History
Department Chair: Shannon Smith
Faculty: Brian Larkin, Derek Larson, Brittany Merritt Nash, Jonathan Merritt Nash, Elisheva Perelman, Jason Schlude, Gregory Schroeder, Shannon Smith, Elisabeth Wengler
Mission Statement
The past matters! The discipline of history works to understand the past on its own terms and reveals its relevance for the present.
History analyzes human experience in context as it changes over time. It examines the complex intersections between human actions and the social, cultural, economic, environmental, and political forces at work in particular times and places. History uncovers the relationship between past developments and current conditions and it highlights the contingent, constructed nature of contemporary social structures and power relations. Historians construct interpretations of the past that illuminate the commonality and the diversity of individual and group experiences within and across societies. They also explore how societies remember and represent the past and analyze how historical interpretations change over time. Thus, the study of history reveals how people have used the past to create meaning for their lives.
The CSB/SJU History program supports the liberal arts mission by providing students with insight into the human condition while also building skills in critical analysis and effective communication. We lead students into an empathetic encounter with the past and engage them in the practice of historical interpretation. Together we imagine and reconstruct people's lives across place and time and within diverse circumstances. In these ways, the History program supports the colleges' commitment to global education and cultural literacy. We cultivate an understanding of how the past molds but does not determine the present, and we examine how current realities are historically constructed rather than naturally given. By encouraging students to recognize complexity and question the status quo, we prepare them to become effective citizens and contribute to the common good. Ultimately, the History program nurtures the curiosity and careful thinking that prepare students for a thoughtful and aware life.
Why Study History?
Students of history develop intellectual skills and habits of mind that prepare them to find meaningful work and become successful in a wide variety of careers. They do so by learning how to interpret the past through the process of historical analysis. The study of history also encourages a lifelong effort to understand the human experience and prepares students to engage with the concerns of contemporary societies.
Intellectual Skills
History students learn to:
- Analyze data by breaking complex entities into component parts, comparing and contrasting them, and constructing cause and effect relationships among them;
- Synthesize information by selecting and marshaling relevant evidence into an explanatory narrative;
- Evaluate arguments by weighing the validity of their premises, methodology, and conclusions;
- Argue a position by carefully weighing divergent interpretations and grounding conclusions in evidence;
- Write clearly by employing logical organization and precise language; and
- Discuss effectively by respectfully listening to and participating in intellectual conversations to deepen understanding.
Principles of Historical Analysis
History students discover that:
- Societies and cultures change over time and that no single human experience is universal;
- People are shaped by their historical context;
- Primary sources are influenced by their historical circumstances; and
- Historians construct disparate interpretations of the past and these interpretations change over time.
Historical Habits of Mind
History students develop:
- A curiosity about the past and its relationship to the present,
- An appreciation of the complexity of the past,
- A practice of analyzing things in context rather than in isolation,
- A practice of grounding interpretations in evidence, and
- An intellectual imagination that allows for a sympathetic understanding of others.
Life-long Pursuits
History students are prepared to:
- Understand how the past has shaped contemporary societies;
- Participate actively and knowledgeably as democratic citizens;
- Interact respectfully with others in a global society; and
- Seek meaning and pursue positive change in the world.
The History Department offers a broad range of courses in African, Asian, Latin American, European, and United States history. The course offerings meet a variety of student needs. Introductory classes (numbered in the 100s and 200s) are broad in scope and designed to introduce lower-division students to the discipline of history. Upper-division courses (numbered in the 300s) focus on particular themes, regions, or periods. They are intended for all upper-division students (sophomores through seniors), even those who have not previously taken a history class. These courses are generally offered on a rotating basis every third or fourth semester. All history courses carry Integrations Curriculum designations and thus contribute to the general education of all students. Last, three courses are specifically designed for History majors and minors: History Colloquium (HIST 295), Historiography (HIST 395), and Senior Thesis (HIST 399). The History Colloquium, focusing on primary sources, is intended for beginning majors and minors and is typically taken in the sophomore year. Historiography emphasizes the debates among historians and varying historical interpretations to help students understand that historians often disagree among themselves. In Senior Thesis, which serves as the capstone course for the History major, students develop and execute a research plan, collaborate with faculty mentors, and write a significant paper based on primary and secondary research. Students present their findings formally to other students, faculty, family, and friends in an end-of-semester conference. Internships are also available for interested students.
Assessment of Student Learning
The History Department conducts annual assessment of student learning for History majors. The Department uses appropriate written assignments and student surveys to evaluate its curriculum and pedagogy. In all these efforts, student confidentiality is protected.
