Humanities & Teacher Education

Course Descriptions: History

The following abbreviations denote a course that satisfies or partially satisfies a particular general education requirement: GE (General Education), PS (Presentation Skills), RM (Research Methods), and WI (Writing Intensive).

HIST 200. Introduction to Research (3)
A seminar in the methodology and techniques of historical research and writing. Among other tasks, students will prepare a formal research paper or multimedia presentation based upon primary source materials. Course should be taken during the sophomore or junior year. (PS, RM, WI).

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HIST 292. Selected Topics (1-4)

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HIST 299. Directed Studies (1-2)

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HIST 304. History of the American Peoples (4)
This course provides a historical overview of the American peoples from pre-colonial times to the present, exploring the variety of the American experience in the context of political, social, and intellectual developments. Satisfies in part the general education requirement in the American experience. Prerequisite: POSC 104. (GE)

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HIST 310. A History of Modern Japan (4)
Examines the history of modern Japanese society from the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate (17th- to 19th-century military rule) to the end of the Pacific War (1937-1945). The ideas, historical events, and social forces that underpinned the Tokugawa era (early modern), as well as Japan’s selective absorption of European and American influences will be studied. The course seeks to understand the role ideas and action (thought and practice)–traditional and modern, Japanese and non-Japanese–played in national integration, rapid industrialization, and Japan’s emergence as a 20th-century power. A modern history, the course places its topic in the broader study of modernity and modernization theory. (HIST 310 is equivalent to ASIA 310.) (GE)

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HIST 320. Pre-Columbian Civilizations of the Americas (4)
An examination of major Native American civilizations from prehistoric times to approximately 1600. Social and cultural aspects will be emphasized as archaeological, anthropological, and historical data are examined. Special attention will be given to the Native American cultures of Central and either North or South America. (GE)

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HIST 326. California History (2)
A study of California’s physical geography, economic activities, political history, and folklore and religion. Topics relate to the American Indian peoples, Spanish exploration and colonization, Mexican rule, and the impact of the discovery of gold. This course is designed to meet the requirement for liberal arts majors who do not take the history concentration.

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HIST 330. History of Traditional Chinese Civilization (4)
A survey of Chinese civilization from the ancient kingdoms of the Shang and Zhou dynasties through the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644, A.D.) Major personalities, significant events, and critical developments in the politics, society, and culture of this period are examined. Special focus on Confucius and Confucianism, political authoritarianism and despotism, social mobility and meritocracy, women and the traditional family, and China and the emerging world economy. (HIST 330 is equivalent to ASIA 330.) (GE)

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HIST 331. History of Modern China (4)
A survey of modern Chinese history from the founding of the last imperial dynasty, the Ming, in 1644 AD through the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911 to the return of the British colony of Hong Kong in 1997. Political, economic, social, and intellectual developments will be examined. Special focus on democracy and the legacy of authoritarianism, “free trade” and opium wars, westernization and modernization, Confucianism and Chinese identity, economic development and equality, and communist revolution and reform. (HIST 331 is equivalent to ASIA 331.) (GE)

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HIST 335. Latin American History: The Colonial Period to 1800 (4)
A history of Latin America from pre-Columbian times to the early 19th century. Examines the encounters among Iberian, American, and African peoples in America and the consequent creation and development of Colonial Spanish and Portuguese institutions and new American cultures. Themes include strategies of conquest and resistance, imperial and local economies, social relations, and political and religious institutions. Concludes with an examination of late colonial society, Bourbon Reforms, and the context for independence movements.

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HIST 336. Latin American History: The National Period since 1800 (4)
A survey of Latin American history from independence to the present. Studies political, social, and economic developments of the 20 republics of Latin America with a focus on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Central America and the Caribbean. Topics include wars of independence, dilemmas of national organization, economic development strategies, reform and revolution, social change, and inter-American relations.

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HIST 390. Modern History of the Middle East (4)
An introductory course on the modern history of the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the main focus of the course will be on the history of the region, it also deals with the socio-cultural and political changes in the region since the 19th century. In addition, particular attention will be paid throughout the course to Islam and its influence over socio-political history of the Middle East. The basic tenets of Islam and its significance and role in the historical, cultural, and political development in the region will be critically examined. Generally, the course will strike a balance between chronological and thematic/analytical approaches. Offered only in international programs. (GE)

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HIST 400. Native Americans (4)
Studies American Indians from Columbus to the present, emphasizing tribal responses to European and United States cultural contact and government policy.

