History-United States History

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.

Studies the development of the colonies and their institutions, the Revolution, the formation and organization of the Republic, and the coming of the Civil War.

Studies the evolution of political, social, and cultural history of the United States from 1865 to the present.

This course examines warfare and military developments in America from the colonial period to 1900. Major topics include debates over the role of the military in society; the motivations and experiences of soldiers; interaction between the military and civilian spheres; the development of a professional army and navy; and the social and cultural context, impact, and legacies of warfare.

This is a course on war and the American experience during the last century-plus. It is a sequel to HIUS 2051, which covers U.S. military history from 1600 to 1900. This part of the course includes the how and why of traditional military history but goes further, tackling issues in intelligence or technology or economics -- from the rise of intelligence agencies to the growth of a military-industrial complex.

This course will introduce students to the history of slavery in the United Sates.

Studies American economic history from its colonial origins to the present. Cross-listed as ECON 2060.

From Thomas Edison to Elon Musk, we've all heard stories of heroic inventors. In this course you'll explore a different history of technology: how it's shaped the ordinary lives of Americans, and how ordinary Americans shaped our common technologies. By viewing technology from the bottom-up, you'll learn how to question and challenge the powerful stories about technology that surround us today.

This course will introduce students to the history of the US-Mexico borderlands. Adopting a transnational approach, it will explore the relationships between the peoples, empires, and nations spanning the US-Mexico border. Starting with the various historiographical approaches to the study of borders and frontiers, then with the recent history US-Mexico border, and the persistence of transnational communities along the border from the nineteenth century to the present.

This course will trace the origins of today's immigration policy debates by providing students with a comprehensive overview of American immigration law and policy from the eighteenth century to the present. The course will also explore how state and federal policies impacted a wide array of immigrants, including the Irish, Chinese, and Mexican arrivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.

This course tells the story of British America from an Atlantic perspective. The thirteen colonies that formed the United States were once part of a larger empire that spanned eastern North America and the Caribbean. From 1500 to 1800, cross-cultural encounters among Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans created a dynamic new world. Key topics trade, religion, agriculture, slavery, warfare, and the origins of the American Revolution.

Studies the growth of ideas and institutions that led to American independence, the creation of a union, and a distinct culture.

This course uses Thomas Jefferson as a lens to explore the post revolutionary era in the United States (ca. 1776-1830), with a focus on race and slavery, trans-nationalism, imperialism, and legal/constitutional developments.

Examines the period from roughly 1815 to 1861 focusing on the interaction between the developing sectional conflict and the evolving political system, with the view of explaining what caused the Civil War.

Examines the course of the Civil War and Reconstruction in detail and attempts to assess their impact on 19th century American society, both in the North and in the South.

This new course will examine the history of deaf people in the United States over the last three centuries, with particular attention to the emergence and evolution of a community of Deaf people who share a distinct sign language and culture. We will read both primary texts from specific periods and secondary sources. We will also view a few historical films.Prerequisite: none (though a previous class in History or ASL is recommended)

This course will examine the years after the Civil War, from 1865 to 1900, a period in which Americans witnessed unprecedented economic expansion that profoundly altered political and social arrangements. It explores how the nation "recovered" from the Civil War, how it reconstructed itself, and continued to define the notion of who was an American and who was not. In short, it examines how the nation transitioned from one divided to the threshold of world domination in the age of imperialism. 

In this course we emphasize how U.S. power has been exercised in the world with focus on intersections of cultural, political, and economic power. We analyze how power is produced and contested through language and media, and how hegemonic discourses -- the dominant and most powerful blocs defining U.S. society and empire -- are produced. We are equally concerned with cracks and contradictions in these discourses, and people who challenge them.

Built around the history of mainstream and independent American film, this course explores how Americans have viewed and interpreted various historical moments and processes through the movies.

This class will explore the history of the United States from 1980 to the present through the lens of the information revolution that occurred during this period. We will examine the origins of the technological changes like the mainframe computer, merged media, the emergence of the internet, and the impact that they had on the economy, politics and social interaction.

Surveys post World War II U.S. politics uncovering the links between long range social and economic phenomenon (suburbanization, decline of agricultural employment, the rise and fall of the labor movement, black urbanization and proletarianization, economic society and insecurity within the middle class, the changing structure of multinational business) and the more obvious political movements, election results, and state policies of the last half century.

This course will cover the history of American involvement in Vietnam from 1945 through 1975. It will offer a detailed study of U.S. political, economic, cultural, and military policy through a wide range of scholarship on the U.S. engagement with Vietnam, focusing on the war's impact in Southeast Asia and in the United States.

This course will examine landmark films on the Vietnam War from the 1960s through the present. Lectures and discussion focusing on between 8 and 10 films, which students will watch as part of class, will explore the history and themes depicted in these films, highlighting directorial viewpoints, the contexts in which the films were produced and received, their historical accuracy, and their impact on the legacy of the war in American culture.