HIST 115 Bad Blood: The "Truth" About Modern East Asia (4 Credits)
Why do we presume that East Asia is a monolith when so many of its component parts are at odds? This introductory course looks at the political, cultural, and social history of China, Japan, and the Koreas while analyzing our preconceptions about truth and history. Students will grapple with
primary texts, literary works, films, and propaganda to see how narratives can change and shape international relations.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 119 Pop!: The History of Asian Pop Culture in America (4 Credits)
What if ARMY isn't just about music? What if anime isn't as new as Demon Slayer? Asian popular culture's reception in America is not just a 21st century phenomenon and isn't just a one-sided love affair. The reception of Asian popular culture in the United States provides an amazing lens into American ideas about gender, race, and ethnicity, even as the countries involved are politically fractious.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
HIST 121 Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas: From Indigenous Empires to Conquered Peoples (4 Credits)
The ancient civilizations of the Americas and their monumental architecture pique the modern imagination. Most tourists who visit the region, apart from soaking up sun on beaches, seek out the pyramids and other ruins from the lost civilizations of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. They ascend the towering Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan to view the extensive remains of America’s largest Pre-Columbian city, imagine human sacrificial rituals while contemplating a chacmool at Chichén Itzá, or marvel at the elegance of Machu Picchu’s majestic setting in the Urubamba Valley. Most probably ponder how such powerful societies collapsed and disappeared after the Spanish conquest of the 1500s. Although powerful Indigenous empires undeniably fell to Spanish conquistadores, did Indian civilizations really collapse and disappear? This semester we will address that question as we explore the rise of Indigenous civilizations in the Americas, their “conquest” by the Spaniards, and how these two peoples fought with and accommodated each other to forge a new colonial society and culture. This new colonial society was complex and varied. But more important, it was something entirely new, built on—but not confined by—the cultural achievements and shortcomings of the Americas and Europe.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 120
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2-Movement
HIST 130 Introduction to Archaeology (4 Credits)
For at least 2.5 million years, humans have created tools of increasing sophistication and variety. In this introduction to archaeology, we focus on the artifacts that are antiquity’s leftovers. What can this “stuff” reveal about past people? How and why did they use it? How did it shape who they were? How can literary evidence, where it exists, enrich and complicate the picture? And how do we use (sometimes abuse?) it to define who we are today? These are just some of the questions we will address. Along the way, we will learn about the discipline’s aims, history, and methods, consider its relationship to the field of history, and devote special attention to its modern practice, problems, and significance. Broadly speaking, the course will consider, in turn, the nature of archaeological evidence, how we interpret it, and finally what we should do with it. While we often will focus on archaeological sites in the Mediterranean and Near East, discussion will touch on others throughout the world. As will be clear immediately and throughout, at the heart of this course is the identity of human beings, past and present.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 141 Europe from the Black Death to the French Revolution (4 Credits)
Students will investigate the tension between traditionalism and revolution from the Black Death through the Age of Napoleon. Highlights include examination of the religious revolution of theologians, political leaders and ordinary people that rocked the western Christian church in the 16th century, investigation of scientific discoveries and Galileo’s challenge to the geocentric model of the universe that challenged Europeans’ understanding of the world and their place in it, and analysis of new ideas about the political and social world put into action in one of the defining events of the modern age, the French Revolution.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 140
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 142 Topics in European History (4 Credits)
This survey examines European history. Topics and period to be emphasized varies, but major developments in political, social, intellectual and economic history are examined.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 140, HIST 142A, HONR 250P
HIST 142A Becoming Modern Europe (4 Credits)
This course examines major themes in European history since around 1750. Students will study the French Revolution and its legacy; nationalism and imperialism; world wars in the 20th century; and Europe since 1945, including the Cold War, decolonization, immigration, changing European identity, and the European Union. The course concludes with current events considered in historical context.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2-Justice
HIST 142B Europe Since 1750 (4 Credits)
This course examines European history since 1750, prior to the French Revolution, and concludes with transformation of the continent in the European Union. Students will examine various themes that shaped this period of revolution, modernization, and transformation in European society.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2-Justice
HIST 152B Liberty, Empire, & Faith in US History (4 Credits)
What is the American Experience? This question drives our exploration of the North American past from the early-seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. The historical themes of violence, empire, liberty and faith guide our study. To help us understand these themes and the experiences of Americans, we will read and discuss historical monographs and primary documents. During the semester, students will have opportunities to strengthen their analytical reading, critical thinking, argumentative writing, and public speaking.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
HIST 152C The American Dream: Reality or Illusion (4 Credits)
When Americans talk about what makes our nation special or “great,” we often point to the idea of individual opportunity, or what historians call the American Dream. More specifically, the American Dream argument is that everyone has a chance to be successful, and that an individual’s talent and drive, rather than external factors, shape the outcome. In this class, we are going to ask how true the Dream is. Do all people have access? Are there groups who are simply excluded because of their race, gender, or other factors outside individual control? What have people done when the distance between the Dream and reality became intolerable? How has change occurred? We will start examining this question in the era when large monopolies began to dominate the economy, and end with contemporary arguments from Black Lives Matter to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
HIST 152D The American Century (4 Credits)
This course explores the history of the United States in the twentieth century, paying particular attention to events that have helped shape various communities within the nation and to the ongoing struggle to define just what “American” means. Topics covered will include changes in social, political, and economic life; the environment; race and gender relations; the growth of cities and industry; the American role in global conflicts; the progress of technology; the impacts of immigration and internal migration; and the role of popular culture in American society. We will approach the study of history with three major goals in mind: to develop knowledge of the basic “facts” of 20th century American history; to learn to think, speak, and write analytically about the past; and to better understand ourselves and the various communities to which we belong.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 153 Growing Up in US History (4 Credits)
This course explores the historical experience of growing up in the United States through the intersection of race and gender. We will analyze the ways that childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood have been constructed, as well as the social and cultural institutions which shape individual experiences and identities. We will answer such questions as: How do a range of femininities, masculinities, and other gender expectations impact us as we grow to be adults? How and why have the concepts of “race” and “gender” developed, and how do those ideas differ by class, sexual identity, religion, region, education, and other cultural and social markers? How have young people created their own youth culture and attempted to change social expectations using advertising, film and television, magazines, music, and social media?
