Online courses directory (457)

The purpose of this course is to trace the twin paths of capitalism and democracy through American history.  This course is premised on the idea that capitalism and democracy are intertwined, though they have often conflicted with one another.  One reason that democracy and capitalism often conflict is because capitalism has the capacity for both enormous construction and enormous destruction; these contradictory impulses often appear in tandem.  This course is structured to provide students with a brief introduction to the history of capitalism and democracy in Europe and then to explore how they evolved in North America between 1600 and the present.  Throughout the course, students will be exposed to primary and secondary readings as well as video and audio lectures that will explore the connections between America’s economic and political development This course assumes a basic working knowledge of U.S. history.  A good resource for review is http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/US_History [1]. Also ava…

This course will focus on the wars and military conflicts that have shaped the social, political, and economic development of the United States from the colonial era through the present.  You will learn how these conflicts have led to significant changes in America social and political life during this 300-year period.  The course will be structured chronologically.  Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching themes, such as how colonial conflicts in the 18th century shaped the political organization of the United States, how regional conflicts in the 19th century culminated in the Civil War, how America cemented its status as a major world power through participation in the First and Second World Wars, how Cold War conflicts destabilized American social and political life, and how modern conflicts continue to redefine American social and political values and ideals.  By the end of the course, you will understand how three centuries of warfare have…

Learn about different voting methods and fair division algorithms, and explore the problems that arise when a group of people need to make a decision.

Learn how advances in geospatial technology and analytical methods have changed how we do everything, and discover how to make maps and analyze geographic patterns using the latest tools.

How can we know if the differences in wages between men and women are caused by discrimination or differences in background characteristics? In this course we look at causal effects as opposed to spurious relationships. We will discuss how they can be identified in the social sciences using quantitative data, and describe how this can help us understand social mechanisms.

How can we explain kindness and cruelty? Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Why do people so often disagree about moral issues? This course explores the psychological foundations of our moral lives.

This course will introduce you to a comparative history of New World societies from 1400 to 1750. You will learn about European exploration and colonization as well as the cultures of native peoples of the Americas. The course will be structured geographically; each unit will focus on a particular New World society during a specific time period. Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the fifteenth-century conceptualization of the “New World” and colonization, the indigenous peoples living in the Americas at the time of European contact, and the effect of New World societies on native peoples and Africans. By the end of the course, you will understand how the new communities in the New World evolved from fledgling settlements into profitable European colonies and how New World societieswhether French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, or indigenouswere highly varied polities.

This course will introduce you to the history of Central Eurasia and the Silk Road from 4500 B.C.E to the nineteenth century.  You will learn about the culture of the nomadic peoples of Central Eurasia as well as the development of the Silk Road.  The course will be structured chronologically; each unit will focus on one aspect of the Silk Road during a specific time period.  Each unit will include representative primary- and secondary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the discovery and production of silk in China, diplomatic relations between Han China and nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe, the international scope of the Silk Road trade routes, European interest in finding a “new silk route” to China, and the “Great Game” between China, Russia, and Great Britain in Central Eurasia in the nineteenth century.  By the end of the course, you will understand how the Silk Road influenced the development of nomadic societies in Ce…

This course will introduce you to the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to the twenty-first century.  The course will emphasize the encounters and exchanges between the Islamic world and the West.  It will be structured chronologicallyeach unit will focus on the emergence of a particular Middle Eastern society or empire during a specific time period.  Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, conflicts between Islamic and Christian peoples during the Crusades, European domination of Muslim territories in the nineteenth century, independence movements and the rise of nationalism in the 1900s, and the formation of Islamic fundamentalist groups and anti-Western sentiment in the latter twentieth century.  By the end of the course, you will understand how Islam became a sophisticated and far-reaching civilization and how conflicts with the Wes…

