History
Acting Chair:
    James Turner, Ph.D.
    Dept. Tel. (574) 631-7266

The Program of Studies. The Department of History offers a summer program designed to meet the needs of undergraduates and graduates from Notre Dame and other institutions who wish to supplement their studies. Each regular course listed below counts toward either the University history requirement or the major requirements.

Course Descriptions. The following course descriptions give the number and title of each course. Lecture hours per week, studio and/or tutorial hours per week, and semester credit hours are in parentheses. The University reserves the right to withdraw any course without sufficient registration.
CRNs for independent study courses may be obtained from the department office, from the Summer Session office, or from insideND.
 
HIST 30281. Taking Heaven by Storm: Holy Knights, Militant Monks, and Violence in the Middle Ages
(Cross-listed with MI 30288)
3 credits, Molvarec (3-0-3)
3:15–5:10 MWR, 6/17–7/31
CRN 3754; ID # HIST 30281 01
Last “add” date: 6/22
“Drop” dates: refund, 6/26; last 7/10
Enrollment Limit: 10
This course explores the development of monastic and chivalric impulses in Medieval Europe from AD 400 to 1500. Two of the most persistent images, even to this day, which represent the Middle Ages are that of the monk and the knight. Monasteries and knighthood were social institutions that significantly shaped societal sensibilities and culture in the West. From the beginning of the Middle Ages, monastic groups and knightly orders took pages from one another’s book. Their influence upon one another is seen in monks who came to think of themselves as spiritual warriors and in some knights who came to consider themselves military monks. Rhetorical and physical violence was employed by both knights and monks throughout the period, and instances of this will be examined.
In addition to considering the historical realities of monastic and knightly mentalities during the medieval era, this course will also look at representations of monks and knights from the Middle Ages until the 20th century in art, literature, and film. Such images are instructive in consideration of not only the periods that produced them, but of the Middle Ages themselves. Students interested in religious or military history, films, Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, or other representations of the Middle Ages in popular culture, are especially welcome.
 
HIST 30441. Famine, Poverty, and Violence and Nineteenth-Century Ireland
3 credits, Grimsley-Smith (3-0-3)
10:30–12:25 MWF, 6/17–7/31
CRN 3755; ID # HIST 30441 01
Last “add” date: 6/22
“Drop” dates: refund, 6/26; last 7/10
Enrollment Limit: 10
This course explores Ireland in the 19th century. Central to this exploration is the mid-century famine, which by starvation, disease, and emigration reduced the Irish population by half and resulted in extraordinary political and social changes, some of which have only recently begun to be obliterated from contemporary Irish memory. The course will focus on the persistent problem of governance of a disordered and often violent society from both British and Irish perspectives. Special attention will be paid to attempts at democratization in a quasi-colonial political environment, as well as the creation and adaptation of institutions such as jails, workhouses, and lunatic asylums to handle the unrelenting and interrelated scourges of poverty and social disorders.
 
HIST 30475. Twentieth-Century Russia: War and Revolution
3 credits, Brennan (3-0-3)
1:15–2:35 MTWR, 6/17–7/31
CRN 3756; ID # HIST 30475 01
Last “add” date: 6/22
“Drop” dates: refund, 6/26; last 7/10
Enrollment Limit: 10
This course explores Russian history from the coronation of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II in 1894, to the fall of communism in 1991. The key events of Russian history in the 20th century, such as the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Russian Civil War, the imposition of Leninism and Stalinism, the Second World War, the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe and the Cold War, the Khrushchev “thaw,” the experience of Neo-Stalinism from 1964 to 1985, glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachev, and finally the end of the Soviet Union will be examined in detail. Particular attention will be paid to a number of key issues, such as the reasons for the collapse of the tsarist regime, the Bolshevik seizure of power, the origins of Stalinism, the role of political ideology in the Soviet state, the attempts at reform of the communist system under Krushchev and Gorbachev, and the reasons for the failure of the Soviet “experiment.” While political ideology and the role of the Communist party will remain frequent topics, the course will also examine the experience for “ordinary Russians” of living under totalitarianism.
 
HIST 30856. Labor and America since 1945
(Cross-listed with AFAM 30276, AMST 30362, IIPS 30922)
3 credits, Graff (3-0-3)
8:55–11:25 TR, 6/17–7/31
CRN 3336; ID # HIST 30856 01
Last “add” date: 6/22
“Drop” dates: refund, 6/26; last 7/10
Enrollment Limit: 10
This course explores the evolving relationships of American workers to politics, the economy, and the wider culture since 1945. The United States emerged from World War II as the strongest global power, and its citizens subsequently enjoyed a long postwar economic boom that created what we might call the first truly middle-class society in world history. At the heart of that new society was the American labor movement, those unions like the United Auto Workers and the United Steel Workers who ensured that at least from of the postwar profits made it into the wallets of workers and their families. Today, however, unions represent only 8 percent of workers in the private sector. What accounts for the decline of organized labor since the 1950s? What has the decline of the labor movement meant for workers specifically, and the American economy and politics more broadly? How and why have popular perceptions of unions changed over time? What has been the relationship of organized labor to the civil rights movement, feminism, and modern conservatism? What is “globalization” and what has been its impact upon American workers? Through an exploration of historical scholarship, memoirs, and Hollywood films, this course will try to answer these questions. Students interested in politics, economic development, International relations, social justice, human rights, peace studies or mass culture are particularly welcome. NOTE: This course fulfills the university history requirement NOTE: This course fulfills the university history requirement or IIPS Area C

HIST 37050. Directed Readings
Variable credits, Staff (V-V-V)
CRN varies with instructor
ID # HIST 37050
 
HIST 66050. Directed Readings
Variable credits, Staff (V-V-V)
CRN varies with instructor
ID # HIST 66050
 
HIST 98699. Research and Dissertation
Variable credits, Kselman (V-V-V)
CRN 1383;  ID # HIST 98699
 
HIST 98700. Nonresident Dissertation Research
Variable credit, Kselman (0-0-1)
CRN 1382; ID # HIST 98700