The Program in Historical Studies
S = Objectives
The Program in Historical Studies
seeks to introduce students to fundamental problems in Western
civilization from early modern times to the present and make them
sensitive to the modalities, potentials, and limits of historical
knowledge. Its primary goal is not simply to transmit a set of
factual data but also to cultivate a critical historical awareness.
Courses in the program contribute to students' intellectual development:
1. By enabling them to integrate
and relate the other components of their learning and providing
a framework for the concepts and information regularly encountered
in courses throughout the University; and
2. By giving a new perspective
on modernity, suggesting how transient accepted truths can be,
and how contemporary problems can be fruitfully reassessed in
the light of historical perspective.
Some courses in the program
are oriented more toward a comprehensive survey. Others place
greater emphasis upon particular themes, approaches, or problems.
The comprehensive courses offer a broad perspective, address a
wide range of central issues, and provide a solid framework of
historical knowledge. While these courses also offer a particular
thematic perspective, their primary goal is to provide an inclusive
historical overview that will help to integrate the various components
of an undergraduate education. The more specialized courses aim
to emphasize a particular problem or theme, but within the broader
context of the development of Western civilization.
Both the comprehensive and more specialized courses address the following topics: Renaissance and reformation; scientific revolution; state formation and absolutism in early modern Europe; Enlightenment; the English, French, and Russian revolutions; industrialization; urbanization; liberalism, nationalism, and socialism; democratization (processes and problems); imperialism; fascism; and 20th-century warfare.
S = Courses of Instruction
AFRICAN AND AFRO-AMERICAN
STUDIES
AAAS 18b
Africa and the West
L =
HISTORY
HIST 20b
Images of the Cosmos
HIST 23a
The Social Formation of Modern
Europe
HIST 24a
An Intellectual History of
Modern Europe and America
HIST 25a
Faith and Reason in European
Culture
HIST 55b
The History of the Family
L =
POLITICS
POL 184a
Utopia and Power in Modern
Political Thought