History
Department Overview
Students majoring in History learn to interrogate the past as it is recorded in written texts, material artifacts, media, oral traditions, popular culture, and other forms of evidence in order to render its complexity accessible to audiences in the present. More than the mere “study of past events,” History is a public pursuit aimed at preserving and understanding the diversity of human experience across time, place, context, and communities.
The department offers classes in the history of the ancient world, medieval and modern Europe, the Middle East, China and East Asia, the United States, Latin America, and the British Empire. Our courses explore the transnational histories of the environment, science and technology, race and ethnicity, gender, empire, indigenous peoples, and collective memory. We also offer courses in public history and internships with a variety of local partners, ranging from historical sites to cultural entrepreneurs.
History majors will develop research and writing skills, but many of their classes will also utilize other ways of presenting and sharing historical work, such as podcasting, exhibitions, and media work.
The department will accept an Advanced Placement exam score of 4 or 5 in either American, European, or World history to be treated as equivalent to one course (4 credits) toward the major.
Chair of the Department of History: Jennifer Delton
Professors: Jenny H. Day, The Frances Young Tang ’61 Chair in Chinese Studies, Jennifer Delton, Jordana Dym, Matthew Hockenos, The Harriett Johnson Toadvine ’56 Chair in 20th Century History; Eric Morser, Tillman Nechtman
Associate Professors: Erica Bastress-Dukehart, Murat C. Yildiz
History B.A.
The History major requires 32 credits in history, including HI 275 - Introduction To The History Major, at least one 300-level research seminar (designated “R”), and three additional courses at the 300-level. The senior thesis could also fulfill the “R” requirement.
Thesis Option: The Senior History Thesis is a year-long project for the most serious and capable history majors who want to continue research in a specific topic or question with the aim of producing an original scholarly paper. The thesis process begins the spring of your junior year with identifying a thesis adviser, writing a proposal and receiving departmental approval. If approved, you will enroll in HI 373 Thesis Preparation for fall of your senior year and HI 374 Thesis Writing in spring. You will defend your completed thesis in April of your senior year.
Students are eligible to submit a thesis proposal if they have a GPA in the major of 3.65 or better and the written approval of a thesis adviser from a department member. A thesis is not required for honors in the department.
Credits Toward the Major
Courses successfully completed through Advanced Placement, courses completed at other accredited institutions, and course credit received in programs abroad may, with the permission of the chair, be counted toward history requirements. Of the work submitted for the major, interdepartmental majors, and the minor, the department requires that at least half be credits taught in the Skidmore History Department.
The department will accept an Advanced Placement exam score of 4 or 5 in either American, European, or World history to be treated as equivalent to one course (4 credits) toward the major.
Students studying abroad or at other institutions may transfer a maximum of 1 300-level course per term of study and no more than 2 such courses in total.
Flexible Fourth Credit Hour
History courses are ordinarily 3 credit hours. Some courses, however, have an extra credit hour of work that is completed outside the classroom in the form of a major research project, a writing intensive component, a series of field trips, or some other learning activity. These 4 credit courses are designated in the master schedule with either an “R,” “W,” or “P,” denoting the following:
Research Seminar (R)
Students develop research questions and hone research skills by identifying and assessing primary and/or secondary sources (including scholarly literature), preparing interim analyses (such as thesis statements, bibliographies, drafts), and making written or oral presentations on final research findings. These courses fulfill the History major’s research requirement.
Writing History (W)
Students spend additional time drafting, revising, and critiquing to hone their skills at argumentation and analysis within appropriate historical contexts. They attend not only to content but also to style and voice in their critical papers. These courses fulfill the college writing requirement.
Critical Perspectives (P)
Students will engage in active/applied learning projects, such as role-playing, public-facing exhibits, and multimedia; or they may engage in intensive study through film series, novels, or field trips to deepen their understanding of history.
History Writing in the Major Requirement
History requires clear analytical prose that can convey complicated ideas, present evidence, and walk readers through an argument. The discipline has its roots in the humanities and thus values elegant, polished writing. Writing in history is also a key part of the learning process. It is through writing that students take disparate facts and events and turn them into historical interpretation. All History courses contribute to the development of students’ writing skills and are designed to prepare students for a final research project. Therefore, history and interdepartmental majors will fulfill the Skidmore writing-in-the-major requirement as they complete the requirements for the history major.
Minor Requirements
History Minor
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Select 9 history credits at the 300 level | 9 | |
| Select an additional 11 credits in history | 11 | |
| Total Hours | 20 | |
Credits Toward the Minor
Courses successfully completed through Advanced Placement, courses completed at other accredited institutions, and course credit received in programs abroad may, with the permission of the chair, be counted toward history requirements. Of the work submitted for the major, interdepartmental majors, and the minor, the department requires that at least half be credits taught in the History Department and listed in the Skidmore catalog.
The department will accept an Advanced Placement exam score of 4 or 5 in either American, European, or World history to be treated as equivalent to one course (4 credits) toward the minor.
