Chair: Timothy Alborn (Carman Hall, Room 202B)
Graduate Adviser: Evelyn Ackerman (Carman Hall, Room 296)
Department Faculty: Distinguished Professor: Joseph W. Dauben; Professors: Evelyn B. Ackerman, Jose Luis Rénique; Associate Professors: Timothy Alborn, Martin J. Burke, Dina Le Gall, Marie C. Marianetti, Andrew W. Robertson, Duane Tananbaum; Assistant Professors: Cindy Lobel, Robyn C. Spencer, William Wooldridge, Amanda Wunder; Lecturer: Robert T. Valentine
The Department of History offers a Master of Arts degree in History that is intended primarily for students who anticipate that the master's degree will be their highest earned degree. The course of study is designed to offer an introduction to the professional study of history and to provide mastery of a broad area of history. In addition, the Department offers courses designed to meet the needs of students in the programs for Middle and High School Teachers of Social Studies and for Elementary School Teachers. Students with a specialization in History (see Program for Middle and High School Teachers of Social Studies) should consult the Department chair early in their course of studies.
Admission Requirements
Degree Requirements
The general requirements for the M.A. Degree in History consist of 36 credits of coursework:
After successfully completing 30 credits of coursework with a 3.0 average, each student must pass a comprehensive oral examination in two fields. Candidates for the M.A. degree must then present a master's thesis, prepared under the direction of a thesis supervisor from the Department of History and an approved second reader, and accepted by the thesis supervisor.
SPECIAL TRACK FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS OF SOCIAL STUDIES
This track is designed for students with initial or provisional certification in Social Studies Education.
Additional Admission Requirement
Students must meet all the admission requirements for the M.A. Program in History, and must also possess initial or provisional certification in Social Studies Education, either through undergraduate coursework or an M.A. in Social Studies Education.
Degree Requirements
The general requirements for the Special Track in History for Secondary School Teachers of Social Studies consist of 36 credits of coursework:
After successfully completing 30 credits of coursework with a 3.0 average, each student must pass a comprehensive oral examination in two fields. Candidates for the M.A. degree must then present a master's thesis, prepared under the direction of a thesis supervisor from the Department of History and an approved second reader, and accepted by the thesis supervisor.
HIA 706: History of Religions in the Ancient World. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIA 306.)A survey of religious beliefs and practices of the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. Religious customs of the ancient Mesopotamian cultures; Mycenaean, Minoan, and Classical Greek myth and ritual; Hellenistic religions and mystery religious cults; private household worship in the Roman Republic; and public religious faith in the Roman Empire.
HIA 714: Classical Myth and Society. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIA 314.)A comparison of the origins and development of classical mythology and heroic legend as religious beliefs, their relation to other mythologies, and their adaptation in literature and art from Hesiod and Homer through the present. A comparative analysis of Near Eastern and Nordic myth will be provided.
HIA 720: History of Ancient Greece. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIA 320.)The Ancient Greeks from prehistoric times through the development of the City-State to the death of Alexander the Great. The political, economic, social, and cultural achievement during the Bronze and the Dark Ages, the Archaic and the Classical Period, and the Hellenistic Era.
HIA 721: History of Rome. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIA 321.) Foundation and development of the Roman state, including the rise and decline of the Roman Republic and the establishment and the fall of the Empire, with emphasis on its political, economic, social, and cultural achievements.
HIA 750: Topics in Ancient and Medieval History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated as often as the topic changes.)Various sections in topics in Ancient History. (For specific topics and sections each semester, consult the Department.)
*Courses preceded by an asterisk are not expected to be offered in 2009-2011.
HIE 702: Europe in the Renaissance and Reformation. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 302). Major developments in Western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Renaissance humanism, the rise of the printed book, reformations of religion, overseas exploration, and empires.
HIE 705: Golden-Age Spain. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 305). Survey of secondary literature of early modern Spanish history, including classic works and recent contributions to the field, with special attention to interdisciplinary approaches.
HIE 707: Europe in the Age of Enlightenment. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 307). Society, politics, and economy in Europe from 1689 through the Napoleonic Wars.
