History Courses

Course Detail: The Advanced Placement program in United States History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials of United States history. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college survey courses. In this pursuit, the acquisition of factual knowledge is the beginning point of the process, not the end. Students will learn to interpret and evaluate the relative significance of primary and secondary source material, and to present their evidence and conclusions clearly and persuasively in an essay format. The course will focus on the changing aspirations and behavior of ordinary Americans as well as the transformative achievements of the powerful and famous. The objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened. The course will allow students to analyze critically the significance of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the American Experience and prepare students to make their own judgments about the relative importance of different factors in shaping the American past. Prerequisites: None.

Course Detail: The Advanced Placement program in United States History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials of United States history. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college survey courses. In this pursuit, the acquisition of factual knowledge is the beginning point of the process, not the end. Students will learn to interpret and evaluate the relative significance of primary and secondary source material, and to present their evidence and conclusions clearly and persuasively in an essay format. The course will focus on the changing aspirations and behavior of ordinary Americans as well as the transformative achievements of the powerful and famous. The objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened. The course will allow students to analyze critically the significance of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the American Experience and prepare students to make their own judgments about the relative importance of different factors in shaping the American past. Prerequisites: None.

Course Detail: The Advanced Placement program in United States History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials of United States history. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college survey courses. In this pursuit, the acquisition of factual knowledge is the beginning point of the process, not the end. Students will learn to interpret and evaluate the relative significance of primary and secondary source material, and to present their evidence and conclusions clearly and persuasively in an essay format. The course will focus on the changing aspirations and behavior of ordinary Americans as well as the transformative achievements of the powerful and famous. The objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened. The course will allow students to analyze critically the significance of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the American Experience and prepare students to make their own judgments about the relative importance of different factors in shaping the American past. Prerequisites: None.

Course Detail: An interdisciplinary study of American and Anglo-European society and culture from 1770-1850, this course explores some of the great works of art, music and literature of the Western world in the context of the economic, social and political changes of the same period. The geographical focus is on France, Germany, England and America, which are bound together by ideas, values and leitmotifs characteristic of America and Western Europe in the nineteenth century: rebellion, individualism, celebration of the common man, nostalgia for the past, a desire to connect with the natural world, and a utopian search for an ideal life that seems forever lost to cities and factories.. How these motifs and interests emerge from western societies that are urbanizing, industrializing, developing consumer cultures and a sense of national identity makes this course one that illustrates the connection between art and life but also the strands of thought that connect American and Europe. Prerequisites: None

Course Detail: This course considers some of the most persistent philosophical and existential questions in Western thought dating from the Ancient World to the Early Modern period. As both a history and philosophy course it examines the changing acquisition of knowledge, differing ways of knowing, and the knowledge areas of interest to educated people in the West whether they hold pagan, Muslim, Christian or secular world-views. The questions or topics that guide class discussion range from differing notions of reality and the origin and purpose of the universe to those relating to the human condition, human society, and the place of man in the larger universe, cosmologically speaking. While most of the readings date from the defined chronological time period, texts from modern thinkers will also be incorporated to illustrate how later scholars have responded to the same questions posed by their worthy predecessors. A number of movies and works of popular literature will also serve to illustrate the longevity of many Western ideas and concepts. Throughout the quarter there will be a concerted effort to incorporate popular beliefs as any study of intellectual change must acknowledge that concepts and ideas are cultural products that are created and diffused through various modes of discourse and a complex web of social relationships. It is the intention of the instructor to bridge science and the humanities in this course, therefore much of the reading and related work will be interdisciplinary. Prerequisites: None

Course Detail: Human Geography is an historical and systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of the earth. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine past and present human social organization, migration patterns, demographics, geo-political considerations, economic and urban development as well as human impact on the environment. This class will use current GIS applications allowing students to learn the current methods and tools of professional geographers. Required for Sophomores.

