HIST - History

This course begins with the emergence of modern humans in the Paleolithic era and concludes in 1500 with the beginning of the Early Modern Period. It is the story of early human responses to the natural environment and how they exploited it for survival as well as how it determined the parameters of early civilizations. It explores the political, economic, social, cultural, artistic, and ethical relationships and institutions people fashioned to provide order and purpose in their lives. Early human encounter with the natural world encouraged beliefs in the supernatural and eventually gave birth to formalized religious faiths and institutions. These issues will be explored through an examination of the diversity of early, classical, and medieval civilizations, their contribution to the human experience across the globe, and our shared community.

IAI: S2 902

This course begins with the Early Modern Period in 1500 when the voyages of discovery linked world trade routes and transformed human encounters and civilizations. A basic question the course explores is how and why the West came to dominate the modern world. The causes are traced to ancient Greek humanism, rationalism, and trust that natural laws governed the universe. Renaissance Europe revived these values and laid the foundation for one of the world's most transformative events - the scientific revolution. the Age of Reason and Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries applied natural law to politics, economics, and social institutions and toppled feudal monarchies and aristocracies and ushered in an era of individual human rights.These movements spawned the creativity of the Industrial Revolution and a capitalist economic system which provided the West with political, economic, and military might to lay the foundation for modern imperialism, racism, and global warfare. Western modernization forced other world civilizations to reckon with these transformations. Old values and modern demands continue to be negotiated on the global stage in a multi-polar world. The course concludes with a return to a theme from Global History 1 - human use and abuse of planet earth and speculations on the future of humanity.

IAI: S2 903

This is a discussion -based, analytical approach to global history which draws on the international best-seller, Sapiens, by Yuval Harari. Students will grapple with the conflicting arguments and evidence of contemporary historians to form their own interpretation of humanity's rise from endangered species in prehistroic times to global dominance, and what this rise has meant for our species, for ourselves as individuals, and for the animals with whom we share this planet. Did gaining power make us happier? Students will also explore their own personal search for meaning by considering how people from different civilizations made sense of their lives through philosophy and religion.

This is a discussion-based, analytical course which will inform the student of major issues in current events around the world. The course will require students to follow the news through a wide range of media sources, and will teach them how to identify the political and ideological perspective of news media. Additionally, the course will help students understand major interpretive frameworks that they are likely to encounter in the modern world, and will help them work through their own worldviews more self-consciously and coherently. Finally, the course will teach students to read current events in the deeper context of historical perspective.

This survey begins with the early context of three cultures - Native American, European and African - and concludes with the Civil War era.

IAI: S2 900

This survey covers the period from the Civil War to the present.

IAI: S2 901

Students are introduced to and practice the methods of historical writing which include proper citation, thesis development, library/archival research skills, the use of primary and secondary historical sources, numeracy/statistics interpretive skills, and improved writing skills. Students will be introduced to schools of historical interpretation. This is a requirement for history majors.

A survey of the region's indigenous cultures, the Spanish colonial period, independence movements and development in the 20th century is presented.

IAI: S2 920N

Students study the land, people, and state from before the coming of the Europeans to the present.

This course takes a historical approach to evaluate the words of the US Constitution that asserted the values of political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people to analyze whether this nation has lived up to these values.

This course provides a survey of African history, early civilizations, kingdoms and empires, the Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, independence and current issues.

IAI: S2 920N

This course surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the Indian subcontinent/South Asia, including its early civilizations, colonial period, independence, and current issues. Emphasis is placed on the arrival of Islam in India, British rule, and the Independence movement. The rivalry between India and Pakistan as well as India’s relationship with Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh will be discussed.

This course considers broad historical developments in Sub-Saharan Africa from early pre-colonial civilizations through the colonial era to the present. An emphasis will be placed on understanding the historical legacy of interaction between Sub-Saharan Africa and the West in trade including the slave trade, ideas, and culture, the period of European partition and conquest, African resistance to colonialism, decolonization struggles, challenges to early independent governance, and current developmental and social policy issues facing African societies in the global arena, particularly Africa’s emerging relationship with the United States and China.

