Use the faculty link to make an appointment with your adviser.

****The Department of History has RE-NUMBERED its courses. Please check the "formerly" number on the schedule of courses and do not repeat a course you have already taken.****

Note: HIST 200 is a PREREQUISITE for taking any HIST 295.

LINK TO SCHEDULE OF COURSES TO SEE COURSE TITLES, DATES AND TIMES.

Please see our new Foundations of U.S. History course descriptions below along with the descriptions of our HIST 294 and 295 seminars.

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
Announces new
Foundations of U.S. History
sequence beginning 2008-2009.

Four new courses, covering U.S. history from Discovery to the Present, will debut in the coming year.  These courses--History 139, 140, 141, 142—will offer students a foundation in U.S. history while at the same time introducing them to the latest developments in historical scholarship.  Arranged sequentially, these courses will allow instructors and students to explore major themes and issues in U.S. history in greater depth than is usual in standard survey courses.

In academic year 2008-2009, all four of these courses will be offered for the first time.

HIST 170 and 171 will no longer be offered. If you have previously taken HIST 170 and 171 you may take any of the courses below and receive credit.  However, if you previously took HIST 274 you will NOT get credit for HIST 141 and if you previously took HIST 275 you will NOT get credit for HIST 142; this is due to the overlapping content. Please note HIST 139 and 141 are taught Fall terms, HIST 140 and 142 are taught Spring terms.

For minors with the U.S. area of concentration you must take one of the new Foundations and five other courses, which may include any of the Foundations. No more than 3 credits of AP are allowed for the minor.

HIST 139 America to 1776: Discovery to Revolution. North American colonies from Iberian Atlantic dominion through the zenith of the British Empire, exploring how the European race for empires collided with Native American and West African societies.  The emergence of colonial British, French, and Spanish North America in the larger context of European imperial rivalries and Native American political and economic networks. FALL [3] Molinuex/Usner.

HIST 140. U.S. 1776-1877: Revolution to Civil War and Reconstruction.  Independence from Britain, establishment of new political institutions, and beginnings of political conflict.  Westward expansion of European settlement; dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants; development of a distinctive American culture; economic expansion and market integration.  Development of mass party politics, evangelical Protestantism, and reform movements.  Sectional conflict over slavery, culminating in Civil War; Reconstruction and its limits; the dawn of the Gilded Age. SPRING. [3]. Carlton.

HIST 141 U.S. 1877-1945: Reconstruction to WWII.  Economic, political, and social history during the era of industrialization, mass immigration, the rise of mass culture, the Great Depression, and two world wars. FALL [3] Brimmer. No credit given if previously taken HIST 274.

HIST 142 U.S. Post-1945: Cold War to the present. Political, international, social, and cultural currents that have shaped contemporary America. SPRING. [3] Fergus/Schwartz. No credit given if previously taken HIST 275.

 

HISTORY DEPARTMENT 294 and 295 SEMINAR OFFERINGS FOR FALL 2008 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
*General rule of thumb: students will not get credit for taking two HIST 295 courses with the same instructor except for Professor Lorge's very different 295 courses.

HIST 294 01 Economy, Society, and the History of Poverty in Africa*no credit if previously taken HIST 295 Professor Ochonu "Economic History of Subsaharan Africa."
Taught by: Professor Ochonu, Wednesdays 2:10-4:40 p.m.
Area of concentration counts toward: Elective, Middle East and Africa area of concentration for History Majors
DESCRIPTION: This course rigorously explores the empirical, ideological, and theoretical issues that have driven, and constrained, economic development in SubSaharan Africa from pre-colonial times to the present. Our premise is that the evolution of African economies and economic practices has been shaped by forces, priorities, and ideas that differ somewhat from those that have shaped the economies of the Western World and that these factors need to be thoroughly examined in order to develop a nuanced and accurate understanding of Africa’s present economic conundrum and developmental challenges. We will also examine the historical and recent connections between the economic impulses of
Africans and those of Euro-Americans, using the themes of trade, economic colonialism, inter-dependence, and globalization to explore debates and paradigms on poverty and economic distress in Africa.

