College of Arts & Sciences: History

The listing below reflects the Hub units fulfilled by courses in the 2019/2020 academic year.

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  • CAS HI 151: The Emerging United States to 1865
    Explores how the United States, at first only a series of borderland outposts, became a sprawling national republic. Investigates factors that brought Americans together and those that tore them apart, as they struggled passionately over racial, religious, and sectional values. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, 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 152: The Emerging United States Since 1865
    After the Civil War, Americans created a new urbanizing and industrializing landscape, flush with immigrants, growing class conflict, and racial divisions. This course explores how, through times of prosperity, depression, and war, Americans transformed the United States into one of the world's leading nations. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 175: World History to 1500
    Explores historical and environmental factors influencing how cultures take shape and impact each other. Examines early global connections and conflicts between people of different continents as well as between humans, other species, the natural environment, and the planet as a whole. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 176: World History 1500-Present
    Examines the religious encounters, economic rivalries, and military battles produced by European imperialism in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia since 1500. Analyzes how European colonialism came to dominate the world and nationalist movements succeeded in gaining independence. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS HI 190: History of Boston: Community and Conflict
    Explores the history of Boston and the city's changes over time. Students work with archival objects, maps, and manuscripts. Topics include Native American history, colonial settlement, revolution, immigration, urban development, and race. Students visit nearby historical sites and museums. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • The Individual in Community
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS HI 203: Magic, Science, and Religion
    Boundaries and relationships between magic, science, and religion in Europe from antiquity through the Enlightenment. Explores global cultural exchange, distinctions across social, educational, gender, and religious lines, the rise of modern science, and changing assumptions about God, Nature, and humanity. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 218: Power and Authority in Europe since World War I
    Explores the breakdown of traditional authority, the rise of authoritarianism, and the triumph of democracy in twentieth-century Europe. Examines changing notions of power and legitimacy through major events, including communist revolutions, fascist takeovers, wartime occupations, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 221: Catastrophe & Memory
    Examines the ways in which catastrophes, both natural and social, enter into cultural memory. Goal is to understand how events that seem to defy comprehension are represented in works of art and given a place in the memory of a culture. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 227: Living in the City
    Gateway to international urban history. Case studies of selected cities -- from ancient Uruk to modern Shanghai -- through scrutiny of histories and documents. Discussion of important themes for our urban future: justice, health, worship, entertainment, human rights, city planning, beauty. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS HI 231: Media and Politics in Modern America
    Examines how mass media have shaped the modern American political landscape, including electoral campaigns, voter attitudes, social movements, and war mobilization, as well as the ways public policy has structured both the news and entertainment media. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 234: Introduction to India and South Asia
    A survey of South Asian history from antiquity to the present. Considers pre- modern empires, the rise of the British Empire in South Asia, and the struggle for independence. Explores the modern politics and culture of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 247: The Making of Modern Britain
    How did a small island nation develop into a global superpower, and at what costs? This course charts Britain's ascendancy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a focus on industrialization, colonial expansion, democratic institution building, and enlightenment thought. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 248: Modern Britain, 1867 to Present
    A political, social, and cultural history of England with emphasis on the impact of the two world wars, the emergence of the welfare state, the loss of empire, and Britain's relations with Europe. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 251: Cultural Capital: The History of Popular Culture in London
    Traces the historical development of popular culture in London from the late seventeenth century to the present day. Concerned with texts (visual, aural, written) and sites. Organised chronologically and thematically, engages with theoretical perspectives. Engages with wider history of Britain. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 252: Class, Power, and the Making of British Identity
    This course explores shifts in power over a 500-year period, and considers the cultural effects of these changes. The impact of empire is also assessed. An understanding of the 'invented' and contested nature of British identity is the outcome. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS HI 272: The History of Imperial Russia
    Focuses on the history of Russia under the Romanov Dynasty and its establishment as a Eurasian power and empire. Emphasizes issues of religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity, modernization, reform and revolt, and the vexed question of Russian identity. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course that was numbered CAS HI 272 and previously entitled "Russia and Its Empires until 1900. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS HI 273: The History of the Soviet Union
    Examines the tumultuous history of Russia's revolutions and its 74-year experiment with socialism. Explores the new revolutionary state's attempt to create a utopia by re-engineering human bodies, behaviors, and beliefs, and the successes and failures of that project. Effective Fall 2018, this course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same number that was previously entitled "Russia and Its Empires Since 1900." This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 277: War: Myths and Realities
    The past may tell us about the future of war. Study the lessons of wars past to correct current falsehoods and persistent myths about war in the wider culture. Learn to separate popular myths from the realities of war. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 279: Experiencing Total War
    Analyzes how soldiers and civilians experienced WWI and WWII, which brutally penetrated their everyday lives and affected their bodies, vocabularies, and world-views. Major sources include combat accounts, diaries, letters, songs, material culture, food, and more. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "Intimate Histories of War" that was previously numbered CAS HI 279. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • 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

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