Section
Eastern University History

Course Descriptions

Civil WarCourses are normally offered on alternate years, with HIS 201, 202, offered each semester; 210 is offered in the spring; and 416 offered annually in the fall.

HIS 201  U. S. Survey to 1877 3
Survey of the history of the United States from its colonial beginnings to the close of reconstruction following the Civil War. Political, economic, social and cultural developments will be stressed. Offered in fall and spring.

HIS 202  U. S. Survey Since 1877 3
Survey of the history of the United States from
the close of reconstruction to the present time, stressing political, economic, social and cultural developments. Offered in fall and spring.

Civil WarHIS 210  Historiography 3
This course will introduce students to the state of the art in critical thinking about history and history writing. It will assist students in developing a sound appreciation of the recent challenges to historians and their craft from (largely) literary quarters–especially from deconstructionists of various stripes and commitments. We will negotiate what is actually an old problem in epistemology–the essential tension between knowing everything and knowing nothing, in this case about the past. Integral to this pursuit will be to cultivate a Christian understanding of this great debate, conversation, between modernity and the Enlightenment and its post-modern challengers. The course normally will be taken in the spring semester of the junior year. Offered every spring.

HIS 315  Ancient, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece 3
Covers the history of Ancient Greece and the rise of the Greek peoples from 1400 BC to its eventual subjugation by the Romans in the second century, BC. Covers major epochs, political actors, thinkers, writers, institutions, cults and religion, apologists, and political and cultural expansion.

RomeHIS 316  Roman Republic and Empire 3
Covers the history of Rome from the Earliest Republic to its supremacy as Empire, till its collapse in the West under the Barbarian invasions. The major epochs, political actors, thinkers, writers, institutions, religions and cults, apologists and controversies, and its expansion politically, materially,  and culturally will be covered.

HIS 317  Early Middle Ages (c.410-c.1000) 3
Beginning with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, this course treats the origins of the new western European civilization through its troubled birth among various invaders, Germanic, Nordic, Magyar, and Saracen, and the synthesis that emerged between the old and new orders as tempered by the Christian Church, through the 10th century.

HIS 318  High Middle Ages (c.1000-c.1330) 3
Covers western European history from the 11th through the early 14th centuries, emphasizing the conflicts of Church and state, the development of the medieval synthesis, the rise of the Feudal monarchies, the relations of the West with Byzantium and Islam, and the intellectual, cultural, and economic expansion of western Europe.

GreeceHIS 319  The Age of the Renaissance (c.1330-1536) 3
This course covers the 14th, 15th and early 16th centuries of western European history, emphasizing the period’s literary, artistic, cultural, intellectual, and religious elements generally termed as Renaissance Humanism. Emphasis is also placed on the conflicts within the late medieval church, the decline of the Byzantine Empire and its impact on the Renaissance, and the rise of the nation state.

HIS 320  The Age of the Reformation (1500-1648) 3
A study of the political, economic, cultural and religious developments in the age of the Reformation in the 16th and early 17th centuries against the background of the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

HIS 321  The Age of Reason (1648-1789) 3
An in-depth study of the intellectual, political, social, and religious aspects of Western Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries, emphasizing the growing secularization of European thought in the period.

HIS 322  The Age of Revolution (1789-1848) 3
Beginning with the French Revolution, this course will examine the radical political, ideological, social, artistic and literary movements that transformed the face of Europe in the 19th century.

HIS 323  The Age of Empires (1848-1914) 3
Beginning with the Revolutions of 1848, this course will study the growth of nationalism, imperialism, and colonialism, examining how these forces became major factors in the outbreak of the First World War.

EuropeHIS 324  Twentieth Century Europe 3
A study of European civilization in the 20th century beginning with the causes of World War I, the events of that conflict, including the Russian Revolution and the peace treaties, the rise of dictatorships leading to World War II, decolonization, the Cold War through the collapse of Communism, the growth of socialism, the welfare state, and the European Economic Community.

HIS 325  Cultural and Intellectual Origins of the Holocaust 3
Explores the historical, cultural, psycho-sexual, social, and religious roots of the totalitarian (Nazi) mind, in an effort to comprehend one of the great enormities of the 20th century: the systematic mass murder of Jews and other groups in Europe, from the late 1930's through the Allied Liberation of the Death Camps in 1945.

HIS 333  Medieval and Renaissance England 3
A study of Anglo-Saxon England, the Norman Conquest and its results, medieval England, and the Tudor period.

HIS 334  Great Britain Since 1603 3
A study of the political and social history of Great Britain and the British Empire from the reign of King James I to the present.

HIS 335  The World Since World War II 3
A study of the history of the world from the close of World War II with a focus on Europe, the United States, China, the Far East, and the Third World nations. Major topics: post-war reconstruction, the Cold War, the end of colonialism, the emergence of Third World nations, the decline of Communism, and the new world order.

HIS 341  The History of Women 3
An examination of the roles women have played in Western history, with special attention to the social attitudes that defined women and their activities. May be used in the Gender Studies Minor.

