Courses

Nationalism has compelled people to die in the name of national symbols or patrimony, even in an age defined as global or even postnational. What are the causes and sources of nationalism, and why does nationalism continue to be relevant today? In this course, students explore the social history of nationalism, with particular emphasis on the role of music and musicians in nationalist movements. Students examine competing explanations for nationalism, apply these theories to contemporary and historical examples, and reflect on the role of musicians in civil society.

This survey course provides an introduction to the history of East Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Paying particular attention to the formation of East Asian modernity, the course will examine how the encounter between East Asia and Western Europe during this period informs current realities. We will look at the role of economic expansion, cultural difference, and scientific discovery in modern East Asian history. The course will cover ethnic nationalism and revolution in China, Japan's emergence as a colonial power, and democratization of Taiwan. Finally we will ask how current East Asian realities may challenge conventional understandings of development.

This course examines the history of Europe from the Enlightenment in the 18th century to the end of the Second World War in the middle of the 20th century. It was during these two-and-a-half centuries that traditional European society—rural, agrarian, aristocratic, monarchical—dissolved in a series of political, economic, and social revolutions that led to the formation of the modern world. Students learn about the political and social thought of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of nationalism, the role of women in an age of separate spheres, the growing role of science, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Fascism and Communism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. Students examine the key events in European history which were most responsible for shaping the modern world. Students are also encouraged to consider the degree to which our current society is still a product of the ideas, debates, and controversies generated between 1700 and 1945.

This course explores all aspects of the history of Nazi Germany from Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s to his death at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Students examine the Nazi experience from as many vantage points as possible. The class explores the following: the Nazi seizure of power, the Hitler cult, the role of women in Nazi Germany, antisemitism, the Holocaust, Hitler's foreign policy, the appeasement policy of the Western democracies, the Second World War, and daily life in the Third Reich. Because many of the issues touched on in the course have their roots deeper in the German past, the class also spends some time examining the unification of Germany in the late 19th century, the impact on Germany of World War One, and the history of the doomed Weimar Republic (1919-33). The class also watches several films, including a documentary on the Holocaust and the infamous Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

This course explores the history of German cinema between 1919 and 1945. In the first half of the semester we will be examining the films produced in the era of the Weimar Republic, that decade and a half following the First World War in which democracy failed to take permanent root in Germany. Although associated with political failure, the Weimar years were a time of artistic experimentation, and the films of the 1920s and early 1930s reflect the social, political, and cultural tensions of the period. In the second half of the course we will turn our attention to the cinema created in Germany during the Nazi dictatorship. In Hitler's Germany movies were no longer simply entertainment; they also served as an important form of propaganda: glorifying the regime, creating a sense of national (and racial) unity, demonizing Germany's Jewish minority, and justifying an aggressive foreign policy of war and expansion. In the course of the semester we will be looking at horror films, thrillers, science fiction fantasies, dramas, musicals, love stories, documentaries, and action pictures. And all of them—even those intended as light entertainment at the time—convey historical lessons about how an open and democratic society could disintegrate and be overtaken by a ruthless and genocidal dictatorship.

History Topics courses enable students to choose from a variety of course themes that change each semester. Topics focus on a variety of historical periods and ideas. In History Topics courses, students explore the role of historical sources in the formation of ideas, as they examine various historical interpretations, debates, and methodologies. Students come to recognize that not all questions have simple yes-or-no, right-or-wrong answers. Students learn to appreciate and respect diversity and are able to identify bias in written and media sources used to document history. Individual course descriptions are available to registering students at http://www.berklee.edu/liberal-arts/courses/liberal-arts-topics-courses.