History Courses for Fall 2006

100 Level Courses

History 101A& 101C. Western Civilization to 1700 (3h). TR 8:00-9:15 & 9:30-10:45. B117. Williams. At light speed (in one class period) we will traverse the prehistory of our species and then set about a more intensive review of the next 5200 years (3500 B.C.E to 1700 C.E). Our journey will carry us from Sumeria and the appearance of that form of culture historians call civilization to the eve of industrialization and political revolution in Western Europe.  While examining the the communal structures, achievements, tribulations, and transformations of peoples who, for the most part, spoke Indo-European languages and who, from their origins somewhere north of the Caucasus, came to control not only Europe, but the Americas and the whole of northern Asia, we will try to determine what sense it makes to speak of the tangible and intangible worlds they made as a single civilization and on what bases we might distinguish this civilization from others that appeared elsewhere.

History 101B & 101D. Western Civilization to 1700(in a Mediterranean context) (3h). TR 9:30-10:45 & 12-1:15. A102 & B117. Hughes. People have faced certain perennial problems as they tried to live their lives in complex societies.  We’ll explore their efforts to come to grips with these problems by focusing on a historically important but diverse area of the world, the Mediterranean basin and its outliers, over an extended period of time.  Some of the problems that will concern us in the course are: the nature of divinity and people's relationship to the divine; the nature of evil; the nature and sources of human knowledge; the organization and legitimation of political power.  Two particular emphases will be environmental history (why did the Mediterranean remain a center of world power for 4500 years—and then become a backwater?) and cultural interaction (why and how did human groups develop different cultures within similar, neighboring environments and how did their interaction with one another affect their development?).  Americans are, perforce, cultural heirs to this part of the world, and a study of its development should give you some understanding of how the culture you live in—and some of your own attitudes and values—came to be.

History 102A & 102C. Europe and the World in the Modern Era (3h). MWF 10-10:50 & 12-12:50. A103 & A208. Rupp. This course provides a survey of European history in the modern era.  Broad themes addressed in the course include the following: differing forms of government and the principles upon which they have been based; the role of ideas in influencing historical change; the impact of social structures and struggles on forms of political power; the rights and powers of the individual and how these have been defined relative to the community and the state.

History 102B & 102D & 102E. Europe and the World in the Modern Era (3h). MWF 11-11:50 & 12-12:50 & 1-1:50. A103. Bobroff. A survey of modern Europe from 1700 to the present. Focus varies with instructor.    

History 104A & 104B. World Civilizations since 1500 (3h). MWF 8-8:50 & 9-9:50. A102. McConnell. A survey ofthe major civilizations of the world in the modern and contemporary periods.

History 104C & 104D. World Civilizations since 1500 (3h). MWF 10-10:50 & 11-11:50. A208. Fitzgibbon. This course will provide you with an overview of world history since 1500. Topics covered will include state building, long-distance trade, the development of capitalism, plantation economies, the political and religious ideologies of major 18th c. states, new urban cultures, new ideas and political movements, industrialization, imperialism, mass societies, anti-colonial struggles, woman’s emancipation, the Cold War, and ethnic violence. The supplementary reading will be used to explore the social construction of race and ethnicity in the modern world.

History 104E & 104F. World Civilizations since 1500: History and the Human Condition (3h). T/TH 12-1:15 & 1:30-2:45. A102. Greenspan. This class will examine the last five hundred years of world history with particular attention to how ordinary people are affected by the events going on around them.  To this end, in addition to a main textbook, we will read five primary sources that address the issues confronted by average people around the world.  We will read works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Frederick Douglass, Karl Marx, Chinua Achebe and Mohandas Gandhi.  Students will be asked to discuss these works in class, as well as answering a required question on them for both the midterm and final exams.  In addition to lectures, discussions and exams, students will be asked to write an 8-10 page research paper on a topic which is agreed to by both the student and the instructor.

