111 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.
Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the major events and themes of the "long" 20th Century and how they shaped the contemporary world from both American and global perspectives. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
Cultural elements and social institutions in the West and the East from earliest times through the Renaissance. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
Developments in civilizations from 1500 to the present, with emphasis on Western civilization and its interrelationships with the non-Western world.
This course examines the history of the United States from colonial times to the present. It emphasizes the history of key ideas including nationalism, sectionalism, imperialism, industrialism, and identity.
This course examines the social, economic, political, and intellectual development of the United States from the beginning of the Colonial period through Reconstruction. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive
An exploration of the ways that America's history since 1865 is relevant to today. This course emphasizes themes that thread our nation's past and present. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available. 2026-2027 CATALOG - UNDERGRADUATE
This is a special topics course that provides an alternative to the traditional introductory histo survey courses. While traditional history surveys cover a range of eras and numerous topics, this course will focus on one historical theme, event, period, movement, person, debate, etc., and be covered in a manner suitable for non-majors. Topics will often reflect popular contemporary interests and newer trends in history. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
History Transfer Credits
This course examines the history of controversies within and concerning the discipline of History. In examining those controversies, this course accomplishes two key goals for history majors: it introduces them to the features and issues of historiography -- the history of the history discipline -- and asks them to evaluate the professional and ethical responsibilities of historians within the larger society. In particular the course examines why there have been vastly different ideas about what the purposes and uses of history ought to be, how those differences have shaped the discipline of history, how these disagreements get expressed through public, political controversies about what "correct" and "proper" history is, and how historians identify, evaluate and resolve professional and ethical conflicts within their discipline. Gen Ed Attribute: Ethics Requirement Distance education offering may be available.
This course examines the history of how people have understood and experienced health and sickness, and how people have practiced medicine and had medicine practiced upon them, from ancient times to the present. It places particular emphasis on the historical relationship between expert and lay medical knowledge, and in understanding how cultural values have informed the diverse ways that different societies have practiced medicine. The course similarly explores how medical knowledge and practice have become a potent form of cultural authority open to both great accomplishments and great abuse. In particular, we will examine how women, persons of African ancestry, persons with disability, and other historically marginalized groups interact with medical knowledge and practice. Using the analytical tools of social constructivist theory, the course examines how medical knowledge and the practice of medicine can be agents used to maintain structural inequalities. Crucially, however, marginalized persons and their allies also have used their own medical knowledge and practice to challenge those inequalities. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities, Health Humanities Pathway, Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
How do scientists decide what counts as a scientific fact and what does not? How and why does that change over time? How have politicians, religious leaders, other scientists, and ordinary people sought to dispute scientific findings they thought were wrong? This course examines the history of science in conflict. It studies some of the most famous and misunderstood moments in the history of science, like the Galileo Trial and the Scopes evolution Trial, and includes everything from the history of scientific consensus and public confusion about climate change, to bets about if the Earth is flat or round, to ancient philosophers debating if anything ever changes at all. Doing so lets us explore the history of who and what are recognized as legitimate sources of knowledge about nature, and the significance of social factors, especially race, class, gender, and religious and political belief upon the construction and reception of scientific ideas. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
This course offers a survey of some of the most fascinating topics and heated debates of pre- modern Middle East history, covering the periods of Islamic Origins, Golden Age, and Global Connections. Students will analyze crucial moments in Islamic history and understand how these pre-modern roots have lasting effects on our world today. Gen Ed Attribute: Arabic Culture Cluster, Humanities Distributive 2026-2027 CATALOG - UNDERGRADUATE
ry This course provides a general introduction to the modern Middle East, including topics such as European imperialism, nation-building, the Cold War, and the war on terror. Rooted in a global comparative perspective, the course highlights the Middle East as a diverse region, home to many religious traditions and cultural practices. Gen Ed Attribute: Arabic Culture Cluster, Humanities Distributive Distance education offering may be available.
