History Courses

HS 1100. Survey of Western Civilization I (3)

Fall and Spring semester
An introduction to various themes in the history of western civilization from the rise of Egypt to the Renaissance and Reformation. Students examine the development of western ideas and society in their formative periods and are exposed to a number of the most significant peoples, works, events, ideas, and institutions in the western tradition. (HSI)

HS 1500. Survey of Western Civilization II (3)

Fall and Spring semester
An introduction to various themes in the history of western civilization from the 17th century to the present. This course examines such developments as the rise of the modern nation state, the French and Industrial Revolutions, the influence of 19th century liberalism and nationalism, World Wars I and II, and contemporary society and culture. Students are introduced to some of the major ideas, events, and personalities in the modern era and to the value of the historical perspective in considering the human condition. (HSI)

HS 1701. World Civilizations to the 17th Century (3)

This course will survey the growth and development of world civilizations and history from the earliest times until the emergence of new global European dominance in the seventeenth century. It was an exciting time that saw the initial development of systems such as politics, economy, religion, culture, and education that have played such an important role in shaping the world of today. These changes will be examined in detail over the wide chronological and geographical scope of world civilizations. (HSI)

HS 1702. World Civilizations since 1492 (3)

This course examines the history and diverse cultures of the world since ca. 1492 – the era of the rise of European political, economic, and cultural worldwide dominance – until the present day. It is organized chronologically and thematically. Themes include the individual and society, world economics and politics, and racism, nationalism, and internationalism. (HSI)

HS 2100. History of the United States I (3)

Fall and Spring semester
A survey of the history of the United States from the age of Columbus to Reconstruction. Special emphasis is placed on the causes of the Revolution, constitutional foundations, westward movement, and the Civil War crisis. (HSII)

HS 2500. History of the United States II (3)

Fall and Spring semester
A survey of the history of the United States from Reconstruction to the present. Themes include industrial development, immigration, the Depression, the World Wars, and the development of contemporary American society and culture. (HSII)

HS 3000. Ancient History (3)

This course examines the history of the ancient world, beginning with Mesopotamia and Egypt. Society and culture in ancient Greece, classical Athens, and Sparta will be examined, as will the culture of ancient Rome from the foundation of the monarchy until the fall of the Roman Empire. Topics include wars and warfare, empire and expansion, women in ancient cultures, slavery, and ancient religions. (HSII)

HS 3050. Medieval History (3)

Topics include Christianity in the late Roman Empire, the barbarian invaders, Byzantium, Islam, the Carolingian Empire, feudalism, manorialism, revival of town life, monasticism, the Crusades, the university, the cathedral, the Investiture Controversy, the English Parliament, the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War. (HSII)

HS 3060. The Renaissance Mediterranean, 1200-1600 (3)

This course will examine the social history of the Mediterranean region during the Renaissance. Topics to be covered include Renaissance politics; relations between Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in the Renaissance; maritime trade and economy; and the development of art and science. (HSII)

HS 3100. Renaissance and Reformation (3)

Topics include humanism, art, and literature in Italy and northern Europe; the voyages of discovery; the causes of the Reformation; Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII; the radical reformers; the Catholic Counter-Reformation; the Council of Trent; the Society of Jesus; the Wars of Religion. (HSII)

HS 3120. Law and Justice in the Pre-Modern World (3)

This course will explore the relationship among law, justice, and society from the ancient world until the 17th century. The course will emphasize law as it developed in medieval Europe, particularly the revival of Roman law and its influence. In addition to the development of secular and canon law, students will also examine methods of dispute resolution and social control in the pre-modern world, both formal methods in the development of criminal justice systems, and informal methods such as the vendetta. Topics will also include women in pre-modern law, the development of laws of proof and evidence, incarceration and punishment. (HSII)

HS 3150. Early Modern Europe (3)

Topics include the Thirty Years’ War; the Age of Absolutism; mercantilism; the Scientific Revolution; the English Civil War; the Age of Reason; Enlightened Despotism; France on the eve of the Revolution. (HSII)

HS 3180. Europe in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1870 (3)


This course reviews events and developments in Europe during an era marked by popular revolutions and reform movements. Topics addressed include the 18th century American and French Revolutions, the rule of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna and its aftermath, the Irish nationalist movement from the Revolution of 1798 to the Fenian uprising of 1867, the Revolutions of 1830, the Great Reform Act and the Chartist movement in Britain, the Revolutions of 1848, and the course and consequences of the Industrial Revolution. (HSII)

