HIST 840 – The House in History (Spring 2026)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

HISTORY 840 (Colloquium in Global History):

THE HOUSE IN HISTORY

Distinguished Professor Martha Carlin
Department of History
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Spring 2026
Tuesdays, 5:00-7:40 PM
Location: Holton Hall, room 341

HIST 840
Weekly discussion materials
Course materials

Office: Holton 320
Messages: History Department Office (414) 229-4361
Email: carlin@uwm.edu
Website: https://sites.uwm.edu/carlin/
Office hours: Tuesdays 11:30-1:30 PM, and by appointment

Illness (including COVID-19) and related issues:

If you are ill (including COVID-19):

Do not come to campus or attend any in-person class if you are experiencing any symptoms of contagious illness.
For help, contact UWM’s Student Health and Wellness Center.
You can find statewide COVID-19 information at the DHS COVID-19 site.
Contact me immediately to discuss options for completing coursework while ill or in quarantine.

Potential for switch to online platform:

If our class needs to move online (such as because of a weather or other emergency), we will meet on our regular day and at our regular time, and we will use Zoom as our online class platform. You will access the Zoom class(es) from the course Canvas page, and I will send you full instructions for using Zoom.

* * *

SYLLABUS FOR THE HOUSE IN HISTORY

This course will investigate the global history of the house from earliest times to the present.

Course description: What is a house? How is a house different from a home? Houses are not only physical structures, they can also be centers and symbols of social and civic identity, economic activity, family and clan, rank and status, gendered space, sacred space, tradition and innovation, inclusion and exclusion. Houses both shape and reflect the lives of their occupants, embodying past and present; necessities and choices; hopes, expectations, and compromises. What can houses tell us about their broader societies?

Email and internet access: You will require an email account and access to the internet for this class. All UWM students receive a free UWM email account, and have free internet access via UWM computer terminals and WiFi in UWM buildings. The History Department regularly contacts students via their assigned UWM email addresses. If you routinely use some other email account (such as a Gmail account), please go immediately into your UWM email account and put a “forward” command on it, to forward all incoming email to the account that you routinely use. This is your responsibility; the History Department will use your assigned UWM e-address only. (To put a forward command on your UWM email account: enter your Office 365 account and click on the “gear” icon to enter “Settings.” Type “forwarding,” and follow the instructions to forward email to your desired account.)

Papers: All papers are to be submitted in class in hard copy, not online. There is a required weekly submission of discussion topics on the assigned readings. There is also one required assignment listing three ranked paper topics (due in Week 3), and one 18-20-page research paper (due in Week 11). The written assignments are described at the end of this syllabus.

Oral presentations: There is one required formal oral presentation (Week 15), described at the end of this syllabus.

Exams: There will be no midterm or final exam.

Grading, deadlines, and attendance: Your final grade will be based on the following:

Your attendance, active participation, and other work in class: 30%
Your eight best weekly discussion topics: 24% (3% each)
Your three ranked paper topics: 6%
Your research paper: 30%
Your oral presentation: 10%

All assignments are due on the dates specified in this syllabus. Late work will not be accepted, and absence from class will not be excused, except in cases of major illness or emergency (it is your responsibility to contact me immediately in such a case). Students who, during the first week of classes, do not attend class or contact me, may be dropped administratively.

Electronic devices in class: You may use a laptop, tablet, or similar device in class only for work related to this class, such as accessing assigned readings or taking notes. This is a zero-tolerance policy: any non-class use will result in the immediate forfeiture of the privilege of using such a device in class for the remainder of the semester. All other electronic devices, including phones, must be silenced and stowed away during class.

Disabilities: If you have a disability, it is important that you contact me early in the semester for any help or accommodation you may need.

Students in need: Any student who faces challenges securing food, housing, or technology, or is struggling with mental, physical, or emotional health, and believes this may affect their academic performance, is urged to contact the Dean of Students (dos@uwm.edu) for support.

Academic integrity at UWM: UWM and I expect each student to be honest in academic performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published by the Board of Regents (UWS 14). The penalties for academic misconduct such as cheating or plagiarism can include a grade of “F” for the course and expulsion from the University. For UWM’s policies and procedures on academic misconduct, see https://uwm.edu/deanofstudents?s=academic+misconduct&c=deanofstudents.

UWM policies on course-related matters: See the website of the Secretary of the University at: https://uwm.edu/secu/resources/syllabus-links/

There are two required textbooks, both inexpensive, and both available through UWM’s Virtual Bookstore (https://www.bkstr.com/uwmilwaukeestore/shop/textbooks-and-course-materials). These textbooks were chosen for their high quality, easy accessibility, and affordable cost. Both are available in one edition only, so any copy you get will be the correct edition. They are:

Bryson, Bill. At Home: A Short History of Private Life. London: Doubleday, 2010. (Also available from public libraries.)

