Bachelor of Arts in History

Prerequisite: ENG 102

An advanced course in writing that emphasizes discipline-specific research strategies, formulating research niches, and framing persuasive arguments in the disciplines.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Survey of American history from pre-colonial times through Reconstruction. Explores economic, political, social and cultural factors that shaped the origins of the nation, including the Revolution, the Constitution and the Civil War. Special attention is paid to issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity. Includes study of the Constitution.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Survey of American history from Reconstruction to the present. Explores economic, political, social, and cultural factors that shaped the development of the nation, including industrialization, America’s emergence as a world power and the challenges of the late 20th century. Pays special attention to issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Discusses how distinctive cultures, economies and societies of the world developed from prehistoric times to the European conquest of the Americas (ca. 1500 C.E.). Explores issues of gender, class, personal identity, war, religion, urban life, and ecology pertaining to the history of civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Discusses how the cultures, economies, and societies of the world developed since 1500 C.E. Explores issues of class and class conflict, personal and cultural identity, race, work, industrial development, colonialism, ecology, and political and economic life pertaining to the history of civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233

Examines ancient world history from 10,000 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E., including Neolithic revolution; rise of settled agriculture; complex societies and organized states in North Africa, Southwest Asia, South and East Asia, Mesoamerica, and South America; rise and decline of great powers in those areas; formation of Aegean civilization in Greece.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233

Examines religious, political and philosophical innovations of classical period (500 B.C.E. to 500 C. E.) in Mediterranean region, China, and India; rise and fall of Greek, Roman, Han, Mauryan and Gupta empires; rise of important regional states like Meroë, Angkor, Teotihuacán, and Maya city-states in Mesoamerica.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233

Examines expansion and collapse of Byzantium; nomadic invasions of Europe and development of feudalism; rise of militant Christianity; diffusion of militant Islam; spread of Indian classical culture; Chinese reunification, commercial revolution, and cultural revival; Japanese feudalism; development of African states; civilizations of Mesoamerica; settlement of Polynesians throughout Pacific.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 234

Examines colonial expansion of Europe; Islamic empires of Asia; regional powers in Eurasia; revolutions in the Atlantic world; the Industrial Revolution; the new imperialism; revolutions in Eurasia and Latin America after 1900; global wars and their consequences; national liberation and decolonization; the Cold War; post-Cold War realignments.

Prerequisite: ENG 240

Investigates the important methodologies and theories of history that buttress contemporary historical scholarship. Includes introduction to historiography; examines transformation of the historical profession over last 150 years and philosophical foundations of historical practice today; explores writings of historian, their historical assumptions, and theoretical framework of their interpretations.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220A

Examines the various peoples and the economic, environmental, cultural, and political forces that shaped American development from the period before Europeans settled through the American Revolution. It evaluates key ecological changes after 1500 and the shaping of North American colonial society by mercantilism, merchant capitalism, and the slave trade.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220A

Examines development of American society from the early national period through the Civil War (1783-1865), including framing of Constitution, westward expansion, economic development, slavery, sectional conflict, as well as an evaluation of the social, political, and military problems faced by the contending sides in the Civil War.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220B

Examines transformation of America and expansion of American influence after the Civil War through World War I. Includes reconstruction; demographic and economic expansion; industrialization and its consequences for labor and social relations; mass immigration; growth of American imperialism; socialist, populist, and progressive movements; and World War I and Wilsonianism.

Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220B

Examines social, economic, cultural, and political contours of modern America from 1920 to the present, including Great Depression, social dimensions of World War II, affluence and anxieties of 1950s, political and social movements of 1960s, and challenges of structuring a new global political economy in the 1970s and after.

Prerequisite: ENG 240 or equivalent; HIS 400 and and completion of 31.5 quarter units of core courses in the major

This seminar is the capstone course for the history major. The objective of the capstone course is to produce a paper that is exemplified by extensive research, critical thought, and intellectual engagement. The project should excite students and deepen their historical understanding. As a “senior project,” it will combine primary sources with secondary interpretations in an original and interesting way.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Places contemporary cultural, economic and technological issues in a global and historical perspective. Examines the ways that capitalism, culture, and technology have interacted over the past 500 years to shape the places, peoples and societies that have come into existence in the modern world.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Examines race, gender, ethnicity and class in 20th century American society. Introduces students to methods for studying the changing nature of our society and explores ways in which our increasingly urbanized and technological culture affects all aspects of professional and unskilled work. May involve work in oral history.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

