300 Level Course Descriptions

300-level HIS courses are more specialized and intensive. They deal with more closely defined periods or themes. They vary in format, with some being based around lectures, and others involving tutorial or discussion groups. Most 300-level courses have Prerequisites, which are strictly enforced. First year students are not permitted to enrol in 300 or 400-level HIS courses. Although some upper level courses do not have specific Prerequisites, courses at the 300- and 400-level are demanding and require a good comprehension of history.

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HIS300H1 Energy & Environment in Canadian History

This course examines the history of energy in Canada from the perspective of environment, business, state, daily life, and culture, with emphasis on the twentieth century. Topics include Big Oil, large dams, nuclear power, energy colonialism, pipeline disputes, climate change, daily life, and the relationship between energy and social power.

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS301H1 World War II France

This third-year lecture course examines the experience of the Second World War in France. Special attention is paid to questions of collaboration, resistance and accommodation. Other topics include the role of the French overseas colonies in this era, the issue of internal vs. external resistance, and the fate of civilian populations. Students engage with a set of primary and secondary sources as well as visual material that includes films.

Recommended Preparation A course in modern European history

Exclusion: VIC102H1

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS304H1 Topics in Middle East Histories: French Colonialism and the Jews

This course examines the place of Jews—politically, socially, and conceptually—within both metropolitan France and its Middle Eastern and North African colonies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In an era of liberalism and emancipation at home, the conquest of foreign lands and rule over their diverse peoples raised new questions around minority status and civil and political rights abroad. Jews, as a minority group native both to France and several of its colonies, present a unique case study of for the ways these questions were answered. Readings will include both primary sources and historical scholarship on topics including civil and political emancipation, national belonging, the “civilizing mission,” philanthropy, and antisemitism. Special focus will be paid to French Algeria, at once the only overseas territory in which most Jews attained French citizenship and a central node of Francophone antisemitism. 

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a

HIS310H1 Democracy and Dissent

This course will explore the background, experience, and legacy of protest movements in Canada in the post-1945 era. The course will draw on the latest historical literature and will situate Canadian social movements in the broad transnational context in which they unfolded. Topics will include anti-racist movements, feminism, nationalism, Indigenous politics, environmentalism, labour, and the New Right and the New Left.

Prerequisite: 1.0 HIS/ JHA/ JHM/ JHN/ JIH/ JSH credit
Recommended Preparation: HIS264H1/ HIS262H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS311H1 Canada in the World

Ranging from the fifteenth through to the turn of the twenty-first century, students will learn about the treaties, trade agreements and alliances, as well as the informal traditions, working relationships and cultural ties that shape relations of people living within the boundaries of present-day Canada with the world. For this course, “international relations” is broadly defined, including military, political, economic, environmental and immigration policies, both official and informal.

Exclusion: HIS311Y1/HIS311H5/HISC46H3
Recommended Preparation: A course in Canadian history or politics
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS312H1 Immigration to Canada

From the colonial settlement to 21st century, immigration has been a key experience and much debated in Canadian life. Drawing on primary sources, as well as historical and contemporary scholarship, this course will discuss migration, citizenship and belonging as central features in Canada’s experience of immigration. This course focuses on the individuals, groups, and collectives who built, defined, contested, and reimagined this country, to help make and remake Canada through immigration.

Recommended Preparation: HIS263Y1/HIS264H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS314H1 Twentieth-Century Quebec

This course will explore the history of Quebec in the 20th century. In addition to looking at more traditional themes focused on nationalism and constitutional politics, we will also look at the history of encounter between groups of different backgrounds and origins. As such, we will place a large emphasis on colonialism and Indigenous history, and the politics of language, race, and immigration. Themes will include, among others, the history of Quebec in an era of British imperialism, jazz, the art world, literature, the Oka Crisis, and Quebec’s ties to Haiti and other parts of the non-Western world.

