New York University
History in the Headlines
New York University Abu Dhabi, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
History Elective (Global Thematic Course)
The key events you read about in your morning twitter feed or on your favorite news sites are usually not unique in world affairs. They have a background, a context, that makes them more understandable and often more interesting. History is about everything that happened before you started reading this course description. And thinking historically means trying to make sense of the new in the context of what human beings have done before.
In this lecture series, historians and scholars employing a historical perspective in their work will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of current events you thought you knew, with the goal of making you a better observer and analyst of the world around you.
This is a two-credit course designed to show students how thinking historically can help them understand better the key issues in the world around them. The weekly 75-minute meeting begins with a lecture by a specialist with the remaining portion of the session devoted to Q&A and discussion.
For more information, please see here.
The African American Freedom Struggle
New York University Abu Dhabi, Fall 2017
History Elective (Atlantic Ocean World) / Crosslisted with Political Science
This course explores the African American freedom struggle in the United States. It analyzes its historical origins, African American emancipation during the Civil War and reconstruction, migration patterns and economic conditions in the agricultural and industrial sectors, “Jim Crow” laws and the “Separate, but equal” doctrine, as well as the impact of US military engagements and the Cold War on race relations during the 20th century.
The course examines the various challenges to legalized segregation in the aftermath of World War II, the powerful grassroots campaigns of African American civil rights activists and organizations during the 1960/70s and their political and cultural impact, and the emergence of black nationalism and black power.
It also traces the ways in which the struggle for racial equality in the US was perceived as part of a larger struggle against colonialism around the world. Furthermore, the course incorporates discussions about affirmative action, the “prison-industrial complex”, the notion of a “post-racial America” under the Obama administration into the broader context of an ongoing quest for equal rights and social justice in the US.
The Global Sixties
New York University Abu Dhabi, Fall 2017
History Elective (Atlantic Ocean World) / Crosslisted with Political Science
This course explores the African American freedom struggle in the United States. It analyzes its historical origins, African American emancipation during the Civil War and reconstruction, migration patterns and economic conditions in the agricultural and industrial sectors, “Jim Crow” laws and the “Separate, but equal” doctrine, as well as the impact of US military engagements and the Cold War on race relations during the 20th century.
The course examines the various challenges to legalized segregation in the aftermath of World War II, the powerful grassroots campaigns of African American civil rights activists and organizations during the 1960/70s and their political and cultural impact, and the emergence of black nationalism and black power.
It also traces the ways in which the struggle for racial equality in the US was perceived as part of a larger struggle against colonialism around the world. Furthermore, the course incorporates discussions about affirmative action, the “prison-industrial complex”, the notion of a “post-racial America” under the Obama administration into the broader context of an ongoing quest for equal rights and social justice in the US.
The Global Cold War
New York University Abu Dhabi, Spring 2014 (HIST-AD 110)
History – Global Thematic Course
The subject is the Cold War as global conflict. The course focuses on Europe and the Third World, as well as on the United States and the Soviet Union. It examines issues in international politics and diplomacy, nuclear rivalry, and the culture of the bomb, Cold War economic competition and development policies, and the impact of the Cold War on culture and gender in various countries.
US Foreign Relations Since 1898
New York University Abu Dhabi, Fall 2016
HIST-AD 184 (Asia-Pacific/Atlantic World)
Crosslisted with Political Science/International Relations, Social Research and Public Policy
Instructors: Eric Hamilton / Martin Klimke
This course will explore the central events, issues, and ideas driving US foreign policy throughout the 20th century, starting with the Spanish-American War in 1898 and closing with the “war on terror”.
We will take an interdisciplinary approach and define “foreign relations” broadly, analyzing the country’s ascent to become both an industrial and political global player by the end of the 19th century, its rise as an economic and financial power during the first half of the 20th century, its global military presence during and after World War II, its cultural diplomacy efforts and ‘grassroots Americanization’ of US popular culture and lifestyle, as well as its military and political conflicts abroad during and after the Cold War.
The course will examine notions of national power, territorial acquisition, modern warfare, racial discrimination, and class and gender hierarchies. It will also discuss the consequences of and resistance to US foreign policy at the receiving end, critically examining concepts such as “American exceptionalism,” “the American Century,” “imperialism,” the “free world,” “grand strategy” and global leadership, among others.
The course is designed for students interested in international relations and foreign policy, as well American history, politics, and culture.
U.S. History in Transnational & Global Perspective 1
America and the World until 1898
New York University Abu Dhabi, Spring 2013 (HIST-AD 167)
History – Regional Course: Atlantic World
Sunday/Wednesday, 11.20-12.35
DTC, N-107
Rethinking the traditional narratives of U.S. history, this course explores America’s past from a transnational and global perspective. Chronologically, it covers America’s interaction with the wider world from the earliest European settlements to the Spanish-American War of 1898, examining the Colonial Period, the Revolutionary War, the founding of the republic, the War of 1812, westward expansion, as well as the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, and Reconstruction.