HIE 708: The French Revolution and Napoleon. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIE 308.)Preconditions of discontent in late eighteenth-century France; the origin and unfolding of the French Revolution; the Thermidorean Reaction; and the rise of Napoleon and his influence in Europe.
HIE 709: Europe, 1815-1914. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIE 309.) Political, economic, social, and intellectual ideas and developments from the Congress of Vienna to World War I.
HIE 710: History of European Diplomacy. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIE 310.)Survey of European diplomacy, with special emphasis on nineteenth- and twentieth-century developments.
HIE 714: Europe in the Twentieth Century. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 314.) World War I; the rise and fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe; fascism; World War II; postwar prosperity; European union; and the impact of immigration.
HIE 716: Nineteenth-century European Intellectual History. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIE 316). The social and intellectual formation of liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, socialism, and anarchism, and their impact on political and social change in modern Europe.
HIE 717: The History of Ideas and Ideologies in Twentieth-Century Europe. 3 hours, 3 credits (Not open to students who have taken HIE 317). The social movements and ideas that have shaped our modern consciousness, including communism, fascism, existentialism, feminism, revolution, and total war.
HIE 721: Tudor-Stuart England. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 321.)The advent of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VIII, the divorce, and the church; Queen Elizabeth's government and the church; Elizabethan society; poverty and vagrancy in the Tudor state; the divine right of kings and mass political attitudes in early Stuart England; the origins of the civil war; the execution of Charles I; Oliver Cromwell and the saints; restoration England; and the Glorious Revolution.
HIE 722: Britain in the Age of Industrialization and Empire. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 322.) Modern Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The impact of the industrial revolution on British society; the American Revolution; democratization; depression, imperialism, and the new liberalism; and the Irish question in British politics.
HIE 723: Britain in the Twentieth Century. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 323.) World War I and its effects on politics and society; the economic crisis of 1931 and the National Government; depression; Churchill and the war effort; the Labour Party, nationalization, and the welfare state after 1945; decolonization; economy and society under Thatcher; the rise of New Labour.
*HIE 725: Italy from Napoleon through Mussolini. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIE 730: History of Modern France. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 330.) French politics, society, economy, and culture from the fall of Napoleon to the crisis of 1968. The revolutions of the nineteenth century, colonial policy and decolonization, World Wars and recovery after 1950.
HIE 733: Modern Ireland. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 333.) The political, economic, social, and cultural history of Ireland from the late eighteenth century to the present.
*HIE 735: History of Spain. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIE 736: Early Russian History. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIW 309 or HIE 336.)Origins of Russian history, Kievan, Muscovite, and early Imperial Russia to 1855.
HIE 737: Modern Russian History. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIW 310 or HIE 337.)Russia from 1855 to the present, including the late Imperial and Soviet eras.
HIE 741: Germany from Bismarck through Hitler. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIE 341.)Study of Germany from Bismarck and the unification through Hitler, the Nazi regime, and the Second World War, with a brief survey of postwar development.
HIE 743: The Holocaust. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE [HCU] 343.) Study of the destruction of Jews of Europe during World War II. Political anti-Semitism in modern Europe; the rise of Hitler and Nazism. The interwar period in Europe and the spread of anti-Semitism. World War II, ghetto, deportation, and liquidation. Problems of rescue and resistance. Selected readings from the literature of the Holocaust.
HIE 750: Topics in European History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated as often as the topic changes.) Various sections in topics in European history. (For specific topics and sections each semester, consult the Department.)
*Courses preceded by an asterisk are not expected to be offered in 2007-2009.
HIS 701: History of Science from Descartes and Newton to Darwin and Einstein. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIE 301.) This course examines the nature and significance of scientific thinking in the work of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton; the conflicts between science and religion in the seventeenth century; materialism's penetration of biology from physics; the revolution in chemistry associated with Priestley and Lavoisier; the interface between science and the industrial revolution; the work of the French biologist Claude Bernard, illustrating the development of biology and experimental medicine; the startling work of Charles Darwin; and twentieth-century topics, such as field and atomic theory, relativity, and quantum theory and their important philosophical implications.