Exclusion: HIS314Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS315H1 Decolonial Vietnamese Histories

This course introduces students to the narratives that diverse actors have used to talk about Vietnamese histories. We will focus on the histories and perspectives of the indigenous peoples of the peninsula, ethnic minority groups, as well as that of the majority "Kinh people." We'll explore themes which have been central to shaping the geographic space, the socio-political regimes, and the cultural entity we now call "Viet Nam," while examining how varying types of historical method and archival strategies can influence the telling of histories. What kinds of techniques did Vietnamese and Western political actors, scholars, and writers, employ to narrate the Vietnamese past(s) and how do these visions tell us about the crafter of these narratives? What counts as “history” and who gets/got to decide? Whose experiences were relevant in the different epistemological approaches?

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a

HIS317H1 20th Century Germany

A survey of modern German history in the twentieth century. Topics include World War I and the postwar settlement, the Weimar Republic, the National Socialist dictatorship, the Holocaust, the division of Germany, the Cold War, German reunification, Germany and the European Union, nationalism, political culture, war and revolution, religious and ethnic minorities and questions of history and memory.

Prerequisite: HIS103Y1/HIS109Y1/(HIS241H1, HIS242H1)/EUR200Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS318H1 Histories of the "Wild" West

What happens when histories of North America begin in the West? This course examines the critical challenges that the myths and legacies of the West pose to North American history, from pre-contract to 1990. Themes include First Nations and colonialism, immigration, racism, economic development, regionalism, prostitution and illegal economies.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS319H1 Histories of the Horn of Africa

A critical, introductory survey exploring major themes in the political, social, economic, and cultural histories of the Horn of Africa [Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan] and surrounding Red Sea and Indian Ocean from prehistoric times to the present.

Recommended Preparation: A course in African History such as HIS295Y1, AFR290H1, AFR370H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS322H1 Topics in African History: Mobility and the Making of European Empires in Africa

The colonial period in Africa was known for the extraordinary mobility of people, fauna, goods, cultures, and ideas. Both involuntary and voluntary mobility characterized this epoch. This course explores the significance and the indispensableness of all these forms of mobility in the making of European empires in Africa. The course explores the motives behind various forms of mobility by the indigenous people, Europeans as well as “things” within empires and between the metropole and the African territories in the 19th Century. By taking this direction, the course attempts to bring to the fore the fact that mobility was not a one-way but a but was also characterized by the mobility of people, ‘things and capital to the metropole, and the empire was not made overnight but over a process that spanned the entire period. The course will help expose the fact that all forms of mobility during this period were meant to benefit the metropole and chiefly the European capitalists, but some African societies and individuals thrived. The course touches on African precolonial mobilities, exploration and early colonial expansion, and colonial knowledge constructions of Africa will be explored. The impact of colonialism and borders on the redirection of labor, new forms of social mobility, gendered mobilities, borders and indigenous mobility, and the and the mobility of “things” within the new colonial infrastructures and geographies will also be explored. Overall, the course uses the lens of mobility to explore everyday life in the British, German, French, and Italian empires.

Recommended Preparation: HIS295Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS322H1 Topics in African History: Colonialism and Decolonization in Modern North Africa

North Africa is a landmark site for the study of colonialism and decolonization in modern world history. The region was a focal point for multiple European empires and the site of notoriously violent forms of settler colonialism, particularly in Algeria, France’s most prominent colony. By 1962, formal European rule had collapsed across North Africa—an impossibility in the eyes of colonizer and colonized only a short period before. Decolonization not only rippled out from North Africa back to metropolitan France, radically transformed by the loss of these colonial territories, it also shaped post-independence Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Recommended Preparation: HIS295Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a

HIS323H1 Rites of Passage and Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Reflecting on the life cycle and rites of passage in the medieval period gives the opportunity to study the daily lives of peasants, nobles, monks, nuns, and (Christian and Jewish) burghers, and to observe from an interesting angle the differences between female and male life experiences.

Recommended Preparation: HIS220Y1 or a course on the Middle Ages in any discipline
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS325H1 Imperial Russia

This course focuses on Russia's history during a period of remarkable change and turbulence, when the country more firmly established its far-flung empire while simultaneously attempting to define itself as a nation. From the wars and reforms of Peter the Great through the end of the empire during the First World War, the course touches on questions of social and cultural change, and the political events that allowed or constrained them.

