Department of History

Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world’s major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from prehistory to 1000 CE

1050 to 1715. History 4A-B-C is a general survey course, designed to acquaint the student with major developments that have influenced the course of western civilization since the earliest times. These developments are as likely to be in religion, the arts, and sciences as in the more traditional political field. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling the student to develop and expand upon material presented during the lecture hour.

Deals with major issues in Latin America’s historical formation: pre-Hispanic cultures, Spanish conquest, role of colonial institutions, development of trade, eighteenth- century reform,independence, formation of nations; and identify major issues in current Latin American affairs.

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

Through studying a particular topic in history, students gain insight into historical methods and skills. Course designed for freshmen and sophomore history majors or prospective majors. Others may enroll by permission of instructor. Topics vary by quarter and instructor.

Sectional crisis through progressivism. A survey of the leading issues in american life from colonial times to the present. The course focuses on politics, cultural development, social conflict, economic life, foreign policy, and influential ideas. Features discussion sections.

Explores how science, technology and/or medicine have helped shape modern societies (roughly 1850-present). Themes include formation of scientific and technical communities, the interactions of science with political and popular culture, and the social context of knowledge production.

Introduces students to the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam until the nineteenth-century Ottoman reforms known as the Tanzimat. Subjects covered include the early caliphates, the influence of Turkic and Mongolian peoples on the region, the Crusades and jihad, the Ottoman and Safavid dynasties, and the interactions between people of different cultural and religious backgrounds in the region.

Prehistory to c. 1800. History 49-A- B-C is a general survey course designed to introduce students to major themes in African history. The course focuses on organization of production, state formation, African civilizations and identities, science and technology, beliefs and knowledge systems, Africa’s interaction with the world economy, such as through enslavement and slave trades. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during lecture.war

This course offers a cultural history and a critical introduction of photography. It explores the relationship between photography, memory and history, with a special focus on the United States. Since the invention of photography, photographs have been used to document, represent or commemorate important events. Photographs are accessible sources to reconstruct the past and form opinions about past and present, but they are also easily manipulated or misread. In this course, we examine the relationship between history and photography through various readings and selected topics. These include how photographers have used their medium to consciously record history; to advance human and civil rights; to document and construct nations; to raise awareness of problems in society; to document war; and to commemorate the Holocaust and 9/11.

Archaic and Classical Greece, 750-323 B.C.

Explores the topic of the Roman Empire’s response to crisis by exploring the extent to which the more autocratic form of late imperial government was a response to the invasions, persecutions and civil wars of the third century.

Examines the varying judicial systems of early modern Europe and looks at how crime and criminals were defined and treated in a social, religious, and political context. Topics will also include beggars, violence, heretics, and witches.

In the three centuries between Columbus and the Industrial Revolution, economy and society in Europe changed fundamentally. The introduction of new products, such as potatoes, tobacco, coffee or maize, affected society as the import of silver increased international trade. The commercial revolution of the late Middle Ages had already opened up new trade routes and stimulated innovative business practices. The maritime expansion contributed to an accumulation of wealth, growth of the middle classes and a rise of entrepreneurship that fostered the Industrial Revolution. 

This upper division lecture course provides a survey of how the various European countries were affected and how the changes stimulated population movements, technological change, commercial and industrial organization. 

Listed on GOLD as  “Topics in Early Modern Europe” 

Economic, social, political, and intellectual history of the seventeenth century: 1648-1685.

This course will be a discussion, reading of a single document, and critique of your peers’ papers. Certain principles and rules for the study of history will be discussed. The main thrust of the course, however, is the analysis and writing of one or two short (500 to 600) word papers on some excerpts translated from one of Richelieu’s most famous writings, The Political Testament.

Emphasizing slavery’s persistence in the Middle Ages, this course explores the experiences of captives, slaves, and serfs, as well as eunuchs, concubines and slave-soldiers (mamluks) in Western Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic World from 500-1500.

