History

This course examines the turbulent and exciting history of the Roman Republic from its humble beginnings around 500 BCE to the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BCE. The first part of this course celebrating this formative period in world history discusses early Rome; the social, political and religious institutions of the Republic as they gradually emerged from 509 to 264 BCE; and the Roman conquest of Italy and its significance. The second part concerns the high point of the Roman Republic, approximately the period from 264 to 133 BCE, including discussions of the Punic Wars and the conquest of the Mediterranean, and its tremendous consequences for the Republic. The third and final part deals with the Republic’s troubled last century and surveys the ill-fated Gracchan reforms; the first full-fledged breakdown of the Republican system and the Sullan reaction; the social, economic and cultural life of this period; the rise of the great dynasts; and Caesar’s temerarious attempt to establish a New Order.

In 1000 BCE, the Mediterranean and Near East were barely urbanized; in the centuries that followed, a dense network of interconnected cities spanning the region developed. This course explores this transformation by examining changing physical as well as social relations between people, as well as between people and their environments. Students study the rise and fall of the ancient city, including its ecology and domestic politics, and modern debates over ancient urbanism. What existed before cities? Why do cities appear and why do they decline? How do cities relate to the natural world? Is urbanism necessarily linked to inequality? How do cities change when they are integrated into imperial systems? Students explore these questions through a variety of case studies, from tiny trading outposts to megacities like Rome and Alexandria, and a range of types of evidence, such as written histories, inscribed law codes, and the physical remains of the cities themselves.

The course provides the opportunity to engage with an issue that is of vital importance to the discipline of history as we know it, particularly at a time when regimes and practices of establishing and communicating truth based on evidence and objectivity are contested. Philosophers and anthropologists have argued that archives inherently select and organize their materials in ways that necessarily obscure fundamental elements of historical experience, with special reference to empire, colonialism, race, and slavery. The challenge that this radical critique poses to contemporary historians is carefully discussed. At the same time, special attention is given to the work of a growing number of historians, who have transformed the archive into a subject of historical research. 

The course provides an introduction to the modern German polity. In the first part students survey the historical and cultural contexts in which German politics is embedded. The second part turns to the institutions and policy-making processes in the Federal Republic, including the Europeanization of German governance. The third part focuses on policy content by discussing important issues and policy fields in greater depth. This course is about key debates and arguments relating to German politics and society. It is assumed that students familiarize themselves with the basic elements of the German polity. 

This course examines the way that foods have been exchanged across the world, and the tensions between local and globalizing forces in shaping the way we eat over the last 500 years. Over the semester, we will move from the medieval spice trade to sugar and slavery in the Atlantic world, and from colonial New Zealand's role as Britain's farm to the global influence of McDonald's and fast food in the 20th century. Through the examination of important food staples, this course introduces students to food, commodities, and material culture as approaches to studying local, regional and global history from the early modern period until the twentieth century. During the course, we will reflect on why we each eat the way we do, and why food is such a powerful tool to understand and communicate cultural and economic change across time. 

Celtic languages are presently spoken in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, on the Isle of Man, in Cornwall and in Brittany, as well as in a small number of diasporic communities. This course explores the emergence of these Celtic speech communities into the historical record in the Middle Ages, the social, political and cultural forces which have shaped their development, and their current prospects for survival. The impact of the development of central state authorities, the protestant Reformation, wider British and French politics, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the emergence of the modern nation-state, contemporary minority discourses will be considered. Literary and other sources in the various Celtic languages (in translation) will be used to explore these themes. While the focus will be sociolinguistic and literary, linguistic characteristics of the languages will be referred to from time to time.

Students explore how women influenced and were influenced by the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, Decolonization, leftist movements in the 1960s, revolutions, authoritarian regimes and struggles related to gender, racial and LGBTQ+ equality. Through broad global, regional, and comparative analysis in lectures and in-depth historical study of key women, groups, movements or institutions, students explore different methodologies for examining history in the 20th and 21st century. The course’s geographical focus is the Americas, including the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, though there are also opportunities to explore comparisons and contrasts with other parts of the world including Britain, Europe, and Asia.

This course covers Ancient Israel from its cradle to the beginning of the common era, ending with Qumran. It covers the theories about the origins of Israel, including the exodus from Egypt, against the socio-political background of Ancient Israel with due attention to historiography. The succession and successes of various royals are covered, as well as the activity of the prophets in a comparative perspective. Cultic practices throughout the period are discussed.

This course investigates Roman politics through the lens of classical political theory, applying ideas about liberty, citizenship, equality, and form of government to the real political practices of the Romans of the first century BC. The course commences with a survey of the everyday political environment of first-century Rome, which provides the context for an in-depth analysis of republican ideology. The course then explores the political thought of influential ancient authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero, before examining the ways in which the image of the Roman Republic and its associated political ideology have been constructed and applied in political theory across the centuries, tracing their metamorphosis in the writings of Machiavelli, 17th-century English republicans, the defenders of the American constitution, and the French Enlightenment.

This course provides an introduction to Scotland's long history as an independent kingdom between the 10th and the early 18th century. It examines the land and people as a way of considering broad themes in a specific and immediate setting. The central theme is Scotland's development as a European state and society through the medieval and early modern periods and the parallel processes which witnessed the development of a sense of Scottish nationhood. Issues of cultural expression and change, and of religious reform and conflict provide strands for discussion which stress the experience of this land in its wider context. The course places particular emphasis on the use of museum collections and built heritage as evidence for the unique history of this land.