HISTORY

Janet Pope (1998), Chair, Professor of History
B.A., Rider College;
M.A., Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara
Academic Interests: European history, British history, and the history of women and gender in Europe. Her area of research is medieval Britain.

Merose Hwang (2012), Assistant Professor of History
B.A., University of Colorado at Boulder;
M.A., Yonsei University;
Ph.D., University of Toronto
Academic Interests: modern East Asian history, Korean history, and the history of gender in East Asia. Her area of research is the history of female shamans and modernization in colonial Korea.

Vivien Sandlund (1995), Professor of History
B.A., M.A., M.Ed., University of Massachusetts;
Ph.D., Emory University
Academic Interests: modern American history, African American history, and the history of women in America. Her area of research is slavery and abolition in North America.
 

Departmental Web site: http://www.hiram.edu/history

The History Program at Hiram College

The study of history is critical for our understanding of the human experience. Through the study of history, we develop an understanding of who we are, where we came from, how and why our society has changed over time, how we differ from people in other places and times, how societies different from ours have developed and changed, and how humans have interacted with each other and with the natural world.  The history major at Hiram College prepares students for a wide variety of careers. Hiram College history students have gone on to become business leaders, lawyers, teachers and professors, political leaders, government workers, librarians, and leaders in non-profit organizations. History majors are superbly prepared for active citizenship and for informed, thoughtful decision-making throughout their lives. The Hiram College History Department works closely with students to help them with career planning and preparation. The History Department also brings speakers to campus to discuss career opportunities for history majors.

Requirements for Majors

History Pathway

The history major requires a minimum of 10 courses or 32 hours. We advise students who wish to pursue graduate work to take more than the minimum number of courses. All history majors must take a minimum total of eight courses in any 3-3-2 combination in the three geographic regions: U.S., Europe, the World outside of Europe and North America. For example, a student may take three U.S. history courses, three European history courses, and two courses in the history of the rest of the world. 
 
History majors are also required to take History 38000, a junior research seminar, the topic of which varies from year to year, and the senior seminar History 48000. Before a student can progress to the senior seminar sequence, they must have earned at least a 2.5 grade point average in the major or alternatively to have earned at least a B (3.0) in History 38000.  In addition, the department requires foreign language proficiency. This requirement can be satisfied by passing a language through the 20100 level or by testing out of a language by passing a proficiency test administered by the Modern Languages Department.

History majors have the option of concentrating in a particular field of history. The concentrations we offer are history and law, gender history, and a regional area of history, such as Asian history. Students should discuss choosing a concentration with a faculty member in the History Department. Students who are majoring in integrated social studies for the purpose of obtaining a license to teach will have different requirements and should consult with the Education Department in conjunction with the History Department. The History Department counts all Hiram history courses when calculating grade-point averages.

The History Senior Seminar

History majors are required to complete a professional-quality research paper in the senior year and to present their papers to the community in a public forum. The seminar paper should demonstrate thorough research using both primary and secondary historical sources, and the department encourages students to make an original argument supported by credible historical evidence. Students work with individual faculty members to research and write the seminar paper, and they meet regularly with a group of fellow history students to discuss and revise their theses. With the completion of their papers, students present their work orally to the Hiram College community. History majors may choose to continue their research in the spring semester in order to graduate with honors in history.  Students with majors other than history sometimes choose to do the senior seminar with the History Department. Students interested in doing this should consult with history faculty members before the senior year.

Requirements for Minors

A minor in history consists of 5 courses or a minimum of 18 hours in history. Students must take at least one course in each of the three content areas: U.S. history, European history, and the history of the rest of the world.  

Special Opportunities

The History Department involves students directly in doing historical research and writing history. We encourage and guide our students to think like historians and to get involved actively in the reconstruction and analysis of the past. History students may participate in extra mural programs which give them an opportunity to study history in the field. The department offers study trips to such destinations as Japan, the Caribbean, and England. Students can also do internships in the United States. History students have worked in archives and historical societies and as interns for members of Congress. Students may study at the American University in Washington, D.C. They may also take part in the Drew University Semester on the United Nations.

