History

This course invites students to do a thorough reflection on what it means to be an educated human being. Starting from the classical concept of the artes liberales, it explores the different forms this concept has taken on throughout Western history, such as the humanistic ideal of the "homo universalis," the 19th century concept of Bildung, and the late 20th and 21st-century ideal of "global citizenship." The course also examines the most important challenges which liberal education has faced throughout its long history: e.g. utilitarianism (Plato against the sophists), scholasticism (Lorenzo Valla’s critique of medieval "obscurantism"), and the challenge posed by the 19th-century concept of "professional science." Moreover, the course explores the surprising ways in which ideals of liberal education have spread by means of literature, e.g. through the "Bildungsroman" (H. Hesse), the "epic theatre" (Bertolt Brecht) and even the modern detective (Sherlock Holmes). Lastly, the course invites students to write a conclusive statement on the value of liberal education by asking students to rethink how liberal education has formed their character in previous years and how it is likely to bear on life choices that are upcoming in the future.

This course analyzes articulated hatred toward Jews as a historical force. After treating precursors in the pagan world of antiquity, classical and medieval Christian doctrine, iconographic anti-semitism, and Shakespeare's Shylock, the course focuses on the modern phenomenon crystallizing in 19th century Europe and reaching its lethal extreme in Nazi ideology, propaganda, and policy. The course explores expressions in the U.S. and in the Arab world, as well as Jewish reactions to anti-semitism.

This course focuses on the political and cultural impact that the long reign of the Habsburg dynasty had on Central Europe, with an emphasis on the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After having analyzed the emergence of the Central European empire of the Habsburg, the course explores major political and cultural phenomenon, such as the Protestant Reformation, Enlightened absolutism, the “concert of Europe,” the birth of modern nationalism, the legal and societal place of the Jews, and the influence of these phenomenon on the nature of Habsburg power. The course then proposes an interdisciplinary analysis of the “fin-de-siècle” and of Habsburg decline. The last part is dedicated to the traces of Habsburg political and cultural influence on Central Europe in the twentieth century. This approach provides a global perspective on the history and culture of Central Europe.

This course covers the development characteristics of American history from the 17th to the 19th century with historical perspectives and methods. Topics cover formation and development of British North America; rise of the Independence movement; from Confederacy to Federation; formation of the two-party system; development of regional economy; crisis and division of the federation; US and the industrial age; rise of modern cities, politics in the gilded age; and expansion from the mainland to overseas.