Descriptions Archive

HIST 3109A:
Social History of Alcohol                               
 
Winter Term 2027
 
Professor Rod Phillips

Scope of the course
 
This course examines the long background to our complicated relationship with alcoholic beverages. Understanding the history of alcohol is especially important these days, as alcohol consumption has fallen to levels not seen in decades. We will examine this trend and put it into historical context.
 
As we do, we’ll see that alcohol embodies many paradoxes. For thousands of years, alcohol has been portrayed as socially beneficial and part of a healthy diet, yet socially disruptive and deadly. It contributes to the deaths of thousands of people every year and costs national economies billions of dollars, yet alcohol was defined as ‘essential’ almost everywhere during the Covid-19 restrictions, and alcohol stores remained open when many businesses were forced to close.
 
                                               
                                               
 
In this course, we will look at the social and cultural attributes of alcohol in Europe and North America (and elsewhere, to a lesser extent) over the long term, with an emphasis on the period from 1500 to the present. This period saw the transformation of alcoholic beverages (especially beer and wine) from intrinsic and valued elements of the daily diet of many (mainly male) adults to commodities of discretionary and leisure consumption. This radical shift, which took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, was fundamental to the social and cultural meanings of alcohol in our time, and it had important consequences for regulation and consumption.
 
The key questions we discuss in relation to the history of alcohol are: Who drank what? Why did they drink it? Where and when did they drink it? Did they drink alone or in company? How much did they drink? Was their drinking regulated? How did they understand, and how do we interpret, their patterns of alcohol consumption? How did (and does) alcohol relate to other potentially addictive commodities, such as drugs and tobacco?
 
 
                                   
 
These questions direct us to look at the kinds of alcohol that were available (and thus engage with questions of production, distribution, marketing, and exchange) and the differences among them. Why was there a cultural hierarchy of alcoholic beverages, with wine ranked most highly almost everywhere, and why were some alcohols more widely consumed in some places and at some times than others? Why has alcohol generally been tolerated more than cocaine, opium, heroin, and marijuana?
 
We also examine issues of power, race, gender, and class. How and why was the North American image of the ‘drunk Indian’ constructed?  Why have men been so anxious and negative about women’s drinking?  Why did many colonial administrations try to ban drinking among indigenous populations? Why did the middle and upper classes find working-class drinking so threatening? Questions such as these force us to examine the ways alcohol was integrated into broader social and cultural processes and the relationships of alcohol to power.
 
Here we encounter the overarching dichotomous attitudes toward alcohol that were mentioned earlier. At the extremes, alcohol was variously considered ‘a gift from God’ and ‘the Devil’s brew’. Alcohol encouraged sociability but could lead to social disruption. Alcohol consumption was widely regarded as necessary and beneficial – it provided hydration and was believed to have health benefits – but it was also associated with drunkenness, illness, death, crime, and sexual promiscuity.
 
 
                                               
 
 
These attitudes, particularly anxiety about ‘excessive’ consumption and (by the mid-1800s) the construction of ‘alcoholism’, led to a search for ways to define acceptable levels of alcohol consumption. They draw our attention to the regulation of alcohol by various social organizations and structures, including communities, churches, and states. These regulations included laws governing the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol, and extended to attempts to ban the production of alcohol (or certain alcohols).
 
The targets of these policies included gin in eighteenth-century England, absinthe in early-twentieth century Europe, and all alcohol in the Muslim world and during Prohibition in Russia and the United States. Regulations also covered sites of drinking, such as pubs and taverns, which were often represented as locales of disorder, but that we can also see as spaces of (often gendered) sociability. Yet in most places, age-based regulations, such as minimum legal drinking ages, date back little more than a hundred years.
 
In short, this course examines the relationships of alcohol to a wide range of issues – diet, health, the body, race, sexuality, religion, social control, gender, class, childhood, among them – and places them within the broader sweep of history.
 
Course format
 
This is a lecture course that meets in person for three hours, once a week.
 
Coursework
 
There are three components to the coursework: a reading response, an essay, and a final (take-home) exam.  The reading response is a reading of one chapter of the textbook. All the material needed for the other assignments is available on-line.
 
Textbook
 
Rod Phillips, Alcohol: A History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014; paperback edition, 2019). Hardback, paperback, and e-book editions are available from on-line sellers, and an audiobook is available from audible.com. (All editions have the same text.)  The book is also available in French, Chinese, and Turkish.
 