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HIST 405. Topics in Global History (4)
Historical studies that reflect trans-national or global phenomena, such as slavery, migration, genocide, colonialism and imperialism, decolonization, revolution, and technological change. May be repeated as topics vary.

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HIST 406. Topics in National History (4)
Topics in the history of specific nations other than the United States. Historical studies emphasizing a particular national experience on a specific theme and/or in a specific period, such as Hitler and the Third Reich, Tudor-Stuart England, the history of Argentina, and others. May be repeated as topics vary.

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HIST 409. Ancient Civilizations (4)
Examines the major civilizations of the ancient world before the emergence of the Greeks and Romans in the Mediterranean. The political, religious, cultural, and social histories and legacies of the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian civilization will be studied in detail, as will the histories of less widely-studied cultures such as those of pre-dynastic China, the Indus River and Ganges civilizations, and the Celts. Special attention is given to the monotheistic cultures of the Jews and Persians and to the role of archaeology in ancient history. (GE)

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HIST 410. The Greco-Roman World (4)
This course examines the political, social, intellectual, and religious histories of the Greek and Roman civilizations and, in particular, how each contributed to the development of Western Civilization. Special attention will be given to critical examination of original sources and to the origins of the discipline of history. Particular emphasis will also be given to the rise and development of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Chronologically the course will cover the period from Archaic Period of Greek History to the consolidation of Byzantium under Justinian in the 6th century.

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HIST 411. The Middle Ages (4)
Explores the politics, social structure, culture, economic development, intellectual transformation, and social experience of Western Europe from the fall of Rome in 476 to the Renaissance in the 14th and 15th centuries. Specific topics that will be addressed include the heritage of the ancient world in Western Europe, the evolution of the Germanic kingdoms, the recovery of Europe in the 11th century, the revival of learning in the 13th century, and the effects of the Black Death in the 14th century.

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HIST 412. Renaissance and Reformation (4)
Examines the major events of Western European history from 1350 to 1650, with a special emphasis on the Renaissance and on the transformation of European society occasioned by the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic response. It will not examine only the religious, political, and elite cultural manifestations of these historical trends, but will also look at the social and economic contexts of both the Renaissance and the Reformation, as well as how those elite historical trends affected and were affected by the non-elite populations of late medieval and early modern Europe.

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HIST 413. Early Modern Europe (4)
Covers Europe from the end of the Wars of Religion in 1648 to the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Offers a comprehensive immersion in the political, social, intellectual, and cultural history of the era, but also implicates Europe in broader world communities, especially in the Atlantic. Topics include the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, Absolutist, and Constitutional Monarchies in theory and in practice, the origins and development of the Atlantic economy, the increasing division between elite and popular culture, and the French Revolution and its dissemination under Napoleon.

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HIST 415. Europe in the 19th Century (4)
A survey and discussion course in the history of Europe from the end of the Napoleonic era (1815) to the outbreak of World War I (1914). Addresses national and international politics, ideas and culture, economic and social change, war and society, and imperialism. More specifically, it encourages understanding of the following: the emergence of new types of communities in uncertain times; the impact of economic and technological change; the dehumanizing pressures of social anonymity in mass societies; the dependence of rule upon hidden forces of control; identity and the many ways it is constructed, expressed, and mobilized; the experience of colonial domination; and withering intellectual attacks on the West’s rational tradition.

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HIST 416. Europe in the 20th Century (4)
A survey of European history from 1914 to 2000 that addresses Europe’s society, politics, and culture but emphasizes the conflicts of its most violent century. Topics include the impact of war in the shaping of the 20th century, domination and control in the practice of utopianism, the challenges posed to freedom by ideological extremism, ethnic cleansing and genocide, decolonization, and the fundamental restructuring of Europe as a result of the women’s movement, the coalescence of the European Union, globalization, and the arrival of Postmodernity.

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HIST 418. Modern History of Eastern Europe (4).
Addresses the history of Eastern Europe from 1815 to the collapse of Communist regimes at the end of the 20th century. Attends to political, cultural, social, and everyday life in the region, including the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, but also links the region to the Middle East and East Asia. Global in scope, the course investigates such topics as the rise and carrying power of Eastern European nationalism, the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, chronic crises in the multiethnic Balkans leading to the outbreak of World War I, the tense inter-war interregnum and the creation of the modern Middle East, the Eastern Front during World War II, and the imposition and collapse of the Soviet empire.