The department is located in Pendleton House which is also the center for various academic and social activities of history majors.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

HIST 12100: KNIGHTS PEASANTS AND FRIARS EUROPE 500 TO 1450:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

The course examines the state of Western Civilization after the decline of Rome and analyzes the emergence of Medieval Civilization. Considerable attention will be given to the original accomplishments of the High Middle Ages and the waning of the era and its blending into the Modern Age. Emphasis is on cultural and social history. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 12200: BREAD BARRICADES AND BOMBS MODERN EUROPE 1450 TO PRESENT:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

Begins with the Renaissance and Reformation, continues with the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, moves on to the French and Industrial Revolutions, and to the most recent age. Cultural history is stressed throughout, but every effort is made to integrate the more conventional forms of history in the course. A student may not receive credit for both First Year Seminar (124 or 12400) and History (122 or 12200). This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 12400: THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

This course will provide an introduction to Ancient History from the beginnings of civilization in the Fertile Crescent to the end of the Roman Empire in the West. Although the Greeks and Romans will receive considerable attention, the class will also deal with other cultures of the region, beginning with Sumeria and Egypt, and including the Hebrews, Assyrian and Persian empires, Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and Celts. The course will focus on major features of society and government, religion, and intellectual life, rather than detailed political narrative. Students will read extensively in primary sources from the ancient period—literature, law-codes, religious texts, etc. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 12800: WORLD HISTORY 1000-1800:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

This course explores how various civilizations strengthened their societies at home and formed connections with the broader world through the use of innovative cultural, social, and economic structures. Major themes considered in this course include the tremendous growth of commercial culture in Song dynasty China (960-1279), the creation of nomadic empires across Eurasia, the contribution of aristocratic women to literature in Heian Japan and medieval Europe, the challenges faced by the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas, the maintenance of empire by Mogul rulers in India, and the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Throughout the course we will examine how different cultures adapted to the challenges of their periods in an attempt to survive and prosper. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 13800: WORLD HISTORY, 1750-PRESENT:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

This course analyzes how a variety of global civilizations have attempted to negotiate a path between tradition and modernity in recent centuries. Major themes entertained include wide-ranging reform movements in Meiji Japan (1868-1912) and late Ottoman Turkey; industrialization as a transformative influence in early modern China and early to mid-nineteenth century Great Britain; the role of European and Japanese imperialism in Africa and Manchuria respectively; French decolonization in Vietnam and Algeria; and the struggle for greater social, economic, and racial equality in places such as South Africa, India, Venezuela, and Bangladesh. Over the course of the semester, we will assess the various dimensions of maintaining or altering indigenous traditions. Likewise, we will consider the struggle over borrowing systems of thinking and technology from abroad or keeping these alien influences at bay. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 14000: U.S. HISTORY TO 1865:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

An introduction to the history of the United States, from the earliest European contacts through the end of the Civil War. Major topics will include the economic and religious motivations of the European colonists, their conquest of Indian societies, the War for Independence, the Constitution, the development of political parties, the commercial and industrial revolutions, westward expansion, immigration, religious revivalism and reform, and the onset of sectional conflict culminating in the Civil War. Throughout the course, we shall confront the origins of a central paradox in the history of the United States: the existence and importance of slavery in a nation founded on ideals of freedom and equality. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 14100: U.S. HISTORY 1865 TO PRESENT:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

A history of American political, economic, and social life from 1865 to the present. The course examines the impact of the Civil War on American life, the period of Reconstruction, and the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course also surveys World War I, modernization in the 1920s, the Great Depression and the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the affluent society, the Vietnam era, and life in modern America. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 14200: THE AMERICAN TRADITION OF CONSERVATION 4 hour(s)

This course will look into America's historical relationship with the natural world. Topics of conservation, environmentalism and ethics will be covered.

HIST 14300: THE OHIO FRONTIER 4 hour(s)

This course is an examination into the history of Ohio in the eighteenth century. During this period, Ohio changed from an undefined wilderness to the first state created out of the Northwest Territory. The region known as the Ohio Country was fought over by two European powers, multiple English colonies, numerous indigenous tribes and the fledgling American republic. Attention will be directed toward the social, political and cultural conflicts as well as the accommodations that drove settlement patterns and cultural development in early Ohio.

HIST 18000: WORKSHOP 1 hour(s)

This workshop will provide the opportunity for students to examine a special topic in History. Through readings, discussions and written assignments there will be opportunities to evaluate the topic at issue. Workshops may be taken Pass/No Credit only. Students may take no more than nine workshops for credit toward graduation. Workshops can be used as elective credit only. (For PGS students only.)

HIST 20400: THE ERA OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1750-1800:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

In the American popular memory of today, the Revolution is sealed in the iconography of a generation of "Founding Fathers." Through an in-depth consideration of changes in American society over the second half of the eighteenth century, we will resuscitate the conflicts, the possibilities, and the disappointments of this era. Shifting beliefs and alliances enabled Americans to mobilize for war. Americans not only fought against the British for independence, they also vigorously fought with one another over what the Revolution should mean in their daily lives. The Revolution was significant for the lives of all Americans, whether ordinary artisan or wealthy merchant, woman or man, slave or free. By studying the series of events that pushed Americans from resistance to Revolution and beyond to the establishment of a new federal governament under the Constitution, we will witness repeated battles over the distribution of power, wealth, and status within American society. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 20600: GUNMEN ORANGEMEN AND FENIANS:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

