Tier Three Courses
HIST 299 - Historical Methods (Majors Only)
Prerequisite: 12 hours in HIST
This course studies the ways historians arrive at their interpretation of events. This is accomplished through a history of historical writing or through a special selected topic that illustrates the use of different methods by past and present historians. Students are expected to take this course after completing their four introductory courses for the major.
Outcome: students will understand that history is not a set of facts but a discipline that depends on competing paradigms and the ongoing interpretation of primary sources.
TOPICS COURSES: - HISTORY 300
HIST 300A – Topics
Special topics or new approaches of current interest to the instructor. This course counts as a 300-level history elective. Students may repeat the course for credit when the topic changes.
Outcome: Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.
HIST 300B - Topics in Premodern History
Special topics or new approaches of current interest to the instructor. This course may be used to fulfill the history major distribution requirement in 300-Level Pre-1700 European History or may count as a 300-Level history elective. Students may repeat the course for credit when the topic changes.
Outcome: Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.
HIST 300C - Topics in European History (post-1700)
Special topics or new approaches of current interest to the instructor. This course may be used to fulfill the history major distribution requirement in 300-Level Pre-1700 European History or may count as a 300-Level history elective. Students may repeat the course for credit when the topic changes.
Outcome: Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.
HIST 300D - Topics in U.S. History
Special topics or new approaches of current interest to the instructor. This course may be used to fulfill the history major distribution requirement in 300-level U.S. history or may count as a 300-level history elective. Students may repeat the course for credit when the topic changes.
Outcome: Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.
HIST 300E - Topics in World History
Special topics or new approaches of current interest to the instructor. This course may be used to fulfill the history major distribution requirement for a 300-level course in the history of Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East or may count as a 300-level history elective. Students may repeat the course for credit when the topic changes.
Outcome: Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.
HIST 301A - History of Western Education
HIST 301B - Pre-Industrial City in Europe
This course traces urban development from late antiquity to the early modern period.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the origins and chronology of European town planning and development; and make comparisons with Islamic and Asian cities.
ANCIENT EUROPEAN HISTORY - HIST 307 - 309
HIST 307 – A History of Greece to Alexander the Great
This course explores ancient Greek history, society and culture, from the Bronze Age through the period of Classical Greece ending with Alexander and his empire.
Outcome: Students will be able to evaluate and interpret different types of sources critically and explain how these affect our understanding of the ancient Greeks.
HIST 308A – A History of Rome to Constantine
This course surveys ancient Roman history, with a focus on Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean, the civil wars that ended the Roman Republic, the good and bad emperors of the Principate, and the conversion of Constantine to Christianity.
Outcome: Students will understand the interrelationship among political, social, economic, and cultural developments and develop their research and writing skills.
HIST 308B - Pompeii and Herculaneum
The two best known Roman towns - Pompeii and Herculaneum - whose remains were preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE - will serve as a microcosm for understanding Roman society.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how recent archaeological discoveries have changed our view of Pompeii and Herculaneum and learn to "read" such things as dining and bathing rituals, gladiator games, and public and private architecture to gain insight into the structures of Roman social and cultural life.
HIST 308C - History of Early Christianity
This course treats the history of Christian communities and beliefs from their emergence in cities of the early Roman Principate to the legalization of that religion in the Late Antique period.
Outcome: Students gain familiarity with messianism and eschatology in Second Temple Judaism, evangelization and growth of urban Christian churches, interaction with Roman Imperial government, and the flourishing of monasticism in the period of legalization.
HIST 308D – Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity
This course focuses on the City of Rome itself from the third century up to the reign of Charlemagne. It demonstrates that this period was a time of gradual transformation and continuity. Both literary sources and the archaeology and epigraphy of the City shall be combined to show that barbarian invasions did not destroy the walls of Rome, and that the arrival of Christianity did not cause the fall of classical culture.
Outcomes: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the working of historical mechanisms, evaluate and critically analyze this historical period.
HIST 308E - Barbarians and the Fall of the Roman Empire
This course examines the interaction between Romans and the so-called 'barbarians' such as the Goths, Huns, Slavs, and Arabs from the 2nd to the 7th centuries, with a focus on how new archaeological and skeletal data is changing our understanding of the barbarians.
Outcomes: Students will study the role of neighboring peoples in the collapse of the Roman Empire; interpret archaeological data; compare receptions of immigrants and refugees in the ancient and modern world.
HIST 309 - Shipwreck Archaeology
Students study how the technology of scuba diving combined with scientific archaeology has created a new discipline of shipwreck archaeology since the 1960s. They follow the history of the discipline and explore shipwrecks from Bronze Age Greece to nineteenth-century Chicago.
Outcome: Students understand the importance of vessels conserved at Skuldelev, Lake Nemi and Uluburun for tracing the development of commerce and technology among the Vikings, the Romans, and the Syro-Palestinians of the Levant. They synthesize the research and conclusions of nautical archaeologists worldwide and organize those findings for presentation to a broader public in the coherent and imaginative form of their own Museum.
MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE: HIST 310 - HIST 319
HIST 310 - The Middle Ages
This course examines European, Islamic and Byzantine society and culture in the Middle Ages.
