HIS - History

This course examines topics from the Paleolithic Era to the dawn of the Age of Globalization, including: early foraging, pastoral, and agricultural societies; the emergence of urban societies in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas; trade and cultural transmission; concepts of gender; technological transfers; and the emergence of transcontinental and global interconnections through the Saharan trade, the Pax Mongolica, and Malay, Chinese and Iberian ocean explorations. Equally importantly, the course introduces students to the methods of the historian, involving critical thinking, the analysis of source texts, and the use of evidence to address historical questions.

This course examines topics from the 16th through 20th centuries, including: state-building, commerce, and society in Eurasia and Africa; the creation and integration of the Atlantic World; new ideologies; industrial revolutions; changing conceptions of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and nation; political revolutions, genocides, and wars; imperialism and decolonization; and the global impact of the Cold War. Equally importantly, the course engages students in the methods of the historian, involving critical thinking, the analysis of source texts, and the use of evidence to address historical questions.

This course introduces undergraduate majors and minors to the exercise of thinking, researching and writing historically, focusing on the technical, methodological and theoretical skills that guide professional practice in diverse settings: museums, archives, secondary education and universities. Students will learn how to distinguish between evidence and interpretation and how to assess different kinds of evidence. Class meetings will sample representative fields, approaches and primary sources to provide the foundations for independent research in the capstone course.

Surveys the cultural, political, social and economic developments in this country from the discovery of America through Reconstruction.

Surveys the urbanization and industrialization of the nation and its rise to world power.

European History in the 1900s.

A survey of the history of Native Americans in the Caribbean, North America, and South America from the pre-Columbian period through the twentieth century. By focusing comparatively on the themes of colonialism and resistance over five centuries, students will study the range of tactics that Native Americans have adopted to create and preserve their communities, cultures, and sovereignty since 1492.

A study of the development of slavery and relations between European Americans and African Americans in British, Spanish, and Portuguese America from the beginning of European settlement in the New World until the abolition of slavery in the mid-19th century.

A study of the development of American military institutions, policies, experience and traditions in peace and war from colonial times to the present.

A study of the development of witchcraft accusations, beginning with continental Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries and continuing with the later scares in England and New England. Particular emphasis will be given to international comparisons and to the changing social, cultural and economic positions of women.

This course surveys the political, economic, social, intellectual, cultural and diplomatic history of Russia in the Imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet periods.

A survey of women's accomplishments, lifestyles, changing image and struggle for equality and recognition from colonial times to the present.

This course surveys the interplay between China and the outside world from before the Opium War through the late Imperial period, early Republic, Nationalist regime, Japanese invasion, Nationalist-Communist civil war, and the People's Republic, to the present.

A study of Muslims in world history from the 7th to the 21st centuries. This course explores the history of Islamic societies and of Muslims in local and global contexts, including the Middle East, Africa, Central and South Asia, and the West. The course addresses selected topics such as politics and statecraft; religious and cultural traditions and varieties; gender roles; and the challenges and choices that Muslim societies and individuals have faced in classical, early modern, and modern times. Materials include film, fiction and political writing as well as primary historical documents and secondary history textbooks.

An exploration of the history of Africa from the rise of the great Sahel empires to the struggle for independence from European imperialism, with an emphasis on the period from 1500 to 1975. Major topics include the role of Islam, colonialism, nationalist movements, Pan-Africanism, decolonization and the challenges facing newly independent states and societies.

This course surveys Japanese history from the coming of the Western gunboats in the 1850s through the Meiji restoration, the early development of international trade and democracy, the rise of militarism in the 1930s, World War II, the American Occupation, the economic "miracle" and the troubled 2000s.

A study of mid-19th century America, with particular emphases on the political developments, changing regional economies, patterns of interracial, interethnic and interclass relationships, as well as the course of military events during the Civil War.

This course covers an examination and analysis of traditional Chinese history.

This course examines the history of Japan from its pre-historical origins until the rise of modern Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. Special focus is given to indigenous Japanese beliefs, the influence of Chinese political and social values on Japanese life, Buddhist religious culture, the military ethos of the samurai, and the material cultural and attistic achievements of the Tokugawa period. In addition to a conventional textbook, literature and film are used to immerse students in the worldviews of traditional Japan. Group work and collaborative learning is emphasized. 

This course surveys major trends and turning points in the history of sexuality since 1500. We will examine the governing regimes (legal, religious, medical, etc.) that defined sexual behavior and reproductive practices in mainland North America, paying particular attention to the changing relationship between sexual regulation and politics over time. The course will also explore the ways that official pronouncements differed from the actual practices and perceptions of ordinary woman and men. We will ask how factors such as race and ethnicity, class, and gender shaped sexual understandings and behavior.

This course covers the abuse and systematic extermination by the Nazis and their collaborators of millions of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and other peoples of Europe. It deals with Germany and other parts of Europe under Nazi domination.

This course focuses on the struggle for racial equality and freedom in the American South after World War II. It also helps students comprehend this struggle within the broader context of post-Civil War American race relations.

Special courses are offered each year.

An examination and analysis of America's role in the Vietnam Conflict.

This course examines the Modern Middle East and North Africa from the 1500's to the era of modern revolutions and recent conflicts.