In this course we will study the evolution of imperial power through several disciplinary lenses. The history texts examine the escalating arms races among mainly European powers and the United States. European and North American imperialism shaped the modern world. The arms races and mobilizations of vast armies eventually had several paradoxical consequences, as did the economic integration of the globe under European and U.S. expansion. We will study how empires produced projects of liberation and, conversely, how revolutionary liberation projects turned into empires. On the psychohistorical side, we will explore theories about the psychological dynamics of groups underlying various kinds of human pseudospeciation. In connection with group dynamics and pseudospeciation, we will examine paranoid political movements and their expression in different historical settings. Students will select topics in fields of their interest, present their ongoing work to the seminar toward the end of the semester, and produce a research paper. |