History

When thinking of US-Japanese history, the words usually coming to mind are Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Okinawa. But beyond their violent clash in World War II, both countries share a fascinating historical relationship dating back to the 1850s. This seminar introduces the major events, developments, and dynamics that have shaped this relationship from the mid-19th century until the Cold War. The course investigates issues of diplomacy, trade, migration, war, and cultural transmission to show how closely the histories of both countries have been intertwined and shaped by one another.

The course examines the relations between Europe’s different religious groups – the various Christian denominations chiefly, but also Christians and Jews – in the centuries between the Reformation and the French Revolution. With the Reformation, a once-united western Christendom split into hostile, warring camps. Despite the ideals of toleration and religious freedom championed by some thinkers, actual social relations between the groups remained intensely problematic to the very end of the early modern period.

This course begins by covering the classical concept of the totalitarian state, as developed by Hannah Arendt and others, taking Hitler and Stalin as their models. Subsequent modifications and debates regarding the theory of totalitarianism, especially in the Soviet Empire, are discussed. The course questions what popular attitudes and psychological reactions exist towards totalitarian atrocities, such as the Holocaust, and under what psychological conditions are individuals capable of offering resistance. While these phenomena may now appear to be bygones of merely historical interest, the psychological aspects of “totalitarian situations” remain acutely important, even in present-day democratic societies. The massacre in My Lai, the obedience experiments carried out by Stanley Milgram, and other psychological studies provide shocking evidence of how easily average citizens are in danger of behaving inhumanely in social situations.