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Department of Humanities
discussed as are the achievements of Ernesto
Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Church-state
relations, whether with right-wing authoritarian
regimes or communist ones, are chronicled.
The narrative ends with the 1982 Falklands
War between Britain and Argentina.
HST336 History of Africa [3 – 0]
Africa as the home of the oldest known
human settlements (“Lucy” in East Africa) saw
Phoenician, Greek, and Roman colonies in
Carthage and along the Barbary coast of North
Africa. After 430 AD the Vandals crossed into
North Africa and occupied Hippo, the bishopric
of St. Augustine. The course then surveys
the Byzantine, Muslim, Berber, Ottoman, and
European periods of political and colonial
control in the north. In Sub-Saharan Africa
Dutch settlers arrived in 1650 to the Cape and
clashed with the Bantus and Zulus. In the 19th
century European exploration of the Congo
and Upper Nile river basins took place and
the careers of Stanley and David Livingstone
are discussed. British-French colonial rivalry
throughout the continent culminating in
the late 19th century “Scramble for Africa”
is closely analyzed. British adventures in
Sudan, the death of Gordon at the hands of
the Mahdi, and the Fashoda incident between
Kitchener and Marchand are treated. French
colonization of Algeria starting in 1830 and the
exploits of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes are
also covered. Belgian Congo, Italian Ethiopia
and Libya, and a scattered German presence
particularly in South-West Africa (Namibia)
are also a part of the narrative. The 1899-
1902 Boer War between the Afrikaans and
the British is analyzed as an important turningpoint.
Other themes include the slave trade in
Zanzibar, the Cape to Cairo railway, and African
nationalism leading to decolonization and
independence after World War II.
HST340 Topics in the History of Ideas [3 – 0]
This course aims to offer students a glimpse
into the exciting world of intellectual history.
The intricate thematic interplay between
history, philosophy, theology, literature, and
the arts in any given period comprises the
subject matter for this course. Cross sections
of particular ages like for instance Victorian
England, or nineteenth century Russia, or
Renaissance Italy are treated as to the complex
interconnections between a host of prevailing
ideas and their embodiment in specific
philosophical, literary, religious, and other
forms of human creative output. The objective
of the course is to immerse students in the
unique intellectual tenor of an age and provide
them with a firsthand feel for any peculiar
intellectual signature it might manifest.
HST341 Topics in the History of Science [3 – 0]
This course can provide students with a
general overview of scientific progress
throughout human history, or it can choose
to limit the period covered to a shorter and
more coherent span. Possible examples might
include the history of Arabic science, science
during the Renaissance, developments in
physics since Newton, the rise of modern
science, and others. The course can also
concentrate on historical developments within
a specific domain of the natural sciences and
confined to a designated period. Examples
include the history of astronomy, history of
chemistry, history of medicine, history of
evolutionary biology, history of physics, history
of mathematics, and so on.
HST342 Topics in the History of Religion [3 – 0]
This course can concentrate on a specific
world religion and trace its development
over time, or it can follow the comparative
approach with respect to two or more religions,
or, alternatively, it can choose a religious
theme such as mysticism, for example, and
follow its unfolding threads in one or more
religious tradition. Obversely, the course
can decide to focus on a history of atheism.
Whichever approach is chosen there have to
be a couple of introductory lectures that define
the religious animus, briefly survey its earliest
manifestations in human history, and then
zero in on the specific topic at hand. The major
world religions usually provide the subject
matter for various permutations of this course:
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Shinto,
Taoism, Sikhism, and varieties of animism.
HST343 Topics in Economic History [3 – 0]
This course surveys the main developments in
economic theory during the modern period. It
begins with an introductory background about
the medieval guilds and crafts and the feudal
agrarian-based economies of the early modern
period. Then it covers systematically as major
figures the contributions of Adam Smith, David
Ricardo, T. R. Malthus, J. M. Keynes, M. Friedman,
and J. K. Galbraith. The differing evolutions
of free-enterprise and command economies,
and how they manifested themselves in
capitalism and socialism, are investigated in
some detail. The intricate interplay between
the often antagonistic forces of freedom and
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