Available Department Courses

Description

This course is intended to introduce you to the ways that historians learn, know, and think. We will explore how to read, understand, and critique books and articles written by historians, and we will also begin to learn how to conduct historical research and construct arguments based on that research. We will read about history and do history in this class.

Description

Western Civilization, from its Middle East origins to approximately 1600.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Description

This introductory course will investigate the ways in which Western warfare has both reflected and stimulated changes in Western politics, society, economics, and culture. The course will start by studying the ancient Mesopotamians and conclude with a discussion of contemporary insurgencies. Along the way, students will become familiar with theories of war, see how changes in the battlefield environment have changed the experience of war, discuss the extent to which the transformation of war has been the result of revolutionary or evolutionary change, and understand the significant place of war in Western history.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Description

This course examines the development of the modern world from approximately 1500 AD to the present. Topics include the role of European expansion and colonization in creating the new global network, and the cultural exchange between Western and non-Western civilizations.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The power of the U.S. President was intended to be limited, but has generally grown throughout the years since George Washington served as the first president. We explore the limits specified in the Constitution, as well as the ways in which Presidents have used institutional, Congressional, and personal strategies to expand their powers.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

An introduction to urban and social history. It examines selected cities over time, looking at their physical composition and the impact of their economic, social, political, and cultural functions on social change.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course will examine the relationship between ideas of justice, legal institutions, and legal decisions in their European context, from the Roman republic to the twentieth century.  Focusing primarily on criminal law and criminal trials, we will use legal sources to gain insight into the political, social, and cultural values of  Europeans from ancient to modern times.   Subjects presented will enable us to consider the development of ideas of justice over time and evaluate the origins and growth of the Western legal tradition.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course focuses on the historical relationship between people and the environment.  It draws data from the diverse cultures and geographies of the United States first, and then looks at particular environmental concerns in other nations across time.  Overall the course frames the environment as a global phenomenon affected by international politics and world cultures.  The course will be grounded in the past, but will examine current issues such as global warming, biological prospecting, invasive species, and food production to understand the environment from local and global perspectives.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The course introduces the concept of the social basis of health and healing and the figure of the popular healer in Africa and the African Diaspora from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. Topics include indigenous knowledge, colonial medical practices, postcolonial health care, and infectious diseases, such as HIV and the AIDS epidemic.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course introduces students to European voyages of discovery from the late middle ages until the early nineteenth century.  European explorers navigated across the globe discovering new sea lanes and peoples.  This course covers both the scientific and technological developments that made such voyages possible, the challenges explorers needed to overcome, and the consequences of these voyages on people and on the environment.  Special attention will be paid to first encounters - the realities as well as the images of this cross cultural contact in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Note:

Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The study of the past can be compared to a mystery.  Historians try to piece together a sequence of events by using documentary evidence to determine how or why things happened the way they did.  In this course, we will read books about actual historical mysteries to understand how historians think, research, and write.  We will also use these historical mysteries to understand the larger societies and eras in which they took place.  In this way, "history's mysteries" will help us to understand the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the rise of nation states, and the development of a diverse and industrially advanced United States.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Description

This course will examine the major Crusades of the 11th to the 14th centuries. We will look at the origins of the Crusading movement, the crusader states, the military orders, the rise of Saladin and the eventual collapse of the crusader kingdoms. We will examine Christian, Muslim and Jewish perspectives on the crusades.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The events that took place in France from 1789 to 1815 not only transformed France but led to revolutionary changes throughout Europe and influenced the development of the rest of the world. We will discuss the origins of the Revolution, the Reign of Terror, women and the Revolution, the impact of the Revolution on culture and society, the rise of nationalism, the transformation of warfare, and the nature of the Napoleonic era.

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Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This is a special topics course.  The content of the class will vary by section, professor and semester.

Note:

Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Description

This is a special topics course.  The content of the class will vary by section, professor and semester. 

Note:

Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Citizenship Learning Outcome CITZ)

Description

This is a special topics course.  The content of the class will vary by section, professor and semester. 

Note:

Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST) and the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The course introduces the history of Asia, with primary attention to East and Southeast Asia. It explores interactions among the Asian countries, and ways in which Asians made sense of social relations, politics, economic change, and culture.

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Meets Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ) and Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course covers crucial issues in American History from the American Revolution to the twenty-first century, with a heavy focus on processes which created, challenged and changed the Constitution and those which made the United States an international power.  It is specifically designed to support Elementary Education majors by providing a deeper understanding of United States history and civics, with some focus on geography and economics. 

