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Majors must take two seminars (or their equivalent) in two different geographic areas: Asia, Europe, Latin America, Russia, or U.S. Seminars with a broader geographic focus (e.g. HIS 328) can be sorted into one of these categories based on the focus of your research paper.
Fall Semester 2000
HIS 316.01. "The Civil Rights Crusade: Its Achievements, Limitations, and Historical Legacy." This seminar will examine the emergence, development, and demise of the civil rights movement from the founding of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 to the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 and its aftermath. The texts, documents, documentaries, and Hollywood films will focus on leaders such as James Farmer, Jo Ann Robinson, King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, and Fred Shuttlesworth, but they will also explore the civil rights crusade as a mass movement that mobilized unprecedented numbers of black Americans at the local, regional, state, and national levels. The emphasis in the course will be on the movement itself and the perceptions and agitation of African Americans, but the national climate of opinion, the legacy of racial prejudice, and the response of the federal government to the movement will also receive attention. Besides looking at the mainstream movement and leaders, students
will be encouraged to examine the lives and times of previously neglected or secondary figures in the racial revolution of the 1950s and 1960s-Jackie Robinson, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Maya Angelou, Sidney Poitier, Muhammad Ali, Shirley Chisholm, and Dick Gregory. Each student will lead at least one class discussion and will prepare a research paper based mainly on primary source research. carry the class discussions, define a major research project, produce an original paper, and present an oral report on their topic. The class will first focus on common readings and discussions, then shift to individual research and class reports. Prerequisites: HIS 112, HIS 227, or permission of the instructor. 4 credits. Mr. Hietala.
HIS 329.01. "Latin America and the United States." As the saying goes, Latin America lies too far from God and too close to the United States. This proximity has affected Latin American economics, demographics, culture, and politics. The seminar will begin with an overview of US-Latin American relations from the Monroe Doctrine to the Bay of Pigs. We will then concentrate on the crucial period between World War I and World War II when the United States and Latin America redefined their relationship. Students will then write a research paper using primary documents available here at Grinnell. These papers could focus on any one of a number of issues that were central to US-Latin American relations in the inter-war period such as hemispheric security, economic affairs, fascism, and socialism. A reading knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is helpful but not required.
Mr. Silva. PREREQUISITE: a 200-level course on Latin America or the United States.
HIS 331.01. "Rebellion in Pre-Industrial Europe." In this seminar we will explore popular and noble rebellion in medieval and early modern Europe. Drawing on histories of particular rebellions, theoretical models, and primary sources, we will attempt to understand the causes and nature of rebellions in pre-industrial Europe and to decode their symbolic language. Special attention will be given to the misleadingly-named English Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the German Peasant War of 1525, and urban and rural uprisings incited by the French Wars of Religion. Course work includes active participation in class discussions, and group work in and out of class on primary documents leading up to an in-class presentation and a short paper. Your preliminary group work will also provide the springboard for a somewhat longer independent research paper and in-class presentation. Prerequisites- either HUM 140, HIS 233, HIS 234, HIS 235, or permission of the instructor
HIS 395.01 "Debate Over Equal Rights Amendment 1920-1982."
Spring Semester 2001
HIS 325.01 "Popular Politics in the U.S., 1763-1877." Ms. Purcell.
Even before many of them could vote, Americans found many ways to make their opinions on political and social issues known and to affect the distribution of power in society as they defined for themselves what democracy meant. Students in this seminar will research and write
significant papers exploring some aspect of popular politics between 1763 and 1877--how men and women of diverse races, classes, and backgrounds took actions to define American politics. Topics open for study will include: women's rights meetings, benevolent societies, moral reform movements, anti-slavery petition drives, social protests, vigilante movements, parades and festivals, Union Leagues, early labor organizations, patriotic monuments, riots and rebellions, and civic celebrations. 4 credits. Ms. Purcell.
HIS 335.01. "Calvinism." An examination of the power of a set of ideas. Prepared by a major shift in medieval thought, the Reformation theologians lit a fire that convulsed Europe, spreading to the New World. The doctrine of John Calvin was particularly influential in Great Britain and the Netherlands, becoming a formative influence in their colonies, New England and South Africa in particular. This seminar will examine Calvin's ideas and the ways that they influenced society and politics in England, Scotland, the Netherlands, New England, and South Africa. Prerequisites: HIS 211, HIS 234, HIS 235, HIS 261, or permission of instructor. 4 credits. Mr. Drake.
HIS 336.01. "Parliamentary Government in Victorian Britain." In the early nineteenth century the British constitution could be fairly described as aristocratic, Protestant, and, in the late twentieth-century sense of the term, "patriarchal." The seminar will examine the various responses of the British governing elite to "pressures from without"-from Roman Catholics (mostly Irish), from working men, and from women-for inclusion within the constitution. At the conclusion of the seminar we shall consider in what ways those pressures and the responses to them changed the theory and the practice of Parliamentary government. Prerequisites: HIS 236 or permission of the instructor. 4 credits. Mr. Smith.
History 339.01. "Dictatorship and Democracy in Modern Germany." Our joint readings in this seminar will introduce students to some of the major debates between historians regarding the causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the mentality of the Nazis and the distinctive features of the regime they created, and the causes of the success of democratic institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany. Students will then be asked to choose a research topic in one of these three areas for detailed analysis in a twenty-page paper that relates the opinions of the historians to the primary sources. A reading knowledge of German is very useful but not required, since a great many primary sources on Nazism and the Third Reich have been translated into English. PREREQUISITE: History 238 or History 101. Mr. Patch.
HIS 375.01. "The East-Asian Discovery of Europe, 1520-1830." This course will examine the first series of full contacts between Europe and East Asia during the three centuries following the Chinese purchase of a cannon from the Portuguese in 1520. It will focus on the patterns of cultural penetration of the Europeans as well as on the East-Asian responses to Christianity, military technology, and international trade. Readings will include first-hand accounts of mutual perceptions of the European and the East-Asian peoples. Prerequisite: HIS 275, 276, 277, or 278. 4 credits.
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