Course Detail: This course includes the political, socio-cultural, and economic factors in the development of America as a nation from European colonial settlements to the end of the Civil War. The course will focus on the changing aspirations and behavior of ordinary Americans as well as the transformative achievements of the powerful and famous. The objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened. The course will allow students to analyze critically the significance of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the American Experience and prepare students to make their own judgments about the relative importance of different factors in shaping the American past. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course includes the political, socio-cultural, and economic factors in the development of America as a nation from Reconstruction to the present day. The course will focus on the changing aspirations and behavior of ordinary Americans as well as the transformative achievements of the powerful and famous. The objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened. The course will allow students to analyze the significance of race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the American Experience and prepare students to make their own judgments about the relative importance of different factors in shaping the American experience. Prerequisites: HS101.

Course Detail: This course in Western thought explores the relationship between man and the natural world. From the philosophers of antiquity to today’s historians of ecology, the physical environment has been for humankind many things: a retreat from the stresses of urban life, a landscape to paint, a habitat to modify and a precious resource to protect. It has inspired composers but has also been used to validate certain political ideologies. Through the centuries civilized man has widened the distance between himself and the natural world but has never wanted to be disconnected from it entirely, for he as a human being is organically and spiritually connected to it. This class takes a chronological view at man’s changing attitudes and behavior towards nature and the living creatures found within it. Class texts are primary sources which encompass everything from pre-Christian sacred groves and temples to personal journals, religious writings, medieval bestiaries, Renaissance gardens, paintings, scientific treatises and our own national parks. Lecture and discussion, group activities. Published digital scrapbook is final project. Prerequisites: None

Course Detail: This course covers the history of the American West, from European contact through the late 20th century, with focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. The course will explore the myths that impelled countless Americans from all walks of life to join in westward expansion. More importantly, we will study the variety of myths produced by the experience of westward expansion, including stories of pony express riders, social bandits, Indian fighters, schoolmarms, prostitutes, homesteaders, and railroad barons. We will contrast this mythology against the backdrop of the "reality" of Western history by looking at the lives of "neglected people" who settled the West (such as women and minorities), the genocidal destruction of Native American societies, and the role of big businesses and capitalism in Westward expansion. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course studies the emergence of the Middle East in the modern period, roughly from the late eighteenth century to the present. It begins with state-building as structured by European powers during the post WWI period and traces political change and ideological trends in the region with an eye to better understanding political relationships that have developed both within and external to the region. Topics covered will be nationalism and independence; the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the quest for peace in the Middle East, the Saudi-U.S. relationship, America’s relationship with Israel, the Iranian Revolution and Islamic fundamentalism, as well as the politics of oil. Special attention will be given to how the Cold War, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War, the Iraq War and the War on Terror have shaped today’s Middle East, politically, economically, and socially. Prerequisites: HS102

Course Detail: This course is an examination of the role that ethical and moral principles play in the formulation and execution of public policy by lawmakers and other public officials. Students will study the foundational theories of ethics and morality in politics, and will be introduced to various decision-making models, such as the utilitarian approach, fairness and justice approach, common good approach and the rights approach. These theories will be used to study government policy in the areas of the family, care for the elderly, affirmative action, income inequality and poverty, civil liberties, immigration and others. Prerequisites: HS101

Course Detail: This course is an introduction to the comparison of the major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The first part of the course begins with a discussion of the development of each religion in its historical context. The remainder of the course delves deeper into topics such as perceptions of God, human will, God’s grace and salvation/enlightenment. Respect is shown to all. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This elective continues the coursework started in Human Geography. A variety of topics will be covered including the history of urbanization as well as learning activities related to economic development, urban planning, municipal government and services. The class will also look at the rise of smart cities and global cities. This is a hands-on class using today’s geographical mapping tools and will feature a research component. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course reviews topics in both microeconomics and macroeconomics with emphasis on the pervasive debate between the free market and government intervention. Topics to be covered include Classical economic theory, Keynesian economic theory, demand and supply, fiscal policy, monetary policy, income inequality and international trade. This course will prepare students to study economics at a more comprehensive level in college. Prerequisites: senior standing.