The emergence of modern Ireland. What exactly is the IRA? Why are the English and the Irish continually at war? In order to answer these questions, we must examine the complex relationships among the people of the two territories by exploring the history of Ireland beginning in the sixteenth century. A related theme that we will address is the interplay between religion, social institutions, and politics. The course will also sharpen your use and understanding of the historical sources to reason about the past. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 20700: MODERN JAPAN 1600 - PRESENT 4 hour(s)

This course explores modern Japan from military consolidation and the establishment of a strictly regulated system under the Tokugawa to the economic boom that followed in the wake of the Pacific War. Students will be asked to challenge the notion that Japan was ever completely isolated culturally and to assess how both native and foreign institutions shaped Japan's evolution in the modern period. Major themes entertained in this course include the Tokugawa administrative structure; bakufu-han relations; the commercial economy and urbanization; the influence of imperialism; Meiji period reforms; changing gender and class roles; rapid industrialization; democracy and its opponents; the impact of Japanese militarism on the nation and East Asia; the Allied Occupation; and Japan’s economic recovery.

HIST 20800: MODERN EAST ASIA:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

This course will track the period that defines East Asia’s 'modern era.’ It will be an overview of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and borderland histories, covering roughly the 17th century to the present. Some prevalent themes that we will be dealing with are colonialism, nationalism, modernity, gender, state-building, popular media, and the construction of history. We will be using oral histories, still images, and documentaries as a means to understand and analyze the past through various textual mediums. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 21200: SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS IN EARLY AMERICA:CA,UD 3 hour(s)

This course will explore the two religious revivals historians have referred to as the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. The time frame of our inquiry will be roughly 1730 to 1850. While these two Protestant revivals will receive close attention, the definition of spiritual awakening will be more broadly conceived to encompass a wide range of other spiritual innovations within the time frame of our inquiry. Students will study topics as diverse as the Seneca revitalization movement of Indian prophet Handsome Lake, the founding of Mormonism, and the birth of African-American Christianity in the plantation South. Students will be asked to consider the social contexts for revival religion. What developments in secular society seem to inspire movements for religious revival? Alternatively, we will explore how religious impulses reorder secular life. How did various sects reconfigure sexual and social behavior within their communities? Did revivals cause a redistribution of power within American? This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 21300: SELLING SHANGHAI:EW 3 hour(s)

The city of Shanghai, in modern times, has always been both a fantastic chimera and a tangible place of unlimited possibilities. As a metropolis, it is recognized as something that virtually all Westerners know as Chinese, but most Chinese recognize it as a location that is an eclectic blend of Chinese and many other cultural influences from abroad. The Shanghai that we will explore in this course is a marketplace of commodities and services as well as ideas. We will discover that Shanghai, more so than most cities in China, is a location where virtually anything is possible, but where all have to come to terms with the culture of the city itself (and with the Jiangnan region generally) in order to have success there. In the course, we will consider how goods are sold, how services are marketed, and how and why organized crime has had such a prominent presence there. The first two weeks will be spent gaining an understanding of the cultural and historical significance of Shanghai. In the last week, students will have the opportunity to design an entrepreneurial enterprise for the city of Shanghai. Students will study a practical example of a company that has experience negotiating the market in China as a way of planning their own enterprise with Shanghai as the base for entry into the Chinese market. This course fulfills the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 22100: CONCUBINES MOTHERS & SAINTS:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

European women and the family C. 200-1500: This class is designed to explore the major developments in the history of women and family from c. 200 to c. 1500, with a special emphasis on social and cultural history. The core of the course will investigate late Roman, early Christian, and early Germanic women's roles and how these three cultures fused in medieval Europe related theme that we will examine is the interplay between religion, social institutions, and politics. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 22200: KINGS AND VIKINGS:THE FORMATION OF ENGLAND:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

This class is designed to explore the social, religious, and political history of early medieval Britain from the end of the Roman occupation to the Norman conquest. The course investigates the formation of the kingdom of England and the role that the Vikings played in that development. In order to assess the Scandinavian influence on Britain, we will also study the Vikings at home and in their various overseas kingdoms. A related theme that we will examine is the interplay between religion, social institutions, and politics. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 22300: MEDIEVAL TOWNS AND TRADE:CA,EW OR 3 hour(s)

This class explores the development of medieval urban life, its links to the market economy, and the roles of several important medieval entrepreneurs. We will examine late antique urban decline, gift/plunder economies of the early Middle Ages, and the revival of towns and commerce in the central and late Middle Ages, which we will see was the result of entrepreneurial activity, some individual, some collective. We will also analyze the interplay between political, social, religious, and economic institutions. Indeed, we will examine entrepreneurs in the market economy such as great merchant and banking families like the Fuggers and the Bardi, educational entrepreneurs such as Peter Abelard, and even religious entrepreneurs like Francis of Assisi. The course will also sharpen your use and understanding of the historical method--the critical use of both narrative and record sources to reason about the past. Counts toward Entrepreneurship Minor. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis and Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 22400: SPINSTERS & SUFFRAGISTS:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

Modern European women and gender. This class is designed to explore the major developments in the history of women, gender, and the family from c. 1500 to the present with a special emphasis on social and cultural history. The core of the course will investigate how the modern ideals of liberty and equality have been both denied to and applied to women. The course will also examine European institutions and events that have shaped women's lives, in particular, political and industrial revolutions and the world wars. A related theme that we will discuss is the interplay between ideas, social institutions, and politics. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement. Counts towards a Gender Studies Minor.