Moore, Jerry D. The Prehistory of Home. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. (This book is also available to read in full online and for partial download via UWM Libraries, at:
https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.lib.uwm.edu/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppx7m)

I have also put one printed copy of each book (call numbers GT165.5 .B79 2010 and GN799.B8 M66 2012) on Reserve for this class in the Golda Meir Library. Ask for them at the Circulation Desk.

Other required readings (all available online, or as a .pdf via Canvas):

Beckerman, Gal. “Empty trash. Buy milk. Forge history. To trace the great arcs of civilization, historians tap the humble list.” Boston Globe, 5 June 2011.
[Available via Canvas, or at:] https://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/06/05/empty_trash_buy_milk_forge_history/
(To download, click on “Print”)

Beecher, Catherine E. and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The American Woman’s Home, or Principles of Domestic Science. New York: J. B. Ford, 1869, Chapter 2, “A Christian Home,” pp. 23-42.
https://d.lib.msu.edu/fa/2 (go to Chapter 2)
(Part of “Feeding America — The Historic American Cookbook Project”: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_26.cfm)

Braudel, Fernand. Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18 Century, vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life. Trans. Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper and Row, 1981, pp. 285-302, with notes on pp. 588-589.
[Available via Canvas; there are also copies of this volume in the library.]

Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Hearth to the Microwave. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
[Free .pdf of entire volume available at:] https://web.archive.org/web/20230124155219/https://huntersocfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ruth-schwartz-cowan-more-work-for-mother.pdf

Ferguson, Eliza. “The Cosmos of the Paris Apartment: Working-Class Family Life in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Urban History 37 (2011): 59-67.
[Available via Canvas; online access and .pdf download also available from UWM Libraries.]

Flanders, Judith. The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2014, Chapter 1: “Home Thoughts: An Introduction,” pp.1-20, Plates 1-5, and endnotes on pp. 283-285.
[Available via Canvas]

Foxhall, Lin. “House Clearance: Unpacking the ‘Kitchen’ in Classical Greece.” British School at Athens Studies 15 (2007): 233-242.
[Available via Canvas or from UWM Libraries via JSTOR]

Habe-Evans, Mito. “Everything You Own in a Photo: A Look at Our Worldly Possessions” (National Public Radio, 10 August 2010), with photos by Peter Menzel from Material World (see below) and Ma Hongjie and Huang Qingjun (Family Stuff).
[Available on Canvas, or else paste the following link into your browser, click on the “full screen” icon, and then on the “forward” button to view all 12 pages of photos and captions:]
https://web.archive.org/web/20240309033837/https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2010/08/10/129113632/picturingpossessions

Huang, Qingjun. “All about Qingjun Huang.” (photo-article posted on Photo.com, 24 Feb. 2024):
https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/1809/qingjun-huang

Huang, Qingjun. “Family Stuff” (photo-article posted on Photo.com, 24 Feb. 2024):
https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-articles/photo-article/1513/family-stuff-by-qingjun-huang

Kerrigan, Saoirse. “25 Ways to Build a House from Around the World: From Ancient Greece to Today,” Interesting Engineering (website), 17 April 2018.
https://interestingengineering.com/25-ways-to-build-a-house-from-around-the-world-from-ancient-greece-to-today

Menzel, Peter. Material World (online gallery of photos, from book published by Sierra Club in 1994).
https://www.menzelphoto.com/portfolio/G0000GPaxwfSZQ0Q; see also
https://web.archive.org/web/20240309033837/https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2010/08/10/129113632/picturingpossessions

Oikonomides, Nicolas. “The Contents of the Byzantine House from the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Century.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 44 (1990): 205-214.
[Available via Canvas or from the UWM Libraries via JSTOR]

Pearce, Michael. “Approaches to Household Inventories and Household Furnishing, 1500-1650.” Architectural Heritage, 26 (2015): 73-86.
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/arch.2015.0068

Penner, Barbara. “‘We shall deal here with humble things’,” Places Journal, November 2012. Accessed 27 Dec 2018,
https://doi.org/10.22269/121113. https://placesjournal.org/article/we-shall-deal-here-with-humble-things/ – 0

TOPICS AND READINGS

WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

27 Jan. Introduction: What is a house? How is a house different from a home?

Read in class, identify 2-3 discussion questions for each reading, and discuss:

Saoirse Kerrigan, “25 Ways to Build a House from Around the World: From Ancient Greece to Today,” Interesting Engineering (website),17 April 2018 (https://interestingengineering.com/25-ways-to-build-a-house-from-around-the-world-from-ancient-greece-to-today)