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
HIST 165 History Readings Group (0-1 Credits)
In this course students and various members of the history faculty will read and discuss current and classic writings in the discipline. Topics will vary from semester to semester. Course is offered for S/U grading only.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 180 Sex, Race, and Medicine (4 Credits)
This course covers the past and present of medicine in the United States, paying special attention to ways in which ideas of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity intersect to shape medical practice and the experiences of patients and doctors alike. Topics include gender and racial dynamics in the shift from midwifery to obstetrics; barriers to medical education for women and Black students; eugenics and medical experiments like the Tuskegee study; and debates surrounding LGBTQ+ health care.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
HIST 201A Debating the French Revolution (2 Credits)
The ideas and events of the French Revolution continue to be hotly debated more than 200 years later. Was it a revolution of the bourgeoisie? Was it a revolution of the working class? What role did books and ideas play? Was the Revolution a success or a failure? We will explore these and other questions through an intensive role-playing game in which you, the students, become revolutionaries and debate the future of France.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 200A
HIST 220 Sword and Scroll: Violence and Cultural Exchange in Antiquity (4 Credits)
This course explores different cultures in ancient Greek, Roman, and/or Near Eastern lands that came into intimate contact, producing hostility and violence and/or creative cultural exchange. We will study the cultures of femininity and masculinity (gender), rival imperial cultures or imperial culture and that of a subject people (race and ethnicity), and the cultures of wealth and poverty (class). Our investigation is to better understand the defining features of each of these opposing cultures in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, how the social identity and status of any one person was informed by all three factors (gender, race and ethnicity, and class), how the contact of such cultures involved a power dynamic and could lead to conflict, and how, despite this, they could also lead to fruitful exchange, producing hybrid cultural forms that still impress us today or at least understanding that awaited social change.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 271 Individual Learning Project (1-4 Credits)
Supervised reading or research at the lower-division level. Permission of department chair required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 277A Sport and Society in Recent US History (4 Credits)
Sport holds a significant place in the lives of many Americans. We play, watch, and talk about sports; many find joy in sport video games or gambling on the outcome of live events. Sports programming dominates television on weekends, and we have multiple networks devoted to both live programming and the dissection of sporting minutiae. In short, sport consumes major portions of our attention. Sport also shapes our society in many ways. Big time college athletes get the "promise" of an education while making millions for their institutions, professional athletes earn astronomical amounts, and the owners of sports franchises demand the public financing of stadiums as the price of staying put. On another level, even as the number of girls participating has grown, fan interest, especially at the professional level, is minimal. Furthermore, in the three most popular American sports, women find it difficult to be seen as having sufficient credibility to provide live commentary. On the other hand, at least some American minorities, particularly African Americans, have been able use athletic skill to improve their economic standing. Finally, we are increasingly aware that participants in many sports run the risk of serious injury, including permanent brain damage. How did we get here? Much of the description above would be very different if we traveled back a century, so one thing this course will do is to provide a brief overview on the how and why of change, while also examining areas of continuity. Using stories from a variety of sports, we are going to think about what drives athletics, and the ways that sports have shaped social change over the last century. More specifically, we'll examine ways that sport reflects/affects racial attitudes, and its interaction with assumptions about gender roles. We'll also look various economic and legal aspects of sport, from Title IX to big time college athletics, television, labor relations, and the complex dance of private ownership and public subsidies.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 300C
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 277B Protest, Riot, and Rebellion in US History (4 Credits)
How have Americans used protests, riots, rebellions, & social movements to create social change and claim the rights of citizenship? This course will explore the processes of social and political change, considering how change happens and with what results, who gets to make changes and in what ways, and how social movements have impacted the United States as we know it today. We will specifically address the ways that Americans have used protests to influence meanings of justice, equality, and citizenship. Who has been included or excluded from being an “American,” and how did protests and collective violence change those definitions over time? We will use primary sources and scholarly articles to explore why the past helps us understand and create change in the present, as well as practice skills of critical thinking and analytical reading and writing.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 152A, HONR 250G
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 277C Fascism Past and Present (4 Credits)
This course examines fascism with respect to historical origins, its political and social manifestations in the 1920s-1940s, and its post-WW2 legacy. Specifically, the course addresses fascism as a general concept, Italian fascism, German Nazism, and other variants in the period of historical fascism. The latter part of the course examines fascism in recent past and present manifestations.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 346
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 277D Revolution and Repression in Modern Latin America (4 Credits)
¡Viva la Revolución! Latin Americans from many countries shouted their loyalty to revolutionary movements over the twentieth century. The revolutionaries sought to overthrow unresponsive and often times corrupt, brutal governments. They also desired a new, more egalitarian society, one that more evenly distributed the wealth generated from the region’s rich resources. Most of these movements, however, failed. What caused Latin Americans to rise in revolution in the twentieth century? What were the revolutionaries’ goals? Why did most of these movements fail? We will examine precisely these questions over the semester.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 278A Confusingly Confucian: Creating East Asia to 1600 (4 Credits)
British philosopher Bertrand Russell often sneezed at Confucius' ideas, but he could never discount them. How is it that a long dead Chinese sage caused such allergies in an analytic philosopher in the 20th century? Why did Confucius, his contemporaries, his Asian detractors, and his disciples have such import in East Asian cosmology? And just what is this cosmology and how did it help to shape actions throughout the area? This course offers a glimpse into East Asian civilization--namely, the political, cultural, and social history of China, Japan, and Korea from the paleolithic era to the 17th century.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 114
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Movement
HIST 279B Sex, Murder, and Empire: Britain (4 Credits)
How did Britain become great—or was it ever? This course traces the rise and fall of Great Britain as a global superpower, using the themes of sex, murder, and empire. From mass murder on a slave ship, to serial killers hunting prostitutes in Victorian London, to the “empire strikes back” of decolonization and migration, we will trace how Britain was made and un-made from the eighteenth century to Brexit. This course is suitable to students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 347
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 279C Profits, Paintings & Power in Renaissance Italy (4 Credits)
“Renaissance Italy” calls to mind the sculptures of Michelangelo, the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, the wealth and power of the Medici, the revival of the liberal arts, the opulence of the Vatican. Why was the Italian peninsula the site of such a burst of commercial, cultural, and intellectual innovation between the 14th-16th centuries? How did Italian city-states amass so much wealth and why did they invest so much of it in art, culture, and learning? We will examine literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, political thought, and philosophy in the context of Renaissance political, economic, and religious structures; gender, family and kinship networks; and social values to understand why profits, paintings, and the liberal arts were essential for power in Renaissance Italy.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 336
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 279D The American Revolution (4 Credits)
This course analyzes the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution within the context of the Atlantic World between approximately 1750 and 1820. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 351
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 279E Global Health, Culture, and Inequality (4 Credits)
