Events
Undergraduate Programs and Courses
Bachelor of Arts
Minor
Courses
Special Topics and Seminar Course Descriptions, Fall 2008
Hist 006K: History and the News. D’Innocenzo, 1 credit. Mondays from 2:55 to 4:20 for the first 10 weeks of the semester.
Have you ever wondered what a historian takes from his or her reading of the newspaper? This class will examine issues and candidates in the 2008 presidential election through a close scrutiny of media coverage (print and broadcast). Particular emphasis will be placed on evaluating the campaign and policy issues in historical perspective. In addition to daily reading of newspapers, viewing of television programs and a sampling the range of sources on talk radio, in magazines, and on the internet, students will participate in the National Issues Forums Institute projects that look in depth at key issues facing the nation, e.g. Energy Independence; the Nine Trillion Dollar National Debt; the Health Care Crisis; America's Role in the World; and The Wealth Gap The goal of these various approaches will be to assess the leadership of candidates in the context of challenges facing the nation, how they have emerged over time, and how they have been addressed to this point.
Hist 008D (01) – Key Events in History: Debating Guantanamo. Eisenberg, 1 credit. Mondays 11:15 to 12:35 pm for the first 10 weeks of the semester.
In pursuing the “war on terror” the Bush Administration’s decision to imprison foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay and to deny them rights protected by the Geneva Conventions has generated enormous controversy. In this course, we will consider historical precedents for this approach. We will look at how the Bush Administration has justified the situation in Guantanamo and the claims of its critics. We will also consider how the Bush administration’s policy evolved over time. Students will be expected to understand and assess competing perspectives. May be taken in conjunction with Hist 008E.
Hist 008E (01) – Key Events in History: Debating Iraq. Eisenberg, 1 credit. Mondays 12:50 to 1:45 pm. for the first 13 weeks of the semester.
As described by the Bush Administration, the war in Iraq has become the “central front” in the war on terrorism. In this course, we will look at the historical development of US policy towards Iraq from mid-1965 to the present. We will analyze the decision to invade and occupy Iraq and the problems, which have emerged since March 2003. We will analyze competing perspectives on the U.S. role in that country, looking at the arguments of both defenders and critics. May be taken in conjunction with Hist 008D.
Hist 168: Special Topics in Asian History: Workers, Women and Minorities in Modern Japan. Terazawa
This is an upper-division course that explores the history of underprivileged people in modern Japan. We first examine how peasant women and men became workers when the government pursued a policy of modernization and westernization after the Meiji Revolution in 1868. While industrialization was a crucial part of this modernization effort, it created very bad working conditions for factory workers, many of whom were women. Why did they agree to work under such conditions? How did they resist oppression by their employers? We also discuss working life and workers’ efforts to unionize in the 1920s and 1930s. Reading assignments include not only historical documents but also novels, which reveal aspects of people’s emotional life and working class culture other materials cannot. Finally, we study the history of various minorities in modern Japan. These minorities include atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were subject to various forms of discrimination and ostracism after World War II. This course is co-taught by Professors Yuki Terazawa and Russell Harrison.
Hist 177A: Presidential Elections: An Historical Perspective. Eisenberg
In this course, we will follow the final stages of the 2008 Presidential election, while placing it in historical perspective. We will begin with the formation of the New Deal coalition in 1936 and continue through the present. Our purpose is not to cover every election, but to look deeply into particular contests in order to clarify the role of issues in political campaigns. To what extent, have elections been a vehicle for the public to express its preference about major issues? And if presidential contests are not about issues than how are we to understand them?