HIST 22700: COLONIZATION & EXPLOITATION:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

The British Empire. This class explores the political, economic, and intellectual history of the British Empire. The course investigates the formation of the empire and its role in the modern world. We will study the interplay among ideas, social institutions, and politics; this examination will help us to understand how and why the British influenced the cultures of the peoples they ruled. The course will also sharpen your use and understanding of the historical method-the critical use of both narrative and record sources to reason about the past. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 22900: REFORM & REVOLT, 1450-1650:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

The course will concentrate on the continental Protestant and Catholic Reformations with extensive reading of primary sources and periodical literature. Economic, intellectual, political, and social trends will also be examined as well as the interrelationship between aesthetic trends and history. A major theme of the course will be the waning of the Middle Ages and the tentative beginnings of the modern era. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement. This course is equivalent to the former HIST 33100.

HIST 23000: WORKERS UNIONS BOSSES & CAPITALISTS:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

History of labor in the United States. The economic and technological transformations that carried the United States into the industrial age brought significant changes in the patterns of everyday life. This course examines the effects of such changes from the perspective of working people in the 19th and 20th century United States. Topics include the development of the market economy and industrial modes of production, class formation, working-class political organization, immigration, slavery and emancipation, the sexual division of labor, the rise of corporate capitalism, consumption and the commercialization of leisure, the welfare state, the global economy, and the nature of work in "postindustrial" society. Also listed as Economics 23000. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 23020: BROTHEL TO FACTORY-HISTORY OF FEMALE LABOR IN ASIA:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

Images of factory girls is sweat shops, under-aged prostitutes, and foreign nannies are prominent in portrayals of countries in the Pacific Rim. this course investigates the history behind the how women in Northeast and southeast Asia were racialized through a labor-class nexus, starting in the 19th century and continuing to the present. Some crucial questions will be: How did neo-Confucian ethics determine women's place within and outside the home? How did nation-states and local media transform Asian concepts of gendered ethics to establish a cheap labor pool for emerging industries? How did mechanized wage labor change the status of women as workers? How did laborers mobilize and negotiate for better working and living conditions without unions? What types orf subc ultures emerged around "factory girl" communities? How has the trafficking of women's bodies changed over time? This course is designed to read Asian films, history texts and fiction as a means to understand and analyze the past through aesthetic mediums. Counts toward Gender Studies Minor. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 23100: THE SUPREME COURT IN U.S HISTORY:CA 3 hour(s)

This course will introduce students to the U.S. Supreme Court and its role and influence in U.S. history. Students will examine how the Supreme Court came to define its role and assert its power through judicial review. We will explore how the Supreme Court has resolved constitutional issues that have emerged over time. Some of those issues will include questions of national versus state power; the property rights of slaveholders versus the human rights of slaves; the rights of minorities to equal protection of the laws versus the power of the states to make their own laws; the power of governments to regulate business in the public interest versus the right of business to conduct its own affairs; and the various rights of private citizens versus the power of governments to act in the public interest. Students will examine how the Supreme Court has changed its interpretation of the Constitution over time, both reflecting and shaping changes in American society. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement.

HIST 23200: EARLY MODERN OCCULT:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

This course investigates Early Modern (ca. 1450-1750) European beliefs and practices related to magic and the occult, including witchcraft and its prosecution, ideas about ghosts, vampires, and other spirits, and scholarly occult traditions such as astrology, spiritual and natural magic, and alchemy. The class explores how these ideas and activities reflected and influenced fundamental structures and transformations in Early Modern society and culture—for example, the links between changes in European legal systems and the rise of witchcraft trials, or the connections between the Renaissance and intellectual speculations on the occult. It also addresses how historians and other scholars approach and explain Early Modern beliefs and actions that, from our point of view, seem irrational or deluded. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 23300: HISTORY OF ENGLAND TO 1485:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

Though some attention will be given to England before 1066, the period after the Conquest will be emphasized. The course will deal chiefly with cultural, economic and social history, though special attention will be given to the development of constitutional and legal institutions. Much use will be made of primary documents. Recommended for pre-law students. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 23700: HOME, SWEET, HOME?: THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD IN AMERICA:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