This course explores global health from a historical perspective. It examines global health challenges within a larger historical, cultural, political, and economic framework. This course will cover a wide range of health challenges from a variety of cultural and geographic contexts. We will examine a number of diseases – both infectious and non-communicable – through case studies in different parts of the world. Topics include gender inequality, maternal and child health, humanitarian aid, and the bioethics of global health practices. The course emphasizes the numerous political, economic, structural and cultural forces that lead to the unequal distribution of disease globally.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 295 History Colloquium (4 Credits)
Intended for new and potential History majors and minors, this course focuses on the interpretation of a wide variety of primary sources. Topics vary with instructor, please see individual section descriptions (295A, 295B, etc.) for details. Prerequisite: 1 lower division history course. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE)
HIST 295A Debating the French Revolution (4 Credits)
The ideas and events of the French Revolution continue to be hotly debated more than 200 years later. Was it a revolution of the bourgeoisie? What role did books and ideas play? Why did the revolution devolve into the Reign of Terror? Was the Revolution a success or a failure? Was women’s position better or worse as a result? We will explore these and other questions by examining a variety of primary sources (such as documents that provide eye witness accounts of events such as the fall of the Bastille, newspaper articles written from various political perspectives, revolutionary songs, and images from the period) as well as secondary sources. We will begin to explore these and other questions through an intensive role-playing game in which you, the students, become revolutionaries and debate the future of France. Students will assume, research, and reenact the roles of various revolutionary factions in the National Assembly. You will continue to follow your characters through the rest of the revolution to see how they might have reacted and fared by the Napoleonic era. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE)
HIST 295B History in Popular Culture (4 Credits)
Gripping stories from U.S. history provide the foundation for many popular films, novels, television shows, and other media. How do creators of those popular works decide which stories to tell and how to tell them? Where do filmmakers and authors get it right or wrong, or is that even the most important question? Are there larger historical "truths" to be shared by reinterpreting the past? This course will explore how creators of popular media, like historians, interpret and argue about the past. We will use popular works and secondary sources for background, but our emphasis will be on analyzing primary sources and constructing our own arguments about the past. This course will help you practice skills of historical thinking and analytical reading, writing, and discussion. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 295C Struggle for Freedom (4 Credits)
What was a slave revolt? Historian Eugene Genovese suggests it was “a struggle for freedom.” This course focuses on enslaved peoples’ struggles for freedom in North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will analyze their historical experiences within the larger contexts of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas. We will use primary and secondary sources to investigate what we can and cannot know about the histories of enslaved people, and to understand the historian’s craft. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 295D Germany from the Weimar Republic to the Third Reich (4 Credits)
This course will focus on Germany during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, two vastly different societies. After World War I, Germans faced questions about national identity, economic crisis, political revolution, utopian ideas about the future, sex, racial policy, war, genocide, and more. Should we support the Bolsheviks and spread revolution to Germany? Why are women voting and holding public office now? Can I borrow your sex manual? Aren’t you afraid “modernity” will destroy the German people? Why doesn’t everyone like the Nuremberg party rally as much as I do? Why do my neighbors exclude me just because I am Jewish? Why is there a satellite concentration camp in my town? What is really happening on the Eastern Front? The course will include secondary source readings on Weimar and the Third Reich, but a substantial proportion of the materials will be primary sources. Students will have many opportunities to engage and use the sources from this fascinating period. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 200D
HIST 295E Inventing the Conquest of Mexico (4 Credits)
How did a few hundred Spanish adventurers defeat the mighty Aztec Empire? We will unpack this deceptively simple and misleading question as we examine the Spanish-Aztec encounter from 1517-1521. We will analyze this encounter from multiple perspectives to develop a deeper understanding of the historian’s craft. Texts will include firsthand accounts of the conquest by Hernando Cortés, the captain of the Spanish adventurers, by Bernal Díaz, a foot soldier in Cortés’ band, and by Aztecs who lived through the fall of their empire. We will also read later historians’ interpretations of the conquest and its consequences for Mexico. We will examine how an author’s perspective shapes the conquest narrative and explore how Spanish chroniclers invented the conquest of Mexico.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: HIST 200E
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 295F Badass Samurai and Beautiful Geisha: When Myth and History Collide (4 Credits)
From where do myths about historical figures arise? How do the realities of life as a samurai or a geisha differ from the lore? Why do these legends exist and for whose benefit? In this course, students will analyze sources (both primary and secondary, written and visual) that perpetuate the myths of these professions with those that provide the less glamorous aspects of such lives to discover how historical interpretations differ and to what end. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 295G Avengers of the New World: The Haitian Revolution (4 Credits)
The Haitian Revolution has been described as “unthinkable”: not only did enslaved people overthrow one of the most powerful empires of the 18th century, but they established the first Black republic in the modern era. This course focuses on the interpretations and misinterpretations of the Haitian Revolution, as we analyze competing primary sources and historical narratives about the revolution that changed the world. We will investigate not only “what happened,” but also clashing understandings of freedom and human rights that continue to reverberate in the present.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
HIST 301 Race and Law in US History (4 Credits)
In 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” This course will explore the development of “race” in the US and analyze how and why laws created racial categories. Americans have repeatedly used laws to define ethnicity, slavery and freedom, religion, immigrant status, skin color, property ownership, and other labels to determine who was an American. Major themes of the course include the intersectionality of race and gender, questions and laws determining belonging and citizenship, and how labor and property shaped a person’s social, economic, and racial status in society. Through reading and discussion, argumentative writing, and critical thinking, students will analyze the racial possibilities, cooperation, and conflicts in the United States from its creation to today. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI).
Equivalent courses: HIST 300P
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 305 Medicine, Empire and Global Health (4 Credits)
Contemporary global health inequalities and organizations are not new, but rather have their roots in colonial medicine and development programs from the 19th and 20th centuries. In this course, we will look at the connections between imperial power dynamics, the history of medicine, and global health structures in Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. We will examine both how science and medicine were used as “tools of empire” during the course of European and American imperial conquest, as well as how subject populations resisted, co-opted, and transformed Western medical knowledge. We will pay special attention to how constructions of gender, race, and ethnicity intersected in cross-cultural medical encounters, informing clinical practice and shaping public health policies. Some topics will include: the relationship between colonial medical interventions and the spread of epidemics, how imperial health policies created and sustained structures of inequality, and the ways in which understandings of race, gender, and difference have affected health initiatives across borders. This course is suitable for students in any major.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 314 Missionary Positions: Christianity in East Asia (4 Credits)
East Asia’s unique application of Christian belief and ideology to its indigenous cultures and beliefs offer a fascinating complement and contrast to Christianity in other parts of the world and in various doctrine. This course will explore the theological and historical underpinnings of Christian practice and faith in China, Japan and the Korean peninsula in the modern period (1600 to present). This course is suitable for any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: THEO 100 or THEO 111 or HONR 240A or INTG XXXG
Equivalent courses: THEO 319J
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 317 China: Global Domination (4 Credits)
How did China become the economic and political success story of the 21st century? This class analyzes China's rise from the collapse of the imperial system, the failed republic, and the chaos of multiple wars as the nation revises, redefines, and resuscitates communism throughout the last 100 years.
