HIST 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar

FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Offered occasionally. Each first-year seminar topic is approved by the Dean of The College and the Committee on Courses and Degrees. Applicability to FDRs and other requirements varies.

Fall 2013 Topics:

HIST 180-01: FS: The Great Depression (3). First-Year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-Year standing. The focus of this seminar is one of the most tumultuous periods in American history – the years surrounding the Great Depression. Through readings, period films, and in-class discussion students examine the political, economic, social, and cultural history of 1930s America while also exploring the legacy and effects of that period on the modern United States. This discussion-based seminar entails weekly readings. Students discuss primary documents that trace the origins and context of the stock market crash and economic crisis, the societal and humanitarian effects of the Depression, present the political and cultural responses by New Deal reformers and others to address the crisis, and place the transformation of the U.S. from 1929 to 1941 within a context of rising international tension. Class projects and writing assignments are designed to introduce students both to this complex period and the general practice of history as practiced at the college level. (HU) McGee. Fall 2013

HIST 180-02: FS: Paris in the 19th Century (3). This course investigates the political and cultural history of Paris in the 19th century, focusing on the construction of Paris as a city embodying modernity. We discuss the appeal of Paris in both the 19th and 21st centuries, as well as how Paris became the political and cultural capital of Europe in the period after the French Revolution. Topics include immigration, political unrest, the rebuilding of the city under Napoleon III, urban spectatorship and consumer culture, and the birth of the avant-garde. (HU) Horowitz. Fall 2013