History 505: Comparative History

History 505

Comparative History: Empires, States, Nations

Aviel Roshwald Of. hrs. T 1-2/Th 2:30-3:30 ICC 601 and by appointment Tel. 7-6089

Course Description The historian’s craft is distinguished by its practitioners’ preoccupation with the fluid, ever- changing nature of the human condition. Hence historians’ sensitivity to the importance of particular social and material contexts, specific individuals and groups, and discrete events. Yet the success of historical scholarship hinges in part on its ability to establish links between the subject of its narrative and broader issues or themes. Conversely, those elements that make a particular historical phenomenon altogether unique cannot be appreciated without some sense of contrast. An element of comparison, then, lies implicitly at the heart of every historical investigation. In this course, we will focus explicitly on historical comparison by reading and discussing works of comparative history and historical sociology. These books examine broad typological categories such as war, revolution, imperialism, and modernity through the systematic comparison of diverse instances of these phenomena.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of applying broad categorical labels to particular historical events? How analytically significant are the elements of resemblance that link multiple events under common terminological headings? Does a self-consciously comparative approach to history force us to think of it from a global perspective and, if so, what do we gain and lose in the process? These are some of the theoretical and methodological questions that will lurk in the background of our discussions.

Along the way, we will also be studying, discussing, and debating some of the major issues associated with the historical development of the world over the past five hundred years. Our thematic focus will be on empires, states, and nations. Among the questions we will address are: How are empires, states, and nations related to, and distinct from, one another? To what extent and in what ways has their development been interdependent? How has the global system been shaped by imperial, etatist, and national conceptions of legitimacy, sovereignty, and identity? How have those conceptions varied across space and culture, and evolved over time? How have rivalries and alliances, conflict and cooperation among political powers shaped the international system? What issues and perspectives does a comparative approach to the study of these phenomena suggest? What are the limitations and drawbacks of a comparative approach to this topic? 2

The term paper is, naturally, to be structured as an exercise in comparative history. It can be a research paper based on primary sources or a critical analysis based on secondary sources. Any theme or topic is fine (it does not have to involve empires, states or nations), as long as the approach is historical and comparative. Please start thinking early about possible topics and be sure to develop those topics in close consultation with me. Term papers are to be at least 5,000 words long (including footnotes). These projects are due Thursday, December 17.

In addition, you will be writing two 5-7 page essays comparing a set of assigned secondary sources and a pair of assigned primary sources, respectively. Essay topics will be assigned on the dates indicated in the schedule, and the work will be due in class the following week.

Grades will be assessed as follows:

Class participation: 30%

Two five-to-seven-page essays: 30% (15% apiece)

Term paper: 40%

Schedule Week 1 (Sep. 3)

Introductory meeting

Erich Angermann, Carl N. Degler, and John A. Garraty, Challenges of Ambiguity: Doing Comparative History (German Historical Institute of Washington, D.C./Berg Publishers, 1991) http://www.ghi-dc.org/publications/ghipubs/annual/al04.pdf

Week 2 (Sep. 10)

Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990 - 1992

Week 3 (Sep. 17)

Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Introduction, Part I, and pp. 152-207, 211-212, 261-263, 264-297)

Week 4 (Sep. 24) Secondary Source Comparison Assigned

Michael W. Doyle, Empires (Preface, chaps. 1-2, 5-7, pp. 191-197, chaps. 9-14) 3

Week 5 (Oct. 1) Secondary Source Comparison Due

John Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (Introduction and chapters 1-5, 8, pp. 353-368, chapter 12 and Epilogue)

Week 6 (Oct. 8)

Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism

Week 7 (Oct. 15)

Karen Barkey and Mark Hagen, After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-building: The Soviet Union and the Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires

Week 8 (Oct. 22)

Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (chaps. 1, 3-4, 7, 9-12, 15, 18)

Week 9 (Oct. 29) Primary Source Comparison (on Crowe and Kennan Pieces) Assigned

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (chaps. 1, pp. 70-72, chap. 3, pp. 143-158, 178-193, 194-198, 249-274, chapter 6, pp. 513-540)

Week 10 (Nov. 5) Primary Source Comparison Due in Class

On electronic reserve: pp.108-121 of Zara Steiner, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898-1914

On reserve: Eyre Crowe, “Memorandum on the Present State of British Relations with France and Germany” (January 1907), [on Lauinger electronic reserve and also available online at: http://tmh.floonet.net/pdf/eyre_crowe_memo.pdf]

On reserve: John Gaddis, “Spheres of Influence: The United States and Europe, 1945-1949,” in Charles S. Maier, ed., The Cold War in Europe. 4

George Kennan, “The Long Telegram” (February 1946), available online at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm

Week 11 (Nov. 12)

Class cancelled this week.

Week 12 (Nov. 19) Secondary Source Paper Due

Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 13 (Dec. 3)

Oral Presentations on Term Paper Projects

Week 14 (Dec. 10)

Oral Presentations on Term Paper Projects

Term papers are due Thursday, December 17.

Books to be Purchased

Karen Barkey and Mark Hagen, After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-building: The Soviet Union and the Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires (Westview, 1997), ISBN-13: 978-0813329642

Michael W. Doyle, Empires (Cornell University Press, 1986), ISBN-13: 978-0801493348

John H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (Yale University Press, 2007), ISBN-13: 978-0300123999

Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2003), ISBN-13: 978-0521527507 5

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Vintage, 1989), ISBN-13: 978- 0679720195

Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism (Harvard University Press, 2007), ISBN-13: 978-0195378535

Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton, rev. edn, 2001), ISBN-13: 978-0691090108

Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (Harvard University Press, 2005), ISBN-13: 978-0674017634

Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990 - 1992 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), ISBN-13: 978-1557863683