Home

History

View courses in

  • CAS HI 410: Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120).
    Interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Europe's most religiously diverse region -- from the establishment of an Islamic al-Andalus in 711 CE to the final Christian "reconquest" of the peninsula and expulsion of the Jews in 1492 CE. To enrich exploration of interrelated themes and learning outcomes, student registrants of RN/HI 410/RN 710 will meet with student registrants of LS 410 during scheduled class time on 2/21, 3/13, 3/27, 4/24, and 5/1 during the term. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 412: Popular Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
    An exploration of the various expressions of culture among the commoners of Europe, ca. 400-1600. Topics include religion, storytelling, material life, social and political organization, law and justice, gender roles, witchcraft and popular crusades, and the impact of the printing press.
  • CAS HI 426: Music and Ideas from Mozart to the Jazz Age
    This senior-level seminar considers music in its historical and cultural contexts. Masterworks from the eighteenth century to jazz are its subject. Topics include political and intellectual climates, evolving views of the artist, audiences, social criticism, and race. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
  • CAS HI 430: Comparative European Fascism
    Analyzes fascism as a political and social movement in Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and beyond. Emphasizes the creation of popular dictatorships through propaganda, repression, and racism, and ends with the fascist attempt to remake Europe through violence and genocide.
  • CAS HI 440: Refugee Hollywood (1933-1950)
    Examines the flight of artists, writers, and intellectuals from Germany to Los Angeles in the wake of Hitler's rise to power with a focus on accounts by the emigres themselves, their works, and their influence on American culture. Effective Spring 2021, 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 450: Topics in the History of Popular Culture
    May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2022, Section A1: Horror and American Culture. Course relates the genre of horror as expressed in literature, film, and other media to both the primordial fears of individuals and the collective fears of American society as those fears changed over time.
  • CAS HI 451: Fashion as History
    This seminar treats clothing and other products of material culture as historical documents. Explores what clothing can tell us about key developments in the modern period relating to trade and commerce, empire, gender, class, industry, revolution, nation-building, identity politics, and globalization. Effective Fall 2019, 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 460: Animals in America
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR120)
    Examines the place of animals in North American culture and society from pre- colonial times to the twentieth century, to shed light on popular beliefs, social relationships, environmental change, and politics. From hunting to husbandry, pet keeping to popular entertainment, we will look at animals to understand larger trends in American history. Topics include pigs in New York City, Jumbo the Elephant, and Bambi. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 465: The United States and the Cold War
    Examination of U.S. Cold War foreign policy from its origins at the end of World War II to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and of the Soviet Union. Also offered as CAS IR 465.
  • CAS HI 467: Postwar America: Issues in Political, Cultural, and Social History, 1945-69
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing course (WR 120 or equivalent)
    Exploring a variety of source materials, analytic methods, and modes of writing, students investigate how, after the upheavals of World War II, American fought over and refashioned new norms and ideals in politics, daily life, and the home, Topics include Cold War culture, youth rebellion, the African American freedom movement, liberalism, the Vietnam war, and the counterculture. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 475: American Consumer History
    The history of consumerism in modern America. Topics include origins and critiques of the culture of consumption; the development of national markets; advertising and commercial amusements; and the relationship of consumer society to religion, gender, ethnicity, and class.
  • CAS HI 480: The Theater of History
    A practical workshop in the uses of history as source for theatrical productions including narrative films, television and other forms of performance arts, including dance, and the uses of such creative engagement as modes of historical imagination.
  • CAS HI 482: Merchants, Pirates, Missionaries, and the State in Maritime Asia, 600-2000
    Oceans connected the peoples of coastal Asia, Africa, and Oceania long before the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s. This course examines how commerce, piracy, religious contact, and imperialisms shaped maritime Asia, and how oceans facilitated our own era's global connections. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS HI 489: The African Diaspora in the Americas
    History of peoples of African descent in the Americas after end of slavery from an international framework. Examines development of racial categories, emergence of national identities in wake of the wars of independence, diverse Black communities in the twentieth century. Also offered as CAS AA 489.
  • CAS HI 490: Blacks and Asians: Encounters Through Time and Space
    Exploration of historical encounters between Africans and people of African descent, and Asians and people of Asian descent. How such people imagined themselves, interacted with each other, viewed each other, influenced each other, and borrowed from each other. Also offered as CAS AA 490.
  • CAS HI 491: Directed Study
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor and approval of the department and CAS Room 105.
  • CAS HI 500: Topics in History
    May be repeated for credit as topic varies. Topic for Fall 2023, Section B1: Getting Around: Transportation, Cars, and Community in the Modern World. Explores the history of transportation and mobility and its impact on daily life, community, environment, and justice, examining automobiles, walking, biking, and mass transit in diverse global contexts from the nineteenth century to the present day.
  • CAS HI 502: Drafts of History: Journalism and Historical Revisionism
    Considers episodes from U.S. history, comparing the "draft" of journalists to subsequent historical accounts. Analyzes how new evidence alters understanding of events, but also how different eras ask questions about the past, interrogate different sources, and appeal to different audiences. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS HI 503: Race, Ethnicity, and Childhood in US History
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar.
    The history of childhood in US History intersects with the interdisciplinary area of childhood studies. Within that, the histories of Black children and children of ethnic minorities and historically marginalized young people is a burgeoning subfield. This course examines how identities inclusive of (and structural inequities associated with) race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexuality have differently affected the lives and experiences of young people in the United States from the colonial period through to the 21st century. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness (HCO), Creativity/Innovation.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS HI 504: The Civil War in American Memory
    From the immediate post-war years through very recent political conflicts, Americans have vigorously contested the memory of their Civil War. This course considers this question by exploring literature, film, and historical documents. Effective Spring 2021, 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

Related Bulletin Pages

Beyond the Bulletin