This is a broad survey of California’s history that began 12,000 years ago when indigenous peoples first arrived in the region and that continues through the post-World War II period when the state emerged to become one of the world’s largest economies with a richly diverse population of 39 million people. Spanning California’s human history up through the present, the course covers pre-colonial Native California, Spanish colonization, the Mexican period, and the Anglo-American conquest, and it addresses a range of topics in California history, including: colonization and race relations, climate change and the environment, the garrison state and the high-tech economy, and class conflict and governance.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Major world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are surveyed in their philosophical, historical, art historical, and literary contexts. Important aspects of the philosophy and sociology of religion are addressed, and parallels in the study of myths, rituals, conversion experiences, and rites of passage are compared. Recent and contemporary religious trends are also addressed.

Examination of relationships between geographical features of the earth and human societies. Includes the study of map construction, mapping tools, geographical data, and the influence of geomorphological features on the development and spatial distribution of political systems, languages, and religions.

Prerequisite: ENG 240

Examines how international cinema represents various aspects of societies and cultures outside the U.S. Representative films of Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia and Oceania, and Canada may be studied.

Prerequisite: ENG 240

Examines the relationships between humans and the natural environment over the last 500 years. Topics include conceptions of nature, the use of resources in different societies, the consequences of various forms of economic organization (particularly capitalism) on the environment, and the impact of technological change on the world’s ecology.

Prerequisite: ENG 240

Examines changes associated with globalization since World War II, including changes in technology, urbanization, finance, markets, lending, the internationalization of production, the organization of work, and power relations among nations and world cultures. Investigates both theories of and popular responses to the new global economy.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Human migration is the story of individual lives enmeshed in larger historical issues of identity, culture, work, social institutions and various forms of coercion. Explores how work and migration have intersected in the last 500 years to shape the world in which we live today.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Investigates roots of present-day events in Modern Middle East since 1600 CE. Surveys history of the region, pre-modern empires, European colonization, and renaissance of Middle East culture in the 18th and 19th century, movement toward independent states, and emergence of Pan-Arabism and Islamist ideologies of the 20th century.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Introduction to Latin American history and culture focusing on diversity of Latin American societies and their multicultural heritage. Topics include colonialism and indigenous societies, growth of plantation and mining economies, enslavement of Africans, struggle for independence, distribution of political power, recurrence of popular rebellion, and artistic and cultural life.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Overview of contemporary Asian history and culture focusing on the diversity of Asian societies. Includes distribution of political power, ideological and structural stratification between East and West, impact of “Orientalism” in global context, impact of imperialism, effects of sexual and religious stratification, and discussion of political and religious differences.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Survey of major themes, issues, and personalities in African history since 1500. Topics include: kingdoms and empires, population movements, spread of Islam, slave trade era, abolition of slave trade, European imperialism, impact of colonialism, religious and cultural movements, nationalism and pan-Africanism, ethnicity and identity in modern Africa.

Individual study under direction of instructor. Requires prior approval of appropriate academic department.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

A survey of American music from the Colonial period to the present. Emphasizes political, social and economic developments as related to the evolution of American music, including popular, religious and art music in a broad array of styles.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

Introduces students to the concept and origins of popular culture and to social theories used by academics to analyze its impact on self and culture in modern consumer societies. Topics include mass media, TV, the internet, video games, sports, leisure, fashion, celebrity, shopping, advertising, and youth culture.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

An expansive overview of the history of world consciousness through various civilizations, exploring the interconnectedness of art, culture, politics, religion, economies, and the social environment in which they emerge. Draws on the contributions of people from different fields of creativity, the world’s outstanding thinkers, and the interconnectedness of their works.

Prerequisite: ENG 102

This course examines the film industry’s role in shaping popular consciousness and politics in the United States. It explores how films both reinforce and disrupt the dominant value systems and social institutions of their times, including how they serve as a vehicle for shaping public understanding of such things as the nation’s history, its social and political systems, and its different races, classes, genders, and religions. The course focuses methodologically on helping students to cultivate critical skill sets in visual literacy, historical and sociological analysis, and the application of media theory to the examination of film across different periods and genres.

Prerequisite: ENG 240

Examines the sociological and historical experiences of sex, sexuality, and gender in the USA, focusing on their intersectionality with race, class, and other social variables. Analyzes dominant representations of gender roles and stereotypes in public culture as well as LGBTQ and other representations that challenge prevailing power structures.