorrow,” and laboratory mice.

The history of an individual animal: Rin Tin Tin; Copenhagen

(Napoleon’s horse); Flipper; Jumbo the Elephant.

Vivisection and the rise of animal welfare and animal rights

movements.

Shifting ideas about animal intelligence, animal emotions, and

animal language.

Course Requirements and Evaluation

The first term will be taken up with seminar discussions. In the second term

students will research, present and write a major research essay of 20-25

pages on a topic of their own choosing. Grades will be apportioned roughly

as follows: seminar discussions 20%; essay proposal 10%; workshop

presentation 10%; final presentation 10%; draft essay 20%; final paper 30%.

Students interested in testing the waters may want to browse the readings

below.

History and Theory, Theme Issue on Animal History, 52, 4 (December

2013). See in particular Erica Fudge, “Milking Other Men’s Beasts,” and

Brett Walker, “Animals and the Intimacy of History.”

Susan Schrepfer and Philip Scranton, (eds) Industrializing Organisms:

Introducing Evolutionary History (2003).

Donna Haraway Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, Humans and

Significant Otherness (2003)

Erica Fudge, “A Left Handed Blow: Writing the History of Animals,’

available online at

<www.academia.edu/1387134/A_lefthanded_blow_Writing_the_history_of_

animals>

For more information, please email [email protected]

http://www.academia.edu/1387134/A_left-handed_blow_Writing_the_history_of_animals

http://www.academia.edu/1387134/A_left-handed_blow_Writing_the_history_of_animals


15

HIST 4805B Transnational or Thematic Topic Shawn Graham


"Looted Heritage: The Illicit Antiquities Trade”

By some reckonings, the economic value of the illegal trade in antiquities is

on the same order of magnitude as that for drugs and weapons. This seminar

will explore the 20th century history of looting, heritage crime, and the

damage done by the wanton destruction of cultural heritage to feed this trade.

The investigative reporter Jason Felch (LA Times) recently wrote Chasing

Aphrodite, an expose of the Getty Museum’s involvement in the antiquities

trade. As part of that investigation, Mr. Felch amassed a vast database of

information from antiquities dealers, shady middlemen, and looters from

across the US and Europe. This seminar will partner with Mr. Felch to

investigate this data, using the tools and approaches of the digital humanities

to identifying and analyzing the patterns in the trade. Students in this seminar

will thus make a real contribution to the study of heritage crime, and shed light on a trade conducted in the shadows.

Course requirements and assessment

Students will be required to blog their responses to readings, and their

research, in preparation for each week’s seminar. The major assessment

piece will be an ‘unessay’ based on the primary materials. “In an unessay

you choose your own topic, present it any way you please, and are evaluated

on how compelling and effective you are”.1 Thus an ‘unessay’ could very

well look like a normal research essay, but it could involve creating an online

visualization, an exhibition, video, or other digital outputs. Students will be

expected to learn techniques of data mining and visualization in order to

make sense of the materials provided by Mr. Felch, and materials that the

students themselves discover by visiting the online catalogues of museums,

auction houses, and eBay. Students will be asked to develop a plan/outline

with annotated bibliography in the first term for the ‘unessay’, which will

be due at the end of the second term. Students will be asked and expected to

make oral presentations throughout the year. The students will also make use

of the social media observatory for this trade created by Dr. Graham,

1 http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Teaching/the-unessay

heritage.crowdmap.com as another source of data and for considering how the trade is perceived by the public.

Possible readings:

Renfrew, Colin. Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in

Archaeology. London: Duckworth, 2000.

Lazrus, Paula K. And A. Barker (eds). All the King’s Horses: Essays on the

Impact of Looting and the Illicit Antiquities Trade on Our Knowledge of the Past. Austin: SAA, 2012.

Marlowe, Elizabeth. Shaky Ground: Context, Connoisseurship and the

History of Roman Art. Debates in Archaeology. London: Bloomsbury

Academic, 2013. http://catalogue.library.carleton.ca/record=b3486847~S9

Hoffman, Barbara T., ed. Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy, and

Practice. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. http://catalogue.library.carleton.ca:80/record=b2293643~S9

Green, Penny, and S. R. M. Mackenzie, eds. Criminology and Archaeology:

Studies in Looted Antiquities. Oñati International Series in Law and Society.