Throughout the course, students will be expected to examine, analyze, and interpret what defines national success, how Chinese intellectuals, politicians, and bureaucrats have created their own definitions of national success (and failure), and whose interpretations prevail (and why) through discussions, information presentations, and analytical and reflective essays. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
HIST 319 Japanese History Through Horror: Monsters and Modernity (4 Credits)
This course examines horror in its myriad forms in the history and formation of modern Japan, from the Tokugawa period to the present. By exploring the historical context in which primary sources are produced (and in turn, reflect) and what the works represent, students will gain a broader understanding of how, why, and what fears helped to shape the historical development of modern Japanese culture and society and how these fears changed over time. While this course considers a wide variety of sources it places them within their historical contexts as a way to illuminate their respective periods. Historical information can and should be gleaned from such a variety of sources. This will be elaborated upon throughout class discussions and projects.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 321 Mexico from Aztecs to Independence (4 Credits)
The presence of the past immediately strikes foreign visitors to Mexico. In Mexico City, the sprawling cosmopolitan capital of Mexico, ancient pyramids and Spanish colonial churches stand next to glass and steel skyscrapers. Remnants of the colonial past are particularly visible. Imposing Spanish cathedrals and palaces dominate the centers of almost all modern Mexican cities. Spanish monasteries and government buildings dot the rural landscape. The ubiquity of Spanish colonial art and architecture in modern-day Mexico testifies to the profound impact Spanish colonization had and continues to have on Mexico. The question we will explore during this semester is three-fold: 1) how did the Spaniards colonize Mexico from 1519-1821, 2) how did this process of colonization shape new societies and cultures in Mexico, and 3) how does this particular history of colonization continue to affect Mexico today? Major themes that we’ll examine in our exploration of colonial Mexico include: pre-Columbian culture, the Spanish conquest, religion, race relations, the family and gender, political reform, and independence. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 322 Mexico from Independence to Today (4 Credits)
This course traces the history of Mexico from Independence in 1821 to the present. Although we will examine Mexico’s political development since 1821, this course focuses mostly on the social and cultural history of Mexico. We will explore Mexico’s ethnic diversity, national identity, religious traditions, and gender patterns and how all these elements changed over time—from a chaotic nineteenth attempt to forge an independent nation, through the throws of the Mexican Revolution, to the present-day struggles between the state and drug cartels. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Justice
HIST 323 Religion in Latin America (4 Credits)
The changing nature of religious cultures in Latin America from the pre-Columbian period to the present day. Includes the study of indigenous religious practices the European “spiritual conquest” of the New World, the creation of syncretic forms of Catholicism, 19th century conflicts between religion and secularism, the spread of Protestantism in the 20th century, and the advent and course of liberation theology in Latin America. Within a historical context, examines the role of religion in shaping sense of self, forms of community, and human interaction with the physical world. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: THEO 100 or THEO 111 or INTG XXXG or HONR 240A
Equivalent courses: CORE 365E, THEO 317
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 323A Religion in Modern Latin America (4 Credits)
The multitude of churches and the seemingly constant tolling of church bells immediately strike most visitors to Latin America. It is impossible to walk more than a few blocks in any direction in the centers of Latin American cities without encountering a church. In rural villages, churches are the centers of community. It is simply undeniable that religious sentiment runs high in Latin America. But what type of sentiment? How have diverse groups of Latin Americans practiced and experienced religion? Catholicism has dominated religious culture in Latin America until recently, but have Latin-American peoples practiced a uniform type of Catholicism over the years? Furthermore, in the 20th century, Protestantism has spread rapidly in the region. Why have people in the most Catholic area of the world been attracted to new religious currents over the last century? We’ll address these and other questions over the course of the semester.
Major themes include Indigenous and Afro-Latin American variants of Catholicism, revolutionary attempts to eradicate traditional Catholicism, the rise and spread of Protestantism, and the emergence and trajectory of liberation theology in Latin America. We will also examine how religion both shapes and responds to its context, changing as its context changes. Our explorations will challenge traditional understandings of Christianity and present a decoupling of European cultural heritage from Christianity. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 323B Cross and Sword: Religion in Early Latin America (4 Credits)
After brutal wars of conquest, Spanish colonizers, imbued with a late-medieval crusading spirit, attempted to uproot the sophisticated religious cultures of Latin American Indigenous civilizations and replace them with a European Counter-Reformation Catholicism. What motivated this conversion campaign? How did various Indigenous populations resist, deflect, and accommodate Christianity? Did the Indigenous people convert to Catholicism or did they convert Catholicism to fit their Indigenous realities? Later Church and secular authorities would try to eradicate the lavish hybrid Catholicisms that arose in Latin America and replace them with a more sedate religious practice. Why did they attempt to undermine one form of religion and promote another? We will examine these questions over the semester and examine how religion both shapes and responds to its context, changing as its context changes. Our explorations will challenge traditional understandings of Christianity and present a decoupling of European cultural heritage from Christianity. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: THEO 100 or THEO 111 or INTG XXXC
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 328 Missionaries and Empire (4 Credits)
This course explores the relationship between missionaries and imperialism, focusing specifically on health, identity, and cultural change in Africa. Scholars have long debated the complicated relationship between missionaries and imperialism. Has the mission field been a place that aids imperial conquest, or one that resists it? As we investigate the relationship between Christian missions and colonialism in Africa, we will explore topics such as the effects of evangelism on African cultures, how colonialism affected mental health, and interventions of medical missionaries into the intimate lives of African women. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: THEO 100 or INTG XXXG or THEO 111
Equivalent courses: THEO 319I
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 329 Guns, Gold and Slaves: Africa and the British Empire (4 Credits)
This course focuses on encounters between Great Britain and the African continent from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the present. Topics include slavery and imperial conquest; the role of African men and women in reshaping British colonial power; cultural exchanges between Africa and Britain; settler violence and warfare; and the aftermath of independence. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 330 Parties and Wars: Greece in the Classical Period (4 Credits)
