HIS-0110 Origins of Our Culture
A study of the origins of our culture focusing on the history,
religions, philosophies, and social beliefs of the ancient civilizations
of the Mediterranean basin and Asia. Featured topics include the
cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia including the Hebrews, the Greek and
Roman experiences, and the rise of Islamic religion and culture. 3
credits. This course fulfills a Global Awareness/Culture requirement in
the Undergraduate College’s General Education program.
HIS-H110 Origins of Our Culture
This course explores the origins of our culture by focusing
on the history, religions, philosophies, and social beliefs of the ancient
civilizations of the Mediterranean basin and Asia. Featured topics include the
cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia including the Hebrews, the Greek and Roman
experiences, and the rise of Islamic religion and culture. To fulfill the honors component of the course, students will
learn by reading and analyzing the works of contemporary ancient historians and
biographers including Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Plutarch, Suetonius, and
others, and will be expected to make presentations and write short papers about lives and times of
each. Prerequisite: students must meet the UC
qualifications for the Honors Program. 3 credits. This course fulfills a Global Awareness/Culture requirement
in the Undergraduate College’s General Education program.
HIS-0200 History of the United States to 1877
A survey of major themes in American history from the colonial period to
the end of the Reconstruction. No prerequisite. Offered every other
year, fall semester. 3 credits. This course fulfills the Developing the
Core/Humanities requirement in the Undergraduate College’s General
Education program.
HIS-0201 History of the United States Since 1877
A survey of major themes in American history in the late nineteenth and
twentieth century. No Prerequisite. Offered every other year, spring
semester. 3 credits. This course fulfills the Developing the
Core/Humanities requirement in the Undergraduate College’s general
education program.
HIS-0230 Special Topics
This course covers current issues and hot topics in History. No prerequisite. Offered as needed. 1, 2, or 3 credits.
HIS-0231 History of Women in America 1600 to 1865
This course will use the experiences of women through the lens which we
examine the history of America from settlement by Europeans to the Civil
War. Topics to be covered include changing conditions and ideas about
unpaid housework and paid work; relations between different groups of
women and the way relations of power have shaped these interactions; the
ongoing political struggle to gain increased civil and political
rights; and changing notions of “proper” roles for women, especially
regarding sexuality. We will consider which ideas and assumptions within
American culture have changes and which have stayed the same. No
prerequisite. 3 credits. This course fulfills the Multiculturalism and
Gender requirement in the Undergraduate College’s General Education
program.
HIS-0232 History of Women in America 1865 to the Present
This
course will use the experience of women as the lens through which we
examine the history of America from the end of the civil war until the
present. Topics to be covered will include the changing conditions and
ideas about unpaid housework and paid work; relations between different
groups of women and the way relations of power have shaped these
interactions; the ongoing political struggle to gain increased civil and
political rights; and changing notions of “proper” roles for women,
especially regarding sexuality. We will consider which ideas and
assumptions within American culture have changes and which have stayed
the same. No prerequisite. 3 credits. This course fulfills the
Multiculturalism and Gender requirement in the Undergraduate College’s
General Education program.
HIS-S235 Service Learning in History
This Service Learning course allows students to fulfill their
experiential learning requirement by participating in a project in the
community that is integrated into a History course. No prerequisite.
Offered occasionally. 1 credit. This course fulfills the Enacting the
Core/Experiential Learning
requirement in the Undergraduate College’s General Education program.
HIS-0250 Emergence of the European World
A
political, cultural, and intellectual history of Europe from 1500 to
1815. Topics covered include the Reformation, scientific and
technological change, the rise of international politics, and the French
Revolution. No prerequisite. Offered every other year, fall semester. 3
credits. This course fulfills the Developing the Core/Humanities
requirement in the Undergraduate College’s General Education program.
HIS-0251 Europe Since Napoleon
A consideration
of the political, social, economic, and intellectual development of the
European world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics studied
include the Industrial Revolution, the rise of liberal and socialist
thought, and the world wars and their impact. No prerequisite. Offered
every other year, spring semester. 3 credits. This course fulfills the
Developing the Core/Humanities requirement in the Undergraduate
College’s General Education program.