Focusing on the Russian Empire from the reforms of Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century to the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty in 1917, the course examines the experiences and perspectives of the empire's diverse peoples. It immerses students in the world of imperial Russia via role-playing simulations and the analysis of primary sources. Students develop the critical skills of reading, writing, and speaking from the perspective of a historian and from the perspective of multiple historical figures in conventional and creative genres. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive, Russian Culture Cluster, Speaking Emphasis
History Transfer Credits
Historical research techniques. Methodology, historiography, and varieties of history.
Survey of the historical and cultural background of China. Emphasis is given to the significance of China's modern period and its impact on world affairs. Gen Ed Attribute: Interdisciplinary
Study of dominant cultural, philosophical, and historical patterns that have influenced the development of China as it is today and the traditional way in which Chinese approach their own history. Gen Ed Attribute: Interdisciplinary
Study of the religio-cultural heritage of the Islamic world against a historical background. Selected areas of Middle, South, and Southeast Asia will be utilized to illustrate the flowering of Islamic arts, architecture, and poetry. Includes geography component. Gen Ed Attribute: Interdisciplinary Distance education offering may be available.
A survey of African history to 1875, providing regional coverage of the entire continent, and an examination of African oral traditions.
A survey of African history since 1875, focusing on European colonialism, African resistance, and contemporary developments.
This course examines the origins and impact of eugenics -- the pursuit of "improving" humanity through the elimination of "undesirable" populations -- on people with disabilities. In particular it looks at the history of higher education and many of its academic disciplines in order to understand the origins of eugenic thinking, research, and advocacy, the prominence that these notorious and ugly beliefs had within the highest rungs of the highly educated elite, and the efforts of people with disability to resist eugenics. In this course students use the tools of history to grapple with a difficult question: how did so many seemingly "good" people that we associate with enlightenment, learning, and good works, fail to recognize the evil of their eugenicist assumptions, research, and public health recommendations? How can our historical study of persons with disability and their efforts to challenge ableism in the past guide our thinking and practice in the present?
Examines Latin American women 1500 - present. Focuses on intersections of class, race, and gender; relations between private and public spheres; changing women's experiences over time. 303
Pre-Columbian period, colonial Latin America, and movements for independence; Indian, European, and African backgrounds; government, economy, society, religion, culture, and enlightenment. Interaction of diverse cultures in the New World. Gen Ed Attribute: Spanish Culture Cluster
Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries; liberalism, conservatism, dictatorship, revolution, socialism, industrialization, agrarian reform, cultural-intellectual achievements, and international relations. Topical approach, using individual countries as case history illustrations. Gen Ed Attribute: Spanish Culture Cluster
Mexico from Pre-Columbian period to present, including civilizations of Mayas and Aztecs, Spanish conquest, Colonial period, movement for independence era of Santa Ana, La Reforma, Diaz dictatorship, Mexican Revolution, cultural-intellectual achievements, international relations, and modernization of Mexico since the Revolution. Gen Ed Attribute: Spanish Culture Cluster Distance education offering may be available.
Classical Greece and Rome with consideration of economic, social, intellectual, and political history. Selected writings of the ancients.
Western Europe from the fall of Rome to approximately 1300. Economic, social, political, and intellectual developments in the major kingdoms of the West; the history of the Universal Church.
Political, economic, social, and cultural forces that emerged in Europe from 1300 to 1650. The evolution of modern states and the rise of the middle class. Distance education offering may be available.
Focusing on the formation of a vast and diverse Russian empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the course explores tensions between an emerging sense of Russian national identity and the racialized practices that sustained imperial rule. It includes substantive study of peasants, workers, women, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and colonized peoples. As students analyze and interpret the multiple ways in which the empire's marginalized peoples experienced and resisted structural inequalities, they develop skills in historical thinking, writing, and speaking. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities, Russian Culture Cluster
A study of key social, political, and cultural themes of the French Revolution from its origins during the ancient regime to the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Gen Ed Attribute: French Culture Cluster
Examination of the ways in which social and historical constructions of gender intersect with perceptions and experience of war and peace. Gen Ed Attribute: Interdisciplinary
European fascism and communism; totalitarianism confronts liberalism; interaction between domestic politics and foreign policy; polarization of European politics; disintegration of the political institutions of the traditional state. HIS 331 has a recommended prerequisite of AP European History completed in high school or HIS 102 but does not require it. Distance education offering may be available.