HS 3200. Europe in the Age of Nationalism, 1870-1945 (3)


This course reviews events and developments in Europe in an era dominated by the influences of popular nationalism. Topics include national unification of Italy and Germany, the rise of European alliance systems, the Second Industrial Revolution, the New Imperialism, the First World War and Russian Revolution, the Depression, the rise of totalitarian regimes, and the Second World War. (HSII)

HS 3250. Europe Since 1945 (3)


This course deals exclusively with events after 1945 while reviewing the problems attached to the study of contemporary history. Topics include the postwar political and economic reconstruction of Europe, the origins and course of the Cold War, the emergence of the welfare state, the decline of colonialism, the student revolts of 1968, the economic difficulties of the 1970s, the fall of Communism in eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany, and prospects for greater European unity. (HSII, GPR)

HS 3320. History of Modern Britain (3)

A survey of British history from 1714 to the present with special emphasis on the development of Parliamentary government and political reform, the creation of a colonial empire and its demise, the social and economic effects of industrialization, prominent developments in British thought, culture and religion, the relationship of Britain and Ireland, and the contemporary state of the United Kingdom. (HSII)

HS 3440. Modern France (3)

A survey of French history since 1815, focusing on the problems confronting post-Revolutionary France in politics and government, society and the economy, thought and culture. Topics discussed include the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, Louis Napoleon and the Second Empire, the Dreyfus Affair and the fortunes of the Third Republic, World Wars I and II, postwar France and developments in French thought and culture since 1815. (HSII)

HS 3600. Colonial America (3)

The history of North America up to the 1770s, including an examination of pre-Columbian Native societies, the exploration and invasion of the continent by Europeans and the resulting different patterns among the Spanish, French, and English colonizers of their own colonial development and of their relations with Native peoples. Developing patterns of the the thirteen colonies which rebelled from Britain in the 1770s is another area of particular focus. Social, political, economic, constitutional, cultural, religious, gender, and geographic factors are considered. (HSII)

HS 3620. The Early American Republic (3)

This course will investigate the history of the early American republic from the American Revolution through the imperial expansions of the 1840s. Prominent topics may include: the evolution of popular sentiment and American ideologies, the establishment of economic and political structures, the malignant growth of the institution of slavery and the rise of abolitionist challenges to the status quo, the maturation of a distinctly African American culture despite the shackles of slavery, the divergent development of the societies of the North and South, Indian Removal and U.S. Indian policy, Amerindian responses to American hegemony, the solidification of American legal and political institutions, the rise of popular politics, the roles of women and non-Anglo groups in creating and recreating American society, American use of land and resources, and the birth of American industrial capitalism. (HSII)

HS 3650. Civil War and Reconstruction (3)

The history of the United States from 1845 to 1877. It concentrates on the constitutional, political, economic and social factors of the sectional conflict between North and South, the War Years and the reshaping of Reconstruction. (HSII)

HS 3660. History of the American West (3)

This course will investigate the history of the American West through a variety of interpretive lenses. Prominent topics may include: relations between American Indian peoples and the Europeans and Americans who colonized their lands; sociocultural adaptation and development; issues of ethnicity, gender, race, and religion; the roles of flora and fauna in the West; the utilization of natural resources and environmental impacts; political and economic trends; American imperial expansion; urbanization; and the image of the American West in the minds of Americans and the wider world. (HSII)

HS 3670. American Indian History (3)

An exploration of the history and culture of indigenous peoples in North America both before and after contact with Europeans and Africans, to the modern era. The variations in cultures, pattern of development, and patterns of relations with the Spanish, French, English, and with the U.S. government, are major topics within the course. A major goal is to see history “from the other side”—from a Native perspective—to understand Indian people’s actions, motivations, viewpoints, and reactions. (HSII)

HS 3690. Modern America (3)

Changing social and economic orders, World War I and aftermath, the postwar decade, the Depression, the New Deal, World War II, postwar domestic and diplomatic problems. (HSII)

HS 3700. The United States Since 1945 (3)

The course is a study of the development of America’s social, cultural, and political history since World War II, beginning with Harry Truman’s presidency to the administration of Ronald Reagan and the politics of the 1980s. Topics explored are the United States as a post-war power, McCarthyism, Cold War politics, the civil rights movements (ethnic, racial, and gender), the Great Society, Vietnam, counterculture, Watergate, and the New Right. (HSII)

HS 3710. Protest Movements in the 1960s United States (3)