Questions?
 
Please feel free to contact me at: roderick.phillips@carleton.ca
 

Antisemitism, Then and Now

RELI 3142A/HIST3122A

Fall 2026

Course Description:

This course is offered for credit by both History and Religion and is taught by one professor from each discipline.

What is antisemitism? It is sometimes called the world’s oldest hatred but is it one long, continuous history or it does it change over time and place? There are many contemporary arguments about how to define antisemitism. Why is it so hard to agree on a definition? If it is directed at Jews why does it use the term Semite? The Semites include people who are not Jewish so what does that mean? Why is it so persistent, present in ancient times and in the 21^st century, in places where there are no Jewish people and in places where Jews lived for a thousand years? How is it different from or related to other forms of racism or prejudice? Why is antisemitism so frequently missing from wider discussions of racism? Some argue antizionism is the new manifestation of antisemitism but others say antizionism is not antisemitism. What does any of that mean? Jews suffer 70% of all police verified, religiously motived hate crimes in Canada but they are less than 2% of the population. Jewish Canadians are 25 times more likely to experience a hate crime than other Canadians. Why? How will understanding antisemitism help us to understand racism more broadly? Will studying history and religion help us to understand all these questions? Yes!

This course looks at both historical and contemporary antisemitism. We examine the long history of antisemitism to understand the significance of antisemitism in historical contexts and to understand how it continues into the present.  We look at continuity and change and the consequences of antisemitism, both in the past and present. We draw on religious texts, historical documents, legislation, political propaganda, oral histories, and film.  Our work is shaped by the insights of critical race studies, particularly critical antisemitism studies.

This third-year course moves through the earliest expressions of antisemitism in religious and social contexts from the ancient world through the medieval period.  We begin to trace modern forms of antisemitism through the 19^th and early 20^th centuries in Europe, North America and the Middle East and Africa to provide a context for the genocidal antisemitism of the Holocaust and the antisemitism of post-1948.  The second half of the course focuses on contemporary expressions of antisemitism with attention to politics and popular culture, including films, social media, and the press. 

There are no prerequisites for the course. Second year standing or above is required. This course will include disturbing material that is difficult.  Course materials include examples of hate speech, antisemitic propaganda, detailed descriptions of antisemitic violence and gendered violence. It is crucial for us to work together build a supportive classroom environment and forge collective knowledge. This process requires active engagement and listening intently to one another. Many issues we explore will be challenging, personal, and potentially painful. Therefore, we must work together to create a space in which we can learn together.

Graded Work

Graded work will include in class presentations on assigned texts, in class writing on course material, essays that draw on both class materials and research on a chosen topic and other evaluations that assess your understanding of the course content.

HIST 3205 / BUSI 4608:

Canadian Business History: The Brewing Industry, 1670–2026

Fall 2026

Instructor: Matthew J. Bellamy

Introduction: Why study business history?

Businesses do far more than sell products and generate profits. They shape how people work, consume, socialize, relax, and even imagine themselves. Corporations build brands, influence politics, transform landscapes, create consumer desires, and help define national identities. To study business history, therefore, is not simply to study firms or entrepreneurs; it is to examine the evolution of capitalism itself and its relationship to everyday life.

Business history asks big questions about capitalism, culture, and social change. Why do some firms succeed while others collapse? How do businesses adapt to technological change, globalization, regulation, and shifting consumer tastes? How are brands created and maintained? Why do certain products become cultural symbols? And how do corporations acquire legitimacy and public trust during moments of social change?

This course explores these larger themes through the prism of one of the oldest and most influential industries in Canada: brewing.

Beer provides an ideal lens through which to examine Canadian capitalism because brewing has long existed at the intersection of business, politics, technology, culture, and identity. Molson dates to 1786. Labatt was founded in 1847. These firms survived wars, depressions, prohibition, industrial consolidation, and globalization while helping shape patterns of consumption and leisure across the country. At the same time, beer is not merely a commodity. Brewing history opens onto larger questions about class, masculinity, nationalism, sport, advertising, morality, and consumer culture.

Over the course of the term, we will trace the evolution of the Canadian brewing industry from 1670 to the present while exploring major themes in business history including entrepreneurship, branding, globalization, regulation, technology, consumer culture, and corporate legitimacy

Class Format

We meet once per week in a three-hour block. Particular emphasis will be placed on interpreting advertising, branding campaigns, and archival evidence in order to understand the evolution of business and consumer culture.

