HIST 101H 1W. Life, Love and War in the Middle Ages
4.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: Freshmen Section only. Supplemental Instruction available.
What was it like to live, love and die in the Middle Ages? This course will examine the lives of famous medieval people, like Charlemagne and Eleanor of Aquitaine, but also those whose experiences are not as well known - such as peasants, Jews, heretics, women and children. The lives of these people will be brought to life through modern novels but also the medieval accounts of their lives. By coming to appreciate the lives of medieval people, the larger political, economic, cultural and social developments that shaped the medieval period will be brought to life. Course assessment will consist of essay exams, papers, quizzes, presentations and class participation. This course counts toward the PAST minor. Writing intensive.
HIST 101C 2W. Modern China
4.00 credits
Maus, Tanya
Prerequisite: none.
Using primary sources (first-hand accounts), visual media, and scholarly essays, this course examines the sweeping historical changes that have shaped modern China. In particular, we will examine the ways in which individuals interacted with larger internal and external forces to create dynastic and revolutionary change, from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to Republican Nationalism (1912-1949), and into the Mao Era (1949-1976). We will conclude by exploring how this history of change and competing voices has translated into China in the present. Students' work will be evaluated through in-class participation, in-class quizzes, presentations and a variety of written assignments. Writing intensive.
HIST 105C 1W. Pre Modern World
4.00 credits
Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: Freshman Section Only. Supplemental Instruction available.
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: Freshmen Students only. Supplemental Instruction available.
Please see HIST 105C 1W Pre Modern World description above.
HIST 105 C/H 1W. Pre-Modern World History
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: none. Freshman only. Supplemental Instruction available.
Pre-Modern world history is fundamentally about the interconnectivity of the global system. In this class we will discuss kings, emperors, and philosophers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas in addition to how the kingdoms and empires of the world interacted during this period. Key topics include the development of empire from Persia to China to Rome, the migrations of steppe peoples from Mongolia into Europe over the course of a thousand years, and the religious interactions (and their sometimes violent conflicts) in Eurasia and Africa that resulted in the spread of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. In addition to discussing happenings within various kingdoms and fledgling states of the world, this class, specifically in lecture and discussion, is designed to look at how those kingdoms interacted with one another and what the consequences were—culturally, religiously, and economically. What was gained, and what lost? Writing Intensive. This course counts toward the PAST minor.
HIST 106C 1W. Modern World
4.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: none.
This course is designed as an introduction to the larger themes and questions of world history from approximately 1400-present. Rather than focusing on charting the dates and times of all the world's events, we will examine political institutions, economic/demographic trends, and social organizations in order to better understand the world today. 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. (This course is required for the History/Integrated Social Studies Major.)
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
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: none.
Please see HIST 106C 1W Modern World description above.
HIST 106C 2W. Modern World
4.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: This course is for first-year students only. Supplemental Instruction available.
This course is designed as an introduction to the larger themes and questions of world history from approximately 1400-present. Rather than focusing on charting the dates and times of all of the world's events, we will examine political institutions, economic/demographic trends, and social organizations in order to better understand the world today. 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. (This course is required for the History/Integrated Social Studies Major.)
HIST 106H 2W. Modern World
4.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: This course is for first-year students only. Supplemental Instruction available.
Please see HIST 106C 2W Modern World description above.
HIST 201: American Constitutional History I
4.00 Credits
Taylor, Thomas
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing recommended.
An examination of the English and colonial roots of the American constitution; the creation and ratification of the constitution in the 1780s; the origins of the Bill of Rights; the constitution's application and evolution in the early republic; and the role played by constitutional law in the mid-nineteenth century ruptures over slavery and Civil War. Required books include Michael Les Benedict The Blessings of Liberty and Sources in American Constitutional Law; and Richard Labunski, James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights. Assessment methods include quizzes, tests, and mock court oral presentations.
