An introductory survey emphasizing the major economic, social, political, intellectual, and cultural developments of the Western world from the rise of civilization in the Near East to the end of the Reformation.
An introductory survey emphasizing the major political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural developments of European Civilization from the seventeenth century to the present.
An introductory survey of artistic creations and their relationship to historical developments from the cave paintings through the Middle Ages.
An introductory survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture and their relationship to modern history from the Italian Renaissance through the twentieth century in the United States.
An interpretive survey of the events, ideas, and personalities that shaped the United States prior to 1877. Emphasis is placed on colonial beginnings, the War for Independence, the evolution of national institutions and a uniquely American culture, the conflict between nationalism and sectionalism, territorial expansion, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
An interpretive survey of the events, ideas, and personalities which have shaped the United States since 1877. Emphasis is placed on the rise of big business, immigration, the closing of the frontier, American expansionism, the 1920s, the New Deal, World War II, and post-1945 diplomatic and social problems.
As intellectuals have noted, the history of Latin America surpasses any fiction. In this class, you will have a chance to judge for yourself. By screening some of the best films of Latin America, we will explore seminal historical events that have left a permanent cultural legacy on the region. These movies will address complex topics like the consequences of 1492, slavery, the Cuban Revolution, violence in today's society, and ravages of the drug trade. These movies augmented by short lectures, discussion, and written assignments will help you better understand the history of Latin America and its people of today.
This course focuses on how Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans created a unique society along the Atlantic coast of North America during the colonial period of American history. Specific attention is given to how certain events such as Bacon's Rebellion, Metacom's War, the Great Awakening, and the 1760s impacted the various groups comprising colonial America.
This course will offer greater understanding of the history of medicine and how the hospital has become a central institution in the life cycle. Beginning with a basic introduction to contemporary healthcare in America, it will next offer a historic and scientific discussion of conception and child-birth. The course will then focus on cancer as an example of one of the diseases to which the human body is susceptible and conclude with a discussion of death as part of life. In addition, the course will take on the history of the hospital and the medical personnel who work within. Central to each of these themes will be the ethical questions and complexities that cannot be separated from the practical aspects of caring for life. Through case studies, lab work, invited guests and a visit to off-site medical research facilities, the class will offer students both an understanding of the biology of reproduction and cancer, as well as the increasingly complex nature of the science of care.
Natural Science Core course.
None
Between the end of the First World War in 1919 and the Second World War in 1945, the United States became a modern nation. Signs of the "modernism" were everywhere: in the rise of cities and urban cultures; in the mass media and its obsession with celebrity; in new norms about consumption and pleasure; in the politics of government activism and the welfare state; in new ideas about gender roles and sexual freedoms; and in new conceptions of ethnic and racial pluralism. In this course, we will examine the tensions, fears, and dreams surrounding the American transition to modernism in the 1920s and 1930s.
The central political, legal, and moral issue for the United States after 1945 was equality: of class and race; gender and sexuality; and many related issues. This post-war "search for equality" poses important and challenging questions: What is equality? How is equality determined? Is legal equality sufficient, or are laws fairly toothless compared to opportunities for jobs, housing, health care, social respect, cultural authority, and individual autonomy? Do we seek an "equality of opportunity" or an "equality of outcomes"? This course will explore these and related questions as they have shaped American history over the last 70 years.
This course will begin with an in-depth analysis of the French Revolution and conclude by focusing on the First World War. Between these bookends, the course will touch upon those events that contribute to our understanding of the history of Europe during the modern era including discussion of the anti-slavery activism, colonization, political ideologies, the changes brought by the first and second industrial revolutions, the rise of unionism and the suffrage movement. Through lectures, discussion, required reading, film, examination, the use of technology and in-depth assignments, this course will seek to provide an understanding of how these many events transformed modern European society.
For American students, Mexico might be the best known and paradoxically the least understood foreign country. You will learn the major events, people, and cultural trends that have shaped the Mexican people of today. Our course will start with the major indigenous cultures (Aztecs of the title) and end with the current drug war (the Zetas cartel). We will emphasize four main themes: the cultural weight of Catholicism, the complicated role of indigenous peoples in the nation-state, the epic struggle to govern a vast country, and the love/hate relationship of Mexicans with the United States.