Prerequisite: 1.0 HIS credit at the 200+ level
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS326H1 Topics in Asian Histories: Indigenous Histories of Vietnam

This course examines critically the idea of Indigeneity in the landscapes of what we now call “Vietnam.” Who were the Indigenous peoples of those lands? How did some communities - get identified as Indigenous and others excluded and reimagined as “ethnic minorities”? It examines how the processes of Vietnamese imperial expansion and French colonization contributed to the articulation of some communities (the lowland Viet) as “Indigenous,” while marginalizing and redefining Indigenous peoples as “ethnic minorities.” What role did the imperial state, French colonial regime, and Catholic Church play in these processes?

Prerequisite: HIS280Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS327H1 Rome: The City in History
(Joint undergraduate course HIS327H1/REN338H1)

This course investigates the development of Rome from its mythical foundations, through the Empire, the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque to the modern city, illustrating the shift from the pagan to the papal city and its emergence as the capital of a united Italy after 1870 and a modern European metropolis.

Prerequisite: At least 1.0 credit European History course(s)
Exclusion: VIC348Y1 (offered in Fall/Winter 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016) and VIC162H1 (offered in Fall 2016, Fall 2017 and Fall 2018)
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS328H1 Modern China 

An examination of political, social and economic developments in modern Chinese history to the present day. Main topics may include the decline of the Imperial order and the challenge of Western imperialism; the Republican period; the rise of the Communist movement; the People's Republic of China.

Prerequisite: HIS280Y1
Recommended Preparation: HIS380H1
Exclusion: JMC201Y1, HIS328Y1, EAS285H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS329H1 Central Middle Ages (900-1200)

A chronological survey from 900, with the foundation of Cluny by the Duke of Aquitaine, the last waves of Vikings, and the decline and end of the Carolingian Empire, up to 1200, with the Battle of Bouvines, the more formal organization of the first universities and the construction of the Gothic cathedrals. The main question will be: what happens when there is no real central power? Why did the term “Feudalism,” now nicknamed the F word by medievalists, was judged inappropriate to describe the situation?

Recommended Preparation: HIS219Y1, HIS220Y1 or a course on the Middle Ages from any discipline
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS331H1 Modern Baltic History

The history of the Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1900 to the present day, with emphasis on the emergence of independent Baltic states, World War II, communist era, the Baltic Revolution, the restoration of independence and European integration.

Recommended Preparation: HIS250H1/ HIS250Y1/ HIS251Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3

Geographic Area: c

HIS332H1 Crime and Society in England, 1500 - 1800

The changing nature of crime and criminal justice in early-modern England; the emergence of modern forms of policing, trial and punishment.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits, including 1.0 HIS credit excluding HIS262H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS333H1 Catholic Asia

This course examines the impact of Catholicism in Asia, from its introduction to its relevance in the contemporary global order. Students will be introduced to how Catholicism and the technologies accompanying it affected historical transitions in local communities in Asia as well as how the growth of these communities has affected the global Catholic Church.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in European or Asian history. Students who do not meet the prerequisite are encouraged to contact the Department.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS334H1 The Great Wall of China

Why was the Great Wall built? Did it keep the people of Mongolia out, or to keep the people of China in? How has it come to represent China's past and present as a paradoxical symbol of civilizational glory and political tyranny? For almost 2,000 years, the question of how to handle the nomads of Mongolia was a central question of China's foreign policy. Wall construction, in various places and times, was one of the consistent responses to the "nomad problem." The Great Wall came to symbolize the economic, military, political, and cultural clash between China and Mongolia. It was also a site of diplomacy, markets, and peace-making. Students will explore fundamental questions in frontier history and international relations: do contrasting environments create contrasting cultures? do culture and ideology constrain the responses of policy makers to foreign threats? does crossing a frontier change us? The class covers the 3rd century BCE to the 20th century CE, considering perspectives from both sides of the wall, and the legacy of the Great Wall as an international symbol in the present day.

Prerequisite: A 100-level HIS course
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS335H1 Canadian Legal Histories

This course examines Canadian legal history through differing Indigenous, civil, and common law legal traditions, using multiple categories of analysis, including race, gender, class, spirituality and sexuality. Legal history is a strong and engaging field of study in Canada. Topics will include constitutional histories, treaties, law-making, differing systems of land tenure, the franchise and the structure of deliberative bodies (e.g. legislatures), courts and systems of justice, policing and criminal law, punishment (including histories of incarceration and alternatives).