This course will look at wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, and children, too. Our topic will be the history of childhood and the family from the age of European colonization up to our own times. Starting with the Native American family, we will explore experiences across cultural boundaries. Were Indian gender roles different from English forms? Why have historians said that colonists thought of children as miniature adults? Turning to the Revolution, we will discuss the impact of the philosophies and events of those times. Were adolescents granted the freedom to follow their hearts in marriage? In considering the nineteenth century, we will explore the impact of industralization, slavery, and immigration on the family. How did the growth of Catholicism in America affect family life? The twentieth century presents new questions. How did families survive the Great Depression? As wives joined the workforce during World War II, did they shed their homemaker roles? Did fears of Communism during the Cold War shape family life? Did the youth protests of the 1960s create a generation gap? What direction is the family taking as we enter the 21st century? This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the US requirement. Counts towards the Gender Studies Minor.

HIST 24000: AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY;CA,UD 4 hour(s)

This course will introduce students to the history of environmental issues and environmental activism in North America. Students will consider how Native Americans interacted with the natural environment prior to the European arrival; how the Europeans who entered North America looked upon the natural environment and how their views and practices differed from those of the Native Americans; and how the European settlement in North America affected the natural environment. Students will also explore how the growth of industrial capitalism and westward expansion affected the natural environments, and how Americans view the "wilderness" and the environment in the nineteenth century. Finally, students will explore the rise of a conservation movement and social activism to protect and preserve the environment, and they will study closely the rise and growth of a modern environmental movement in the late twentieth century. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement. Also offered as Environmental Studies 24000.

HIST 24300: NO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

The U.S. war in Vietnam. Richard Nixon said in 1985, "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now." Americans still struggle to understand what happened in Vietnam; we still argue with each other about the morality of the war, the reasons for the American failure, and the consequences of that war. Different scholars and policy makers and Vietnam veterans have reached different conclusions. In this course, students will seek to develop a clear understanding of the various factors that led to the US involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s, 1960's, and early 1970's. They will explore the pressures that produced a US policy of containing Communism. They will examine the goals of the US involvement in Vietnam and the strategy and tactics employed by the American forces. They will study the political consequences of the Vietnam policy here in the United States. Students will examine the views and the actions of those Americans who opposed the war. Students will also explore the different perspectives of the Vietnamese in the conflict, both Vietnamese who supported the US war effort and those who opposed it. Through this study, students will develop their own understandings of what happened in the Vietnam conflict, why the tragedy unfolded, and why the United States failed to achieve its objectives in Vietnam. Students will also develop their writing and speaking skills through the preparation of short papers and oral presentations to the class. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 24500: HISTORY OF NORTH KOREA 4 hour(s)

North Korea, formally named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is also known as the “Hermit Kingdom.” Situated in a peninsula that divides millions of families along a demilitarized zone, the DPRK remains the most isolated country in the world and the last bastion of the Cold War. The first step to understanding the DPRK would be to understand its historical roots. This course will examine the Korean peninsula before WWII and reflect on Cold War propaganda of enemy states. By reading DPRK poems, interviews, documentaries, and media, students are pushed to think beyond notions of the evil axis, a diabolic dictator, and his faceless horde to demonstrate an informed understanding of the values and attitudes of North Koreans. We will explore regional and global strategies to maintain national sovereignty during an ongoing civil war. We will also search for new evidence of North Koreans as individuals and social sub-groups experiencing pleasures, challenges, and the mundane of everyday life

HIST 24600: AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP 1865-PRESENT:ES 4 hour(s)

Students in this course will explore the history of entrepreneurship in the United States in the post-Civil War era. Students will focus on the strategies, successes, and failures of business entrepreneurs of the last century and a half, as well as the various movements organized to challenge and change some of the strategies of these business entrepreneurs, notably the labor movement, the movement for progressive reform, and the environmental movement. Students will also explore the strategies, successes, and failures of social entrepreneurs and of producer and consumer cooperatives in modern U.S. history. Students will consider what social, economic, and individual factors have helped to promote enterpreneurship, and what social, economic, and individual factors have held back the efforts of entrepreneurs. Students will also consider the impact of various forms of entrepreneurship on the natural environment. Students will do a final course project in which they analyze a specific example of American entrepreneurship. This course fulfills the Meaning, Ethics, and Social Responsibility requirement.

HIST 24900: THE WORLD OF ANCIENT ROME 4 hour(s)

This course examines the Roman achievement, beginning with the establishment of Roman power in Italy and ending with world domination. The focus will be on social and cultural rather than military history.

