Department of History

Fall 2003 Course Descriptions
200-300 Level

HIS 203 - History of Africa to 1870

01-TR 9:30-10:45
02-TR 12:30-1:45
Colleen Kriger

What is civilization?  This course examines the variety of African civilizations throughout the continent, from ancient times up to the 19th century, and how closer study of African history has prompted scholars to revise the way "civilization" is defined.  We will focus on ancient civilizations in Africa, the empires and city-states of the Islamic period, and the rise of trade with Europe, especially the Atlantic slave trade and its effects on African societies.

HIS 211 - United States History to 1865

General survey of American history from colonization through the Civil War.

211-01 Christine R. Flood MWF 1:00-1:50
211-02 Staff TR 2:00-3:15
211-03 Staff MWF 9:00-9:50
211-04 Laurinda K. deBeck MWF 10:00-10:50
211-05 Phyllis W. Hunter MW 2:00-3:15
211-06 Kenneth G. Anthony MWF 11:00-11:50
211-07 Staff MW 2:00-3:15
211-08 Laurinda K. deBeck TR 9:30-10:45
211-09 Kenneth G. Anthony TR 12:30-1:45
211-10 Laurinda K. deBeck TR 11:00-12:15

HIS 212 - United States History since 1865

General survey of American history from Reconstruction to the present.

212-01 Robert M. Calhoon TR 11:00-12:15
212-02 Lisa Levenstein MWF 11:00-11:50
212-03 Staff MWF 9:30-10:45
212-04 Christine R. Flood MWF 10:00-10:50
212-05 Thomas F. Jackson MW 2:00-3:15
212-06 Kathleen G. Franz TR 12:30-1:45
212-07 Staff TR 2:00-3:15
212-08 Peter S. Carmichael MWF 12:00-12:50
212-09 Staff M 6:00-8:50
212-10 Staff MWF 9:00-9:50
212-11 Staff MWF 1:00-1:50

HIS 215 - Civilizations of Asia

MWF 11:00-11:50
James A. Anderson

This course is an introduction to the pre-modern history of Asia, and will focus on the following countries: China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.  Most students in the West may only be familiar with these nations in the context of the traumatic episodes of war and violence and revolution that swept the region throughout the twentieth century.  However, these countries are heirs to long histories of cultural brilliance and diversity.  In this class we will first explore how the history of this region has shaped the common bonds that bring this part of the world together as a whole. Secondly, we will consider how the literary traditions of these various societies depict the social and political conditions from which modern Asian nations would later emerge.

HIS 221 - Medieval Legacy

01-Richard E. Barton TR 11:00-12:15
02-Anne C. Barton MWF 11:00-11:50
03-Richard Barton  TR 9:30-10:45

Survey of Western European history from the end of the Roman Empire to the fifteenth century exploring such varied aspects of the medieval experience as pilgrimage, crusade, peasant life, the emergence of nation states, and the rise of the university.

HIS 222 - Europe 1400-1789

01-Jodi Bilinkoff MWF 11:00-11:50
02-Frank T. Melton TR 11:00-12:15
03-Frank T. Melton MW 2:00-3:15

Survey of major soci-economic, political, and cultural trends in Europe from the Renaissance to the French Revolution.

HIS 223 - Modern Europe

MWF 11:00-11:50
Staff

A survey of the political, social and cultural history of Europe from the time of the French Revolution to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the political culture and the emergence of the great ideological systems of the West (e.g., liberalism, conservatism, socialism, communism, nationalism, and fascism).

HIS 301 - Race and Slavery

TR 3:30-4:45
Staff

An examination of the African-American experience from ancient to modern times, including precolonial Africa, the Atlantic slave trade, slavery in the Americas with special emphasis on the United States before the Civil War.

HIS 302 - Race and Segregation

MWF 12:00-12:50
Staff

Race and segregation in the United States since the Civil War, including the origins of the Jim Crow laws, the civil rights movement, black urbanization, the Harlem Renaissance, black nationalism, and the African American experience in America.

HIS 310 - Daughters of Eve: Women in the Middle Ages

TR 2:00-3:15
Richard E. Barton

This course offers an introduction to the experience of women in the Middle Ages through close examination of writings by and about women. In so doing we will be less concerned with the more traditional elements of medieval history and more interested in how such elements came to shape women's lives and opportunities. One of the central themes will be the importance of gender as a category of cultural difference; with this in mind we will spend a fair amount of time considering the ways in which medieval society defined femininity, appropriate female behavior, and the female body, as well as the ways in which those definitions and understandings changed over time. Among the two paradigms to be considered will be the two most common and paradoxical medieval understandings of women: as "daughters of Eve" women were inherently sinful and inferior, but as "sisters of Mary" women shared in the virtues and special status of the Virgin. A second organizing principle will be the importance of the "family" as the central social institution in the construction of medieval ideas about womanhood. Thus we will examine the ways in which the shape of the family changed over the period 500-1500 and the impact of such changes on women's power, ability to work, religious experiences, and cultural opportunities. Third, since in the Middle Ages, as now, women and femininity were understood and culturally defined only in relation to men and masculinity, we will also spend some time comparing female experience with the experience of men. Fourth, we will examine the changing role of Christianity in shaping both women's lives and spirituality. In our exploration of these themes we will depend upon analysis of significant primary sources about women and femininity written both by men and by women.