Outcomes: Students will learn of the Middle Ages, including relations between religious and political institutions; cultural developments; the rise of towns; reactions to the Black Death and the Hundred Years War.
HIST 310A – The Medieval World, 1100-1500
This course examines European society and culture in the later Middle Ages.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate understanding of new forms of schools and learning; the origins of national monarchies; the crusades; chivalry; courtly love and the role of women; the rise of towns; church and state relations; the Black Death and the Hundred Years War.
HIST 310B - Medieval Culture
This course explores the three cultures of the Middle Ages - Islam, Byzantium, and Europe, with particular emphasis on art, music, and literature.
Outcome: students will understand how these cultures developed through shared roots, mutual influence, interaction and reaction; be able to interpret artistic expression and material culture in historical context; and gain skill in the analysis of primary sources.
HIST 310C - Medieval Women
This course explores the lives of medieval women from 500-1500 CE. While paying close attention to medieval ideas about gender and sexuality, students will examine experiences of medieval women from a range of backgrounds and social statuses as well as male and female roles in family life, religion, and politics.
Outcomes: Students will understand resources concerning medieval women while gaining appreciation for the need to challenge historical "master narratives" that frequently ignore or minimize the experiences and roles of women.
HIST 310D - Medieval Popular Religion
This course will explore the 'lived' religious experience of medieval people through their actions, behaviors and artifacts. 'Folk' (or pagan) survivals, pilgrimage, music and arts, devotion to saints, magical beliefs and practices, and attitudes to the natural/supernatural world[s] may be covered, depending on subtitle.
Outcomes: Students will appreciate the complex world view and agency of regular medieval people; they will acquire research skills and be able to critically assess primary and secondary source materials.
HIST 311 - The Vikings
The Vikings are popularly thought of as invaders, marauders, destroyers of civilized peace. However, recent research has focused on their society, culture, accomplishments and contributions in a much more positive sense.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of the impact of the Vikings on mainstream European development (and vice versa); a knowledge of recent historiographical issues concerning the Vikings; and an awareness of the various types of primary sources (written and material) for this period.
HIST 312 - England to 1485
This course examines the history of medieval England, with an emphasis on its cultural history as manifested through written documents, material remains, art and music.
Outcome: Students will understand that English culture is an amalgamation of Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French culture, with influences from the Celtic and the Latin culture of Roman Catholicism; and will gain skill in the analysis of primary sources.
HIST 314 – Renaissance
This course examines the political and cultural life of Italy’s five principal city-states (Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Naples) from the era of St. Francis and Dante until the sack of Rome in 1527.
Outcome: Students gain appreciation for the debate about a rebirth of ancient culture in the city-states of Italy. They acquire special cognizance of humanism as a historical phenomenon and the influence of humanism on education, politics, the visual arts and religion.
HIST 314A - The Jesuits: Life and History
his course examines the history of the Society of Jesus from its founding by Ignatius Loyola in the 16th century to its activities in the contemporary world.
Outcome: Students will gain a sense of the characteristics of Jesuit spirituality and the contribution of Jesuits to various fields of human endeavor such as evangelization, education, politics, literature, and the visual arts.
HIST 315 - The Reformation
This course examines the birth and progress of the Reformation in Europe from Luther’s protest in 1517 to the conclusion of the Thirty Years War in 1648.
Outcome: Students gain familiarity with the social, religious, intellectual, and political background of the Reformation; Luther’s personal religious experience and his theological convictions; the Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin; the nature and spread of Calvinism; the elements of the Radical Reformation; and the efforts for Catholic Reform culminating at the Council of Trent.
HIST 317 – The Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment
The course explores the period that leads directly into the French Revolution.
Outcome: Students gain an appreciation of the social and economic role of Western Europe in the world of the 17th and 18th centuries; the nature of classic absolutism as illustrated by the reign of Louis XIV of France; and the origin and evolution of Prussia and Austria as examples of enlightened absolutism.
HIST 318A - Early Modern England, 1485-1760
This course surveys the major political, social, economic, religious, and cultural developments in England under the Tudors, Stuarts and early Hanoverians (1485-1760).
Outcome: Students examine the complexities of the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses; the English Reformation; Elizabethan and Jacobean culture and society; the English Civil War and Glorious Revolution of 1688; the wars against Louis XIV; and the rise of England as a great power.
HIST 318B - English Social History, 1450-1750
This is a course in the social and cultural history of early-modern England. It focuses, in particular, upon the tension between how early modern English men and women saw their world (ordered, hierarchical, stable, divinely sanctioned) and what their world was actually like (disordered, socially mobile, unstable, secular).
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of the best and most recent work in demography, iconography, family history, women's history, and the histories of material culture, popular culture, religion, education and crime, and be exposed both to a wide variety of historical methodologies as well as related fields such as anthropology and art history.
HIST 318C - London 1550 – 1715
This interdisciplinary introduction to the history of London will assess the economic, political, social, and cultural reasons for the city's importance in British and world history.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how a variety of source materials can be are used to develop an urban history of Great Britain's capital and apply this knowledge to enhance their own communication and critical thinking skills.
NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPE: HIST 320 - HIST 329
HIST 320 - Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon
This course analyzes the causes, meanings, and consequences of the French Revolution of 1789 by examining French society and culture from the age of absolutism to the end of Napoleon Bonaparte's empire.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of both the Revolution itself and its effects on the course of world history and become familiar with variety of analytic styles, such as narrative, political, economic, social, Marxist, and revisionist approaches to the history of the period.
HIST 321 - Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1900
This course investigates the main currents of European thought and culture from the Romantic era to the fin de siècle. Using literary texts and music, as well as visual arts, we will study the major intellectual trends of the nineteenth century and attempt to determine their influence on European society.
Outcome: By using their historical knowledge of nineteenth century Europe as a guide, students will develop critical thinking and communications skills about the art, music, and literature of the era.
HIST 322 - Modern France
This course explores the cultural and political development of modern France as a nation and an imperial power.
Outcome: Students gain familiarity with the formation of national identities; the discourse and practice of French nationalism and republicanism; and the forms of resistance and collaboration that shaped relations between citizens and the state, colonized peoples and the empire.
HIST 323 - Germany in the Nineteenth Century
This course will investigate intellectual and cultural responses to major events of nineteenth-century German history, including the Napoleonic Wars, the Restoration, the Revolution of 1848, the unification of Germany, the German Empire under Bismarck and Wilhelm II, and events leading to the First World War.
Outcome: The student will be able to connect German cultural life to political and social developments, and be able to identify intellectual currents such as Romantic Germany, Idealist Germany, and Dionysian Germany.
HIST 324 - Italy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This course studies the major currents in Italy from the defeat of Napoleon to the present.
Outcome: Students explore the political, social, religious, economic and intellectual currents against the background of Italy’s unification as a nation-state.
HIST 325 - Great Britain Since 1760
This course examines political changes in Britain, economic and social causes and consequences of industrialization, and the changing position of Great Britain in Europe and the world.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the political process of democratization and the global affect of economic change on Britain as evidenced in the extension of voting rights, the growth of Empire, the creation of the Commonwealth and participation in the European Union.
HIST 325A - The British Empire 1783-1970
This course examines the rise and decline of Britain’s empire.
Outcome: Students will understand the different factors responsible for its growth; relationship of empire and British economic and political change; place of empire in the Victorian ethos; different imperial governing arrangements; growth of nationalism and movements for independence within the empire and commonwealth.
HIST 326 - Ireland: From Colony to Nation State
This course traces the transformation of Britain's oldest colony into an independent nation between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
Outcome: Students will develop an understanding of how Irish nationalism shaped British and Irish history and use Ireland as a template to develop critical thinking and communications skills about the transformation of colonies into independent states.
HIST 328 - Russia pre-1917: Empire Building
This course examines how, by the middle of the 19th century, Russia emerged as the largest empire in the world.
Outcome: Students will be able to explain how Russia survived the ravages of the Mongols under Chingis Khan, the reign of terror under Ivan the Terrible, westernization under Peter the Great; opened itself to new ideas under Catherine the Great, while it continued to preserve an oppressive institution of serfdom and remained a deeply divided society ready to explode in 1917.
HIST 329 - Women's Sphere in Past Societies
This course examines comparative perspectives on feminism, sexuality, and women in the family and in public life in Europe 1700-present.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate understanding of women’s contributions to history, historian’s perspectives on women in history, and the gendered definition of public and private spheres.
TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE: HIST 330 - HIST 339
HIST 330 - Europe in the 20th Century, 1900-1945
This course traces the origins of the two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century and assesses the cultural and political movements that transformed Europe and the west in those years.
Outcome: Students will develop critical thinking and communications skills about how the contemporary world was shaped by the political, military, cultural, and social transformations in the first half of the twentieth century.
HIST 333 - Germany in the Twentieth Century
This course will cover the major phases of modern German history: Wilhelmine Germany, Volkish Germany, Germany in the First World War, Weimar Germany, National Socialist Germany, Germany in the Second World War, Post-War West Germany, East Germany, and Reunification. While setting forth the background of political and social developments, we will carefully consider responses to these issues by leaders in German intellectual and cultural life.
Outcome: Students will apprehend the role of Germany in World War I; the turn to the Weimar Republic; the Rise and Fall of National Socialism; the emergence of two Germanies as a consequence of defeat in World War II; reunification in 1989; and cultural responses to these developments.
HIST 334A - The Nazi Revolution
The course will deal with the causes, main features and consequences of the Nazi movement in Germany and Europe from 1919 to 1945.
Outcome: The students explore the origins of Nazism and the reasons for Hitler’s success. Students appreciate the elements of Nazi culture, the nature of Nazi rule in the 1930s, Nazi foreign policy and aggression in the 1930s, and World War II. They acquire a sense of the Nazi movement as a phenomenon growing out of unique German circumstances as well as one reflecting the larger context of modern western history.