Aims and Goals

By the end of the course, students will have gained both a substantive understanding of the Canadian brewing industry and a broader appreciation of the major themes and approaches of business history.

Topics explored throughout the course include:

• entrepreneurship and innovation
• branding and advertising
• technology and industrialization
• globalization and corporate consolidation
• regulation and state intervention
• consumer culture and identity
• sport and mass marketing
• corporate legitimacy and public relations
• craft brewing and authenticity

The course also emphasizes the development of critical thinking, research, analytical writing, and communication skills applicable across a wide range of professional and academic settings.

Assessment

Your mark in the course will be based on two short quizzes, an essay outline, an 8–10 page research essay, and a 2-hour final examination. The course is designed to encourage steady progress throughout the term and to provide students with multiple opportunities to develop and demonstrate their historical thinking, research, and writing skills.

Questions?

I very much look forward to exploring this subject with you over the term. If you have any questions about the course, the readings, assignments, or the study of business history more generally, please do not hesitate to contact me at Matthew_Bellamy@Carleton.ca. I am always happy to meet with students and discuss ideas, interests, or any aspect of the course material.

HIST 3805A

                                                                                                                                                                                           China since the Twentieth Century  

From Republicanism and Maoism to Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era

Fall 2026                                                                                                                                                                                                     Instructor: Prof. Jacob Kovalio                                                                                                                                        

 Dear Students,                                                                                                   

China – the second most populous nation on earth and the third largest in territory is also a civilization with a documented history of about 3000 years. This intensive, informative and most timely course, although focused on the period since the 1911 [Xinhai] Revolution, starts with a brief introduction of China’s premodern political and socio-cultural institutions and their legacy. The course subtitle refers to China’s three political regimes since the 20^th century. Today’s People’s Republic of China [PRC] is a totalitarian, anti-democratic politico-social and cultural entity, driven by a unique and overall successful State-capitalist economy – all dominated by the Chinese Communist (in name only) Party [CCP] under ruler Xi Jin-ping’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era.” In 2026, this intriguing system, reminiscent of prewar Corporatist Italy and Germany is considered a viable alternative to democracy by many African and Asian nations.

Participants are strongly urged to attend classes regularly. Each twice-weekly class starts with a brief review of the latest Chinese news as covered by the People’s Daily or Global Times or China Daily. Questions and debates are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. However, Social Networking and Texting in ANY form, as well as Eating are allowed only during breaks which usually include a musical interlude.     

GRADING contains two elements: 1 – One in-class identification and definition exam-worth 50% of the grade. 2-One TYPEWRITTEN research essay, worth 50% of the grade, due at term’s end, and which should include : a – A cover page. b – A summary page. c – Footnotes as citation style. d – Up to five sources. There is NO mandatory length and NO email submission. AI may only be used as a research and preparatory tool. PARTICIPANTS MUST COMPLETE ALL ASSIGNMENTS IN ORDER TO BE IN GOOD STANDING.  

The main knowledge-promoting instrument for the class is HIST 3805A : China since the Twentieth Century Learning Handbook [2026 edition] by Jacob Kovalio which will be in the our bookstore in early August. The traditional text for the course is Jonathan D. Spence’s classic The Search for Modern China [New York: W.W.Norton and Co., 2010] available in the bookstore and online.

 411 Paterson Hall

jacobkovalio@cunet.carleton.ca                                                      

HIST 3806A

Shōwa 昭和 Heisei 平成 Reiwa  令和,

The Postwar History of  Japan / 戦後日本史[Sengo Nihonshi]

From the Yoshida Doctrine to the Abe Doctrine

                                                                                                                                                                                     Winter 2027

 Instructor: Prof. J. Kovalio                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Dear Students,                                                                                  

This intensive, informative and interesting twice-weekly class will give you solid knowledge on the most salient elements in the evolution of Japan, internally and in the international arena, since 1945. As the subtitle indicates, prime ministers Yoshida Shigeru and Abe Shinzō were most instrumental in directing Japan’s national policies in the early 1950s and 2012, respectively.

