Course Descriptions

HIST Course Descriptions

• HIST 101 WORLD HISTORY TO 1500 (3)

  Explores the emergence of the modern world, from prehistoric times to early modem times, through an examination of selected themes across the world's cultures. Themes may include the arts, society and religion, global interaction of cultures or competing ideas of human dignity and self-determination. Special emphasis is given to the role of deep cultural roots over the long term of historical development and the long-term effect of traditional values and cultural practices. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH] [GD]

• HIST 102 WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 (3)

  Explores the emergence of the modern world, from the end of the 15th century to contemporary times, through an examination of selected themes across the world's cultures. Such themes may include the arts, society and religion, global competition and human rights, technological change, nationalist movements and self-determination. Special emphasis is given to the interaction and interdependence of the world's population as a whole. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH] [GD]

• HIST 111 EARLY AMERICA (3)

  This course focuses on the history of the United States to 1860 with emphasis on large-scale social and cultural phenomena such as the origin and impact of colonial migration, the forming of regional identities, the role of political ideologies and the influence of social movements. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH]

• HIST 112 MODERN AMERICA (3)

  Focuses on the history of the United States from the 1860s to the present with emphasis on major social and cultural trends and movements. Topics include impact of race and ethnicity, rise of the New South, role of -political ideologies, reform and labor movements, and migration and immigration. The history of ordinary people is stressed. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH]

• HIST 123 WORLD HISTORY OF ART (3)

  Student explore human creations inspired by the natural world, love and religion. Students are introduced to the iconography and the artistic connections between global cultures, including those of Africa, Asia and Europe. Incorporating the printed works of critics and historians, museum pieces, archeological evidence and electronic media, this course teaches students how to interpret an image as a primary source document, emphasizing the political, religious and urban contexts of artistic creation. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH] [GD]

• HIST 197 CONFLICTS IN HISTORY (3)

  History is an ongoing inquiry and debate, rarely—if ever—set in stone. Introduces students to the major themes of history and the ingredients of the discipline. Presents a selection of major human conflicts of the past 3,000 years and the historical debates they have inspired. Students discover the roots and consequences of American, European or world conflicts in history, using primary sources to hear the actors in their own words. Leads to discovery that many of the problems of the past still have effects in the present. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH] [GD]

• HIST 204 AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1865 (3)

  Examines African American history before 1865, including such topics as the North American slave trade, the lived experience of enslaved Blacks, the lives of free Blacks who were not enslaved and the rise of the abolition movement. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 205 AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865 (3)

  Examines African American history since 1865, including such topics as Reconstruction, the rise of racial segregation and legal White supremacy, Black popular culture, African Americans in all regions of the country and the Long Civil Rights and Black Power movements. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 240 EVERYDAY LIVES (3)

  Social history illuminates the lives of ordinary people. This skills course introduces the methods of the social historian to the beginning student. Students read examples of masterful social histories and engage in original research to produce their own depictions of everyday life in a particular period of the past. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH]

• HIST 250 DIGITAL HISTORY (3)

  Students assess the range and quality of online information about their favorite historical topic. As the projects of amateurs, curators, activists, students, and historians fill the Internet, whose version of the past can we trust? Students engage digital humanities literature and theory, case studies, and map out their topic as it appears on the Web. [AH] [IL]

• HIST 290 GREAT ISSUES IN HISTORY (3)

  Focusing on a single topic or theme of historical and contemporary interest, this course emphasizes the roots of great issues in history. The course focuses on understanding and applying historical methods, analyzing issues in their broader historical context and analyzing a variety of historical sources. The topic for a given semester appears in the schedule of classes. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH]

• HIST 295 THE HISTORIAN'S TOOLKIT (3)

  What constitutes historical evidence? What sources are credible? What historical context is necessary to understand information? How do you uncover evidence about past events? How do you organize information to make an historical argument? This course asks you to consider these questions as you develop historical thinking skills to investigate a person in your past. In the process you will discover ways you can employ historical research methods in a variety of professional fields. Required of all history majors. [IL]

• HIST 306 POPULAR MUSIC IN U.S. HISTORY (3)

  Explores popular music's relationship to social, economic and cultural transformations in the United States' history, with a focus on race, gender, class and sexuality. Topics include hip-hop, jazz, Motown, disco, punk, blues, house and club music. [AH]

• HIST 308 HISTORY OF AMERICAN BUSINESS (3)

  An historical survey of American business and labor from Colonial America to the recent past. [AH]

• HIST 310 ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS (3)

  The origins of European civilizations are traced to the societies of the Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. Special emphasis on the development of complex societies and on such themes as the individual and society; freedom and slavery; and magic, religion and rationalism.

