2015-16 Catalog | Caltech Academic Catalog

Hum/H 1 ab

East Asian History

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

Hum/H 2

American History

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 a

European Civilization: The Classical and Medieval Worlds

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

Will survey the evolution of Mediterranean and European civilization from antiquity through the end of the Middle Ages. It will emphasize the reading and discussion of primary sources, especially but not exclusively literary works, against the backdrop of the broad historical narrative of the periods. The readings will present students with the essential characteristics of various ancient and medieval societies and give students access to those societies' cultural assumptions and perceptions of change.

Instructor: Brown

Hum/H 3 b

European Civilization: Early Modern Europe

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

Will survey the evolution of European civilization from the 14th century to the early 19th century. The topics covered will depend on the individual instructor, but they will include some of the major changes that transformed Western civilization in the early modern period, such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the rise of sovereign states and the concomitant military revolution, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, and the French and industrial revolutions. Readings will include major works from the period, as well as studies by modern historians.

Instructors: Wey-Gomez, Hoffman

Hum/H 3 c

European Civilization: Modern Europe

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

Will introduce students to major aspects of the politics and culture of modernity that have profoundly transformed Western society and consciousness from the French Revolution to the contemporary era. A variety of historical, literary, and artistic works will be used to illuminate major social, intellectual, and cultural movements. The focus will be on significant and wide-ranging historical change (e.g., the industrial revolution, imperialism, socialism, fascism); on cultural innovation (e.g., modernism, impressionism, cubism); and on the work of significant thinkers.

Instructors: Kormos-Buchwald, Dennison

Hum/H 4 a

Civilization, Science, and Archaeology: Before Greece: The Origins of Civilization in Mesopotamia

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

This course will introduce students to the early development of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt from 4000 B.C.E. through 1000 B.C.E. Origins of agriculture and writing, the evolution of the city, and the structures of the Mesopotamian economy and social order will be discussed. Comparison with contemporary developments in Egypt during the Old and Middle Kingdoms may include a reading of Gilgamesh from 3000 B.C.E. and of the Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe. The course concludes with a discussion of life during the late Bronze Age. Focus will be on life as it was lived and experienced by many groups in pre-classical antiquity rather than on kings and dynasties. Not offered 2015-16.

Hum/H 4 b

Civilization, Science, and Archaeology: The Development of Science from Babylon through the Renaissance

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

Connections in antiquity between astrology and astronomy, early theories of light, Islamic science, new concepts of knowledge during the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, the early laboratory, the development of linear perspective, the origins of the Copernican and Keplerian systems of astronomy, and the science of Galileo.

Instructors: Buchwald, J

Hum/H 4 c

Civilization, Science, and Archaeology: The Origins of Polytheism and Monotheism in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel and the Nature of Religious Belief

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

The civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia gave rise to complex forms of religious practices connected to the social order, moral behavior, and the afterlife. The course examines the origins of concepts of moral death and of sin as a violation of cosmic order in antiquity, the nature of polytheism, and the manner in which monotheism arose out of it. In addition to historical analyses the course includes readings by anthropologists who have studied cult structures as well as contemporary theories by evolutionary psychologists. Not offered 2015-16.

Hum/H/HPS 10

Introduction to the History of Science

9 units (3-0-6) | 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: Feingold

Hum/H/HPS 11

History of Astronomy and Cosmology

9 units (3-0-6) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H 40

Reading in History

Units to be determined for the individual by the division | 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.

Art/H 68

Modern Art

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

The purpose of this course is to give students a broad view of the history and significance of Western art in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will focus on the impact that shifts in production and social relations-generally referred to as "modernization"-had on culture from 1850-1950. Through close readings of primary and secondary texts, we will unpack some of the modernist period's most influential developments, such as the relation between industrial and cultural production, the seeming contest between mass and avant-garde culture, and utopian cultural theories. The course aims to provide students with an understanding and appreciation of the history of modernist art in the West, as well as the tools with which to write about visual culture analytically. Not offered 2015-16.

Art/H 69

Modernism in the Visual Arts, 1850-1945

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

This course examines European and American painting, sculpture, photography, and other visual arts from 1850 to the mid-twentieth century. An era encompassing many diverse and significant developments in modern art, this period includes Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. Artworks from these movements will be studied in light of their social, cultural, and political contexts, with particular attention paid to issues of gender and representation, and to the different forms of abstraction developed and theorized by early twentieth-century painters. The class will also focus on the relationships of colonialism, urbanism, rising industrialism, and international conflict to the visual culture of the period. Not offered 2015-16.

E/H/Art 89

New Media Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

Prerequisites: none.

