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The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS HI 336: World War 1
    Covers the causes, course, and consequences of the Great War. Topics include nationalism, imperial ideologies, propaganda, mass mobilization, genocide, grand strategy, operational history, and convergent construction of "war states" capable of waging total war. Also explores the rich literature of World War I.
  • CAS HI 337: America in Depression and War, 1890 to 1945
    Examines how the modern United States was forged in the economic depressions of the 1890s and 1930s, and shaped by imperial and global ambitions beginning with the Spanish-American War and culminating with World War I and World War II.
  • 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
  • CAS HI 341: Political and Cultural Revolution
    Comparative historical analysis of modern and contemporary revolutionary upheavals and cultural change in Europe, the Americas, East Asia, Africa, Middle East, and the former Soviet republics. Examines the challenges posed by modernization, crisis of legitimacy, nationalism, imperial decline, and globalization. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 215. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 343: Taste, Culture, and Power: The Global History of Food
    An exploration of the global history of food from prehistory to the present, considering the birth of agriculture, food in nations and empires, hunger and nutrition, and the future of eating, including examples from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • CAS HI 347: Bodies, Drugs, and Healing: A Global History of Medicine
    An introduction to the history of medicine in global contexts, offering a broad perspective on the ways that bodies, healers, drugs, and health have been conceptualized, from antiquity to the present day, in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. 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 348: Colonialism in Africa: Impact and Aftermath
    Uses case studies of particular African societies or nations to examine patterns of European conquest and African resistance; forms of colonial administration and socioeconomic consequences of colonial rule; decolonization and contemporary African liberation movements; economic and political developments since independence; and contemporary social and cultural change.
  • CAS HI 349: History of Religion in Precolonial Africa
    The study of the development of religious traditions in Africa during the period prior to European colonialism. An emphasis on both indigenous religions and the growth and spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the continent as a whole. Also offered as CAS AA 382 and CAS RN 382. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS HI 350: Atlantic History
    Examines the various interactions that shaped the Atlantic World, connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas between 1400 and 1820. Begins by defining the political interaction, then emphasizes cultural exchange, religious conversion, and the revolutionary era.
  • CAS HI 351: Environmental History of Africa
    Focus on the African environment and ecological systems over the past 150 years. Topics include climate change, hydrography, agriculture, deforestation, soil erosion, disease, conservation, famine, and the role of colonialism and government policy in environmental change. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 352: Power, Leadership, and Governance in Africa and the Caribbean
    Haitian Revolution; British Caribbean, leadership, governance, and power in Africa during the period of legitimate trade; visionaries, dictators, and nationalist politics in the Caribbean; chiefs, western elites, and nationalism in colonial Africa; road to governance in post-colonial Caribbean and Africa. Also offered as CAS AA 395 and IR 394.
  • CAS HI 358: Twentieth-Century European Thought and Culture
    This course treats artistic, musical, literary, political, and philosophical works historically. Among its large themes are modernism and the discovery of the unconscious, the cultural effects of both World Wars, democracy and its critics, totalitarian culture, existentialism, and postmodernism. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS HI 360: European Dimensions of the Black Diaspora
    Explores writings about the Black experience in Europe since the 1800s through examinations of historical and literary works, artistic and folkloric depictions, as well as politics and sports in England, France, Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands. Also offered as CAS AA 380.
  • CAS HI 363: Early Chinese History
    From the Bronze Age to the seventeenth century, China changed dramatically yet maintained political and cultural cohesion, unlike any other civilization. This course explores both diversity and unity in early Chinese society as well as their historical legacies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in 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 364: Modern Chinese History
    Since 1600, China experienced Manchu imperial expansion, conflict with the West, two revolutions, and the construction of a socialist society now dominated by authoritarian capitalism. Explores the interplay between enduring traditions, upheaval and modernity, and their consequences for our world. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS HI 367: The Odd Couple: China and the USA, 1776 to the present
    The USA, a bastion of capitalism, and China, the largest communist state on earth, are the two major global powers today. It was not always this way, and the course will map three centuries of this complex historical relationship, filled with mutual admiration and misunderstanding. Effective Spring 2019, 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 369: Introduction to Modern Japanese History
    Developments from late Tokugawa Japan and the Meiji Restoration (1868) to the present. Focus on Japan's economic, political, and social adjustment to modern times, the evolution of twentieth century Japanese imperialism, and Japan's growth after World War II.
  • CAS HI 378: Armenia from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
    Introduction to Armenian history from antiquity to the medieval period. Themes include geopolitical competition for regional hegemony, the conversion to Christianity, adoption of the Armenian alphabet, quality of leadership under the five kingdoms, and the national struggle for survival.
  • CAS HI 379: Modern Armenian History and Literature
    Introduction to modern Armenian history and literature from the nineteenth-century "cultural renaissance" to the upheavals of the twentieth century--genocide, independence, and Sovietization--and the literatures of Soviet Armenia and the diaspora.

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