HIST 334B - The Holocaust and Twentieth Century Genocide
This course explores cases of genocide in the twentieth century and analyzes the Holocaust in depth as its principal laboratory.
Outcome: Students acquire a sense of the causes, processes and implications of recent genocide. They are challenged to develop the outlines of a theory for predicting when genocide is likely to occur and to provide a clear definition of the term. Most importantly, they articulate from the historical data ways to prevent genocide.
HIST 335 - The Second World War
The course examines the history of the war from its origins to the destruction of the Axis powers and the onset of the Cold War.
Outcome: Students will understand the interrelationship among political, social, economic, military, and diplomatic developments as demonstrated in the events of the Holocaust, the spread of nationalism, and the origins of the Cold War.
HIST 336 - Contemporary Europe, 1945 to the Present
This course examines the postwar world, the movement toward European integration; the tensions between East and West; problems and proposed solutions in contemporary Europe, as well as responses to these issues made by intellectual and cultural leaders of the modern age.
Outcome: Students will understand the process of European integration, including the effects of the Cold War on Europe, the challenges of the re-unification of Germany, the integration of ten Central European nations into the European Union, and cultural reactions to these developments.
HIST 337 - Rise & Fall of Soviet Union
This course will cover such issues as the Revolution and Civil War, Stalin’s repression, victories in World War II, the years of stagnation, Soviet society, its institutions and culture.
Outcome: Students will be able to explain how the Russian Socialist revolution came into being, what kind of society it sought to create, and how this new society, the Soviet Union, developed and finally dissolved in 1991.
HIST 338A – History of European Communism
HIST 338B – Eastern Europe in the 20th Century
HIST 339A - Twentieth-Century Peacemaking
The course examines the development and use of peace making tools in the twentieth century through the study of individuals, institutions and historical practice.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate understanding of the language of peace research and the historical development of peace making tools in written and oral presentations and collaborative research projects.
HIST 339C - Modern Europe and the Arts
This course takes advantage of Chicago's access to one of the most important collections of modern European art in the world. The Art Institute of Chicago offers masterpieces representing every major aesthetic movement in Western history. Full appreciation of these treasures involves recognizing the historical circumstances that surrounded their creation and considering the ideas their creators intended to communicate.
Outcome: Students will better appreciate the great works themselves and learn from them about major developments in modern European social, political, and cultural history.
MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, ASIA: HIST 340 - HIST 349
HIST 340A – Egypt’s International Age
HIST 340B - Introduction to Islamic History
This course focuses on the early and medieval history of the states, societies, and cultures of the Middle East from the prophetic mission until the fall of the 'Abbasid empire in 1258.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the impact of Islam as a religious and cultural phenomenon and be able to analyze historically the Quran as well as primary sources from jurisprudence, philosophy, ethics, and historiography.
HIST 341 – The Modern Middle East
This course surveys the modern Middle East, with a focus on the Arab world.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the Ottoman background; the age of imperialism; and the 20th century, and be able to approach the period from an anthropological as well as historical perspective.
HIST 341A - History of Iraq
This course studies the formation of modern Iraq and the failure to implement a democratic state and rule of law since the demise of the Ottoman Empire and British occupation.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of the extent to which the original formation of Iraq was an Ottoman policy, how the ending of Hashemite rule in 1958 empowered in a new group of paramilitary rulers, and why the removal of the ancient regime by American troops has resulted in ever greater instability. Students will make use of anthropological and sociological as well as historical methodologies.
HIST 341B – The Arab-Israeli Conflict
This course explores the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict since the beginnings of the immigration of the East Europeans and Russian Jews to Ottoman Palestine in the late 19th century.
Outcome: Students will gain understanding of national Zionism in Europe; Ottoman and British Palestine; the declaration of the state of Israel; the Palestinian refugee problem; the Arab-Israeli wars; the Camp David agreement and recent peace talks and their aftermath.
HIST 341C – Tunisia On-Site: Arab Spring, Democratic Change, Islam
HIST 342A - African History to 1600
This course traces the history of the African continent to 1600.
Outcome: students will demonstrate understanding of the development and diversity of political, economic, ecological, cultural and religious forces in Africa, as well as the relationship between Africa and other world areas.
HIST 342B - African History Post-1600
This course traces the history of the African continent from 1600 to the present, i.e., from the tumult of the slave trade through Africa's resistance to European imperialism and colonialism, and its eventual emergence as an independent continent.
Outcome: Students will appreciate the legacies of colonialism and place the contemporary problems of independence in historical perspective.
HIST 342C - The History of Islam in Africa
This course examines the development of Islam in Africa, including issues such as Islamic mysticism, eschatology, and state formation.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how and when Islam entered Africa and how the religion shaped African societies prior to the colonial period.
HIST 345A - Traditional China from Antiquity to 1550
This course will trace Chinese history from the origins of classical Chinese civilization in the Shang and Zhou periods to the evolution of an agrarian society under the imperial state.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how domination by aristocratic lineage gave way to the Confucian state and society based on peasant farming; and how a bureaucratic and autocratic polity existed in symbiosis with a socioeconomic elite that maintained itself through the dominance of the agrarian economy as well as through increasing access to the sources of commerce and trade.