Note:

Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Description

The course explores the origins of modernity in early modern Europe, and it examines the major economic, political, social, intellectual, and cultural developments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Topics of special interest include the Thirty Years' War, witchcraft, rise of absolutism, "consumer revolution", colonial expansion, the Scientific Revolution, the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, and the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

Description

A survey of the major political, economic, social, and cultural events that have shaped modern Europe since 1815. Topics discussed include the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of modern political ideologies, and the conflicts of the twentieth century.

Description

A survey of American economic, political and social developments from colonial times through Reconstruction.

Description

A survey of American economic, political and social developments from the Gilded Age to the present.

Description

The course covers the political, social and cultural history of Greece from the time of Homer to Alexander. Topics include: the Age of Homer, the development of Spartan society and military power, the rise of Athenian democracy and imperialism, Spartan and Athenian women, the artistic creativity of Classical Athens, women in Athenian drama, the tragedy of the Peloponnesian Wars, and the world of Alexander the Great.

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Meets Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course examines the political, social, and cultural life of Romans from the mythical founding of Rome (8th century BC) to the Fall of the Roman Empire (5th century AD) We will cover: the Roman Republic, Roman expansion and imperialism, Julius Caesar and the civil wars, the Roman Empire of the First Century, the crisis of the Third Century, the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, and the Germanic invasions. While the course will focus on the political and cultural achievements of the Romans we will also look at the internal challenges to Roman power presented by slaves, Christians and Jews.

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Meets Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course examines the political, social, economic, religious and cultural life of Western Europe from the end of the Roman World to the Twelfth Century.  Topics include: the legacy of the Roman world, Germanic warriors and Christian missionaries, the challenges posed by the rise of Islam, the enduring strength of the Byzantine Empire, the development of the first Europe under the Carolingians, and the flowering of Medieval Society in the early 12th century.

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Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course covers the cultural flowering of medieval civilization, the development of the national monarchies and legal institutions, the conflict between church and state, the Black Death, Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years' War. We will read about the experiences of knights and their ladies, saints and heretics, townsmen and peasants, Muslim and Jews in medieval Christian society.  While main focus of the course is on Western Europe we will also discuss important events in the Byzantine Empire.

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Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

From 1300-1550 Europe experienced a period of great creativity and innovation in the arts, literature and politics. We will begin the course by looking at the birth of the Renaissance in the Italian city states and follow the spread of this cultural movement into France and England. Among the topics we will discuss: society and politics in Florence and Venice, artists and their patrons, women and family life, statecraft and Machiavelli, Thomas More's Utopia and Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus.

Note:

Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

The Age of the Reformation spanned from the sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. This course will give you an overview of the religious changes that occurred in Europe and the impact of those changes on politics, society and culture. We will begin by examining the origins of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. Then we will consider the impact of the Reformations on politics and society after 1550 with special emphasis on France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Ireland. In the last part of the course we will assess the impact of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on family life, gender roles, popular culture and society.

Description

This course examines the history of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim conquest in 711 to the Christian Reconquest of Grenada in 1492. The course emphasizes the chief social, political, religious and economic transformations within the Christian and Muslim peninsular Kingdom.

Description

Topics to be arranged.

Description

This course investigates modern England since about 1760, concentrating on social, political, cultural, and imperial issues, and Britain's new European status since World War II.

Description

Social, cultural and political foundations of the Ancient Regime in France from 1500 to the French Revolution of 1789. Covered in the course: the French Renaissance, the development of absolutism, French society and culture and the coming of the French Revolution.

Description

A survey of this unique Central European state from its emergence in the 16th century to its fall in 1918. Emphasis is on the 18th and 19th centuries.

Description

The history of the German lands since 1815. Topics include Germany's unification and industrial transformation, the rise of Nazism, the country's division after World War II and its subsequent reunification.

Description

Europe's most volatile and crisis-ridden region. Topics include the emergence of the independent East European states, their subsequent political and economic problems through World War II, and the rise and fall of Communist regimes.

Description

Modern France will begin with the aftermath of the Napoleonic era and conclude with France of 1989, two hundred years after its famous revolution. It will cover domestic political and social issues, so intertwined in French history, and seek to appreciate France's position in the contemporary modern world.

