HST 295, 296 - Revolutions in the Middle East

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirements HU and DE (and W when offered as 296) and is a linked (IL) course.
“Down with the ruler! Power to the people!” Throughout the twentieth century these calls echoed across the Middle East as Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt experienced revolutions that sought to remove repressive governments and led to great political, cultural, and social change. While all these revolutionary movements called for greater democracy and often produced constitutional governments, most ended with autocratic rulers who were possibly worse than the kings they overthrew. This course will investigate the history of revolutions in the Middle East, focusing on Iran’s 1905 Constitutional Revolution, the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Egypt’s anti-British revolution of 1919 and Nasser’s anti-monarch 1952 revolution there, and the 1979 Iranian Revolution which led to the rise of the Islamic Republic.