Focuses on ethnic, nationalistic, economic, and religious causes of the Holocaust, including 20th-century Nazism, racism, and anti-semitism; study of the Nuremberg trials. Distance education offering may be available.
Examination of the colonial experience of Europeans in the parts of America that became the United States, from Columbus's voyage in 1492 to the eve of the Revolutionary War. 304
Arts Gen Ed 3 Concentration Class 3 Concentration Class 3 123 Credits 15
The course covers the vast expanse of Jewish history going back to 2000 B.C., tracing the story of a people who belong to one of civilization's major monotheistic religions. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities Distance education offering may be available.
The role of the American military in shaping the course of the nation in the 20th century. Offered in fall semester.
An examination of the transformation of the American landscape, the history of American environmental policy, and the development of today's environmental crisis.
The theory and practice of American diplomacy from Colonial times to the present with emphasis on the 20th century.
A study of violence in American society as an instrument of change and a method of social control. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities
A survey of the rise of the American city from early Philadelphia to the modern metropolis. The recurring themes of growth, immigration, social mobility, city politics, city planning, urbanism, and suburbanism.
An examination of the rise of American mass consumer culture, commercialization of leisure, development of the mass media, and redefinition of normal and deviant behaviors.
Examination of the stress and conflict in American politics, arts, literature, and society of the 1960's. Gen Ed Attribute: Writing Emphasis
An interdisciplinary study of American civilization through the examination of its built environment and crafted and manufactured artifacts from the colonial period to the mid- twentieth century. Equivalent courses: AMS 367
Encompasses four hundred years of gay and lesbian history, culture, and politics, from colonial settlers and Native American cultures to the present with emphasis on the 20th century. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities
Exploration of the historical and mythical American West, from pre-Columbian America to the present.
A survey of Indian civilization on the continent of North America and the confrontation of this civilization with white culture.
A survey of African-American history from 15th century West Africa to the present that focuses on the evolution of African-American culture and identity, and the struggle for freedom and racial equality. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities
This course will examine the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the factors that both encourage and impede resolution. Consideration will also be given to the history of the U.S. involvement in the conflict.
This course examines the relationship between academic scholarship and the presentation of American History in film. 2026-2027 CATALOG - UNDERGRADUATE
This is a cultural, military, and social history of the Revolutionary Era. It covers a period of time from the mid-eighteen century through the formation and ratification of the federal constitution and the adoption of the Bill of Rights.
Examines U.S. involvement in the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. Consideration will be given to religious, economic, and diplomatic activities as well as involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Students will learn about prominent women in Islamic history, with a focus on the medieval period. Students will learn to read historical texts "against the grain" through the lens of feminist history. Gen Ed Attribute: Arabic Culture Cluster, Diverse Communities, Speaking Emphasis Equivalent courses: WOS 381
Complete 3 credits from the following including any not 3 selected above.
This course studies the history of childbirth and reproductive healthcare in the United States from colonial times to the present day. It focuses on the social, medical, political, cultural, and personal circumstances that have shaped the experiences of sex, contraception, conception, and childbirth.
Topics may vary each semester. Emphasis on student research and discussions. Repeatable for credit.
Topics may vary each semester. Emphasis on student research (in class and online) and discussions (in class). Distance education offering may be available. Repeatable for credit.
Topics may vary each semester. Emphasis on student research and discussions. Repeatable for credit.
The Capstone course for History majors gives students an opportunity to conduct extensive original research, shared with peers through written and spoken-word presentation formats commonly valued by scholars. Topics will vary with instructor. Senior-standing strongly recommended. HIS 400 Prerequisite: Successful completion of HIS 300. Gen Ed Attribute: Speaking Emphasis, Writing Emphasis Distance education offering may be available.
