This course examines the range of human experience in Europe during the Second World War. Why did Nazi Germany invade and attempt to colonize large parts of Europe? What were the methods of Nazi rule? How did European peoples respond to the Nazi project, whether through forms of resistance or collaboration? Who were the principal victims of the war--and why is this question so difficult to address even today?

The class examines China's entanglement with the Cold War from 1945 to the early 1990s. The course raises China-centered questions because it is curious in retrospect that China, a quintessential Eastern state, became so deeply involved in the Cold War, a confrontation rooted in Western history. In exploring such questions, this course does not treat China as part of the Cold War but the Cold War as a period of Chinese history.

This course examines the history of territorial disputes in East Asia by examining the demarcation, mapping, & policing of borders from the 1600s - present. With case studies including Xinjiang, the Korean peninsula, & current territorial disputes in the South & East China Seas, we will interrogate the social, political, cultural, & environmental factors that defined boundaries in East Asia historically & contribute to ongoing border tensions.

At the Great War's centennial, we take stock of how it shaped life in the 20th century for peoples around the globe. Movies, memoirs, government reports and other texts throw light on causes of the war, the human carnage of 1914-18, Woodrow Wilson's effort to end war forever with a League of Nations, the demise of liberalism and the rise of fascism and communism in postwar Europe, and the launch of anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa.

Detailed survey of the historical origins, political structures, cultural dynamics, and every-day practices of the Nazi Third Reich. Cross-listed in the German department, and taught in English.

Surveys the rise of the modern corporate form of American business and an analysis of the underlying factors which shaped that development.

Explores the friend/foe nexus in Germany history, literature and culture, with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries.

The development of legal institutions, legal ideas, and legal principles from the medieval period to the 18th century. Emphasizes the impact of transformations in politics, society, and thought on the major categories of English law: property, torts and contracts, corporations, family law, constitutional and administrative law, and crime.

Surveys American labor in terms of the changing nature of work and its effect on working men, women, and children. Emphasizes social and cultural responses to such changes, as well as the organized labor movement.

An examination of the history of Japan from 1945 to the present, as it transforms from an empire to a modern industrial capital state.  We will explore the key contradictions, debates, and fault lines that run through the period, many of which persist to today.