• HIST 312 AGE OF REVOLUTIONS (3)

  A study of European culture and thought from the Renaissance to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Special emphasis on the origins and impact of the scientific, industrial, and political revolutions.

• HIST 313 EUROPE 1815-1914 (3)

  Surveys European history in the 19th ­century, a time of enormous cultural, social, economic, and political change. Focuses on the dominant powers of Europe—England, France, Germany, and Russia—and examines the impact of new ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, and right-wing radicalism. [GD]

• HIST 314 WAR IN EUROPE, 1914-1945 (3)

  World War I destroyed the institutions and values of traditional European society and ushered in a new era of European history. This course covers the causes, experience and impacts of World War I and World War II; the rise of extremist ideologies in the interwar era; the Holocaust, and the development of modernism in European society in the years up to 1945. [HIPL][GD][AH]

• HIST 315 EUROPE SINCE 1945 (3)

  This course examines all aspects of European history since 1945, focusing on trends and issues in both western and eastern Europe. [HIPL] [HAT] [AH]

• HIST 316 BLACK EUROPE (3)

  What were the roles Black people played in Europe's modern history? Why do they remain absent from the way people characterize the continent's history? This course takes a deep dive into the stories of men and women of African descent who contributed to European politics and culture, or subverted norms, since the French revolution. Students will use biographies and autobiographies, fiction, film, and the words of historical figures themselves to discover the extraordinary agency of Black women and men who left their mark on Europe and its colonies. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 321 AMERICA SINCE 1940 (3)

  Examines the United States from 1940 to the 21st century and explores such topics as the Cold War, suburbanization, the civil rights movement, feminism, LGBT activism, the war in Vietnam, deindustrialization, the New Left, the New Right, the War on Drugs, the AIDS crisis, the War on Terror, electoral politics and more. [AH]

• HIST 324 MODERN CHINA (3)

  Introduces the changes and continuities of modern China since 1860. Students learn to apply their knowledge of Chinese history and historical methodology to analyze current affairs. Students read and analyze primary and secondary sources of modern China and engage in original research to construct their own analysis of one aspect of modern Chinese history. [HIPL] [AH] [GD]

• HIST 325 PRISONS AND POLICE IN U.S. HISTORY (3)

  Examines the history of such topics as mass incarceration, the origins of urban law enforcement, convict labor, the War on Drugs, the growth of federal law enforcement agencies and how racial inequality has shaped prisons and policing. May not be used to meet major requirements in the BS in Criminal Justice. [GD]

• HIST 326 MODERN JAPAN (3)

  Explores the historical transformation that has led to the development of modern Japan from the slow decline of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 19th century to present. Covers such topics as the fall of the Tokugawa order; Meiji Restoration and Japan's rapid modernization; the rise of Japanese imperialism and its demise through the Pacific War, and Japan's post-war development in political, economic, social and cultural realms. While developing critical-thinking and communication skills, students also learn to apply their knowledge of Japanese history to analyze an aspect of modern Japanese life. [GD] [AH]

• HIST 328 MODERN KOREA (3)

  Introduces the making of modern Korea over the last two centuries, the tumultuous times that eventually created the two Koreas of today. Examines how Korea changed from an agricultural kingdom to two distinctive Koreas: urban, industrialized and democratic South Korea and communist North Korea. Examples of topics include: changes in Korea Confucianism; Korea's reaction to the 19th century imperialism; impacts of the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945); establishment of two Koreas, and the two Koreas' place in the 21st century world. [GD] [AH]

• HIST 330 IMMIGRATION AND LAW IN U.S. HISTORY (3)

  Provides a chronological overview of the history of immigration to the United States to demonstrate the centrality of immigration to U.S. history. Through examination of the key immigration and naturalization laws and their context, students will see how current discussions on immigration are deeply rooted in centuries-long legal and cultural debates about who is allowed into the country and what it means to be an American citizen. In addition, students will look at the changing immigration patterns and the historical causes and contexts that brought different groups of immigrants to the U. S. at different times, narrating the history of the global U.S.