H178A: Long Island and New York: Two Distinct and Intertwined Worlds. Staudt
Numerous important historic events have taken place in New York City and Long Island, many within the vicinity of Hofstra’s main campus. For example, the first battle of the Continental Army took place in 1776 in what is today Prospect Park, Brooklyn. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island. Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic flight began at Roosevelt Field. The region has also been home to numerous historic figures including Walt Whitman, Louis Armstrong and Andy Warhol, among many others. This course will allow students to focus on the region’s rich political, cultural, social and economic past. Among the many topics students will explore are the creation of New York City as the world’s financial capital, the impact the proximity of Manhattan has had on Long Island’s development, and how various local communities have been able to maintain a separate identity from the metropolis. The students will also examine how local and municipal governments have fit into the history of democracy in the United States. The course will take every opportunity to allow students to experience history as a living subject with several field research visits to local museums, archives and historic sites.
Hist 178A/Hist 292: From Abigail Adams to Hillary Clinton: Can a Woman Be Elected President of the United States? Yohn
This course examines the broad sweep of American history to ask if a woman can be elected president of the United States. We will begin by examining the debates that occurred at the outset of the Republic about whether to extend to women political rights. What were the barriers to women full participation in the political realm? The course will then discuss the rise of the first women’s movement in the 1830s and 40s, focusing on the challenge to the prohibitions against women speaking in public, the organization of the first women’s rights convention in 1848. The course will also cover the 70 year long campaign for women’s suffrage which culminated in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The semester will end with an examination of ways women have been political agents and actors from the 20th century to the present, for example, Eleanor Roosevelt, conservative activist, Phyllis Schlafly, welfare rights activists in Las Vegas in the 1960s, second wave feminists like Pauli Murray, and finally contemporary female politicians like Hillary Clinton.
Hist 186: Italian American History Seminar. Pugliese
Italian-Americans make up one of the largest ethnic communities in the United States. At the end of the nineteenth century, conditions in Italy deteriorated for millions of landless peasants, day laborers, artisans and craftsmen, especially in the impoverished South. So began one of the greatest migrations in human history. Between 1880 and 1920, millions of Italians came to America. Once here, they discovered conditions rarely resembled the image of a country whose streets were “paved with gold.” Instead, racism, discrimination, crime, corruption and difficult labor conditions greeted them. This seminar will examine the forces that pushed emigrants to leave Italy and those that pulled them to the United States. We will examine the “melting pot,” “salad bowl,” and “garbage can” metaphors social scientists use to describe the immigrant experience. Students will focus on the larger forces that affected the immigrant experience (and therefore which apply to other immigrants groups as well). We will utilize concepts from other immigrant groups to delineate an Italian “diaspora.” In addition, we will introduce the concept of “l’avventura” to distinguish the Italian-American experience from other ethnic groups. The course will explore the issues that impacted directly on Italians such as Catholicism and the images of Italians in American popular culture. A particular concern will be with Italian-American literature and the various attempts to forge a viable ethnic identity. In addition to a set of common readings (history, memoir, fiction, film screenings), students will complete a major research paper.
Hist 189A: Studying History Through Objects: Or “Antiques Roadshow” Comes to Hofstra. Yohn
This research seminar focuses on material culture or the history the objects that surround us. Ever wondered about the history of that Barbie doll you used to play with or the history of your favorite football? What about that neat old dress your grandmother has saved or the old car that your uncle treasures? We will study material culture, or the physical stuff that is part of human life. Material culture includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Have you ever wondered what people will make of American society five hundred years from now? How would a scholar study a society if only durable objects remain? Students will choose an object from among the objects of everyday life, will examine that object in their historical, economic, and cultural contexts, and will write a 15 to 25 page paper exploring the history and meaning of that object. This course will require a substantial commitment of time outside of class. Students must be prepared to spend an additional 6 to 8 hours a week outside of class pursuing research.
Hist 196: Persian Wars. Walsh
This seminar will examine the causes and course of the hostilities between Persia and the Greek city states culminating with the Persian invasion of mainland Greece in 490 and 480 BC. I t will also cover some important military/political events following the expulsion of the Persians in 479, that lasted on into the 5th and 4th centuries. The text will be Herodotus’ Histories. There will be one paper and I expect that we will be able to see the recent movie “300” dealing with the battle at Thermopylae.
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