Effective Class of 2016
Students studying abroad or at other institutions in the U.S. may transfer a maximum of one 300-level course per term of study and no more than two such courses in total.
Honors
To be recommended for honors in history, a major must meet the college requirement for honors of a cumulative grade-point average of 3.000, and a GPA in the major of 3.650 or higher.
Phi Alpha Theta
Alpha Delta Tau Chapter. Founded in 1921, Phi Alpha Theta is an international history honor society and a professional society for students and historians. Phi Alpha Theta recognizes academic excellence in the study of history. Eligibility requirements include:
- completion of a minimum of four courses in history;
- a 3.400 cumulative GPA in history; and
- a 3.200 cumulative GPA or better overall, and placement in the top 35 percent of the class.
Course Listing
CC 226 - Greek and Roman Historians
Credits: 3
Readings in translation of the great chroniclers of history from the Greek and Roman worlds: Greek, the works of Herodotos (the father of history), Thucydides, and Xenophon; Roman, the works of Livy, Polybius, and Tacitus. The course will focus on the methodology of writing history, comparative studies, and modern interpretations.
Note(s): Counts toward the history major. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
PLHI 322 - The History and Political Thought of the American Revolution
Credits: 3
The creation of a new nation: 1763-1789. This course will give special attention to the political ideas that gave direction to the American Revolution and the Constitution. Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 103 - Medieval Europe
Credits: 3
The formation of Europe: from the breakdown of Roman political authority in the West in the fourth century to the rise of national states and their conflicts in the fourteenth.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 104 - Early Modern European History
Credits: 3
The evolution of modern European politics, society, and thought: from the Renaissance and Reformation to the French Revolution.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 105 - Nineteenth-Century Europe: Ideology and Revolution
Credits: 3
An intensive examination of the revolutions in economics, politics, and society in Europe from 1789 to 1914. Emphasis on the French and industrial revolutions; the rise in nationalism, liberalism, socialism, imperialism, and the women's movement; international rivalry and diplomacy culminating in World War I.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 106 - Twentieth-Century Europe: Age of Conflict
Credits: 3
An intensive examination of the political, economic, social, and cultural history of Europe from World War I. Emphasis on world wars, fascism, Nazism, communism, the Holocaust, new nations and nationalism, the Cold War, and the collapse of Soviet communism.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 107 - Writing About History
Credits: 3
A brief study of a number of significant issues in history. Students will be introduced to the discipline of history and will have an opportunity to develop and improve writing skills.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 108 - Plagues and Contagion
Credits: 3
An interdisciplinary history of plagues and contagion, with an emphasis on how people in the past reacted to, dealt with, politicized, and learned from (or not) pandemics. We will examine the social, environmental, and political factors that shaped concepts of “contagion” and illness. Includes discussion of ecological/environmental dimensions of pandemics, as well as quarantine and vaccination.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 110H - The British Empire: An Introduction
Credits: 4
An introductory survey of the British Empire from its earliest beginnings in the sixteenth century through decolonization in the post-World War II era. Students will focus on the political, economic, cultural, and ecological causes and consequences of British overseas expansion. Topics include the ecological and biological impact of British imperialism; Elizabethan commercial expansion; the plantings of Ireland; early settlements in the New World and the impact on indigenous peoples; the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the plantation system in the Caribbean; the American Revolution and the end of the first British Empire; the ideologies of the British Raj in India; the "New Imperialism" of the late nineteenth century and the "scramble for Africa"; the transfer of technology and culture; and decolonization and the contemporary legacy of empire.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 110P - British Empire:An Intro
Credits: 4
HI 111 - Latin American History: An Introduction
Credits: 3
An introduction to the economic, political, social, and intellectual history of Latin America. Organized thematically and chronologically, topics emphasize understanding the emergence of the colonies of Spain, Portugal, France, and England into a group of distinct nation-states. Students will explore Latin American society from initial encounters among Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. We then study independence: political, economic, and social challenges of early nation-state formation in a multicultural context. We conclude with the twentieth century, addressing topics such as industrialization, revolution, U.S.- Latin American relations, and selected intellectual trends.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 116H - Sea Changes: A History of the World's Oceans
Credits: 4
A survey course in global history that takes the world's oceans as its subject. Students will explore themes ranging from naval history to legal history, from environmental history to zoological history, and from the history of exploration and adventure to the history of imperialism and conquest. Students will work with primary and secondary sources and develop their analytical and writing skills as they ask questions about the field of history itself. What assumptions have historians made when they focus on nations and continents? What institutions and categories have they privileged with their focus? What have we missed because we look only at the history of land? How and why does history's narrative shift when we undertake a "sea change" in our perspectives?
