History

Introductory History courses (101-199) are recommended to students considering any major who seek to develop oral and writing skills as well as historical awareness. Courses numbered 101 are topical, thematic courses. Styled like seminars and capped at 19 students, they especially encourage class discussion.

Advanced Placement: A score of 4 or 5 in history counts toward the Historical Studies Common Area Requirement. Students in the Class of 2024 with Advanced Placement scores of 4 or 5 in History may qualify to enroll in 200-level courses during their first year. AP credit does not count toward the number of courses required for the major. Please consult the chair of the department with questions.

Majors: First-year students who are considering a history major are encouraged to enroll in one of the introductory level courses listed on the First-Year Student website.



HIST 101
Themes:  African American Lives
Common Area: Historical Studies

This course will examine African American and American history through the prism of autobiographical and biographical writings.  The autobiographical form has been the classic means by which African Americans have given voice to claims for justice, freedom, and equality, and endeavored to define themselves as a nation and as a people.  From Frederick Douglass¿s narrative of his life as a slave to Malcolm X¿s story of his evolution as a thinker, the class will study this tradition, examining representative works as vehicles of protest, self-expression, and spiritual striving.  Students will be challenged to evaluate the writers¿ artistic and political intentions and results, and gain insight into African American history and its traditions.

HIST 101
Themes: War and Revolution in the 20th
Common Area: Historical Studies

We will explore how ordinary people experienced war and revolution in the twentieth century. Our focal points will be Germany, Russia, China, and (if time permits) Vietnam. In all of these countries, revolutionary mass movements—either fascist (the Nazis) or communist—came to power in the context of a major war. These mass movements ruthlessly repressed millions of people, yet often enjoyed broad popular support. What moved ordinary people to see murderous mass movements as inspirational or liberating? Our sources will be the testimonies of everyday people, as rendered through writings, interviews, and films.

HIST 101
Themes: Sturggles for Justice US
Common Area: Historical Studies

This course provides an in-depth examination of several major social justice struggles in 19th and 20th century American history: slavery and abolition, immigration and nativism, poverty and inequality, criminal justice and mass incarceration. In so doing, it aims to develop students’ appreciation and understanding of history, particularly how social justice movements
have worked to redefine key notions of democracy, equality, justice, and human rights. This course also endeavors to enhance students’ skills in critical thinking and analysis through in-class discussion, intensive reading, and written work.

HIST 111
Rise Christian West To AD 1000
Common Area: Historical Science

Western history from the later Roman period to the formation of Europe in the 11th century. Covers political, religious, economic, social, artistic and legal developments in the fusion of Roman and Christian civilization, the disintegration of the Western Roman empire in the face of barbarian invasions, relations with the Byzantine Eastern Empire, the impact of Islam, rural and urban life, the Carolingian revival, and the impact of new peoples on the European scene. Fulfills one pre-modern/pre-industrial requirement for the major.


HIST 113
Renaissance to Napoleon
Common Area: Historical Studies

Social, cultural, religious, economic, and political developments in Europe from the Renaissance to the fall of Napoleon. Special emphasis on the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the evolution of monarchical power, the rise of European overseas empires, slavery, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Fulfills one of pre-modern/pre-industrial requirements for the major.


HIST 126
Colonial Latin America
Common Area: Cross-cultural Studies or Historical Studies
Provides an introduction to Latin American history from pre-Columbian to the late 18th century, emphasizing native cultures, the conquest of the New World, the creation of colonial societies in the Americas, race, gender and class relations, the functioning of the imperial system, the formation of peasant communities, and the wars of independence. Fulfills one non-Western and one pre-modern/pre-industrial requirement for the major.

HIST 134
Spirit Worlds: Early America
Common Area: Historical Studies

Early America was more than a world of Puritan, Quaker, Anglican, and Catholic (etc.) colonists pursuing a divine mandate to convert and prosper, only to explain their failures as the work of “heathens.” Indigenous cosmologies would certainly clash and intermingle with missionaries and settlers who sought to impose a Christian moral geography on the American landscape. Yet for all communities—colonizers and colonized—religion and spirituality were as messy as they are today. Theirs was a world of visions, wonders, witches, fits, trances, signs, apostates, and apostles. Babies popped up in their cribs and offered sage wisdom! Comets portended all sorts of things. And God(s) did not exactly smile on the rich…or the poor…or the virtuous.

Most significantly, religious beliefs and practices played a central role in the creation of gender, racial, and class categories in the modernizing world. They infused these social hierarchies with a sense of timelessness, naturalness, and moral urgency that belied their inherently constructed and power-laden nature. But if those in power—the “chosen,” as often understood—sought to make these boundaries “real” in religious spaces and discourses, spirits and their real-life “prophets” could challenge these boundaries, both legitimizing and creating space for protest and liberation.

HIST 155
World War II in East Asia
Common Area: Historical Studies

This course provides a comprehensive examination of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and Asia-Pacific War (1941-1945). Students will also gain a working familiarity with the history of early and late twentieth-century China and Japan as they study the political and cultural contexts of prewar and postwar East Asia and East Asia-U.S. relations through engagement with a wide variety of primary sources. By exploring a number of issues such as nationalism, popular memory, morality, identity, race, gender, and refugees, students will be exposed to a number of recent and classic debates in the historiography on modern China and Japan.


HIST 198
Modern Africa Since 1800
Common Area: Cross-Cultural Studies or Historical Studies

A survey of Africa’s complex colonial past, this course examines dominant ideas about colonial Africa and Africans’ experiences during colonialism. We explore the historical debates on pre-colonial Africa’s place in the global world; resistance and response to the imposition and entrenchment of colonialism; and the nature of colonial rule as revealed in economic underdevelopment, ethnicity and conflict, and the environment. The course concludes with an evaluation of the post-colonial outcome in Africa, particularly focusing on the challenges and promises facing present-day African nations as they grapple with neo-colonialism marked by dependency, political instability, ethnic conflicts, disease, over-population and indebtedness.

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