History 394CI - Ideas That Changed History
Fall
2017
01
3.00
Bruce Laurie
TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
UMass Amherst
32398
This class is about 1. Ideas that have chagned the discipline of history. 2. Ideas that have changed the larger flow of history. 3. Ideas that have changed you, the student, and your relationship to history. 4. Ideas that have changed your personal history.Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Hist majors. (No credit after History 391G).
This course is open to Senior & Junior History majors only. All historians inevitably address the basic question of what drives history. Which forces move the larger historical narrative, define an era, or inspire a moment or moments? Are they, economic, political,
cultural either on their own or in some combination? This course explores the thesis that the motive forces of historical change were and are popular movements from the right and the left, starting with the
first populist revolt in the 1890s and ending with the current one. In between we will look at such insurgencies as the American left around World War I, Civil Rights and Women?s Movements from the 1950s thru the
1970s, and the more recent struggle for LGBT rights We will end by studying the rise of the modern conservative movement in the 1970s anits latest reincarnation in the form of the Tea Party. In each instance we will ask who joined such movements? Why? What did they stand for? We will also dig into the most important question of all: what was their impact? Why did they matter? In looking at these questions you will gain a deeper appreciation for the complicated physics of historical change over time.
Students will be responsible for two or three oral reports, short reflective essays on the topic of the week, and a final synthetic paper centered on what you learned.
cultural either on their own or in some combination? This course explores the thesis that the motive forces of historical change were and are popular movements from the right and the left, starting with the
first populist revolt in the 1890s and ending with the current one. In between we will look at such insurgencies as the American left around World War I, Civil Rights and Women?s Movements from the 1950s thru the
1970s, and the more recent struggle for LGBT rights We will end by studying the rise of the modern conservative movement in the 1970s anits latest reincarnation in the form of the Tea Party. In each instance we will ask who joined such movements? Why? What did they stand for? We will also dig into the most important question of all: what was their impact? Why did they matter? In looking at these questions you will gain a deeper appreciation for the complicated physics of historical change over time.
Students will be responsible for two or three oral reports, short reflective essays on the topic of the week, and a final synthetic paper centered on what you learned.