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 125 - American Colonial History
Credits: 3
An exploration of the complex and contested history of colonization in North America. Students will focus on contact and conflict among different peoples, the ongoing struggle among European and indigenous powers for domination of the continent, the critical importance of slavery in crafting the North American colonial experience, the rich cultural diversity that defined colonial life, and the trans-Atlantic events that paved the way for the American Revolution.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 126 - From Revolution to Civil War
Credits: 3
A grand tour of United States history from the American Revolution to the Civil War. Students investigate the challenge of nation building, the contested rise of American democracy, the economic transformation of the United States, battles to control the western frontier, and the growing conflict over slavery that eventually tore the nation apart.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 142 - Introduction to Modern China
Credits: 3
An introductory survey of the major political, economic, and social developments in China, from the foundation of the last imperial dynasty in 1644 to the present. Emphasis is on the major stages of the revolution, from the Opium War to the present.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 144 - East Asian Civilization: Traditions and Transformations
Credits: 3
An introductory survey of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) from its earliest history to the end of the Mongol empire in the 1300s. Students will explore the formation of Confucianism as an ideology, the changes in social and political institutions across East Asia, ideas and practices concerning gender and the family, religion and beliefs of elites and ordinary people, and intercultural exchanges and conflicts within East Asia.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 145 - The Making of the Modern Middle East
Credits: 3
An exploration of the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the modern Middle East in a global and comparative historical context. Students will examine the reorganization of state-society relations, the creation of modern government institutions, the construction of new social and political conceptualizations, and the state's growing involvement in the politics of population management in the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. Students will also explore the processes and practices that were central to the production of the Middle East as both a physical place as well as a discursive concept.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 146 - Survey of the Middle East, c. 600 to1500
Credits: 3
A survey of the history of the Middle East, from late antiquity to the early modern period. By examining cities, such as Aleppo, Baghdad, Cairo, Constantinople, Cordoba, Esfahan, and Shiraz, as well as areas, such as the Mediterranean basin, over the course of a thousand years, the course will challenge the notion that there was one physical center to the Middle East. Through a close reading of historiographical debates and primary sources, students will examine the circulation of people, ideas, goods, and practices across space and time.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 151 - Topics in History
Credits: 3
Topically organized courses based on problems and issues of special interest at the introductory level. The specific themes to be examined will vary from year to year.
Note(s): This course with a different topic may be repeated for credit. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 203 - Rise of Athens
Credits: 3
A study of Greece with a focus on Athens from the Mycenaean age to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. Students examine the heroic age, the development of the city-state, the origins of democracy, the nature of imperialism, intellectual and cultural achievements, economic conditions, and family life. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 204 - Athens, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra
Credits: 3
A study of Greece from the Peloponnesian War to the end of Greek independence. Students examine the war between Athens and Sparta and its aftermath, the struggle for preeminence among Greek city-states, the rise of Macedonia, the monarchies of Philip and his son Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic kingdoms, the development of scientific thought, and the last "Greek" monarch, Cleopatra of Egypt. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 205 - Rise of Rome
Credits: 3
A study of Rome from its foundation by Romulus to the end of the Republic and onset of the Roman empire. Students examine the Etruscan world, the rise of Rome in Italy, the impact of Hellenism, social and political institutions in the Republic, the evolution of Roman culture and the end of the Senatorial aristocracy. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 206 - Fall of Rome
Credits: 3
A study of Rome from the foundation of the empire by Augustus until the sack of the city of Rome and the empire's demise. Students examine the Julio-Claudian and succeeding emperors, political intrigue in the imperial court, the development of an imperial mindset and responses to it in the provinces, the multiculturalism of the empire, social and political institutions, the evolution of Roman culture, the rise of Christianity and the end of the empire. Special emphasis is given to the study of the ancient sources: literary, historiographic, archaeological, and numismatic.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 210 - The Four Kingdoms
Credits: 3
What does it mean to be English, Scottish, Irish, or Welsh? This course explores the interactive histories of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and investigates each of the four kingdoms as categories of geopolitical meaning and imagined communities of individuals, seeking to understand the place that each played in the history of the geographic space we now call "the British Isles." In confronting the disparities between the myth, legend, and history in all of the four kingdoms, and the relationships forged between them, students in the course challenge the boundaries of historical inquiry marking "domestic" history as something apart from "imperial" history and seek ultimately to define what being "British" means to those living in each of the four kingdoms.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 211 - Deconstructing Britain
Credits: 3
An exploration of the history of multicultural Britain from the late sixteenth century to the present through multiple global perspectives. Understanding the state that built this empire requires understanding the cultures of those who were drawn into that imperial network. As a means of investigating how the British Empire looked to those who lived under its shadow, the central voices of this course will be communities of Indian travelers, African sailors, and Native American traders. Readings will explore the ways in which the British nation, and indeed British history, have been driven by British imperialism around the globe, and the course will end by asking questions about the post-imperial history for citizens of a nation that was once predicated on its imperial identity.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 212 - The British Empire and the Making of the Modern World
Credits: 3
A survey of the history of the British Empire over the course of its five-century history as a means of bridging the past to the present. Students will understand just how the empire helped to shape the map of our modern world. This course will focus on the political, economic, cultural, and ecological causes and consequences of Britain’s overseas expansion. Topics include the ecological and biological impact of British imperialism; Elizabethan commercial expansion; the plantings of Ireland; early settlements in the New World and the impact on indigenous peoples; the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the plantation system in the Caribbean; the American Revolution and the end of the first British Empire; the ideologies of the British Raj in India; the "New Imperialism" of the late nineteenth century and the "scramble for Africa"; the transfer of technology and culture; decolonization; and the contemporary legacy of empire.
