HIST 411 - Junior Seminar

How does the imperial past shape the present? In the twentieth century, Britain transformed from the largest empire the world had seen, to an island nation off the northwest coast of Europe. These changing borders profoundly shaped life within Britain itself. In this course, we will examine how historians have studied the afterlife of empire in Britain’s twentieth century. Course readings will address formal decolonization, Britain’s global role, public institutions, the welfare state, immigration, racial formation, gender, and culture. From this shared foundation, students will be able to pursue independent research projects on topics of their own choosing.

Americans and the Wider World, 1789-1861

Scholarship on the “early republic” was once one of the most inwardly focused subfields of American historiography, focused squarely on the development of identities and institutions within the boundaries of the United States. However, recent scholarship of the decades spanning the end of the American Revolution through the Civil War examines how people living in the United States sought to make sense of their emerging nation’s place in a wider world. For some, these explorations meant visiting places outside the United States, while other Americans engaged with foreign peoples, places, and cultures vicariously. We will consider what it meant for an American to march in a parade celebrating the French Revolution, name a newborn after Simón Bolívar, contribute money to a missionary in Burma, become president of the independent republic of Liberia, or travel the oceans on a whaling vessel. In so doing, we will both deconstruct claims about “American exceptionalism” and examine how such myths came to be. We will give particular attention to the experiences of ordinary Americans, of various backgrounds, in order to push transnational history beyond the realms of diplomatic and military affairs.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing, and two history courses at Reed
Restriction(s): History and Interdisciplinary-History majors only
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes: Not all topics offered every year. Review schedule of classes for availability.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

• Evaluate data and/or sources.
• Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
• Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.