History 104G. World Civilizations since 1500 (3h). MWF 3-3:50. A103. Vella. This course will introduce students to major episodes and trends in world history since 1500. Readings, lectures and class discussion will cover the political, social, cultural and intellectual spheres as well as exploration,  warfare, commerce, religion, science, race, gender and the arts. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the enormous role global empires played in this period and how they served both to join diverse peoples together and to drive them into conflict, creating a more cosmopolitan world that often fractured into one of "us" and "others".

History 104H. World Civilizations since 1500 (3h). TR 12-1:15. A102. Wilson. A survey ofthe major civilizations of the world in the modern and contemporary periods.

History 104I. World Civilizations since 1500 (3h). TR 3-4:15. A102. Wilkins. This course offers an overview of world history since 1500.  It examines four major themes  -- colonialism and imperialism; political and social revolution; industrialization, and the rise of consumer society -- and how these interact.  Within this framework the course will give special attention to the history of the family and of slavery.  A range of different types of readings will be assigned, from primary sources (writings from the times), to historical narratives, to historiography (debates about history), to works of fiction.

History 132. European Historical Novels (1.5h). W 2-4:30. Barefield. B101. The class will read Eco's The Name of the Rose, Lampedusa's The Leopard, and Tolstoy's War and Peace. Note: classes will be held at the Professor's house every other week, the class is restricted to 12 students.

Credit cannot be received for both 101 and 103 or 102 and 104.
All classes held in Tribble Hall unless otherwise noted.

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

top of page

200 Level Courses

History 207. High Middle Ages to Renaissance (3h). MWF 11-11:50. A102. Barefield. Against a background of political history the course will focus on cultural, social, and intellectual developments in Italy, France, and England. The readings will include Dante's Inferno, Machiavelli's The Prince, records of the life and death of Joan of Arc, and letters and diaries from England and Florence. Particular attention will be given to the history of the papacy and to developments in art.

History 218. France Since 1815 (3h). MWF 9-9:50. B117. Williams.  In this course we examine the recent past of a society that, in one form or another, has been central to European history and Western Civilization since the collapse of the Roman Empire.  Beginning in 1815 with the effort to restore monarchy to France following the defeat of Napoleon, we will traverse the turmoil of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the drama of the Commune, the Dreyfus Affair, and the effort to build a stable republic; we will chart the construction of a great empire and the painful process by which it came apart; we will have to take careful note of the three wars France fought with Germany and the agony each brought upon her; and we will see how, ironically perhaps, these two states came to be the principal architects of the European Union, an economic force already greater than the United States and set to become still larger.  As we make our way to the present by way of the rich and exciting story that all who study France must learn, we will be trying to understand in what terms we may fruitfully analyze other cultures or societies, and we will try as well to find generalizations we are willing to defend about the sources of change in a community.  Classes will consist primarily of discussion of common reading.  

History 223. Great Britain (3h). MWF 1-1:50. B117. Vella. This course will introduce students to the often turbulent history of the British Isles from the conclusion of the War of the Roses to the eve of the Industrial Revolution. We will examine the rise and fall of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, the English Reformation, the English Civil War, conflict in Ireland, the Glorious Revolution, union with Scotland and the foundations of Britain's modern Parliamentary system under Sir Robert Walpole. Readings, lectures and class discussions will address high politics and diplomacy; social, cultural and religious life; gender and the family; warfare and empire; economics and trade.

History 230. Russia: Origins to 1865 (3h) TR 9:30-10:45. A103. Rupp. This course provides a general survey of the political, social and cultural history of Russia from its origins to the Great Reform era. Topics for examination include the nature of the Kievan, Muscovite and Imperial polities, the structure of Russian society and its relationship to the state, the impact of westernization and modernization, and the development of the intelligentsia. In addition to the textbook, reading assignments for most topics will include additional (most often primary) sources that will serve as the basis for class discussions.

History 242. The Middle East Before 1500 (3h). TR 12-1:15. A305. Wilkins. This course surveys the major political, social, economic, and cultural changes in the Middle East from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century to the rise of the unitary Muslim Empires in the fifteenth century, with emphasis placed on the encounter between Islamic and Western societies.  After considering the formation of early Muslim communities in Arabia, we trace the expansion of Islamic state power, commerce, and cultural influence across Africa and Eurasia.  The evolution of Islamic societies we explore though study of urbanization, the development of Islamic law and religious orthodoxy, the shifting status of religious and ethnic minorities, and changes in the status of women.  The concluding part of the course takes in hand the Turkic and Mongol migrations, the European crusades, and the variable effects that each of these processes had on Middle Eastern politics, society and culture.

