Hum/H 1 ab
East Asian History
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
Late imperial values, institutions, and behaviors and their evolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hum/H 1 a will deal largely with China, and Hum/H 1 b with Japan. The readings will consist of selected thematic texts as well as a chronological textbook. Each term is independent of the other, and students will normally take only one of the two terms. Not offered 2009-10.
Hum/H 2
American History
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
Among the major events, trends, and problems of our country's history are the American Revolution, the framing and development of the Constitution, wars, slavery and emancipation, ethnic and gender relations, immigration, urbanization, westward conquest, economic fluctuations, changes in the sizes and functions of governments, foreign relations, class conflicts, domestic violence, and social and political movements. Although no one course can treat all of these themes, each freshman American history course will deal with two or more of them. How have American historians approached them? What arguments and evidence have scholars offered for their interpretations and how can we choose between them? In a word, what can we know about our heritage?
Instructor:
Kousser
Hum/H 3 abc
European Civilization
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course will be divided into three terms, each of which will focus on a coherent period in the history of European civilization. Each term is independent of the others, and students will normally take only one of the three terms.
Hum/H 4 abc
Civilization, Science, and Archaeology
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course will be divided into three terms, each of which will focus on a particular aspect of pre-classical antiquity or premodern science. Each term is independent of the others, and students will normally take only one of the three terms.
Instructor:
Buchwald
Hum/H/HPS 10
Introduction to the History of Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
Major topics include the following: What are the origins of modern Western science, when did it emerge as distinct from philosophy and other cultural and intellectual productions, and what are its distinguishing features? When and how did observation, experiment, quantification, and precision enter the practice of science? What were some of the major turning points in the history of science? What is the changing role of science and technology? Using primary and secondary sources, students will take up significant topics in the history of science, from ancient Greek science to the 20th- century revolution in physics, biology, and technology. Hum/H/HPS 10 may be taken for credit toward the additional 36-unit HSS requirement by HPS majors and minors who have already fulfilled their freshman humanities requirement and counts as a history course in satisfying the freshman humanities breadth requirement.
Instructor:
History staff
Hum/H/HPS 11
History of Astronomy and Cosmology
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
A consideration of the entire history of astronomy and cosmology, the oldest of all the sciences, from antiquity to the late 20th century, from the Babylonians to the Big Bang. The course will be devoted to repeating the procedures used in earlier astronomy and working directly with the primary sources.
Instructor:
Swerdlow
H 40
Reading in History
Units to be determined for the individual by the division
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Elective, in any term
Reading in history and related subjects, done either in connection with the regular courses or independently, but under the direction of members of the department. A brief written report will usually be required. Graded pass/fail. Not available for credit toward humanities-social science requirement.
H 98
Reading in History
9 units (1-0-8)
Prerequisites: instructor's permission.
An individual program of directed reading in history, in areas not covered by regular courses.
Instructor:
Staff
H 99 abc
Research Tutorial
9 units (1-0-8)
Prerequisites: instructor's permission.
Students will work with the instructor in the preparation of a research paper, which will form the basis of an oral examination.
Instructor:
Staff
H 108 a
The Early Middle Ages
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
This course is designed to introduce students to the formative period of Western medieval history, roughly from the fourth through the tenth centuries. It will emphasize the development of a new civilization from the fusion of Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions, with a focus on the Frankish world. The course focuses on the reading, analysis, and discussion of primary sources.
Instructor:
Brown
H 108 b
The High Middle Ages
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course is designed to introduce students to European history between 1000 and 1400. It will provide a topical as well as chronological examination of the economic, social, political, and religious evolution of western Europe during this period, with a focus on France, Italy, England, and Germany. The course emphasizes the reading, analysis, and discussion of primary sources.
Instructor:
Brown
H 109
Medieval Knighthood
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
This course tells the story of the knight from his beginnings in the early Middle Ages, through his zenith in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, to his decline and transformation in the late medieval and early modern periods. The course treats the knight not simply as a military phenomenon but also as a social, political, religious, and cultural figure who personified many of the elements that set the Middle Ages apart. Not offered 2009-10.