This course will examine artists' work with new technology, fabrication methods and media from the late 19th Century to the present. Major artists, exhibitions, and writings of the period will be surveyed. While considering this historical and critical context, students will create their own original new media artworks using technologies and/or fabrication methods they choose. Possible approaches to projects may involve robotics, electronics, computer programming, computer graphics, mechanics and other technologies. Students will be responsible for designing and fabricating their own projects. Topics may include systems in art, the influence of industrialism, digital art, robotics, telematics, media in performance, interactive installation art, and technology in public space. Artists studied may include Eadweard Muybridge, Marcel Duchamp, Vladmir Tatlin, John Cage, Jean Tinguely, Stelarc, Survival Research Laboratories, Lynne Hershman Leeson, Edwardo Kac, Natalie Jeremenjenko, Heath Bunting, Janet Cardiff and others.

Instructor: Mushkin

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) | 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) | 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) | first 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 2015-16.

H 111

The Medieval Church

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

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 2015-16.

H 112

The Vikings

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

H 115 abc

British History

9 units (3-0-6) | first, second, third terms

The political and cultural development of Great Britain from the early modern period to the twentieth 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H 118

Histories of Collecting

9 units (3-0-6) | second 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H/Art 119

Art Worlds

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

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. Not offered 2015-16.

H 121

American Radicalism

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

H 122

Household and Family Forms over Time

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

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 2015-16.

H/An 123

Anthropological Demography

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

Birth, death, marriage, and migration are the most basic events in people's lives. These events are shaped by both human biology and cultural contexts. This course combines biological and cultural approaches to the study of human populations. Topics include basic demographic techniques, evolutionary perspectives on human demography, longevity, senescence, kinship, household organization, and nuptiality. Students will explore the roles of culture, ecology, and subsistence in demographic explanation. Emphasis is placed on understanding crosscultural and historical variation in population dynamics. Not offered 2015-16.

H/SS 124

Problems in Historical Demography

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

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. Not offered 2015-16.

H 125

Soviet Russia

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

Why was the Russian Revolution of 1917 successful? And how did the Soviet system survive nearly 75 years? These questions will be addressed in the wider context of Russian history, with a focus on political, economic, and social institutions in the pre- and post-revolutionary period. Subjects covered include the ideological underpinnings of Bolshevism, Lenin and the Bolshevik coup, the rise of Stalin, collectivization, socialist realism, the command economy, World War II, the Krushchev 'thaw', dissident culture and the arts, popular culture, and Gorbachev's perestroika. A variety of sources will be used, including secondary historical literature, fiction, film, and art.

Instructor: Dennison

H 128

Sustainability and Conservation in the Early Modern World

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

Sustainability-from corporate boardrooms to communes, the term has been the subject of protests, marketing campaigns, and government policies. Scientists, activists, and politicians have proposed new methods for achieving it; however, the history of the term remains murky. In this course, we will explore how early modern people understood and regulated resources to try to uncover examples of sustainable farming, forestry, and industry from the past. Unlike many courses that focus on specific regions, we will reach beyond borders to examine the intersections of the modes of regulation of resources in Asia, Europe, and North America during the early modern period.

Instructor: Pluymers

H 129

Rivers and Human History

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

For thousands of years, rivers have been central to human history. They have served as crucial sources of food and water, the sites for religious and political ceremonies, and corridors for transportation. Rivers have also flooded, become polluted, and even caught fire. In this course we will explore how human beings around the world have attempted to manage rivers and the people who live alongside them examining topics such as damming, diversion, and flood control. We will conclude by examining the history and future of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries, which, as concretized flood control channels, offer a unique example of the transformative power of engineering. For this section, students will take a field trip to explore the Los Angeles River.

Instructor: Pluymers

H 130

Innovative History

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

In recent years some historians have experimented with new and innovative ways of telling the past-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 2015-16.

H/F 131

History on Film

9 units (2-2-5) | second 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H/F 132

Nations/Cultures on Film: Japan

9 units (2-2-5) | third term

Based upon the premise that a great deal of the history and culture of a nation is inscribed in the dramatic features its film makers produce, the course will each term focus on a single nation and/or culture. Each week there will be a screening, supplemented by appropriate readings dealing with history, culture, and film analysis. During the two hour weekly seminar, students will be expected to discuss the film and the readings, while the instructor will provide additional background material and introduce them to the language of cinema. Possible topics include the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. On occasion the class may deal with particular periods in history (e.g. the Italian Renaissance, Imperial Rome) or with cultures that cross national boundaries, such as the Arab World or Latin America. Students will be expected to write short papers after most screenings and one formal term paper. Not offered 2015-16.