The Classical Period in Greece (c. 480-323 BCE) is a cornerstone for western history, and its legacy very much extends into our modern world. In this course, we will concentrate on investigating Greek society and culture at this vibrant time. In particular, we will explore the complexities of Greek identity, broadly defined. At the heart of this course will be the contention that identity was (and is) not a fixed and immutable concept. Rather Greeks constructed and negotiated key elements of their identity as part of a dynamic social process. With this in mind, this course will focus on evidence that illustrates how Greek identity was articulated and debated in a social context in general and in certain social spaces in particular. Such “spaces” of interest will include political debates, battlefields, theatrical productions of tragedies and comedies, funerals, philosophical dialogues, legal trials, drinking parties, and athletic events. In considering how Greek identity was worked out in various ways in these different social contexts, we will learn about a wide range of Greek social and cultural practices related to government, ethnicity, the military, family, gender, religion, death, humor, intellectualism, the body, and education. Humans today are social animals, and the ancient Greeks were no different. Appreciation of the Greeks’ intensely social orientation will lead us to new insights about them – and ourselves. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Movement
HIST 333 Gender and Society in Western Europe (4 Credits)
Students will investigate the forces that shaped the social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity and examine how they informed the identities, experiences, and imaginations of late medieval and early modern Europeans (1300-1800). Students will analyze the impact of gender on sexuality, family life, work, crime, religion, and intellectual life of early modern Europeans and how these intersected with socio-economic status, age, marital status, and religious identity. Students will uncover and analyze the gaps between gendered expectations and the lived experience of early modern men and women. Historical perspective allows us to uncover the origins, evolution, and persistence of gendered expectations and understand how they influence human experience. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 337 The Age of Reformation (4 Credits)
The western Christian church was splintered by a religious revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But this was not simply a revolution made by theologians—ordinary men and women, from elites to ordinary people participated. The implications of revolutionary religious ideas about salvation, scripture, and faith were felt far beyond the pews, in everything from political life to family life. Students will investigate the far-reaching impact of the Reformation by analyzing the circumstances that led to it, the revolutionary ideas that characterized it, the agency of theologians, political leaders and ordinary people in its creation and establishment, and the changes it created in social life, marriage, gender, and the family, in Europe and in the “New World.” This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: THEO 111 or THEO 100 or INTG XXXG
Equivalent courses: THEO 319E
Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
HIST 344 Modern Germany (4 Credits)
This course examines the history of Germany in the modern era by asking the fundamental questions: “Who is German?” and “What is Germany?” These questions, and the changing answers over time, will help us understand not only “Germany” but also more broadly common experiences of modernization. Our study begins with an overview of “Germany” in the 18th and 19th centuries and proceeds to in-depth readings on the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the post-1945 divided Germanies, and the reunified Berlin Republic. The course includes consideration of current events in historical context. The course materials and our discussions will illuminate the diversity of experiences in German history by examining issues of political allegiance, ideology, social class, race and ethnicity, gender, religious confession, and regional identities. The course emphasizes intensive reading and discussion of historical literature. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 349 Russia: Power, Resistance, Revolution (4 Credits)
This course examines the history of Russia from the 19th century to the present, that is, the imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. Throughout this period of intense social, political, and economic transition, fundamental questions have persisted: Is Russia part of or separate from the West? Will Russia be governed by traditional forms or power, or is reform possible? What role have resistance and revolution played in the evolving Russian experience? Topics of study include the Romanov Empire, the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalinism, World War II, post-Soviet Russia, and Russia under Putin. The course includes consideration of current events in historical context. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 350 Sex and Power in Early America (4 Credits)
This course will explore the history of Early North America from the earliest sustained contact between Europeans and Native Americans during the fifteenth century until the mid- to late eighteenth century. We will attempt to understand Early America on its own terms, rather than as a prelude to the United States. We will examine the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of Early America by investigating the experiences of Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans. We will focus on themes of power (intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality), religion, enslavement, and violence to analyze how various people met, clashed, cooperated, and remade themselves and their worlds. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Movement
HIST 353 Civil War and Reconstruction in American Culture (4 Credits)
This course will explore the causes of the American Civil War, the experiences of war for Union and Confederate soldiers, free and enslaved African Americans, and women at home, and the varied meanings and results of Reconstruction. This course will help explain many of the ongoing challenges in American society, including battles over race, gender, state and individual rights, region, and memory. Using primary sources, scholarly articles, films, novels, and images, we will consider why the Civil War continues to evoke an emotional response today. Although topics will include some military history, the course will focus primarily on the cultural, social, and political ramifications of events. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 355 Slavery in the Atlantic World (4 Credits)
This course introduces students to Atlantic History, one of the most exciting fields of recent historical scholarship. When historians speak of an Atlantic World, they refer to the convergence of people, commodities, ideas and cultures from Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the three centuries after Christopher Columbus’s initial 1492 voyage to the Americas. We will begin by exploring the methods of Atlantic historians and conclude by reflecting on the use of the “Atlantic World” as a historical concept. In between, we will study the meetings and migrations of Europeans, Americans, and Africans; transatlantic exchanges of commodities and cultures; how slave traders attempted to transform captured Africans into commodities; how enslaved people asserted their humanity; and revolutionary upheavals. While encountering the histories of the Atlantic World, students will have opportunities to strengthen their analytical reading, historical thinking, argumentative writing, and public speaking. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Equivalent courses: HIST 300A
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS), Quantitative Reasoning (QR)
HIST 357 United States from World War I to 1960 (4 Credits)
The period between 1920 and 1960 was marked by fundamental shifts in almost every aspect of American life. Technologically it spanned the gaps between horses and superhighways, telegraphs and computer networks, zeppelins and rocket ships, TNT and hydrogen bombs. Economically it ran from the unregulated boom of the 1920s, through the depths of the Great Depression, and into one of the longest periods of sustained economic growth in our nation's history. Politically it saw the end of the American socialist and Communist parties as significant players and the rise of new post-war coalitions and regional coalitions that reshaped political landscapes. International conflicts of this era, including WWII and the Cold War, continue to influence diplomatic, cultural, and economic relationships well into the 21st century. Cultural shifts-- including expanded civil rights for minorities and women as well as emerging generational divisions --yielded striking changes in communities across the nation, all during a period in which the US population grew by 75%. HIST 357 will explore the key events of these four tumultuous decades, including the economy of the "Roaring 20s," the political and cultural responses to the Great Depression, life in wartime America of the 1940s, and the post-war economic and social changes that gave rise to the Baby Boom and greater economic opportunity for more Americans than ever before. We will examine primary and secondary sources ranging from novels to scholarly articles, popular films to newspaper advertisements, all with the goals of developing your sense of what happened during these decades, why those events happened, and what the longer-term consequences were for the American people. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Justice
