History courses

(2 credits) (American history) 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.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives) 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) 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) ?The Search for a Useful Past: Antiquity and the Middle Ages? explores the intersection of religion, political organization, cultural expression, and human community through a 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) 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.

"Medieval Worlds: Caliphate, Byzantium, Christendom" explores the Mediterranean, the sea in the middle, as a meeting ground for political, religious, military, and cultural encounters between Catholic Christians, Orthodox Christians, and Sunni and Shia Muslims. Moving chronologically from late antiquity through the late medieval period, we begin with the early medieval rise of Islam and the formation of the Muslim polities, the distinct religious and political community of the Byzantine Empire, and the creation of western Christendom. From there we turn to the central Middle Ages, focusing on both the internal developments of the three religious polities and the Mediterranean encounters between Christians and Muslims, culminating with the Crusades. The course concludes with the simultaneous decline and renewal evident in all three communities at the end of the medieval period. (4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives)

(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.

(2 credits) (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: HIS120HP. Note: May be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(2 credits, non-yearly, consult department) (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: HIS120HP. Note: May be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(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.

(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. Prerequisite: Historical Perspectives course or permission of instructor. Note: May be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(4 credits, non-yearly, consult department) 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 life, 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. Cross-Referenced: Cross-referenced in sociology.

(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. Prerequisite: junior class standing, or permission of the instructor. Cross-Referenced: Cross-referenced in political science.

(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. Prerequisite: HIS206 or permission of instructor. Note: This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(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: HIS203HP or HIS204HP or permission of instructor. Note: This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(2-4 credits)

(2 or 4 credits may apply toward the major)

(4 credits) (European/world history) 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: HIS120HP or a NWCore Belief and Reason (BR) course.

(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.

The English word "history" comes from the Greek word "historia," which means "inquiry." This course gives students the opportunity to apply the cumulative knowledge and skills of historical inquiry learned in the masters' program by writing and presenting an original historical argument supported by primary document and secondary research. The project will be proposed, approved, designed, and presented prior to the students' graduation with a masters degree in education from Northwestern College. Prerequisite: HIS610. (3 credits)