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits including HIS263Y1/ HIS264H1. Students who do not meet the prerequisite are encouraged to contact the Department.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS336H1 The History of Amazonia

Contrary to traditional images, Amazonia is not a pristine forest with sparse human presence. This course explores the complex societies developed around the Amazon River Basin and how they shaped the forest’s configuration. The course centers on the development of European colonialism in the region, the different modes of commodity extraction, and projects to incorporate Amazonia into nation-states. Amazonia’s history – and the history of the people who live there – helps us imagine the region’s role in our era of acute climate challenges. Topics may include empire, Indigenous history, economic development, and environment.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits
Recommended Preparation: HIS218H1/ HIS230H1/ HIS291H1/ HIS292H1

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS338H1 The Holocaust, to 1942

German state policy towards the Jews in the context of racist ideology, bureaucratic structures, and varying conditions in German-occupied Europe. Second Term considers responses of Jews, European populations and governments, the Allies, churches, and political movements.

Prerequisite: Completion of 6.0 credits
Exclusion: HIS388Y1/HIS398Y1/HIS338H5
Recommended Preparation: A course in modern European history
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS343H1 History of Modern Intelligence

This course explores the rise of modern intelligence over the long 20th century, from Anglo-Russian imperial competition before World War I through to the post-9/11 era. Students will study the contribution of intelligence services to victories and defeats in war, peace, and the grey areas in between. The course will also examine the relationship between intelligence services and society.
Occasionally, this course will emphasize a specific theme of modern intelligence history; a specific type of intelligence; or the evolution of intelligence in a particular state. Details regarding specific topics will be available on the department’s website on an annual basis.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits
Recommended Preparation: HIS240H1 and HIS247H1
Exclusion: HIS343Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS344H1 The Global Cold War

This course examines the Cold War through its global dimensions, going beyond the American-Soviet bipolar rivalry to explore the impact of the Cold War in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Students will work closely with original primary sources and interrogate historical interpretations of the Cold War through different regional and thematic perspectives.

Exclusion: HIS344Y1
Recommended Preparation: EUR200Y1/HIS103Y1/HIS241H1, HIS242H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS346H1 Rice, Sugar, and Spice in Southeast Asia: A History of Food in the Region

This course examines the importance of food products in the livelihoods of the inhabitants of Southeast and in the world economy. It traces the circulation of these products within the Southeast Asian region in the pre-modern period, into the spice trade of the early modern era, and the establishment of coffee and sugar plantations in the late colonial period, and the role of these exports in the contemporary global economy.

Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE Asian or European history
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Geographic Area: a

HIS347H1 The Country House in England 1837-1939

This course examines class distinction and community through the lens of the English country house from 1837 to 1939. Topics include owners, servants, houses, collections, gardens and rituals such as fox hunting.

Prerequisite: 1.0 HIS credit
Recommended Preparation: HIS109Y1, HIS241H1/ HIS349H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS349H1 History of Britain: Struggle for Power

An introduction to the history of modern Britain with emphasis on the crown, class, gender, political parties, race, ethnicity, European Union and Brexit.

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS350H1 Topics in European Histories: Poland and Ukraine from the First World War to Post-Soviet Dissolution

Selected topics on a specific period and/or region in European Histories

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Geographic Area: c

Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS350H1 Topics in European Histories: Modernity and Its Discontents

(Joint undergraduate course – HIS350H1/EUR301H1)

This European intellectual history course introduces students to the temporal rupture called modernity—beginning with what Max Weber calls “disenchantment” and moving through the death of God—and ultimately the resignation from attempts to find a viable replacement for God. Topics include Marxism-Leninism, psychoanalysis, expressionism, structuralism, phenomenology, existentialism, anti-politics, and deconstruction. Authors include Nietzsche, Lenin, Kafka, Freud, Husserl, de Beauvoir, Heidegger, Arendt, Adorno, Sartre, Girard, Foucault, Derrida and Havel.

Selected topics on a specific period and/or region in European Histories

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS351H1 The Soviet Union and After

A survey of the history of the Soviet Union and its successor states beginning with the collapse of the Russian Empire. The course draws on scholarly literature, memoirs, and often film to understand the social, cultural, and political developments of the Soviet state, including famine, terror, and war.