H 110
Saints, Sinners, and Sexuality in the Medieval World
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course will investigate medieval conceptions of sanctity, transgression, and appropriate behavior for men and women. We will examine institutions as well as individuals, and explore real situations as well as the imaginary realms created in romances and manuscript marginalia. From the earliest Christian martyrs to Joan of Arc, we will investigate a wide range of sources-literary, artistic, and documentary-to get at the often contradictory but always fascinating intersections of faith, gender, and the forbidden in the medieval world.
Instructor:
Clark
H 111
The Medieval Church
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course takes students through the history of the medieval Christian Church in Europe, from its roots in Roman Palestine, through the zenith of its power in the high Middle Ages, to its decline on the eve of the Reformation. The course focuses on the church less as a religion (although it will by necessity deal with some basic theology) than as an institution that came to have an enormous political, social, cultural, and economic impact on medieval life, and for a brief time made Rome once more the mistress of Europe. Not offered 2009-10.
H 112
The Vikings
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course will take on the Scandinavian seafaring warriors of the 8th-11th centuries as a historical problem. What were the Vikings, where did they come from, and how they did they differ from the Scandinavian and north German pirates and raiders who preceded them? Were they really the horned-helmeted, bloodthirsty barbarians depicted by modern popular media and by many medieval chronicles? What effect did they have in their roughly two centuries of raiding and colonization on the civilizations of medieval and ultimately modern Europe? Not offered 2009-10.
H 115 abc
British History
9 units (3-0-6)
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first, second, third terms
The political and cultural development of Great Britain from the early modern period to the 20th century. H 115 a covers the Reformation and the making of a Protestant state (1500-1700). H 115 b examines the Enlightenment and British responses to revolutions in France and America (1700-1830). H 115 c is devoted to the Victorian and Edwardian eras (1830-1918). H 115 a is not a prerequisite for H 115 b; neither it nor H 115 b is a prerequisite for H 115 c.
Instructor:
Staff
H 116
Studies in Narrative: History, Fiction, and Storytelling
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
This course examines the fraught relationship between historical and literary narratives, two interdependent but often opposed forms of storytelling. It will look at works that raise the issue of veracity and storytelling, including fictions like Graham Swift's Waterland, films such as Kurosawa's Rashomon, and the "historical novellas" in Simon Schama's book Dead Certainties. It will also investigate in some detail the works of American, French, and Italian historians who have tried to solve this problem by turning to so-called microhistory. Not offered 2009-10.
Instructor:
Brewer
H 118
Histories of Collecting
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course examines the history and theory of collecting, concentrating on collectors, collections, and collecting in the West since the Renaissance. It will include field trips to collections around Los Angeles, including the Huntington Art Gallery and the Museum of Jurassic Technology, and the examination of issues such as forgery and the workings of art markets.
Instructor:
Brewer
H 119
Art Worlds
9 units (3-0-6)
Among theorists and practitioners of art, the "art world" has come to be seen as a central force in the production of contemporary art. But what is the art world? When and how did it come to assume this remarkable importance? Drawing on resources including social history, philosophical aesthetics, artists' writings and anthropological theory, this course will examine crucial moments in the formation and changing conception of the art world. Topics include the relation of art worlds to the valuation, collecting, and market for art; the ambivalent relations of the art world to artistic avant-gardes; and the comparative strength of the art world's position in the age of 21st-century globalization. Objects from local collections, and local collections themselves, will be central to the analysis. The course will include a number of field trips as well as presentations by contemporary artists.
Instructors:
Brewer, Hunter
H 121
American Radicalism
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
The course will cover a number of radical social, political, and artistic movements in 20th-century America. A focus on the first two decades of the century will center around the poet, journalist, and revolutionary John Reed and his circle in Greenwich Village. Topics will include their involvement with artistic experimentation, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Mexican Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the movements for birth control and against American involvement in World War I. Other areas of concentration will be the Great Depression of the '30s, with its leftist political and labor actions, and the freewheeling radicalism of the '60s, including the anti-Vietnam protests, Students for a Democratic Society, and the ethnic struggles for social and political equality. Some reference will be made to the anti- globalization movements of today. Not offered 2009-10.