• HIST 340 AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY (3)

  A general survey of the development of American law from colonial times to the present. Emphasizes the importance of social change and political conflict in legal development. Topics include the reception of English law in the colonies, the establishment of the federal court system and the struggle to modernize American law in the 19th and 20th centuries. Coursework involves the analysis of original legal documents and materials.

• HIST 344 WORLD WAR II (3)

  A comprehensive study of the origins, events, and effects of the 20th century’s second experience in total war.

• HIST 345 POLITICS IN U.S. HISTORY (3)

  Examines lawmakers, political parties and protest movements from the United States' founding to today with a focus on such legislative developments as the Constitutional Convention, laws to both protect and limit slavery before the Civil War, the Reconstruction amendments, Progressive-era and New Deal legislation to regulate business and the social safety net, civil rights legislation of the 1960s and '70s and competing efforts to limit and expand civil rights legislation and corporate regulations from the 1980s to the 21st century [GD]

• HIST 350 HISTORY OF U.S. FOREIGN RELATIONS (3)

  Ever since the 1890s, the foreign policy of the United States has profoundly affected the lives of its own citizens as well as that of many others around the world. This course examines major international events of the past 120 years and the way in which the United States has led and/or responded to them. It also examines different approaches in the study of U.S. foreign relations to broaden the analytical framework of the study of the field. This course, thus, helps expand students' understanding of U.S. history as well as that of the world around it. It also helps them to better understand the globalizing world in which they live, the relevance of U.S. foreign relations to their lives, and their own potential as agents of change . *HIST 350 course satisfies 3 credits of the history major requirement. **This course is an enhanced course that fulfills the requirements of the Helen P. Denit Honors Program. [AH][GD]

• HIST 354 HISTORY OF GERMANY (3)

  A study of Germany from unification to the present, with an emphasis on German politics, society and economics before 1933, the rise and fall of National Socialism, the division of Germany after World War II and the unification of Germany in 1990.

• HIST 360 DARWIN, MARX, NIETZSCHE AND FREUD (3)

  Examines the most controversial thinkers of the 19th century in the context of European imperialism and the Industrial Revolution. The course also brings to light the professional and political achievements of European women in the second half of the 19th century. [AH]

• HIST 364 CIVIL RIGHTS IN U.S. HISTORY (3)

  Explores how legal institutions, leaders and grass-roots movements in the United States have pursued, debated, and defined the concept of civil rights in relation to race, gender, sexuality, disability, immigration status and more. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 375 CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (3)

  A social and political study of the era of disunion and reunion, 1848-1877, with special emphasis on the causes of the conflict and its impact on race relations, national institutions, and the Southern states.

• HIST 380 THE CHESAPEAKE WORLD (3)

  The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in America and a complex ecosystem that has served as a "protein factory" for thousands of years. The Bay's human history includes the Powhatan, the Piscataway, the Nanticoke, the first permanent English settlement in North America, and the first enslaved Africans. This course examines the environmental history of the Chesapeake, the effect of human settlement on its biodiversity, and the ways that history helps us make ethical choices about the future of the bay.

