Department of History
Course Descriptions, Spring 2010
HIST 105C 1W - Pre Modern World
4.00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: none
This course considers how in the world ancient history matters in shaping the modern world. We will discard memorization of dates to consider real questions that have historical importance in thinking about the past. We will develop skills in reading, debating and argumentation as we consider issues such as how telling stories about the world reflect core values of society, what medical beliefs about the body tell us about gender roles in the past, what beliefs were foundation to the Islamic empire, how Genghis Khan ushered in the modern age, and to what degree ancient religious beliefs predetermine the political and ethical history of a community. We will read primary sources from period, examine archaeological remains of material culture and read historical fiction as a way to engage with these questions and establish skills in thinking critically about the past. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Reading and writing intensive.
HIST 105H 1W - Pre Modern World
4.00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: none
Please see HIST 105C 1W Pre Modern World description above.
HIST 105C 2W - Pre Modern World
4.00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: First-year students only. Supplemental instruction available.
Please see HIST 105C 1W Pre Modern World description above.
HIST 105H 2W - Pre Modern World
4.00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: First-year students only. Supplemental instruction available.
Please see HIST 105C 1W Pre Modern World description above.
HIST 106C 1W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none
Are you interested in what the Aztecs thought of the Spanish? Have you ever thought about how Japanese farmers experienced life in the 19th century? In "The Modern World," we will examine such questions in an attempt to re-examine our assumptions about non-western cultures since 1400, while seeing the connections between these cultures and western civilizations. Using a global framework, students will explore the development of modern civilizations in the Near and Far East, Eastern/Western Europe, Africa and the Americas. Assessment will focus on the students' ability to express their ideas in essay exams, quizzes, short papers, and oral presentations. Writing intensive.
Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum: CLAC
Interested in using your foreign language skills to earn extra credit connected to this course and to learn more about the subject matter of this course at the same time? If so, register for the CLAC components offered here. You don’t need to be fluent in the language to exercise this option. In fact, you need only to have completed two credits beyond 112 or to be currently enrolled in a course beyond 112. Your work will be guided by your professor and by faculty from the Languages Department. The CLAC module is designed for intermediate level language learners.
This course offers a foreign language component or CLAC component in the following languages:
Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German
Students who select the CLAC option will complete work in a foreign language that will supplement the work in this course. Students who complete the CLAC assignments successfully will earn 1 credit for the CLAC component.
To register for the CLAC component, you must also register for a one-credit LANG 230 CLAC module listed among the Language Department’s offerings. Meeting times and location will be arranged at the beginning of the semester. Credit for CLAC modules may be counted toward the requirements for International Studies and as elective credit in the Language department.
HIST 106H 1W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none
Please see HIST 106C 1W Modern World description above.
HIST 106C 2W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none
Please see HIST 106C 1W Modern World description above.
HIST 106H 2W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none
Please see HIST 106C 1W Modern World description above.
HIST 106C 3W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: none
As our world grows smaller with each new technological advance, it becomes increasingly important to know and understand that world and our place in it. Modern world history will help you to learn the origins of nations, religions, philosophical systems, and even the conflicts that occupy the world around you. The class begins with the Mongol world empire which controlled the majority of Asia and Europe for over 100 years. Its dissolution led to the creation of a variety of smaller states, vying for power with one another, a phenomenon mirrored at the other end of our class with the breakup of the Soviet Union. Aside from political history, we will also deal with social and cultural history, studying colonization and its effect on both subjects and conquerors, suffrage for a wide variety of groups, as well as the creation of modern political philosophies such as socialism and democracy. This course will provide you with a solid grounding in modern world history and ideally encourage you to pursue further historical interests. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 106H 3W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: none
Please see HIST 106C 3W Modern World description above.
HIST 106C 4W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: First-year students only. Supplemental instruction available.
Please see HIST 106C 3W Modern World description above.
HIST 106H 4W - Modern World
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: First-year students only. Supplemental instruction available.
Please see HIST 106C 3W Modern World description above.
