Fall, Spring. On demand. Credit, four hours. Examines the Renaissance in the context of its position between Medieval and Modern times, and its close associations with the Classical World. Topics include the idea of the Dark Ages, the rise of Medieval Universities, the Mediterranean and Atlantic economies, learning and the Arts, and the Renaissance idea in other historical contexts, like the Harlem Renaissance.
Fall, Spring. Credit, four hours. Examines the powerful role played by nationalism in Modern Western and World history, and its role in shaping countries and governments. Topics discussed include the idea of the written constitution, revolutionary movements in France and elsewhere, “isms”, mercantilism and capitalism, industry and commerce, slavery, the Victorian ideal, literature and the Fine Arts, and the extreme nationalism of the twentieth century.
Fall. Credit, three hours. Considers the development of American society from tentative beginnings to the Civil War. Special emphasis is given to certain critical periods including colonialism and the Atlantic World, the American Revolution, nineteenth-century reform movements, slavery and the sectional crisis, and the Civil War.
Spring. Credit, three hours. The course introduces the social, political, economic, and diplomatic forces that have shaped modern America. Special emphasis on the changing role of government in American society, defining American freedom, the growing role of America as a world power, and how diverse components of the American population have interacted in American society. Topics include Reconstruction, the rise of the corporate economy, immigration, the Great Depression, America at war in the twentieth century, McCarthyism, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Alternate years. Credit, three hours. The course focuses on the modern Civil Rights Movement in America from the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution to the present with particular emphasis on the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of the grassroots movement that ended legalized segregation.
Fall (alternate years). On demand. Credit, three hours. This course covers the complex historical forces involved in the collapse of the ancient regime in 1789, the French Imperium, the Restoration, the advent of “isms,” and the abortive revolutions of 1848.
Spring. Credit, three hours. This course examines significant historical themes from 1500 to 1700. Topics treated include: the Renaissance Papacy, Protestantism and religious wars, Bourbon France, Hapsburg Central Europe, Tudor-Stuart England, and the Enlightenment.
Spring. Credit, three hours. A course examining mythic kings — historical personages who also appear as iconic figures in legends, folklore, art, and music. Drawing on early European monarchies, including ancient Britain, the course will emphasize broad themes across time.
TBA. Credit, three hours. The Christian church in the West from the Apostolic Age to the Reformation. Topics include early Christianity, the Papacy, schooling and medieval thought, the crusades, the Church and the Fine Arts, and the lead-up to the Reformation.
Alternate years. Credit, three hours. An introduction to oral history as a historical method. Topics include the historical antecedents and usage of oral history, the meaning of oral traditions for the study of history, the ethics of developing oral history projects and approaches, and the technique of creating an oral history project suitable for retention in Oxford College library archives as part of the Oxford Oral History Project.
Alternate years. Credit, three hours. An examination of modern America as a legacy of the New Deal and World War II. Topics include the development of the Cold War and its evolution across presidential administrations; American culture and its critics; and American foreign policy including the Vietnam War and post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Alternate years. Credit, three hours. An examination of the South after the Civil War to the present. Attention given to the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the agrarian South and the growth of an industrial ideal, the development of racial segregation and its consequences, dilemmas of political reform, race and politics, assaults upon segregation and its defenders, and modernization and change.
Alternate years. Credit, three hours. An introduction to the main developments in American society, culture, and politics of the 1960s. Topics include the New Frontier, the Great Society, the Vietnam War as part of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, student activism, the Counterculture, Second-Wave feminism, the New Left, and rise of conservatism.
TBA. Credit, three hours. History of the cultural, intellectual, and artistic expressions of the Caribbean, as they relate to the forced and voluntary encounters of Native, European and African peoples and the socioeconomic structures of global capitalism since the 15th century. It serves both as its homonymous course at ECAS and as complement to Spanish 335. Cross-listed with LACS 362 and African American Studies 385R.
TBA. Credit, one to four hours. Prerequisites: Minimum of one history course and permission of both instructor and chair of the History and Social Sciences Division. Seminar and/or advanced course in selected history topics. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.
TBA. Credit, one to four hours. Prerequisites: History 101 or 102 or History 231 or 232 and permission of instructor. Independent reading and research under the direction of a faculty member. This course does not satisfy distribution requirements in history and social sciences.
