The following courses are taught by the History department on a yearly basis
HIS 105. The Development of American Political Institutions
A survey of American history emphasizing the development of the American
system of government, from the late eighteenth century to the present.
Among the topics included are the origins and content of the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights; the 19th-century development of parties; nominating
conventions; the broadening of the right to vote; the origins and subsequent
developments of the Civil War Era amendments; the origins of regulatory
agencies during the Progressive Era and the New Deal; the expansion of
women's rights; and the impact of civil rights issues on politics.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 201-202. American Civilization
A history of the United States. Several problems or issues are chosen
each
term, and the insights of various disciplines--political science, sociology,
literary criticism, economics, etc.--are brought to bear on them. Either term
may be taken independently.
HIS 201. From Colonial Times through the Civil War
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 202. From 1865 to the Present
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above. 3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 214. Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States
A social history of immigration and ethnicity that focuses on topics
such as
immigrant institutions, including family, church, community life, unions,
gangs, fire companies, saloons, theatres, social mobility, and the role of
ethnicity and class responses to the immigrant "problem," including
assimilation, nativism, racism, and restriction; immigrant ghettos and boss
rule; changing immigrant stereotypes; work experience; labor violence, and
the methods of social control. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 217. Three Hundred Years of New York City: A History of the Big
Apple
A study of selected institutions and classes of people, traced over
time.
Topics include the docks, Wall Street, the poor, water supply, bars,
subways, the rich, riots, architecture, bosses and corruption, novels of New
York, police, parks, famous fires. The course will include occasional walking
tours about the City to the docks, museums, famous buildings, etc.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits
HIS 219. Violence and Social Change in America
Examination of the role played by violence in American life. Exploration
of
selected problems relating to the politics of war, poverty, and racism.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 221. Sex and the Family in American History
Examination of American sexual behavior from the Puritan family to the
"sexual revolution." Topics include sex, the family, and society in colonial
and antebellum America; the repressed sexuality of the late nineteenth
century; the rise of divorce; the impact of Freud; the birth control movement;
the Depression; postwar America and the "sexual revolution;" the social
implications of Kinsey and Masters and Johnson.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 224. A History of Crime in New York City
How criminal entrepreneurs seized the opportunities of their particular
eras,
from colonial days to the present. Topics include: pirates (Captain Kidd) and
smugglers; slave revolts; river and railroad gangs; gambling and prostitution;
prohibition-era bootlegging and the rise of organized crime (from the Mafia to
Murder Incorporated); stock market fraud; crime on the waterfront; shoplifting;
labor and business racketeering; drug dealing; arson for profit; computer
fraud; the savings and loan scandal; environmental crime; and street gangs,
with special attention to those (Gophers, Westies) in the John Jay neighborhood.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 230. The Sixties
An exploration of the 1960s that sets the turbulent decade in the
historical
context of post-World War II America. Examination of the decade's politics
and culture, economy and music, ideas and upheavals, and its impact on
today's world. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 231. The Origins of the Contemporary World:
From the Classical
Period to the Enlightenment
An introductory course in the history of civilization from antiquity to
the
eighteenth century. Among the topics to be considered are: government and
empire in Greece and Rome; Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the Arab
impact on the West; church and state in the Middle Ages; the Renaissance
and the Reformation; the expansion of Europe; Africa and African civilizations
in the Atlantic world; the origins of the modern state; the Scientific Revolution
and the Enlightenment; the origins of the American Revolution; concepts of
citizenship and individualism; origins of the French Revolution and of industrial
capitalism.
Prerequisite or corequisite: English 101.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 232. Contemporary History of Civilization:
From the Enlightenment
to the Present
An introductory course in the history of civilization from the
eighteenth to the
twentieth century. Among the topics to be considered are: the French
Revolution; the American Revolution; industrial capitalism and imperialism;
Marxism; the World Wars; the Russian and Chinese Revolutions; the Great
Depression and its impact; the Cold War; decolonization and the Third World;
intellectual and cultural developments; civil rights, civil liberties, and
democracy worldwide in the late twentieth century.
Prerequisite: History 231.
3 hours, 3 credits
HIS 235. Early Modern Europe, 1500-1789
The origins of the modern state, philosophy, science and technology.
Topics
include war and society, monarchical resurgence and the new economy,
social change and revolution in England, the crisis of the seventeenth
century, science and public policy, empire and slavery, the Old Regime and
the Enlightenment. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 277. American Legal History
An analysis of the forces and circumstances that have influenced the
course
of American civil, criminal, and Constitutional law from the 17th century to the
present. The course concentrates on the change from English based
common law through the rise of industrial capitalism in the late 19th century
and the development of the modern welfare state in the 20th century and
emphasizes such developments as the growth of the contract and corporate
law, the use of litigation as an economic weapon, the rise of an independent
judiciary and the ensuing conflict with the legislatures of both nation and
state, the role of the legal profession in shaping the legal system, and the
social role of law in American life. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 290. Selected Topics in History
Specific study of a topic chosen by the instructor and students.
