History

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  • CAS HI 101: The Dawn of Europe: Antiquity to the Renaissance
    Covers the origins and rise of Europe, with emphasis on Greek and Roman antiquity, medieval institutions, the Renaissance city-state, and religious reform. Typical readings may include Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, The Bible, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Luther's Christian Liberty. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 102: The Emergence of Modern Europe: Renaissance to the Present
    Political and religious change; Enlightenment and Revolution; industrialization and the nation state; and modernity, the World Wars, and their consequences. Typical readings may include Rousseau's Social Contract, Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto, and Silone's Bread and Wine. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 150: Freshman Writing and Research Seminar
    These seminars bring students out of the classroom and into the archive and library. Students hone their detective skills by learning how historians investigate the past through primary sources including diaries, novels, government documents, and scientific treatises. Satisfies WR 150 requirement.
  • CAS HI 151: The Emerging United States to 1865
    Colonial society and the roots of the American Revolution; federalism, nationalism, Jeffersonian democracy; Jackson and democratic capitalism; expansion and imperialism; slavery and civil war. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 152: The United States since 1865
    Reconstruction, industrialism, and recent social movements; labor and populism, imperial expansion, progressive politics, World War I, 1920s prosperity and the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 175: World History I: Origins of Humanity to ca. 1500
    Interrelationships among major world civilizations of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe to 1500.
  • CAS HI 176: World History II: 1500 to the Present
    Interrelationships among major world civilizations of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe from 1500 to the present. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 190: History of Boston: Community and Conflict
    A hands-on course that combines lectures and discussions with original archival research and visits to local historical sites. Students are introduced to pivotal episodes in Boston's history and shown how practicing historians conduct their research and make it public. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS HI 200: The Historian's Craft
    Required introductory course for concentrators, normally taken in their sophomore year. Intended to develop critical reading and analytical skills in history. Works examined are drawn from different fields and periods. Weekly written exercises, oral reports, and class discussions.
  • CAS HI 201: History of Medieval Europe
    Traces the evolution of medieval civilization from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries. Emphasizes three main themes: the political and social development of western Europe, the evolution of Latin Christianity, and the role of popular culture. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 203.
  • CAS HI 202: Medieval Intellectual History
    Examines the major authors and issues in philosophy, science, and political theory in the medieval Latin West, fourth to fifteenth centuries. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 305.
  • CAS HI 203: Magic, Science, and Religion
    Boundaries and relationships between magic, science, and religion from late antiquity through the European Enlightenment. Topics include transformation of pagan traditions, distinctions between learned and popular traditions, Scientific Revolution, and changing assumptions about God and Nature. Also offered as CAS RN 242. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 306.
  • CAS HI 204: History of the Crusades
    The origin and development of the Crusade movement in Western Christendom: the first four Crusades, their cause and results; crusader finance, preaching, and military recruitment; changing focus of Crusade movements from the Holy Land to other areas. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 308.
  • CAS HI 205: Millenarian Expectations in Western History, Year 1-2000
    The role of millenarian expectations (belief in an imminent, radical transformation of the world) in the development of the modern West. Apocalyptic expectations and millenarian groups, secularization of millenarian hopes, and disappointed expectations in the emergence of modern industrial society. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 309.
  • CAS HI 207: Honor-Shame: Middle Ages, Modern World
    Considers the dynamics of "honor-shame" cultures generally, then examines their role in the European Middle Ages and the contemporary world. Attempts to understand how other cultures can emphasize significantly different values and social interactions from Western ones. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 304.
  • CAS HI 208: Renaissance Europe
    The main political, socioeconomic, intellectual, and artistic currents in Italy (c. 1350-1530) and northwestern Europe (c. 1500-1560); emphasis on leading thinkers (Petrarch, Bruni, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, and Montaigne) as creators of the modern Western mind. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 311.
  • CAS HI 209: Christendom Divided: Reformation and Religious Conflict in Early Modern Europe
    Religious change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries centuries; the origins and causes of the Protestant Reformation; the Catholic Reformation; the resulting civil wars in the Germanies, France, and the Netherlands; and pertinent aspects of Tudor and Stuart England. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 312. Also offered as CAS RN 310.
  • CAS HI 210: Europe between Renaissance and Revolution
    Surveys the key movements that transformed European culture, politics, and intellectual life between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries: the Renaissance, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, new age of science and exploration, absolutism and constitutional monarchy, Enlightenment, and French Revolution. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 204.
  • CAS HI 215: The European Enlightenment
    Survey of the intellectual and social transformation of Europe from the 1680s to the French Revolution. Readings draw on both eighteenth-century sources (including Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, Lessing, Smith, and Hume) and recent work by historians. Also offered as CAS PO 395. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 314.
  • CAS HI 216: Women and Gender in European History
    An overview of women's public and private roles and the attitudes that have shaped these roles from the Middle Ages to the present. The cultural construction of femininity and its social, economic, and political consequences for European women.

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