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 1000 to 1700 CE.

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 1700 to present.

Broad exploration of great issues in the history of public policy from ancient times to present, to understand basic ways in which societies make their major decisions, the shared dynamics in the process, and how varied settings affect it.

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.

Colonial through Jacksonian era. 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.

1945 to present. History 49-A- B-C is a general survey course designed to introduce students to major themes in African history. The course focuses on colonialism and decolonization, nationalism and self-liberation, development and neocolonialism, Cold War contexts, as well as African experiences of independence and the everyday in our contemporary, global world. Weekly discussion sections are an important feature of this course, enabling students to develop and expand upon material presented during lecture.

An introduction to the basic issues and themes of Mexican history, from the pre-Hispanic era to the present.

Historical and interdisciplinary perspectives on poverty and inequality globally and in the U.S., tracing structural transformations, shifting modes of thought, policy, and action, dynamics of class, racial, gender, ethnic and geographic stratification, and major theoretical debates from antiquity through the present. Course features guest lectures to introduce students to varied conceptual and methodological approaches to studying poverty and inequality, and draws on readings, discussion, writing, and related assignments to explore issues within a social justice framework.

An introduction to the history of the South Asian subcontinent, with emphasis on the period from 1500 CE to the present.

Explores the overlapping worlds of Renaissance Italy, 1300-1500: the vibrant merchant culture; the elegant courts of princes; intellectual circles like the Platonic Academy; famed mercenary captains and their troops; the underworld of male same sex relations, of criminality and prostitution; the lives of women in marriages, in convents and in poorhouses; the workshops and homes of the laboring poor. One central theme is the culture of patronage and the production of extraordinary art.

Assesses the more than seven centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish coexistence (convivencia) in the Iberian peninsula, examing intercultural and interfaith relations from the time of the Visigoths (fifth century) to the expulsion of the Moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity) in 1609.

“Liberty, equality, fraternity”: what does this revolutionary motto mean from a colonial perspective? France, often characterized as “the country of human rights,” also has a long imperial history that sheds light on key contradictions of modernity: democracy and populism, citizenship and inequality, colorblindness and racism. Countries as different as Canada, Haiti, Algeria, Vietnam, Senegal, India and even the United States share a common French colonial past: how did these French roots of globalization define the world as we know it?

Economic, social, political, and intellectual history of the seventeenth century: 1610-1648.

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.

A history of England from the late middle ages to the eighteenth century.

The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on the nation’s most significant social questions ranging from segregation to same-sex marriage and women’s work. Designed to put these and other decisions in proper context, this course covers U.S. legal history from the founding period to the present, with special attention to the evolution of legal conceptions of property, race and gender, civil rights, and criminal justice. Students must read critically and make arguments based on evidence.

The rise of a world religion and the emergence of a new multi-ethnic society under its aegis; the evolution of social and political institutions within the Universal caliphate; the creation of a specifically Islamic culture and intellectual life.

Through readings and discussion, students will explore a broad problem or topic in the history of the Middle East or wider Islamic world. The course will culminate with a research paper or historiographical review essay.

Focuses on the history of Southern Africa under colonial rule to independence (late 1880s-1994). Explores the imposition of European settler rule, African resistance, the political economies of the different colonial regimes, the rise of African nationalism and independence.

The intersection between leisure and politics is a consistent feature of African history, and it is a complex, creative intersection that produces and transacts history in dynamic ways. Utilizing ancient transcripts and records of performative cultures, contemporary music, primary and secondary interpretations of African cultural life, this course provides a deep and timely exploration of the fertile intersection between cultural performativity and power from ancient times to the present. Performative cultures are therefore political, and so also are they spiritual, economic and deeply embedded in questions of science and technology.

Social history of women in America from 1800 to 1900. Changing marriage, reproduction and work patterns, and cultural values about the female role. Attention to racial, class and ethnic differences. Analysis of feminist thought and the several women’s movements.

A social and political history of colonial and revolutionary America with emphasis on the interaction of Native Americans, Europeans, and African Americans. The course will combine lectures with discussion of both primary and secondary sources. From mid-eighteenth century to 1800.

A undergraduate research seminar on US history designed to guide students in doing research. Each student will produce a substantial research paper on some aspect of American politics and/or culture since 1900.

The interaction of politics and public policy from the revolution to the present, focusing upon the key issues of each era in social, economic, cultural, racial, and other policy areas. A particular concern for the policy-making process, ideology, and the cultural origins of politics.

Changing patterns and conceptions of inequality, seventeenth century to present. Examines influence of economic transformation, race, gender, class, attitudes towards work and welfare, social movements, social knowledge, law and public policy on opportunity, income, status, and power.Divides at Civil War and World War II.

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 reading course in a general area of history, specifically designed to prepare M.A. candidates for their comprehensive examination fields, but also appropriate for Ph.D. students seeking broad preparation. Introduces the student to the sources, historiography, and general literature of the field in question.

A reading course in a general area of history, specifically designed to prepare M.A. candidates for their comprehensive examination fields, but also appropriate for Ph.D. students seeking broad preparation. Introduces the student to the sources, historiography, and general literature of the field in question.

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. AM. America.

This graduate reading seminar will address the history and historiography of slavery in the Americas. We will consider the classics that helped define the field, works that have sparked controversy, and some of the most recent offerings in the history of slavery. Though primarily focused on the institution of slavery that developed in the British colonies and later in the United States, we will approach slavery comparatively. We will also examine the institution from variety of perspectives, including the law(s) of slavery, slavery as an economic practice and system of labor, slavery as a cultural, social, and gendered experience, and the politics of slavery. Reading widely and considering slavery from many vantages will help us understand it as a multifaceted phenomenon that shaped the development of the Atlantic World, British North America, and ultimately, the United States.

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.

This graduate level readings seminar provides a survey of key works in the history of technology. Introduces the student to the sources and literature of the field. Written work as prescribed by the instructor.

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

A two-quarter research seminar that explores the history of modern empire from a transnational perspective. Open to graduate students in any area field.

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

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 colonial origins to 1846. 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.

Writing/reading workshop, professionalization seminar, and guest lecture series for graduate students working in area of history of science/technology. Meets monthly throughout the academic year.