Prerequisites: SSP 100.
Note(s): Fulfills Bridge Experience requirement.
HI 222 - Corporate America
Credits: 3
An examination of the development of big business in The United States from the Civil War to the present with a special focus on corporations' changing relationship to the government and society. Students will study the role of magnates and entrepreneurs, the rise and fall of different industries (railroads, automobiles, tech, Walmart), management and labor, corporate responsibility, and globalization.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement.
HI 223 - U.S. Foreign Policy
Credits: 3
An examination of the development of the United States from its peripheral position in world affairs to its role as an international superpower. What has motivated American foreign policy? What has defined America's international and national interests? Can we discern a continuity to American foreign policy over time, or is it defined by contingency and reaction? How have Americans defined themselves through their foreign policy? How has American foreign policy betrayed American ideals? How has it fulfilled those ideals? How has September 11 changed our views of America's role in the world?
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 224H - The Enlightenment
Credits: 4
Studies the most important interactions to take place within and among society, politics, and culture that characterized this intellectual and cultural transformation. Influenced by revolutionary advancements in science and medicine, inflamed by seditious political treatises, and distrustful of Catholic reforms, eighteenth-century enlightened thinkers sparked the emergence of a new political and literary culture. Ultimately, the intellectual advancements that excited Europe’s philosophers helped shape the ideological foundations of the American and French Revolutions.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 225 - Race and Ethnicity in American Thought
Credits: 3
What are we referring to when we use the terms "race" and "ethnicity"? Biology? Culture? Faith? Skin color? Nationality? History? What makes categories based on apparently natural differences useful? How has the meaning of "race" and "ethnicity" changed over time? This course addresses these questions by examining how intellectuals, social scientists, the law, and cultural producers in America have historically defined and thought about race, ethnicity, "blackness," and "whiteness."
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 226 - African American History Since 1865
Credits: 3
An exploration of the ways in which Black Americans have shaped their history in a white-dominated society. Students will build the historical knowledge necessary to understand and participate in discussions of racial justice and history in America today. Based on the voices, writings, and media productions of African American scholars, activists, and ordinary citizens, the course emphasizes the diversity of perspectives, identities, and experiences within African American populations in the U.S.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 227 - Borders, Identities, and Migration in Asian American History
Credits: 4
An examination of the history of Asians in America as strangers, laborers, immigrants, and refugees; the legal and international order created to identify, regulate, control the flow of immigrants from the late 19th and to mid-20th centuries; and how this history has figured in contemporary debates about immigration and border control.
Prerequisites: SSP 100.
Note(s): Fulfills Bridge Experience requirement.
HI 228 - Race, Class, and Gender in Latin America
Credits: 3
Looks at how different ideas about race and ethnicity have shaped Latin American politics and societies from colonial times to the present. Themes covered include: interactions of Iberian, American, African, and Asian peoples; official and unofficial management of multiethnic and multicultural societies; scientific racism; and the relation between theories of race and development of ideas about class, gender, and nation.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 229 - War and Peace in Twentieth-Century Latin America
Credits: 3
Examines the social, economic, political, and intellectual causes and consequences of important internal and international wars in twentieth-century Latin America. The course will consider cases of successful and unsuccessful attempts to achieve political change ranging from the Mexican Revolution to Central America's road from war to peace in the 1980s and 1990s, to U.S. interventions in the Caribbean and military dictatorships in South America. Why certain sectors promote war, the justifications of war, why others choose to instigate or participate in conflict and violence, what conditions are required to consider a conflict concluded, and what factors (internal and international, ethnic, religious, gender, etc.) shape specific conflicts are principal questions.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements
HI 230 - History Through Travel: Latin America 1500-1900
Credits: 3
An examination of the ideas and impact of European and North American travel narratives on historical knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean from the sixteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Students examine accounts by conquerors, diplomats, pirates, scientists, missionaries, and tourists to consider what questions and analytical methods allow for interpretation of the factual or fictional elements in these important sources for the creation of historical knowledge about travelers, their values, the lands they visited, and the people, environments and cultures they described.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement; fulfills Global Cultural Perspectives requirement; when offered as HI 230W, fulfills Expository Writing requirement.
