3000 Level History Course Descriptions

SOCSCI 3330
Green Map Project
The green map system is a globally-designed strategy for promoting and linking environmental resources in cities around the world. Currently, 90 maps are in the works worldwide, in 26 countries, on six continents. Involvement in the project includes “charting urban areas in a manner that illuminates the interconnections between the natural and cultural environment.” By using the “green map icons,” students identify and locate sites in selected Chicago neighborhoods (to be selected each semester by the class). Understanding the concept of sustainability and its importance to insure healthy cities economically, socially, and environmentally is the focus of mapping. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3506
United States History: 1865–1945
A survey starting from the Civil War of causes, and consequences of changes, in the ways Americans have governed themselves, organized their economy and society, and tried to make sense out of their experience. Topics covered include: Reconstruction; reform movements; the two world wars; the impact of urban and industrial growth; the evolution of mass communications; changes in family structure, gender, racial relations, and the nature of work; and how all of the above have interacted with the visual arts and literature. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3507
United States History Since 1945
A study of one of the most creative and destructive periods in history, when the United States led the world in production of Nobel Prize winners and garbage; played a major role in tearing apart and rebuilding societies around the world; and revealed vividly its capabilities and limitations. Topics include: the Cold War; the civil rights, women’s, and environmental movements; the war in Vietnam; U.S. policy in Central America; and the persistence of changing roles of class, gender, and ethnicity in shaping the experiences of individual Americans. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3510
The Constitution of the United States, 1789–1991
Despite the fact that most Americans now regard the Constitution of the United States as the blueprint for the best governmental system on earth, this document has rather shady origins. Written by wealthy, white men in a radical clandestine venture, the Constitution deserves intense scrutiny. This course covers the issues of separation of church and state, the right to privacy, and the right of free expression, both in broad discussions and in analysis of specific historical moments of crisis. Throughout the semester, students enhance their understanding of the Constitution as a living document, one that is open to varied interpretations, and one that has had to meet changing circumstances (with more and less success) for two centuries. The course is organized as a seminar with emphasis placed on short, written assignments and on informed participation in class discussion. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3515
Film as History
This course makes use of films from several countries to provide a selective overview of twentieth-century history (with emphasis on the United States and its relation to the rest of the world) and of different ways of thinking about history. For example, Sergi Eisenstein’s October provides the starting point for discussion of the two Russian revolutions of 1917 and of the dialectical interpretation of history. Among the films viewed are Porter’s The Great Train Robbery, Chaplin’s Modern Times, Capra’s War Comes To America, Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, Don Suatos’s How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, and Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3516
What’s Missing:
A History of Censorship
Yes, we can see what the planet earth looks like from outer space and watch real people dying horrible deaths on real TV. No, that does not mean that we live in an age where all is visible. Few Americans today carry in their minds images that bring home the meaning of well over 100,000 Iraqi deaths in the Gulf War, or that give them a clear sense of what life is like in neighborhoods very different from their own. In this course we study the history of censorship, manipulation, and selective presentation of visual information. The course will emphasize the role that artists have played in making things visible or invisible. Although there will be comparative references to other topics, places, and times, it will focus on the representation of work, sexuality, gender, race, and violence in the United States from the 1830s, when the introduction of railroads and photography changed the possibilities for visual experience, to the present. We also will examine the visual presentation of history, exploring for instance what historic sites in Chicago remain conspicuous and which have slipped or been pushed into oblivion. As we assess the costs of visual suppression we also will seek to understand the needs for visual privacy. The course will include guest lectures, site visits, and viewing of pertinent films and videos. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3517
Representation of Jews in Hollywood
This course examines the depiction of Jews in Hollywood films from the 1910s through the 1990s in relation to anti-Semitism and historical events. The course focuses on the relationships between Jews and other minority groups as depicted through film. Films for the class include (but are not limited to): The Great Dictator, Levinsky’s Holiday, The Jazz Singer, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Chariots of Fire, Molly, Boys from Brazil, Funny Girl, The Producers, Zelig, Next Stop Greenwich Village, The Big Chill and The Little Drummer Girl. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3519
Urban Geography
Urban geography traces the development of cities from their beginnings to present day urban planning. It examines the physical, psychological, sociological, cultural, and technological aspects of cities and their accompanying civilization. Aspects of art, architecture, and technology are interwoven into environmental dilemmas that exist today and impact urban culture and the physical properties of cities, exemplifying the inter-relatedness of the built and natural environments. The class will cover a wide-rangine survey of issues pertaining to: geographic location, transportation, ethnic and cultural phenomena, vernacular and generic architectural types, theories or ideologies, from nationalism at the nation scale to boosterism at the local scale, migrations of people (including immigration and emigration), assimilation, gentrification, the urban center to multi-nucleated super-cities, sociological aspects of urban ecology, open space and public health, the economics of cities and their infrastructure. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3520
Historical Studies
The study of a variety of specific historical topics is offered on a rotating basis. Recent offerings have included The Limits of Reason, a study of European Enlightenment; Sex, Booze, and Baseball, the nature of leisure activities in American cultural life; Space, Heaven, and God, a study of the relationships of religion, astronomy, and cosmology; and war in American History. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3521
The History of Ideas
Participants in this class will study different systems of thought by exploring “acts of seeing:” actual or imagined visual encounters with the world recorded through words or images. Examples include Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; Descartes’ metaphor of the treasure hunter; the toppling of the statue of Alexander III in Eisenstein’s October; Stettheimer’s Cathedrals of Wall Street; the narrator’s first views of Harlem in Ellison’s Invisible Man; and instances from the works of St. Augustine, Sigmund Freud, Virginia Woolf, Walter Benjamin, Frida Kahlo, Toni Morrison, and many others. Each act of seeing illuminates interactions between personal vision and cultural context that create ways of making sense of human experience. The majority of examples come from Europe and the United States during the past two centuries, with comparative analysis of acts of seeing from other places and times. Guest lecturers will help place the ideas discussed into a global perspective, and will offer students a variety of viewpoints on issues addressed in the course.