HIST 201: Local History Project
4.00 Credits
Taylor, Thomas
Local History Project explores local history, primarily that of Springfield and of Wittenberg. The emphasis is on hands on work, though we also read narrative history and primary sources. The emphasis is on the story of the local community and on how to utilize local resources to discover that story and to tell it to others. We meet one evening per week for 3.25 hours, and the course requires various kinds of work during the rest of the week. The projects will include oral history interviews related to the Wittenberg Oral History Project and to the Crowell—Collier plant closure of 1956. You also will write up a house history and conduct one research project of your own choosing, related to Springfield or to Wittenberg history. Our area is rich in history and in resources for studying that history. The Heritage Center of Clark County contains a fine local history museum, an extensive collection of local artifacts, as well as a high quality archive and library. Wittenberg's own history is preserved in its archives in Thomas Library and in its rare book collection. Both Wittenberg and the city possess a rich array of old buildings that, when understood, speak to us powerfully about the people that lived here before us. Springfield's story parallels that of the rise and fall of Midwestern industrial cities: its position on the nation's transportation grid; its utilization of natural resources and cheap labor; the evolution of its city government to a city manager system; and its relative decline in the modern era with the departure of its manufacturing base. Likewise, Wittenberg's story parallels that of hundreds of small church-related colleges founded in the nineteenth century: in its curricular history, its responses to increasing specialization in the twentieth century; and in its shifting student populations.
HIST 173C 1W. Settlers and Liberators of South Africa
4.00 credits
Rosenberg, Scott
Prerequisite: none
This course will focus on conflict in South Africa from a historical perspective. We will consider the nature of the European colonial societies and the Africans who resisted them. Africans fought not only against a range of inequalities, but in their creative resuscitation of a suppressed past, fought over descriptive languages, social and cultural categories that are themselves the product of domination. Africans used passive, hidden, and violent methods to overcome a variety of difficulties in achieving independence and survival. Readings will include novels, biographies, and a few manuscripts. Students will be evaluated on class participation, take-home exams, and papers based upon the readings. Writing intensive.
HIST 202H: Luther
4.00 Credits
Taylor, Thomas
Prerequisite: ENGL 101E
HIST 202 courses introduce students to problems in the interpretation of history (more technically called historiography) and to the writing of historical prose. This version of HIST 202 tackles the extraordinary and complex figure of Martin Luther. The course approaches him as a problem in biography, through readings of some of major biographical interpretations of his life, as a problem in theology, through readings of his own writings as well as those of modern theologians and scholars; and as a problem in historical interpretation. Books will include Martin Marty, Martin Luther; Roland Bainton, Here I Stand; Patrick Collinson, The Reformation: A History; Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing about History; John Osborne, Luther; Writing intensive: papers and tests and quizzes. This course counts toward the PAST minor.
History 202C 1W Hiroshima's Shadows
4.00 credits
Maus, Tanya
The 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.
HIST 203H 1W. Historian's Craft: Negro Leagues
4.00 credits
Rosenberg, Scott
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing
The course will focus on the Negro Leagues that existed in the United States from the early 20th century until the late 1960s. We will also explore the experience of black baseball players both before and after the period of segregation in the United States. While it is essential that we come to grips with the broader political, social, and economic institutions that supported racial segregation, the main focus of this course is to expose the lives that black baseball players made for themselves. In exploring the lives of African-American baseball players, we will focus on an emerging culture and the evolution of race relations. Of particular interest will be the few successful Negro Leagues that operated from 1919 through the 1940s and the long process of breaking baseball's color barrier from 1946 through the 1960s.
This course is designed to teach students the basic skills of researching and writing a historical paper. Assessment will be based on a book review, two take home exams, and the main component of the grade will be based on the research assignments and final paper. Writing intensive.
HIST 221H: United States History I
4.00 Credits
Taylor, Thomas
Prerequisites: Intended for rising sophomores and above.
An introduction to US history from colonization through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The course combines lecture and discussions to develop an understanding 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; form the revolution into the early republic; and the era of the Civil War. Books include James L. Roark et al, The American Promise, Volume I (4/e ; The Bedford Glossary for U.S. History; John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government. Not writing intensive. Quizzes and tests. (This course, or an equivalent course, is required for the History/Integrated Social Studies Major. See the history department chair for information on possible equivalent courses.)
HIST 222H 01. U. S. History 1877 to Present
4.00 credits
Weeks, James
Prerequisite: none.