HI 235 - Perceptions of Medieval and Early Modern Women
Credits: 3
A study of the perceptions of women in medieval and early modern Europe. How do we interpret the variety of ways in which philosophers, social theorists, historians, artists, and scientists have discussed and portrayed women? More importantly, how do we determine the real from the imaginary woman in history? Students will study the perceptions of Medieval and early modern European women that we find in historical documents, philosophy, science, literature, and art, in order to determine how the images of and discourse about women reflected (or contrasted) their reality.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 241 - Introduction to Imperial China
Credits: 3
An introductory survey of the major cultural, political, and ideological developments in China from earliest times to the fall of the last Chinese dynasty, with focus on several important eras and their contributions to Asian civilizations.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 242 - China in War and Revolution
Credits: 3
The emergence of modern China-its turbulent and violent transition from an imperial dynasty to a Communist nation-state. Students will study how internal and external crises precipitated reforms and revolutions, how people shed their old identities and took on new ones, how political leaders engineered campaigns and movements-often with disastrous effects-and how this history has been remembered, reflected upon, and remolded by the Chinese themselves.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 243 - Leisure, Pleasure, and Fun in the Middle East
Credits: 3
A multidimensional exploration of how men and women of the Middle East developed new notions of time, carved out larger spaces for themselves in the expanding public sphere, created novel activities, and experimented with different mood- and mind-molding substances during the early modern and modern periods. Through close readings of secondary and primary sources (including photographs, films, novels, and memoirs), students will examine a number of topics related to leisure, pleasure, and fun in different urban centers of the Middle East, such as gender, and sexuality, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, places of pleasure, prostitution, cinema, photography, entertainment, and consumption.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 247 - History of Modern Japan
Credits: 3
An examination of the historical transformation of the Japanese archipelago from a feudal society to a modern state and imperial power, and to a postwar economic giant and a "bubble economy" in the 1990s. Students will explore how Japanese women and men have transformed elements of other cultures to create forms of government, society, and the arts that are uniquely Japanese. Sources include a diary, short stories, legal documents, and films.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 249 - The Vietnam War
Credits: 3
An examination of the political, military, and cultural aspects of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1975, as well as the war's legacy and meaning since.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 251 - Topics in History
Credits: 1-4
Topically organized courses based on problems and issues of special interest at the intermediate level. The specific themes to be examined will vary from year to year.
Note(s): May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 254 - Intellectual History Modern Europe
Credits: 3
The principal currents of modern European thought: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Note(s): Fulfills Social Sciences requirement.
HI 258 - European Fascism
Credits: 3
An examination of the origins, nature, and history of fascism in Europe between the two world wars. Through primary and secondary source readings, novels, and films the course attempts to define fascism by exploring the similarities and differences between fascism, right-wing authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, racism, and Nazism as they manifested themselves in Italy, Spain, and Germany.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 259 - Communism and Anticommunism in America
Credits: 3
An examination of the controversy surrounding the red-scare of the 1950s. Focused on the history of the Communist party in America, its connections to Moscow, and its relationship to American political and social movements from 1917 to 1968.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 263 - American Labor History
Credits: 4
A Bridge Experience course that explores the rich and complex history of work and workers in America from the pre-colonial era through the contemporary age. We will focus on a number of themes including the lasting legacies of slavery, the evolution of capitalism and its impact on working men and women, the emergence of worker consciousness and labor protest, racial and ethnic tensions that divided the shop floor and undermined working-class unity, and how workers have transformed American culture and politics. Ultimately, the course provides us with an opportunity to explore how contests over commercial and political power, worker struggles for economic and social justice, and competing identities played key roles in the tale of American labor history that continue to shape the contemporary United States.
Prerequisites: SSP 100.
Note(s): Fulfills Bridge Experience requirement.
HI 264 - History of the American West
Credits: 3
An exploration of the complex and contested history of the American West. Key themes include contact and conflict among different people on the western borderlands, western migration and settlement, the role of government in the West, ongoing frontier conflicts over control of natural resources, and links between the West and American identity.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 265 - Class in the U.S.
Credits: 3
An examination of how ideas about identity, power, and justice have informed (or not informed) Americans' understanding of socio-economic class differences over time (insert dates here?). After completing this course, students will have greater understanding of what people mean when they talk about "class," how class has figured in U.S. politics and history, and how class relates to their own situation or identity.
Prerequisites: SSP 100.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Bridge Experience requirements.
HI 266 - American Environmental History
Credits: 3
An exploration of American environmental history from pre-colonial times through the modern era. Students will investigate how the different landscapes and ecologies of North America shaped the continent's history, the links between industrialization and the environment, economic and political struggles for control of natural resources, the rise of modern consumer culture, and changing American perceptions of nature.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 267 - American Indian History
Credits: 3
An exploration of North American Indian history from the precolonial era through the present. Students focus on a number of key themes including the rich complexities of indigenous cultures, contact and conflict among different Indian peoples, the impact of European colonization on Native societies, and the critical role that Indians played in the creation and transformation of the United States.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 275 - Introduction To The History Major
Credits: 1
A six-week course required of all history majors. Open to non-majors with permission of instructor.
HI 280 - Science and Nature in the Renaissance
Credits: 3
A study of the culture of Renaissance ideas as they pertained to the natural world. Building on historian Brian Ogilvie's argument that natural history was invented in the Renaissance, this course looks at the Renaissance perceptions of the natural world from three perspectives: (1) how scientists and philosophers thought about astronomy, astrology, and humans' relationships with the universe; (2) how explorers, natural philosophers, and theorists cataloged and categorized their wonderous discoveries; (3) how Renaissance notions of the cosmos transformed perceptions scientists, artists and doctors had about the human body.
