52 courses with the subject HIS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
This course explores important episodes and trends in the history of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas from ancient times until the late eighteenth century. Participants study the origins and worldwide expansion of Christianity, the dramatic 145
This course explores the expansion of political participation in Europe from the Atlantic Revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to the present. Students study the commercial revolution in Europe and North America as well as other areas of the world. They examine the experiences of societies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas as global capitalism emerged and European and North American colonial empires expanded. The course also treats the two World Wars of the twentieth century and the emergence of powerful challenges to liberal democracy worldwide, including communism, fascism, and anti- colonial nationalism. It concludes with the study of particular episodes and trends in world history after 1945. At the instructor’s discretion, these might include the Cold War, emergence of the United States as a superpower, the rise of mass consumer societies, decolonization, changes in gender and family relations, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other themes. The course emphasizes the written analysis of primary and secondary documents. This course fulfills the History requirement on the Social and Historical Pillar in the Foundations Program. HIS 114 is not a prerequisite. (Fall, Spring)
This Honors course explores human ideas and experiences that have shaped the Western World from ancient times through the Middle Ages. The ages of classical Greece and Rome, the rise of Christianity, the emergence of medieval culture and thought, the slow evolution of national identities, and myriad political, religious, and social conflicts of the pre-modern eras are explored. The course emphasizes written analysis of primary and secondary sources. This course fulfills the History requirement on the Social and Historical Pillar in the Foundations Program. (Fall, Spring)
This course studies the rise of the modern state, the rise of scientific inquiry and modern science, the course and implications of industrialization, and the role of ideology as an agent of politics, revolution, and war. The course emphasizes written analysis of primary and secondary sources. This course fulfills the History requirement on the Social and Historical Pillar in the Foundations Program. HIS 116 is not a prerequisite. (Fall, Spring)
This course exploits the unsurpassed opportunity afforded by the city of Rome-its ruins, monuments, churches, museums, and piazzas-to consider the development of Western Civilization over the past three millennia. No urban environment can better illustrate the remarkable overlay of cultures that have influenced and reflected the world, first as a capital city for the ancient Republic and Empire, then for Western Christianity, then as the unifying center of the Kingdom of Italy, and lastly for the post-War republic. This course is offered exclusively at the University’s Rome campus. This course fulfills the History requirement on the Social and Historical Pillar in the Foundations Program. Assignments will include a daily journal about what you learned about civilization in Rome during that day’s excursion in the city, a short paper on the historical significance of a site we visit, active engagement in excursions and discussions, and a final paper that discusses four sites (ancient, Catholic, Renaissance, and Risorgimento) that you believe help visitors to the city learn about civilization in Rome. The final paper will be due after returning home from the Rome campus. ×
From Rome’s rejection of Etruscan supremacy to the death of Justinian. Emphasis on Rome’s transition from Republic to Empire and on the subsequent transition from paganism to Christianity.
Led by the humanists’ rediscovery of the classical world, Renaissance writers, artists, political analysts, philosophers, and theorists opened new horizons of culture and learning. Europeans developed critical attitudes toward the past, explored the globe, established new methodologies for nearly every discipline, and created new modes of artistic and literary expression in ways that profoundly shape our world today.
From the Kievan period (tenth century) to the Bolshevik Revolution with special attention to such topics as Byzantine influence, westernization, technological development, art and literature, and revolutionary tradition. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course is a survey of colonial Latin American history. It traces the historical origins of Latin American society, focusing on the clash of cultures. Themes include an examination of the Iberian and pre-Columbian societies; conquest and subordination of Amerindian civilizations by Spain and Portugal; the distribution of power; land and labor issues; and the order and instability of colonial society.
Human sacrifice, cannibalism, bloodletting, confession, penance, miracles, and the Virgin of Guadalupe all make up the diverse religious beliefs of Latin America. This course examines these beliefs from the Aztec and Maya, to the Spanish conquistadors, to their descendants, and presents students with a firm historical understanding of the establishment of Christianity in the Americas. We will explore the similarities and differences between Latin America’s religious beliefs in the colonial period, with a particular emphasis on the spread of Catholicism and its successes and failures in replacing preexisting beliefs in Mexico and Yucatan.
An interdisciplinary course that seeks to integrate the methodology and findings of anthropology, biology (genetics and nutrition), history, and linguistics in the study of representative Indian groups within select culture areas; for example, the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Eastern Woodlands, the Northwest Coast, the Southeast, the Southwest, and the Plains.
