HIS 402 Natural and Unnatural Disasters in Modern World History

This course investigates the impact of catastrophes — earthquakes, epidemics, hurricanes, fires, accidents — on society, politics and culture in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas since 1624. Natural disasters often transform relations between nations and among social groups, while revealing social conditions and cultural attitudes kept hidden under normal circumstances. Natural disasters can create the conditions for revolutions, lead to wars over scarce resources, provide pretexts for imperial intrusions and expose the inequalities and tensions in society. Students will develop their knowledge of world history and disaster studies by reading and writing about selected case studies.

Credits

4

Prerequisite

Any two History courses.

Distribution

(IG) (SS) (W)