Constructing the Modern MENA

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the history of the Arab World in the twentieth century, focusing on its political, intellectual, social, and cultural dimensions. Key themes include the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, the experience of World War I, the impact of European colonialism, the ideologies and practices of movements for independence, the Nakba, migration and citizenship, the rise and fall of Nasserism, Third Worldism, state and cultural production, corporate colonialism, and state-building. One of the goals of the course is the acquisition of a basic understanding of the pivotal events of the twentieth century and of broad patterns in the political, social, and cultural development of the region during the period. We also examine a variety of ways in which historians have approached the region, including social history, colonial and postcolonial history, memory studies, cultural history, the history of gender, transnational history, micro history, diplomatic history, and the history of war and violence. We are concerned with the kinds of questions historians working in these sub-fields have raised and the methods and approaches they have taken to the study of the Arab World, as well as the analyses they offer In addition, we focus on the ways in which historians use primary sources and the kinds of sources that are available for the writing of the history of the Arab World in the modern period. Students will develop their abilities to identify and work with primary sources as an essential research skill.