How can we understand the events, ideas, and conflicts that have featured in the news cycle during the past year? “The History of 2023” offers historically informed reflections on this year’s momentous events, providing an opportunity to understand our world in its historic context. Each week will feature a different History faculty member speaking on a major news topic of the year, showing what we can learn by approaching it from a historical perspective. The course is open to all students (newcomers and history veterans alike) who want to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of 2023, and who are curious to consider how studying history can offer a deeper and richer understanding of tumultuous times.
See HISTORY 1 on ExploreCourses
Course Coordinator:
Professor Steven Press
Details:
- 1 unit, Credit/No Credit
- One lecture every week
- Attendance required
- Short readings may be posted in conjunction with some lectures
- Tuesdays, 9:30-10:20 AM
- Lane History Corner (Building 200), Room 002
Speakers and Topics:
September 26 Amir Weiner
Putin's War on Ukraine: Causes, Course, and Consequences
October 3 Gil-li Vardi
War 2023: Is Conventional War Back?
October 10 Jennifer Burns
Money Matters: Milton Friedman and the Return of Inflation
October 17 Paula Findlen
Hot or Cold: Climate and Environment in the Early Modern World
October 24 Thomas Mullaney
The Taiwan Crisis: a Century in the Making
October 31 James Campbell
The Struggle over Voting Rights
November 7 No Class - Democracy Day: Day of Civic Service
November 14 Robert Crews
The Global Drug Wars
November 21 No Class - Thanksgiving Recess
November 28 Mikael Wolfe
Was the Global Climate Crisis Inevitable? What the Historical Record of Denial and Delay Can Tell Us
December 5 Jack Rakove
A Scenario of Constitutional Failure: Gloomy Fears, Modest Hopes