H/F 133

Topics in Film History

9 units (2-2-5) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H/F 134

The Science Fiction Film

9 units (2-2-5) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

H 135

War, Conquest, and Empires

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

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.

Instructor: Hoffman

H/F 136

Ethnic Visions

9 units (2-2-5) | 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 2015-16.

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. Not offered 2015-16.

Law/PS/H 148 ab

The Supreme Court in U.S. History

9 units (3-0-6) | 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

HPS/H 152

Renaissance Anatomy and Botany

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

In this class, "the Renaissance" refers to a cultural movement taking place between roughly 1500 and the early decades of the seventeenth century, where anatomy and botany, and those who studied medicine and natural history, formed a part of this movement. Through lectures, class discussion, videos, and field trips to see books, plants, and art work discussed in class, students will learn about the persistence of ancient forms of knowledge, the relations between art and science, the discovery of the circulation of the blood, the expanding use of physiological experiments, and the rise of a mechanistic understanding of the body during the Renaissance.

Instructor: Manning

Art/H 153

The Politics of Representation in American Art, 1935-2000

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course examines major historical concerns and artistic themes in American Art from 1935, the advent of the Popular Front, to the end of the 20th century, the heart of postmodernism. We shall read art historical and theoretical texts so as to understand the role of art in the formation of American identity. In addition to familiarizing students with a broad range of themes within the history of American art, this course will analyze the relation between art and broader social and political contexts. Not offered 2015-15.

Art/H 154

Art and Technology

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

From perceptual experiments in abstract art to hacktivism and neuroaesthetics, this course explores interactions and interventions between art and technology from the 1960s to the present. Our focus will be on artists and artists groups working in the last forty years who have taken developments in science and technology as their primary subject of inquiry and critique. Topics include experiments in perceptual technology, land use, scientific representations, bio-art, net.art and data use. Students will engage in a research project that focuses on a recent collaboration between art and science. Not offered 2015-16.

Art/H 155

Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe

9 units (3-0-6) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 156

The History of Modern Science

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

Selected topics in the development of the physical and biological sciences since the 17th century. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 158

The Scientific Revolution

9 units (3-0-6) | third 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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 159

The Cold War and American Science

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 160 ab

Einstein and His Generation: The History of Modern Physical Sciences

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

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.

Instructor: Kormos-Buchwald

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 164

History of Space Exploration

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course will cover the entire history of space exploration with a particular focus on the Cold War era. The course will begin with the first dreaming about space travel during the 16th century and end with the rise of new space powers such as China and India. We will consider the political, military, technological, social, and cultural dimensions of space exploration. Topics covered include speculations on why humans were drawn to the cosmos in the first place, the weaponization of space, the popular culture of TV shows (such as Star Trek) and movies (such as the Alien series), the secret Soviet space program, the extraordinary Apollo missions to the Moon, and the International Space Station of the 21st century.

Instructor: Siddiqi

HPS/H 166

Historical Perspectives on the Relations between Science and Religion

9 units (3-0-6) | second 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) | second, third terms

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.

Instructors: Buchwald, J

HPS/H 168

History of Electromagnetism and Heat Science

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

HPS/H 169

Selected Topics in the History of Science and Technology

9 units (3-0-6) | offered by announcement

Instructors: Staff, visiting lecturers

HPS/H 170

History of Light from Antiquity to the 20th Century

9 units (3-0-6) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 171

History of Mechanics from Galileo through Euler

9 units (3-0-6) | second, third terms

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 2015-16.

HPS/H 172

History of Mathematics: A Global View with Close-ups

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

HPS/H/Pl 173

History of Chemistry

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

This course examines developments in chemistry from medieval alchemy to the time of Lavoisier and Dalton. 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 2015-16.

HPS/H 174

Early Greek Astronomy

9 units (3-0-6) | 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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 175

Matter, Motion, and Force: Physical Astronomy from Ptolemy to Newton

9 units (3-0-6) | 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 2015-16.

HPS/H/Pl 176

History of Alchemy

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

Alchemy, long considered one of history's "losers," has recently acquired a new and very different prominence among historians as a forerunner of experimental science in general and of chemistry in particular. This course surveys the field of alchemy over its main period of development, considering cases from the ancient world, medieval Islam and Christendom, and early modern Europe. The goal is to chart the evolution of alchemical theory and practice from its inception until the period of its decline at the end of the seventeenth century. Not offered 2015-16.

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 2015-16.

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. Not offered 2015-16.

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. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 182

See and Tell: 3-D Models for the Visualization of Complex Concepts from the 16th century to modern times

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

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. Not offered 2015-16.