SOCSCI 3524
The Limits of Reason
When the French philosopher Denis Diderot began the publication of the Encyclopedie in 1751, he envisioned the project as a monument to the progressive powers of human reason, to the ability of the human mind to cope with any problem. Diderot's attitudes illustrate the spirit of his time; and his supreme faith in the virtues of rationalism characterizes the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Enlightenment ideas have had a profound impact on European thought, for the worship of reason lies at the root of the confidence and the arrogance exhibited by western society over the last two centuries. However, Europeans have not been unanimous in their adherence to the cult of reason; many voices have questioned the virtues of the rational since the late eighteenth century. This course will examine the dialogue between the rational and the non-rational in European intellectual life in the modern period. Students will trace the various reactions to rationalism, from the Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century, to the Existentialism of post-war France. The class will also study the growth of movements that attempt to probe the non-rational aspects of humanity, particularly Freudian psychology and surrealist art. Finally, the course will look at the revolution in modern physics that has transformed our understanding of nature and replaced predictability with probability.

SOCSCI 3525
The Light of Humanity: Europe in the Renaissance, 1320–1520
It is difficult to identify a boundary between the medieval and modern periods in European history, to locate the “end” of the Middle Ages and the “birth” of modernity. Historical periods are the creations of historians, and their borders are the subject of intense debate. In the course, we will examine the society, culture, and politics of western Europe in the time of the Renaissance, a span stretching two hundred years from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The course will trace the factors that transformed the continent during this time: the Black Death, the rise of Humanism, the discovery and exploitation of the Americas, and the birth of Protestantism. The course will pay particular attention to the culture of Renaissance Italy, from the artists of Florence to the merchants of Venice. Finally, students will look at the Renaissance as the boundary between the Middle Ages and the early modern period, a tree with medieval roots and modern fruit.

