HIS 250. Emergence of Europe (1000-1600). 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the origins and early development of Europe from 1000-1600. Topics include the overall character and decline of feudalism, the rise of national monarchies, urbanism and society during the Renaissance and Reformation. Socioeconomic and cultural history is emphasized.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 252. Europe: 1500 to 1815. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides a study of the political, intellectual, and socio-economic history of early modern Europe from 1500 to 1815. Attention is given to the major transformations of the age, including religious, scientific, and political change, especially the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and English (Glorious) & French revolutions, and their effects. In the process of doing so, students are also introduced to History as a field of study.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 261. History of the United States to 1877. 3 Credit Hours.

A basic survey and introduction to the field of American history, this course conveys the political, cultural and economic development of the United States through Reconstruction. It provides an understanding of the foundation of the "American way of life".
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 262. History of the United States Since 1865. 3 Credit Hours.

A history of the American experience from the end of Reconstruction to the present, this course focuses on the Urban-Industrial age, the rise of the United States to world leadership, and the important changes that have occurred in the "American way of life" during the past century.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 263. American Women's History. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course students survey American women's history from colonial times to the present. The course shows how the major social, political, and economic developments in American history have affected women in the past. Students examine the lives of "ordinary" women, as well as those of leading women thinkers and activists.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 270. World History to 1500. 3 Credit Hours.

This introductory survey course traces the development of humanity and society from the dawn of history to 1500, and provides insight into the wide spectrum of ideas, institutions, and life practices that different people and cultures around the world have created. Various representations of "civilizations" and "community" are considered.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 271. World History Since 1500. 3 Credit Hours.

An historical study of the major regions and cultures of the world during the last five centuries, with attention to their connections and interactions and to the development of global trends. Political, economic social, intellectual, and cultural factors will be considered, and special emphasis will be placed on the emergence and the challenges of the people of the "third world". One theme will be an analysis of the processes of "modernization".
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 272. Introduction to Latin American History. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is a basic survey of Latin American history from before the European invasions to the recent past. The course emphasizes both the diversity of the Latin American experience across time and space and the persistence of certain historical continuities in the region: intense political and cultural conflict, deep social and economic inequality, and longstanding domination by externally-based imperial and neo-imperial powers.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 273. History in the World Today. 3 Credit Hours.

The course requires students to formulate and support coherent arguments about complex historical problems in class discussions, essay exams, and writing projects. It strengthens students' global perspective by encouraging historical analysis of selected current world events and the U.S. relationship to/involvement in those events. By introducing students to historical methods and theory it enables them to understand more deeply one of the key disciplines associated with the humanities. This course is required for history majors and concentrators.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 282. Introduction to American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to key themes, concepts, and debates in American Studies. Students use a foundation in American Studies methodology to interpret a range of materials and develop a richer understanding of the United States, its cultures, and its peoples. Objects of study may include literary texts, films, historical documents, music, visual art, and products of popular culture. Specific course topics may vary. This course is cross-listed with LCS 282.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 302. To Arms! History of Modern France. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the social and political evolution of France from the eighteenth century through World War I in the context of economic and cultural developments. Emphasis will be given to the French Revolution starting in 1789, the Napoleonic experiences, French attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation, the rapid expansion of the French Empire, and the maturation of the bourgeoisie. French realist literature, Impressionism the growth of consumer culture and the French experience of the fin-de-siècle crisis of masculinity will be noted.
Session Cycle: Alternate Spring Semesters
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 303. French Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

Biocultural theory posits the co-evolution of genes and culture. Language, culture, and imagination confer survival advantages to humans as a social species and have preserved evolved human complexity. This course takes biocultural approach to the works of French philosophers such as Montaigne, Descartes, Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, Saussure, Derrida, Beauvoir, Foucault, and Lacan. Students may take the course more than once, as different iterations. Topics of a given iteration may include humanism, skepticism, dualism, primitivism, language, textualism, indeterminacy, relativism, feminism, constructivism, historicism, and psychoanalysis. Materials and instruction are in English. This course is cross-listed with LS 303.
Prerequisites: 200-level History course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 304. Italian Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course focuses on the history, society, politics, culture, and economics of modern Italy and its predecessors on the Italian Peninsula. Students may take the course more than once, as different iterations. Topics of a given iteration may include humanism, science, philosophy, the Inquisition, fascism, and the Vatican. Materials and instruction are in English. This course is cross-listed with LS 304.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 351. History of Modern Europe: 1815 to the Present. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the major political, economic and intellectual developments since 1815. It emphasizes the significant events, patterns, and themes in Western history within the context of the modern world.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 354. Trends in Modern Thought. 3 Credit Hours.