H 122
Household and Family Forms over Time
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course examines the wide variety of family forms and household structures in past societies, as well as the social, cultural, institutional, and economic variables that influenced them. The course focuses mainly on Europe from about 1600 to the present, as this is the area for which most research has been done, but there will be some discussion of other parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Special attention is given to comparisons among different societies. Not offered 2009-10.
H/SS 124
Problems in Historical Demography
9 units (3-0-6)
Birth, marriage, and death-the most basic events in people's lives-are inextricably linked to larger economic and social phenomena. An understanding of these basic events can thus shed light on the economic and social world inhabited by people in the past. In this course students will be introduced to the sources and methods used by historical demographers to construct demographic measures for past populations. In addition, the course will cover a broad range of problems in historical demography, including mortality crises, fertility control, infant mortality, and the role of economic and social institutions in demographic change. While the emphasis is on societies in the past, there will be some discussion of modern demographic trends in various parts of the world.
Instructor:
Dennison
H 130
Postmodern History
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
In recent years some historians have experimented with new and innovative ways of telling the pastÂ-on the printed page, using film and video, and on the Internet. The course will focus on these new approaches to historical presentation and knowledge. Students will read, watch, and interact with various examples of these innovative historical works. They will also be exposed to the critiques of traditional historical writing from philosophers, literary critics, and postmodern theorists, which provide intellectual underpinning for experimenting with new forms of history. Not offered 2009-10.
H/F 131
History on Film
9 units (2-2-5)
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third term
An investigation into the variety of ways history has been and can be represented on the screen. Some terms the focus will be a specific historical period or nation; other terms the focus will be the nature of film as a medium for history and biography. The class will include weekly screenings of films as well as weekly discussion sections.
Instructor:
Rosenstone
H/F 133
Topics in Film History
9 units (2-2-5)
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offered by announcement
The course will focus each term on one kind of motion picture-either a film genre, or films made by an individual director, or from a single nation or region of the world or particular historical era. Included are weekly screenings, readings on film, a weekly discussion meeting, and a term paper.
Instructor:
Rosenstone
H/F 134
The Science Fiction Film
9 units (2-2-5)
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third term
This course will introduce students to some of the classic works of the science fiction film from the earliest days of cinema until the present. It will analyze aesthetic, historical, and social documents, and will show that such films, while describing alternative, hypothetical, and futurist worlds, also serve as a commentary upon and/or a critique of contemporary (to the film) historical, social, political, and ideological systems and attitudes.
Instructor:
Rosenstone
H 135
War, Conquest, and Empires
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course will use historical examples of war and conquest and ask why some periods of history were times of warfare and why certain countries developed a comparative advantage in violence. The examples will come from the history of Europe and Asia, from ancient times up until World War I, and the emphasis throughout will be on the interplay between politics, military technology, and social conditions. Not offered 2009-10.
Instructor:
Hoffman
H/F 136
Ethnic Visions
9 units (2-2-5)
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offered by announcement
In recent decades, directors from ethnic minorities that are often un- or misrepresented in mainstream Hollywood films have been making dramatic features depicting the history, problems, and prospects of their own communities. This course will feature a selection of such films by directors from African, Latino, Asian, Muslim, and European American ethnic groups, with an eye toward assessing the similarities and differences in the processes of immigration, acculturation, and Americanization. Not offered 2009-10.
H/L 142
Perspectives on History through Russian Literature
9 units (3-0-6), second term
The Russian intelligentsia registered the arrival of modern urban society with a highly articulate sensitivity, perhaps because these changes-industrialization, the breakdown of traditional hierarchies and social bonds, the questioning of traditional beliefs-came to Russia so suddenly. This gives their writings a paradigmatic quality; the modern dilemmas that still haunt us are made so eloquently explicit in them that they have served as models for succeeding generations of writers and social critics. This course explores these writings (in English translation) against the background of Russian society, focusing especially on particular works of Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Tolstoy, and Turgenev.
Instructor:
Dennison
Law/PS/H 148 ab
The Supreme Court in U.S. History
9 units (3-0-6)
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second, third terms
The development of the Supreme Court, its doctrines, personalities, and role in U.S. history through analyses of selected cases. The first half of the course, which is a prerequisite for the second half but may also be taken by itself, will deal with such topics as federalism, economic regulation, political rights, and free speech. The second half will cover such issues as the rights of the accused, equal protection, and privacy.