HIST 358 United States since 1960 (4 Credits)
Political, economic and social change in recent America. A central theme will be the way that the social/political changes of the 1960s, and the reaction against them, has divided our nation and shaped our recent history. Specific topics include the struggle for equal rights for minorities, the changing roles of men and women, the domestic consequences of our foreign wars from Vietnam through Afghanistan, the growth of political power among cultural conservatives, the causes and impact of growing income inequality amid expanding affluence, and arguments over the power of the Presidency and the primacy of the Federal government from the administrations of John Kennedy through Barak Obama. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 360 U.S. Environmental History (4 Credits)
Environmental history is the study of the relationship between humans and nature over time. This course examines the changing American understanding of nature in the 19th and 20th centuries with particular attention to the development of public policies toward natural resources and wildlife, the emergence of a new set of values recognizing non-utilitarian values in nature, and to the evolution of the conservation and environmental movements. Intellectual, political, economic, scientific, and social evidence will all be examined in the process of placing nature back into the human history of North America. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
Equivalent courses: ENVR 360
Attributes: Human Experience (HE)
HIST 368 The United States and the World (4 Credits)
An examination of the U.S. role in world affairs since 1929. Topics include isolationism, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam and post-war adjustments, Reagan’s efforts to restore primacy, involvement in the Middle East, the search for a post-Cold War role, and the roots of the war on terrorism. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 369 Gender in U.S. History (4 Credits)
This course will use gender as a tool of analysis to explore how gender and sexuality have influenced Americans’ personal identities and interactions with others. Historically, in what ways have Americans defined what it means to be a man or a woman, and how have those definitions and supposed natural characteristics influenced one’s status within the nation? We will examine beyond the binary of masculinities and femininities and the intersection with other identities from European colonization to the present day, and how those meanings have changed based on the needs or anxieties of the time. This course will help you think critically about documents and other sources that you encounter in daily life: who produced it, what assumptions about gender or public/private life the author makes, and how those assumptions influence one’s understanding of cultural identities. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: Before taking a Cultural and Social Difference: Systems Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI).
Equivalent courses: HIST 300O
Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
HIST 371 Individual Learning Project (1-4 Credits)
Supervised reading or research at the upper-division level. Permission of department chair and completion and/or concurrent registration of 12 credits within the department required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.
Prerequisites: None
HIST 377A Roman Empire (4 Credits)
An examination of the history of the Roman empire, beginning with Julius Caesar and Augustus, who introduced rule by Roman emperor in the late first century B.C.E., and ending with Constantine, who legalized Christianity in the fourth century C.E. Our point of departure is the vastness of this empire. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River, from the North Sea to the Sahara Desert. As such, it encompassed and encountered numerous peoples and cultures, many subject to the power Rome. With this in mind, we will try to achieve a more balanced view of life in the Roman empire by investigating it from the perspective of the rulers and the ruled. To this end, we will (1) study the Roman emperors and their policies, (2) grapple with the struggles of an example subject people, the Jews, under Roman empire, and (3) support students in their pursuit of research projects that will underscore the rich diversity of experience within the Roman world. Throughout we will focus especially on the potential of ancient evidence to answer the following questions. What were the priorities of the Romans, and especially the emperor, in the maintenance of the Roman empire? What was the response of subject peoples like the ancient Jews to that empire? What strategies did they develop for political, cultural (especially religious), social, and economic survival? As we pursue these questions, students will have the opportunity to take part in many well-informed class discussions and to engage more deeply with particular issues through thoughtful papers and collaborative workgroup sessions. This course is suitable for students of any major, including those who have not taken a previous history course.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 332
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 377B World War 2, Memory, and Justice (4 Credits)
This course examines World War II from the perspectives of historical events, the memory of those events, and postwar trials for war crimes. Although we often use the terms "history" and "memory" interchangeably, they are different and provide different approaches to understanding and dealing with the past. Our understanding of the past is further complicated when it becomes the subject of legal proceedings and the justice system. In addition to selected aspects of the war, the course will examine the ways the war has been remembered (for example, historical interpretations and commemorative efforts) and adjudicated in court (such as the Nuremburg Trial and the Eichmann Trial). The course will also examine recent efforts to apply legal restrictions to interpretations of the past (for example, Poland's Holocaust law).
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
HIST 378B 20th Century World Environmental History (4 Credits)
This course explores the history of the 20th century world through an environmental lens, emphasizing relationships between humans and the natural world, the impacts of social/political/economic systems on nature, and the evolving use of natural resources in human societies. Movements of people, raw materials, capital, manufactured goods, and living material between ecosystems receive particular attention. The impacts of human action on the natural world, including resource extraction, large-scale construction, agriculture, transportation of species between ecosystems, warfare, migration, and the generation of pollutants will be followed through the century on scales ranging from regional to global. Students will develop an understanding of how humans have shaped the environments they inhabit both directly and indirectly, how nature influences culture over time, and how the environmental crises of the 21st century are rooted in historical events, decisions, and actions. The skills of historical analysis and argumentation will be practiced throughout the course as well.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 278B
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Movement
HIST 379A 100 Years of Korean Dreams: The Aspirations of the 20th and 21st Century Peninsula (4 Credits)
The strivings and desires of colonies, countries, and nations can reveal much about the realities of life for the individuals who struggle, survive, and thrive there. This course will analyze the last century of hopes on and for the Korean peninsula, from colonization to Kpop, Japanese empire to Juche, on both sides of the 38th parallel. By examining a variety of sources and drawing on a variety of different techniques, students will learn how to interpret Korean dreams and the truths they reveal.
Prerequisites: You must take INTG 100 or 205 prior to taking a Thematic Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses.