HIST 25210: TUDOR-STUART ENGLAND:IM 4 hour(s)

This course explores the political, legal/constitutional, social, and religious history of Britain during the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts, a period when Britain changed dramatically because of the Protestant Reformation, transformations in the European political scene, and the expansion of the English state itself. The class will investigate Constitutional developments and new political ideas and their connection to Parliament’s ascent. The course emphasizes the interpretation of primary sources, which will illuminate how political and religious changes influenced the different ranks of society -- nobles, gentry, and commoners. Recommended for pre-law students.

HIST 25300: THE DEPRESSION, THE NEW DEAL, AND WORLD WAR II:CA,UD 3 hour(s)

The period between the stock market crash of 1929 and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 was an especially wrenching time for people around the world. This course examines American responses to the Great Depression and to World War II and the impact of those events on American life. Students will probe the causes of the Depression, the goals and strategies of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the effects of the New Deal on American life, the American mobilization for World War II, the conduct of the war, and the impact of the war on U.S. society. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 25400: HISTORY OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE U.S.:CA,UD 3 hour(s)

This course will survey some of the major issues in the history of American gender and sexuality. Several themes will organize this course: cross-cultural encounters, male-female sexual politics, and the formation of homosexual and hetersexual indentities. We will track these themes from the era of colonial settlement until the present day. As settlers arrived in the colonies they found Indians to possess gender roles and sexual practices at odds with their own. Looking more squarely at the colonists' own communities we will witness a surprising degree of tolerance towards behaviors still taboo in may modern circles. Sodomy and abortion seem to have been accepted as part of man's fate in a fallen world. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries seem to have given birth to a vigorous assault on the female body by moral reformers and physicians in Northern society. As we turn to the twentieth century we will consider the breakdown of Victorian mores, as well as the emergence of homosexual identity, both as imposed by outsiders as well as defined by the gay community. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 25450: EUROPE: CRISIS AND WAR 1890-1950:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

The 19th century propelled Europe to a leading position in economic productivity, political power, and intellectual life. Many European governments were becoming more democratic in the later 1800s, and violent upheavals like wars and revolutions seemed to belong to the past. Yet the new century did not bring the era of continued European peace, progress, and prosperity that an observer in 1890 might have expected. Instead, Europe found itself devastated by two world wars and racked by multiple revolutions. In many states, the trend towards democracy was reversed by the rise of totalitarian governments like the Communist regime in Russia and the Fascist ones in Italy and Germany. The horrors of the world wars and the Holocaust led intellectuals to question the bedrock ideas of Europe’s civilization. This course will examine this ‘age of catastrophes’ in Europe, focusing on the linked political, social, economic, and intellectual upheavals of this troubled era. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 25600: EUROPEAN SOCIETY AND WAR:CA,EW 4 hour(s)

This class explores Europe's persistent encounter with war by investigating three main topics. First, how have armed forces reflected and affected the states, societies, and economies that created them? Second, how have Europeans sought to justify and explain their resort to armed violence? Finally, what was the actual experience of war for both soldiers and non-combatants (particularly women)? The course surveys these issues for different periods, revealing how Europe's experience of armed conflict has changed over time. Throughout, the class focuses on the connections between warfare and society. This would count as a European History course for History majors. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 25650: HISTORY OF GENDER & SEXUALITY IN EAST ASIA:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

This course is designed to examine the history of gender and sexuality in East Asia, covering the geographical areas that today are China, Korea, and Japan. The course begins in the 17th century with the Manchu takeover of China, when neighboring countries began to question Sinocentrism and the efficacy of Confucian rule. The course ends in the early 20th century as Confucian tradition was reinvented to indigenize gender issues against cosmopolitan movements such as the rise of “new woman” and “modern girl.” We will consider the historical multiplicity of genders and sexuality by studying the evolving values and principles of neo-Confucianism. In order to understand the ways in which gender and sexuality were constructed and represented in modern East Asia, we will also focus on themes of governance, (Chinese, Japanese and Western) imperialism, militarization, globalization, and popular media. Counts toward Gender Studies Minor This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 25700: THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 1954-1980 3 hour(s)

This course examines the movement by African Americans and their supporters in the mid-twentieth century to achieve full civil rights, economic opportunity, and social equality. Students will explore the economic, cultural, and political changes that laid the foundation for the civil rights movement. They will study the ideas and strategies of various movement leaders, and will evaluate the impact of the movement on American society as a whole.