This course offers a selected history of modern and post-modern themes, ideologies and values in Euro-America (Western civilization) since the Renaissance. Special emphasis is placed on analyzing social, political and philosophical questions and writings in context. The thematic focus of the course (e.g., individualism) may change from year to year.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 361. Gender and World War II. 3 Credit Hours.

Early in 1943, Max Lerner, the well-known author and journalist, writing for the New York newspaper, PM, predicted that "when the classic work on the history of women comes to be written, the biggest force for change in their lives will turn out to have been war." This course explores the question of whether or not World War II served as a major force for change in the lives women, both in the United States and around the globe. The experiences of a broad socio-economic and ethnic cross-section of wartime women are examined. In addition to the United States, areas of the world examined include women in China, France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Germany, and/or Italy.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 362. The United States in the 1960's. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the main contours of political, economic, social, and cultural life during the 1960's. Special areas of focus include: the Civil Rights Movement, the New Left, the Vietnam War, the antiwar movement, the resurgence of conservatism, the demise of the New Deal Coalition, the emerging women's liberation movement, the effect of social and cultural movements on business, and the intersection of artistic and cultural expressions with politics. The relationship of popular mythology and collective memories concerning the 1960's with "objective" historical analysis constitutes another key area of concern.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 364. History of American Technology. 3 Credit Hours.

This course treats the history of technology in the contexts of American business and social history. Focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries, the course first places technological change within the context of larger developments in American history. From that basis, the course then moves on to deal with the impact of technology in American social institutions, business, and culture.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 365. The United States and World Politics, 1890 to the Present. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the origins and development of the United States as a great world power from the Spanish-American War to the post Cold War era. Focusing on the connections between international and domestic events, the course evaluates the role of the US as a global power over the past century.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 366. Race in America. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines major issues in race relations from the perspective of both black and white Americans from the onset of slavery to the present. The course examines the origins and functioning of American slavery, with consideration to the Atlantic slave trade and the role of U.S. slavery within the context of New World slavery; the relationship between European immigrants and African-Americans in terms of the formation of whiteness and the historical meaning of white skin privilege ; abolitionism and antislavery; the development and functioning of Jim Crow segregation; 2nd Reconstruction; the civil rights movement; and the significance of race during the post-civil rights era.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 367. The History of American Popular Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the historical context of various expressions of American popular culture in a variety of media, including: literature, film, radio, television, music, performance, advertising, style and fashion, food, and the internet. It examines the meaning of popular culture to its audiences and the way those audiences use and transform cultural products as part of their everyday lives. Attention is given to popular culture's relationship to "high culture," to economics and commerce, and to social and political developments including, but not limited to the emergence of working-class culture, the Great Depression, the Cold War and McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Women's Liberation Movement.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Winter
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

HIS 368. Gender and American Culture in the 1950s. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides students the opportunity to examine the cultural complexities of the 1950s and to appreciate it as a period of conservatism and restraint as well as a time of notable social change for women. It uses the enormously popular I Love Lucy television series (1951-1957) and Betty Friedan's classic work, The Feminine Mystique (1963), as well as related readings, to show how many women of the fifties challenged the stereotype of domestic, quiescent, suburban womanhood as they engaged in multifarious and diverse activities that helped pave the way for the social protest movements of the 1960s.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course and Sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 369. U.S. Latin American Relations 1820 to Present. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the history of relations between the United States and the nations of Latin America from the era of the Monroe Doctrine to the present.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 371. History of Russia. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides an historical study of the evolution of Russian society from the Age of Kiev to the present including the era of the tsars and the Soviet period. Special attention is given to the contemporary situation in Russia.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 372. History of East Asia. 3 Credit Hours.