Prerequisite: 1.0 HIS credit at the 200+ level
Exclusion: HIS351Y1/ HIS351H5
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS355H1 A History of Pre-modern Medicine

This course surveys major themes and developments in the history of medicine from c.600 BCE to 1800 CE. Topics include: Hippocrates, Galen and their reception in the Middle Ages; monasteries, medicinal gardens and hospitals; medieval licensing of physicians and pharmacists; medieval scholastic medicine; the Black Death; Renaissance anatomy and charlatans; New World drug discoveries; William Harvey’s heart, William Withering’s foxglove, the isolation of morphine.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in medieval or pre-modern history. Students who do not meet the prerequisite are encouraged to contact the Department.
Recommended Preparation: HIS220Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS356H1 War in Canadian History

This course examines war as a major force in the history of Canada from the so-called colonial period to recent times. In addition to key dynamics in military history (e.g. battles, military organization), the course will stress the links between war and society, politics, empire and colonialism, technology and environment, memory and commemoration, and identity. Topics may include indigenous warfare and diplomacy, imperial rivalry in early North America, Canada and the British Empire, the world wars, the Cold War, and peacekeeping. Soldiers and peaceniks are both welcome and will be equally happy and annoyed.

Recommended Preparation: HIS264H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS359H1 Regional Politics and Radical Movements in the 20th Century Carribean

The role of nationalism, race and ethnicity, class conflict and ideologies in the recent development of Caribbean societies; Europe's replacement by the United States as the dominant imperial power in the Caribbean; how this mixture of regional and international pressures has led to widely differing political systems and traditions.

Recommended Preparation: HIS294Y1/( HIS230H1, HIS231H1)
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS361H1 The Holocaust from 1942

Follows on HIS338H1. Themes include: resistance by Jews and non-Jews; local collaboration; the roles of European governments, the Allies, the churches, and other international organizations; the varieties of Jewish responses. We will also focus on postwar repercussions of the Holocaust in areas such as justice, memory and memorialization, popular culture and politics. 
Tentative Course Requirements: analysis of a primary source, term project, a mid-term test, and a final examination.

Prerequisite: completion of 6 undergraduate full-course equivalents and HIS338H1
Exclusion: HIS338Y1/HIS361H5
Recommended Preparation: a course in modern European history
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS362H1 Topics in Early American History: Indigenous Land, Colonization, and Property in Early America

This course examines histories of colonialism, property, and Indigenous relationships to land in Early American History. Drawing on case studies from across what is now the continental United States (from the colonial era to the expansion West in the nineteenth century), we will examine the question of how land transferred from Indigenous to settler control in various colonial contexts. We will discuss how ideas of property impacted Indigenous nations, from dispossession and violent conflict to various nations drawing on Indigenous and settler legal frameworks to protect their lands.

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Recommended Preparation: HIS271Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS364H1 From Revolution to Revolution: History of Hungary

Once a powerful kingdom in Central Europe, Hungary and the Hungarians have a rich history of interchanging periods of conquest, dominance, expansion, and contraction.
This 12-week course has its focus on the multiple transformations of Hungary: From the revolutionary “Springtime of Nations” in 1848 when Hungary’s quest for independence was halted through political sovereignty and partnership with Austria in the Dual Monarchy between 1867 and 1918, to a truncated but independent existence in the interwar period; from there to subjection first to Nazi Germany and then to the Soviet Union, and finally to renewed independence in 1989 and membership in the European Union in 2004.
The focus is on the revolutions of 1848-1849, 1918-1919, the 1956 Revolution against Soviet rule and the collapse of communism in 1989. The story has been invariably heroic, violent, and tragic. In the long peaceful periods, long at least for East Central European conditions, Hungary changed from a patriarchal and rural country to an urbanized and industrialized nation.
The course will offer a chronological survey of the history of Hungary from 1848 until the present. It is ideal for students with little or no knowledge of Hungarian history but who possess an understanding of the main trends of European history in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Prerequisite: A 100 level HIS course
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS365H1 History of the Great Lakes Region

This course is a survey of the Great Lakes Region as a “trans-national space” from the 1780s to recent times. Attention is focused on the development of the region from indigenous space to industrial heartland and its subsequent deindustrialization. Key themes include economic development, colonialism and re-settlement, environmental history (particularly of the lakes themselves), and the role of the Canada-US border in shaping the region. The course includes material from both Canadian and American history. Considerable attention is paid to Toronto as a Great Lakes city.