Instructor:
Kousser
Art/H 155
Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
This course examines interactions between art, science, and technological innovation in Europe and its colonies ca. 1500-1750. It will explore influential arguments that have linked the growth of empiricism in the sciences to naturalism in early modern visual art. Major topics may include the place of artistic training in scientific discovery, the "maker's knowledge" tradition, and relations of mind to body in early modern visual culture. Objects and images from local collections will be central to analysis.
Instructor:
Hunter
HPS/H 156
The History of Modern Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
Selected topics in the development of the physical and biological sciences since the 17th century. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H 158
The Scientific Revolution
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
The birth of modern Western science from 1400 to 1700. The course examines the intellectual revolution brought about by the contributions of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Kepler, Newton, and Harvey, and their relation to major political, social, and economic developments.
HPS/H 159
The Cold War and American Science
9 units (3-0-6)
This course examines the growth of science in America after World War II, and its relation to Cold War geopolitics. Topics will include the growth of the American research university; the establishment and role of the national laboratory system; the role of federal funding agencies including ONR, NSF, NIH, and DARPA; and the impact of geopolitical considerations and priorities on scientific research and knowledge.
Instructor:
Oreskes
HPS/H 160 ab
Einstein and His Generation: The History of Modern Physical Sciences
9 units (3-0-6)
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first, third terms
An exploration of the most significant scientific developments in the physical sciences, structured around the life and work of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), with particular emphasis on the new theories of radiation, the structure of matter, relativity, and quantum mechanics. While using original Einstein manuscripts, notebooks, scientific papers, and personal correspondence, we shall also study how experimental and theoretical work in the sciences was carried out; scientific education and career patterns; personal, political, cultural, and sociological dimensions of science. Not offered 2009-10.
H 161
Selected Topics in History
9 units (3-0-6)
; offered by announcement.
Instructors:
Staff, visiting lecturers
HPS/H 162
Social Studies of Science
9 units (3-0-6), third term
A comparative, multidisciplinary course that examines the practice of science in a variety of locales, using methods from the history, sociology, and anthropology of scientific knowledge. Topics covered include the high-energy particle laboratory as compared with a biological one; Western as compared to non-Western scientific reasoning; the use of visualization techniques in science from their inception to virtual reality; gender in science; and other topics.
Instructor:
Feingold
HPS/H 166
Historical Perspectives on the Relations between Science and Religion
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
The course develops a framework for understanding the changing relations between science and religion in Western culture since antiquity. Focus will be on the ways in which the conceptual, personal, and social boundaries between the two domains have been reshaped over the centuries. Questions to be addressed include the extent to which a particular religious doctrine was more or less amenable to scientific work in a given period, how scientific activity carved an autonomous domain, and the roles played by scientific activity in the overall process of secularization.
Instructor:
Feingold
HPS/H 167
Experimenting with History/Historic Experiment
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course uses a combination of lectures with hands-on laboratory work to bring out the methods, techniques, and knowledge that were involved in building and conducting historical experiments. We will connect our laboratory work with the debates and claims made by the original discoverers, asking such questions as how experimental facts have been connected to theories, how anomalies arise and are handled, and what sorts of conditions make historically for good data. Typical experiments might include investigations of refraction, laws of electric force, interference of polarized light, electromagnetic induction, or resonating circuits and electric waves. We will reconstruct instrumentation and experimental apparatus based on a close reading of original sources.
Instructor:
Buchwald
HPS/H 168
History of Electromagnetism and Heat Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
This course covers the development of electromagnetism and thermal science from its beginnings in the early 18th century through the early 20th century. Topics covered include electrostatics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics, Maxwell's field theory, the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics as well as related experimental discoveries. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H 169
Selected Topics in the History of Science and Technology
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
Instructors:
Staff, visiting lecturers
HPS/H 170
History of Light from Antiquity to the 20th Century
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
A study of the experimental, mathematical, and theoretical developments concerning light, from the time of Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D. to the production of electromagnetic optics in the 20th century.