History 252. The United States After 1865 (3h). MWF 3-3:50. A102. Bennett.

History 275. Modern Latin America (3h). MWF 2-2:50. A208. Fitzggibon. This course will explore Latin American history since Independence, focusing on racial and national identity, economic development, social, political, and religious movements, and urban life.  Supplementary materials will include art and literature.

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

top of page

300 Level Courses

History 311. American Cultural History (3h) Greenspan. MWF 3-5:30. A305. This class will serve as an introduction to some of the major themes in American cultural history.  We will read six works which will represent a broad range of thought in the cultural history of the United States.  This class will be taught in a seminar format, which will require informed participation from students on a regular basis.  In addition to our weekly discussions, there will be a midterm and a cumulative final exam.  Students will also be asked to complete a 10-15 page research paper on a topic which is agreed to by both the student and the instructor.

History 315 & 615. Greek History (3h). TR 9:30-10:45. A208. Lerner. The course surveys the social and intellectual history of the Ancient Greek World from the eighth to fifth centuries B.C.E.  Throughout this period the Greeks developed many ideas and institutions that were new to antiquity.  These achievements will be seen as the result of the varied and rich response of a gifted people to a more complex and changing historical landscape than had existed in the ancient Near East.  Though largely new, the Greek experience was not entirely unique.  Some of it can be found in the thought and experience of our own civilization: democracy and philosophy, individual character and the freedom of social choice.
We shall attempt to appreciate the significance of these achievements through the historians and philosophers who actually witnessed these events, from numerous Greek plays (comedy and tragedy), as well as from art and architecture.  The main themes of the course will be: (i) the development of city life and colonization, and the revolutionary changes in society, culture, and religion that it brought; (ii) the ‘Classical Moment’; and (iii) the struggle between Athens and Sparta for control of the Greek world.  No background in Greek History is necessary.

History 339& 639. The History of American Medicine (3h). MWF 10-10:50. A102. Caron. The course is a broad survey of American medicine from the precolonial period to the present.  We will examine the indigenous healing methods of Native Americans; the introduction of European methods; the development of surgical techniques and the use of anesthesia; the professionalization of medicine; medical education; the changes in childbirth procedures; health care during war time; the impact of diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, etc.; health insurance; the ethics of human experimentation; sexually transmitted diseases; and reproductive health issues.  The class is a combination of lecture and discussion, with a heavy emphasis on the latter.

History 341 & 641. Africans in the Atlantic World (3h). TR 9:30-10:45. A305. Parent. This course investigates the African experience on both sides of the Atlantic from 1750 to 1815, when Africans made up eighty percent of the immigrants to the Americas.  Using both histories and primary sources, this course examines the Africans’ encounters with American Indians and Europeans in the colonies and their adjustment to slave traders in West Africa.  A question raised in this course is: how did Africans and African-descended people in Europe and its colonies, respond to changes in European policy? Although Britain carried more slaves into its colonies and benefited more than any other European power, Britain began to reverse its position on the progressive effects of enslavement, promoting instead abolition and emancipation.  Other topics include: their identity as Africans, Afro-Europeans, and African Americans; African royal status and its implications for enslavement; reactions to loss, captivity, and enslavement; yearnings for liberation, both spiritual and corporeal; the Africans’ role in abolitionism and revolution; and their return to Africa as missionaries and colonists. The course will also examine white patronage of African art and representations of Africans in art and print.

History 354 & 654. Revolutionary and Early National America, 1763-1815 (3h). TR 3-4:15. A103. Hendricks. This course is designed to enhance students' knowledge of the events and personalities of the American Revolution, the Confederation, the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, the formation of the new nation, the Federalist and the Jeffersonian Eras.  Lectures, text, discussion, and outside reading will highlight the events, ideas, and movements in the social, economic, political, and cultural life of Revolutionary and Early National America.  Past and recent historical interpretations will be investigated to determine their validity and objectivity.