Art/H 183

Spectacle: From the Court Masque to the Great Exhibition of 1851

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course examines the ways in which spectacle has been used in early modern and nineteenth-century Europe. Drawing on aesthetic writings about the impact of size and scale on audiences, but also examining historical accounts of the workings of spectacle on spectators, it looks at a number of case studies focusing on the technologies spectacles employed, the sites at which they were staged, the purposes and aims of their creators, and the controversies they engendered. Topics covered include English court masques, the rituals of absolute monarchy (especially those of Louis XIV), the changing presentation of plays and works of art, the public exhibition of torture, punishment, and human dissection, cabinets of curiosity and scientific demonstrations, religious, civic, and political ritual commemoration, the development of mixed media, panoramas and dioramas, and the staging of international exhibitions. Not offered 2015-16.

H 184

Travel, Mobility, Migration

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

People, objects, and knowledge in the European Age of Revolutions, 1770-1848. The aim of this course is to examine the movement of peoples, cultural artifacts, and the dissemination of different sorts of knowledge, during and after the Revolutionary upheavals and nationalist struggles of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Topics will include nationalism and multi-national communities; political and intellectual exile; imperial ambition, science and knowledge; the effects of warfare on patterns of migration; looting, theft and cultural property. The class will include a number of in-depth case studies, including Italy and South Asia. Not offered 2015-16.

H/HPS 185

Angels and Monsters: Cosmology, Anthropology, and the Ends of the World

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course explores late medieval European understandings of the origins, structure, and workings of the cosmos in the realms of theology, physics, astronomy, astrology, magic, and medicine. Attention is given to the position of humans as cultural creatures at the intersection of nature and spirit; as well as to the place of Christian Europeans in relation to non-Christians and other categories of outsiders within and beyond Europe. We will examine the knowledge system that anticipated racializing theories in the West.

Instructor: Wey-Gomez

HPS/H 186

The Sciences in the Romantic Era

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

This course aims at introducing students to problems, methods, and resources in European science during the era of Romanticism (c. 1780-1830). The Romantic movement embraced the sciences as well as literature, theology, and the arts, and sought to unite them into a comprehensive program of understanding nature based on experimentation and speculative philosophy. Scientists of the Romantic era have addressed fundemental concerns about scientific manipulations of nature that have, in a different form, resurfaced in the later part of the 20th century. Romanticism addresses major themes in the self-awareness of scientists and their perception in society, and it contributed to the emergence of new research fields and scientific institutions to accommodate nationalistic claims. Not offered 2015-16.

H 187

The Constitution in the Early Republic

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course will trace many of the major constitutional debates that occurred during the first half-century of U.S. History. We will look to the courts, to the legislatures, to Presidents, and to constitutional theorists of the Early Republic to gain insight into how the first generations of Americans understood their Constitution and the governments and rights it recognized. During this formative period, Americans contemplate the location of sovereignty in a federated republic, the rights and privileges of citizenship, and the role of judicial review in a democratic society. Though we will remain firmly entrenched in the period before the Civil War, we will find that many of the issues that created constitutional strife two centuries ago are still relevant to the constitutional questions of today. Not offered 2015-16.

H 188

Origins of the US Civil War

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

The purpose of this course is to investigate the various causes of the US Civil War. Students will be exposed to prevailing interpretations, which rely mostly on national frames of reference when identifying the economic, political, and constitutional causes of the Sectional Crisis and War. Half of the term will be devoted to these themes. Subsequently, we will be spending the second half of the term examining recent scholarship that examines the international factors on the brewing Sectional Crisis, from the ramifications of British Emancipation to the fluctuating global cotton market. During the last week, we will discuss these interpretative differences and identify possible avenues of synthesis. Students will leave the course with a thorough understanding of the causes of the Civil War and an introduction to transnational influences on American historical development. Not offered 2015-16.

H/L 191

Perspectives on History through German Literature

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

Industrialization, economic growth, and democracy came to Germany much later than to England and France, and the forms they took in Germany were filtered through the specific institutional character of Central Europe. German-speaking writers and intellectuals saw these trends from the perspective of indigenous intellectual traditions, and the resulting collisions of values and priorities largely shaped European and American social, political, and literary debates for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course explores these writings (in English translation) against the historical background of Central European society, focusing on particular works of Goethe, Hoffmann, Heine, Nietzsche, Kafka, Rilke, and Mann.