Description

Devastated and impoverished in 1945, Europe lay in the shadow of the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the last sixty years have presented terrible challenges, the European people have experienced a remarkable regeneration during this period. This course will investigate this regeneration and contemplate the various difficulties Europe faced and continues to face today. Topics covered will include the Cold War, the postwar "economic miracle," Communist rule in Eastern Europe, European unification, immigration, and the Revolutions of 1989.

Description

The period between 1851-1867 constituted the high noon of Victorian England, an era when Britain enjoyed unprecedented stability and prosperity. Beneath the equipoise of these years, however, great changes took place, and Victorians attempted to deal with what they saw as the transition from the medieval to the modern world. This course identifies several areas in which significant change occurred, such as politics, art, and religion and others. Within the selected areas, students will learn to appreciate the great literature of  the period and examine the historical forces influencing the art, culture and people of the mid-Victorian period. 

Description

Topics to be arranged.

Description

This course examines Colonial North America from the founding of European colonies through the end of the American Revolutionary War. The course includes coverage of Native American history and culture, the development of slavery, conflicts with Britain, and religious issues.

Description

A study of the market and transportation revolutions, Jacksonian politics, the rise of the western United States, the impact of religious revivals, the removal of Native Americans, and the multiple reform movements of the 19th century, particularly abolition and women's rights.

Description

An analysis of the complicated set of events surrounding the break down of the American political and social consensus, the war itself and the new directions taken by the nation in the post-war period.

Note:

 Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

The years since 1968 have seen immense changes in the roles of women, different ethnic and religious groups, students, and other groups in American society. This course explores the political, cultural and social movements which surround those changes, as well the changing nature of domestic and international politics

Description

Surveys American foreign relations from the 1890s to the present. The course examines the emergence of the United States as a world power, the challenges of war and peace, and America in the Cold War and post- Cold War world.

Description

The course goal is to engage the student in the themes, issues and approaches to the history of the American South from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 until the end of the Civil War. The Old South was a joint creation of blacks and whites. It was also the most powerful slave society in the modern world. Therefore, we will look at black-white relations, especially those in the institution of slavery. Social class and gender roles will be studied as catalysts in southern history. We will look at the beginnings of southern consciousness, the rise of sectionalism, and southern nationalism culminating in the secession movement and Civil War which brought an end to the Old South.

Description

This course examines the experiences of workers and the development of organized labor movements in the United States from the colonial period to the present. It explores the intersection of class, race, and gender, and emphasizes that the American labor experience reaches beyond unions to include groups as diverse as colonial craftsmen, antebellum slaves, and twentieth-century fast food employees.

Description

A focus on New England's unique history and culture, and its influence and interactions with American history and development from the age of European explorations to the present.

Description

A study of the history of women in the United States from early European settlement through the late 20th century. The course examines the ways in which the roles of women have changed in response to economic, political and cultural forces.

Note:

Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course explores the African-American struggle to achieve social, political, and economic equality in the United States in the twentieth century.  It analyzes the important events of the movement and the strategies employed during the struggle, as well as the contributions of prominent national leaders and local activists, both black and white. This course places the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in a broad context, beginning with early efforts both to resist and accommodate Jim Crow and continuing through the 20th century, with consideration of the ways that other "rights" struggles shared tactics, goals, and ideology with the black civil rights movement.

Note:

Meets the Citizenship Learning Outcome (CITZ)

Description

This course explores the history of the American South from the end of Reconstruction to the twenty-first century.  It examines a variety of topics, including the rise of segregation and the civil rights movement; industrialization and modernization; the South's conflicted relationship with the federal government and its political influence on the rest of the nation; the South's place in the world; and southern literature and the arts (including rock and roll music, which is one of the South's gifts to the rest of the world).  Finally, from the rest of the country's perspective, the South used to be a problem to be solved.  That changed in the late twentieth century, and this course asks if that happened because the South became more like the rest of the country or the country became more like the South.

Description

This course introduces students to the methods, concerns, and uses of public history.  This includes hands-on experience with material culture (the study of objects), archives, museums, commemoration, historic preservation and other areas of public history scholarship and practice.

Description

Topics to be arranged.

Description

This course traces the development of the Central and South American nations from their discovery to 1824.

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Meets the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course traces that development from independence to the present, with stress on the ABC powers and Mexico.

Note:

Meets Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

A survey of Russian history in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the fall of the tsarist empire, the Communist superpower of the 20th Century, and its successors.

