History

Undergraduate Program

The History Department offers a traditional major, a minor and elective courses for nonmajors. Undergraduate majors must choose one of three areas of geographic specialization—United States, European or global history. These specializations may be linked to course work in interdisciplinary concentrations such as Asian studies, Holocaust studies or women’s studies. The History Department also offers a general track within the major for those seeking certification in elementary education.

The major exposes students to different fields of knowledge, offering training in critical thinking; the accumulation, organization and analysis of information; and clear and concise writing. The major provides an excellent background for graduate school, teaching, careers in law, government, journalism, international affairs, museum, library and archival work, and business. With courses on every major geographical area of the world, and with conceptual approaches ranging from political and diplomatic to social, intellectual and cultural, the History Department offers a rich and diverse curriculum.

The department also participates in Clark’s Higgins School of Humanities, allowing students to enjoy the support and benefits of the school.

Teacher Certification
Students may receive certification to teach high-school history in Massachusetts and perhaps other states. Interested students should speak to the department chair.

History Course Listing by Fields of Specialization

Method and Theory
HIST120 Writing History

U.S. History
HIST011 Survey of U.S. History to 1865
HIST012 Survey of U.S. History since 1865
HIST016 Race and Ethnicity in American History
HIST021 Voices from Slavery/First-Year Seminar
HIST036 The Strange World of Thomas Jefferson/First-Year Seminar
HIST037 19th-Century America through Women’s Eyes/First-Year Seminar
HIST039 At Home in 19th Century America/First-Year Seminar
HIST045 Reconsidering the Harlem Renaissance/First-year Seminar
HIST111 Introduction to Women’s Studies
HIST113 U.S. Urban History from Colonial to Modern Times
HIST114 African-American History, 1865 to Present (formerly HIST285)
HIST145 U.S. History through the Novel
HIST201 Era of the American Revolution
HIST202 The Early American Republic
HIST204 Special Topics in U.S. History/Proseminar
HIST207 Explorations in History: Rural New England in the 19th Century/Seminar
HIST209 U.S. History Since World War II
HIST210 Research Seminar : Early American History
HIST211 American Consumer Culture/Seminar
HIST213 Gender and the American City
HIST214 The American Civil War
HIST215 The Age of Lincoln/Proseminar
HIST216 Special Topics: African-American Internationalism/Proseminar
HIST217 Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, 1865-1877/Research Seminar
HIST219 History of American Women
HIST220 Black Radical Tradition/Seminar
HIST222 History of the AmericanSouth
HIST223 The Civil Rights Movement
HIST224 History of African-American Women/Seminar
HIST225 Blacks & Reds: African Americans, Socialists and Communists in the 20th Century (Reading Seminar)
HIST231 Origins of Modern America, 1877-1914/Proseminar
HIST238 America, Russia and the Cold War 1917-1991
HIST243 American Antiquarian Society/Seminar in American Studies
HIST245 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East Since 1945
HIST287 Advanced Topics in International Relations/Seminar
HIST291 Advanced Topics in International Relations - America Confronts Radical Islam
HIST293 African-American Social & Political Movements

European History
HIST040 Witchcraft: Witch Hunts in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1750/First-Year Seminar
HIST042 Nazi Germany: Rise & Fall/First-Year Seminar
HIST070 Our European Roots to 1600
HIST071 Our European Roots Since 1600
HIST104 History of Russian Culture
HIST110 Early Modern Europe
HIST115 Authority and Democracy: The History of Modern Central Europe
HIST118 Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1918
HIST142 Central Europe in the "Long" 19th Century (1756-1914)
HIST143 War and Peace: Central Europe, 1914-2003
HIST153 Europe: Age of Extremes
HIST165 Nazi Germany and The Holocaaust
HIST174 The Jewish Experience
HIST175 The Holocaust: Agency and Action
HIST185 The Russian Revolution, 1890-1938
HIST205 Renaissance and Reformation
HIST212 History of Sexuality: 1750 to the Present
HIST228 Early Modern Britain
HIST229 Women in European History
HIST232 Finding the Subject: Comparative Histories of Prostitution
HIST234 Racial Thought and Body Politics in Modern Europe (1500-2000)/Seminar
HIST236 Gender, War and Genocide in 20th Century Europe/Seminar
HIST237 The Holocaust Perpetrators
HIST253 Twentieth-Century Europe
HIST255 Jews in Modern Europe
HIST260 Rescue and Resistance during the Holocaust/Seminar
HIST261 Jewish Children in Nazi-Occupied Europe/Seminar
HIST264 The European Mind, History and Theory, 1700-2000
HIST265 Life and Death in the City: Occupied Europe, 1939-1945/Seminar
HIST266 Refugees/Seminar
HIST268 Special Topics: Holocaust  - Issues and Controversies/Seminar
HIST270 Jewish Responses to Modernity/Seminar
HIST273 Life Under German Occupation/ Seminar
HIST274 The Fate of the Shtetl During the Holocaust/Seminar
HIST283 Eastern European Jewish Diaspora
HIST284 The Holocaust and Its Aftermath: 1933-Present
HIST292 Yiddish Literature and the History of Jewish Secular Culture
HIST294 A Culture of Dissent - Russian Radicalism in Historical Perspective/Seminar
HIST295 Dangerous Women/Seminar

Global History
HIST033 Confucianism, Daoism Buddhism: Cultural Heritage of China/First-Year Seminar
HIST062 War and Peace in the Middle East/ First-Year Seminar
HIST080 Introduction to Modern  East Asia
HIST090 Twentieth-Century Global History
HIST135 History of Armenia
HIST161 Modern India
HIST162 The History of the Modern Middle East
HIST181 Chinese Civilization
HIST182 Modern China
HIST191 Pirates and Smugglers in the Atlantic World
HIST206 Africans in the Americas, 1500-1888
HIST226 Comparative Colonialism/Seminar
HIST227 The Caribbean in the Era of Slavery
HIST230 History of Armenian Genocide
HIST233 Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism: Intellectual History of China
HIST235 The Atlantic World
HIST238 America, Russia and the Cold War 1917-1991
HIST241 History of International Human Rights
HIST242 History of Nationalism
HIST247 The Western Powers and Armenian Genocide
HIST248 History of the Middle East/Seminar
HIST254 The Age of Atlantic Revolutions
HIST262 Problems of Genocide/Seminar
HIST276 Collective Memory and Mass Violence/Seminar
HIST279 Late Imperial China/Seminar
HIST281 Chinas Rising: The People’s Republic of China
HIST282 Chinese Women in Literature and Society
HIST286 The Vietnam War
HIST288 Seminar in Chinese History
HIST290 Political Dissent in Chinese History/Seminar

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