HIST 26100: THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

A century and a half has passed since the American republic was torn apart by the terrible Civil War, a war fought initially to bring the union back together, and won, ultimately, for universal freedom. Students in this course will probe the divisions and conflicts that preceded the Civil War, conflicts over slavery, states’ rights and federal power, and the spread of slavery into the new territories and states. Students will examine the efforts of abolitionists and the efforts of pro-slavery activists, as well as the desperate attempts by men in Congress to compromise away the most divisive issues. Students will consider the causes of the Civil War and how and why Americans were unable to avoid war. Students will examine the war strategies on both sides, the policies of the two administrations, and the public reactions to the war. Students will analyze the significance and the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation and the recruiting of black troops by the United States. Students will consider and analyze the outcome of the war and the efforts to reconstruct the nation and define the meaning of liberty and equality for the newly freed slaves. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 26200: SLAVERY & ABOLITION IN THE U.S. 3 hour(s)

This course will introduce students to the origins and nature of slavery in North America and to the ideas, strategies, and struggles of antislavery activists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Students will consider how and why slavery was introduced into North America; what the slave experience was like and how it changed over time; what the connections were between slavery and race; and how slaveholders sought to justify and defend their so-called peculiar institution. Students will also explore what prompted the rise of an antislavery movement, how the abolition movement changed over time, what ideas and strategies abolitionists embraced, and what impact abolitionists had in ending slavery and pushing the nation into the Civil War. The course will include a mock trial of the abolitionist John Brown and a walking tour of John Brown sites and underground railroad stops in nearby Hudson, Ohio. There will be a small fee for this trip to pay for transportation.

HIST 26210: SLAVERY & ABOLITION IN AMERICAN HISTORY:CA,UD 4 hour(s): 4 hour(s)

Students in this course will describe the origins and nature of slavery in North America and will analyze and evaluate the ideas, strategies, and struggles of antislavery activists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Students will explain how and why slave labor was introduced into North America, describe what the slave experience was like and how it changed over time, identify and interpret the connections between slavery and race, and evaluate how slaveholders sought to justify and defend their so-called peculiar institution. Students will also develop arguments about what prompted the rise of an antislavery movement, explain how the abolition movement changed over time, assess the ideas and strategies that abolitionists embraced, and appraise the impact of abolitionists in ending slavery and pushing the nation into Civil War. During the final module of the course, students will debate the issues raised by John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859 and will evaluate the significance of John Brown’s activism in U.S. history. Fills both Cultural Analysis and Understanding Diversity in the USA.

HIST 26220: FIGHTING SLAVERY, THEN AND NOW: 3 hour(s)

Examines the antislavery movement in the US from the antebellum era to the present, including its ideological, social, political, economic, and religious ramifications. Students will engage with original historical writings as well as make comparisons between antebellum antislavery and the present movement that opposes today’s “slavery,” i.e., human trafficking/coerced labor.

HIST 26300: SAINTS SINNERS & SLAVES:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

The colonization of North America. This course will survey the diverse cultures produced by the colonization of North America. While ultimately dominated by the British, both French and Spanish settlers made incursions into the continent. Native Americans and Africans were central to the colonization process as well. As the Iroquois forged alliances in Canada, Africans cultivated rice in South Carolina. The British colonists had their own internal divisions. Righteous Puritans tried to erect a metaphorical "City on a Hill" in New England, while planters scrambled for profits from tobacco in the Chesapeake. Quakers tried to create a peaceful coexistence with Indians in Pennsylvania, while the Scotch-Irish strained such harmony as they flooded into the backcounty. How did such a diverse set of colonists form a single nation? Did they, in fact, form a single nation? We will follow the history of the colonies through their settlement in the seventeenth century, and through their growth and transformations in the eighteenth century, until their political break from Britain in war. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 26400: THE INDIANS NEW WORLD:CA,UD 3 hour(s)

Native American history from European contact to reservations. This course will examine the history of the indigenous peoples of North America from the arrival of European invaders until the massacre at Wounded Knee, the final major military engagement in the will consider many facets of the Indian experience. Even before Native Americans set eyes on Europeans they had to deal with the microbes Europeans spread before them. After contact, we will consider how trade and the military conflicts reordered the cultures of Indians and Europeans alike. Indian cultures would prove remarkably resilient. Most remarkable perhaps were the various pan-Indian revitalization movements promoted by Indian prophets such as Neolin. The American Revolution would prove a decisive moment in Indian history. During the war itself, Euro-Americans scorched Indian country. In addition, the removal of Britain from American shores would unleash an inexhaustible desire for land in the trans-Appalachian West. Yet hope for amicable relations were reborn as various tribes like the Cherokee proved willing to adopt many of the trappings of American culture. Ultimately, however pressures for removal would carry the day as reservations were erected across the West. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 26500: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY 1865 TO THE PRESENT:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

This course will introduce students to the experiences and culture of African Americans from the end of the Civil War to the present. Students will examine the impact of the Civil War and emancipation on African Americans, the Reconstruction period, and life in the Jim Crow South in the late nineteenth century.The course will continue with an exploration of African-American struggles for equality in the early twentieth century; the Great Migration to the North; the Harlem Renaissance and African American life in the 1920s; the impact of the Great Depression on African Americans; and African Americans in World War II. The course will conclude with a focus on the Civil Rights Movement and current issues in African-American life. Fills both Cultural Analysis and Understanding Diversity in the USA.