Note(s): Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 298 - History Workshop
Credits: 1
A topical workshop, seminar, discussion group, or lab/studio experience, which can link to a regular History Department course offered at the 200 level or serve as a freestanding course.
HI 299 - Professional Internship in History
Credits: 1-4
Internship opportunity for students whose curricular foundations and cocurricular experience have prepared them for professional work related to the major field. With faculty sponsorship and department approval, students may extend their educational experience into such areas as archives, museums, galleries, libraries, historical societies, preservation, and other professional areas.
Prerequisites: Previous study related to the area of the internship experience.
HI 301 - Early Medieval Civilization
Credits: 3
The culture and society of Europe: 300–1100. Special emphasis on the development of the early Christian church, the thought of Augustine of Hippo, the rise of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire, and the economic revival of Europe in the eleventh century.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 302 - The High Middle Ages - European civilization: 1100–1400
Credits: 3
Special emphasis on the Renaissance of the twelfth century; the rediscovery of Aristotle; the thought of Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham; the Roman Church at its height; the breakdown of Christian unity.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 303 - Intellectual History Medieval and Renaissance
Credits: 3
The principal currents of Western European thought: the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, and the Renaissance of the North.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 305 - Science and the Church: Europe from Luther to Voltaire
Credits: 3
The emergence in early modern Europe (1500–1800) of two competing world views: Christianity and scientific rationalism. The course will examine the competition between these two ideologies for control of the political, economic, and social machinery of European culture, especially as represented by the modern state, and for the right to define the principal modes of cultural expression in the literary, plastic, and performing arts.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 306 - The French Revolution
Credits: 3
A study of the interpretation of the French Revolution. Conservatives, Liberals, Marxists, Feminists, Post-Modernists, and many others have clashed over how best to understand the French Revolution. Our readings and discussions will focus primarily on these intense struggles of interpretation, which still mark the study of the French Revolution today.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores with permission of instructor.
HI 312W - Industry, Empire, Envirnmt
Credits: 4
Examines the origins and development of the industrial revolution in late eighteenth and early twentieth-century Britain, which many historians argue was made possible in part by the economic proceeds of British imperialism, the Atlantic slave trade in particular. Unlike more traditional histories of industrialization, in addition to the focus on the relationship between industry and empire, explores the environmental and social consequences of the process of industrialization, not just for Britain but for all of Britain's global empire, thus using providing a historical context for contemporary debates on globalization, economic development, and the environment.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores with permission of instructor.
HI 315 - Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe (1400–1800)
Credits: 3
An investigation of the history and theory of crime and punishment in an age when criminal violence and state violence were often indistinguishable and unmediated. Over the course of four hundred years, Europe experienced a transformation from the persecuting societies of the Middle Ages, through the terrors of religious wars and the Inquisition, to Beccarea's "enlightened" and Bentham’s utilitarian rejection of traditional criminology. Starting with Michel Foucault’s influential work, Discipline and Punish , the readings for this course address dominant social norms and ever-changing definitions of deviance. The course explores the intellectual, social, and political justification for punishment, and the ensuring conflicts between conceptions of authority and individual freedom.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores with permission of instructor.
HI 316 - Empires in India
Credits: 3
Examines the history of the Indian subcontinent from the late sixteenth century to the present. Begins with a study of the late Mugal period, moving on to explore the origins of the British empire in India, focusing in particular the role of the East India Company in that process and on the impacts British imperialism had on British, Indian, and world history. The second half of the course focuses on efforts to pull down the structures of British imperialism in India from the nineteenth century forward to independence in 1947, including such topics as the origins of Indian nationalism, the complex interaction of various groups involved in decolonization in India, and the early histories of the independent nations that emerged from British India.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 317 - British Legal History: From Magna Carta to Colonial Conquest
Credits: 3
An exploration of the history of English Common Law. Begins with a close investigation of the early history of Common Law, focusing on such issues as the origins of the jury trial, the legacy of the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, and the structures of the early English legal system, including primary source readings from trial law and important cases in British legal history. Continues with an exploration of the impact of the Common Law throughout the British Empire, which proved to be a contested space in which English legal traditions were faced with indigenous customs. Investigates the hybrid legal structures that were born of this legal cross-fertilization and the lasting legal legacies of Britain's imperial history both within colonized communities and Britain itself.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 318 - The British Class System
Credits: 3
An exploration of the origins and functions of Britain's class structure. Students will consider class as the defining feature of British society. They will read works that address class as a matter of theory, a matter of economics, a matter for social concern and policy making, and a framing tool for British imperial expansion. Texts include selections from major theorists like Adam Smith and Karl Marx, social activists like Friedrich Engels and George Orwell, and literature from William Makepeace Thackeray and Jane Austen. Each demonstrates the distinct functioning of class in Britain and how completely it permeates social and cultural history.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 319R - Religion in Early America
