Global Commodities, American Dreams

Explores how American actors and institutions got the raw materials that built the nation. Approaches commodities as a lens through which to understand a more specific relationship between the United States and the wider world in political, economic, and environmental terms, and examines a global cartography of commodities, resources, and other “stuff” that became enmeshed in American life. Examines materials like sugar, cotton, wheat, bananas, rubber, aluminum, petroleum, uranium, drugs, and others, to trace a pattern of global resource exploitation back to sites of policymaking and consumption in the United States. Explores interconnections between human society and the non-human environment, troubling the boundary often understood to divide them. Includes themes of US empire, environment, labor, consumption, modernity, race, gender, class, and transnationalism. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

Related Subjects

Offered Spring 2025

Catalog Subject Faculty Level HASS Category
21H.106 24.912 21L.008 21W.741 CMS.150 WGS.190

Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies

T 2-5, E15-335
Michel DeGraff
D. Fox Harrell
Danielle Wood
Introductory HASS-H
HASS-A
CI-H
21H.165

A Survey of Modern African History

TR 9:30-11, 1-273
Kenda Mutongi Introductory HASS-H
21H.217 11.013

American Urban History

T 2-4, 8-205
Ezra Glenn Seminar HASS-H CI-H
21H.220 11.150

Metropolis: A Comparative History of New York City

MW 2:30-4, 1-273
Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-H
21H.241 21G.054

France and Haiti: Enlightenment, Slavery, and Revolution

TR 11-12:30, E51-285
Malick W. Ghachem Intermediate HASS-H
21H.263 WGS.220

Women and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa

F 10-1, 2-103
Lerna Ekmekcioglu Seminar HASS-H
21H.266

South Africa and Apartheid

TR 1-2:30, 56-154
Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.284

South Asia, the United States, and MIT: Transformative Connections

W 11-1, E51-285
Sana Aiyar Intermediate HASS-H
21H.289

History Near and Dear: Writing Yourself into History

TR 11-12:30, 1-273
Marjoleine Kars Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.290 U 21H.920 G

Economic Classics: The History of Economic Ideas from Ancient Times to the Present

TR 3-4:30, 4-261
Anne E. C. McCants Graduate
Intermediate
HASS-H CI-H
21H.352 21G.042

Three Kingdoms: From History to Fiction, Comic, Film, and Game

TR 1-2:30, 14E-310
Emma Teng Seminar HASS-H
21H.358 U 21H.958 G WGS.315 G

Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance

T 11-1, E51-390
Sana Aiyar Graduate
Seminar
HASS-H
21H.984 STS.414

Risk, Fortune, and Futurity

W 2-5, 2-103
Caley Horan
Will Deringer
Graduate
21H.S01

Special Subject: The Laws of War in Global History

M 2-5, 2-103
Elena Kempf Intermediate HASS-H
21H.S02

Special Subject: Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Global South

MW 2:30-4, 4-261
Tanalís Padilla Intermediate HASS-S
21H.S05

Special Subject: Modern Germany

MW 11-12:30, 2-103
Elena Kempf Intermediate HASS-H

Not Offered This Term

Catalog Subject Faculty Level HASS Category
21H.001

How to Stage a Revolution

Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.009

World History and Its Fault Lines Since 1800

Sana Aiyar
Hiromu Nagahara
Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.061

The History of American Presidential Elections

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Intermediate Half term subject
21H.090

Digital Humanities Laboratory

Not offered regularly; consult department
Catherine Clark Introductory LAB
21H.101

