En un lugar de la UAM, cuyo nombre merece recordar, habita la España de El Quijote . Un espacio en el que su monarquía creó el primer imperio global de la Historia. Un tiempo, entre los siglos XVI y XVII, en el que su sociedad alcanzó la excelencia en las artes y las letras. Aunque ese esplendor se dio en plenos aires de cambio. Pues España pasó de la hegemonía a la decadencia, de la expansión a la crisis. Este curso pretende trazar la historia de aquella época. Entre el Renacimiento y el Barroco su cultura marcó la pauta en Occidente. Las obras literarias —La Celestina, El Lazarillo, etc.— se tradujeron enseguida en las imprentas europeas y americanas. Las ropas marcaron la moda cortesana. La tendencia más fashion era “vestir a la española”. Los tratados militares y políticos fueron estudiados por los enemigos. La acumulación de talentos en la Villa y Corte de Madrid (Cervantes, Lope, Velázquez, etc.), tuvo réplicas en las grandes ciudades de imperio. Pues en Sevilla, Lisboa, Barcelona, Nápoles, México o Lima se multiplicaron academias literarias, estrenos teatrales y fiestas. Una síntesis de pueblos unidos por la lealtad a la Corona y la fe católica. En nuestro recorrido por esa España de El Quijote pasaremos de la campana al reloj y de la geografía fantástica a la real. La sociedad estuvo polarizada entre los privilegiados —nobleza y clero— y los pobres y los picaros. El Humanismo fue cultivado en las universidades. La familia, la alimentación, la vivienda, los juegos y las fiestas, protagonizaron la vida cotidiana. En el tiempo de El Quijote las luces de los genios literarios y artísticos brillaron sobre las sombras de la Inquisición. Viajemos, pues, a esta excelsa cultura del Siglo de Oro.

There are three great challenges associated with living in society: the rise and easy spread of epidemic disease; the depletion of resources in the physical environment owing to the intensity of habitation and/or resource use; and interpersonal and intergroup conflict. To counter these negatives, the benefits of living in society include the capacity to pool resources for building infrastructure for protection, resilience and renewal; the opportunity to accumulate learning over time and to share clever ideas or new technologies over space; and the possibility of specialization across individuals in their skills and the work they perform for greater efficiency of output relative to required inputs. These broadly opposing forces are in constant dialog with each other, and have been for as long as humans have lived in social communities larger than the family or isolated tribe. That is to say, these forces have been at work for all of recorded history, but also deep into the archeological past. The costs of crowding are countered by the benefits of exchange and specialization, and vice versa. This course will explore the issues of disease and resource constraints through a number of historical cases, to understand their impact on social organization and the standard of living.

本课程以贾玺增博士主讲的清华大学精品课程《中国服装史》内容为基础，邀请中国最优秀史学专家、收藏家和复原团体，通过大量丰富的考古实物、图像资料，从物质生活、社会审美风尚变迁的角度，解读中国服装历史发展演变、文化内涵与象征意义，对比展示中国传统服饰的艺术风格、服装式样、裁剪结构、工艺细节，分析中国传统服饰元素时装转化的技巧与路径，海量举例名师大牌历史元素时装设计的成功案例，在中国服装史与时装设计之间搭建桥梁，对学习中国传统服装史、理解中国古代流行时尚，以及有效利用中国服装史元素，活学活用、学以致用地进行时装设计具有极大的现实意义和参考价值。

How did the Communists conquer China? What role does culture play? What are the successes and failures of the Chinese Communist Party after seizing power in 1949? What constitutes liberation? This course will help you answer these important questions as you explore the profound cultural, intellectual, political and economic changes of this period. You’ll learn how Communist China fits in with a larger socialist world order and how historical interpretations of this period reinforce or challenge the official narrative in China today. Join us to develop your own approach and gain a critical understanding of the rise of the Communist Party, Sino-Soviet relations, the Cultural Revolution, and, ultimately, the reopening of China.