Instructor:
Buchwald
HPS/H 171
History of Mechanics from Galileo through Euler
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
Prerequisites: basic Caltech physics course.
This course covers developments in mechanics, as well as related aspects of mathematics and models of nature, from just before the time of Galileo through the middle of the 18th century, which saw the creation of fluid and rotational dynamics in the hands of Euler and others. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H 172
History of Mathematics: A Global View with Close-ups
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
The course will provide students with a brief yet adequate survey of the history of mathematics, characterizing the main developments and placing these in their chronological, cultural, and scientific contexts. A more detailed study of a few themes, such as Archimedes' approach to infinite processes, the changing meanings of "analysis" in mathematics, Descartes' analytic geometry, and the axiomatization of geometry c. 1900; students' input in the choice of these themes will be welcomed. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H/Pl 173
History of Chemistry
9 units (3-0-6)
|
first term
This course examines developments in chemistry from medieval alchemy to the time of Lavoisier. It will examine the real content of alchemy and its contributions to modern science, as well as how to decode its bizarre language; chemistry's long quest for respect and academic status; the relations of chemistry with metallurgy, medicine, and other fields; and the content and development of the chemical theories and the chemical laboratory and its methods. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H 174
Early Greek Astronomy
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
The course will highlight the background and some of the landmarks in the evolution of Greek astronomy from its tentative beginnings in the 5th century B.C., to its culmination in the work of Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D.
Instructor:
Toomer
HPS/H 175
Matter, Motion, and Force: Physical Astronomy from Ptolemy to Newton
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
The course will examine how elements of knowledge that evolved against significantly different cultural and religious backgrounds motivated the great scientific revolution of the 17th century. Not offered 2009-10.
HPS/H 178
Galileo's Astronomy and Conflicts with the Church
9 units (3-0-6)
|
second term
. Galileo's discoveries with the telescope and arguments for the heliocentric theory radically transformed the System of the World, as it was called, and resulted in his being brought before the Inquisition, the most famous single event in the history of science. The readings will be Galileo's Sidereal Messenger, Letters on Sunspots, The Assayer, Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World, and documents concerned with Galileo's conflicts with the Church in 1616 and 1633. Not offered 2009-10.
Instructor:
Swerdlow
HPS/H 179
Cambridge Scientific Minds: How We See Them; How They See Themselves
9 units (3-0-6)
Cambridge University has long been a world center for science. Using biography, autobiography, novel, and historical studies, this course will examine and analyze the thought of Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, Watson, Crick, and Hawking.
Instructor:
Wilson
HPS/H 180
Physics and Philosophy from the Scientific Revolution to the 20th Century
9 units (3-0-6)
This course will examine the interplay between the theoretical understanding of physical nature and the philosophical definition of reliable knowledge. It will investigate this intellectual interplay in the work of Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Hume, Maxwell, and Einstein.
Instructor:
Wilson
HPS/H 181
Evidence, Measurement, and the Uses of Data in the Early Modern Period
9 units (3-0-6)
From treatises about geography and astronomy to the history of plants and animals, early modern Natural philosophy provided an astonishingly broad background of research agendas. The course will examine the manner in which observations were carried out and evidence weighed, both in university settings and in the field. Topics to be addressed include the changing perceptions regarding the reliability of the senses; the contribution of instruments to accumulation of reliable knowledge; the standardization of data and its presentation; and the emergence of new argumentative strategies.
Instructor:
Goeing
HPS/H 182
Show and Tell: 3-D Models for the Visualization of Complex Concepts in the 16th and 17th Centuries
9 units (3-0-6)
Early modern artists and scholars of all disciplines routinely built three-dimensional objects in order to represent complex concepts and appearances. Some rendered visible abstract formulas in geometrical forms like the movement of the stars; others schematized complex work-flows like drainage systems, or the geographical conditions on Earth; still others proposed costly projects, such as the cupola of St. Peter in Rome, on the basis of a model. These models-many of which still survive-were constructed according to precise rules and regulations, as well as personal taste. The course will offer an introduction to the significance of three-dimensional models in the early modern period, and the manner in which they were crafted and used by artists, physicians, and natural philosophers.
Instructor:
Goeing
Published Date:
July 28, 2022