Credits: 4
An investigation of the religious diversity that defined the North American colonies and the United States before the Civil War. Students read and discuss scholarly works, craft a project proposal, conduct primary research, and write an original essay that contributes new insights to the field of History. Topics include the origins and transformation of New England Puritanism, indigenous and African-American religious traditions, and the Second Great Awakening in antebellum America.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 320 - Rise of American Democracy
Credits: 3
A survey of the contested origins of democracy in American history before the Civil War. Students investigate a variety of topics, including the impact of European political thinkers on American revolutionaries, the expansion of voting rights in antebellum America, the struggles of women and minorities to claim citizenship, and the impact of mobs and political protest beyond the ballot box. Over the course of the term, students will understand how this ongoing struggle for democratic rights in the United States before the Civil War made the world we inhabit today.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 322R - American Radicalism
Credits: 4
An exploration of how radicals—people who challenged the status quo and imagined a new world—have shaped American history from the colonial period through the modern era. Students examine the impact of the American Revolution, the rise of radical social movements in the eighteenth century and after, the limits of political dissent, the power of radical art to change the world, and the efforts of radicals to shape modern American life. They also read and discuss scholarly works, craft a project proposal, conduct research, and write an original essay that contributes fresh insights to the field of History.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 324 - Civil War and Reconstruction
Credits: 3
Division and reunification, 1840-1877. This course will examine the importance of sectionalism, the breakdown of national institutions, the revolutionary impact of the war, and the dilemmas attending reconciliation. Special attention will be given to the role of race in shaping popular attitudes and public policy before, during, and after the war.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 325 - Public History
Credits: 3
An exploration of the many and diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world using local, national, and international case studies. People encounter the past every day, often in projects mediated by public historians who apply the skills of historical writing, research, and presentation to engage a popular audience. Students will discuss how and why public historians make history relevant and useful in the public sphere; how governments and institutions construct and disseminate historical narratives; how the past is portrayed in popular culture, including newspapers, television, and film; and how private groups, including families and museums, preserve individual and collective heritage and memory. Testing this knowledge, students will evaluate museum exhibits, historical sites, oral histories, and archives, and will also work on a community-based collective public history project.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 326 - Manhood in America
Credits: 3
An investigation of manhood and masculinity in American history from the colonial era through modern times. Students will explore a number of topics, including the link between gender and early American religion, the impact of conceptions of manliness on western expansion and foreign affairs, manhood and the sporting life in antebellum cities, the rise of a homosexual subculture in Gilded Age New York City, and shifting definitions of manhood in contemporary America.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 327 - The U.S. in the Progressive Era
Credits: 3
The United States' response to industrialization, immigration, urbanization, and economic crisis in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course uses a variety of primary and secondary materials to examine how Americans deal with the problems of modernity.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 328 - The U.S. in Depression and War
Credits: 3
The United States confronts economic collapse, totalitarian ideologies, and a global war, 1929-45. Course examines how these challenges force the United States to change.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 329 - U.S. Since 1945
Credits: 3
The rise and fall of liberalism, the Cold War, Vietnam, Civil Rights, cultural upheaval, Reagan, and the post-Cold war world. Course pays special attention to the rise of conservatism in the eighties and nineties.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 330 - Politics/Society in Latin Amer
Credits: 3
A consideration of the important aspects of Latin American politics, economy, society, and culture in historical context, focusing on a specific geographical region. From the encounters of Indian, African, and Spaniard in the fifteenth century through the turning over of the Panama Canal by the U.S. government to Panamanian authorities in 1999, Latin American society and political systems have developed in tandem with the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Topics might include: political traditions; sugar, coffee, bananas, and oil: dependent development; religious traditions; intellectual currents; popular culture; women; indigenous peoples and modern societies; race; labor; reform, intervention and revolution; and human rights. This course may be repeated for a different topic/region. Regions include; Mexico, Central America, Southern Cone, The Andes, or The Caribbean. Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
Note(s): Fulfills humanistic inquiry and Global Cultural Perspective.
HI 335 - German History Since 1918
Credits: 3
An examination of the cultural, economic, political, and social history of Germany from 1918 to the present. Through primary and secondary sources, films, and novels, we examine Germany's brief and ill-fated attempt at democracy in the Weimar Republic, the genocidal rule of Hitler and the Nazis, the occupation and division of Germany after the Second World War, the ideological struggle between Germany's place in the Cold War and finally the (re)unification of Germany and the ghosts of the Nazi and communist past.