HIS 702: Science and Society. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIS 302.)Social aspects of the growth of modern science from the seventeenth century to the present. Religion and science in Galileo's Italy, science and technology during the industrial revolution, scientific institutions during the French Enlightenment, Darwin and Social Darwinism, eugenics and racial hygiene, big science, and the human genome project.
HIS 704: Science in the Twentieth Century. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIS 304.) A multidisciplinary survey of scientific and technological development in the twentieth century, emphasizing the ethical issues and social implications arising from them. Topics may include recent work in microbiology, DNA, and genetic engineering; theories of relativity, quantum physics, atomic weapons, and nuclear energy; technological innovations in synthetic materials, chemical warfare, and consumers' concerns; anthropological discoveries and human evolution; Freudian psychology and psychoanalysis; man in space, medical science, and portents for the future of civilization. Students need to have extensive background in the sciences.
*HIS 724: American Urban Architecture. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 727: World Revolutions. 3 hours, 3 credits (Not open to students who have taken HIS 327). The nature, causes, and results of revolutionary change, including the French, the American, the Haitian, the Russian, and the Chinese revolutions, and the depiction of revolutionary change in art, theater, and literature.
HIS 734: The Irish Diaspora. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIS 334.)A survey of the circumstances and consequences of Irish immigration from the eighteenth century to the present, including the patterns of settlement and assimilation of Irish immigrants in the West Indies, the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
*HIS 735: The Rise of Fascism. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 742: Anti-Semitism from Early Christianity to Hitler. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIS [HCU] 342.)The origin of conflict between Christianity and Judaism, and the fate of Jews in Medieval Europe. The gradual liberation and assimilation of the Jews of Western Europe, 1789-1870. The rise of modern racism and anti-Semitism in Europe, 1889-1939. Hitler, the Nazis, and the destruction of European Jewry during World War II. Anti-Semitism in the contemporary world. Social-psychological and cultural theories of anti-Semitism will be considered.
HIS 750: Topics in Comparative History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated as often as the topic changes.) Various sections in topics in comparative history. (For specific topics and sections each semester, consult the Department.)
*HIS 764: Topics in Medieval History. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 780: Seminar in History. 3 hours, 3 credits. Research in selected topics and historical problems.
HIS 781: Advanced Tutorial Project in History. 3 hours, 3 credits. Advanced individual reading and research paper on a specific topic in history, under faculty direction. PREREQ: Satisfactory completion of HIS 780.
HIS 795: Independent Reading. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated with permission of the chair.) Reading on special topics chosen in consultation with a member of the Department.
HIS 797: Master's Thesis Preparation. 6 credits. (Open only to students matriculated for the M.A. degree. Six credits may be offered toward the M.A. degree.)
HIU 534: U.S. History and Historiography. 3 hours, 3 credits. Important themes in U.S. history from the Colonial period to the present, with a focus on the content and critical thinking needed to teach this topic at the middle and high school level.
HIU 701: Colonial British America, 1586-1763. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 301.)The British colonies in North America from the lost English settlement at Roanoke to the treaty ending the French and Indian War. The collision of Europeans and Native Americans, conflicts between the European colonial powers, the establishment of slavery in North America, and political, social, and religious development.
HIU 704: The Era of the American Revolution, 1763-1789. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 304.)American development from the mid-eighteenth century through the framing of the Constitution, with emphasis upon the American Revolution, the interrelation of European and American affairs, and the growth of American institutions and ideals.
HIU 705: The Early Republic, 1789-1824. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 305.) The founding and development of a republican form of government: the evolution of political parties, the economic growth of the nation and its impact on politics, and the transition from a republic to a democracy engendered by economic growth and the search for political power.
HIU 708: Democracy, Sectionalism, and Slavery in the U.S., 1810-1825. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 308.) The age of the common man in politics, increasing sectional tensions, and the prominence of the slavery issue in American life. Abolitionism, workingmen's agitation, women's rights, westward expansion, states' rights, the defense of slavery, and the coming of the Civil War.