American History to 1865

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.102

American History since 1865

Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.107 21G.043

From Yellow Peril to Model Minority: Asian American History to 1968

Emma Teng
Introductory HASS-H
21H.108 WGS.110

Sexual and Gender Identities

Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.134 14.70

Medieval Economic History in Comparative Perspective

Anne E. C. McCants Introductory HASS-S CI-H
21H.135

J.R.R. Tolkien: Scholar, Author, and Thinker

Eric J. Goldberg Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.141

Renaissance to Revolution: Europe, 1300-1800

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.143 21G.056

The “Making” of Modern Europe: 1789 – Present

Elena Kempf
Introductory HASS-H
21H.144 21G.087

Introduction to Russian Studies

Elizabeth A. Wood
Maria Khotimsky
Introductory HASS-H
21H.145 21G.049 4.674

French Photography

Catherine Clark Introductory HASS-A CI-H
21H.156 21G.045

Global Chinese Food: A Historical Overview

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.157

Modern South Asia

Sana Aiyar Introductory HASS-S
21H.170 17.55 21A.130 21G.084

Introduction to Latin American Studies

Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-S CI-H
21H.172 21G.078

Latin America Through Film

Not offered regularly; consult department
Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-H
21H.173

Socialism in Latin America, from Che Guevara to Hugo Chavez

Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-H
21H.181 17.035

Libertarianism

Malick W. Ghachem Introductory HASS-H
21H.185 12.386 STS.031

Environment and History

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-S CI-H
21H.187

US Environmental Governance: from National Parks to the Green New Deal

Megan A. Black Introductory HASS-H
21H.201

The American Revolution

Marjoleine Kars
Intermediate HASS-H
21H.203

The History of American Presidential Elections

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Intermediate HASS-S
21H.205 STS.427

The Civil War and the Emergence of Modern America: 1861-1890

Merritt Roe Smith Intermediate HASS-H
21H.211

The United States in the Cold War Era

Not offered regularly; consult department
Caley Horan Intermediate HASS-H
21H.213 17.28

The War at Home: American Politics and Society in Wartime

Christopher Capozzola
Adam Berinsky
Intermediate HASS-S
21H.214

War and American Society

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Intermediate HASS-H
21H.218

History of the Built Environment in the US

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.225

History of American Capitalism

Caley Horan Intermediate HASS-H
21H.226 11.015

Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History

Staff Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.227

History of the US Supreme Court

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Intermediate HASS-S
21H.228

American Classics

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder
Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.229

The Black Radical Tradition in America

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.242 21G.322

Frenchness in and Era of Globalization

Not offered regularly; consult department
Catherine Clark Intermediate HASS-H
21H.245 21G.086 17.57

Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society: 1917 to the Present

Elizabeth A. Wood Intermediate HASS-S CI-H
21H.247

Looking East/Looking West

Catherine Clark
Hiromu Nagahara
Intermediate HASS-H
21H.253 21G.075

Global Chinese Migration, 1567- Present

Not offered regularly; consult department
Emma Teng Intermediate HASS-H
21H.260

Cities in the Middle East: History, Politics and Society

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-S
21H.262

Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Pouya Alimagham Intermediate HASS-H
21H.265

Humanitarianism in Africa: A Critical History

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.267

Atlantic Slave Revolts

Marjoleine Kars Intermediate HASS-H
21H.268

Urban History in Africa

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.281

MIT and Slavery: Research

Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.282

MIT and Slavery: Publication

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.283

The Indigenous History of MIT

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-H
21H.285 STS.025

Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

Merritt Roe Smith Intermediate HASS-H
21H.315

American Consumer Culture

Caley Horan Seminar HASS-H
21H.319

Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law

Malick W. Ghachem Seminar HASS-S
21H.320

Gender and the Law in US History

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Seminar HASS-H
21H.321 11.026

Downtown

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Seminar HASS-H
21H.322

Christianity in America

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-H
21H.350

Business in China Since 1800

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Seminar HASS-H
21H.357

South Asian Migrations

Sana Aiyar Seminar HASS-H
21H.361

Echoes of Slavery: Recovering the Histories of Enslaved People

Marjoleine Kars Seminar HASS-H
21H.363 WGS.330

Abortion: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (NEW)

Seminar HASS-H
21H.381 WGS.222

Women and War

Lerna Ekmekcioglu Seminar HASS-S
21H.383 U 21H.982 G

Technology and the Global Economy

Anne E. C. McCants Graduate
Seminar
HASS-S
21H.385 11.152

The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-S
21H.990 STS.432

Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe

Megan A. Black
Kate Brown
Graduate