HIST 170C 1W - Lesotho and the Shadow of Apartheid
4.00 credits
Rosenberg, Scott
Prerequisite: none
This class will look at formation of mountain Kingdom of Lesotho during the time of Moshoeshoe. Special attention will be paid to how Moshoeshoe brought the Basotho together and his relationship with Europeans. Next this class will look at the Kings who came after Moshoeshoe and the struggle between the chieftainship and the commoners during the twentieth century. We will also devote time to discussing the development of a national identity based on Moshoeshoe as a form of resisting incorporation into South Africa. Considerable attention will be given to Lesotho’s underdevelopment, environmental degradation and growing dependence on migrant labor in the colonial period. We will then discuss Lesotho independence and post-colonial politics. Lastly, this class will focus on Lesotho’s future as an independent viable nation. The items examined will include the HIV/AIDS crisis, Lesotho dependence on migrant labor and the textile industry as well as its relationship with South Africa. Writing intensive.
HIST 172C 1W - Africa Since 1500
4.00 credits
Rosenberg, Scott
Prerequisite: none
This course will examine how African political, cultural, religious, economic, and social institutions have responded to the penetration of outsiders over the last 500 years. These outsiders include European slave traders, missionaries, and colonizers as well as Arab traders and Islamic scholars. The impact of the slave trade and later European colonization will be explored in depth. Africans were not passive victims in their own history, and we will focus on how Africans responded to these challenges and struggled for their independence, and how these movements helped shape the fact of Post-Colonial Africa. It is this dynamic interplay between Africans and outsiders which has shaped the formation of modern Africa. Assessment will be based on discussions of the readings, four papers as well as a take-home midterm and final. Writing intensive.
HIST 201C 1W - Japan’s Medieval Past
4.00 credits
Maus, Tanya
Prerequisite: none. Supplemental instruction available.
Japan’s Medieval Past is most often viewed through the rise of a ruling warrior (samurai) class. However, long before the age of the samurai, civil officials, aristocratic women, monks, and wandering performers created an unprecedented age of political, social, artistic and literary achievement that drew on rich and diverse traditions from within and without Japan. Through the use of primary historical sources, literature, and classic film by directors such as Akira Kurosawa and Mizoguchi Kenji, this course will examine Japan’s complex medieval heritage beginning with the rise of a stable imperial rule in the sixth century and ending with the anarchy of the warring states period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Students will be evaluated according to quizzes, two exams, weekly journal responses, and an analytical paper of five to six pages. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 201H 01 - Topics: Local History Project
4.00 credits
Taylor, Thomas T.
Prerequisite: none
Local History Project introduces students to local history, in particular Springfield and Wittenberg, and to conducting local history research. We will read together two books by William A. Kinnison, Springfield in Clark County, An Illustrated History, and Wittenberg: An American College, as well as various pamphlets on local topics. We also will conduct local history projects, such conducting oral history interviews, research house/building histories, and writing history from written sources and from three-dimensional sources. The course is made by possible by the rich resources of the Wittenberg archives and the archives of the Heritage Center in downtown Springfield. Tests and projects grades.
HIST 202C 1W - Hiroshima’s Shadow
4.00 credits
Maus, Tanya
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing only.
This course explores how historians write and interpret history by examining the historical debates and historical memory of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan from 1945 to the present. We will consider how the understanding of the atomic bombings and the reasons for the bombings have changed over time in Japanese public discourse by focusing on primary and secondary sources written by Japanese scientists, artists, and literary figures from 1945 to the present. The understanding of Japanese atomic bomb discourse will be deepened by also pursuing the changing historical memory of the atomic bombings in the United States, since the national narratives of the atomic bombing in the US and Japan are deeply intertwined. This course will engage students in the study of the diverse perspectives within Japan regarding the atomic bombing. In particular, the course will look at differing atomic bomb narratives (for example, those of Korean victims of the bombing and current cancer victims that continue trace their illness to the atomic bombings) in Japan that have been often excluded from public memory and that struggle to survive in the face of erasure from the political center. Students’ work will be evaluated through in-class participation, in-class quizzes, presentations and a variety of written assignments. Writing intensive.
Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum: CLAC
Interested in using your foreign language skills to earn extra credit connected to this course and to learn more about the subject matter of this course at the same time? If so, register for the CLAC components offered here. You don’t need to be fluent in the language to exercise this option. In fact, you need only to have completed two credits beyond 112 or to be currently enrolled in a course beyond 112. Your work will be guided by your professor and by faculty from the Languages Department. The CLAC module is designed for intermediate level language learners.