This interdisciplinary course considers in depth some important issues and problems concerning interactions with Native North Americans past and present. Topics include traditional cultures and cycle of life as well as interactions with non-Natives from the 17th century to today. We will focus on several case studies of such interactions. Examples include (but are not limited to): 1) King Philip’s War (1675-1678). In proportion to population, this vicious conflict inflicted greater casualties than any other war in American history. 2) 19th-century wars between the Lakota and the United States and their aftermath. 3) Reinvention of the Mashantucket Pequots and the creation of Foxwoods. 4) James Bay Cree struggles over land and sovereignty in the Canadian Subarctic (northern Quebec). This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
A survey of Canada’s history from pre-colonial times through the present. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course explores the development of European colonies in North America with emphasis on the English colonies that eventually formed a political union and became the United States. Rather than focusing solely on the experiences of European settlers, we analyze a series of encounters among Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans throughout the colonial period, placing these exchanges within the broader context of the emerging Atlantic World. We also use a comparative approach to examine the emergence of distinctive regional patterns among those colonies and their roles in the imperial contests of the era. Topics addressed include the organization of early American culture around the interactions of Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in North America; the diverse origins of explorers, settlers, and migrants; the political, cultural, and economic development of English colonies; slavery and other labor systems; and the first rumblings of the American Revolution produced by tensions within and beyond colonial British America.
This course examines how African Americans have resisted racial oppression by defining themselves as both part of and apart from American society. Beginning in the age of slavery and emancipation, it traces this tension in Black culture between integration and self-determination through Jim Crow and the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements and into the present, concluding with a discussion of Afrofuturism and the Obama era. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course is an introduction to the study of women. The course develops a coherent, integrated view of women and their roles; emphasizes the full range of contributions of and the limited opportunities for women; examines and appraises the experiences of women; and critically examines the thinking about women at various times and from various perspectives. The basic approach is interdisciplinary and the concentration of the course is on women in North America from the 19th century to the present. This course fulfills the Social Science requirement on the Social and Historical Pillar in the Foundations Program. (Fall)
An investigation of the emergence of Germany, France, and Great Britain as great world powers and their subsequent collapse after the First and Second World Wars. Special consideration given to the influence of imperialism, militarism, and power politics.
In this course we will study the art and science of diplomacy by concentrating on the dramatic decisions and errors that led the Great Powers to create the Concert of Europe, which shaped European foreign relations throughout most of the nineteenth century, and later abandon it. After a preliminary set of readings on diplomats and their craft, we will turn our attention to four of the most significant foreign policy developments of the nineteenth century: the Congress of Vienna of 1815, the London Conference of 1830 (which addressed the issues at the core of the revolutions of 1830), the Crimean War and the Paris Peace Conference of 1856, and the Berlin Conference of 1878. As we examine how each of these events unfolded, we will concentrate on the decisions made by the governments and their foreign policy experts, as well as the factors that shaped these decisions. In an effort to explore the circumstances and options that faced Great Powers during these tense times, we will conduct role-playing exercises that will enable each member of the class to place themselves in the shoes of the diplomats we will be studying. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
Diplomatic history of Europe since 1914 with an emphasis on the political collapse of Europe, the German problem in an age of international civil war, and the beginning of the Cold War. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course explores the intersection of culture, politics, religion, and science in Europe from the seventeenth through the eighteenth centuries, a period of convulsive change in which the contours of the modern West were formed. The class introduces students to the richness and variety of creativity across many disciplines in a period typically designated as the “Golden Age” within the literary and artistic cultures of Spain, France, England, Italy, Holland, and Germany.
A study of the political, social, and cultural history of the Austrian Empire, and particularly its capital city, Vienna, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Topics include the rise and decline of the Austrian Empire, the emergence of political liberalism, the rise of the “new Conservatives,” the crisis of traditional Austrian society and culture, and the crisis of Viennese modernism. The final third of the course takes a detailed look at the life and experiences of Adolf Hitler, who grew up amid all of these dramatic changes and crises -- crediting them with shaping his racist and reactionary worldview. The final goal of the course will be to evaluate the accuracy of Hitler’s assessment regarding the impact of Vienna on the tragic course of the twentieth century.