Recommended Preparation: HIS264H1 or HIS271Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS367H1  The British Home Front: Britain in the Second World War, 1939-1945

This course examines how British civilians responded to the Second World War at home in Britain. Topics include the Blitz, rationing, propaganda, directed labour, enemy internment, evacuees, the changing role of women, radio and movies.

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS368H1 Early Modern British History, 1485-1660

Introduction to the political, social and religious history of early modern England, Scotland and Ireland. Particular attention will be paid to the history of the monarchy, the Protestant Reformation, gender issues and relations between different parts of the British Isles.

Recommended Preparation: EUR200Y1, HIS109Y1/ HIS243H1/ HIS244H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS371H1 Canadian Political History

This course examines the history of Canadian politics from the late colonial period to the recent past. Lectures and discussions will focus attention on specific political issues (responsible government, Confederation, war, welfare, battles over voting rights, campaigns for social change, etc.) but also consider the deeper structural, social, economic, and cultural dynamics that shaped politics over time. The course takes a broad view of politics (elections and parties but also social movements, interest groups, bureaucracy). A key theme is the nature of political power in a democratic polity.

Prerequisite: HIS264H1/ HIS263Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS374H1 Mass Incarceration in the United States

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.

Prerequisite: HIS271Y1/ (HIS221H1, HIS222H1)
Exclusion: HIS389H1 (Topics in History: Mass Incarceration in the United States) offered in Fall 2018, 2019, and 2022. 
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS375H1 Crime and Punishment in the Early Modern World

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.

Prerequisites: 4.0 credits
Exclusions: HIS357Y1
Recommended Preparation: HIS243H1/ HIS244H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS377H1 The United States in the World

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.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits

Recommended Preparation: HIS271Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

HIS380H1 Chinese Canadian History

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.

Recommended Preparation: HIS266H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS382H1 China from the Mongols to the Last Emperor

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.

Prerequisite: HIS280Y1/EAS103H1/EAS209H1 or comparable course in E. Asian/Chinese history
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS386H1 Fascism

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.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits, including 1.0 HIS credit excluding HIS262H1
Exclusion: HIS389H1 (Topics in History: Fascism), offered in Winter 2018 and Winter 2019
Recommended Preparation: A course in European History
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a

HIS388H1 France Since 1830

A study of French society, politics, and culture from the Paris Commune to the 1990s. Special attention is paid to watersheds like the Dreyfus Affair and the Vichy regime, to issues of regionalism/nationalism, cultural pluralism, women's rights, intellectual and cultural trends, and decolonization.

Prerequisite: EUR200Y1/one course in HIS/FRE
Exclusion: HIS388Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: c

HIS390H1 Slavery in Latin America

This seminar focuses on the history of African 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.

Prerequisite: HIS106Y1/ HIS231H1/ HIS291H1/ HIS292H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

HIS397H1 Political Violence and Human Rights in Latin America

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.

Prerequisite: HIS292H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: b

JHA384H1 Japan in the World, mid-16th to mid-20th century

This course examines Japan within the context of world history from roughly 1600 to the mid-20th century. Examples of topics include: the mid-16th to early 17th century European expansion into East Asia; the Dutch and Chinese influence on early modern Japan; the Meiji “Restoration” as a global event; Japanese nationalism in a world of nations; Japan as both semi-colony and colonizer; the “woman question”; and the US Occupation of Japan.

