Prepare yourself with the historical context to make wise decisions about strategy, planning, and policy.
Through a comprehensive look at American history, you will gain an understanding of the past that will enhance your chosen major and future career. You will be prepared to contribute intelligently to debates regarding the impact of the past on current and future trends, challenges, and opportunities. You will be prepared for civic engagement within your community, on the local and national level, and within your chosen profession.
Examines American development from the period of colonization to the conclusion of the Civil War. Major themes include colonial society, the Revolution, nineteenth-century expansion and economic growth, cultural shifts in the antebellum period, slavery, and the American Civil War.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Analyzes United States development from Reconstruction to the present, examining major social, political, economic, and foreign policy developments and their impact on American life.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Four American History electives from the current History course list:
This course examines the colonial period in the history of the United States, beginning with precontact Native American and European societies and concluding with the peace with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. Particular attention will be paid to the motivations carrying men and women to North America, the interaction between indigenous peoples and colonists, the political and social structure of colonial communities, the development of racial slavery, and the ways in which communities reflected or rejected European society.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Examines the forced migration of Africans to America, the condition and nature of slavery, abolitionism, emancipation, twilight zone of freedom, growth of civil rights, and Black Power movements.
Prerequisite: ake HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course examines the causes of the American Revolution in the context of economic, ideological and political change throughout the 18th century. Students consider the impact that the rebellion had on different kinds of Americans and whether the rhetoric of the Revolution fueled demands for change among these groups once the war ended. They will evaluate whether the American Revolution was a radical act in our history.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Evolution and expansion of American foreign policy from the Revolutionary period to the present. Analyzes the aims of foreign policy, influences on it, and its impact on the nation's domestic politics.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Examines an epic and transformative period in U.S. history from a multidimensional perspective. The clash of arms, military and civilian leaders, lives of ordinary soldiers and civilians, politics and economies of the Union and Confederacy, and "new birth of freedom" that ended slavery are reviewed and discussed.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Explores the roots and development of the Cold War between the United States and U.S.S.R. (1946-91); its impact on American social, political, economic, and cultural values and practices; and some of its long-term consequences for the nation's society and place in the world.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
The purpose of this course is to examine the Reconstruction era (1865-1877) in American history. This period had tremendous political and social consequences on the country. Students will read, discuss, and write about social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of the Reconstruction years with the goal of deepening your understanding of its significance in our nation's history. Our analysis will begin long before Reconstruction itself and move past it as well into the twentieth century.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course will allow students to journey into the historical periods of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in American history. In this course, students will read a broad range of historical interpretations of the significant events of these periods, as well as immerse themselves in primary sources meant to illuminate the overall study.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course focuses on the social and cultural history of American Catholics beginning with the earliest contact between Native Americans and European colonists to the relationship between Catholics and other religious groups, as well as within American Catholic communities up to the present day.
Prerequisite: Take HI 100 or HI 102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course examines the challenges faced by women in America from the colonial period to the present, as well as their contributions to the formation of the United States and our history. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which gender has been historically constructed in American culture.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course considers the way in which Americans have imagined, experienced, and debated the natural world from European colonists' ideas about hunting, fishing, and farming to the political debates about climate change in the early twenty-first century.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
This course explores "the long sixties" (1954-1980). Topics covered include: Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, feminism and gender, sexual revolution, Kennedy-Carter, political corruption and crime, modern conservatism, etc.
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
Scholars argue that rather than two distinct wars, World War I and World War II were separate episodes in one long global conflict not resolved in 1918. This course considers the interconnections between the world wars as well as the social, cultural, political, economic, and technological aspects of both conflicts and their effects on those living in the United States. How did the world wars influence people's lives? Experiences? The shaping of modern America? US international relations?
Prerequisite: Take HI-100 or HI-102 or HI-110 or HI-115
