Home

History

View courses in

  • CAS HI 287: History of American Foreign Relations since 1898
    Analysis of the history of American foreign policy from the perspective of the changing world and regional international systems; emphasis on the effect of these systems and the impact of America on the creation and operation of international systems. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS HI 290: Topics in History
    May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Topic for Fall 2022: Modern Africa. Provides an introduction to African history over the past 175 years, including the end of slavery, colonial rule and anti-colonial revolt, decolonization and nationalism, and the opportunities and challenges of life in postcolonial Africa. Two topics are offered Spring 2023. Section A1: Modernity and its Discontents. Explores major social, political, ethical, and aesthetic issues in modern European history through literature, film, painting, and social thought. Topics include good and evil, sexuality and civilization, capital and labor, as well as collaboration and resistance. Section B1: Warfare in Africa. Explores antiquity, the Slave Trade, Imperialism, and Insurgency. How Africans have waged war through history, beginning with ancient Egypt and proceeding through the course of the building of states and Empires, to the military culture that underlay the slave trade.
  • CAS HI 291: Politics of the American Environment
    When have Americans addressed declining resources and ecological deterioration? Why did demands for environmental justice develop? We explore how the United States has distributed environmental risks and rewards from the country's beginning to the present. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS HI 292: Capitalism in America: Economic History of the US
    Surveys the history of corporations and private enterprise since the Civil War, disentangling the evolving relationships between business and government and tracing the influence of money, markets, and their managers in American communities from factories to the frontiers. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the title "Money, Markets & Managers: Economic History of the United States" that was previously numbered CAS HI 377.
  • CAS HI 298: African American History
    Surveys the history of African Americans from their African origins to the present, investigating their critical role in shaping the meaning of race, rights, freedom, and democracy during slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights era. Also offered as CAS AA 371. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS HI 299: Civil Rights History
    This course examines the U.S. Civil Rights and the struggle for black freedom movements. From the late nineteenth century through the twenty-first century, we consider events, organizations, "leaders" and organizers, legal campaigns, and political protests to answer the questions: What were the race, class, and gender dynamics within the movements? What were the changing definitions of freedom? The course treats the movement's roots, goals, ideologies, and cultures, and includes a comparison of the struggles for equal rights of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, LGBT folks, and other groups. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • The Individual in Community
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS HI 300: American Popular Culture
    Examines how Americans have changed (and haven't) since the nineteenth century by exploring their curious beliefs, social and sexual practices, and changing understandings of selfhood. Topics include Victorian etiquette, modern city pleasures, racial stereotyping, dating rituals, family dynamics, and more. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 301: Women and Gender in US History
    Examines the ideas and experiences of women in the United States from the 1600s through the late twentieth century. Considers the common factors that shaped women's lives as well as women's diverse class, ethnic, and regional experiences. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 303: Sex, Love, Family: American Relationships from Birth to Death
    Explores Americans' intimate bonds and family dynamics throughout US history. Follows the life cycle from birth to death, surveying common milestones and rituals such as coming of age, coming out, getting married, or having a midlife crisis, and more. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS HI 304: Science and Religion: Dialogue and Debate
    Challenges conventional wisdom that science and religion have always been at war in Europe and North America. Explores their interactions, mutual existence, and conflict from Copernicus' claim that the earth revolved around the sun to contemporary debates about evolution. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS HI 308: Religious Thought in America
    Surveys many of the strategies that American religious thinkers have adopted for interpreting the cosmos, the social order and human experience, and the interaction of those strategies with broader currents of American culture. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS HI 315: The American West
    We examine the American West, the mythical landscape of freedom and adventure, as a region of violence, empire, and exclusion. Exploring 300 years of Western history, we focus in particular on Indigenous conquest and the continuities of colonialism. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS HI 316: American Urban History
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120)
    Examines cities in America, from colonial era forward, focusing on Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, and San Francisco in national and transnational context. Focus on social, political, and environmental change to understand present and past urban landscapes. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 321: The American Revolution, 1750-1800
    The course examines the American Revolution and America's dramatic war for independence, situating these struggles within broader changes in the society and the Atlantic world. The course also shows how Americans struggled, often violently, to create a stable republic in the aftermath of these truly revolutionary upheavals. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 322: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire
    Examines early modern Britain's global expansion, with a focus on the British isles and the American colonies. Explains how economic growth and imperial warfare shaped Britain and her colonies, and probes the causes of the empire's collapse in 1776. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course titled "Colonial British America from Settlement to Revolution" that was previously numbered CAS HI 322. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 328: Slavery and Freedom in the Civil War Era
    What led to the US Civil War and how did Americans, North and South, black and white, male and female, experience this central cataclysm? What were its consequences and what has been its legacy? Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 331: Drugs and Security in the Americas
    (Meets with CAS IR 290). Drug trafficking has become a dominant issue in U.S.- Latin American relations. This class examines the War on Drugs from both U.S. and Latin American perspectives in order to draw out racial, socio-economic, political, and gender-based dimensions and explore alternatives. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Ethical Reasoning
  • CAS HI 335: International Nuclear Politics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120)
    This course examines politics, history, and technologies surrounding nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. It foregrounds the "global atomic marketplace" with emphasis on the challenges and opportunities for nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation. Also offered as CAS IR 315 and CAS PO 358. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Writing- Intensive Course.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 338: Repression, Revolution, Rock n' Roll: US in 1950s & 1960s
    Few periods shaped American society, culture and politics as dramatically and enduringly as the 1950s and 1960s, transforming institutions, life experiences, the nation's role in the world, and the ways Americans thought about social problems and political activism. Topics include: Cold War, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, Vietnam, Campus Protest, Counterculture Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 339: A History of the Present: The United States since 1968
    Analyzing the recent experience of the United States and its people in historical perspective, the course allows students to explore important developments in US politics, race relations, economy, and popular culture, investigate diverse social science approaches to contemporary problems, and develop an independent research project. Topics include war, politics, religion, and popular culture as well as changing notions about race, gender, and selfhood. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy

Related Bulletin Pages

Beyond the Bulletin