Instructor: Dennison

H 192

The Crusades

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

This course will introduce students to the series of religiously motivated European invasions of the Middle and Near East that began at the end of the eleventh century and that led to the creation of Latin Christian principalities in Palestine. Though the crusading movement came to embroil much of Europe itself, the course will focus strictly on the military expeditions to what the Crusaders called the Holy Land, and the history of the Crusader states up to the point of their destruction at the end of the thirteenth century. The course will be guided by the following questions: how did medieval Christianity justify wars of aggression against foreign peoples and religions? What motivated western Europeans to leave their homes and march into a hostile environment, where they often faced impoverishment if not death and where maintaining a Christian presence was a constant struggle? How did they manage to erect stable political entities in alien territory that lasted as long as they did, and how did they have to adapt their own culture to do so? Finally, how did the native peoples of the regions the Crusaders invaded and conquered-Muslim but also Christian and Jewish - perceive the Crusaders? How did the Crusaders' presence affect life in a region whose populations had their own ancient histories and patterns of life? Not offered 2015-16.

En/H 193

Cervantes, Truth or Dare: Don Quixote in an Age of Empire

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

Studies Cervantes's literary masterpiece, Don Quixote, with a view to the great upheavals that shaped the early modern world: Renaissance Europe's discovery of America; feudalism's demise and the rise of mass poverty; Reformation and Counter-Reformation; extermination of heretics and war against infidels; and the decline of the Hapsburg dynasty. The hapless protagonist of Don Quixote calls into question the boundaries between sanity and madness, truth and falsehood, history and fiction, objectivity and individual experience. What might be modern, perhaps even revolutionary, in Cervantes's dramatization of the moral and material dilemmas of his time? Conducted in English.

Instructor: Wey-Gomez

H/HPS 194

Travels, Travelers, and Travel Tales: 1700-1900

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

This course explores the different and changing forms of travel and its representations in the 18th and 19th centuries. It will examine travels within Europe, in the Middle East and Asia, in Africa and the Pacific, in order to look at different sorts of travel from varying points of view, including travel as recreation, the collection and interpretation of scientific data, the control of resources, and the epistemological claims that underwrite imperialism. Recent critical writings on travel narrative and travel fiction will supplement historical travel texts and images, which may include the Paris Academy's exploration of Peru, Cook's travels to the Pacific, and Darwin's voyage on the Beagle. Not offered 2015-16.

H 195

Vesuvius and Pompeii: Geology, Archaeology and Antiquity from the Enlightenment to the Present

9 units (3-0-6) | first term

This course examines Vesuvius and Pompeii and the relations between them from the earliest Pompeian discoveries to the present debate about the fate of the buried city, and the plans to cope with an impending Vesuvian eruption. It analyses the changing debates about the volcano - and its place in earth sciences - the development of archaeological techniques and their discoveries, the relationship between a tourist economy and the region, and the public debates about how to deal with disasters and conservation in a rapidly changing political environment. Not offered 2015-16.

HPS/H 196

Science in Popular Culture

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

This course will be a historical survey of the intersection between science and popular culture. As such, our goal will be to explore and understand popular science as a historical phenomenon. The course will trace the evolution of popular science in the Western world through important transformations in the modern era, beginning with the rise of a distinct category of "popular science" during the Victorian Era and then moving through to the present day. During the term, we will study a variety of popular scientific forms, such as science fiction, magazines, comics, graphic novels, sci-fi movies, and TV shows. Students will be required to engage in critical analysis of all the assigned readings and actively participate in an online blog.

Instructor: Siddiqi

En/H 197

American Literature and the Technologies of Reading

9 units (3-0-6) | second term

This course explores the material forms of American literature from the colonial era through the nineteenth century. We will study how and by whom books and other kinds of texts were produced, and how these forms shaped and were shaped by readers' engagement with them. Possible topics include the history of such printing technologies as presses, types, paper, ink, binding, and illustration; the business of bookmaking and the development of the publishing industry; the rise of literary authorship; the career of Benjamin Franklin; print, politics, and the American Revolution; and manuscript culture.

Instructor: Hunte

HPS/H 198

Print In a Global Context, 14th to 19th Centuries

9 units (3-0-6) | third term

New types of media came into being during the 14th and 15th centuries, leading eventually to a revolution of communication from the 16th century, with the coming of the printing press. This course offers an advanced approach to the variety and power of media, by following text culture in a global perspective before and after the introduction of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the second half of the 15th century. Important issues concern the role of paper, the techniques of producing books and newspapers or pamphlets, the function of illustrations, and finally practices of selling, reading and manipulating information all over the world. The course covers print cultures in Asia, The Ottoman Empire, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and the Atlantic World. Not offered 2015-16.

Published Date: July 28, 2022