This course examines the political, legal, economic, religious, philosophic, racial, and social/cultural dimensions of the female experience in the prehistoric and historic era. The creation of patriarchy and female subordination is central to this investigation. Patriarchal belief systems themselves influenced historians to overlook the female experience. The course aims to rectify this omission and aims to uncover female agency in shaping and responding to historic events. The course concludes with an assessment of women in contemporary society.

This course examines the history of genocide in the modern world. It comparatively examines the psychological, socio-economic, as well as political origins and consequences of various historical instances of genocide across the globe before World War II, e.g. in colonial Africa, in Armenia, etc.

This course will cover global topics with interdisciplinary perspectives. Examples are World War II in a Global Context, World History of Women, and Global Environmental History.

This course examines the roots of American culture, government, and society from Native America through the development of slavery and the American Revolution up to the Age of Jackson. By reading this history through the lenses of conservative, liberal, and radical interpretations, students will learn to recognize the political biases in historical arguments, will learn how to evaluate the quality of evidence an author uses, and will develop the ability to make their own well-supported historical arguments, verbally and in writing.

This course examines the background events and forces leading up to the Civil War and the process of Reconstruction. Topics include territorial acquisitions and the slavery issue, the interaction of nationalism and sectionalism, conflicts between state rights and federal authority, and the political developments of the 1850s, and some of the military aspects of the Civil War. The course concludes with an examination of the economic, social, and political changes of the post war period.

This course focuses on the impact of industrialization on American society and the ways that labor, Populist, Progressive, and New Deal reformers responded to those changes. By reading this history through the lenses of conservative, liberal, and radical interpretations, students will learn to recognize the political biases in historical arguments, will learn how to evaluate the quality of evidence an author uses, and will develop the ability to make their own well-supported historical argument, verbally and in writing.

Students examine World War II and contemporary U.S. social, economic and political history, with focus on the Cold War and its end, the Civil Rights movement, and current issues.

This course traces the evolution of places, peoples, and systems identified with urban America. Analysis considers cities from the perspectives of geography, demography, economics, politics, and culture. Special attention is given to New York City and Chicago.

This course investigates the non-academic applications of history with particular emphases on oral history, archival methods, museum studies, and preservation. This course provides exposure to an array of applications of historical study.

This course surveys America's military history from colonial times to 9/11. The course will primarily focus on America's foreign wars and examine significant strategies and tactics, military technology, and the interaction between military considerations and social and political components. In addition, consideration will be given to how various events and individuals, such as the French Revolution and Napoleon, the establishment of American military academies, the U.S. Civil War, Karl von Clausewitz, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and 9/11, have impacted the American military.

Students learn about the people who have held the office, constitutional and national issues, and the institution of the presidency from Washington to the present.

Through their cultural resources and creativity, Africans in America formed a distinct American identity, one that seesaws between ethnic separatism and inclusion in the American dream. The course will examine the words and actions, of African American people from the colonial period to the present as they sought a wide variety of strategies of survival in the face of tremendous challenges.

A social, cultural, and intellectual study of the African American experience, from the Civil War to the present.

This course surveys Native American cultures in what is now the continental United States. This course surveys Native American cultures in what is now the continental United States. The course concludes with an examination of contemporary issues of Native empowerment and presence in the American experience. Throughout the course students will learn how Native American history has been interpreted and revised over the years.

This course examines the historic dimensions of American diversity and political, economic, and social tensions. It will examine the experience of African Americans, Native Americans, waves of European immigrants, and immigrants from around the world. Periods of nativist hostility to foreigners, pressures for assimilation, and economic stresses of industrialization, urbanization, and a post-industrial economy will be addressed.

This course presents an overview of the history of American women with particular attention to the issue of cultural diversity from the perspectives of the construction of gender roles, interactions of men and women within culturally prescribed boundaries, and challenges to patriarchal structures. The student will explore the relationships among gender, class, and ethnic and racial diversity. This course is one of the "foundational courses" for the Women's Studies Minor.

This course examines the development of the scientific attitude and the principles of scientific inquiry in the context of the history of ideas. Students trace science back to its Greek roots, examine Islamic and Chinese science and examine the particular nature of the western scientific tradition.