HIST 345B - Pre-Modern Chinese History
This course starts with the formative periods of Chinese civilization from the Neolithic era and ends with the Opium War and the collapse of the Manchu Qing Empire in 1911. This course will provide students with an understanding of modern-day China by looking at China's dynamic and multilayered past.
Outcome: Students will learn to: situate major historical events in China's early history in their proper geographical, chronological, and thematic context; and use primary and secondary sources to construct interpretations of historical problems and events.
HIST 346A - Early Modern China: 1550-1800
This course studies early modern Chinese society, economy, and the state from ca. 1550 to 1800, a period which marked the culmination of the development of the centralized, bureaucratic, imperial state and exhibited significant innovations in economic structure and activity.
Outcome: Students will be able to describe the pressure of unprecedented demographic growth, and explain how the society began to experience many of the problems that continue. They will be able analyze China’s failure to build on its earlier economic and technological successes by exploring intellectual life and its relation to scientific and technological innovation.
HIST 346B - Reform and Revolution in China 1800-1949
This course explores China's attempt to adjust to the complex transformations in its economy, society, politics and intellectual life initiated during the early modern period and transfigured into crisis proportions by unchecked demographic growth.
Outcome: Students will be able to describe and assess the numerous evolutionary and revolutionary strategies for change during the period in China under discussion.
HIST 347A - China Since 1949: The People’s Republic
This course examines the attempt to create and foster the growth of a socialist state and society in China under the Chinese Communist Party, with attention to the steady transformation of society, the economy, and political life since 1949.
Outcome: Students will be able to assess the major convulsive episodes such as land reform, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Four Modernizations, and the impact and legacy of Mao Zedong.
HIST 347B - Modern Chinese History
The course is specifically designed for foreign students studying in Beijing with the objective of enabling them to understand the ongoing social, economic and political trends which have roots in the past. The time period studied will span from the end of the 19th century through the 20th century.
Outcome: students will learn to situate major historical events such as the May Fourth Movement in their proper geographical, chronological, and thematic context; and recognize the extent to which history is at the core of current Chinese leaders' speeches, policy making, and rule making.
HIST 347C - Cultural Revolution-China
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a watershed in China's modern history. Over the course of a decade, Mao summoned the populace to battle "bourgeoisie" of the state by attacking various parts of the social, cultural and political structure.
Outcome: Students will examine the Cultural Revolution from the perspectives of political, social, and cultural history, utilizing memoirs, oral histories, documentary and dramatized films, primary documents written by China's party leaders, and scholarly writings; come to understand these events not solely from the hindsight of post-reform China, but from the perspective of the times during which these events unfolded; and develop their own understandings of what these years meant for the shaping of modern China's state, economy, institutions, and citizens.
HIST 348A - Japan 1640-1945: From Isolation to Empire
This course examines the forces in early modern and modern Japanese history which explain Japan’s ability to move so quickly from an era of feudalism to one of the major powers in the 20th century.
Outcome: Students will be able to analyze the political, economic, social and cultural elements of Japanese society which governed Japan’s response to the intrusion of the West in the 19th century, their rapid industrialization and modernization, and their growing imperialism, culminating in war against China in the 1930s and against the U.S. in the 1940s.
HIST 348B - Japan WW II to the Present
After suffering total devastation in World War II, Japan was able to recover and grow economically in an incredibly short period of time. The course examines the political, social, cultural and economic elements that influenced this period in Japan's history.
Outcome: Students will be able to: explain Japan's role in World War II; analyze the impact of American Occupation of Japan; weigh the pros and cons of the United States-Japan Security Pact; and explain how Japan was able to recover so quickly and so well.
HIST 349 - Contemporary Global Issues: Historical Perspective
This course will introduce students to important contemporary issues such as globalization, resurgent ethnic and religious strife, racism, imperialism, and the crisis of the nation state, among others. Both thematic and chronological approaches will be employed in examining selected world regions.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the way history shapes pressing issues in the contemporary world, the way a historical approach helps make sense of these same issues, and the value of comparative study and analysis across time and place.
HIST 349A - Women in East Asia
This course studies the lives of Asian women in China, Japan, and Korea from early modern times to the present by examining changing roles of women and how these changes have come about.
Outcome: Students will be able to explain how life reflects law in the political, social, economic and cultural history of Asian women; how imperialism and war have affected women; how women have effected change.
LATIN AMERICA AND CANADA: HIST 350 - HIST 359
HIST 350 - Colonial Latin America
This course will introduce students to the major themes in the colonial history of the region known today as Latin America from conquest to independence.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the following broad themes: the nature and difficulties of colonial rule in culturally diverse societies; the different ways in which individuals from all walks of life fared in the colonies; and, the role that religion and the church played in everyday life.
HIST 351 - Latin America Independence -1750-1830
This course examines independence movements and wars in the region known today as Latin America. Course readings and lectures will explore the impact of the Enlightenment on Bourbon Spain and Spanish America, new movements toward free trade, friction between the church and state, and crown policies toward indigenous peoples.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the basic contours of independence movements in Latin America.