• HIST 381 AMERICAN CITIES (3)

  Urbanization as a major theme in American history, beginning with the establishment of American cities and ending with contemporary urban life. Topics include city and the frontier; the premodern city; the emergence of industrial cities; urban transportation networks; immigrants, bosses and reformers; the emergence of urban institutions; the growth of suburbia; and the urban crises of the 1960s. [AH]

• HIST 382 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE (3)

  Social and economic changes that took place in American cities. Emphasis is placed on a detailed study of Baltimore as it exemplified changes taking place during the period. Major themes are industrialization and racial and ethnic diversity. [GD]

• HIST 385 U. S. WOMEN'S HISTORY (3)

  Using case studies, this course examines the changing roles of women in American society. Topics such as family, work, education, sexuality and women’s rights are explored. Emphasis is placed on both the variety of women’s experiences and the evolving concerns and position of American women as a group. [AH]

• HIST 390 FILM AND HISTORY (3)

  A close study of historic events, people, and issues as interpreted and presented in visual media, primarily feature films, documentaries, or television series. Historical subject and type of media program varies from semester to semester. May be repeated for credit when the topic changes. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 391 HISTORY OF FASHION (3)

  A history of fashion, fashion designers and the global fashion system from the 19ty century to the present. Topics include the iconic designers, the history of African-American fashion, fashion and gender, and how people have consumed fashion. [AH] [GD]

• HIST 396 INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY (3)

  A survey of the professional applications of historical analysis in settings outside academe focusing on the practice of history in museums, archives, historical societies and preservation. Guest speakers and site visits are featured. [TF]

• HIST 434 CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY (3)

  A historical study of the background and establishment of the American Constitution and its political and social effects on American life from 1789 to the 20th century.

• HIST 438 GREAT TRIALS IN HISTORY (3)

  A study of the interplay between society and the conduct and outcome of some controversial criminal trials. With each offering of the course, some of the following trials are studied: Guiteau, Dreyfus, Casement, Sacco-Vanzetti, Scopes, Scottsboro, Hiss and Rosenberg.

• HIST 440 HISTORY OF COMMON LAW (3)

  A study of the common law of Great Britain and the United States through its development in medieval Europe and into the modern period. Both procedure and substance are emphasized. Parallels the School of Law course but is conducted at an undergraduate level. Credit earned in this course cannot be transferred to the School of Law.

• HIST 445 TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGION (3)

  Intensive study of particular topics in the history of religion, ranging from Christianity and Judaism to Eastern religions or American religious history. Topic varies depending on the interests of the faculty and students. May be repeated for credit when the topic changes.

• HIST 460 THE COLD WAR, 1945-1990 (3)

  For almost half a century following World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged each other and their respective allies in an epoch-making global confrontation known as the Cold War. This course explores the origins, evolution and effects of that conflict and its role in shaping modern history. Topics include the nuclear arms race, the series of crises involving Berlin, the U-2 affair, the Cuban missile crisis, related conflicts in Southeast Asia, détente, impact on American culture and more.

• HIST 466 HISTORY OF AFRICA (3)

  Studies in African history from early cultures to the late 19th century.

• HIST 477 TECHNOLOGY AND HISTORY (3)

  Selected topics in the cause-and-effect relationship of technological developments on societies in various historical periods.

• HIST 490 INTERNSHIP (1 - 3)

  Provides an opportunity to gain experience in the practical application of historical analysis through work assignments with the appropriate historical and related cultural agencies. The course instructor and staff at each agency supervise the student’s participation. Course is eligible for a continuing studies grade. prerequisite: approval of the instructor

• HIST 492 INDEPENDENT STUDY (1 - 3)

  Provides for individual work in research. prerequisites: presentation of a research proposal to the program director and permission of the program director.

• HIST 495 SENIOR SEMINAR IN HISTORY (3)

  The HIST 495 Senior Seminar is a capstone course for history major. This seminar-style class will provide students with an opportunity to express their creativity and demonstrate their conceptual understanding of historical works-analyzing primary sources, weighing evidence, and debating historical interpretations. Students' final work can be a traditional research paper, or a project portfolio, depending on their major concentration. This 3 credit-course is one of the two core requirements. Students need to earn a C or higher to fulfill this major requirement. Prerequisite: HIST 295. [CAP]

• HIST 496 SEMINAR IN PUBLIC HISTORY (3)

  Students research and present a major project on a selected topic in public history. Projects are based on collaboration with external organizations or groups.

• HIST 497 SPECIAL TOPICS IN HISTORY (3)

  Intensive exploration of topics in history of mutual interest to faculty and students. Content varies according to the interests of the faculty and students. The topic studied appears under that name in the class schedule.