Why do we believe what we believe? Why do we think the way we do? What are the categories of our beliefs? How did we derive these categories? Starting with the Ancient Greeks and concluding with Post-Modernism, this course examines the intellectual history of Western thought.

This course explores Britain’s emergence as a global superpower and its influence in the modern world. The course will also consider how the Empire shaped Britain—particularly how it made it a more democratic and cosmopolitan society. The course will conclude with discussions on post-colonial critique of empire and contemporary issues of globalization.

This course examines how the Qing Empire failed to respond to external forces of Western modernization in the 19th century leading to the collapse of the imperial state, the formation of the republic, its demise, the rise and defeat of Chiang Kai-shek and the new China of Mao Zedong, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the radical political solution of his successors that created the China of today.

This course is a study of the Japanese response to Western intrusion and of Japan's world power status.

This course focuses on the interrelated history of the peoples of the Near East, with an introduction to ancient history and the rise of Islam, but with a concentration on modern times.

For the past five centuries, conflict in the Mediterranean has helped define the world's history. The primary focus of this course is the epic clash between Christian and Islamic forces starting in the 1500s. Subsequent events are considered through the same prism.

This course studies the development of the modern Middle East. Focus is on the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Egypt, and the Fertile Crescent with some coverage of North Africa, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan.

This course will give students the resources to think through the major debates surrounding the Vietnam War: Was it a “good war,” strategically and morally? Why did the U.S. get involved in it? What was the war like for soldiers on both sides? How has the legacy of this war affected both societies? Because this was the first “televised war,” the course will use regular documentary footage as well as primary documents and interpretive essays, often set in opposition to each other.

This course provides an overview of the development of the ancient civilizations of China, India, Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world, with special emphasis on the Greco-Roman world.

This course studies Europe after the decline of Rome. The course also studies Byzantium and the Near East. Course topics include the feudal economy, the history of manners, the Crusades and the Arabs, the changes in technology, the lives of men and the lives of women.

A study of kingdoms, social orders, monarchs and rebels is provided from the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation through the Napoleonic era.

This course offers a study of politics and society with respect to the ways in which Europeans influence the world in economics and ideas.

This course studies the history of Ireland from early Neolithic peoples and rise of the Celts, English colonization, and Irish independent movements.

This course examines the modernization of Britain that created constitutional monarchy, political theories of individual rights, economic theories for modern capitalism, and industrialization.

Beginning with the Roman view of Germans, this course traces the development of German culture and polity by examining German lives and ideas.

This course examines the creation of a unified Germany by Otto von Bismarck, the development of that nation through both world wars, and its dismemberment following Hitler's Third Reich.

Students explore two contrasting national patterns and cultural traditions.

This course traces Russia’s long and turbulent history, from the origins of the Kievan Rus in the 9th century to the post-Soviet era of today. This course also covers the centuries of Mongol rule, the rise of Muscovy, the glory and demise of the Russian Empire, the chaos of the Russian Revolution, and the reign of communism in the Soviet Union. This course also examines the Russian people and their various cultural achievements in literature, music, art, architecture, and technology, in search of an understanding of the “Russian soul.”

This course studies the Baltic States, Poland, the old Austrian Empire, Hungary, the Czechs and Slovaks, and the South Slavs as they emerged on the modern international scene. A major segment of the course will deal with the twentieth century when the concept of “national self-determination” becomes both a constructive and destructive force in this region.

The students learn about the great revolutions and the political ideologies of the modern period of which they are a part - liberalism, socialism, Marxism and Maoism - as well as conservative fundamentalism and anti-colonialism.

This series of courses is organized by topic, event, or era. Examples include History of Iran, History of Mexico, and History of American Sport.

Workshops are designed to enhance the study of History from various perspectives. Topics will vary. Credit may vary.

This internship provides an opportunity for supervised, history-related, work experience in non-academic settings.

Students undertake intensive study in an area jointly chosen by the student and a history faculty member and approved by the chairperson.

This course assists students in the writing of their senior history capstone essay while reviewing the major themes of historiography, the study of the ongoing debate between successive, competing schools of historical interpretation. The course is required for Senior History majors and some minors. With HIST 20300, this course fulfills the advanced writing requirement.