HIS-0271 Beyond Salsa: Latinas and Latinos in United States History
What is Latino? What is Latina? What historical forces in the American
experience have brought together peoples and communities as diverse as,
for instance, Chicanas from Los Angeles, Cuban Americans from Miami, and
Dominican Americans and Puerto Ricans from New York City? Beginning in
the sixteenth century and stretching to the present, this course will
map the varied terrains of Latina/o history, exploring the Mexican
American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and Dominican American
experiences in New Mexico, California, Texas, New York, the Midwest, and
Florida. No prerequisite. 3 credits. This course fulfills the
Multiculturalism and Gender requirement in the Undergraduate College’s
General Education program.
HIS-0273 Ethnicity in American History
America’s
cultural identity embraces people of diverse backgrounds including many
groups that we think of as having no “ethnic identity” since ethnicity
has become synonymous with discourses of race in this country. This
course will attempt to tease out the more complicated arguments
underlying these national discussions by exploring how many “ethnic”
groups, such as Irish Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans,
and Jewish Americans, who were identified as ethnically “distinct” in
the 19th and early 20th century America, and came to be seen as “white”
or having “no” ethnicity by the mid-20th century. No prerequisite. 3
credits. This course fulfills the Multiculturalism and Gender
requirement in the Undergraduate College’s general education program.
HIS-0274 Skill Building for Fun and Profit
How can studying history prepare you for your future career? That is the
question that is explored in this skills-based course. There are no
tests or quizzes in this offering. Instead, students will receive
hands-on assistance in learning valuable skills that will serve them
well in the marketplace. Among the skills to be explored are how to
conduct basic research, framing questions for research papers, and
advanced presentation skills. In the last weeks, students will explore
careers that deal with these skills and create strategies to increase
their chances of finding employment in area of their choice. Although
this course focuses on the History discipline, the lessons learned in it
can be applied in many majors across the curriculum, and students from
all majors are welcome. No prerequisite. 3 credits.
HIS 0280 19th Century Social Movements
This
course presents a survey of major social movements in the United States
during the 19th Century. This course examines several important social
movements by women, and is intended to provide students with an
understanding of the significance of social movements in the U.S.
history, as well as introduce students to different theoretical
approaches to studying social movements. No prerequisite. 3 credits.
HIS-0285 20th Century Social Movements in the United States
This course presents a survey of major social movements in the United
States during the 20th Century. This course is intended to provide
students with an understanding of the significance of social movements
in U.S. history, as well introduce students to different theoretical
approaches to studying social movements. No prerequisite. 3 credits.
HIS-0306 Kaiserreich to Third Reich – Germany Since 1871
An in-depth study of the history of Germany from the unification under
Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck to the reunification in 1990.
Special emphasis is placed on the impact of the First World War, the
cultural legacy of the Weimar Republic, and the socio-intellectual
climate that gave rise to Nazism. No prerequisite. Offered every other
year, fall semester. 3 credits.
HIS-0307 Nazi Germany
An intensive study of the causes and course of the German National
Socialist movement. Emphasis is placed on the social and intellectual
dimensions of Nazism and Hitler’s role in European and world history,
World War II, and the Holocaust. No prerequisite. Offered as needed. 3
credits.
HIS-0323 History of Islam: General Survey
A
survey of Islamic history with an emphasis on the development of Muslim
religious and political institutions and the efforts of contemporary
Muslim societies to bring those institutions into harmony with the
altered conditions of modern times. No prerequisite. Offered as needed. 3
credits.
HIS-0337 History of Childbirth in America
In this seminar, we will examine childbirth in the United States from
the colonial period to today. We will explore how control of childbirth
has moved from women themselves to medical professionals. We will
discuss the ways in which women have sought to re-assert control of
childbirth in recent years. We will examine how a woman's religious,
socio-economic, and ethnic status influence the experience of childbirth
in various historical epochs. Students will work with both primary and
secondary sources to complete an extensive term paper. No prerequisite.
Offered as needed. 3 credits.
HIS-0345 Environmental History
This course explores the history of the American environment and the
ways in which different cultural groups have perceived, used, managed,
and conserved it from colonial times to the present. Cultures include
American Indians and European and African Americans. Natural resources
development includes gathering-hunting-fishing; farming, mining,
ranching, forestry, and urbanization. Changes in attitudes and behaviors
toward nature, past and present conservation, and environmental
movements are also examined. No prerequisite. Offered every other year. 3
credits. This course
fulfills the Sustainability requirement in the Undergraduate College’s
General Education program.