Prerequisite:Sophomore standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits
.HIS 320. The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States
Ways in which Americans have defined crime, explained its causes, and
punished and rehabilitated criminals. The relationships among crime, social
values, and social structure. Areas of emphasis include colonial
Massachusetts and Virginia; the creation of police forces and prisons during
the first half of the nineteenth century; criminality during the Gilded Age and
Progressive Period; Prohibition; creation of the FBI; crime and the Great
Depression; and some aspects of crime and punishment between 1950 and 1970.
Prerequisite: Junior standing or above.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 325. Criminal Justice in European Society, 1750 to the Present
The origins of the Western system of criminal justice in early modern
Europe
and a comparative analysis of recent developments in Britain, France,
Germany, and Italy. Examination of the evolving definition of crime and
changes in criminal law, methods of enforcement, and types of punishment in
relation to the growth of urban and industrial society and the extension of
state power. Topics include witchcraft, the Inquisition, the classical and
positivist schools of criminology, prostitution, and homosexuality, birth and
development of the prison, establishment of professional police forces, the Mafia,and
European terrorism.
Prerequisites: History 231 and 232, and
Junior standing or above; or permission of the section instructor.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 340. Modern Military History from the Eighteenth Century to the
Present
Emphasis on the United States, Asia, and Europe in modern times,
including
war in Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, and the Second World War.
Prerequisite: History 232.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 345. Russian History
The economic, social, and political development of Russia from the era
of
Russian feudalism through the emergence of the Muscovite autocracy and
serfdom, the reforms of the late nineteenth century, the effects of
industrialization, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the emergence of the
Soviet state as a world power.
Prerequisite: History 231.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 346. The History of Italy from the Middle Ages to the Present
Major topics of the course are the political and social nature of the
Renaissance, the contributions of Italians to the discovery and exploration of
America, the national unification (Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour), the great
emigration and the Italian-Americans, anarchism and the Mafia,
industrialization and socialism, Fascism, Christian Democracy,
Euro-Communism and the "Italian road to socialism."
Prerequisite: History 231.
3 hours plus conferences, 3 credits.
HIS 360. Psychohistory
This course will deal with how a society in a specific historical
setting
influences the personalities of people raised in it and how the resulting
personality structures modify and shape the course of history. Among the
topics to be included are the history of childhood, national character, the
origins of such elite movements as Nazism in Germany, and the interplay of
history and psychology in the rise of such individuals as Gandhi, Hitler,
Wilson, Luther, and Nixon.
Prerequisites: Psychology 101; and History 231 or
History 232.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 380. The Secret Police in Western Society
This course aims to explore the function of secret police in Western
society,
with special reference to the conditions under which secret police become
necessary in order to hold a society together. In particular, the tendency of
secret police forces to emerge from secrecy and conduct mass campaigns of
public terror, and the way in which they use fear not only to manufacture but
also to express a social consensus will be studied. These questions are
studied on a comparative and historical basis, by means of case studies
ranging from the Spanish Inquisition to the KGB.
Prerequisites: History 231 and 232.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HISTORY - PUERTO RICAN STUDIES
The following courses are cross-listed with the Department of Puerto
Rican Studies.
HIS 104. History of Puerto Rico
A broad survey of the history of Puerto Rico from its beginnings to the
present. Major emphasis will be given to the political, economic, and social
developments with some attention to cultural themes.
3 hours, 3 credits
HIS 260. History of Contemporary Cuba
This course will trace Cuban history from the War of Independence of
1868
through the establishment of the Republic up to and including the Revolution
of 1959. The revolutionary period will be the main focus of the course.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above; or permission of the section
instructor.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 261. Revolution and Social Change in
Contemporary Latin
America
Analysis of political and socioeconomic development, emphasizing major
approaches to social change in the twentieth century. Topics covered are
class structures, demographic patterns, economic dependence; democratic
liberal reform; neoimperialism; the Mexican Revolution; the Cuban Revolution;
and new trends of the last decade. A comparative, inter-American
perspective, drawing on other relevant disciplines, is used. Prerequisite:
Sophomore standing or above; or permission of the section instructor.
3 hours, 3 credits.
HIS 265. Class, Race and Family in Latin American History
Class structure, slavery, race relations, and the organization of the
family will
be examined in the colonial and neocolonial eras of Latin American history. A
comparative approach, emphasizing urban and rural situations and economic
change will be stressed. (Same course as Puerto Rican Studies Sociology
265.) Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above; or permission of the
section instructor.
3 hours, 3 credits.
Not offered 1998-2000:
HIS 220. Women in America
HIS 227. American Constitutional History, 1787-1865
HIS 228. American Constitutional History, 1865-1968
HIS 348. Modern Irish History
HIS 372. Intellectual History of Modern Europe, 1789 to the Present