A general survey of Brazil from 1500 to the present. Emphasis will be placed on economic and political issues, slavery and race relations, literature, and current ecological problems relativ to the Amazon Basin.
Research projects, reports, and readings in history. Repeatable for credit. 2026-2027 CATALOG - UNDERGRADUATE
This course examines the ethical implications of nuclear weapons; the history of the scientific, technological, social, political, and military circumstances surrounding their invention; the consequences of their use by the United States against Japan; and the ongoing ways in which their presence shapes film and literature, religion, politics, foreign affairs, ethics, and scientific research. It places particular emphasis on the United States' decision and ability to create and use the bomb, and subsequent efforts to make sense of the unfathomable power of these weapons through film, music, television, moral philosophy, and religion. The course examines how scientists, artists, and lay persons envision nuclear power as both the ultimate source of liberation and of doom, and the ethical implications of atomic diplomacy.
Slavery has existed in many times and places throughout history, and it continues to exist in new forms throughout the world today. This class tackles the difficult problem of defining, recognizing, and resisting slavery on a broad geographic and temporal scale. It also seeks to g unpack the moral and ethical problems posed by global slavery: what exactly makes slavery wrong, and how could so many people throughout history have condoned this institution? Gen Ed Attribute: Ethics Requirement
The British people and their mores, institutions, and achievements from the earliest times to the Glorious Revolution.
England as a world leader during the Commercial and Industrial revolutions, the evolution of nd the democratic process, and the emergency of liberalism followed by the democratic welfare state.
Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries: Napoleonic era, rise of Prussia, nationalism and unification, imperialism and World War I, National Socialism, World War II, and divided Germany. Gen Ed Attribute: German Culture Cluster Distance education offering may be available.
This course examines the history of communism. It traces the origins and development of Marxist theories of inequality as well as sometimes tragic efforts to put Marxist theory into practice in, among other places, Russia, China, and Cuba. Particular attention is paid to choices and commitments of individual communists. What vision of a new world motivated communists? What solutions to class, gender, and racial inequalities did they propose? Why was their idealism so often twisted into carnage? Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities
Its rise and fall in light of traditional Russian patterns and the communist experiment. Gen Ed Attribute: Russian Culture Cluster
A survey of modern France from the Revolutionary era through the turbulent 19th century to the post-World War II recovery. Major themes include the social cultural political, and economic aspects of modern and contemporary France. Gen Ed Attribute: French Culture Cluster
e This course will explore the major issues pertaining to developments in Europe in the "long 19th century", roughly from 1789 to 1918. Topics include the impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars on European life, the industrial and political revolutions of the century, and the advent of liberalism, socialism, nationalism, feminism, and imperialism. Distance education offering may be available.
This course traces the history of the Jews in the United States from the earliest communities of the 17th century to the present. Topics will include Jews in the American colonies, Jewish immigration in the 19th century, anti-Semitism, Zionism, Jewish labor movements, the growth of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism, and the impact of the Holocaust and Israel. 305
This course offers an historical examination of the complex historical, political, social, economic, and cultural influences that have contributed to the current state of education in America. Gen Ed Attribute: Humanities Distributive
Contact department for more information about this course. Repeatable for credit.
The course examines the way ideas about women and gender have shaped the lives of Americans, their daily routines, social roles, and search for rights and identities from the pre- colonial period to the present. Gen Ed Attribute: Diverse Communities, Speaking Emphasis, Writing Emphasis
Contact department for more information about this course.
A fully supervised learning experience designed to expose students to the culture, artifacts, and research facilities of a given country or area.
Introduction to digital tools and technologies for conducting and disseminating historical research, with an emphasis on putting digital approaches into practice through course blog and production of a class website. Gen Ed Attribute: Digital Literacy Pathway
Basic techniques and procedures in research; major types of research and methods for locating, evaluating, and interpreting evidence. The student develops a tentative outline, bibliography, and summary of an investigative procedure. Required of all degree-program students.
