Egyptians protest the British occupation, 1919.
HSTAFM 163 (a.k.a. History 163) meets in person (not online or hybrid) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The location of Tuesday and Thursday lectures (2:30 to 4:20 pm), an accessible classroom on central campus, will be disclosed just before the beginning of the quarter via the Canvas course website. Friday section times and locations are available in the Time Schedule/MyPlan.
History 163 is a survey of the history of the Middle East beginning in the early 19th century and ending in the early 21stcentury. It aims to illuminate the profound and turbulent political, social and economic changes that this region has experienced in the modern era, the influences of which are evident in current events. Politically, imperial rule under the Ottomans, Qajars, and other local and regional powers came under the control or influence of Western colonialism. Formal European-led colonial structures of the early twentieth century then gave way to a complex of regimes: autocratic revolutionary governments, persistent conservative monarchies, and expansive superpower imperialism. Secularist governments initially prevailed in many of these countries while Islamist thought, usually repressed by authorities, flourished and eventually came to the fore in the form of Islamist movements. The 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries in the Middle East also saw many wars and difficult conflict negotiations, driven by both internal factors and external interventions. Economically and culturally, the Middle East underwent a contested process of integration into the global capitalist system, provoking mass popular reactions and inspiring socialist movements.
In this course, we will examine all of these developments through materials selected from historical scholarship, primary source texts, fiction in translation, and visual sources. Discussions of all major Middle Eastern countries will be interwoven into the lectures as thematically appropriate, while the readings focus especially on the Ottoman Empire, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. This course aims to ensure that, by the end of the quarter, students will understand important phenomena in international history such as imperialism and anti-imperialism; religious-political movements; the differences between monarchies and revolutionary (usually military) political systems; the roots of identity-based conflict and characteristics of atrocity; and the political, social, and economic transformations wrought by what we call “modernity” and “development.” This knowledge is applicable in various academic and career fields far beyond the boundaries of Middle Eastern studies. The course also seeks to help students obtain a deeper understanding of the politics and society of the contemporary Middle East—topics they will often encounter while reading the news or engaging in other forms of civic participation—through the application of a historical perspective.
Students will be graded on participation in Friday sections, out-of-class writing assignments, three in-class paper-and-pen quizzes, and two in-class paper-and-pen exams (a midterm and a final). Participation in Friday sections—where students will discuss assigned readings with their TA and classmates—is a mandatory, graded element of the course.
There is one textbook for this class that you will need to purchase, rent, or borrow: William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East (6th ed., 2016, or a newer edition; I do not advise purchasing older editions). It will be available before the beginning of Winter Quarter from University Book Store. Other readings will be made available electronically on the course website; these will also be compiled into a course pack that can be purchased at the beginning of the quarter if you wish to do the additional readings in print.