This course explores cultural, political, and economic changes in America from the age of imperial crisis through the era of the Early Republic. In addition to tracing the political history of the founding, we examine the experiences of Americans from diverse backgrounds, including women, slaves, free blacks, Native Americans, merchants, farmers, common soldiers, abolitionists, artisans, loyalists, and others. We examine their multiple perspectives on the Revolution, the drafting and ratification of the 150
The emergence of conspicuous consumption and mass marketing are often associated with the twentieth century, but both have precursors going back centuries. This course examines advertising and consumer culture in America during what historians have termed the “consumer revolution” of the twentieth century. In addition to exploring the meanings of goods and the culture of acquisition and display, we will interrogate connections between consumer habits and political activities during the era of the American Revolution and into the early nineteenth century. We will consider formative debates, including whether supply or demand caused the consumer revolution and to what extent commerce and consumer politics played a role in the American Revolution. We will also grapple with enduring questions: Do consumers have moral and ethical responsibilities when they make purchases? In what ways do politics intersect with consumption? We will consult a variety of primary sources – newspaper advertisements, magazine wrappers and inserts, broadsides, catalogs, pamphlets, trade cards, bill heads, subscription proposals, bills of lading, printed blanks, watch papers, and furniture labels – as we analyze how early Americans participated in consumer society.
This course examines the sectional conflict, the inability to resolve problems, issues leading to secession, the military, political, and social dimensions of the Civil War, and the era of Reconstruction. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
An exploration of how Americans and Vietnamese on all sides of the conflict experienced the war (1945–1975) and sought to discern meaning from it. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
“What is public history?” Public history covers a broad array of methods and formats for educating general audiences about the past beyond classroom setting. The public regularly encounters history in a variety of venues, from civic architecture (including statues and monuments) to entertainment (including Hamilton!) to political debates about the meaning of the past and how to teach about it. General audiences also seek to be educated and entertained at public history sites, including museums, living history sites, and national historical parks. In the process of examining the diverse manifestations of presenting the past beyond the classroom, we will analyze the professional issues and political problems that practitioners of public history face. This will include an exploration of the relationship between historians and communities engaged in conversations and debates about both the purpose of history education and the intersections of history, cultural memory, heritage, and commemoration. Students will also gain practical experience through participating in a Community Service-Learning project or internship in collaboration with a local public history institution or organization. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course traces the history of the Cold War through the lens of American policy, politics, and culture. Students explore the causes, character, and consequences of the Cold War by considering the role that strategic, political, economic, cultural, and ideological forces play in shaping events and their outcomes. The effects of the Cold War on life and culture (economic relationships, gender and race relations, popular culture) in the United States and around the world are treated in depth. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course explores the history and meaning of September 11, 2001. We consider how and why the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon occurred. We also contemplate the significance of the attacks in the realms of American politics, culture, film, and public spaces. How is history made? How is it remembered? Who has the power to decide? By exploring these and related questions, we come to appreciate the complexity of the question “what happened?” on this day or any other. And we become attentive to the myriad ways in which the past is ever unfolding into the present—and the present into the past. This course fulfills the Forum requirement in the Foundations Program.
This course permits the study of selected topics in history. The topic normally changes each time the course is offered.
Open to highly qualified Junior and Senior history majors. Permission of the Chair is required.
This course examines the history of the Near East from 50 BCE to 750 CE. The course addresses a very critical period of transition for the Near East, one in which a variety of religious experiences structured the life of people in classical times and late antiquity. It analyzes broad social issues such as the changing patterns of urban rural interaction, the growing power and influence of marginal societies such as the peasants of Mesopotamia and the Bedouin of Arabia, the transformation of traditional authority and the emergence of effective new symbols of power. The course ultimately traces the significant developments by which the Near Eastern societies were transformed from classical Roman and Imperial Persian paradigms into a unified caliphate under the new religion of Islam.
On occasion, students with a special interest in teaching history may work as assistants in the planning, teaching, and evaluation of one of the department’s introductory courses. Open only to juniors and seniors.
This course introduces the historical method of research, writing, and analysis. It explores how historians construct and defend historical arguments and the many sources and implications of interpretive difference. (Spring)
Designed primarily for history majors and minors in their junior or senior year, the Pro-seminar is formally linked to the History Seminar (HIS 402), taught by the same instructor in the same semester on a topic of the instructor’s choice. The Pro-seminar offers a broad survey of an historical subject or period, while the Seminar provides an opportunity for in-depth study and independent research on a discrete topic. (Fall)
A writing- and research-oriented course designed primarily for history majors and minors, the Seminar introduces students to the practice of historical scholarship. Students intensively study an historical problem or subject, and they conduct individual research on different aspects of the seminar topic. Previous seminars have treated the American Revolution, Slave Narratives, Renaissance Humanism, the Holocaust, Salem Village Witchcraft, the Dreyfus Affair, the Vietnam War, and World War II in the Pacific. The seminar is taken in conjunction with a Pro-seminar (History 391), a course providing background and context for the seminar topic. The Pro-seminar is taken in the same semester as the Seminar, usually in the junior or senior year. (Fall)
Source: Assumption University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