This course offers a foreign language component or CLAC component in the following languages:
Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German
Students who select the CLAC option will complete work in a foreign language that will supplement the work in this course. Students who complete the CLAC assignments successfully will earn 1 credit for the CLAC component.
To register for the CLAC component, you must also register for a one-credit LANG 230 CLAC module listed among the Language Department’s offerings. Meeting times and location will be arranged at the beginning of the semester. Credit for CLAC modules may be counted toward the requirements for International Studies and as elective credit in the Language department.
HIST 202H 1W - Children of the Past
4.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing only.
What was it like growing up in the past? Did pre modern people have a “childhood?” Historians have recently turned their attention to investigating the private lives of medieval and early modern people. In this class we will explore what historians have uncovered about growing up in the past. We will examine the experiences of children in medieval London and Florence, Reformation Germany and sixteenth-century France. This course will also examine how historians “do” history. What methods, theories, philosophies inform how historians have approached examining the history of childhood? What are the issues that confront historians in regard to the use of primary sources and historiographic traditions? Should historians be objective? Can they be objective? Each of those questions is fundamental to the task, vocation and obligation of the historian. To address such issues, students will read, analyze and critique primary sources. The “history” of historical interpretation, or historiography, will also be explored through a series of monographs and articles. Students will write several short analytical essays, as well as a longer historiographical paper, and participate in discussion and debate. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 203C 1W - Excavating Egypt’s History
4. 00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing only
"Excavating Egyptian History" will explore the art, archaeology and history of Ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty, with particular focus upon the Amarna Period. Tutankhamun and Nefertiti are the two most well-known figures of the Amarna period. We will examine their lives in relationship to the most controversial ruler of ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Considered a madman, a heretic, or a visionary by some, this course will endeavor to explore the mysteries surrounding him and his successor, Tutankhamun.
Through the reading of primary textual sources in the form of letters, myths, military annals, and biographies, we will ask questions about what life was like before, during and after the Amarna Period. We will also examine archaeological discoveries at Amarna and Karnak that have reconfigured our understanding of the Amarna Period and the successors of the 19th Dynasty. One component of the course will include a trip to the research library at the Ohio State University.
This sophomore level, research class will be based upon several pre-writing, writing, and revision exercises to train students how to write a well-designed and argued research paper based upon archaeological and textual material. This methodology course will include exercises that will give students the experience in writing summaries of scholarly articles, revising thesis statements, designing research outlines, and providing peer reviews of early versions of the final research paper. The central focus of the assessment in the course is a project that includes a source bibliography, citation with footnotes, and a research text that analyzes a topic related to the Amarna Period. This course counts toward Africana Studies and PAST minors. Writing intensive.
HIST 221H 01. United States History I
4.00 credits
Taylor, Thomas T.
Prerequisite: none
An introduction to US history from colonization through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The course combines lecture and discussions to develop an understanding of the facts and story of American history and to problems in interpreting that story. The course is divided into three units: early America to the revolution; from the revolution into the early republic; and the era of the Civil War. Books include The American Promise and Interpretations of American History. This course will satisfy the requirement for those students with the History/Integrated Social Studies Major. Quizzes and tests.
HIST 227H 1W - U. S. History Since 1945
4. 00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: none
In 1945, as World War II ended, a new ideological conflict engulfed the world. The “Cold War” would dominate U.S. history and international relations for the next five decades. This class will explore how and why the Cold War began, and how it shaped U.S. foreign and domestic policy. We will assess U.S. relationships with other areas of the world as well as the important social, political and economic changes taking place at home in the post-war era. We will explore both broad questions (Why do we remember the 1950s as a time of domestic tranquility? How do we assess the social disruptions and activism of the 1960s?) and specific questions (What was Watergate? What happened during the Iranian Hostage crisis?) This class will give students the opportunity to examine recent U.S. history in detail, to place U.S. history in a larger global context, and to learn basic skills of historical analysis. The course will consist of lecture, class discussion and reading and writing assignments. Attendance is required. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class, and the timely completion of all reading and writing assignments. This course will satisfy the HIST 222 requirement for those students with the History/Integrated Social Studies Major. Students may not take both HIST 227 and HIST 222 for credit. Writing intensive.
Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum: CLAC
Interested in using your foreign language skills to earn extra credit connected to this course and to learn more about the subject matter of this course at the same time? If so, register for the CLAC components offered here. You don’t need to be fluent in the language to exercise this option. In fact, you need only to have completed two credits beyond 112 or to be currently enrolled in a course beyond 112. Your work will be guided by your professor and by faculty from the Languages Department. The CLAC module is designed for intermediate level language learners.
This course offers a foreign language component or CLAC component in the following languages:
Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German
Students who select the CLAC option will complete work in a foreign language that will supplement the work in this course. Students who complete the CLAC assignments successfully will earn 1 credit for the CLAC component.
To register for the CLAC component, you must also register for a one-credit LANG 230 CLAC module listed among the Language Department’s offerings. Meeting times and location will be arranged at the beginning of the semester. Credit for CLAC modules may be counted toward the requirements for International Studies and as elective credit in the Language department.
HIST 230H 1W - African-American History
4.00 credits
Rosenberg, Scott
Prerequisite: none
This course will investigate Africa-American history by focusing on slavery and the struggle for equality after emancipation. The first part of the course will examine the institution of slavery, however, greater emphasis will be placed on the lives that slaves made for themselves. We will ask questions such as “how much control did slaves have over their own lives,” and “how did they resist servitude?” The second half of the course will dedicate itself to the study of the struggle for equality. This class will move beyond the political struggle and will explore the role that culture and an emerging and evolving identity played in shaping the quest for equality. Assessment will focus on the student’s ability to express ideas in take-home essay exams, papers, and oral presentation. Grading will be based on discussions of a variety of readings, 3-4 papers and a take-home midterm and final. Writing intensive.
HIST 241 1.1W - Renaissance Florence
2.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: none. Course meets the first half of the semester.
Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Medici … these are the names forever associated with the history of Renaissance Florence. Perhaps more than any other city, Florence is seen as where the Renaissance started and where it reached its pinnacle. While the names above are those that are familiar from Renaissance Florence, there are many others who remain in the shadows. This course will examine the experiences of the illuminati of the Florentine Renaissance, as well as the common men and women who took part in or were affected by this cultural movement. Topics to be considered include: Machiavelli’s Florence: The Society and Economy of Renaissance Florence; Love, Marriage and Family; Renaissance Religion; The Lives and Contributions of Florence’s Artists. Students will read primary sources from Renaissance Florence, as well as different interpretations historical interpretations of the people and contributions of this important city. Assignments include, exams/quizzes, short essays, an analytical paper, and presentations. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 241 1.2W - Did Women Have A Renaissance?
2.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: none. Course meets the second half of the semester.
The Renaissance has long been held up as the start of the “modern world” when Europe finally evolved out of the “dark ages” of the medieval centuries. While popular and often found in text books, the above description embodies some inherent problems. This course will address some of the problems of this interpretation by asking the question “Did Women have a Renaissance?” Taking its name from the seminal article by Joan Kelly Gadol, this course will examine the experience of women in the Renaissance. Using the life experience of Felice della Rovere as introduction to the social, political and economic realities of the Renaissance, we will consider the lives of Felice’s contemporaries to determine their role in the Renaissance – if any – and how the Renaissance shaped their lives. Students will read primary sources by and about Renaissance women, as well as historians’ interpretations and current cinematic interpretations of their lives. Assignments include, exams/quizzes, short essays, an analytical paper, and presentations. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 241H 01.1 - Victorian Underworlds
2.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none. Course meets the first half of the semester.
Victorian Britain witnessed the rise of the world’s first industrial power, quick urban growth, and rapidly changing politics and social life. This course will look at the underside of the progressive image of Britain, exploring the sewers and subways, the mines and factories of industrial Britain. We will also look at the conception of crime and at the criminalization of certain kinds of sexuality as well as at the social movements seeking political and societal transformation. Assessment will be in the form of active class participation, essay exams, short papers, quizzes, and presentations.
HIST 241H 01.2 - Blitz to Beaches: Britain, 1939-1945
2.00 credits
Proctor, Tammy
Prerequisite: none. Course meets the second half of the semester.
From the “Phony War” of 1939 to the nightly bombing of London and other British cities by the Luftwaffe to the landings at the Normandy beaches, the Second World War was a defining moment in British modern society. This course will look at Britain’s role in the appeasement of Germany in the lead-up to the war, in fighting the war, and it also will focus on the impact of war on British society. Assessment will be in the form of active class participation, essay exams, short papers, quizzes, and presentations.