A foundational course for students majoring in history, it examines various intellectual approaches applied to the study of the past, the history of the discipline, and the methods of historical research and writing. It is designed to enhance student effectiveness in subsequent history courses. History majors only.
This course presents an historical analysis of Lakota/Dakota history from pre-European contact to the present. Examining the political, economic, familial, gender, and educational transformations of the Lakota/Dakota over the course of three centuries, students learn to identify both the continuities and discontinuities with Siouan culture. Such an examination introduces students to a group of people whose culture, and some would say priorities, sit outside that of the majority culture.
This course gives students the essential information to understand the people and forces that have shaped today's Latin America. We begin in the era of European exploration in the 1450s and end with the violence of the drug trade at the turn of the twenty-first century. Along the way, we show how Latin Americans grappled with conquest, Catholicism, and slavery. We will analyze the dynamics of revolutions and radical politics of the twentieth century in places like Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.
After the Civil War, America’s overwhelmingly Protestant culture was transformed by religious “others”: by Catholic and Jewish immigrants pouring into the country, but also by encounters with Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims within the country and around the world. Americans confronted vital questions of religious difference, tolerance, and pluralism. How do we live as equals with people who hold radically different beliefs? What did it mean to be “American” if it no longer meant “white Protestant’? And, how can a person defend “my” religion if there are multiple valid pathways to spiritual enlightenment? This class will give students a historical perspective on elemental questions of belief and identity.
An examination of the development of American journalism from colonial times to the present. Using primary source readings and films, in addition to textbooks, the course will examine changes within the journalism industry itself, the response of that industry to changes in American society and culture, and the effects journalism has had on American life.
Special Topics in History.
Religious revivals, reasoned discourses, and cultural change characterize America in the 18th century. These phenomena shaped colonial demand for independence. This course explores the issues, events, ideas, and people that changed Englishmen into Americans and English colonies into an independent American Republic.
This course traces the rise of the "American West" in American consciousness from the early 19th century until today. Understanding that American western expansion looks different for the indigenous cultures of the trans-Mississippi West, the course asks students to re-think the "myth of the West" with the reality of western development.
Did the Civil War occur because of slavery, or was it over economics? Perhaps it was over the proper positioning of political power? This seminar styled course examines the causes and consequences of the "War Between the States." In addition to trying to understand the causes of the war, this course also focuses on the war itself and the consequences this conflict created for those who lived through Reconstruction. It concludes with an examination of how the Civil War continues to shape our understanding of America today.
This course is a study of the history and theology of the Protestant Reformation. The primary focus is on the first generation of the Reformation, that is, the reform movements associated with Martin Luther and his contemporaries. We will also investigate how the Reformation unfolded within the social and political context of sixteenth-century Europe.
The study of economic concepts and doctrines within the social context of the past and their impact on the development of economic theory and methodology.
This course examines the political, social, and cultural history of modern Ireland. It begins with the 1798 Revolution which must be contextualized with late eighteenth century revolutions, including the American and French. We will move through the nineteenth century which is characterized by the worst famine in recorded history and ultimately culminate with Europe's most deadly guerilla war. Throughout we will pay special attention to the role of gender in Irish history.
This course focuses on two central aspects of the Nazi era in German history: the person of Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. We will investigate Hitler's rise to power and the nature of Nazi rule and politics, especially the "final solution" or extermination of Europe's Jews. All of this will be set against the backdrop of the history of the Western anti-Semitism. The course will conclude with an investigation of the phenomenon of Holocaust denial and the place of the Holocaust in the history of modern genocide.
Special Topics in History.
See major advisor. Candidates must have completed exceptional Senior Seminar research project.
Permission of Instructor and Department Chair
All history majors, normally in their senior year, will produce a research essay which demonstrates a mastery of historical techniques and writing skill. The student chooses a topic based upon the courses previously taken that are numbered between 201 and 397. The student's topic must be approved by the faculty member running the course. If the final product is of exceptional quality, it may be submitted to the department for a possible degree with honors.