Readings and classroom discussions focus on the major political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the process of American nation-building, reevaluating the allegedly “exceptional” elements of U.S. history in relation to networks, identities, and events that transcended the nation-state.
U.S. History in Transnational & Global Perspective 2
America and the World since 1898
New York University Abu Dhabi, Spring 2012/Spring 2014 (HIST-AD 168)
History – Regional Course: Atlantic World
Rethinking the traditional narratives of U.S. history, this course explores the country’s past from a transnational and global perspective. Chronologically, it covers America’s interaction with the wider world from the Spanish-American War to the presidency of Barack Obama, examining America’s emergence as a global power leading up to World War I, the progressive reform movement, the Great Depression and the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the African American civil rights struggle, the political turmoil of the 1960s, Watergate, as well as the “conservative revolution” of the 1980s, the end of the Cold War and America after 9/11.
Readings and classroom discussions focus on the major political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the “American century” and the country’s present, reevaluating the allegedly “exceptional” elements of U.S. history in relation to networks, identities, and events that transcended the nation-state.
Peace
(Structures of Thought and Society)
New York University Abu Dhabi, Spring 2013/Fall 2013 (CORES-AD 27W)
Core Curriculum Course
Sunday/Monday, 2.35-3.50
DTC, N-109
Peace Writing Workshop
Wednesday, 2.35-3.50
DTC, N-112
Research Guide
This course traces the development of philosophical, religious and secular theories of peace from antiquity to the present. It explores questions of peace and justice, nonviolence, the idea of a “just war,” as well as notions of peace in international relations, economics, and psychology, examining how those spurred peace activism and the ideology of pacifism.
To that end, students analyze literary, visual, and organizational representations of peace across national and cultural boundaries and the emergence of peace and conflict studies as an academic discipline.
Readings include works by Laotse, Thucydides, St. Francis of Assisi, Immanuel Kant, Henry David Thoreau, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., A.J. Muste, Johan Galtung, Alma Myrdal, and Petra Kelly, among others.
A Breath of Freedom?
Transatlantic Relations, African American GIs and Military Families since World War II
Independent Study, Spring 2013
…coming soon!
Morning in America
Ronald Reagan, the Nuclear Crisis, and the Cold War of the 1980s
(crosslisted with NYU Department of Politics / POL-GA.3501.11)
New York University, Fall 2012 (HIST-GA.2655)
History: Graduate Seminar
Mon 11:00-1:45, KJCC 717 (Warren Dean Reading Room)
This course seeks to place the final decade of the Cold War in historical perspective by focusing on the intertwinement of domestic and foreign policy during the Reagan administration.
It explores the emergence of the neoconservative movement, the “Reagan revolution,” the effects of “Reaganomics” and the military buildup, and the ascent of Evangelical Christianity as a political factor. It also retraces the debates surrounding the role of government, social responsibility, the welfare state and public health care system, shifting value systems, and technological innovation, as well as their representations in society and popular culture.
Merging an “establishment” perspective with an analysis of protest cultures, the course examines Reagan’s foreign policy of “peace through strength” with regard to the Soviet Union from a global perspective, analyzing the nuclear threat and the renewed arms race, his policies toward Europe and Central America, Iran-Contra, the question of human rights in East-West diplomacy, and the controversy, widespread opposition, and grassroots activism these issues triggered both at home and abroad.
Readings include the most recent and influential scholarship on this period as well as a variety of primary sources.
For an introduction to the topics covered in this class and recent scholarly debates about the decade, please see, for example:
“America in the 1980s,” Panel Discussion at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (January 8, 2011)
Gil Troy, “Reagan and the 1980s Deserve More Courses,” in: Chronicle of Higher Education (November 8, 2009)
Other NYU Research Guides related to this class include:
Race, Sex & Gender in 20th Century Military History
New York University, Spring 2013 (HIST-GA.3022.001)
Independent Study
Co-taught with Valerie Deacon
This course focuses on the intersections of race, sex, and gender in various military contexts over the course of the twentieth century. We will examine these intersections at moments of conflict, as well as moments of relative ‘peace’, and our geographic scope will allow us to contrast and compare these connections in various global settings.
Selected Literature:
Alvah, Donna. Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965. New York: NYU Press, 2007.
Duchen, Claire. “Crime and Punishment in Liberated France: The Case of Les Femmes Tondues.” In: When the War was Over: Women, War, and Peace in Europe, 1940-1956, edited by Duchen, Claire, and Irene Bandhauer-Schöffmann, 233-249. London: Leicester University Press, 2000.
Firpo, Christina. “Crises of Whiteness and Empire in Colonial Indochina: The Removal of Abandoned Eurasian Children from the Vietnamese Milieu, 1890-1956,” Journal of Social History, 43:3 (Spring 2010), 587-613.
