History courses
HIS150 - Introduction to Historical Inquiry
An introduction to the principles and techniques involved in the study of history. This course will include both reflection and practice, consideration of ideas and actual application, through exercises drawing on primary and secondary materials.Prerequisite: HIS101.(2 credits)
HIS201HP - United States History to 1865
This course surveys United States history until the Civil War. It gives
students a broad exposure to significant trends and competing narratives in
the first half of U.S. history through an integration of lectures,
discussions, readings and activities with primary and secondary sources. We
will examine the encounter between people from the Americas, Europe, and
Africa, the creation and development of the American nation state,
immigration, ethnicity, and the shifting definitions of what constitutes an
"American", movements promoting reform and social justice along the lines of
race, class, and gender, and demographic and economic changes. We will also
consider how Christians in America challenged and critiqued American life,
culture, and policy. (4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical
Perspectives)
HIS202HP - United States History from 1865
This course surveys United States history from the Civil War to the present.
It gives students a broad exposure to significant trends and competing
narratives in the second half of U.S. history through an integration of
lectures, discussions, readings and activities with primary and secondary
sources. We will examine the development of the American nation state,
shifting definitions of what constitutes an "American", movements promoting
rights and social justice along the lines of race, class, and gender, the
creation and growth of a consumer culture, patterns of urbanization,
suburbanization, and the role of print and electronic media in creating a
national mass culture. We will also consider how Christians in America
challenged and critiqued American life, culture, and policy. (4 credits)
(NWCore option under Historical Perspectives)
HIS203HP - The Search for a Useful Past: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
This course explores the intersection of religion, political organization, cultural
expression, and human community through an historical investigation of the
ancient Greek city-state, the Roman Empire and early Christianity, and
medieval society. We begin with the culture, politics, and history of the
ancient Greek polis. From there, we move to the culture, politics, and
history of the Roman Empire, attending to how Rome appropriated the ideas of
the Greeks and the development of Christianity as a deviant religious
subculture within the empire. The course concludes with medieval and early
modern Europe: a world of developing cities, political empires, and the
cultural dominance of the Christian church. (4 credits) (NWCore option under
Historical Perspectives)
HIS204HP - The Search for a Useful Past: Historical Narrative and the Modern World
This course runs from the medieval world to the present. Students will
trace a basic outline of European history from the emergence of early Europe
through the Middle Ages, out of which the modern West evolved, treating the
breakup of Christendom, the development of modern science, Europe's
colonization outside its borders, the Atlantic revolutions, and the
evolution of modern society through the 20th century. We will especially
concentrate on non-Western portraits of European colonization. Students will
learn to work with basic documents in European history as well as a few
significant arguments from historians. The student's primary work will be
document studies and essays using such documents to test explanations by
historians. In this way students should be able to express their
understanding of primary documents and relevant historian's arguments. (4
credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives)
HIS210 - Introduction to Public History
(2 credits)(American history) This course is designed to introduce
students to the theory, methods, and practice of history outside the
classroom. Students will explore the ways historians research, preserve,
and present historical topics to public audiences through museums,
archives, interpreters, documentaries, and through electronic media.
HIS240 - Issues in American History
A topical and selective study in American history providing the opportunity to focus on a particular era or issue important to the understanding of the American past. Topics will vary according to professor and student interest. Sample topics have included Cold War America, The Sixties, and History of American Women.Prerequisite: HIS101.(2 credits)
HIS250 - Issues in European/World History
A study of selected, issue-oriented topics in both European and world history more generally. Sample topics have included: The Early Middle Ages, The Scottish Highlands and The Millennium in Historic Perspective.Prerequisite: HIS101.(2 credits, non-yearly, consult department)
HIS265 - Colloquium in American History
(4 credits)(American History) This course allows students to investigate
broadly a period of history or
a historical issue or problem in American history. Students will develop
skills necessary to recognize and evaluate the arguments contemporary
historians deploy when discussing the topic of the colloquium and to read
critically the primary sources related to the topic of the colloquium.
Prerequisites: Historical Perspectives course or permission of instructor.
Note: May be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.
HIS275 - Colloquium in European/World History
(4 credits)(European/world history) This course allows students to
investigate broadly a period of history or a historical issue or problem
in European or world history. Students will develop skills necessary to
recognize and evaluate the arguments contemporary historians deploy when
discussing the topic of the colloquium and to read critically the primary
sources related to the topic of the colloquium.
Note: May be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.
Prerequisite: Historical Perspectives course or permission of instructor.
HIS317 - American Indian Societies and Cultures
(4 credits, non-yearly, consult department)(IGE option under
Cross-Cultural Engagement) This
course surveys the historical development of American Indian
peoples, particularly during the period of contact and conquest by Euro-Americans and particularly in the trans-Mississippi West region of what became the U.S. Topics include pre-contact li
fe, oral literature, Indian accommodation and selective adaptation to Euro-American societies, Spanish, French and U.S. Indian policies, Native American religion, Christian mission work among American Indians, activism by and on behalf of American Indians
, and reservation life.
HIS325 - American Political Thought
(4 credits, non-yearly, consult department)(American History) A survey of
the historical development of American political thought with
attention to significant American political thinkers from the colonial
period to the present. Special emphasis will be given to the uneasy
relationship between liberalism and democracy and the interaction between
American political institutions and culture.
HIS365 - Seminar in American History
(4 credits)(American history) Building on the skills students
developed in the Colloquium in American history, the Seminar in American
history invites students to do the work of a historian. Seminars focus
more deeply on some period or issue or question, and students will write
a significant research paper related to the seminar topic that
demonstrates advanced familiarity with the historiography and advanced
skills at analyzing and using primary sources.
Note: This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic
is studied.
Prerequisite: HIS206 or permission of instructor.
HIS375 - Seminar in European/World History
(4 credits)(European/world history) Building on the skills students
developed in the Colloquium in European / World history, the Seminar in
European/World history invites students to do the work of a historian.
Seminars focus more deeply on some period or issue or question, and
students will write a significant research paper related to the seminar
topic that demonstrates advanced familiarity with the historiography and
advanced skills at analyzing and using primary sources.
Prerequisite: HIS 207 or permission of instructor.
HIS398 - Directed Study
HIS417 - Internship
(2 or 4 credits may apply toward the major)
HIS435SR - Philosophy of History and Historiography
A study of problems relevant to history as a scientific and humanistic
discipline. Among the questions considered are the following: What sorts of
meaning have philosophers of history ascribed to the overall process of
history? What approaches have historians taken to questions of objectivity,
causation, and moral values in the study of history? How does philosophy of
history relate to the Christian faith? Prerequisite: HIS 120HP or a NWCore Belief and Reason (BR) course.
(4 credits)(European/world history)
HIS436 - The Research Seminar
(2 credits)(American or European/world history) The Research Seminar
permits students to develop, research, write and defend a major essay of
original historical research on a topic of their choice. This course is
the culmination of their major and builds on training and writing
completed in the earlier history courses. They will work closely with
one member of the history department, but the others will contribute to
their work by reading and commenting on drafts. The student will defend
and discuss their thesis in a public setting.
Prerequisite: HIS435.