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History
increase students’ awareness of the relationship of the U.S. to important issues of war and peace as they
unfold in the world. It also pays attention to the linkage between the domestic political environment
and its impact on foreign relations. Furthermore, it looks at important events and crises in U.S. foreign
relations as well as some theories and practices of U.S. foreign policies. Students acquire a good set of
tools to carry on their exploration of the impact of U.S. foreign policy on the rest of the world.
H315 American-East Asian Relations 3 credits
The aim of this course is to do three things: provide a general introduction to the history of relations
between the United States and the major countries of the East Asian cultural sphere (China, Japan,
Korea, and Vietnam); explore the changing images Americans have had of the peoples of these nations,
the Chinese and Japanese in particular; and draw connections between both these themes and the
experiences of Asian-American during the last century-and-a-half of American history. Special attention
is paid to crisis in American-East Asian relations, such as: the Boxer Uprising and the 1900 siege of
Beijing, World War II and the Occupation of Japan that followed, the Vietnam War, and contemporary
disputes over issues of human rights in China (stemming from the June 4th Massacre of 1989). Through
classroom lectures, course readings, and a critical viewing of a variety of visual materials (including
excerpts from newsreels, newscasts, and feature films) students look at the process by which crisis
involving American interests alter or give new life to enduring Western stereotypes concerning East Asia.
A major goal of the course is to provide students with the analytical tools and historical background
necessary to put future crises in U.S.-East Asian relations, as well as the American media’s coverage of
these crises, in perspective.
H321 The Early Middle Ages 3 credits
The first half of a two-semester course that covers the period of history from approximately 100 to
approximately 1400, the time of the Middle Ages. This course examines the period from approximately
100 to approximately 800. The purpose of the course is to identify and explore the concept of the
Middle Ages by means of both primary and secondary sources. It is a fundamental presupposition that
"Western civilization" came into being during the early Middle Ages out of a unique combination of
Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Germanic elements. In this sense, then, the Middle Ages represent
not a “middle,” but the beginning of a new civilization. The essentials of this civilization will be explored.
These include the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity and monasticism, the Barbarian
Invasions, Charlemagne, the Vikings, and the development of a feudal society.
H322 The High Middle Ages 3 credits
The second half of a two-semester course that covers the period of history from approximately 100 to
approximately 1400, the time of the Middle Ages. This course examines the period from approximately
1000 to approximately 1400. The purpose of the course is to identify and explore the concept of the
Middle Ages by means of both primary and secondary sources. Out of the chaos of the tenth century
emerged a mature medieval civilization that is the focus of this course. It reached its apogee in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries with the great conflict between church and state, the Crusades, the
revival of learning, feudal monarchy, chivalry, and high medieval Christianity, before experiencing the
disasters of the fourteenth century and the breakdown of the medieval synthesis.
H332 The Renaissance 3 credits
This course proceeds from the assumption that the Renaissance refers to a particular and creative
cultural movement in Western history from the middle of the fourteenth through the sixteenth
centuries. Students explore traditional notions of the Renaissance such as: the revival of antiquity,
humanism, innovations in art, and the Church. Non-traditional approaches such as the role of women
in the Renaissance, are also discussed. The reading of primary texts by Petrarch, Castiglione, Machiavelli,
Erasmus, and Thomas More is emphasized. Italian history is stressed but the Northern Renaissance is
studied as well.
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