This course consists of an historical study of the ideas and institutions of the countries of East Asia with primary focus on developments in China in ancient times and in the modern era since 1800. Contemporary problems are also discussed.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 373. History of Modern Africa. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides background for an analysis of some of the major problems of contemporary African life. Topics include the ancient culture of Africa, the slave trade, colonialism, African nationalism, and current political, economic and social trends in Africa.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 375. History of Modern Japan. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides a survey and examination of Japanese history from its beginnings to the twentieth century, and includes a consideration of political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural developments. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of Japanese traditions and values and their sources, and also on the history and practices of Japanese business. A major portion of the course will deal with the modern period and Japan's successes and failures as a modern nation.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

HIS 380. Doing Public History. 3 Credit Hours.

This course enables students to examine local history and communicate their findings to a broad, public audience. Students will engage in current and past debates about “whose history” we are documenting and “for whom” we are presenting that history. Students will be encouraged to look for hidden voices, silenced voices, and find innovative ways to bring these voices to the forefront. Practitioners of public history work in museums, archives, historic sites, landmarks, architecture firms, government offices, and beyond, where they aim not just to share historical information with diverse audiences, but to critically examine how history is presented.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 386. History, Law, and the Holocaust. 3 Credit Hours.

This course will explore in depth the Holocaust and its impact on the development of international law after 1945. Topics will include anti-Semitism, the rise of Hitler, the Final Solution, minority rights, domestic legal actions against perpetrators, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, Allied military courts, and subsequent national and international trials of accused Nazi war criminals. The course concludes with an examination of some of the leading post-Nuremberg topics in international human rights law today, including peremptory norms, transitional justice, hate speech prohibitions, and Holocaust denial.
Prerequisites: 200 level history course and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 391. History Internship. 3 Credit Hours.

Students engage in individually supervised work-study arrangements and learn to apply history theory and principles in their work environment. Students must work at least ten hours per week on the job, meet periodically with a supervising faculty member, research literature related to the field of the internship, and prepare a substantial report on their internship experience and the studies involved. This course is limited to juniors and seniors and requires the approval of a supervising faculty member and the department chair.

HIS 400. Buy American: Consumer Culture in U.S. History. 3 Credit Hours.

Why do Americans buy so much stuff? What do our things say about our identities, as individuals and a nation? This course examines the rise of a consumer culture in U.S. history from the 19th to 21st centuries. Through the use of interdisciplinary case studies, we will explore the complexities of the American consumer society, incorporating historical, political, social, and economic approaches. Case studies draw on images, material cultural and object analysis, architecture, and design. Topics include the histories of mass marketing, advertising, department stores, and consumer activism. The course also considers criticisms of American consumer culture, including anti-materialism, environmental critiques, and structural inequalities.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Varies.

HIS 435. World War I: Causes, Courses, and Consequences. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines one of the seminal events of the twentieth century - the First World War. The course will start by examining what factors led not just to a regional conflict but a global conflagration. These factors will include political, cultural, and military considerations. We will then examine the nature of the war experience, both at the front and at home. As the first Total War, World War I left few people untouched in the combatant countries, whether they wore a uniform or not. After an examination of why the war ended when it did and the peacemaking process, the course concludes with a study of the legacy of the war, stretching to the present time.
Prerequisites: one 200-level HIS course
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Fall Semesters.

HIS 451. The World Since 1945. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines major developments in global history since 1945, considering topics such as the capitalist and socialist world-systems, the Cold War, imperialism, and third world independence movements, and the so-called "new world order." Special emphasis is placed on the interaction between Western and non-Western societies.
Prerequisites: 200 level history course
Session Cycle: Fall, Summer
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 452. History of Modern Britain. 3 Credit Hours.

In this advanced course students trace the history of Great Britain from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the present, concentrating on cultural history and utilizing a socio-political perspective. Themes include the development of capitalism, constitutionalism, industrialism and imperialism, and the impact of the British expressions of these forces on modern globalization.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 453. History of Modern Science. 3 Credit Hours.

This course presents a history of the modern natural sciences from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, treating the development of modern physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. Students need no special background in science. The course focuses on conceptual problems and the culture of science rather than on the content of science. Examples of special topics include the development of the Newtonian world-view, the challenges of relativity and the quantum, how alchemy led to modern chemistry, why so many early geologists were churchmen, and how Darwinian evolution differed from other nineteenth-century evolutionary theories. The course is geared to the capabilities of students without specialized background in history and science.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 454. Foundations of the Modern Middle East. 3 Credit Hours.