SOCSCI 3526
The Slave Trade in Africa
This course examines the very complex and complicated trade in human captives that unfolded over the fifteenth century. For over 400 years, small African societies were pillaged and their social fabric disrupted, while large states rose in the effort to profit as well as contain the trade. Rum, juns and other ware from Europe were traded for men and women who were sent to labor in the Americas. This course examines the impact of the trade on African societies and the importance of the trade to the evolving international world system. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3537
Third World Political Thought: Nelson Mandela
This course examines and explores the political thought of Third World intellectuals, whose work has had special impact on movements for social change among non-Western peoples. In this case, the writings and political speeches of Nelson Mandela are read and analyzed by the students in order to gain a better understanding of how this man, once considered a terrorist, could have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The class examines him both as a political prisoner and as a president of a multi-racial, multi-religious, post-apartheid nation. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3538
The African Diaspora
This course examines the Black Experience in the African Diaspora. After an exploration of Africa before the slave trade, and some of the myths surrounding it, we move into a comparative probe of slavery and resistance, emancipation and second class citizenship, racism and identity, and culture and conflict. The Black experience has been more than hardship; it has also been one of great genius. Cultures, languages, music, foods and intellect were brought from Africa and transformed and hybridized into some of the Americas’ most distinct legacies. The class will explore the contribution black peoples have made—through struggle and resistance—to the very notion of “freedom.” This course allows students to investigate comparatively and trans-nationally the Black experience in the Diaspora. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3540
African American History:
Civil War to Civil Rights
This course examines the unique experience of American people of African descent, tracing aspects of cultural contributions to American society while addressing the capturing and enslavement that was unique to the African experience, as well as issues of race, struggle, and pride that have endured and evolved since the Civil War. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3543
Activism and Social Movements
A survey of selected social movements in the twentieth-century United States, this course explores the different forms social and political activism have taken in these movements, focusing on why participants became active, why the movements began and ended when they did, explanations of their success and failure, and the responses of activists to the fate of their movements. The course supplements readings with films, videos and classroom appearances from veterans of the movements. Movements chosen include the industrial movement of the 30s, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement of the 60s, and the welfare rights movement. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3545
Street Law for the Artist
The practicing artist has both legal rights and legal obligations, but is rarely aware of either. Artists are often targets for exploitation—by landlords, trades people, gallery owners, customers, and scores of others—because they don’t know the laws that both obligate and protect them. At the same time, artists are often unaware of the power they possess because of the political force of their creative expression. Street Law for the Artist introduces the student to the historical evolution of laws that have affected artists, from the foundations of the Constitution to the fundamentals of contacts. The course also explores the historic and contemporary ways that artists have been involved in the political process and in their communities as a way to protect their rights, and to change the rules if necessary. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3550
The Cuban Revolution
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearly every newscast dealing with Cuba seems to recite the same theme: “Castro’s Cuba: The End of the Dream,” “Cuba Alone,” and “Cuba: Forbidden Paradise.” Americans have been predicting the fall of this charismatic leader for over three decades and eight American presidencies. Yet, Castro has remained in power, and the drama continues. The Cuban revolution is one of the most remarkable examples on record of the ability of one individual to make history. To misunderstand Fidel Castro is to misunderstand the revolution. This course will seek to explain the Cuban revolution by examining such topics as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the Russian connection, the social/cultural revolution, and the new world order through a Cuban perspective. Resource materials for this course include films, novels, music, contemporary news accounts, and guest speakers. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3552
Contemporary Latin America: Myth And Reality
In this course, the myth and reality of Latin America is examined through a careful study of present-day situations. These events are viewed within the historical context of the region. Through this technique, the student should gain an understanding of the historical factors that have shaped the development of Latin America, as well as an appreciation of the ethnic and cultural diversity of the area. Educational source materials for this study include films, novels, and contemporary news accounts. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.

SOCSCI 3600
Capitalism, Socialism, and The Future
What is the nature of capitalism as an economic and social system, including its capacity to adapt to change? What alternatives does socialism offer? With a foundation in the ideas of Adam Smith and classical economics and of Karl Marx, these questions are examined by combining an understanding of economic theory and its evolution with the actual historical development of free market capitalism and of various alternatives. The human prospect is seen as dependent upon an interaction of economic systems, the stages of economic development, and society’s values. Prerequisite: First Year English requirement.