HIS 328 - Women in American History, Part I

MWF 11:00-11:50
Staff

This course looks at the history of women and gender hierarchy in the area that is now the United States.  We will begin with Native American women's lives before and during contact with Europeans, including different nations of Native Americans' relationships with French, British and Spanish colonizers in the midwest, east and southwest.  We will also look at diverse topics such as colonial midwives and early medical practices, education in the early republic, the role of women in families, women and slavery, black and white women active in the abolition movement, feminism in the 1830s and the first women factory workers.Course is Speaking Intensive

HIS 340 - United States since World War II

MWF 10:00-10:50
Thomas F. Jackson

An in-depth examination of several important social, political and international trends and events that have shaped the contemporary U.S.: atomic weapons, the Cold War and Vietnam; the black freedom movement, radicalism and Great Society liberalism; feminism; conservative movements from McCarthyism to the New Right; mass immigration from Latin America and Asia and the nativist reaction.

This semester will be speaking intensive. Accordingly, we will organize our inquiry and discussions around three main themes: the Cold War and Vietnam; the Black Freedom Movement; The New "New" Immigration and Multi-racial America. We will examine an abundance of public discourse, speech rhetoric, testimony and oral history as a way of bringing the past to life and bringing the arts of writing and speaking into simultaneous development. We will have debates, press conferences, discussions,
oral reports, dramatic readings, etc.

HIS 344 - The New South

TR 12:30-1:45
William A. Link

This course examines the evolution of the American South from the Civil War to the present. It will ask the following questions: how much ahs the South really changed? How new is the New South? To what extent is the South a different place, a nation within a nation, and what factors make Southerners different from Americans? How has race- a heritage of slavery, segregation, and the civil rights movement- made a different region?

HIS 347 - History of North Carolina

MWF 9:00-9:50
Kenneth G. Anthony

This is a survey course. It spans more than 400 years of state history- from colonization to the present. It is American history with the spotlight on North Carolina. Objectives of the course include an examination of: 1) when, how, and why North Carolina developed as it did. 2) How its actions and reactions were similar or different from the other states. 3) How the development of its economic, social, and political structure determines present-day North Carolina with special emphasis on such topics as: a) the economy b) politics c) race relations.

HIS 360 - Structure of Scientific Change

TR 11:00-12:15
Kenneth Caneva

In-depth examination of selected topics to elucidate the nature of scientific change. Representative topics: Thomas Kuhn's image of science; the Copernican Revolution; continental drift.

HIS 369 - History of Spain

MWF 1:00-1:50
Jodi E. Bilinkoff

In the period between 1450 and 1700 a previously poor and isolated region of Europe emerged as a dominant political, military and cultural force.  In this, its "Golden Age," Spain conquered and colonized the largest empire since the days of the Romans, dominated much of Europe, declared itself the leader of the Catholic faith, and dazzled the world with its accomplishments in art, music, literature and spiritual expression.  It also grappled with intense problems of poverty, urban sprawl, racism, religious intolerance and seemingly endless wars, on both sides of the Atlantic.  In this course we examine primary texts (in English translation) from the Hispanic world in the Age of Empire, and listen to the voices of people caught up in the triumphs and struggles of this complex and fascinating society.

HIS 373 - English History to 1660

TR 9:30-10:45
Frank T. Melton

From 55 BC to the restoration of Charles II in 1660, this course surveys all the major developments- Roman, Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, and Medieval England, the Reformation and the Puritan Revolution. Within each period the main political, intellectual, religious, social, and economic themes are examined.

HIS 375 - German History, 1914-1945

MWF 11:00-11:50
Karl A. Schleunes

German social and political structures and their functioning during World War I, Weimar Republic, and Third Reich with attendant emphasis on cultural and intellectual themes. The years 1914-1945 were extremely difficult ones for Germany and are often referred to as the era of "the great German crisis." The experience of World War I shaped cultural, political, economic and social developments for the next decades. The resentments created by Germany's defeat in 1918 created the setting in which Hitler and the Nazi party emerged as the largest political force in the early 1930s. A major portion of the course is devoted to examining the Nazi attempt to restructure the world along racist lines in a Third Reich.

HIS 377 - Russian History to 1900

MWF 12:00-12:50
Jeff Jones

This course surveys Russian history from its beginning around 800 AD through the Kievan Rus period, the Mongol invasion, and the rise of Muscovy.  The course focuses on the turbulent reigns of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I, and Russia's reformist tsar Alexander II.  We will deal with Russia's ever-changing social, economic, and cultural development and end on the eve of revolutionary turmoil in the 20th century.

HIS 381 - The Near and Middle East

T 6:00-8:50
Ann P. Saab

This course deals with the history of the Israel and the Muslim Middle East in the twentieth century. After a background of events before and during the two world wars, we will examine a series of continuing controversial issues, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the revolution in Iran, and the use of oil. Student reading and discussion will be emphasized.

HIS 383 - Chinese History to 1800

MW 2:00-3:15
James A. Anderson

The Western world's interest in China has long followed two paths, one material and one spiritual. While Western traders and government leaders debated various routes to the elusive "China Market," artists and philosophers deliberated tenets of Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism) and Buddhism, the schools of thought that flourished in traditional Chinese society. The end result was a representation of China still popular in the West, as full of Western dreams and ambitions as it is of Chinese realities. The current debates regarding Chinese trading privileges and human rights abuses are clearly shaped by this Western profile of China. Our course will hold up this picture to scrutiny, while introducing and illuminating both the remarkable and the commonplace from China's past.

HIS 390 - History Internship

TBD Staff

Field learning experience in public or applied history. Academic supervision provided by job supervisor. Assigned reading and written reports. May be repeated. Prerequisite: Consent of Department Head.