HIS-0349 History for Science Majors (and others)
This course will examine the history of civilization through the lens of
scientific and technological achievement. The main goal is to present
scientific achievements in the context of the historical realities of
the time of discovery, and not just western science but Islamic and
Asian, where appropriate. Among the topics shall be: Egyptian science
and technology; time keeping and calendar making; Thales and the Greeks;
Roman technological achievement; Medieval alchemy, the scientific
revolution (Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton); modern sanitation and
medicine, including public health; penicillin and modern drug creation;
the rise of modern chemistry; Einstein and Heisenberg; and Watson and
Krick’s double helix. No prerequisite. Offered as needed. 3 credits.
HIS-0359 Radicals and Reactionaries
A study of how Europeans responded to the social and economic
inequalities created by the industrial age. Topics to be discussed
include utopian socialism of Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, Marxism
and anarchism, the nature of nineteenth-century conservatism, social
Darwinism, and the origins of fascism. No prerequisite. Offered every
other year. 3 credits.
HIS-0362 Who Started the Great War?
Students make decisions of war and peace in real time by role-playing as
leaders of the major European nations from 1908 to 1914. Thrust into a
simulation of the tense pre-war international scene, students will be
forced to respond to the crises that led up to the war and in the
process discover the role of diplomacy and nationalism played in the
coming of Great War. Ultimately, students will come to some conclusions
as to how wars are started and who is “at fault” for starting them. No
prerequisite. Offered every other year. 3 credits.
HIS-0363 Europe Since 1945
A survey of the political, social, and economic trends that have shaped
the present European community. Topics studied include post-war
reconstruction, the rise of the common market, unity and diversity on
both sides of the “Iron Curtain,” the cultural upheavals of the 1960s
and 1970s, and the collapse of communism. No prerequisite. Offered every
other year, fall semester. 3 credits.
HIS-0365 The Middle East in World Affairs
An analysis of the historic role of the Middle East in world affairs and
the changes wrought in the area by the constantly changing patterns of
world politics and international ideological conflicts. The Middle East,
for this purpose, will be taken to mean the world of Islam in general,
including the countries of North Africa, Western Asia, Iran, and
Afghanistan. Different specific areas, movements, or conflicts may be
chosen for special attention. No prerequisite. Offered as needed. 3
credits.
HIS-0375 Making America Modern: Ideas and Ideals
What
historical forces have shaped the society we live in today? This course
explores trends in American artistic, political, and social practices
over the past century in order to understand the culture of the modern
United States. No prerequisite. 3 credits.
HIS-0389 History of the Family in America
This course focuses on how Americans from diverse backgrounds have
organized their sexual, reproductive, and social lives within the
institution known as the family. Particular attention will be paid to
the ways that experiences of the family differ along lines of class,
race, ethnicity, and region. We will also consider changes over time to
definitions of sexuality, expectations for reproduction, to prescriptive
gender roles and gender ideologies, and to the sexual division of
labor. Drawing on a variety of primary sources rooted in private life
(diaries, letters, memoirs) as well as the social history, we will
emphasize above all efforts by individuals to shape their lives, their
communities, and American society more generally. No prerequisite. 3
credits.
HIS-0390 Special Topics in European History
Examination of the ideas or topics of interest in European History.
Prerequisite: History Major or Minor Status. Offered as needed. 3
credits.
HIS-0395 Special Topics in American History
Examination of selected ideas or topics of interest in American History.
Prerequisite: History major or minor status. Offered as needed. 3
credits.
HIS-0451 Historians and Their Craft
An investigation of the ways historians collect, process, and
disseminate information. No prerequisite. Offered spring semester. 3
credits
HIS-0480 Independent Study
Arranged on an individual basis. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. 1 to 3 credits.
HIS-0482 Internship
Supervised experience in an
institution, corporation, or agency that serves the public in cultural,
political and/or historical areas. Interns in the Philadelphia
metropolitan area will work with an on-site supervisor in cooperation
with the director of the History Internship Program. Interns placed
through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Internship
Program will be supervised and evaluated according to the conditions of
the particular internship. Prerequisite: Junior or Senior History major
status and permission of Discipline Chair. Credits to be arranged
depending on the breadth and duration of the internship as documented in
the internship contract. 1 to 3 credits.