In order to give all participants an equal starting point, a brief review commencing with the Tokugawa era [1603-1868] opens the class. Domestically, the course covers Japan’s most important political institutions: the 1947 Constitution, the constitutional monarchy ( embodied in the world’s oldest dynasty – the line above the course title refers to the three postwar imperial eras– which , however is not reflected in the nation’s official name), the world’s longest ruling and most successful Liberal Democratic Party [LDP], the highly influential civil service and business elite as well as the labour movement.

The socio-cultural and economic topics include education, the changing role of women, the double challenge of low birth rates & highest longevity, religion, immigration, minorities, the otaku and hikikomori phenomena as well as [karaoke, anime/manga, pokémon] soft power and the most major stages in the nation’s “roller coaster” postwar economic and technological evolution. Japan’s foreign and security policy in 2026 combines postwar pacifism and the security alliance with the US with the rapid growth  in defense budgets in reaction to the aggressive policies of neighbourly, totalitarian China, Russia and North Korea.

Participants are strongly urged to attend classes regularly. Discussions in class are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. However, Social Networking & Texting [thus the use of SMART PHONES and the EXTRACURRICULAR use of LAPTOPS] as well as Eating are allowed only during breaks which usually feature a musical interlude.

Grading includes two elements: 1 – One in-class identification and definition exam which constitutes 50% of the final grade. 2 – One TYPEWRITTEN research essay which makes up 50% of the grade and should include: a – A cover page. b – A brief opening summary. c  – Footnotes as citation style; d–Up to five sources. There is NO mandatory length and NO email submission. AI may only be used as a research and preparatory tool. PARTICIPANTS MUST COMPLETE ALL ASSIGNMENTS IN ORDER TO BE IN GOOD STANDING. The main knowledge-promoting tool is Japan since 1945 Learning Handbook – 2026 edition, byJacob Kovaliowhich will be in our bookstore by early August. In addition, the traditional text for the course is :Jeff, Kingston Japan in Transformation , 1945-2010, Pearson Education, 2010, 2^nd ed. available online.

Office: PA 411

jacobkovalio@cunet.carleton.ca  

HIST 4100A
Living, loving, and dying in Europe 1500-1800

Fall 2026/Winter 2027
Instructor: Professor Rod Phillips

What is this course about?
In this full-year seminar we try to capture the texture of the everyday lives of Europeans in the Early Modern period, roughly 1500-1800. It’s an exciting and challenging task because everyday lives are difficult to generalize about and the evidence of them is often elusive and apparently contradictory. That shouldn’t be surprising, as we look at the diversity of everyday lives around us. At the same time, it’s possible to define patterns and regularities, and that will be our achievement by the end of the course, even while we appreciate deviations from what appear to be the dominant patterns.  
We’ll focus on a number of themes that lead us down a number of trails. Supposing we start with birth, which marks the beginning of ‘living’. We might ask: What were birth rates in Early Modern Europe? How many children did women have on average? Were there variations by region, by class, by religion, and between town and country?  How did birth rates change over time, and why? What percentage of children were born to married or cohabiting couples, what percentage to single women?
 
                                               
 
Having established the big picture, we’ll try to understand these birth rates. Why did people have children anyway – to provide workers, to ensure there were heirs for land and titles, to comply with religious teachings, or unintentionally? Did religious and secular authorities encourage people to have children? If women or couples didn’t want to have children, what kinds of family limitation were available – abortion, contraception, sexual abstinence, non-procreative sexual behaviour, infanticide?  Were they permitted, and how widely were they used?
How old were women when they started and ceased having children?  How were births spaced, and why? Did many women die in childbirth, and what became of their children? Why did women have children outside marriage? Were these births simply unintended or were women persuaded to risk pregnancy by promises of marriage? Were women coerced to have sex or raped?
 
                             
 
Where and in what context did births take place? How often were midwives involved? How were newborns cared for? Were they breast-fed by their mothers or by wet-nurses? Why did so many children – often a fifth or a quarter – die in the first year of life? How common were infanticide and child-abandonment? What was the state of medical knowledge with regard to infants? How were children named and how many were baptized?
What seems a reasonably straightforward event – birth – leads us into many areas of economic, religious, social, cultural, and even political life. At every point, women and men made decisions that can reveal their attitudes towards one another and the world around them. Their decisions give us insights into their modes of thought, experiences, and behaviour.
 