NEW! One-of-a-kind course offered for the first time Fall 2008
AMER 294  0   American Studies History Workshop: Radical Traditions in America, 1776 to the Present
Taught by: Professor Gerstle, Tuesdays 2:35-3:50 p.m.
Area of Concentration counts toward: Elective, U.S. area concentration for History Majors
Description:  This course examines the varieties of radical traditions in American history and their significance for American politics and culture.  The course begins with the American Revolution and radical figures such as Tom Paine.  It explores republicanism as a radical tradition through the first hundred years of America’s existence and then explores the variety of radical ideologies that emerged out of America’s encounter with industrialization—the utopian socialisms of the mid-nineteenth century that focused as much on sexual emancipation as on the collectivization of property; the Marxist inflected ideologies of anarchism, socialism, and communism and their influence (or lack thereof); and such homegrown radicalisms as Edward Bellamy’s Nationalism and the Populism of southern farmers. The course probes as well feminism and black nationalism as radical ideologies and, in the post-World War II period, examines the history of the New Left.   The course, finally, takes looks at radicalisms of the right, ranging from groups such as the Southern Agrarians who rejected modern industrial and consumer society to libertarian groups such as Ayn Rand and her followers who advocated radical individualism.  Students in the course will read both primary and secondary texts, history and literature, on these topics and will be asked to study these radicalisms both on their own terms and in terms of how they have influenced broader patterns in American politics and culture.

Fall 2008, HIST 295  01   Race and Politics in the Modern World*no credit if previously taken HIST 295 Professor Fergus "Race and Politics in Modern America."
Taught by: Professor Fergus, Tuesdays, 2:35-3:50 p.m.
Area of Concentration counts toward: Elective, U.S. area of concentration for History Majors
Description:   This seminar examines the nexus between race and politics through the
prism of social policies, events, historic actors, and social movements
that shaped how race was lived in America and beyond during the
twentieth century.

Fall 2008, HIST 295  05 Indigeneous Peoples in the Cultural Imagination
Taught by: Professor Usner, Wednesdays 1:10-3:00 p.m.
Area of Concentration counts toward: Elective, U.S. area concentration for History Majors
Description: Examines the representation of American Indians and other indigenous peoples from early modern times to the present as an integral dimension of intercultural relations and national identities.  Literature, theater, art, exhibition, science, education, film, sports -wherever images and ideas regarding indigenous societies appear - will be explored.  This inquiry features the changing influence of American Indians upon the cultural imagination, from 16th-century emissaries to 21st-century entrepreneurs.

Fall 2008, HIST 295  04 Revolutions in the Atlantic World
Taught by: Professor Ramsey, Thursdays 2:35-3:50 p.m.
Area of Concentration counts toward: Elective, Latin America, European and U.S. area of concentration for History Majors
Description:  In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a series of revolutionary upheavals swept Europe and the Americas.  They led to profound political and social changes on the European Continent and, by the summer of 1825, to 19  independent states in the New World.  During the first two-thirds of the course, we will discuss a set of common readings on the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions.  Students will devote  the remainder of the semester to a research paper, which may focus on a single revolution or examine how a particular issue developed in different revolutionary contexts.

Fall 2008, HIST 295  03  Pirates of the Caribbean
Taught by: Professor Landers, Thursdays 3:10-5:00 pm
Area of Concentration counts toward: Elective, European and Latin American area of concentration for History majors
Description: This course treats the history of piracy in the Caribbean from the point of European contact to the mid-nineteenth century. Throughout this long period, the Caribbean was the theater of endemic imperial and religious conflicts.  Spain led the way into the Caribbean, but its success led its European competitors, particularly the French, English, and Dutch, to target slow-moving treasure ships and thinly-populated port cities. During periods of declared war or revolution, predators could become legitimate agents of foreign policy, and some refashioned themselves into liberators. Others remained outlaws throughout their careers, finding opportunities for theft wherever they could. This course will use secondary and primary sources to examine the social history of piracy as well as the long term consequences, economic and otherwise, of piracy for its mostly Spanish victims.

Any questions about the undergraduate major may be directed to the History Department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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