HIST 352 - Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
This is a survey course that introduces students to the history of Latin America during the nineteenth century through two: 1) Nation Formation: 1780s-1850s and 2) Liberal Reforms and Progress: 1850s-1910.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the persistence of political instability, the problems of economic development, and elite and popular perceptions of race, class, and gender. Students will also be able to draw comparisons between different Latin American experiences.
HIST 353 - Latin America in Recent Times
This course examines major political, cultural and socio-economic developments in Latin America from the twentieth century to today. Topics to be covered include nationalism and revolution, military dictatorship and state oppression, and hemispheric relations.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate a broad understanding of the impetus behind the following events and themes: the Mexican Revolution of 1910; Castro and the Cuban Revolution; Peronism; Dirty Wars in Chile, Argentina and Central America; Cold War politics and CIA operations; and the current Drug War in Colombia.
HIST 355 – The Caribbean and Central American in Colonial and Modern Times
This course examines the Caribbean and Central America from European conquest and colonization to the present day.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the significance of the Caribbean and Central America region in world, but especially U.S., politics since the nineteenth century and increasingly during the Cold War. Students will demonstrate an ability to draw comparisons and contrasts between nations in these regions, especially as they relate to the rest of Latin America and the United States.
HIST 356 - Mexican History from Ancient to Modern Times
This course will introduce students to the major themes in Mexican history from pre-Columbian to contemporary times based on three historical periods: Early Mexico, the Nineteenth Century, and Recent Mexico.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an ability to draw on the major themes in Mexico history as they relate to the Aztec empire, Spanish conquest and colonialism, independence, modernization, revolution, and democratization.
HIST 357 - The Mexican Revolution in Popular Imagination
This course explores debates about the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) by analyzing its interpretation in scholarship and its representations in memoir, fiction, art and film.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the Mexican Revolution as an event and as a myth in history and popular culture.
HIST 358 - Women in Latin American History
This course introduces students to the life experiences of women in Latin America through history, film, oral history, and their personal narratives.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the way notions of femininity have been constructed and have changed over time throughout Latin American history, the various and sometimes subtle ways that women have empowered themselves, and the more overt politicization of women since the mid-twentieth century.
HIST 359A - Inter-American Relations
This course will introduce students to the milestones in and the expressions of inter-American relations from the nineteenth century until today.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the avenues through which people and states in the Americas have interacted in the most likely (war, proclamations, policy-making and intervention) and unlikely ways (art, film, caricature, song, food and tourism), paying careful attention to the larger political and economic factors that have shaped their relationship over time.
HIST 359B - History of Canada
This course offers a survey of the origin and development of Canadian nation from its French colonial roots to the present.
Outcome: Students will understand the unique nature of the French colonial presence in North America, the conquest of Canada by the British Empire, the role of the American Revolution and Civil War in creating the Canadian Confederation, Canada’s northern and western expansion, and the emergence of a modern multicultural and politically liberal nation.
UNITED STATES HISTORY: HIST 360 - HIST 389
HIST 360 – Colonist and Natives in Early America: 1500-1763
This course covers the story of America’s colonial past from its origins in the Atlantic world of the 16th century through its contact and conflicts with Native American peoples.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the process of colonial settlement, colonial labor and economic patterns, trans-Atlantic immigration, Colonial Wars of Empire and the conquest of native lands.
HIST 361 – Creation of the American Republic: 1763-1801
This course covers American history from the late colonial period through the American Revolution to the history of the Early Republic.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the origins, actions and significance of the American Revolution; the development of the United States Constitution; and the development of political institutions under the first two Presidential administrations.
HIST 361A – Pirates and Sailors in the Revolutionary Atlantic
HIST 362 - Building a Nation: 1800-1850
This course covers United States social, cultural, economic, and political development during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how Modern America was built between 1800 and 1850 through the study of urban development, immigration, gender history, educational developments, wars of expansion, and the growth of a democratic society.
HIST 363 - Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877
This course covers the crisis of the Union from the Compromise of 1850 through the Civil War and the era of Reconstruction.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the institution of slavery, the rise of abolitionist sentiment, the failure of democratic political institutions, the military history of the war, its cultural impact on the nation, and the struggle for racial justice in the Reconstruction era.
HIST 364 – Emergence of Industrial America: 1870-1900
This course covers the industrial transformation of the United States during the late nineteenth century.
Outcome: Students will understand the rise of corporations, labor unions, and the process of immigration, the rise of anti-immigrant ideologies, and the movements of reform and protest that were inspired by industrialization.
HIST 365 - Workers in Industrial America
This course examines the lives of workers during the period of industrialization in the United States from the 1830s to the 1980s.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of the social, cultural, and political consequences of economic change, to draw links between industrialization and class formation, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 366 – The United States: 1890-1940
This course focuses on American history from 1890 to 1940, a period characterized by the consolidation of the modern industrial nation.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of the politics, economics, and government of the United States, the struggle of between isolationism and interventionism in American foreign relations, and the problems associated with equity and unity in a diverse population between 1890 and 1940 and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 366A - World War I and American Culture
Although World War I’s impact on America paled in comparison to that of the European combatants, the wartime experiences affected the nation's economic, political, and cultural life for the remainder of the twentieth century. This course examines America's World War I experience and explores its legacy.