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HIST 419. Hitler and the Third Reich (4)
Includes an analysis of the personality of Hitler and the Third Reich. An examination of the writings of Hitler, his contemporaries, and historians such as Allan Bullock and Hugh Trevor-Roper. Offered only in international programs.

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HIST 420. Colonial America, 1492-1763 (4)
An exploration of European involvement in North America, this course will pay attention to traditional subjects (the Puritans, the Quakers, new-world slavery, the 18th-century Great Awakening), while also investigating novel means of understanding the era (environmental history, the Native American perspective, the idea of an Atlantic community), and will allow students to pursue specific topics of their own choosing.

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HIST 421. The American Revolution and New Nation, 1763-1815 (4)
A study in the tortured and violent emergence of the United States as a nation independent from Great Britain. Beginning with the slide into rebellion, it will explore the War for Independence and the difficulties of re-establishing political authority in the 1780s, and will ask whether the Constitution and young political parties succeeded at this task. The course concludes with the second War for Independence in 1812. Meets California state requirement in U.S. Constitution for teaching credential.

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HIST 422. Jacksonian America and the Civil War, 1815-1877 (4)
Examines the origins, events, and outcomes of the American Civil War. The first section explores slavery and the economic, ideological, and political dilemmas it created as the nation spread westward. The next section details the war itself: the personalities, the battles, and the central issues of slavery’s existence and the existence of the American Union. The course concludes with an evaluation of Reconstruction.

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HIST 423. United States, 1877–1920 (4)
Examines the major trends of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1877-1920), including religion, gender, ethnicity, immigration, farm and labor movements, and other major social, intellectual, economic, and political events, as well as the approaches historians have taken to understanding these elements.

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HIST 424. United States, 1920–1952 (4)
A study of American society during the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the Second World War and its aftermath. Topics include: economic and social change; including modernism and resistance to it; the development of the welfare state; the expansion of the presidency and executive power; demographic changes including the Great Migration of black Americans; and the role of the United States in the world.

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HIST 425. United States: Since 1952 (4)
A study of recent American history, with emphasis on the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, social turbulence and change, the growth of the state, the Vietnam conflict, Watergate, the Reagan Era, and beyond. Themes include competing efforts to define the core values of American society, the role of the state in American life, the interaction of changing technology and economic organization with American culture and society, and the relationship of foreign and domestic affairs.

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HIST 426. History of California and the Pacific Coast (4)
Studies California and the Pacific coast. Topics include the Mexican period; the coming of Americans and the Mexican War; social, economic, political, and the region’s literary development as part of the United States. Meets California state requirement for teaching credential.

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HIST 427. Westward Movement in the United States (4)
A study of the geographical advance of the frontier to the Pacific Ocean, movement of population, expansion of boundaries, and reverberations of the West in national and international affairs. A critical examination of the frontier experience in American development.

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HIST 428. Topics in Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States (4)
Topics in the history of American thought and culture, such as the development and consumption of scientific, political, religious, economic, and/or social theories and themes in intellectual and popular culture. May be repeated when topics vary.

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HIST 429. Foreign Relations of the United States Since 1890 (4)
A study of American foreign relations with emphasis on the period after 1890, including the rise of the United States to global leadership and resulting international relations. Themes include the policymaking process, the impact of U.S. policies on other nations, the interplay between domestic factors and foreign policy, the role of culture and ideology in shaping U.S. public and private relations with other nations, the rise of presidential power and the national security state, and the course and consequences of globalization.

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HIST 433. History of Mexico and the Borderlands (4)
History of Mexico from the perspective(s) of the peoples of its frontiers/borderlands. After a brief overview of Amerindian and colonial beginnings, the emphasis of the course is on the national era. Examines the course and social, political, and economic consequences of the Mexican-American War, La Reforma and the Civil War, the Porfiriato, the Mexican Revolution, Depression, World War II, and industrialization, and considers the development of complex local, regional, national, and transnational identities, cultures, economies, and institutions.

