In-depth examination of selected periods or themes in U.S. history. Topic in any given year depends on instructor. See History website for more details.

To explore the history of all types of servants, from the domestic slaves to the ladies-in-waiting, in Western Europe between 1000 and 1700. The goal will be to observe their working and living conditions, including the ones of life-cycle servants (between adolescence and early adulthood), as well as the changing perception of service through time.

The United States is home to five percent of the world’s population but twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners, including a disproportionate number of African American, Latinx, and Native American people. This vast carceral archipelago is the subject of extensive scholarly and public debate over the history, ethics, and function of incarceration in the United States. In this course, we will explore the rise of contemporary mass incarceration from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws upon history, sociology, and legal studies to reveal the linkages among state-formation, politics, capitalism, and modern punishment as well as community responses to mass incarceration.

What did it take to break the law in the period 1400-1800, and how were people prosecuted and punished when they did? We will review the kinds of crimes that triggered arrest, the different types of law codes in place and the importance of the revival of Roman law, ways of avoiding prosecution, the criminalization of “deviance”, judicial processes in colonization, and variations based on age and gender. We’ll also look at forms of punishment, including the varieties of corporal and capital punishment, the operation of prisons, the use of exile and transportation.

An exploration of the history of American foreign relations.

Each year, this course will emphasize a specific era of the history of American foreign relations (For instance: foreign relations during the Revolution and Early Republic; the long nineteenth century; the rise of American power since 1898); or a specific theme (for instance: America as an imperial power; America at war; the presidency and foreign policy, etc.) Details regarding specific topics will be available on the department’s website on an annual basis.

A survey of one of the most turbulent decades in American history. Examines the political, social, economic and cultural revolutions that transformed the face of America.

This course examines war in modern Vietnam, beginning with Vietnamese nationalism in the 19th century to the conflicts with France, the United States, and China. We will consider the military, political, economic, and cultural contexts of these complex and interconnected wars, especially from the viewpoint of the Vietnamese people.

Explores histories of Chinese in Canada, and how scholars have researched, interpreted and analyzed them in ethnic, multicultural, transnational and diasporic contexts. Students will be exposed to a wide range of research approaches including: archives, oral history, community studies, visual studies, popular culture, racial-ethnic studies, and food studies. Chinese in Greater Toronto will be a focus.

Adolescence is a time of adaptation between childhood and adulthood, and it’s often described as a modern invention. This course will look at how people in their teens and twenties navigated social demands and expectations around work, law, education, and marriage in the period 1400-1700. The course will address issues around biology, gender, violence, sexuality, mobility, and forced labour, with attention to comparing experiences between distinct traditions in different parts of the early modern world.

This course traces the history of Chinese empire from its political reorganization, economic expansion, and cultural efflorescence in the 11th century, through its peak of power in the 18th century, and to its decline during the 19th. We will consider how these centuries broke with as well as continued previous developments, and how they have influenced Chinese and world history in the last 150 years.

This course subjects our increasing knowledge about African women’s history from the mid-19th century to the present to critical analysis. It goes beyond restoring women to history and seeing African women as victims impacted upon and struggling against colonialism and neo-colonialism. It examines how African women’s lived experiences have been represented, packaged, and delivered to different audiences.

This course traces political, cultural and socio-economic developments in North-Eastern Europe, the Baltic Sea region, from the Viking Age to the end of the 19th century. Topics include the crusades, the Hanseatic League and trade, the Reformation, the struggle for hegemony between the Swedish and Russian empires, the Enlightenment, national movements, and industrialization.

A comparative and transnational examination of fascist movements and regimes in Europe during 1919-1945. Beginning with Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, this course analyzes manifestations of the phenomenon in various European countries, including France, Spain, the Baltic states, Central Europe and Scandinavia. We analyze the factors that led to fascist movements obtaining power in certain countries and to their failure in others. Collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War is also explored. Finally, we discuss whether the concept of ‘generic’ fascism can also be applied to other regions and periods.

This course considers the history of France, from the rise of absolutist monarchy under the seventeenth-century, Bourbon monarchs, through the Enlightenment, the Revolution and Napoleonic Empire, and the Restoration, to the fall of the constitutional monarchy in 1848.

A study of French society, politics and culture from 1830 to the present. Special attention is paid to watersheds like the Paris Commune, the Dreyfus Affair and the Vichy regime, to issues of regionalism/nationalism, cultural pluralism, women's rights, intellectual and cultural trends, and decolonization.

In-depth examination of historical issues. Content in any given year depends on the instructor and further prerequisites vary from year to year. See History website for more details.

In-depth examination of historical issues. Content in any given year depends on instructor. See History website for more details.

This course focuses on the history of slavery in Latin America from its origins in the fifteenth century to its abolition in the nineteenth century. Readings will draw from primary sources and historical scholarship related to a range of topics, including the slave trade, gender, religious and cultural practices, and emancipation.

Explores implications for history and its methods of the shift from print to digital sources. Imparts introductory skills in the manipulation digital media, such as the use of maps, GIS and big data.

Superseding 19th century European missionary and explorers' accounts of Africa; media in the 20th and 21st centuries have unequivocally played a key role in shaping the globe's views of Africa and Africans. In 2005, BBC Focus on Africa put out an impressive list of more than 100 "African Icons". Since then, a number of websites have come up with various lists of African icons. Who are the African icons and what makes them icons? How have the media contributed in making them icons?

This course provides an opportunity for exceptional third-year students to undertake an independent research project on a topic for which there is not a suitable course offering. Students must find an appropriate supervisor from the Department, submit a proposal, and receive approval for the project. Students must be enrolled in either a History Specialist or Major program; have taken at least 3.0 HIS credits with a B+ average; and have approval of an instructor willing to supervise the project. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course provides an opportunity for exceptional third-year students to undertake an independent research project on a topic for which there is not a suitable course offering. Students must find an appropriate supervisor from the Department, submit a proposal, and receive approval for the project. Students must be enrolled in either a History Specialist or Major program; have taken at least 3.0 HIS credits with a B+ average; and have approval of an instructor willing to supervise the project. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course examines the rise of big business in America and its relationship to social and economic changes in United States in the so-called Progressive Era (roughly 1880-1920). We will focus on several themes: the evolution and characteristics of big business; rise of organized labor; evolution of business-government relations; social and economic reform movements; and the changing status of immigrants, African Americans, and women (both white and African-American). In short, we will be studying a pivotal moment in the transformation of modern American society.

This course will explore human rights theory and practice from a Latin American perspective.  There will be a focus on the local derivation, development and impact of the movement for human rights in Latin America.  The course will focus on the history of organized protest against violence in the twentieth century.

An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course examines the French and American Wars (1945-75) in Vietnam and its effects on the population of Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It begins with a brief overview of pre-colonial Vietnamese history and moves into a study of the impact and legacies of colonial rule and centres on the impact of the Wars on the cultures, economies, and societies of Southeast Asia.

The course reviews the history of the Cold War in light of formerly-secret archival documents. Examples include the US White House Tapes and Venona decrypts; massive declassification of records in the ex-Soviet bloc; and parallel developments in China, Cuba, and other Communist states. Archival discoveries have cast new light, not just on individual episodes (e.g., Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979) but on the origins, strategies, and driving forces of this 45-year conflict. The focus will be mainly on the superpowers and their alliance systems.