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Meets the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course explores the history of China since approximately 1600, focusing on the transition from the Sino-centric world in existence when the Qing dynasty took power in 1644 to the challenges of European imperialism, republicanism and communism in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Note:

Meets Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course explores the history of Japan since approximately 1600, focusing on the rise and fall of the shogunate, the Meiji Restoration and emperor-system, and the rapid changes Japan's political, economic, and cultural systems have undergone during the 20th century.

Note:

Meets Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course examines the Atlantic World from roughly 1492 to 1825. Topics include European expansion and conquest, creation of an Atlantic economy, slavery and the slave trade, and the different indigenous strategies of accommodation, resistance, and rebellion.

Note:

Meets the Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The course surveys the history and culture of the Middle East from the time of Muhammad to the present. Three themes are emphasized: the emergence of Islam, the Ottoman Empire, and the historical background of the contemporary problems of the region.

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Meets Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

The British Empire took a leading role in globalization throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. In this course we will investigate how the British and various colonized peoples made the empire together. At the same time, we will study the various tensions and forces that made empire difficult and eventually impossible to sustain. Along the way, we will familiarize ourselves with various interpretations of imperialism, sample the empire's impact on art and literature, confront some of the moral dilemmas associated with the empire, and come to understand why the empire inspired such devotion and hatred among people throughout the world.

Note:

Meets Global Engagement Learning Outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course focuses on American involvement in Vietnam from 1954 to 1975, though we will also discuss events before and after this period. Students should note that this is not a course in military history. We will discuss military events, but we will also take a broader view of the conflict. Topics will include the reasons for American intervention in Vietnam, the experiences of people involved in the conflict, the viability of the South Vietnamese state, the causes of America's defeat (and North Vietnam's victory), responses on the home front, the war in American memory, and political consequences of the war. The course will consist of lectures and discussions. Readings will include historical monographs, memoirs, primary sources, and literary materials.

Description

This course will look at the people, forces, ideas, and weapons that made World War II possible. The class will start by looking at the origins of instability in both Europe and Asia. After surveying the social and political characteristics of the main belligerents, the course will study how conflict in Central Europe and Asia eventually developed into a global war. While covering the war years, the course will pay special attention to the strategies and diplomacy of the nations involved, the role of ideology in decision making, the influence of new weaponry and tactics, the impact of war on civilians, the experience of combat among soldiers, and the great challenges imposed on states and societies by a total war of unprecedented scale.

Description

This course examines the Cold War, the international rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from 1945-1991. We will explore the origins of the Soviet-American conflict, the two countries' struggle for global influence, and the effects of the Cold War on American and Soviet domestic affairs. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a week-long study abroad program to Cuba during spring break.

Note:

Meets the Global Engagement learning outcome (GLOB)

Description

This course explores the history of African, European and American women, comparing their experiences in war, politics, the legal system, capitalism and other aspects of society. This course stresses the benefits and pitfalls of comparative history, as well as the impact of gender on national and international developments.

Description

The course examines the history of South Africa and its surrounding countries. It investigates economic and political changes and the creation of racial, ethnic, and gender identities. Topics include the relationships among San foragers, Khoi pastoralists, and Dutch settlers; Shaka Zulu; the Xhosa cattle-killing of 1857; the "mineral revolution" and migrant labor; the apartheid system; the Black Consciousness movement; and postcolonial development. The course uses a variety of sources-including literature and film-to understand how southern African history has been portrayed over the years and why those histories are important in people's lives today.

Description

This course seeks to introduce students to the debates surrounding the history of slavery in Africa. Did slavery in Africa predate the Atlantic Slave Trade? What impact did the Atlantic Slave Trade have on African communities? How did the Atlantic Slave Trade compare to other slave trades within and out of Africa? How were slavery and slave trading related to European dominance in Africa in the 19th century? These questions will be addressed using both primary source material and scholarly arguments from historians, anthropologists and sociologists.

Description

Topics to be arranged.

Description

Topic and work requirements agreed upon between student and faculty member.  Must be approved by the Department Chair.

Description

Topic and work requirements agreed upon between student and faculty member.  Must be approved by the Department Chair.

Description

A student originated internship supervised by the History department with cultural, legal, and state agencies.

Description

A student originated internship supervised by the History department with cultural, legal, and state agencies.

Description

A course in research methods. Students research their own topic, write a 25 page paper, and defend the research before the seminar.

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Writing Intensive (WI)

Description

Reading seminars provide upper level students with the opportunity to pursue the historiography of a particular topic, selected by historical theme, epoch, or interpretation.

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Writing Intensive (WI)