Oxford ; Portland, Or: Hart Publishing, 2009.

http://catalogue.library.carleton.ca:80/record=b2609135~S9

More possible readings may be viewed at:

http://electricarchaeology.ca/2014/03/13/hist4805b-looted-heritage-the-

illicit-antiquities-trade/

http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Teaching/the-unessay#topic

http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Teaching/the-unessay#style

http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Teaching/the-unessay#grading

http://catalogue.library.carleton.ca/record=b3486847~S9



http://electricarchaeology.ca/2014/03/13/hist4805b-looted-heritage-the-illicit-antiquities-trade/

http://electricarchaeology.ca/2014/03/13/hist4805b-looted-heritage-the-illicit-antiquities-trade/

16

HIST 4915A [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] Paul Litt

Topics in History


"History of Tourism”

Seminar Description

Tourism has become one of the leading industries in the world and a

favoured economic development strategy for governments on all levels. This

course will explore the rise of tourism as a form of leisure activity with an

emphasis on its cultural origins and effects.

Readings

Readings will focus on the development of domestic tourism from the

nineteenth through the twentieth centuries, drawing, as appropriate, on

theoretical perspectives. Topics to be explored include the nature of the

tourist experience, the history of mass tourism as a form of consumption in

modern capitalist economies, and the effects of tourism marketing and tourist

visits on our understandings of places, people, heritage and identity.

Another focus of interest will be the tensions created by class, ethnic, gender

and urban-rural differentiation in tourist activities and tourism employment,

and resulting forms of resistance to tourism. We will explore different forms

of tourism promotion and how they have affected interpretations of the

cultural landscapes of different regions of Canada. Consideration will also be

given to the sustainability of Canada’s natural and cultural tourism resources.

In examining these and other topics we will explore whether tourism history

requires a distinctive methodological approach. This will involve assessing

the utility of various types of sources—guidebooks, brochures, travel

narratives, government studies, advertising, diaries, etc.--for uncovering the

effects of the tourist experience on the tourist and on the community

presenting itself to the tourist.

Evaluations

Evaluation will be based on your participation in class discussion of

readings, your leadership of class discussion during one seminar, a research

essay proposal, and a major research essay.

HIST 4915B [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] Daniel McNeil

Topics in History


“Global Intellectuals”

One rarely hears anyone define themselves as an intellectual. The very word

conjures up images of pretentious, arrogant, and self-important figures and –

especially when preceded by terms such as ‘global’ or ‘public’ – can seem a

rather brazen attempt to attract the attention of corporate sponsors and

consumers in mass-media-infused cultures.

This course addresses the climate of distrust that has accompanied

discussions of global intellectuals. More pointedly, it also examines the

determination of global intellectuals to examine political, social, economic

and cultural life with dreadful objectivity, radical imagination, and

idiosyncratic flair. We will range broadly across time in order to cover global

intellectuals in politics, business, technology, arts, sciences from the

nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century; survey the present with

the optic of the historian; and investigate the past with the perspective of the

living. We will also range broadly over space, discuss global intellectuals

from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, and engage

the cultures and languages of others with the equipment of the

internationalist.

Course requirements and evaluation The course will involve short reflection papers and debates in which you

explore definitional questions (e.g. what is a global intellectual? Can it be a

blogger, comedian, scientist, or historian?), as well as intellectual practice

and impact (e.g. how does an intellectual function in the public sphere? How

have intellectuals inspired and provoked their audiences?).

The course will also involve a major paper in which you will be asked to

engage with historical and contemporary debates about global intellectuals.

This might involve an intellectual biography of one figure, an analysis of a

particular group of intellectuals (who share national, imperial, generational,

political or ideological ties), or a critical study of globalization and

intellectual life.


17

HIST 4915B cont’d

Students will be expected to attend all seminars and receive a substantial

percentage of their final grade from their in-class participation.

Possible readings The reading list will likely include:

G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807); F. Douglass, Narrative

of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire

of Louis Napoleon (1852); S. Zweig, Decisive Moments in History (1927);

C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins (1938); S. Biko, I Write What I Like

(1978); E. Said, Orientalism (1978); A. Bloom, The Closing of the American

Mind (1987) A. Djebar, Fantasia (1989); M. Kundera, Ignorance (1999); G.