The Nazi campaign of ethnic purification through eugenics and mass murder can be considered a watershed event in European history. This course examines the factors that combined to result in the Nazi genocides, as well as the contexts, causes and consequences of other modern genocides.

1917-present. A history of the Soviet Union from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to its collapse, focusing on political and social history.

Research seminar in modern Russian and Soviet history. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

The rise of Britain as an industrial, urban, and imperial nation. Topics include the nature of industrialization, urbanization, and class formation,the role of gender and race in cultural society, the arts, and the construction of Victorian identities.

Explores the experiences of Africans and their descendants in the Americas, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Looks at ways in which men and women (enslaved and free) negotiated their imposed conditions from the colonial period to the present. Considers the methodological challenges of writing a history of people who did not produce primary sources. Underscores the contribution that people of African-descent have made and the debates that continue shaping the discipline.

A research seminar in Latin American history. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required.

The history of colonial New Spain, from California to Central America and from the Philippines to the Caribbean. Topics include pre-Columbian societies, including the Aztecs; the formation and development of colonial societies; religion; the economy; and global connections.

Undergraduate research seminar on topics in Mexican social and economic history. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

Research seminar on the history of women in America. Topics addressed: defining a research problem, identifying an original topic, conducting research, citing sources, and presenting results. Intensive writing required. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

The history of American politics since Watergate.

Historical, sociological, and psychological exploration of several interconnecting phenomena, including interracial and interethnic romance and marriage, and changing identities and social positions of multiracial and multiethnic individuals. Concentrates mainly on the United States, with selected international comparisons.

Analysis of developments in foreign affairs in first half of twentieth century. Formation and execution of foreign policy; interaction between foreign and domestic affairs.

Focuses on training in historical research methods. Requires a paper on some aspect of American history, most likely in the areas of diplomacy and politics, chosen jointly by the student and the instructor. Students will conduct historical research in a seminar context, using both primary and secondary source materials, to produce an original and substantial research paper.

The fall of the dynastic system, the revolution against traditional values, the rise of the Nationalist Party, the challenge from the Communists, the founding of the People’s Republic, and the Post-Mao reform, focusing on the theme of revolution.

The history of Japan since World War II, dealing with the American occupation, economic recovery and growth, social change, and political development.

The main ideologies guiding the establishment of various representations of sexuality from prewar scientific writings to contemporary popular culture.

Historical and contemporary forms of South Asian expressive and popular culture, including cinema, television, popular music, material culture, performance, and literature. Focuses on relations among popular culture, everyday life and social history in post-colonial South Asia.

Topical history course to explore the field of public history. Course explores preservation, government, media, historical societies and museums, archives, and teaching of public history. Emphasis on field surveys and case studies.

Students taking part in departmental honors program will write a senior thesis on a research topic of suitable depth under close supervision of faculty mentors.

A two-quarter individual research project, under the direction of a history professor selected with the advice of the departmental adviser to public policy students.

This graduate reading course is intended to introduce students to the histories of sex, gender, and colonialism through a comparative lens. Though the main focus will be the connected histories of British colonial rule in Australasia, Canada, the Cape Colony, the Carribean, Ireland, and India, attention will also be paid to historical parallels with French, Spanish, and American colonialism. Students will interrogate themes that transcend these geographical spaces to explore how notions of civilization, intimacy, and empire shaped (and were shaped by) the colonial order of people and things.

With the rising tide of nationalism and xenophobia across Europe challenging pan-European institutions such as the European Union, citizens, politicians, and academics are questioning whether there is such a thing called “Europe.”  They are debating whether there a discernible shared history, culture, economy, social relations and political institutions that can be identified as European?  This course argues that we can better understand these contemporary questions by examining the years between 1789 and 1914, when revolutionary impulses, technological and economic changes, and new notions of the individual and social groups came into being.  This course is designed to give students an understanding of the key debates, classic texts, and new approaches to the historical study of Nineteenth-Century Europe, particularly Great Britain, France, Russia and Germany. Topics will range from the nature and lasting impact of the French Revolution, industrialization and urbanization, the emergence of new notions of labor and family and the salience of class, gender, racial and national identities. Finally, we will explore Europe’s place in the world by focusing on different expressions of imperialism and globalization in the 19th century.