The traditional basis for modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean societies. The interaction between European and Asian cultures and resulting changes in East Asia.
Recent history of major Middle Eastern societies; Iran and the oil situation; Israel and the Palestinian question; conflicting cultures.
Emergence of modern African nationalism against the background of traditional African society and the legacy of European colonialism.
Course examines the evolution and roots of human prejudice and bigotry from a variety of perspectives - historical, sociological, and psychological.
Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries: Napoleonic era, rise of Prussia, nationalism and unification, imperialism and World War I, National Socialism, World War II, divided Germany and Reunification.
Rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire, conquests of the Arabs and Turks, the crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land; the religious orders and the universal aspirations of the Papacy.
Major and minor Protestant leaders and their movements; effects on the evolving nation-states; the Church of Rome's response; Wars of Religion and Treaty of Westphalia; the Scientific Revolution.
The central themes of the French Revolution, from the origins during the ancien regime to the fall of Napoleon and Congress of Vienna.
Aftermath and effect of the French Revolutionary era; events brought on by the growth of nationalism and democracy; development of the industrial revolution. Roots of the First World War.
Twentieth-century Europe, with emphasis on causes of World War I, Europe between World War I and World War II, and problems of contemporary Europe
This course assesses Jewish life and thought in the context of major European historical developments during the 19th and 20th centuries. Special attention is given to the emancipation and acculturation process and the proliferation of anti-Semitism.
This course explores the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish Question," the core of the Nazi Holocaust as it was administered in each country in Europe under German occupation during World War II.
The study of steps leading to the Holocaust (1933-1945), the Holocaust itself, and the aftermath. The rise of Nazism is included. Distance education offering may be available.
In-depth study of human rights abuses, particularly those that end in attempted genocide. Students will study the terms “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “crimes against humanity,” as well as the various “genocides” that have occurred throughout the world over the last few centuries.
This course studies the other victims of the Holocaust: Gypsies; homosexuals, people with handicaps, Jehovah's Witnesses and others.
An examination of women's experiences in Nazi-occupied Europe. Also explores the role of gender in Nazi ideology and in postwar testimonies.
Development of the 13 colonies of Anglo-America from their settlement to mid-18th century. Emphasis on a conceptual analysis of specific events and problems.
American development from the mid-18th century to the framing of the Constitution, with emphasis on the causes of the American Revolution and the evolution of American institutions and ideas throughout the period.
A historiographical approach involving interpretations of the foundations and development of the Federalist Party, emergence of Jeffersonian Democracy, evolution of Jacksonian Democracy, and events of the Middle Period leading to the decade of controversy.
The war and its aftermath as the great watershed of United States national history. Emphasis on the conflicting interpretations of the causes, nature, and effects of the Civil War.
The rise of industrial capitalism, urbanization, mass consumer society, and culture, and the impact of modernization on class gender, race relations, governance, and foreign policy.
American foreign policy in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East from 1945 to the end of the Cold War. Objectives sought by the United States and the political, military, economic, and social policies pursued during the Cold War.
The dispossession of the American Indian: land seizures, wars and treaties, cultural contact; customs, mores, economic, and religious life of the Indian; assimilation and preservation of Indian culture. 176
A fully supervised learning experience in a professional setting, designed to provide students hands-on experience in one or more aspects of public history.
A critical examination of significant works on selected topics in the field. Repeatable for credit.
A critical examination of significant works on selected topics in the field. Repeatable for credit.
A critical examination of significant works on selected topics in the field. Repeatable for credit.
Selected problems in American history. Subject announced in advance of each semester.
A fully supervised learning experience, usually a tour, designed to expose students to the culture, artifacts, and research facilities of a given country or area.
Research projects, reports, and readings in history.
This course allows students to complete the research necessary to the writing of a thesis.
This course allows students to complete their thesis. HIS 692 Prerequisite: Successful completion of HIS 691.
Source: West Chester University of Pennsylvania's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 59