Prerequisites: one college course in European history.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 343 - The Chinese Revolution
Credits: 3
An examination of the major issues and events in the Chinese Revolution, from the foundation of the Republic in 1911 to the present, with emphasis on the relationships between social, economic, and political goals; the methods used to gain them; and the impact of changes on personal and intellectual freedom.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 344 - China's Last Empire: The Glorious Qing (1644-1911)
Credits: 3
The Qing Empire from 1644 to 1911. A multiethnic empire created by the Manchu confederation from the northeastern borderlands, the Qing expanded into Central Asia, Mongolia, Tibet, and projected a powerful influence in Korea and Southeast Asia. Students will focus on the political, social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of the dynasty and examine the Sino-Western and Sino-Japanese encounters of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, as well as how imperialism and secular crisis led to its decline and demise.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 345 - The Body in Middle East
Credits: 3
An exploration of a diverse range of scholarship on the body in the pre-modern and modern Middle East. Students will investigate how historians have used the body as an object of study and lens through which to make broader arguments about a specific time period and a set of historical transformations. Students will examine topics such as reproduction, the interconnections between law and the body, sexuality and gender, colonialism, corporeal discipline, dress, new visual culture(s), disability, revolutionary bodies, and pious bodies.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 346 - Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle East
Credits: 3
An exploration of the complex historical narratives of women, gender, and sexuality in the broader Middle East in different periods, with a focus on the nineteenth century to the present. Students will examine the ways in which social, political, and economic transformations shaped the discourses on gender and sexuality and the lived experiences of people across the region. Students will explore a diverse an array of topics, such as gender and sexuality in law, marriage and family, gender and sexuality in literature, the Harem, slavery, illicit sex, the rise of women's movements, colonial feminism, the binarization of gender and sexuality, transsexuality, and queer spaces.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 347 - Japan's Modernizers: Samurai, Weavers, Writers, and Prostitutes
Credits: 3
The lives and works of men and women who transformed nineteenth-century Japan from feudalism to modernity, and from weakness and isolation to international prominence. Autobiographies, novels, films, and conventional histories will be used to show how Japan was able to change so rapidly.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 348 - Media, Society, and State in Modern China
Credits: 4
An interdisciplinary course on how the modern Chinese state emerged from mass media and communication practices, and how media practices have continued to shape Chinese society and state to the present day. Students will explore the intersection between history, visual culture, and communication studies and acquire techniques in applying their knowledge on multimedia projects such as documentary films, podcasts, and visual story-telling.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry and Global Cultural Perspectives requirements.
HI 351 - Topics in History
Credits: 1-4
Topically organized courses based on problems and issues of special interest at the advanced level. The specific themes to be examined will vary from year to year. Recent offerings include "The Historian as Detective," "Utopias and Science Fiction," and "The Fifties".
Note(s): This course with a different topic may be repeated for credit. Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanistic Inquiry requirement.
HI 354 - Archival Storytelling
Credits: 3
Introduction to organizing and inventorying archival materials and the legal and ethical considerations of collections-based research and presentation. Working hands-on and collectively with an institutional or individual collection, students will develop an understanding of a collection's origins and character, contribute to the collection's finding aids or organizations, and identify story ideas and materials. By the end of the semester, students will present proposals for stories that could be told from the collection, through exhibition, media, or multi-media project.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor. Fulfills Humanities requirement.
HI 371 - Independent Study in History
Credits: 1-4
Research in any period or topic in history not available in existing course offerings. Consent of the department is required.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores only with permission of instructor.
HI 373 - Thesis Preparation
Credits: 3
Independent research under the direction of a member of the department, undertaken in the fall of the senior year by students writing senior thesis. Focus on gathering sources, research, developing an annotated bibliography and outline, and writing the historiographical section of your thesis. Students should consult the department's guidelines for undertaking the thesis option.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Note(s): Open to history majors only.
HI 374 - Thesis Writing
Credits: 3
Write a 40- to 50-page research paper using primary and secondary sources. Students will be required to defend their thesis before the department. The quality of their defense will contribute to their final grade for the thesis.
Prerequisites: HI 373 and permission of the instructor.
HI 376 - How Do You Know That?: A Coda in History
Credits: 1
An exploration of the history of knowledge. A library can be filled with shelf after shelf of books, all themselves filled with history and with knowledge. But have you ever asked yourself: does the library itself have a history? Do the shelves have a history? Does the book have a history? How is it that we have come to organize and store knowledge as we do? What is the history of Western ways of knowing that has so defined most of our educational experience? We will study the history of organizational structures like the dictionary, the encyclopedia, the library, and the periodic table of the elements, and will explore the implications they have had for our ways of both understanding and knowing the world. Open to seniors only.
Note(s): Fulfills Senior Coda Experience requirement.
HI 398 - History Workshop
Credits: 1-4
A topical workshop, discussion group, or lab/studio experience in which individual students or small groups of students will engage in directed independent work in History. Workshops may include (but are not limited to) public history work, targeted research projects, and selected readings in historiography. The shape and content of each Workshop will be determined by the instructor and the student or students undertaking the work.
Note(s): The History Workshop can link to an existing 300-level history course or serve as a freestanding course. May be repeated for credit with a different topic up to four times.
HI 399 - Professional Internship In History
Credits: 1-4
Professional experience at an advanced level for juniors and seniors with substantial academic and cocurricular experience in the major field. With faculty sponsorship and department approval, students may extend their educational experience into such areas as archives, museums, galleries, libraries, historical societies, preservation, and other professional areas.
Prerequisites: Previous study related to the area of the internship experience.
Note(s): Courses at the 300 level are open to sophomores with permission of instructor.