HIS 342  Topics in the History of Science 3
Treats variously the several branches of science, technology, medicine, and psychiatry, and their interplay with social values, intellectual currents, cultural assumptions, and scientific pursuits. Case studies will emphasize the relationship of the respective sciences with their cultural and intellectual life.

HIS 350  African-American Historical Survey 3
A study of the emergence of the African-American community including the African roots, the American system of slavery, slave resistance and the abolitionist movement, Civil War and Reconstruction, growth of the Jim Crow system, the Civil Rights movement, and the impact upon the family, church, and social structures of the community. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 352  Russian History 3
Religious, political, economic, and intellectual development of Russia from Kievan Russia to
the present. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 353  History of the Middle East 3
A study of the history of Western Asia and North Africa from the time of Muhammad to the present, with emphasis on the development of Islamic civilization, the growth and decline of the Ottoman empire, and the development of modern nationalism in the region. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 354  History of Latin America 3
A study of Latin American history from the Indian and colonial periods to the present with concentrated study on the major problems of the 20th century. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 370  History of Economic Thought 3
This course examines major developments in the history of economic analysis, placing special emphasis on the way that respective social milieus of economic thinkers affected their understanding of the economic order. Particular attention is given to ideological and cultural factors which have shaped the development of capitalism. Prerequisites: Minimum grades of C in ECON 203, 204.

HIS 371  The Byzantine Empire 3
A survey of the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire (c. 300-1453) in art, literature, theology, diplomatics, statecraft, the writing of history, and military administration; noting its place in the medieval world, the writers and voices of Byzantium itself, and its impact on the world to the present. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 372  Eastern Orthodox History and Theology 3
This course introduces the historical trends and doctrinal themes of the Eastern Orthodox Church by the use of materials both theological and historical; tracing developments through the early Christological and Trinitarian controversies, and how these influenced Orthodoxy’s later mystical piety, iconography, liturgy, and prayer. (Applies as a Theology Elective.) This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 416  Senior Seminar in History 3
The theme of the seminar will be determined by professors in the department, who will teach the course on a revolving basis. Emphasis will be placed on student presentation and discussions, as opposed to the more standard lecture format. These presentations will, in turn, prepare students to write a seminar paper that will be exemplary of their best writing for purposes of job and graduate school applications. Prerequisite: 3.4 grade-point-average in the History major and selection for the History Honors track.

HIS 420  European Intellectual History 3
This course surveys principal patterns of European intellectual and philosophical life, from the early 1600's to the collapse of Marxism at the end of the 20th century.

HIS 435  United States Legal History 3
An introduction to the history of American law and legal institutions from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to the establishment of women’s suffrage in 1920. Topics include constitutional change, the development of American judicial and legislative institutions, the history of the franchise, the law of slavery, the law of marriage and divorce, economic regulation, and criminal law.

HIS 440  The Black Church in America 3
The development of the religious experience among African-Americans beginning with the African roots, the slave and free black churches, the impact of emancipation, the struggle for status and Civil Rights, and the modern alternatives; emphasis will be given to the leadership of the movement. This course fulfills the Cultural Horizons core requirement.

HIS 450  Colonial and Revolutionary America 3
From the early encounter of European and Native American cultures at the close of the 15th century to the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788. Particular attention is paid to the rise of slavery, the meaning and impact of the Great Awakening, the growth of the colonial economy, and the emergence of a distinct colonial political culture. The course concludes with discussion of the Revolutionary War era, from the breakdown of the British imperial system to the formation of an independent United States under a republican constitution.

HIS 460  The Early American Republic 3
From the ratification of the Constitution in 1788 to the close of the Mexican War in 1848. Particular attention is paid to the development of political parties, geographic expansion, the market revolution, religious renewal and change, and the racial and sectional tensions arising from the institution of slavery.

HIS 470  American Intellectual History 3
A course in the origins and development of the various ways in which Americans invoked ideological or philosophical interventions to change or protect their lives, whether those interventions took the form of literature, philosophical treatises, protest writings, or writing about art and architecture.  We will concentrate especially on several salient themes in American intellectual history: the interaction of America as a province with Europe, the long-term influence of Christianity and especially Calvinism, the role of the Lockean Enlightenment and its controversy with Christianity, and the impact of ideas on social structure, as exercising either a conserving or reforming influence.

HIS 480  Civil War and Reconstruction 3
From the close of the Mexican War in 1848 to the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Focuses on the political crises leading up to the Civil War; the course of the war on the battlefields and among civilian populations; the internal social and political conflicts arising from the war in both the Union and the Confederacy; and the impact of Reconstruction on race relations in the South.

HIS 485  Gilded Age and Progressivism 3
This course focuses on Reconstruction of the American Republic after the Civil War, and the conflicts generated by post-war disillusion with the republican ideal and development of mass market industrial capitalism. Special emphasis is placed on the Progressive critique of industrialism and the period’s consummation in World War I.

HIS 490  The Modern United States 3
This course will study the emergence of the United States as a world economic and political power. Particular attention will be given to post-1945 ideological and political struggles between the United States and the Soviet Union and the long-term economic after-effects of that struggle.