                                               
 
We’ll track a number of life events/issues in this way, including childhood, relationships, marriage, family and household relationships, diet, clothing, animals, work, leisure, illness, old age, and death. As we do, we’ll study the way historians employ theoretical perspectives and methodologies as they write their histories. We’ll read secondary works (mainly articles), watch videos, analyse primary printed sources, interpret statistics, and evaluate contemporary images. In short, we’ll deploy a wide range of resources and perspectives to understand the complexities of living, loving, and dying in Early Modern Europe.
Course format
This is a seminar that will meet in person once a week throughout the academic year (September 2026 to April 2027).
Coursework
Seminars are discussions, and students are expected to read specified readings in advance of each meeting so as to be prepared to participate in discussions. The course outline will list the topics of the weekly seminars and the readings to be done in advance. All the readings (almost all are articles) are available on-line. Each student will briefly introduce one article each term.
The major piece of coursework is an essay that’s due by the end of the Winter term. In the last few weeks of that term, each student will present their essay to the seminar. Just as “living, loving, and dying” includes a massive range of subjects, so there’s great flexibility in your choice of essay topic. Past essays have included domestic architecture, evidence of contraception, violence, attitudes toward death, wolves, child-rearing, responses to disease, and tea-drinking practices. You’ll decide on your topic in consultation with me.
Your final grade will be based on (1) your participation in discussions, (2) your introduction of two articles, and (3) the presentation of your essay and the essay itself. (There is no final examination.)
Textbook
There’s no textbook for this seminar, but students not familiar with Early Modern Europe are advised to read a general survey so as to have a sense of the place and the period. Good surveys are: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 (3^rd edition); Henry Kamen, Early Modern European Society; and Beat Kümin (ed.), The European World, 1500-1800 (available on-line).
Questions?
For more information, please contact me: roderick.phillips@carleton.ca

HIST 4303

Society and Culture in Canada [Pacific Canada] 

Winter 2027

Instructor: Professor Laura Madokoro

Introduction: What is the Pacific? A region? An ocean? There are many ways of thinking about the Pacific and, relatedly, the Pacific World. Inspired by the idea of Canada as a Pacific Nation, this course explores how the history of Canada has been shaped by its Pacific connections and, in turn, how Canada has shaped and influenced the Pacific World. To this end, this course traces the history of Canada and the Pacific World from the late 18th century to the present and covers subjects such as identity, migration, cultural and political change. As the course takes a transnational approach, we will be studying aspects of the history of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam in addition to our focus on Canada.

Class Format: This seminar meets once a week over a three-hour block and combines lectures and discussion based on course materials including novels, academic articles, films, and. Where possible, we will take field trips across the National Capital Region to further our understanding of Canada’s relationship to the Pacific World. 

Assessment: As this seminar is based on engaged participation, there is a self-assessment grade for participation, as well as an assessment of weekly reading reflections, a class presentation, and a final research project. 

Course Materials: Readings for the course consist of a variety of essays and academic articles as well as a range of textual, audio, and visual primary sources. 

Questions? Please e-mail laura.madokoro@carleton.ca

HIST 4806:

Playing History: Sport, Culture, and Power from Antiquity to the Present

Fall 2026

Instructor: Matthew J. Bellamy

Introduction: Why study sports history?

Sport is far more than entertainment or recreation. It shapes identities, generates immense wealth, inspires political movements, and helps nations imagine themselves. Athletes become symbols of masculinity, race, nationalism, celebrity, and resistance. To study sports history, therefore, is not simply to study games or athletes; it is to examine the evolution of modern society itself.

This seminar explores the history of sport from antiquity to the present through major themes such as empire, nationalism, race, gender, capitalism, media, and celebrity culture. We will examine topics including Indigenous games and colonization, muscular Christianity, the rise of professional sport, race and class in boxing and baseball, hockey and gender identity, sports entrepreneurship, doping scandals, and the making of global athletic icons. Along the way, we will consider how sport both reflects and shapes broader social and cultural transformations.

Class Format

This course is organized as a fourth-year seminar and meets once per week in a three-hour block. Our classes will be discussion-based and designed to encourage thoughtful, relaxed conversation about the history of sport. Together we will explore historical scholarship, documentaries, podcasts, autobiographies, and other sources in order to better understand how sport has evolved across time and place.

From time to time, students will help introduce the week’s readings and discussion themes. These introductions are intended to be informal and conversational rather than formal presentations, and are designed to help foster collaborative discussion and shared exploration of ideas.