Course Detail: This course introduces the history, general principles, policies, and problems of national government in the United States. The course will also examine the fundamentals of American democracy, including the Constitution, the nature of federalism, and the institutions and processes of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The role of public opinion, the media, and the participation of interest groups, social movements, and political parties in the U.S. political system are also emphasized. Prerequisites: senior standing.

Course Detail: This course is a cultural and historical study of selected minority groups in terms of their social, political, and economic relationship to contemporary American society. The course will explore the psychological and sociological framework of minority / dominant group interaction patterns, and discuss the origins and causes of prejudice and discrimination. Issues explored in this course include: racial profiling, affirmative action, African American slavery reparations, bilingual education, immigration laws, reverse discrimination, the significance and place of the “N” word and other racial and cultural epitaphs in our society, sexual harassment, and homophobia and misogyny in popular culture. Prerequisites: HS102

Course Detail: This course presents a study of the history of Rock and Roll and its connection and contribution to popular culture and social history. The evolution of Rock and Roll and the many influences of that evolution will be examined against the backdrop of historical and social issues from post-World War II America until the end of the Cold War. Historical issues like race, class, sexism, the Civil Rights Movement, American involvement in Vietnam, and the rise of the counterculture, Watergate, and the Reagan era will be examined for their connection to Rock and Roll and popular culture. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This team-taught course in American Popular Culture is a study of comic books as a medium of communicating American cultural beliefs, ideas and values. Comic books reflect the changing interests of the creative teams that produce them but they also reflect changes in American society, politics, and the way Americans perceive the world. Originating in the 20th century, comic book characters and storylines reveal the hopes and fears of American citizens as much as they convey a strong sense of national identity and national purpose. In this class, comic book superheroes become a window into the crime of the 1930s, the adversaries America faced in World War II, the fear of Communism, increasing doubts as to whether government can protect us and the ways in which America changed as a people and society after the events of 9/11. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course entails study of pivotal events in the history of United States foreign policy since World War II. It particularly examines America’s relationship with the larger world with an eye to better understanding today’s political conflicts and issues. Selected areas of study will include the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Nixon and Detente, American Foreign Policy during the Carter and Reagan Administrations and America’s post Cold War relationships with the newly emerging power centers of China and the European Union. An excellent elective for those students who wish a better understanding of America’s global role and national policy in the late 20th C. Prerequisites: HS102.

Course Detail: This course explores the major themes in African American history, from its roots in fifteenth-century West Africa to contemporary U.S. society. Course materials cover the major political, economic, social and cultural factors that have shaped the African and African American experience in the United States. Prerequisites: None.

Course Detail: This course takes an historical look at the troubling phenomena of genocide, terror, and violence around the world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A number of case studies will be examined to better understand why and how terror has been deliberately employed by political leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Cambodia’s Pol Pot to extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Covered will be crimes of war, genocide, state terror, and hate crimes as well as the terrorism associated with extreme religious views both in the United States and abroad. Lecture, discussion and a final project. Prerequisites: HS102.

Course Detail: Moving away from the traditional survey approach to the field, this course will focus on the Renaissance from a feminist perspective. Did women have a Renaissance? The reality is that most did not, and for the majority of women, the Renaissance was a time when women were both denied equal protection under the law, and held to standards of beauty and behavior overwhelmingly determined and shaped by men. Synonymous with social, economic, and political change, the Renaissance for most women served to reinforce female submissiveness and patriarchic control but surprisingly it is an age that produced the first women artists and a number of powerful female monarchs. In this class, women of the Renaissance will be studied and it is their lives that become our window into this perpetually fascinating period of European history. Seminar with assigned readings and class project. A history elective for those interested in women’s studies and the culture of the Renaissance. Prerequisites: None.