Prerequisite: One course from: HIS102Y1, HIS103Y1, HIS107Y1, HIS241H1, HIS242H1, HIS244H1, HIS250H1, HIS250Y1, HIS271Y1, HIS280Y1, HIS281Y1, HIS282Y1, HIS283Y1, HIS291H1, HIS291Y1, HIS292H1, HIS292Y1, HIS297Y1, or 1.0 credit from CAS200H1, CAS201H1, CAS202H1, CAS310H1, CAS320H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a

JHA394H1 The Asia Pacific War

This course examines the Second World War in the Asia Pacific region and highlights: (1) how imperialism and colonialism of both the Euro-American and Japanese varieties were central to the War's outbreak, conduct, and “resolution”; (2) various “local” rather than simply national experiences and memories of the War, including those of marginalized groups in Japan and its colonies, “comfort women,” victims of war atrocities, Asian North Americans, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

Prerequisite: One course from: HIS107Y1, HIS242H1, HIS250H1, HIS251H1, HIS263Y1, HIS271Y1, HIS280Y1, HIS281Y1, HIS282Y1, HIS283Y1, HIS284Y1, HIS292Y1, HIS311Y1, HIS317H1, HIS328H1, HIS338H1, HIS343H1, HIS343Y1, HIS344H1, HIS344Y1, HIS351Y1, HIS361Y1, HIS377H1, HIS385H1, HIS385Y1, or 1.0 credit from CAS200H1, CAS201H1, CAS202H1, CAS310H1, CAS320H1.

Recommended Preparation: One or more courses on Japan, China, Korea, or Southeast Asia in any department.

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

JHM307H1 Islamic Legal History: Formation and Encounters 

This course examines the formation and encounters of Islamic Law with Legal Others from roughly the 8th century CE to the early formation of the Ottoman Empire. The Islamic legal tradition arose in a complex historical context in which legal traditions mapped onto, and gave legal cover to, imperial polities. As the Islamic polity expanded, so too did the imagination of jurists having to contend with new realities (political, geographic, economic, and otherwise). This course will introduce students to the formation of Islamic law in a context of contending legal orders, its ongoing encounters with legal orders in the course of Islamic expansion, and the retraction of Islamic legal orders and institutions as a tradition that anticipated political sovereignty experienced the limits of that sovereignty. Examples will be drawn from the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia. The course will introduce students to the disciplinary focus of Law and History through a focus on doctrine, institution, and the implications on both as territory and people are subject to varying waves of imperial designs and local resistance.

Prerequisite: HIS268H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: 0.5 credit

JIH366H1 Indigenous Histories of the Great Lakes, 1815 to the Present

Explores the history of Aboriginal peoples (Indigenous and Metis) living in the Great Lakes Region after the Great Lakes were effectively split between British North America (later Canada) to the north and the united States to the south, when a rapidly increasing newcomer population on both sides of the border marginalized Indigenous peoples and settled on their land. Topics include a comparative examination of Indigenous experiences of colonialism, including treaties and land surrenders as well as the development of government policies aimed at removing and/or assimilating Great Lakes peoples. This course will also study resistance by First National and Tribal Councils to those programs over nearly two centuries and assess local strategies used for economic and cultural survival.

Prerequisite: HIS263Y1/ HIS264H1/ HIS271Y1/ INS200H1/ INS201Y1
Exclusion: HIS366H1/ HIS369Y1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

JJH370H1 Soviet Jewish History, Culture, and Diaspora 

The course examines history, culture and diaspora of Russian-speaking Jews in the 20th and 21st century. We will discuss how Jews experienced Russian Revolutions of 1917, Stalinism, Soviet Great Terror of 1937, World War II and the Holocaust, post-war challenges, the “Thaw” of the 1960s, “Stagnation of the 1980s”, Dissident movement, Perestroika, collapse of the Soviet Union and the development of post-Soviet diasporas. We will read works by both Soviet Jewish authors, including Vassily Grossman, Shira Gorshman, Isaac Babel, Rivka Levin and post-Soviet ones, such as David Bezmozgis, Lara Vapnyar and Boris Fishman, study artifacts of anti-religious propaganda such as Red Passover Celebration scripts, discuss oral histories of Soviet Jews, read scripts of Yiddish theater performances (in English translation), and scrutinize (and maybe even try) recipes of Soviet Jewish food. No prior knowledge is required, but if you took a course on European history or Jewish history, it will be an asset.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits.
Exclusion: CJS391H1 (Soviet Jewish History, Culture, and Diaspora), offered in Fall 2024.

Recommended Preparation: CJS201H1 or HIS208Y1

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)