Gal Beckerman, “Empty trash. Buy milk. Forge history. To trace the great arcs of civilization, historians tap the humble list,” Boston Globe, 5 June 2011
[Available via Canvas, or at:]
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/06/05/empty_trash_buy_milk_forge_history/) [press “Print” to download]

WEEK 2 GLOBAL CONCEPTS OF “HOME;” THE YEAR 1850 IN ENGLAND; AN IDEAL AMERICAN HOME, 1869
3 Feb. Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 1 (“The Prehistory of Home”), pp. 1-14

Bryson, At Home, 2 plans at front of book, “Introduction” and Chapter 1 (“The Year”), pp. 17-54

Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, The American Woman’s Home, or Principles of Domestic Science (New York: J. B. Ford, 1869), Chapter 2, “A Christian Home,” pp. 23-42 (http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_26.cfm)

WEEK 3 THE EARLIEST HOUSES; DECODING THE EVIDENCE (LANGUAGE, ARCHIVES, ART); THE ENGLISH HOUSE AND HALL, 400-1600

10 Feb. PAPER TOPICS DUE IN CLASS

Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 2 (“Starter Homes”), pp. 15-31

Judith Flanders, The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2014), Chapter 1: “Home Thoughts: An Introduction,” pp.1-20; Plates 1-5; endnotes at pp. 283-285. [Available via Canvas]

Bryson, At Home, Chapters 2 (“The Setting”) and 3 (“The Hall”), pp. 54-105

WEEK 4 KITCHEN, SCULLERY, LARDER, SERVANTS’ WORK

17 Feb. Bryson, At Home, Chapters 4 (“The Kitchen”) and 5 (“The Scullery and Larder”), pp. 106-166

Lin Foxhall, “House Clearance: Unpacking the ‘Kitchen’ in Classical Greece,” British School at Athens Studies 15 (2007): 233-42. [Available via Canvas and JSTOR]

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, pp. 53-62 [https://huntersocfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ruth-schwartz-cowan-more-work-for-mother.pdf].

WEEK 5 HOUSES OF HUNTER-GATHERERS; HEAT AND LIGHT

24 Feb. Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 3 (“Mobile Homes”), pp. 32-47

Bryson, At Home, Chapter 6 (“The Fusebox”), pp. 167-200

Fernand Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18 Century, vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life. Trans. Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper and Row, 1981, pp. 298-302 (+notes on p. 589). [Available via Canvas; copies of book available in Golda Meir Library]

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, pp. 89-97 [https://huntersocfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ruth-schwartz-cowan-more-work-for-mother.pdf]

WEEK 6 DRAWING ROOM AND DINING ROOM; WEALTH, COMFORT, FURNISHINGS

3 March Bryson, At Home, Chapters 7 (“The Drawing Room”) and 8 (“The Dining Room”), pp. 201-277

Nicolas Oikonomides, “The Contents of the Byzantine House from the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Century,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 44 (1990): 205-214 [Available via Canvas and JSTOR]

Michael Pearce, “Approaches to Household Inventories and Household Furnishing, 1500-1650,” Architectural Heritage, 26 (2015): 73-86 (https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/arch.2015.0068)

WEEK 7 POSSESSIONS; BUILDING MATERIALS; CELLAR AND PASSAGE

10 March Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 4 (“Durable Goods”), pp. 48-69

Fernand Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18 Century, vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life. Trans. Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper and Row, 1981, pp. 285-298 (+notes on pp. 588-589). [Available via Canvas; copies in Golda Meir Library]

Mito Habe-Evans, “Everything You Own in a Photo: A Look at Our Worldly Possessions” (National Public Radio, 10 August 2010), with photos by Peter Menzel (Material World) and Ma Hongjie and Huang Qingjun (Family Stuff). [Available on Canvas, or else paste the following link into your browser, click on the “full screen” icon, and then on the “forward” button to view all 12 pages of photos and captions:]
https://web.archive.org/web/20240309033837/https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2010/08/10/129113632/picturingpossessions

Peter Menzel, Material World (online gallery of photos, from book published by Sierra Club in 1994):
https://www.menzelphoto.com/portfolio/G0000GPaxwfSZQ0Q

Qingjun Huang, “Family Stuff” (photo-article posted on Photo.com, 24 Feb. 2024):
https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-articles/photo-article/1513/family-stuff-by-qingjun-huang

Qingjun Huang. “All about Qingjun Huang.” (photo-article posted on Photo.com, 24 Feb. 2024):
https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/1809/qingjun-huang

