Survey level courses generally focused on a specific geographical region of the world.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of the United States.
A general survey of the political, constitutional, economic, and social history of Britain and Ireland from pre-history to the Revolution of 1688.
A survey of urban life in the early modern world between 1400 and 1750. This course examines the dynamic contours of early modern cities in a variety of cultural contexts, considering how the period's emerging networks of exchange, as well as colonial ambitions, generated new links between decidedly urban spaces across the globe. How did residents experience and use the space of the city to regulate relationships among members of disparate social and cultural groups? Students also assess the status of early modern cities as key sites for the transfer and production of knowledge. The course ends with an introduction to cosmopolitanism in the eighteenth century.
This class surveys the political, social, and cultural foundations of East Asian civilization from earliest times to around 1600. From the rise of states and empires to the Ways of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, we will explore the flowering of Chinese cultural norms across Asia as well as consider the unique expressions of these norms throughout China, Korea, and Japan.
This class surveys the political, social, and cultural foundations of East Asian civilization from earliest times to around 1600. From the rise of states and empires to the Ways of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, we will explore the flowering of Chinese cultural norms across Asia as well as consider the unique expressions of these norms throughout China, Korea, and Japan.
This course rethinks the traditional, historical, and popular presentations of Africa as a coherent, bounded region. It employs a methodology of global interaction to unfold a regional approach to the continent's history, while providing the key analytical tools employed by African historians. It also examines the rise, problematic implications, and continued relevance of the concept of "Africa," "Africans," and "African history." In addition to becoming experts in the nested histories of one particular African locale, students will interrogate the broad wealth of African history and historiography.
A survey of the history of Japan from earliest times to the present. Topics include early Chinese influence, Buddhism, the rise of feudalism, unification in the 15th Century, the era of isolation, the intrusion of the west, the Meiji Restoration, the rise of Japan as a military power and World War II, and postwar recovery.
The course provides an introduction to slavery in Ghana and West Africa and the Atlantic slave trade out of West Africa. The course combines lectures, class discussions, documentaries, and field trips to sites of enslavement, slave markets and resistance to slavery as well as student analysis of contemporary sources. The course is required for all students attending the Ghana on the World Stage program.
A survey of the history of African-Americans from their arrival in the English colonies to the end of the Civil War. African-Americans' struggle with slavery and oppression provide the central theme, but the course will address the various political, economic, social, and cultural conditions which contributed to the development of a unique African-American community. Particular attention will be given to the development of such institutions within this community as family, religion, and education.
This course introduces the history, theory, and practice of public history, examining the ideas and questions that shape and are shaped by public engagements with the past. It engages and evaluates historical works aimed primarily at public audiences in order to determine why and how public investments in the historical past develop and change.
A survey of the major changes in American women's lives since the end of the last century, including increased access to education, movement into the labor market, and changes in reproductive behavior and in their role within the family. Special consideration will be given to the movements for women's rights.
This American History course covers the Black Power Movement’s history from its origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s through the current Black Lives Matter era. Together we review how the Black Power Movement empowered individuals and groups to protest police brutality, advance criminal justice reform, advocate for self-defense, promote Black collective interests, advance Black values, create Black institutions, and secure Black autonomy.
This course explores New York City by studying the migrants and immigrants who have settled there since its founding. It explores how migrants and immigrants change New York, how the city changes them, and the significance of ethnic diversity in the city’s politics and culture. We will read scholarly writings, examine films and music as primary sources, take field trips to immigrant neighborhoods, and visit museums devoted to migration and immigration. At every opportunity, we will venture outside our classroom to learn about the city through direct observation.
A seminar dealing with important political, social, and intellectual movements in American history.
This seminar deals with the historical interaction of Latin America with the United States from 1898 to the present. Specific topics to be examined include U.S. views of Latin America, imperialism, economic nationalism, the Cuban Revolution, guerrilla warfare, the Chilean and Nicaraguan cases, and the drug problem. The course will discuss the goals, perceptions, and actions of the United States and various Latin American governments during this period.
This course examines the military, economic, political, and social upheaval of mid-nineteenth century America. We will consider the failure of antebellum political mechanisms, the growth of sectionalism, justifications for and against secession, the methods and implications of war, competing constitutional systems during the conflict, efforts to eradicate Southern separatism, and the lingering cultural implications of the nation's fratricidal dispute. Students will employ the America's Civil War web site, as well as other media, in preparing for discussions, tests, and research papers.
An examination of the history of the practices of human slavery in the Atlantic World. Topics include the conduct of the transatlantic trade, the Middle Passage experience, plantation systems in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, the role of Atlantic slavery in the transition to industrialism, slave resistance and revolt, and the abolitionist movements.
An examination of the historical origins and development of the discourses of sustainability, sustainable development, and the green economy, which have been ubiquitous, influential, and critically and historiographically under-examined in contemporary U.S. and global society. The course draws on contemporary global environmental historiography, while analyzing key primary sources such as Malthus' An Essay on the Principles of Population, Marsh's Man and Nature, Ehrlich's Population Bomb, Club of Rome's Limits to Growth, the United Nations' Brundtland Commission's "Our Common Future," the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, and the University of the South's Sustainability Master Plan.
History majors engage in primary and secondary research on a topic of interest, culminating in a significant analytical paper. The semester concludes with an oral presentation of each student's research.