In the 1970s, the Chinese Communist leader Zhou Enlai was asked to assess the outcomes of the French Revolution of 1789.  He supposedly answered: “It is too soon to say.”  Though this story has a somewhat apocryphal status, it captures a fundamental truth about the world in which we live: it is a world which has been shaped by revolutions, and their legacies are always difficult to evaluate. In this course, you will gain a better understanding of the modern world by studying some of the most important political revolutions that took place between the 17th century and today.  You will seek to understand the causes of each revolution, analyze the ideologies that inspired the revolutionaries, examine revolutionary uses of violence, and consider how historical revolutions still shape contemporary politics.  Close and critical readings of historical sources will be crucial in this process. The course begins with a theoretical analysis of revolutions and a careful examination of pre-revolutionary Europe…

In this course, students analyze some of the hardest national security challenges the United States will face in the decade ahead.

Learn how philosophy, art, literature, and history shaped the last century and the world today.

An introduction into the historical, psychological, and sociological analysis of organized conflict.

Aprenderemos cómo podemos usar el pensamiento científico en la vida cotidiana para tomar mejores decisiones.

A unique and exciting introduction to the genre and craft of historical fiction, for curious students, aspiring authors--anyone with a passion for the past. Read classics of the genre, encounter bestselling writers of historical fiction, and discover your own historical archive while interacting with a global community of interested readers.

This course will focus on the emergence and evolution of industrial societies around the world.  We will begin by comparing the legacies of industry in ancient and early modern Europe and Asia and examining the agricultural and commercial advances that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.  We will then follow the history of industrialization in different parts of the world, taking a close look at the economic, social, and environmental effects of industrialization.  The course is organized chronologically and thematically.  Each unit will focus on key developments in the history of industry as well as on representative areas of the globe, using primary-source documents, secondary readings, and multimedia resources to illustrate the dynamic nature of industrial change.  By the end of the course, you will understand how industrialization developed, spread across the globe, and shaped everyday life in the modern era.

This course will focus on the history of humankind’s relationship with the environment.  We use the word “environment” to refer to the nonhuman components of the natural world.  We will examine how environmental factors have shaped the development and growth of civilizations around the world and analyze how these civilizations have altered their environments in positive and negative ways.  The course will be structured chronologically.  Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching themes, such as how early humans adapted natural resources for new purposes, how the expansion of civilizations led to environmental changes, how the interaction between European explorers and Native Americans led to significant and unexpected environmental consequences, and how modern societies have responded to environmental problems that threaten the well-being of humans and the environment.  By the end of the course, you will better understand the reciprocal rela…

This course provides an introduction to the history of technology for the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) major.  The course surveys major technological developments from ancient to modern times with particular attention to social, political, and cultural contexts in Europe and the United States.  You will also think critically about the theory of technological determinism, the ways in which technology has defined “progress” and “civilization”, and the major ethical considerations surrounding today’s technological decisions. This course begins with discussions of the promotion of technology in centralized states of the ancient and medieval worlds: the Roman Empire, Song and Ming China, and the Islamic Abbasid Empire.  After a period of relative decline, the states of Western Europe centralized and flourished once again, having benefited from the westward transmission of key ideas and technologies from the East. The focus of the course then shifts to the West, to the technologies of the…

In this course, we will study the history of Western art, beginning with the first objects created by prehistoric humans around 20,000 years ago and ending with the art and architecture of the High Gothic period in fourteenth-century Europe.  The information presented in this course will provide you with the tools to recognize important works of art and historical styles, as well as to understand the historical context and cultural developments of Western art history through the end of the medieval period.  Introductory readings paired with detailed lectures will provide you with a well-rounded sense of the history, art, and culture of the West up through the medieval period. At the end of this course, you will be able to identify key works of art and artistic periods in Western history.  You will also be able to discuss the development of stylistic movements and relate those developments to important historical events.  Completion of this course will prepare you for ARTH111, which surveys the history o…

Is abortion wrong? Should we eat animals? What is our responsibility to the world’s poor? This course will encourage you to examine your ethical beliefs on topics relevant to the ancient question posed by Socrates: “How am I to live?”