The key goals of this course are to warn you of the dangers you face and to give you some insight on what could be done to avoid those dangers. My challenge in this course is to make vivid to you that the dangers of nuclear weapons, far from being historical curiosities, are existential dangers today. You will have the opportunity to engage in discussions about these topics with both world experts and peers from around the globe. You can take this course any way you wish. We have organized the course segments in a logical order, both chronologically and thematically. However, each segment stands alone and can be viewed independently.

How do we understand architecture? One way of answering this question is by looking through the lens of history, beginning with First Societies and extending to the 16th century. This course in architectural history is not intended as a linear narrative, but rather aims to provide a more global view, by focusing on different architectural "moments." How did the introduction of iron in the ninth century BCE impact regional politics and the development of architecture? How did new religious formations, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, produce new architectural understandings? What were the architectural consequences of the changing political landscape in northern Italy in the 14th century? How did rock-cut architecture move across space and time from West Asia to India to Africa? How did the emergence of corn impact the rise of religious and temple construction in Mexico? Each lecture analyzes a particular architectural transformation arising from a dynamic cultural situation. Material covered in lectures will be supplemented by readings from the textbook A Global History of Architecture. Join us on a journey around the globe and learn how architecture has developed and interacted with the world’s culture, religion, and history.

By the Tang period, China was divided into northern and southern dynasties with different rulers and political systems. The north was conquered by relatively unsophisticated barbarians, but in the south, the aristocratic families established a refined appreciation of writing and literature. In this course, the third in a large collection covering all of Chinese history, you’ll learn about the Cosmopolitan Tang and the reemergence of great aristocratic clans. You’ll discover how these clans formed a kind of state aristocracy that dominated Tang government and society. This period — a product of the Medieval period, and of the development of Buddhism and Daoism — gave the world a model for modern statehood the great cosmopolitan empire that defined it is among the highest achievements in Medieval culture. Join us to discover those achievements through readings of classical Chinese poetry and a review of the ancient art of calligraphy.

Join me for an introductory course on biblical archaeology of ancient Israel and Judah during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE). In this course, we will use cutting-edge, inter-disciplinary archaeological research to explore the fascinating field of archaeology, the history of this era, and it's "players"(e.g. Israel, Judah, Philistine, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Aram, Moab, Edom, ancient Egypt etc.). Special focus will be given to complex relationship between archaeology, history and the bible, and how modern research interfaces between these different, and at times conflicting, sources. In particular, how can archaeology be used to understand the biblical text - and vice a versa. The course will combine short video lectures with extensive illustrative materials, on-site discussions at relevant archaeological locations, display 3D images and discuss relevant archaeological finds. In addition, it includes interviews with leading researchers in the field, both to discuss specific aspects, finds and sites, as well as to present different sides of debated issues.

This course, the first in a comprehensive series on China, introduces you to the history, geography, and culture of the country. Time, space, and identity — enduring issues in Chinese history — are explored. You’ll study China’s early dynasties to understand how physical geography impacted its inhabitants and how the many ethnicities within the country affected Chinese identity. You’ll learn about China’s origins as told in ancient texts and through modern archeology. You’ll explore the first dynasties during the Chinese bronze age, the many facets of Confucianism and his Analects, and the competing schools of thought that followed. New political and moral ideas appear in Chinese culture in this period — ideas that make up the country’s intellectual foundations and still resonate today. Join us to learn about China’s origins and how early concepts in Chinese culture still matter in the 21st century.

As we see American women coming into positions of economic and political influence, we start to wonder: why now? The Women Have Always Worked MOOC, offered in four parts, explores the history of women in America and introduces students to historians’ work to uncover the place of women and gender in America’s past. Part two of this series departs from the Civil War, examining how gender shaped women's work outside the home in the late 19th century and how gender influenced the shape of the labor force. We will explore simultaneous efforts to affirm domesticity and provide women with paths to independence during this period, and will uncover how the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution impacted women’s political organizing and participation. The lives of women in the garment industry at the turn of the 20th century, and their involvement in unions, consumer's leagues, and coalitions, take center stage as we work to understand how women made efforts to improve the lives of industrial workers. Using an Intersectional approach, we demonstrate how women with different interests and identities formed alliances around legal and social causes in the early 20th Century, and how this culminated in women's fight for the vote in the early 20th century.