HIU 709: The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 309.) Key events of the Civil War and its aftermath, including emancipation and the status and role of newly freed Black Americans.
HIU 710: The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, 1877-1914. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 310.) Industrialization and the rise of the corporation, the importance of the transcontinental railroads, immigration, urbanization, black disenfranchisement, Jim Crow and the emergence of the New South, populism, the integration of the Far West, Progressivism, and trust busting.
HIU 714: The United States, 1914-1945. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 314.) Domestic and foreign affairs, including the two World Wars, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.
HIU 715: Recent United States History, 1945 to the Present. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 315.) Domestic and foreign affairs since the end of World War II. The Cold War and anti-Communism at home and abroad, and changes in American social, economic, and political values and institutions.
HIU 716: The American Constitution in Historical Perspective. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 316.) The American constitutional system from the American Revolution to the present. The evolution of legal structures, the growth of rights and remedies, the changing content of justice, organization of government, the balance of freedom and order.
HIU 717: History of American Foreign Relations, 1750-1912. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 317.) A history of American foreign relations from colonial times to the early twentieth century, with emphasis on the diplomacy of the American Revolution; foreign affairs and the Constitution; the War of 1812; the Monroe Doctrine; expansion, sectionalism, and the coming of the Civil War; and America's emergence as a world power.
HIU 718: History of American Foreign Relations, 1912-Present. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 318.)American foreign relations from the early twentieth century to the present. The U.S. role in World Wars I and II; the Cold War; and the growth of presidential power in foreign affairs.
HIU 719: The United States and the Vietnam War. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 319.)The reasons why the United States became involved in the Vietnam War, the methods employed, and the consequences of U.S. involvement.
HIU 720: Early American Cultural and Intellectual History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 320.) The major ideas, institutions, and individuals in American cultural and intellectual life from the mid-seventeenth through the late-nineteenth centuries. Puritanism; the Enlightenment in America; republicanism and romanticism; and the professionalization of letters and learning.
HIU 729: History of Sexuality and Sex Roles in America. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 329.) The social history of sexual roles as they have developed and changed in America from colonial times to the present.
HIU 731: History of Women in America. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 331.) Historical study of women's conditions, statuses, and roles in American society from colonial times to the present.
HIU 732: History of Health Care in the United States. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 332.) Examination of health care in America from colonial times to the present. Topics include the development of the medical profession, the rise of the public health movement, the growth of hospitals, and popular attitudes toward health and disease.
HIU 733: American Urban History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 333.) The formation, growth, and transformation of American cities from the wilderness village to the megalopolis. Emphasis on the changing political and economic roles of cities, patterns of social stratification, power, and mobility; and trends in recent urban social and cultural life.
HIU 735: Immigration in America. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 335.) The motives and aspirations of immigrants, their contributions to the effects on American social structure, and the tensions between assimilation and ethnicity.
*HIU 736: American Religious History. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIU 336.) Religious belief and behaviors of Americans from the seventeenth century to the present. Encounters among European, African, and indigenous religions; Christianization, evangelicalism, and revivalism; church and state relations; and religiously based movements for social reform.
HIU 738: The Family in American History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 328.) Historical study of the family in America, including its European roots and its relationship to the frontier, slavery, immigration, and current developments in industrialism, urbanization, and technology.
*HIU 740: The Industrial Revolution in America. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIU 741: American Business History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 341.) The rise of business enterprise in America from its earliest commercial origins to giant corporations and conglomerates. Themes include the rise of early commerce; emergence of consolidated industry; prominent businessmen and business techniques; analysis of business philosophy and entrepreneurial attitudes; reactions to corporate power by labor and government; evolution of business forms and structures; and the impact of business enterprise on the political, legal, and cultural development of America.
HIU 742: History of American Labor. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 342.) The American worker from colonial times to the present, with emphasis on the period since the Civil War. Themes include the origins and character of the American labor movement; the impact of industrialization on the worker; slavery and wage labor; the growth and development of the major American labor unions; the impact of social reformers and radicals on the labor movements and the American worker; public employees and collective bargaining; and the changing attitudes of the American worker.