Stephens, On Racial Frontiers (1999); G.E. Clarke, Odysseys Home (2002);

G. Farrad, What’s My Name? Black Vernacular Intellectuals (2003); A.

Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003); E. Lott, The Disappearing Liberal

Intellectual (2006); S. Collini, Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain (2006);

S. Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti and Universal History (2009); T. Moi, Simone

de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (2009); M. Zoller Seitz,

The Wes Anderson Collection (2013).

HIST 4915C [0.5 credit – Fall 2014] W.R. Laird

Topics in History


"The Galileo Affair”

Professor W. R. Laird, Paterson Hall 419, 520-2600 x 2833

In 1633, the Roman Inquisition found Galileo Galilei guilty of “vehement

suspicion of heresy” for holding the Copernican view that the earth moved

and the sun stood still, contrary to the authoritative interpretation of the Bible

and in violation of the 1616 decree against Copernicanism. In this seminar,

we shall examine the events leading up to the decree of 1616 and to the

condemnation of Galileo through the original letters, depositions, and

diplomatic correspondence, and follow the course of the trial through the

inquisitorial records. Some of the documents we shall read have only

recently been made available from the archives of the Inquisition.

Seminars three hours a week.

Required Text: The following will be available at All Books (327 Rideau

Street, next to the Bytown Cinema, tel. 789-9544):

Finocchiaro, Maurice. The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History.

Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1989.

Grades for the course will be based on several oral seminar presentations

and on written analyses of several of the documents.

18

HIST 4915D [0.5 credit – Winter 2015] Danielle Kinsey

Topics in History


“British Imperialism, 1851-1902”

Seminar description

This course will enable students to write a research paper on a topic within

what was arguably the most tumultuous fifty years in British imperial

history, the so-called age of “High Imperialism,” for our purposes beginning

with the Great Exhibition of 1851 and ending with the second South African

War (1899-1902). This was a period of unprecedented British power typified

by colonial dominance in Africa, the development of global British-

controlled shipping, communications, and financial networks, and belief in

English racial superiority. At the same time, major rebellions in India and

Jamaica, the growth (and partial success) of independence movements in

Ireland, Canada, and Australia, shaky military performances in the Crimean,

Zulu, and South African Wars, and the rise of American, German, and

Japanese industrial might, challenged visions of British supremacy at every

turn. In this course we will explore the ways in which proponents of the

British Empire sought to establish imperial/colonial rule and how this was

resisted, negotiated, and accommodated amidst a field of ever-increasing

international competition. How imperial history is written will be a perpetual

topic of discussion. More specific topics will likely include: technological

infrastructure and the railroad as a symbol of imperial power; gender as a

useful category of analysis in imperial history; Joseph Chamberlain and

bureaucratic history; international exhibitions, museums, and imperial

culture; novels and poetry as sources for imperial history; historical

contingency and debates about “Home Rule” and “Imperial Citizenship”;

racism, power, and the election of Dadabhai Naoroji to Parliament; and how

seemingly local rebellions and controversies in the empire had far-ranging

effects.


The goal of this course is to give students a space to write a long research

paper based on primary materials about the British imperial past between

1851 and 1902. Because this course will only last one semester, little

emphasis will be placed on covering the content of what happened in this

period, and much emphasis will be placed on the process of identifying a

viable topic, researching it, critically analyzing primary material, situating

analyses within historiographical debates, and writing the final paper. In that

regard, students are encouraged to think of this class as a research-intensive

writing workshop. Students will be asked to do quizzes on grammar and

submit proposals and work schedules very early in the semester. They will

be asked to share short excerpts of their work (4-5 pages) at regular intervals

with their peers, critique others’ work in a professional manner, and revise

their own writing based on these critiques. They may be asked to present

their research findings in a class conference setting. The revised final draft of

the long research essay will be handed in by the end of term. A substantial

percentage of the final grade will be based on in-class participation.

Possible readings

Wayne C. Booth et alia, The Craft of Research (3rd

edition, 2008); Philippa

Levine, The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset (2007); Antoinette Burton,

Politics and Empire in Victorian Britain (2006); Michael Adas, Machines as

the Measure of Man (1992); Thomas Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (1995);

Robert Kubicek, The Administration of Imperialism (1969); Annie Coombes,

Reinventing Africa (1997); Jeffrey Auerbach, Britain, the Empire, and the

World at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (2013); Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of

Darkness (1996)

For more information contact: [email protected]

Office: 422 PA


Documents

Department of History All - carleton.ca