Firpo, Christina. “Lost Boys: ‘Abandoned’ Eurasian Children and the Management of the Racial Topography in Colonial Indochina, 1938-1945,” French Colonial History, (Vol. 8, 2007), 203-224.
Guglielmo, Thomas A. “’Red Cross, Double Cross’: Race and America’s World War II-Era Blood Donor Service,” The Journal of American History (2010) 97(1): 63-90.
Höhn, Maria, and Seungsook Moon, eds. Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present. Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2010.
Honey, Maureen, ed. Bitter Fruit: African American Women in World War II. Kansas: University of Missouri Press, 1999.
Ingimundarson, Valur. “Immunizing against the American other: Racism, nationalism, and gender in US-Icelandic military relations during the Cold War,” Journal of Cold War Studies 6, no. 4 (2004): 65-88.
Lee, Sabine. “A Forgotten Legacy of the Second World War: GI Children in Post-war Britain and Germany,” Contemporary European History 20, no. 02 (2011): 157-181.
Lentz-Smith, Adriane Danette. Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Leon Bass, Good Enough: One Man’s Memoir on the Price of the Dream. Open Door Publications, 2011.
Levine, Philippa. “Battle Colors: Race, Sex, and Colonial Soldiery in World War I,” Journal of Women’s History 9, no. 4 (1998): 104-130.
Roberts, Mary Louise. “The Price of Discretion: Prostitution, Venereal Disease, and the American Military in France, 1944–1946,” The American Historical Review115, no. 4 (2010): 1002-1030.
Rose, Sonya O. “Girls and GIs: Race, Sex, and Diplomacy in Second World War Britain,” The International History Review 19, no. 1 (1997): 146-160.
Saada, Emmanuelle. Empire’s Children: Race, Filiation, and Citizenship in the French Colonies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Singh, Nikhil Pal. “Beyond the ‘Empire of Jim Crow’: Race and War in Contemporary U.S. Globalism,” The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 20 (2009): 89-111.
Stovall, Tyler. “Love, Labor, and Race: Colonial Men and White Women in France during the Great War,” French Civilization and Its Discontents: Nationalism, Colonialism, Race (2003): 297-321.
Virgili, Fabrice. “Enfants des Boches: The War Children of France,” in: Children of World War Two: The Hidden Enemy Legacy, edited by Kjersti Ericsson and Eva Simonsen, 138-151. Berg, 2005.
Winchell, Meghan. “’To Make the Boys Feel at Home’: USO Senior Hostesses and Gendered Citizenship,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 25, 1 (2004): 190-211.
Woollacott, Angela. “‘Khaki Fever’and Its Control: Gender, Class, Age and Sexual Morality on the British Homefront in the First World War,” Journal of Contemporary History (1994): 325-347.
The Civil Rights Struggle
African American GIs and the U.S. Military in the 20th Century
New York University, Fall 2012 (HIST-GA.3022.001)
Independent Study
Throughout the 20th century, a large number of African American civil rights activists and organizations conceived of their struggle for racial equality in the United States as part of a larger struggle against colonialism in Africa, Asia, and South America.
This independent study explores how their transnational campaigns and the responses they evoked would intersect with the experience of African American soldiers who participated in overseas military conflicts from World War I until the Gulf War of 1990/91.
A growing body of literature on this topic will facilitate our analysis of the African American freedom struggle from a global perspective. The course thus incorporates the experience of black servicemen and women in Europe, Asia and the Middle East into the broader context of an ongoing quest for equal rights and social justice in the United States.
Selected readings include:
Anderson, Carol. Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008.
Goedde, Petra. Gis and Germans: Culture, Gender and Foreign Relations, 1945-1949. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Gore, Dayo F. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War. New York: New York University Press, 2011.
Gore, Dayo F., Jeanne Theoharis, and Komozi Woodard. Want to Start a Revolution? : Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
Hinton, Elizabeth Kai, and Manning Marable. The New Black History: Revisiting the Second Reconstruction. The Critical Black Studies Series. 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Höhn, Maria, and Martin Klimke. A Breath of Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Höhn, Maria, and Seungsook Moon. Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present. Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2010.
Kruse, Kevin M., and Stephen Tuck. Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Lentz-Smith, Adriane Danette. Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Marable, Manning, and Vanessa Agard-Jones. Transnational Blackness: Navigating the Global Color Line. The Critical Black Studies Series. 1st ed. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Pennybacker, Susan D. From Scottsboro to Munich: Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Singh, Nikhil Pal. Beyond the “Empire of Jim Crow”: Race and War in Contemporary U.S. Globalism. In: The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 20 (2009), 89-111.
Schroer, Timothy L. Recasting Race after World War Ii: Germans and African Americans in American-Occupied Germany. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2007.
Smith, Graham. When Jim Crow Met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War Ii Britain. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.
Weatherford, Doris. American Women During World War Ii: An Encyclopedia. 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2010.