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HIST 435. Topics in the History of Women in the United States (4)
This course examines women's experiences as women (shaped by changing conceptions of gender) in the United States. It also considers the impact of such factors as race and class in understanding both the shared and diverse experiences of women. Focus and selection of themes will vary from term to term. May be repeated when topics vary.

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HIST 438. History of Religion in America (4)
A study of American religion in the context of history and culture from the Puritans to the present. Topics include Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, sectarian movements, native American and black religions, as well as new religious movements. (HIST 438 is equivalent to REL 538.) (WI)

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HIST 440. German History (4)
Emphasis is on the modern era from Luther to the present with an interdisciplinary analysis of German culture since the Reformation, including German art and music in their historical context and analyses of selected writers such as Goethe, Schiller, and Mann. Special stress is placed on the last two centuries and their particular problems, including the origins and growth of German nationalism; Germany’s role in the world wars of the twentieth century, and the phenomenon of National socialism.

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HIST 450. Modern History of Africa (4)
Explores the history of Africa from 1800 to contemporary times. Attending to both thematic diversity and regional particularism, it addresses such topics as the slave trade in Western and Central Africa, the Zulu and Asante empires, Christian missions, colonization and human rights abuses in the Congo and German Southwest Africa, apartheid in South Africa, and indigenous resistance to, and ultimately victory over, European systems of exploitation and control. The course also investigates the endemic social and political crises of the post-independence era.

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HIST 460. Modern History of the Middle East (4)
A survey lecture and discussion course on the modern history of the Middle East. It explores the causes underlying the rise of sovereign nation-states as well as the conflicts that have attended modern social, technological, and political change. Topics include the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of modern Turkey, the Arab experience of colonial domination, the petroleum factor, the dilemmas of Islamic women, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the development of Islamic fundamentalist and Arab nationalist movements. This course will also pay special attention to the role of the United States in the region, especially in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

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HIST 530. Social History of the United States (4)
A study of developments, social institutions, and daily living from the colonial period to the present. This course will examine the major historical and historiographical trends in the history of the United States from the perspective of women, labor movements, African Americans, Native Americans, and other similar groups from 1800 to the present.

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HIST 580. Historiography (3)
Serves (with HIST 581) as the capstone course for the history major, introducing students to the history of historical writing and of selected historical problems. Examines major theories and interpretations of history, including a Christian perspective, and the roles of historical study and the history professional in society. It should be taken during the first semester of the senior year. Prerequisite: “C-” grade in HIST 200. (PS, RM, WI)

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HIST 581a. Senior Thesis (1)
Students will complete and refine a senior thesis or multimedia project begun in HIST 200 or other history course and then formally present and defend their work in a public setting. Students will also compile a senior portfolio that includes student work and reflective essays. HIST 581 (a) should be taken during the first semester of the senior year and HIST 581 (b) during the last semester of the senior year. Prerequisite: “C-” grade in HIST 200. (PS, RM, WI)

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HIST 581b. Senior Thesis (1)
Students will complete and refine a senior thesis or multimedia project begun in HIST 200 or another upper-division course and then formally present and defend their work in a public setting. Students will also compile a senior portfolio that includes student work and reflective essays. HIST 581 (a) should be taken during the first semester of the senior year and HIST 581 (b) during the last semester of the senior year. Prerequisite: “C-” grade in HIST 200. (PS, RM, WI)

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HIST 592. Selected Topics (1-4)

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HIST 595. Public History Internship (1-4)
A supervised internship for students who plan to pursue a career in public history. Placement is with an archive, museum, historical interpretative center or comparable facility where students will work regular hours on a daily basis over an extended period of time. Ideally, students will undertake an internship where they can devote full-time to the activity (three to six weeks). For each unit of credit the student is expected to work a minimum of 45 hours. A maximum of four units may be earned. Students must also prepare a formal paper that evaluates their internship experiences within the context of the theory and methodology of public history. Prerequisites: Completion of 76 units and consent of instructor. To be eligible for an internship, the applicant must be a history major and meet standards established by the division. Cr/NC grading only.

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HIST 599. Directed Studies (1-4)
Consent of the divisional chairperson is required.

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HIST 620. Directed Readings in United States History (4)

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HIST 621. Directed Readings in European History (4)

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HIST 690. Thesis (1-6)

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Although the above are excerpted from the 2012-2013 Seaver catalog this is not an official binding document. To view the actual catalog visit: http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/catalog/