How did new technology change the lives of average Americans in the late nineteenth century? What role did American women play in World War I? How did the Civil Rights Movement change American society? How and why did Harry Truman decide to use the atomic bomb on Japan? How did Americans react to the Vietnam War? These are just a few of the questions we will discuss in HIST 222, a survey of some of the major themes, topics and issues in American history from 1877 to the present. We will focus on selected social, political, diplomatic, economic and cultural developments that have shaped the nation, its varied regions and peoples. This course will consist of lecture, class discussion and numerous reading and writing assignments. Attendance is very important. Students will grapple with problems of historical perspective and interpretation, and are expected to participate in discussion, raise questions and form opinions based on material presented in class and in reading assignments. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class and on their timely completion of all assignments. (This course, or an equivalent course such as HIST 226 or HIST 227, is required for the History/Integrated Social Studies Major. See the history department chair for information on other possible equivalent courses.)
HIST 252 C/H 1W. Russian History since 1796
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Christian
Prerequisite: none
After the death of Catherine the Great in 1796, Russia is fully enmeshed in European and world history. Over the course of this class we will see Russian troops in Paris and Soviet troops in Berlin, as well as Russian and Soviet activity throughout the world. Russia also goes through a series of dramatic changes in this period from the conservative reaction under Catherine's son to cycles of reform and reaction throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That cycle will spark multiple revolutions in 1905-6, and 1917, leading to the birth of the first socialist state. The history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics will occupy most of our time, and we will discuss the building of socialism in one country, as well as the position of the Soviet Union in world affairs. Writing intensive.
HIST 301 1W. Eurasian Nomads
4.00 credits
Raffensperger, Chris
Prerequisite: One course in history or permission of instructor.
Eurasian nomads are part of a variety of histories and historiographies in China, Russia, India, the Middle East, and Europe. But in every one of those cases they primarily exist as an “other,” the “outsider” who raids the settled empire, the “barbarian” who ravages civilization. This class will attempt to change that perspective and focus on the nomads themselves as the actors. Over the course of the semester the class will acquire an understanding of nomadic society and traditions, as well as the various cultures involved in the regions and periods under consideration. They will do in-depth research on one particular steppe culture or people and present that material to the class, with the goal of helping to understand who these Eurasian nomad are, why they acted the way they did, and why history and historians traditionally portray them negatively. Writing intensive.
HIST 312 1W. Age of Cathedrals
4.00 credits
Livingstone, Amy
Prerequisite: one course in History or permission of instructor.
One of the most enduring images of the medieval world is the cathedral. Have you ever wondered why medieval people felt compelled to create such monumental structures? How did they build cathedrals? Who built them? This course will explore the society that produced these magnificent monuments. Our discussion will begin with the art and society of the period preceding the Age of Cathedrals: the Romanesque. Key to our discussion will be the pilgrimage churches that came to cover much of France and Northern Spain. How did faith and religious practice, as well as social and economic factors, contribute to the construction of these churches? Next we will examine how the Romanesque period transformed into the age of Gothic. Again the focus will be not only the artistic and aesthetic changes, but what economic, social and political changes led to the construction of cathedrals such as Chartres, St. Denis, Notre Dame, Amiens and Rheims. Why were cathedrals designed to capture light and to seem to ascend toward heaven? How do cathedrals reflect intellectual and philosophical developments of the central Middle Ages? Finally we will consider what impact cathedrals had on medieval civilization. How do cathedrals reflect the social and cultural changes that characterized the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? Students will write three short papers, an in-depth research paper, and a synthetical essay. They will present their research to the class at the end of the semester. Writing intensive. This course counts toward the PAST minor.
HIST 390 1W. Roosevelt, Wilson & The Progressives
4.00 credits
Wood, Molly
Prerequisite: HIST 202C/H or permission of instructor.
HIST 390 is an intensive reading seminar intended primarily for upper-level history majors. Each HIST 390 course explores the historiography of a specific topic in history. This course will employ historical biography as a primary means of understanding the complex historiography of the Progressive Era in American history, generally taken to refer to the years between 1900 and 1917 (when the U.S. entered World War I). During this era, two towering figures -- Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson -- dominated American society and foreign relations. Ever since that time, historians have been attempting to understand then and interpret their presidencies. Both have left a long-standing legacy that is still referenced in modern politics on a regular basis. Writing Intensive. Pre-requisites -- HIST 202.
HIST 411 1W. Senior Seminar
4.00 credits
Brooks-Hedstrom, Darlene
Prerequisite: Senior history majors only and HIST 202, HIST 203, and HIST 390.
The primary focus of the course is on a senior-level research paper, on a topic of the student's choosing and in accord with the student's previous course work. The course also includes discussion of differing philosophies of history and of the evolution of the discipline of history. Quizzes and research paper. 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.
