HIST 387: Topics in Global History

HIST 387-DL1: Urban Disasters, Real and Imagined
(Fall 2023)

Online

Section Information for Fall 2023

This course explores urban disasters as globally historic events that provide a converging lens for understanding how the politics of disasters and accompanying social and economic forces have shaped cities and people's lives and deaths in the modern world. The course considers how catastrophic events impacting cities have transformed political institutions and how the impact of so-called "natural disasters" such as Hurricane Katrina are largely shaped by human actions and are decidedly not solely informed by nature. Looking at numerous historical episodes, we will examine crucial lessons from urban disasters that are essential for studying the past through the present of the 21st century. In a thematic organization, we will examine different types of disasters and their impact on cities and their hinterlands in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The course will consider real and imagined urban disasters caused by phenomena such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, chemical disasters, biological weapons, bombs, heat waves, disease, environmental contamination, and monsters. The course also considers the importance of disasters to the historical and artistic imagination of writers, painters, and filmmakers that have sought to depict the emotional lives of residents in cities that have been physically and psychically scarred by disaster.

HIST 387 DL1 is an online asynchronous section.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3-6

Study of historical topics or periods of special interest in global, Latin American, African, Asian, or Middle Eastern history. Notes: Topics announced in advance. May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term.
Mason Core: Global Understanding
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies, Non-Western Culture
Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Lecture, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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