History

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.

This course introduces the current research trends in the history of modern Chinese education, as well as its relationship with the research of modern Chinese society, culture, and political history.

How has over 300 years of colonialism left its mark on Britain? Whilst some scholars assert that the British were indifferent to empire – that empire was acquired in a “fit of absence of mind” (JR Seeley) – others point to the many traces of empire left in British society and culture to this day. This course analyses these effects and legacies by focusing on the artefacts of empire. Empire seems to be everywhere across British history: in consumer goods and fashion, the built environment and the domestic interior, advertising, visual media and museums, as well as institutions such as the monarchy and the BBC. But is this culture of empire, or simply a random mix of influences from around the world? To what extent is this material culture mediated by narratives of colonial power and racial superiority? This course considers the conquest of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries and the onset of slavery in the Caribbean, then looks at the colonization of North America and parts of the Pacific, before moving through the British Raj in India and onto the colonial conquests of Africa and the Middle East, finishing with the end of empire after 1945 and the imperial nostalgia that feeds Brexit. Throughout the course the focus is on cultural objects, their context, and their interpretation.

This course reflects on contemporary issues through the lens of the political history of the last century. Political history is a broad term and incorporates social, economic, and cultural actors. The 20th century is analyzed through three angles: wars and types of war; collective utopia and individual rights; and human security and insecurity. The course examines how a multi-pronged inquest into security and the defense of human rights forged our 21st century.