HIST 26600: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1865:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

This survey will focus upon the experiences and culture of African Americans and their influence on the development of American culture. The survey covers major topics in African bondage, and emancipation, as well as larger cultural issues, such as the relationship between slavery, the family, and gender and the development of unique African-American institutions such as slave spirituals. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 26900: POWER PROTEST & PEACE:CA,UD 3 hour(s)

1960s America. From civil rights to Watergate, from Vietnam to Berkeley, the 1960s are remembered as a time of high hopes and bitter divisions, of utopian dreams and tragic fighting. This course examines the political, social, and cultural changes that took place in the turbulent decade known as the sixties. Students will examine the major political developments and social movements of the period and will attempt to understand why and how those events unfolded. Students will also consider the implications of those events for contemporary American life. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 27300: WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY:CA,UD 4 hour(s)

An examination of the cultural, social, economic, and political activities of women in American history. Within a chronological, narrative framework, the course focuses on four themes of women's past experience in American life: the family, work, sexuality, and socio-political activism. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Understanding Diversity in the USA requirement.

HIST 27400: BISHOPS WITCHES & HERETICS:CA,EW 3 hour(s)

Medieval church history. This course explores the history of the medieval church by investigating the structure of the church, how the church dealt with the forces of unity and dissent, and why the church suffered continual deformation and reformation. In the process, we will challenge the modern theory that the medieval church was a monolithic institution. A related theme we will examine is the interplay between religion, social institutions, and politics. This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 27500: ROMAN BRITAIN 3 hour(s)

Britannia is mentioned sparingly by the Roman historians, but much of our knowledge about the conquest, settlement, and governance of the province is derived from archaeology. Therefore, a study of Roman Britain comes alive when students can visit and study Romano-British sites and museums in England and Wales. This course will trace the conquest of the island, beginning with Claudius in 43 and essentially ending in 122 under Hadrian, who set the province's northern limit with a wall. The peaceful conditions of the third and early fourth centuries brought prosperity and stability to Britain. Urbanization in the province was rapid. The native aristocracy quickly adapted the working country villas, familiar throughout the Empire, to a British context. Unrest throughout the western Empire gradually undermined the province's stability and eventually led to the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain in the 400s. Administration of the province, growth of industry and trade, influence of Roman religion on native cults, and aspects of daily life will be covered in the course. Students will study how the Romans transformed a native Celtic population into a distinctly Romano-British culture which integrated a Mediterranean outlook and values into its society and economy. A four credit hour version of this course is HIST 27510. (also listed previously as Classics 275).

HIST 27800: HISTORY OF TRAVEL WRITING IN ASIA:CA, EW 3 hour(s)

What does it mean to be Asian? In order to understand the historical development of this racialized category, this course will explore how travel writing has impacted the way we understand Asian peoples and regions. In a study of genre and as a critique of ideology, this course examines how travel books by Europeans and Asians from the 18-20th centuries created Asian subjects and will ask a number of questions: how has travel and exploration writing produced "the Orient"? How has it produced Euro-Americans' concept of themselves in relation to something called "the non-west"? How have colonized Asians selected and invented from materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture? How did Asian autoethnographies create forms of self-representation in the context of colonial subordination and help mobilize colonial resistance? This course fulfills the Social and Cultural Analysis requirement and the Experiencing the World requirement.

HIST 28000: SEMINAR 4 hour(s)

HIST 28100: INDEPENDENT STUDY 1 - 4 hour(s)

HIST 29800: FIELD EXPERIENCE 1 - 4 hour(s)

HIST 38000: SEMINAR 1 - 4 hour(s)

HIST 38100: SPECIAL TOPICS: 1 - 4 hour(s)

HIST 39310: CHINA: TRADITION AND CHANGE: BACKGROUND 1 hour(s)

As a prerequisite for INTD 39300 and Study Away trip to China in the subsequent semester, the course will introduce students to China's history, geography, philosophies, religious traditions, and cultural values. The course will also address issues associated with the process of cultural transition and practical considerations for preparation for the trip abroad. The course will provide the broader context for understanding the readings, sites, and interactions when the students travel to China.

HIST 48000: SENIOR SEMINAR 4 hour(s)

For seniors concentrating in history. Students acquaint themselves with the general literature in their field of concentration, expand their reading background, learn how to evaluate historical writing and are introduced to the methods and problems of historical research and exposition. Writing a research paper is an integral part of the course. Required of all majors. This seminar must be successfully completed in order to be graduated as a history major. Prerequisite: a 2.5 grade point average in the major or alternatively at least a B (3.0) in History 38000.

HIST 48100: INDEPENDENT RESEARCH 1 - 4 hour(s)

HIST 49800: INTERNSHIP 8 hour(s)

Internships can be arranged in many fields to accommodate student interests, including experience in historical archives.