ROBERT BEACHY
COURSES                                return to homepage
Dept. of History                                 goldelse
Goucher College                        
1021 Dulaney Valley Road                    
Baltimore, MD  21204
Phone: 410/337-6466                    
Email: rbeachy@goucher.edu                    

EUROPEAN HISTORY: ANCIENT TO 1715
Survey of European history from ancient Greece and Rome to the rise of early modern
nation-states. Includes classical culture and society, the emergence of Christianity, the
European Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Reformation, early modern Colonial
empires, and European absolutism.

EUROPEAN HISTORY: 1715 TO THE PRESENT
Emphasis on major social, cultural, and political developments from the Enlightenment
to the present. Includes the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, industrialization,
nationalism, socialism, European colonialism and imperialism, fascism, the world wars,
and the Cold War.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN MODERN EUROPE
Gender and sexuality have history. This course examines those histories through readings
that illuminate the emergence of the categories and practices of gender and sexuality since
the French Revolution. Through the lens of different theorists, including
Rousseau, de Sade, Freud, Hirschfeld, Krafft-Ebing, Foucault, Scott, and Butler, the course
focuses on the places, such as Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, and the problems, such as
prostitution, persecution, and perversion, that have shaped the history of what it means to be
a man or a woman, gay or straight.

CONTINUITY AND RUPTURE IN GERMAN HISTORY FROM 1648 TO THE PRESENT
This course examines the continuities of German Central Europe in order to reconsider
standard periodizations that emphasize the fall of the Holy Roman Empire (1806)
and German unification (1871). Central European history has been shaped by the
long-term patterns of religious division, commerce and trade, and the relative autonomy of
princely territorial states. These powerful features bridge the early modern period
with the present. We will locate what are considered the watershed ruptures in German
history -- the Napoleonic wars, the Revolutions of 1848, the birth of the Weimar
Republic, "Stunde Null" in 1945, and Reunification in 1990 -- within the context of
these broader structures. This reframes our understanding of German historiography
and the central debates about German historical development, including the character
of the Wilhelmine Empire, the origins of World War One, anti-semitism and the
Holocaust, the Sonderweg Thesis, and the Historikerstreit.

APPROACHES TO INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
This course surveys the methodological and theoretical foundation of intellectual history
through close readings of some of the theorists who have been critical in analyzing the
emergence of the "self," of "culture," and of "society" since the Enlightenment. Over the
course of the semester, students will engage with works by Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx,
Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, Durkheim, de Saussure, Adorno, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida.

CRITICAL THEORY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
This seminar examines the major currents of European critical inquiry, including Marxist,
psychoanalytic, structuralist, post-structuralist, feminist, and queer theoretical approaches
to the study of history and society. We begin with a number of key texts by Karl Marx
and then examine the intellectual movements of twentieth century Europe. Readings,
discussions, and research projects will cover a range of distinct intellectual movements:
German and Central European Marxisms (including the Frankfurt School), Slavic and French
structuralist analyses, and post-WWII challenges to these "modern" modes of critical inquiry.
We conclude with an assessment of the post-modern dissolution of traditional subjects of
analysis -- self, gender, sexuality, race, class, culture, and society -- and consider the
prospects of critical theory in the 21st century.

THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, THE THIRD REICH AND THE HOLOCAUST
Following its defeat in World War I, Germany entered a period of unparalled intellectual
experimentation, cultural innovation and political turmoil. This course examines the
Weimar Republic and its collapse, the emergence and development of the Nazi regime,
and the Holocaust and destruction of the Jewish communities of Europe. Students
use a range of primary materials, artifacts and films as well as secondary sources to
grasp the main debates about the significance, continuities and ruptures that define this
period in German and European history.

COMMERCE, CULTURE AND POLITICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE
This course examines how pattens of commerce shaped culture and politics in Central Europe
from the Peace of Westphalia to German unification in 1871. In contrast to histories of
German Central Europe that have emphasized the lack of a politically active commercial
class or the unchanging character of town life, we will examine the relationship of
business and commerce to political developments and cultural change, including shifting
conceptions of gender, political representation, cultural identity and class formation. Our readings
will emphasize the cities of Leipzig, Frankfurt, Berlin and Hamburg.

GOETHE, LEIPZIG AND LITERATURE
This seminar focuses on Goethe as a central figure in German history and literature and on
the unique context of Leipzig's literary culture in which his success was fashioned
and promoted. Central themes include a close study of the development of Leipzig
as a publishing center in German Central Europe during the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, the competing imperatives of commerce and censorship, the relationship
between text and city in Goethe's Faust, Goethe's relationship to his publishers and bankers,
and Goethe's reception in Leipzig to the present.

MODERN GERMAN HISTORY: FROM UNIFICATION TO UNIFICATION
German reunification (1990) has transformed a range of recent and continuing debates
on recent German history, including the character of the Wilhelmine Empire, the outbreak
of World War I, fascism, the Holocaust, and the post-1945 German states. The course
develops a framework for understanding the controversies relating to issues of national
identity and collective memory that shape the writing of this history.

JEWISH HISTORY IN CENTRAL EUROPE, 1789 to 1945
With Jewish emancipation following the French Revolution, Jews in Central Europe were
confronted by unprecedented challenges and opportunities. This course explores Jewish
history in Central Europe from the French Revolution through the Holocaust as a way
of understanding the development of Jewish identity. Topics include the challenges
of assimilation, the development of cultural Judaism, the rise of Zionism and religious
revival, antisemitism and philosemitism, and Judaism and politics.

COLLECTING AND HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM
This course examines pre-modern patterns of European arts patronage, collecting, and
display that influenced the organization and form of the modern museum.
Based on the innovations of early modern collectors, states organized national museums
or sponsored the institutionalization of prominent private collections, which we examine
through a number of case studies supported by visits to Baltimore area museums.

EUROPEAN WITCHHUNT
This course examines the historical context and and effects of witch hunts in Early-
Modern Europe. How does the persecution of witches illuminate the struggle between
religious orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the changing roles of women in society and the
constitution of political, religious and economic authority in Europe before
the French Revolution.