A reading course in a field of the professor’s specialty. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field in question. Written work as prescribed by the instructor. E. Europe.

A reading course in a field of the professor’s specialty. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field in question. Written work as prescribed by the instructor. E. Europe.

In an age of globalization and radical changes in the volumes and modes of communication, the exchange of both material goods, ideas and practices has gained increasing scholarly attention. Historians have sought to characterize what is involved in these exchanges, and a lively debate has ensued. This reading seminar will not only follow the theoretical debate, but also elucidate the major achievements of research focusing on such issues from the European Renaissance and the global encounters of the Dutch Golden Age to the discovery of the Pacific. New approaches, such as memory studies, and research practices will also be discussed. The seminar is addresses to graduate students from all epochs of history and art history as well as advanced undergraduates. 

A general introduction to selected historiographical issues and historical methods.

If you are interested in taking this course, please complete this google form  to help the professor gauge what you would be interested in learning about. 

This is a two-quarter research and writing seminar.  We want students to reflect on ways in which their research interest may cross a boundary, whether cultural, national, temporal, disciplinary, epistemological, or some other kind. 

A two-quarter in-progress sequence course with grades for both quarters issued upon completion of History 203B.

To acquaint students with relevant research methods (oral history, legal research, family history, government documents and sources, historical preservation, field research).

History is writing. Clio, the muse of history, is often depicted with quill feather, papyrus scrolls, and other attributes to record the past. But also for historians in our day, writing is often a central component of their work. Whether they are employed in academia, the cultural sector, creative industries, journalism, teaching, the corporate world, or elsewhere, writing is often a central element of their work. This course offers students an intensive practice of writing and editorial skills. Students will be divided in small editorial groups. Each week, students will write and re-write a short text and provide feedback, input and inspiration to students in their editorial group. Students will write texts in several genres: obituary/profile, book review, historical analysis, column/op-ed, interview/human interest story. Finally, they will work on and produce a feature story: a longread that analyses the present in light of the past, and that combines several journalistic, story telling and writing techniques.

How do human beings manage relations between the seen and unseen worlds? This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between spirituality and radical social change, especially—though not exclusively—among people of color. Visiting scholars and activists will workshop or present original research rooted in the humanities and social sciences and graduate students will read and respond to their work as they develop their own research questions. Short weekly reading responses and one 8-10 page paper are required each term. The goal is to foster collaborative interdisciplinary scholarship on the intersection of racial, religious, and revolutionary thought and practice, irrespective of period or place. 2-quarter course.

A two-quarter graduate research seminar in medieval social history.

A two-quarter research seminar focusing on race, gender, and inequality in U.S. history and beyond. This is the second class of the two-quarter sequence.

Seminar introduces the important issues, themes, and literature in Latin American history, from the independence movements to the end of the nineteenth century.

Seminar in American economic history.

This year long interdisciplinary colloquium brings together graduate students who study Japanese history and culture. It introduces current scholarship on Japan via readings, discussions and presentations by visiting scholars, UCSB scholars and graduate students. The colloquium meets bi- weekly. Students will prepare readings for discussion, write a seminar-length paper and present their paper to the colloquium once during the year.

A colloquium introducing the important issues, themes and literature in the history of the United States, from 1846 to 1917. Historiographical in nature the course assumes a basic familiarity with the period.

Hosts leading scholars of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. whose work touches upon the history and character of work, employment, labor, poverty, race, ethnicity, political economy, and public policy. The colloquium meets three to four times per quarter.