Aims and Goals

By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of the history of sport and its relationship to culture, politics, identity, and social change. Topics explored throughout the course include:

• Indigenous games and colonization
• Sport, empire, and masculinity
• Boxing, race, and political activism
• Hockey, gender, and nationalism
• Sports entrepreneurship and commercialization
• Doping scandals and performance enhancement
• Celebrity athletes and media culture

The course also emphasizes the development of skills in historical analysis, discussion, research, and academic writing.

Assessment

Your mark in the course will be based on seminar participation, seminar leadership, an essay proposal, and a final research paper. The research essay will give students the opportunity to explore a topic of personal interest related to the history of sport, culture, politics, media, business, or identity.

Questions?

I very much look forward to exploring this subject with you over the term. If you have any questions about the course, readings, assignments, or the study of sports history more generally, please do not hesitate to contact me at Matthew_Bellamy@Carleton.ca. I am always happy to meet with students and discuss ideas or course material.

History 2809B

The Historian’s Craft

Winter 2027

Instructor: Professor Michel Hogue

Description: If, as some suggest, the past is a foreign country, then how do historians find their way around? What tools or methods do they use to navigate this historical terrain? This course offers a hands-on introduction to the ways that historians investigate, assess, and represent the past. 

Your work this term will focus on an applied research project that will have you investigate and explain aspects of student life on Carleton’s campus. You will be asked to do the work of an historian: you will locate and examine a wide array of primary and secondary sources and apply some of the varied methods of analysis that historians use to make sense of the past. You will also assess some of the different ways that historians craft their studies and present their findings. These are the methods and skills that you will need to thrive in your other history courses. At the same time, this course is meant to have you develop and reflect on the ways that your work in the classroom might be applied outside of it. To that end, we will keep our eye on the practical applications of the research, writing, and analytical skills that are at the core of your university course work.   

Format: This course will be delivered in a blended format. The three course hours per week will include an asynchronous, online course module (1 hour/week) and in-person discussions and hands-on activities (2 hours/week).   

Evaluation: In the past, students in this course completed an applied research project that asked them to undertake original research and rigorous analysis of historical primary sources. Other activities will include:

• Weekly quizzes based on the lectures and required readings
• Regular reflections on a subject or theme covered in class
• Regular short lab assignments

Readings: The readings for the course will be made available online.

If you have any questions, please contact me at michel.hogue@carleton.ca

HISTORY 3113
Society and Revolution in France, 1789-1799         
Professor Rod Phillips
Fall 2026
Scope of the course
The French Revolution was not only central to the history of France and Europe, but it had impacts on the wider world. Its legacy includes images such as the guillotine, institutions such as the metric system and military conscription, terms such as ‘Terror’, and the notions of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ on the political spectrum. Some of the individuals associated with the Revolution, such as Marie Antoinette and Napoleon, are household names. In France today, the Revolution is ever-present in the form of the national flag, the national day (Bastille Day, 14 July), the phrase ‘Liberté Egalité Fraternité’ (‘Liberty Equality Fraternity’) on all public buildings, and the national anthem, La Marseillaise.
 
                                               
                                               
The dominant image of the French Revolution in the popular imagination is violence – think of the guillotine, the Terror, the European wars, the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. But that is only one of its dimensions. It was also a period when institutions of all kinds – political, legal, social, cultural, religious, and military – were fundamentally and peacefully reformed. 
Some reforms are well known, such as the abolition of the monarchy, but other achievements of the French Revolution are not. It abolished slavery in France’s colonies. It gave civil rights to Jews and Muslims. It separated Church and State for the first time in Europe. It reformed family law, giving women and men equality in inheritance, secularizing marriage, and permitting divorce for the first time in France. It aimed to provide citizens with food security. It criminalized violence against women. It decriminalized homosexuality. It created the first mass citizen-army. It began social welfare and pension schemes. It began to make education available to all. Reforms such as these affected all aspects of society, culture, and the economy in France and in many other parts of Europe.
 

The French Revolution is the most-studied decade in world history and there is a wealth of information in many languages on almost every aspect of it. We can’t possibly cover everything in this course, and instead we will focus on a number of topics that include building a nation, women’s rights, religions, the family, education, food security, and poverty.
In each case we will ask four questions: what was its status before the Revolution? How did the Revolutionaries view it? What did they do about it?  What were the results?  When we look at women’s rights, for example, we will examine the status of women in France before the Revolution, the debates on and by women from 1789, the emergence of a women’s rights movement, laws and policies affecting women, and the overall impact of the Revolution on women.
                                   