Course Detail: While peace and stability are always desirous, it is revolutions that largely have created the world as we know it today. The Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century helped create the political climate that produced England’s Glorious Revolution, while the American and French Revolutions of the eighteenth century inspired the many uprisings and nationalist movements of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, all of these, as well as the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, became the model for those nations and peoples seeking self-determination and an end to colonial rule. This course will take a closer look at the concept of revolution as a means of bringing social, economic, and political change. This is an elective for those students who desire to know how ideology translates into “realpolitik”. Discussion/Lecture plus collaborative learning experiences via group projects. Prerequisites: HS102.

Course Detail: This course examines the decade of the 1950s in America from a socio-historical perspective. We will analyze the dichotomy of the nostalgic view of the decade as a time of economic prosperity, solid family values, and political and cultural harmony, compared to a revisionist perspective that illuminates the decade’s racial tensions, gender stratification, burgeoning countercultural movement, and the genesis of the sexual revolution. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course explores the political, social, and cultural history of 1960s America. The “Sixties” is something of a misnomer. The period was defined less by the borders of a single decade than by movements and issues that emerged in the 1940s and were only partially resolved by the time Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974. There also is no consensus about the era’s meaning or significance—the 1960s continue to be the subject of passionate debate and political controversy in the United States. It was, many have said, a time of revolution, but whose revolution and who won? The times they were ‘a-changin’, but why, how, and to what end? In exploring this turbulent decade, the course examines what did and what did not change in the 1960s. Topics include: the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon; the triumph and breakdown of postwar liberalism; the resurgence of conservatism; the many insurgent political and social movements of the decade, including the civil rights and Black Power movements, the New Left, environmentalism, the Chicano and Red Power movements, feminism, and the gay liberation movement; the counterculture; the sexual revolution; rock ‘n’ roll; and the Vietnam war. We will investigate these and other issues in a mix of printed, visual, audio, and multimedia sources such as speeches, correspondence, newspapers and magazines, photographs, television, movies, and music. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: An introduction to the meaning of saints or “holy persons” in various backgrounds. Famous saints are selected for up- close study with their historical circumstances, their claims to holiness, etc. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa have been featured among Christian saints, and Ali, Buddha, Gandhi, and Shankara have been some of the eastern figures. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course examines the modern South from the end of the Civil Rights movement (Early 1970s) to the present day. Particular emphasis will be placed on contemporary Southern politics, identity, and culture to determine how much has changed and how much has remained bound by tradition. Topics will include economic trends, demographic changes, and the rise of suburbanization, the emergence of the Republican Party’s political dominance, southern neo-conservatism and values as well as re-segregation. This class will be conducted primarily as a seminar and features a number of experiential learning activities, the participation of guest speakers, and a field research project. Prerequisites: none.

Course Detail: This course explores modern China—its government, society, economy and culture. China is emerging as the economic superpower of the twenty-first century and Americans need to understand the Chinese people and the society as a whole since virtually every sector of American life is influenced by our relationship with this country. This course is for the serious student of history, economics and cultural studies. This class is student-centered, conducted as a college-level seminar with students leading class discussions every week and expected to participate daily in discussion of assigned readings. Prerequisites: HS102.

Course Detail: This course will examine one of the most pivotal and defining moments in American History: the American Civil War. Grim, brutal, and personal, the Civil War (also called the War Between the States) pitted countrymen against countrymen and claimed more American lives than any other war fought during any time in our nation’s history. Students will study the time period stretching from the Compromise of 1850 to the Presidential election of 1876, as well as the various reasons for the war, the combat, the eventual outcome, and the Reconstruction Period. Prerequisites: HS101

