Hey, all you Centre students! As registration is approaching I thought I would give y’all a quick roundup on our Spring course offerings:
History Survey Classes: These courses have wide chronological and geographical coverage. They are designed to introduce students to major events and ideas but they are also intended to expose students to how historians “do” history. Students practice analyzing events and exploring change over time as well as research and writing methods. This spring we are offering ALL of the surveys!
History 110–Development of the Modern World 1–How do we get to the world we live in today? Is it just that Europeans got lost on their way to India and invaded a whole continent? Did the Enlightenment make things better or worse? Was Imperialism an inevitable product of exploration and Enlightenment?
History 120–Development of the Modern World 2–This course explores the Modern World and can cover everything from World Wars to regional economies to contested ideas about democracy.
History 230–Development of the United States 1–How does a country called the United States come to exist and what kind of country is it anyway? This is a class about freedom, oppression, and democracy.
History 240–Development of the United States 2–This course generally runs from the Civil War to sometime prior to 2018. It examines how Americans interact with each other and also how America interacts with the world.
Upper Level Courses: The history major has no prerequisites and we invite all students to take our upper level classes. Sometimes students worry that they won’t know “enough” for these courses but these are standalone classes that do not really build on one another so non-majors should feel confident that these classes are appropriate for them.
History 301–History of Ancient Greece–A survey of ancient Greece from Mycenaean times to Alexander the Great (2000-300 BCE). Highlights include the Persian Wars (Marathon, Themopylae, etc.), the Peloponnesian Wars, and the campaigns of Alexander. We also look at the origins of historiography (the writing of history) with Herodotus and Thucydides.
History 328–Churchill’s World–What was Churchill’s Britain like? How did it interact with the rest of the world and negotiate it’s changing role in international affairs?
History 335–Middle East History and Society–This course examines the modern Middle East (19th and 20th centuries.) It will also explore the development of religious, political, and economic structures over the past millennia that made the modern Middle East.
History 340–Age of the Samurai–This course looks at Japan between the 10th and 19th centuries focusing on the Samurai as a class in Japanese society. The Samurai transform from imperial bodyguards to the political hierarchy itself to drunken men writing poetry which provides many romantic tales for this class to discover.
History 375–History of Gender in the United States– Gender in US history examines how men and women have understood, challenged, negotiated, and changed ideas about and expressions relating to gender. We’ll focus extensively on power and how gender is a useful way to analyze history. We’ll also look at how gender intersects with race, sex, class, ethnicity, economics, and politics, among other topics. The course promises to reconfigure how we consider ourselves and the ideas about gender imbedded in US history and culture.
History 378–American Religious History– Since 1630 (and even before) America has developed a unique relationship to religious practice and religious liberty. It has also birthed many religious groups. This course then examines everything from the Constitution to the rise of the religious right and from the Salem witch trials to Christian radio stations.
Centre Trail 