The aim of the course is to give us a sense of how comprehensive and radical the Revolution attempted to be. It was not simply a matter of replacing one political system with another, but of transforming social relationships – what the Revolutionaries called ‘regeneration’. A regenerated France would be a nation of free citizens (Liberty) who enjoyed equal rights (Equality) and worked together to create a new society (Fraternity).  As we will see, many of these aspirations failed – sometimes because they were unrealistically ambitious, sometimes because they were thwarted or annulled by the regimes of Napoleon and the restored monarchy that followed the Revolution. But they were intrinsic to the exciting revolutionary project that began in 1789.
Course format
This is a lecture course that meets in person once a week for three hours. There will be ample opportunity for discussions.
Aims of the course
While examining the course of the French Revolution, we will consider some of the questions historians and citizens confront today. How should we assess historical figures – in terms of their context or in terms of more recent values? Debates about removing statues and renaming places and institutions took place during the Revolution, when there was an attempt to remove all references to kings, nobles, saints, and other undesirables. Statues were torn down, and towns and streets were renamed. But then the Revolution experienced the same process, and we look at how it has been remembered, celebrated, and condemned. As we confront these questions we will engage with various media: printed texts, paintings, drawings, and sculptures.
Assessment
There will be one reading response, one essay, and a final (take-home) exam.  All the readings for these assignments will be available on-line.
Textbook
Peter McPhee, Liberty or Death: The French Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017). I haven’t ordered copies for the University Bookstore, but they are available ($26-28)  from online and other retailers.
Questions
For more information, please contact me: roderick.phillips@carleton.ca

HIST 3206A:

Place, Politics, and the Resettling of the Prairie West

Fall 2026

Instructor: Professor Michel Hogue

Description:  This course the investigates the political, economic and social changes that occurred across the Prairie West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It seeks to put a human face to the broad structural transformations of the era, from the demise of the mercantile capitalism of the fur trade to the advance of the agrarian capitalism that made the modern Prairies.  In the process, it exposes the close entanglements that bound Indigenous peoples and their would-be colonizers. 

Format: This course will be offered live and in-person. Our investigations over the course of the semester will be organized around the weekly readings. Our time in class will be divided between lectures and discussions that will help to contextualize those readings, as well as various applied activities that will give you the opportunity to develop vital research and writing skills.

Evaluation: The course activities will include:

• Weekly quizzes and in-class writing assignments based on the assigned readings

Questions? Please contact me at michel.hogue@carleton.ca

History 3511A –

Themes in Indigenous History –The Red Atlantic: Trans-Atlantic Journeys by Indigenous Peoples

Winter 2027

Michel Hogue

Course Description:

Stories of early encounters between Indigenous peoples and Europeans often tend to focus on the trans-Atlantic journeys undertaken by Europeans. But what about the journeys made in the opposite direction by Indigenous peoples who travelled from North America to Europe?

The history of journeys by Indigenous peoples to Europe began in the sixteenth century with the traffic in slaves and captives back to Europe, but grew to include trans-Atlantic voyages by sailors, labourers, travellers, performers, and diplomats who incorporated these journeys as part of their political strategies. This course seeks to recreate some of the journeys undertaken by diverse Indigenous peoples from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It situates their journeys in their cultural, political, and social contexts, both in North America and Europe and to understand the local and global significance of their actions. In the process, it seeks to return a measure of agency and complexity to the personal stories of those who embarked on such voyages.

In so doing, the class takes its cues from sociologist Paul Gilroy’s notion of the Black Atlantic, which put Africans at the center of Atlantic world history. While the numbers of Indigenous peoples who crossed the Atlantic represents a small fraction of the number of Africans who made similar journeys, Cherokee scholar Jace Weaver argues that Indigenous peoples, resources, and ideas traveled the Atlantic with regularity. Building on this insight, we will examine how Indigenous peoples were key players in this Atlantic World.

Course Format:

The class will combine formal lectures with in-class discussions and workshop activities based on the assigned readings or other supplementary materials.  The class will be organized around a series of case studies that will ask you to engage with primary source materials written by and about these travelers.

Assignments:

The grades for this course will be (tentatively) assessed as follows:

Participation                                                30%

Written assignments                                  70%

Questions? Please contact me at michel.hogue@carleton.ca