Course Detail: World War I fundamentally changed the world. It forever changed the way we look at warfare, the idea of empire, the significance of alliances, even the value of human life. This course expands on what is typically taught in a survey course to fully explore the politics that led to war on a global scale, acquire in-depth knowledge of the key battles on the Western Front and elsewhere around the globe, to better understand the experience of battle for those that fought in it, especially in the light of the trench warfare that so characterized WWI, to develop greater awareness of the war’s imperial or colonial aspects and finally to consider the consequences of the Great War or its aftermath. Lecture, discussion, student research project. Prerequisites: HS102

Course Detail: This class on World War II begins with origins of the global conflict and follows the war through both the European and Pacific theatres. It presents the war from an international perspective as much as possible, covering the history and politics of the war in Germany, Japan, and Italy, as well as that of the United States. Major battles, policy decisions, and personalities of the key participants are covered as well as the impact of the war on the home-front. While Germany’s Third Reich is studied, the course does not provide an in-depth study of the Holocaust. Prerequisites: HS102.

Course Detail: Through art, animation, music, theme parks and media, Walt Disney and subsequently the Disney Corporation created an idealized picture of traditional American values that still pervades American Culture today. This course examines Walt Disney’s personal values, imagination, innovations, and vision of the future that made the Disney name synonymous with wholesome family entertainment in the 1940’s and 50’s and the changes the company has made to stay in step with major changes in American society. Prerequisites: None

Course Detail: Continuing study in the discipline of Human Geography, this course will focus on the modern city. As 70% of the global population is expected to be city-dwellers by 2050, the study of the interaction between people and the cities or towns they live in is of historical interest, but more importantly relevant to the choices urban planners, municipal governments, civic groups, and city residents make every day. This class will be of interest to those who want a more experiential learning experience as the city of Mobile will, in effect, become our social science laboratory. It also is partnered with an accompanying Directed Research component which is for fieldwork off campus and earns students additional academic credit. Much of the class content can be used towards the requirements for the Fellows Program if the student so chooses but this is not required. Prerequisite: HS100; Corequisite: HS118

Course Detail: The directed research for this DR consists of fieldwork in the city of Mobile and some independent research assignments. The fieldwork will consist of three to four Saturday morning activities and three after-school outings during the quarter. If we are out during lunchtime, lunch will be provided. Examples of fieldwork sites will be the Port of Mobile, city parks, downtown businesses, government agencies, community gardens, local libraries and museums. Corequisite: HS117

Course Detail: This course will survey and examine the foreign policies of the United States government from 1898 to the present, while emphasizing the deep and complex embeddedness of America with other regions of the world. Relations with East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe will be emphasized. A major theme will be the rise of nationalism around the world and the way that the United States has responded to this phenomenon and been affected by it during the era of ascendant American power. It is often said that the United States first became an empire in 1898 when it conquered the Philippines and other lands from Spain. Yet controversy has surrounded broader claims that the U.S. is an imperial power. This course will equip students to analyze and evaluate historical claims about the precise nature and extent of America’s role in the world from 1898 to now. Prerequisite: HS101 and HS102

Course Detail: This course is a three-term Advanced Placement version of our regular Human Geography offering. Human Geography is an historical and systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of the earth. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine past and present human social organization, migration patterns, demographics, geo-political considerations, economic and urban development as well as human impact on the environment. This class will use current GIS applications allowing students to learn the current methods and tools of professional geographers. Required for Sophomores not taking HS100.

Course Detail: This course is a three-term Advanced Placement version of our regular Human Geography offering. Human Geography is an historical and systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of the earth. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine past and present human social organization, migration patterns, demographics, geo-political considerations, economic and urban development as well as human impact on the environment. This class will use current GIS applications allowing students to learn the current methods and tools of professional geographers. Required for Sophomores not taking HS100.

Course Detail: This course is a three-term Advanced Placement version of our regular Human Geography offering. Human Geography is an historical and systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of the earth. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine past and present human social organization, migration patterns, demographics, geo-political considerations, economic and urban development as well as human impact on the environment. This class will use current GIS applications allowing students to learn the current methods and tools of professional geographers. Required for Sophomores not taking HS100.