History 359 & 659. US from WWI through WWII (3h). MWF 12-12:50. B117. Smith. The course covers United States development through the transitions from World War I, the Roaring Twenties with Flappers and Fundamentalism, the Crash, the GREAT Depression of the 30’s, and the cultural emergence of World War II.  It was a period full of major changes—rural to urban, pristine national isolation to international primacy, Cincinnatus to standing army, Harlem Renaissance to “To Secure These Rights,” free market to corporate society, and Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman.
The texts are David Kennedy’s Over Here:  The First World War and American Society and Freedom from Fear:  The American People in Depression and War 1929-1945, and George Moss’s Rise of Modern American . . . 1890-1945.  In addition the course will explore memories of the era and popular publications of the time.  We will also consider whether George Orwell’s 1984 was a good description of the emerging modern mass society.
Assignments in addition to major exams will include an oral report to the class and interview with someone who lived in the era.

History 362 & 662. American Constitutional History (3h). TR 3-4:15. A208. Zick. Origins of the Constitution, the controversies involving the nature of the Union, and constitutional readjustments to meet the new American industrialism.

History 369 & 669. Modern Military History (3h). MWF 10-10:50. B117. Hughes. After the Vietnam War, where the US won all the battles but lost the war, the Department of Defense and others began asking how that could have happened.  This course is designed to help Americans answer that question by putting military experience in a broader political, economic, cultural, and social context.  We will talk about military technology, tactics, and strategy and about battles and wars, but we will always seek to situate them within the larger historical context.  We can’t understand how the narrowly military elements developed and how and why they were successfully—or unsuccessfully—deployed unless we recognize the complex range of factors that influence both military choices and ultimate outcomes.

History 376 & 676. Civil Rights and Black Consciousness Movements (3h). TR 12-1:15. A208. Parent. The purpose of this class is to grapple with the struggle of African Americans for liberation.  This course examines through primary documents and media the modern African-American freedom struggle from 1941-1975.  During this period African Americans organized mass movements for equality, cultural reclamation, political power, and community control that had national and international ramifications. Activists struggled with reactionaries for the national conscience. Nonviolent direct action mobilized communities demanding full participation in American society; violent revolutionist rallied city dwellers fighting for a separate nation.  These alternative movements reflect the ambivalent identity of Africans in America struggling for liberation. The courses’ themes include the impact of mass demonstration and urban riot in modern society, sports heroes and societal change, communities organizing for change, social stratification of race, social implications for religious and political institutions, the sociology of violence and nonviolence in social movements, the relationship between media and movement, public policy and social conflict, gendered and class relations in organizational structure and leadership, the social implications of childhood and youth in  mass movements, war and societal change, and prisons and redemption.

History 390A & 690A. Research Seminar: Perfectionist Politics: Economics, Gender, and Race in 19th Century America (3h). M 2-4:30. A104. McConnell.

History 390B & 690B. Research Seminar: Herodotus (3h). T 1:30-4. A104. Lerner. The seminar concerns the Histories by the 5^th century B.C.E. Greek historian Herodotus and focuses on particular issues relating to various personalities, places and events of the ancient Near East and Greece with special emphasis on the 6^th - early 5^th century B.C.E.  The course is organized to implement the Socratic method of learning and, therefore, is designed to enhance the student’s ability to think critically by emphasizing how to read primary and secondary literature efficiently for information in order to glean the criteria necessary to evaluate the significance of a historical source and thereby to create an interpretation on which a cogent argument can be extracted and defended.  To actualize the critical thinking process, the students will be required to develop and argue both through oral and written expression a personal understanding of a given topic based on a synthesis of historical fact and inference, while also commenting thoughtfully on other students’ ideas and insights.

History 390C & 690C. Research Seminar: The Confederacy (3h). T 2-4:30. A104. Escott. Through primary research, students will explore revealing and often surprising aspects of the political, social, or military history of the Confederacy.