Outcome: Students will understand how the United States underwent the transformation from a relatively minor player on the international scene to an international presence, how those living through these years experienced social, cultural, economic, and political challenges associated with American life in the twentieth century; and how the roads taken and not taken during this period have shaped the options available to us today.
HIST 367 - Contemporary United States, 1940 to the Present
This course focuses on American history from 1940 to the present, a period of international engagement and domestic reform.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of the politics and government of the United States during a period of Cold War, struggles for equality and diversity, and the Vietnam War, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 368 - 19th Century U.S. Popular Culture
This course examines the social and cultural patterns of nineteenth century life as revealed in popular novels, theater, folklore, and art.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American traditions of success, family, home, slavery, and culture, to draw links between gender and social life; and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 369 - 20th Century U.S. Popular Culture
This course examines the social and cultural patterns of twentieth century life as revealed in popular novels, vaudeville, movies, music, nightlife, and advertising.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American traditions of success, family, home, consumption and culture, to draw links between gender and social life, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 370 - American Economic and Business History
HIST 371 - American Social History
This course examines aspects of American social history including family, ethnic, racial, immigrant, and community history.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American society undergoing change over time, to draw links between ethnic and race relations, to learn oral history methods, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 372 - American Constitutional & Legal History to 1865
This course focuses on the constitutional and legal history of the U. S. from colonial times to the end of the Civil War.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American legal traditions of common law, federalism, and civil liberties, to draw links between social and legal change; to evaluate U. S. Supreme Court decisions, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 373 - American Constitutional & Legal History Since 1865
This course focuses on the constitutional and legal history of the U. S. from the end of the Civil War to the twenty-first century.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American legal traditions of federalism, civil rights, criminal justice, and civil liberties, to draw links between social and legal change, to evaluate U. S. Supreme Court decisions, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 373A - Crime and Punishment
This course examines how notions of crime and punishment have evolved between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (with the early modern period serving as a backdrop).
Outcome: Students will be able to draw conclusions on what precisely caused the shifts in punishment, with attention to such things as the professionalization of the judiciary, industrialization and urbanization, the American Civil War, and Constitutional changes. Students will also gain an understanding of sociological and anthropological approaches to this topic.
HIST 374 - Black Politics
This course will present a general overview of black politics in America, including the major black political ideologies and their theoretical underpinnings and the role of race in urban politics in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how the circumstances of Reconstruction shaped black political ideologies; how blacks came into political power in major urban centers; and what the contours of debate are in the black community over provocative issues such as the criminal justice system, affirmative action, reparations, and education.
HIST 376 – History of the American Frontier Movement
This course will cover the process of frontier expansion in American history.
Outcome: Students will understand the frontier as a social process that was part of the American experience from its earliest colonial origins to the end of the nineteenth century. Students will also understand the frontier as a place in the western United States where Americans engaged in cooperation, conflict, and conquest with native peoples, Mexicans, and Asians.
HIST 376A – The History of the American Indian
This course is a survey of the history of American Indians, including the variety of Pre-Columbian societies, the encounter between Indians and European settlers, the impact of Eurasian diseases, American Indians' fight to avoid removal from their homelands, and the resurgence of Indians as sovereign peoples.
Outcome: The student is to emerge from the course with an enhanced ability to appreciate the unique cultures and experiences of American Indians; appreciate the many and important ways in which Indian peoples have changed and adapted over time; and understand the religious, racial, and cultural values that motivated European-American policies toward American Indians.
HIST 377 - History of Illinois & Midwest
This course is a survey of Illinois history in the context of Midwestern American experience. The course covers the broad span of Illinois history from the prehistoric past to the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Outcome: Students will understand the events and people that shaped the development of the Midwest region and the State of Illinois.
HIST 378 - Hispanics in the United States
This course introduces the history of Latinos in the United States from the Spanish Colonial period to the present.
Outcome: students will develop a greater appreciation and understanding of the important roles played by Latino men and women in U.S. society; the heterogeneity of the Latina/o population, including generational, regional, class, and gender divisions; and the formation of transnational immigrant communities.
HIST 379 - African-American History to 1865
This course is a general survey of African-American history from its African origins through the Civil War.
Outcome: Students will understand the gradual evolution of slavery in the colonial period, the impact of the American Revolution on African-Americans, the institution of slavery, and the role of African-Americans in ending slavery through the Civil War.
HIST 380 - African-American History since 1865
This course is a general survey of Africans in America from the period of the Civil War to the present.
Outcome: Students will understand the success and failure of Reconstruction, the rise of legal segregation in America, the growth of African-American self-help, the two World Wars and the major northward migrations, and the rise of Civil Rights and Black Power movements.
HIST 380A - Islam in the African-American Experience
This course traces the development of Islam among African Americans from West African societies prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the influence of Islam on popular culture in the 21st century.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of how Islamic identity was maintained in the face of slavery, how and if African-American Muslim communities differ from their emigrant counterparts, and how black nationalist groups such as the Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam influenced the Islamization of black consciousness in the 20th century.