HIST 301 1W - Early America
4.00 credits
Taylor, Thomas T.
Prerequisite: HIST 221H or equivalent or permission of instructor.
This advanced course in early American history explores stories and interpretive problems from colonization through the Civil War. We will read and discuss a number of important monographs that tentatively include: David Hackett Fisher, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America; Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution; David McCullough, John Adams; Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello; and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Tests and papers. Writing intensive.
HIST 301 2W - Viking World
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: One course in History or permission of instructor.
The Vikings occupy an important place in European, and indeed, Eurasian history. From their first recorded attack on Lindisfarne in 793, the Vikings roamed the Baltic and North Seas, continental Europe, the Mediterranean, the eastern European river systems, and even the Caspian and Black Seas. In their travels they met peoples of various faiths and origins, and traded with and raided them all equally. This course will explore the initial outburst of Viking expansion beginning in the late eighth century, look at the way Vikings lived at home and abroad, and will also examine the effect Vikings had on the various places they visited. We will also address the place of women in Viking society and study the Icelandic sagas that have survived to this day as a view to what they can tell us about Viking life and practices. The course will conclude with the creation of Scandinavian kingdoms and empires, such as those of King Cnut and Harald Hardrada. Writing intensive.
HIST 325 1.1W - American Empire, 1898-1933
2.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: HIST 106, HIST 222, HIST 226, or permission of instructor.
Course meets first half of the semester.
In an increasingly interdependent world it is important to understand the historical forces responsible for creating the current international climate and the relationships between the U.S. and the rest of the world. This 2-credit seminar will explore the origins of U.S. foreign policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Specifically, we will explore the expansion of U.S. strategic, economic, political and cultural interests abroad through such topics as the Spanish American War of 1898, U.S. policy in Asia and Latin America, the onset and results of U.S. participation in World War I and the international tensions of the 1920s and early 1930s. Class sessions will mix some lecture with substantial discussion based on common readings (books, articles and documents). Attendance is required. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class, and the timely completion of all reading and writing assignments. Writing intensive.
HIST 325 1.2W - The U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan
2.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: HIST 106, HIST 222H, HIST 227,or permission of instructor.
Course meets second half of the semester.
In an increasingly interdependent world it is important to understand the historical forces responsible for creating the current international climate and the relationships between the U.S. and the rest of the world. This 2-credit seminar will explore the origins and outcomes (so far) of the current U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Class sessions will mix some lecture with substantial discussion based on common readings (books, articles and documents). Attendance is required. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class, and the timely completion of all reading and writing assignments. Writing intensive.
HIST 390 1W - From Edo to Tokyo
4.00 credits
Maus, Tanya
Prerequisite: HIST 202C/H or permission of instructor.
In 1868 impoverished, disheveled samurai and angry rioting commoners in the heavily populated capital city of Edo brought the early modern Japanese military regime to an end. As a result, Edo was renamed Tokyo and the emergence of this vast modern metropolis reflected a radically new social and political order in Japan. This course will examine how historians have interpreted the events of 1868 and the transition from Edo to Tokyo in efforts to understand the role of modern Japan within the world’s modern history. As a class, we will analyze and discuss political, social, cultural historical interpretations of Japan’s revolutionary transformation as a way to understand the ways in which historians are informed by the ideological views of their present and to understand how history itself changes over time. The class will have a heavy reading load focused on the revolution and historiography, and grading will be largely on analytical papers, oral presentation, and focused discussion. Writing intensive.
HIST 411 1W - Senior Seminar
4.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: Senior History majors only and HIST 202, HIST 203, and HIST 390.
This capstone course examines historical and historiographical problems, philosophical issues pertaining to substance and methods of history as a discipline, and the process of research and writing history. A long analytical paper, an analysis of a historian, oral presentations, and active class participation are required. (And it all promises to be fun!) Writing intensive.
HIST 490 00 - Independent Study
1.00-4.00 credits
Staff
Prerequisite: Permission only.
HIST 491 00 - Internship
1:00-4.00 credits
Staff
Prerequisite: Permission only.
HIST 499 00 - Senior Honors Thesis
0.00-8.00 credits
Staff
Prerequisite: Permission only.