Bryson, At Home, Chapters 9 (“The Cellar”) and 10 (“The Passage”), pp. 278-340

WEEK 8 GENDERED SPACE; SACRED SPACE; QUIET SPACE; VERMIN; GARDENS AND PARKS

17 March Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 5 (“Model Homes”), pp. 70-92

Bryson, At Home, Chapters 11 (“The Study”) and 12 (“The Garden”), pp. 341-406

SPRING BREAK: 22-29 March (no classes)

WEEK 9 COMMUNAL HOUSES

31 March Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 6 (“Apartment Living”), pp. 93-115

Bryson, At Home, Chapters 13 (“The Plum Room”) and 14 (“The Stairs”), pp. 406-453

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, pp. 108-119 [https://huntersocfamilies.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/ruth-schwartz-cowan-more-work-for-mother.pdf]

New York City Tenement Museum tour, with Annie Polland. 14:17 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bymB7tip1KM (In this week’s discussion questions, please include one question about this video.)

WEEK 10 SECLUDING WALLS; SEX AND MORTALITY

7 April Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 7 (“Gated Communities”), pp. 116-140

Bryson, At Home, Chapter 15 (“The Bedroom”), pp. 454-485

WEEK 11 THE BATHROOM

14 April RESEARCH PAPER DUE IN CLASS

Bryson, At Home, Chapter16 (“The Bathroom”), pp. 486-526

Barbara Penner, “‘We shall deal here with humble things,’” Places Journal, November 2012: https://placesjournal.org/article/we-shall-deal-here-with-humble-things/ – 0 (22 pp.)

WEEK 12 NOBLE HOUSES; SACRED SPACE; DRESSING

21 April Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapters 8 (“Noble Houses”) and 9 (“Sacred Homes”), pp. 141-179

Bryson, At Home, Chapter 17 (“The Dressing Room”), pp. 527-565

WEEK 13 CHILDREN

28 April Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapters 10-11 (“Home Fires;” “Going Home”), pp. 180-219

Bryson, At Home, Chapter 18 (“The Nursery”), pp. 566-604

Ferguson, Eliza. “The Cosmos of the Paris Apartment: Working-Class Family Life in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Urban History 37 (2011): 59-67. [Available via Canvas; online access and .pdf also from UWM Libraries]

WEEK 14 CONCLUSION

5 May Bryson, At Home, Chapter 19 (“The Attic”), pp. 605-632

Moore, The Prehistory of Home, Chapter 12 (“Conclusion”), pp. 220-225

WEEK 15 ORAL PRESENTATIONS

12 May

ASSIGNMENTS

3 ranked paper topics (due in class in Week 3), 6% of final grade:

Choose 3 topics for your research paper (ranked 1-3). For each, include images of your house and chosen room, and a brief paragraph in which you identify and date them. Cite the sources of the images, using the documentation format of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Weekly discussion topics, 24% of final grade:

Beginning in Week 2, bring to class in hard copy two discussion topics for each assigned reading (e.g., if there are two chapters from the same book, write two questions for each chapter). The discussion topics should address significant concepts, interpretations, or arguments in the reading, not purely factual information. A topic can be in your own words or a brief quotation from the text. For each reading, include the author and full title, two topics, and the relevant page references. Total length: 1-2 pages (double-spaced). You must submit at least ten weekly discussion topics. Your eight best will be worth 24% of your final grade (3% each).

Research paper (due in class in hard copy in Week 11 — 30% of final grade):

“One House, One Room, and Ten Objects: [Sub-title]” [Identify your chosen house and room as sub-title]

Choose one specific house to work on (any place, any period). In the Introduction, identify your chosen house, and give an overview of its history. Then, for the body of the paper, investigate one room in that house, and ten objects that the room contained or contains (or would have contained), and the role of that room and its contents historically. Include discussions of how your chosen house and room either reflected the society that produced them, or were atypical of the society that produced them. (Example: if you are studying the kitchen of your chosen house, discuss the evolution of kitchens broadly, and how your kitchen fits into that broader narrative, as well as how your house and kitchen reflected, or were atypical of, local comparable houses and kitchens).

Your paper should be 18-20 double-spaced pages long, exclusive of appendices, illustrations, endnotes and bibliography. You must include images of your house, chosen room, and ten objects. Include other illustrations and maps as needed.

Your paper must be fully documented with endnotes and a bibliography, using the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) format. Other forms of citation, including parenthetical citations, are not acceptable. (Recent versions of Microsoft Word include Chicago-style citation format as a built-in option for footnotes or endnotes. Be sure to use ENDNOTES with ARABIC NUMERALS for this paper.)

Oral presentations (in class, Week 15 — 10% of final grade):

Provide a brief (8-10 minutes) presentation on your research paper, in which you discuss your topic, your research and analysis, and your key findings. This should either be a spoken report with Power Point illustrations, or else an illustrated video viewable from a flash drive or from an online platform such as YouTube.