HIST 381 - Rebels & Reformers in U.S. History
This course explores the success and failure of radical political and social movements in the United States.
Outcome: Students will understand five major movements for social change in the United States: abolition, women’s rights, socialism, peace, and the quest for racial equality.
HIST 382 – Immigration
This course offers a survey of racial and ethnic groups in the United States from the colonial era to the present.
Outcome: Students will understand causes of immigration, the pressure for and against assimilation of cultures, and the impact of social and economic mobility on the immigrant experience.
HIST 384 – The Irish Diaspora in America
This course examines the origins and diversity of Irish migration to the United States since the eighteenth century.
Outcome: Students will use historical knowledge to develop critical thinking and communications skills about the first large American ethnic minority and its impact on the history of the United States.
HIST 385 - The History of Chicago
This course surveys the history of Chicago from its origins to the present, using the city as a case study of American urbanization.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of Chicago’s environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political history, to draw links between race relations and urban change, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 386 - American Urban History
This course examines the process and impact of urbanization in North America from the Precolumbian era to the twenty-first century.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of the environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political history of North American cities and develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 387 – History of American Education
HIST 388A – The Vietnam War
This course offers a comprehensive examination of origin, execution, and failure of America’s war in Vietnam.
Outcome: Students will understand the ancient origins of the Vietnamese nation, the rise and fall of the French colonial regime, the role of Vietnam in the Cold War, the peace movement, the political and cultural impact of the war on America, the success and failures of the United States military, the impact of the war on the Indo-China region, and the memory of the war in American culture.
HIST 389A - Asian American History
This course studies the Asian migrations to Hawaii and the continental United States examining reasons for migration, changing U.S. receptivity, immigration legislation, Japanese/Japanese American internment, postwar migrations, and experiences of later generations of Asian Americans.
Outcome: Students will be able to: analyze the continuities and changes in the experiences of Asian Americans from 1850 to the present; compare and contrast the history and experiences of Asian Americans by looking at issues of class, gender, ethnicity, age, and immigration status.
HIST 389B - Gender, Race, and Class in US History
This course examines the historical interplay of gender, race and class in the lives of African-American and white women in the United States.
Outcome: Students will understand critical themes and periods in the development of racism and sexism, especially the ways in which the two relate; differences and similarities in the manifestations of and reactions to racism and sexism in the lives and thought of African-American and white women of differing class backgrounds.
HIST 389C - Men and Women in US History
This course examines the changes in gender roles and the relationship between men and women from the colonial era to the present.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate understanding of the changing expectations about and definitions of men and women of how families were organized, how childrearing was handled, who made up the home, and how work and family production followed a sexual division of labor.
HIST 389D - History of Sexuality in the U.S.
This course examines the history of and changes in the sexual behaviors and attitudes in the United States from the era of European colonization to the present.
Outcome: Students will understand the impact of social and political change on sexual norms and behavior, specifically, changing standards of sexual morality, the evolving of boundaries of sexual behavior, and their effect upon the structure and organization of the American family, physical intimacy and personal identity.
HIST 389E - American Culture and Society on Film
This course examines aspects of twentieth century history using motion pictures as basic texts. Themes vary from semester to semester
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American social and cultural change in the twentieth century, to evaluate motion pictures as historical documents, and political history, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 389F - The Sixties
This course focuses on the turbulent years from 1960 to 1974 in American history, a period of active social movements and foreign wars.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of American social, political, gender, and cultural change during the 1960s, to draw links between popular mobilizations, countercultures, and social change, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 389G – History of the U.S. Environment
This course surveys the environment and environmentalism in United States history, from the transformation of New England into a farm ecology, the expansion of the cotton South, the settlement of the West, to the rise of industrial cities, suburban sprawl, and the globalization of the economy.
Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate historical knowledge of environmental thought and ecological science, to draw links between environmental concerns and public policies, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 396H - Honors Colloquium
Prerequisite: honors standing or permission of history honors director.
Directed readings and discussion around a central historical topic or problem; normally includes oral reports and written assignments, such as essays or book reviews. The topic or problem varies from semester to semester.
Outcome: Students demonstrate appropriate historical scholarship, analysis and writing.
HIST 397H - History Honors Tutorial
Prerequisites: honors standing; senior standing.
In this capstone course, honors students undertake a major research project and produce a senior thesis.
Outcome: Students demonstrate appropriate historical scholarship, analysis and writing.
HIST 398 - History Internship
This course provides three hours credit for students engaged in history related internships in the public and private sectors.
Outcome: Students will be able to obtain an internship position, to learn on-the-job from an experienced practitioner in a wide variety of public and private sector settings, to draw links between their present situation and historical research, and to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
HIST 399 - Directed Study
This course provides students with the opportunity to work under the direction of a faculty member on a particular area of interest that is not part of the department’s usual curriculum.
Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of a specific area of history through the close reading of selected texts and the preparation of a research paper.