History Majors Only: should be taken as soon as the major is declared, preferably by the end of the sophomore year. Perspectives is a prerequisite for the Senior Seminar. Perspectives teaches students historical research methods, the critical analysis of primary sources, historical writing techniques, and oral presentation skills.
This course is a History Major boot camp. In it, students will learn how to read texts critically; learn the difference between primary and secondary texts; and do research. They will also get intensive aid in learning how to write papers--that means your paper gets marked up and you have to do it again until it’s at the standard of the department. Students will read books about research and history writing. They will read different kinds of sources and write a number of different papers, culminating with a research paper that is 12 pages or longer. My time tested and patented method works, and my students who go on as History Majors will tell you that if you do well in this course, you will be prepared to get better grades throughout your undergraduate education.
This course is a prerequisite to Senior Seminar and is intended to teach history majors historical research methods, source analysis, and writing techniques. Students will research and write a 15-20 page research paper based on a topic related to China sometime during the years 1911-1970s, when the country transitioned from a Republican system of government to a Communist system of government. Required writing assignments include a paper proposal, an annotated bibliography, a paper outline, and first and final drafts of the research paper. Additional writing assignments may be required as well.
Students will research and write a substantial paper (25-40 pages) based on primary sources, archival documents and in some cases visits to historic sites. Papers will treat topics from "Nearby History," particularly related to the Delaware Valley (Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania).
50:509:480:01 TTH 11:00-12:20 pm Dorwart
Enrollment is limited to senior history majors.
Senior Seminar TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN, 1870-1918
During the period on which we focus in this course, Great Britain reached its pinnacle as an industrial and an imperial power. But the British status quo was also marked by severe challenges, both at home and abroad. Some arose in the form of protests against conditions that had resulted from the rise of the factory and the city, while others pointed toward spreading political power to broader sectors of the British population (e.g., not only workers but also women). In retrospect, the decades that led up to 1914 may be regarded as having constituted a period of notable progress. They were nonetheless also marked by troubling bouts of violence, whether as a result of British rule in Ireland or on the streets of London in connection with agitation by the suffragettes. Britain faced its most serious challenges abroad, whether because of imperial overextension (which led to the Boer War in South Africa) or, more ominously, because of the rise of Imperial Germany and the First World War, which Britain “won” only at a great cost. In summary, there is a great wealth of topics for students to explore in depth, whether their interests tend toward social and cultural issues, politics, race relations, international relations, or the impact of war on both soldiers and civilians topics for which they can find abundant source material from the period in the Robeson Library.
50:510:481:01 M 6:00-8:40 pm Lees
Enrollment is limited to senior history majors.
In this section of the Senior Seminar, students will be required to write a paper of at least 20 pages based mostly on primary-source research. Our general theme will be American newspaper coverage of events in Soviet Russia between 1928 and 1953, the years of Joseph Stalin’s unquestioned rule. This provides students with a broad selection of themes, e.g., American journalists’ portrayals of the forced collectivization of agriculture, industrialization, the Terror, the non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin, the German invasion of western Russia, the einsatzgruppen and their role in the beginning of the Holocaust, the “Great Patriotic War,” the beginning of the Cold War, and Stalin’s postwar clampdown. After a few meetings as a class in January and early February, students will work on their own in consultation with the professor. Students may not enroll in this course unless they have received a C or above in Perspectives on History.
50:509:481:02 MW 1:20-2:40 pm Bernstein
The course emphasizes the development of modern society, modern attitudes, and modern political life. The eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the democratic political revolutions that began in France between 1789 and 1848, industrialization and urbanization, the rise of ideologies, imperialism, and wars and revolutions of the twentieth century will be the main themes. The course will provide vital background for understanding a large number of political and social problems facing us in the world today.
The disappearance of the Roman empire during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries AD as barbarian invaders conquered the West.
Traces the development of the absolutist modern state and how the enlightenment of thought formed the basis of the French Revolution.
50:510:321 TTH 3:00-4:20 pm Soll
A survey of U.S. history from the end of the Civil War to the present. Major topics include reconstruction, industrialization, immigration policies, World Wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal and post-World War II social and political life.
This course covers the history of Black people in the United Stated from the Civil War to the present. Emphasis is given to Reconstruction, the philosophies of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, "Jim Crowism" and Marcus Garvey, and the civil rights organizations.
This course examines the history and philosophy of American education, including the role of Emma Willard, Horace Mann, Charles Eliot, John Dewey and James Bryant Conant. The course also examines the role of race, religion, gender and class in education; and recent developments regarding standardized testing, re-segregation, and efforts to equalize funding between wealthy districts and disadvantaged districts. This course satisfies the requirement for a course in diversity.
Explores the 1960s from the perspective of the baby boomers who came of age in the shadow of the bomb, who fought for social justice movements, who experienced hope and rage, and who changed the culture even as it changed them.
Survey of major economic and artistic development in the American film industry. Includes discussion of major artists such as Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. Examines the relationship between history and biography. Explores how the lives of individual Americans can be used to illuminate critical themes in American history and demonstrates how individual lives are shaped by historical forces.
50:512:390 T 6:00-8:40 pm Staff
The course will provide an overview of the history of this diverse region through examples of how major themes in Latin American history have played out in select countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. These themes include: wars for independence in the 1820s; political culture and nation-building after independence; boom and bust cycles of the Latin American economy; economic and political relationships with other nations, like Britain, France, and the U.S.; labor struggles and populist leaders; the Cold War and leftist revolutions; violence and dictatorship; and the massive changes wrought by urbanization and migration in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Introductory survey covering broad trends and
developments in East Asia in this
period. Can be taken by itself or as a sequel to East Asia I.
Should be of interest to those who wish to build or strengthen their
general understanding of modern East Asia.
50:516:232 TTH 11:00 – 12:20 pm VanderVen
Introduction to military technologies, strategies, tactics, and battles from the ancient world to World War I.
Modern China
Begins with an examination of the important events of China's tumultuous 20th century, including the fall of the imperial system and the establishment of the Chinese Republic, the Communist Revolution, and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The course ends with a look at contemporary China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and the economic reforms of the late 1980s.
50:516:346 TTh 3:00-4:20 pm VanderVen