The goal of this course is to provide students with the foundation necessary to better understand the history, culture, and geopolitics of the modern Middle East. The elements of this foundation include, among other things, God’s Covenant with Abraham and the Abrahamic Faiths, the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, the Babylonian Captivity, the Rise of Islam, the early Caliphates, the Sunni-Shia Split, the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Mandate of Palestine. With this background in place, the last quarter of the course we will turn to The Arab-Israeli conflict, which is one of the longest and most intractable geopolitical problems in the world, and probably the most controversial. We will discuss the emergence of Zionism and Arab nationalism in the nineteenth century.
Session Cycle: Varies.

HIS 461. History of Contemporary America. 3 Credit Hours.

An intensive examination of the forces and events that have shaped the recent American past, this course stresses domestic politics, social change, urbanization, civil rights and modern ecological problems.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 463. The United States in the 1970s and 1980s. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the major political, social, cultural, and economic shifts in American life during the 1970s and the 1980s. Special areas of focus include the ascendancy of conservatism, the retreat of liberalism, rising economic inequality, women's and gay liberation, the expanding role of the media in American politics, the veneration of corporate America, and expressions of such in the era's popular (and sometimes unpopular) culture. The relationship of popular history and collective memory of the 1970s and 1980s with "objective" historical analysis constitutes another area of emphasis. For qualified students, this course may be taken as a 500 level graduate content course. Permission of the instructor is required.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

HIS 490. Seminar in Historical Inquiry. 3 Credit Hours.

For seniors concentrating in History, this seminar provides extensive, practical experience in the craft of historical research and writing. Further, it examines select themes in historiographical and/or philosophical debates concerning history as a special type of knowledge. Requirements include a substantial research paper. Permission of instructor and HIS 273 are required.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

HIS 497. Directed Study in History. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an opportunity for students to do independent, in-depth study or research for academic credit. The student works on an individual basis under the direction of a member of the history department. The main requirement of the course is the development of a substantial paper or project. Permission of department chair and faculty member is required.

HIS ST200. Special Topics in History Modern American Civil Rights Movement. 3 Credit Hours.

This course traces the origins and history of the Black freedom struggle from the 1950s through the 1970s. The organizations, leadership, and ideologies of the movement are considered through firsthand accounts, speeches, songs, images, and film. We will consider both the famous figures of the movement as well as the contributions of countless young people, women, and LGBTQ people. Finally, we will consider what has become the “official” narrative of the movement and what has been left out, as well as connections to the Black Lives Matter movement. Readings will emphasize recent scholarship.

HIS ST201. Special Topics in Native American History. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is designed to be an introduction to the history of Indigenous peoples of North America from pre-contact to present. This course aims to teach from the Indigenous perspective through a variety of primary and secondary sources and provide students with a new understanding of American History with Native people reinserted as principal actors and determinants of events.
Session Cycle: Alternate Fall Semesters.

HIS ST300. Special Topics in History Race and Slavery in the Atlantic World. 3 Credit Hours.

A history of race and slavery in the Atlantic World between the 15th and 19th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the economic, social, and cultural impact of the trans-atlantic trade in enslaved Africans (a crucial component of 'globalization" during that era) on the development of European-ruled societies in the Americas.
Prerequisites: 200-level History course.

HIS ST305. Special Topics in History The Space Race: A History. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the evolution of manned space flight over the twentieth century. Starting by looking at the rocket pioneers and continuing through the rocket experiments of the Second World War, the course focuses on the Cold War rivalry that culminated in the America moonwalks. The course finishes with a look at an under-examined side of how the US got men into space: the human computers who were integral to the understanding of orbital dynamics, and especially the African-American women who played a central role in that effort.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course.

HIS ST401. Special Topics in History War Crimes in World History. 3 Credit Hours.

The course explores the global history of war crimes and the legal response to them. It traces human efforts to limit warfare, from codes of war in antiquity designed to maintain a religiously conceived cosmic order to the gradual use in the modern age of the criminal trial as a means of enforcing universal norms. The course locates the evolution of the law of war in the interplay between different cultures. While showing that no single philosophical idea underlay the law of war, the course demonstrates that war in global civilization has rarely been an anarchic free-for-all. Rather, from its beginnings warfare has been has been subject to certain constraints defined by the unique needs and cosmological understandings of their cultures.
Prerequisites: 200-level history course, sophomore standing or permission of the instructor.