HIU 745: American Economic History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 345.) Studies in American economic development from the agricultural and commercial economy of the colonies to contemporary U.S. preeminence as an industrial nation. Attention will be given to the economic institution and policy with regard to political and social developments.
HIU 746: History of the American Presidency. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 346.)America's presidents and how the presidency has developed from George Washington to the present.
HIU 747: The Mainland Borough: The Bronx as a City in History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 347.) The urban history of the Bronx from the seventeenth century to the present. Major emphasis on 1874-1945, the period of the borough's most rapid growth and experience with modern urban problems. Topics include ethnic in-migration and mobility; the effects of mass-transit development; Prohibition; and the ways various external events, such as wars and depression, have influenced the borough and its people.
HIU 748: History of New York —City and State. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIU 348.) Examination of the interaction between the urban center and the State from their respective origins as New Amsterdam and New Netherland to the twentieth century. Special emphasis is placed on the socioeconomic reasons for the cosmopolitan nature of the metropolis and its uniqueness as a major urban entity.
HIU 750: Topics in American History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated as often as the topic changes.) Various sections in topics in American history. (For specific topics and sections each semester, consult the Department.)
HIW 533: World History and Historiography. 3 hours, 3 credits. Important themes in world history, with a focus on the content and critical thinking needed to teach this topic at the middle and high school level.
HIW 701: Ottoman History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 301.)Political, socio-economic, and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire from its fourteenth-century beginnings to its demise at the end of World War I.
HIW 702: Modern Middle Eastern History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 302.)Societies and politics of the Middle East in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Islamic and Ottoman legacies, reforms and reforming elites, changing roles of religion, nationalist ideologies, Great Power intervention, regional politics, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
HIW 703: Contemporary Islamic Movements. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 303.) Contemporary movements of Islamic resurgence and activism in the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia, and beyond.
HIW 705: The Arab-Israeli Conflict. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 305.) The Arab-Israeli conflict from the late nineteenth century to the present; political, military, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and psychological dimensions.
HIW 716: East Asia in the Modern World. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 316). The making of modern East Asia from the Manchu invasions of the seventeenth century to the present-day rise of China, Japan and Korea as military, economic, and cultural powers.
HIW 723: History of Africa to 1800. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 323.) Survey of African history from the earliest times to 1800. Beginning with the development of early human societies, the course will cover environmental, social, economic, political, and religious transformations before 1800.
HIW 727: History of Africa 1800 to the Present. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIW 327.) Survey of African history from 1800 to the present. Beginning with large-scale internal transformations in the nineteenth century, the course will address social, economic, political, and religious transformations on the continent since 1800.
HIW 730: Nineteenth-Century Latin American History. 3 hours, 3 credits.(Not open to students who have taken HIW 330.)Examination of the broad changes and continuities in Latin America over the course of the "long nineteenth century," from political independence in the 1820s to the rise of nationalist challenges to liberalism in the 1930s.
HIW 731: Modern Latin America. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 331.)Examination of the nations of Latin America from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, with a focus on political reform and revolution, economic development, and social movements.
HIW 737: Latin America and the United States from 1823 to the present. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 337 or LAC 337.) Relations between the United States and Latin American countries since their creation as independent republics.
HIW 738: Colonial Latin America. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 330 or HIW 338.)Examination of the construction and development of colonial societies in Latin America from the encounters of the sixteenth century to the crisis of the Iberian empires in the late eighteenth century.
HIW 745: History of South America. 3 hours, 3 credits. Examination of the pre-Columbian and colonial foundations of the nation-state and the construction of modern nations in South America in the post-independence period. Special emphasis on the challenge of creating viable political systems in the context of geopolitical pressures and local complexities.
HIW 748: Europe and the Non-Western World in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 3 hours, 3 credits. (Not open to students who have taken HIW 348.) Imperialism and colonialism in Africa and Asia, the growth of nationalism, decolonization, revolution, independence, and globalization.
HIW 750: Topics in Non-Western History. 3 hours, 3 credits. (May be repeated as often as the topic changes.) Various sections in topics in non-Western history. (For specific topics and sections each semester, consult the Department.)