History 390D & 690D. Research Seminar: Japan at War and in Defeat, 1931-1960 (3h). W 2-4:30. A104. Hellyer. From 1931 to 1945, Japan waged war throughout Asia and the Pacific world.  Rather than examine military strategy and specific battles, this course will focus on Japanese rationalizations for the war, the perspective of front-line soldiers and non-combatants, Japanese war crimes, and the postwar US occupation of Japan.  It will also consider how the Japanese people dealt with defeat and the rebuilding of their country in the years after 1945.

History 391 & 691. Honors Seminar: Ancient Greek Democracy (3h). R 1:30-4. A104. Lerner. The seminar will trace the history of how the ancient Greeks invented and implemented the ideal that citizens of a community could govern themselves directly by means of an institution called demokratia, “people power.”  Students will actively participate in the process of historical investigation by analyzing a variety of ancient testimony (textual and epigraphical) and modern scholarship to glean insight into the phenomenon of Greek democracy primarily from its inception in the Archaic Period (6th century B.C.E.) to its manifestation in the Classical Period (5th-4th century B.C.E.).  The course will stress the current state about the study of demokratia, and the approaches and methods that ancient historians use to understand it. POI.

History 392 & 692. Individual Research (3h). Staff. POI. To be announced.

History 397 & 697. Historical Writing Tutorial (1.5h). Staff. To be announced.

History 399 & 699. Directed Reading (1-3h). Staff. To be announced.

 100 level  |  200 level  |  300 level  |  FYS

top of page

First Year Seminars

FYS 100. "No Ordinary Time": Experiencing WWII (3h) TR 1:30-2:45. A102. Barefield.

FYS 100. The Two Reconstructions (3h) TR 8-9:15. A104. Escott. Our seminar will examine and compare two periods in which the rights of African-Americans were at the top of the nation’s agenda: reconstruction after the Civil War, and the modern civil rights movement.  What made this issue so salient at those times?  What caused progress in those periods?  Why did progress stop?  Together we will search for patterns, similarities and differences, and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of racial progress in America .

FYS 100. Fallout Shelters and the Cold War: Weapon, Propaganda, or Survival Technique (3h) TR 9:30-10:45. A104. Hendricks. During the 1950s and 60s, in response to the nuclear threat and encouragement from the Federal government’s Civil Defense program, thousands of Americans either built fallout shelters or created secure places in their homes for refuge. Public shelters were located, marked, and stocked with survival necessities. The Soviet Union made similar provisions for surviving a nuclear holocaust. The shelters provided more realistic options for surviving a nuclear war than earlier civil defense evacuation policies, but even in the 1960s official statements on the dangers of nuclear fallout greatly overestimated their effectiveness. Most shelters provided limited protection and inadequate food, water and ventilation for the time necessary to avoid damage in the case of severe fallout. The Civil Defense program of these years has been called more propaganda than substance. September 11, 2001 and subsequent events have produced an elaborate Homeland Security program to protect the U.S. and the world from Terrorism. How are the programs similar and how do they differ?

FYS 100. Image of Wealth and Poverty in U.S. Culture (3h) MW 2-3:15. B117. Smith. As with other First Year Seminars, this course will lead students to experience what we hope we came to the university to accomplish:
    Learn to confidently and competently discuss major issues and opinions
     Be reminded of the discipline inherent in writing well
    Learn how to find the reality of data and facts in both electronic and hard copy
    Practice being influential in and learning from small group interaction
     Explore the reality behind a major issue that challenges American culture
We will find how our culture has in the past and in the present explained who should be rich and why.  Who should be poor?  What are the burdens of being identified as rich or poor?   Is there any reason a person should give away power and prestige?  Was there a “Gospel of Wealth?”   Can a society claim that it believes in the values of the market capitalism, self help, fairness, and meritocracy without making a commitment to leveling the playing field in the crib?    By what right does a community take money from the rich and give it to the poor—as in graduated income tax?  What is the role and nature of philanthropy and volunteerism?
There will be papers, poems, and presentations.  Perhaps there will be field trips.