Equivalent courses: HIST 279A
Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Quantitative Reasoning (QR), Thematic Focus - Truth
HIST 395 Historiography (4 Credits)
Intended for advanced History majors, this course emphasizes research skills in preparation for the individual projects in HIST 399. The primary goal is for students to understand that historical interpretations are constructs and that historians often disagree among themselves. Topics vary with instructor; please see individual section descriptions (395A, 395B, etc.) for details. Recommended prerequisite: 295 or permission of Department Chair.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN)
HIST 395A Historiography: Interpreting the American Revolution (4 Credits)
“Who shall write the history of the American Revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?” asked John Adams in a July 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson. “Nobody; except merely its external facts,” Jefferson replied. Adams and Jefferson were wrong. Few events in the history of humanity are as well known as the American Revolution. Tens of thousands of texts are dedicated solely to the investigation of this one historical event. In this course, we will explore how historians interpret the American Revolution to identify and analyze changes in historiography — historical interpretation — over time. Studying changing historical interpretations of the American Revolution will allow us to gain a better understanding of the methods — questions, approaches, and theories — historians use to interpret this event. While studying the historiography of the American Revolution and the methods of its historians, you will practice and strengthen your critical reading, argumentative writing, discussion, and historical thinking skills. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
HIST 395B Historiography: History, Memory, and the Politics of Remembering (4 Credits)
Students are expected to develop the skills and historiographical awareness required for their individual Senior Thesis project (HIST 399), and these goals are best achieved through the study of a specific subject matter. For this course, our subjects are the concepts of “history” and “memory,” i.e., the ways in which countries and societies remember the past, what they remember, why they remember, and how they use memory. Sometimes, the things that are forgotten are as significant as what is remembered. The common readings focus on the politics of memory in Europe, but the approach is applicable for any country, region, or time period, and students may select any memory-related topic for their final project in this course. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
HIST 395C Historiography: The American West (4 Credits)
Historiography was created to help History majors better understand how historians think and work while exploring the historiography of a particular topic in depth. While each section of the course focuses on a specific topic, they share the common goals of exposing students to the study of history itself as a field of inquiry, exploring various research methods, and considering how various types of evidence might be used in constructing historical arguments. This seminar will examine the history of the American West, covering such topics as the impact of U.S. expansion on the environment and native peoples of the West, the realities of violence in “frontier” towns, the political and economic relationships between Eastern cities and their Western counterparts, and the evolution of the 20th century West into an overwhelmingly urban society in the midst of a sparsely populated hinterland. Special attention will be paid to historical debates over the “meaning of the West,” the introduction of race, class, gender, and environment as themes in these debates, and the varying types of evidence historians have used to interpret the region’s past. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE)
HIST 395E Historiography: Idols & Images in Colonial Mexico (4 Credits)
After the fall of Aztecs, the conquering Spaniards attempted to impose a late-medieval version of Catholicism on the indigenous populations of Mexico. What resulted from this “Spiritual Conquest?” Historians have pondered this question for decades. Whatever the result, religion constituted a sphere of struggle during the almost 300 years of Spanish rule over what was then called New Spain. This class examines how historians have thought and written about religion in colonial Mexico and how historians’ ideas about it have changed over time. In short, this course aims to introduce students to the concept of historiography and thus hone student skills of sophisticated historical analysis and habits of mind. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE)
HIST 395F Historiography: War Games: Remembering and Revising the Pacific War (4 Credits)
This class is designed to introduce and hone advanced skills of historical analysis. We will focus our reading, writing, and discussion this semester on the concept of historiography. The term has several interconnected meanings: the philosophy of historical analysis, the study of the history of historical analysis, and the changing ways historians have written about a particular topic over time. We will explore these three principle meanings of historiography as we read about, write about, and discuss how historians have interpreted and debated Japanese involvement in the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, and its aftermath. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
HIST 395G Historiography: From Women’s History to Gender History (4 Credits)
In this course, intended for advanced History majors, we will analyze the development of historical interpretation in the field of women’s history and the transition to the study of gender history. We will explore how US historians have interpreted the gendered past to gain a better understanding of the questions, approaches, theories, and types of evidence that historians have used to construct arguments over time and why they often disagree among themselves. This course emphasizes research skills and historical analysis in preparation for individual projects in HIST 399 Senior Thesis. Offered for A-F grading only.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Benedictine Raven (BN), Human Experience (HE)
HIST 397 Internship (1-8 Credits)
Supervised career exploration which promotes the integration of theory with practice. An opportunity to apply skills under direct supervision in an approved setting. Prerequisites: approval of the department chair and a faculty moderator; completion of the pre-internship seminar.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Experiential Engagement (EX)
HIST 399 Senior Thesis (4 Credits)
This course is the capstone for the major. Students develop independent projects in collaboration with History faculty and write substantial research papers based upon primary and secondary sources. Students give formal oral presentations of their research. This course draws upon and synthesizes the skills developed in HIST 295 and 395. Those majors seeking to graduate with “Distinction in History” must take COLG 396 the spring of their junior year, History 399 fall of their senior year, and complete their Honors research and writing the spring they graduate.
Prerequisites: None
Attributes: Experiential Engagement (EX), Writing Requirement (WR)
ELECTIVES
ENVR 360 US Environmental History
Environmental history is the study of the relationship between humans and nature over time. This course examines the changing American understanding of nature in the 19th and 20th centuries with particular attention to the development of public policies toward natural resources and wildlife, the emergence of a new set of values recognizing non-utilitarian values in nature, and to the evolution of the conservation and environmental movements. Intellectual, political, economic, scientific, and social evidence will all be examined in the process of placing nature back into the human history of North America. Attributes: Humanities, Human Experience
ENVR 378A 20th Century World Environmental History
This course explores the history of the 20th century world through an environmental lens, emphasizing relationships between humans and the natural world, the impacts of social/political/economic systems on nature, and the evolving use of natural resources in human societies. Movements of people, raw materials, capital, manufactured goods, and living material between ecosystems receive particular attention. The impacts of human action on the natural world, including resource extraction, large-scale construction, agriculture, transportation of species between ecosystems, warfare, migration, and the generation of pollutants will be followed through the century on scales ranging from regional to global. Students will develop an understanding of how humans have shaped the environments they inhabit both directly and indirectly, how nature influences culture over time, and how the environmental crises of the 21st century are rooted in historical events, decisions, and actions. The skills of historical analysis and argumentation will be practiced throughout the course as well. Attributes: Humanities, Human Experience, Thematic Focus-Movement