History
View courses in
- History
- All Departments
- African American Studies
- African Studies: Culture (in English)
- African Studies: East African Languages: Kiswahili (Swahili)
- African Studies: East, West & South African Languages: Amharic, Igbo, Mandinka, isiZulu
- African Studies: South African Languages: isiXhosa
- African Studies: West African Languages: Akan Twi, Wolof
- African Studies: West African Languages: Hausa
- American Studies
- Anthropology
- Arabic: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Archaeology
- Astronomy
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Chinese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Cinema & Media Studies
- Classical Studies: incl. Classical Civilization and Tradition (in English), Ancient Greek, and Latin
- Classical Studies: Modern Greek
- Comparative Literature
- Computer Science
- Core Curriculum
- Earth & Environment
- Economics
- Editorial Studies
- English
- First Year Experience
- French: Language, Literature, Linguistics, Culture (including courses in English)
- German: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Hebrew: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Hindi-Urdu: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- History
- History of Art & Architecture
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- International Relations
- Internships
- Italian: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Japanese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Jewish Studies
- Korean: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Linguistics
- Literary Translation
- Marine Science
- Mathematics & Statistics
- Natural Sciences
- Neuroscience
- Persian (Farsi): Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Political Science
- Portuguese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Psychological & Brain Sciences
- Religion
- Russian: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- SEA Semester
- Senior Year Development
- Sociology
- Spanish: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Turkish: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
- Writing
-
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. -
CAS HI 226: Cities and Cultures
Examines the relationship between cultural expression and political, social, and economic change by focusing on cities such as Boston, Paris, London, Casablanca, and Johannesburg during times of intense creativity and upheaval. -
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. -
CAS HI 229: The Great Powers and the Eastern Mediterranean
The Eastern Mediterranean as center of Great Power confrontation. Its impact on wider international relations, the domestic political results, the role of sea power, and the origins, conduct, and resolution of wars. Also offered as CAS IR 325. -
CAS HI 230: Special Topics in the History of Media
Examines how newspapers, television, social media, tourism campaigns, textbooks, and other forms of media shape national identities, political goals, and cultural values over time. Topic for Spring 2019: Media Revolutions in the Modern Middle East. Examines how media revolutions in the modern Middle East have helped to garner state support and foment rebellions. Sources range widely from Lebanese civil war posters and state radio broadcasts to tourist campaigns, Turkish soap operas, and reality television competitions. -
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. -
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. -
CAS HI 237: Reconstructing the African Past
Explores the richness and diversity of a continent where oral histories and environmental settings have shaped society as much as written records. Considers Africa's critical place in the world from ancient Egypt and Ghana to the Asante and Ethiopian empires. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS HI 244: England in the Middle Ages
England's development from the Celtic Age to the Tudor dynasty. Emphasizes social and religious/intellectual changes within the broader context of England's unique political evolution from a strife-torn backwater to a leading European power. -
CAS HI 245: Tudor England, 1485-1603
A survey of that turbulent and volatile century that witnessed the apprenticeship of England for a role of world importance. Special attention to the development of state power, the growth of religious diversity, the major economic and social transformations, as well as the resulting cultural development. -
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. -
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. -
CAS HI 266: French Revolution and Napoleon
The French Revolution began with high ideals of liberty and equality but quickly dissolved into civil war, the Terror, and Napoleon's expansionist ambitions. From the fall of the Bastille to Waterloo, this course traces the revolution's successes, failures, and legacy. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness. -
CAS HI 271: The Nazis
Explores the rise and fall of Europe's most notorious mass movement through film, diaries, party documents, and other sources. Considers the impact of Nazi rule on art, finance, politics, and family life. Analyzes the mass murder and destruction caused by Nazi rule. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
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. -
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." 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. -
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. -
CAS HI 278: Central Europe
Intellectual, cultural, political, diplomatic, and military history of the region between Germany and Russia, from the end of the Middle Ages to the present. Also offered as CAS IR 341. -
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. -
CAS HI 280: Special Topics in American History
Two topics are offered Fall 2020. Section A1:: Why do wars occur? What constitutes peace? How is peace maintained or lost? What are the virtues and deficiencies of diplomacy as practitioners have implemented it? How do memory, justice, and the requirements of security interact in the international arena? Section B1: American Empire. Explores the social, political, economic, cultural, and ideological underpinnings of the growth of American power in the world, from the colonization of North America and the annexation of island colonies to the globe-spanning empire of military bases.