The course is designed to provide a systematic study of the history and legacy of protest movements in the United States during the decade of the 1960s. Primary and secondary materials will be used to facilitate (a) an in-depth study of major protests of the period and of the people who participated in and led the movements, (b) a comprehension of the interconnections that existed between the movements, and (c) an understanding of the legacy for post-1960s American society. Some of the topics to be discussed include student protests on college campuses, the Chicano movement, Asian American solidarity, the feminist movement, Vietnam War protests, and the Black civil rights movement. Prerequisite: Sophomore or above standing. (HSII)

HS 3750. The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 (3)

A survey of the United States’ presence in Vietnam and what became America’s longest war. The course provides a brief background of France in Southeast Asia, then it examines America’s earliest involvement in the region and the resultant war between South and North Vietnam and the United States’ participation in the conflict. (HSII)

HS 3800. The Immigrants’ Experiences in America (3)

A survey of the history of immigration to the United States. The course examines the impact of immigration on American society and culture. Several groups are studied in some detail as the topics of family, the workplace, urban politics, nativism, religion, and assimilation are explored. Kansas City’s immigrant groups are used as a laboratory. (HSII)

HS 3810. History of Women in America (3)

This course introduces and examines the various conditions and factors affecting the female experience in North America from pre-Columbian Native societies to the modern setting. Important issues of this history from a gender perspective include ideology, gender economics, the legal status of women compared to that of men, involvement of women in institutions such as churches and schools. Other variables which are considered are ethnicity, class, and geographic differences. (HSII)

HS 3820. Urban America (3)

This course explores the significance of the city to the people and the nation. Some topics studied are urban growth, the neighborhood, urban reform, politics, the workplace, racial composition, and the Sunbelt phenomenon. (HSII)

HS 3892. The History of African Americans since the Civil War (3)

A survey of the history of African Americans since the Civil War, this course examines the social, economic, and political patterns of the lives of African American women and men as they sought to shape their presence in the United States following the war between the North and the South. Some of the topics to be discussed are the Great Migration, the church in the African American experience, migration to the urban north, the Harlem Renaissance, the industrial age, and the civil rights movement. (HSII)

HS 3900. Modern China and Japan (3)

A survey of Chinese and Japanese development from the Manchu and Tokugawa periods of the 15th century to the present, stressing traditional domestic policies, confrontation with the West, participation in World War I and II, revolution and the current status of both Asian countries. (GPR)

HS 3912. History of Modern Middle East (3)

This course is an introduction to the history and civilization of the modern Middle East since ca. 1600. Considerable attention is devoted to the region since 1945 and to the problems and prospects of the present day. Topics covered include a brief survey of the early history of the region, the origins of Islam, the renaissance of Middle Eastern culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, the move toward independent states in the 19th and 20th centuries, and resurgent “Islamist” and “Pan-Arabist” ideologies of this century. (HSII)

HS 3920. Modern South Asia (3)

This course will survey the history of the nations of modern South Asia – that is, the history of the contemporary nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Myanmar (Burma) – in the years since 1600. While much of the course will focus on pre-1947 India, attention will also be given to the post-independence period and to other nations. The thematic emphases will be on the collapse of the pre-European Mughal Empire, the establishment of British imperial rule in the Indian subcontinent, the growing opposition to that rule which culminated in independence in 1947, and the establishment and maintenance of the modern nation-states of the subcontinent. (HSII)

HS 3922. Nationalism in the Middle East (3)

This course will examine the history and diverse development of nationalism(s) in the Middle East beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century and continuing to the present day. Nationalism in the Middle East is one of the most important issues in the contemporary world as evidenced by the controversies over Palestinian statehood and the attempts of expansionist nationalism by Iraq in the 1990s. After considering various theories of nationalism and their applicability to the Middle East, the course will address nationalism as manifested in the region with particular reference to Arab, Turkish, and Iranian nationalisms. (HSII)

HS 3925. Colonialism, Nationalism, and Decolonization (3)

This course will involve students in an examination of the concepts of colonialism and nationalism and the implementation and ramifications of those ideas in Asia and Africa beginning in the nineteenth century. Topics to be discussed include: the concepts of imperialism, nationalism, and neo-colonialism; the motivations behind European colonization efforts; the variety of approaches to colonial administration; nationalist movements for independence; the challenges of the decolonization process and the postcolonial period; including the legacies left by the colonial experience on newly independent nation-states and on former colonial powers. Readings will include primary and secondary sources as well as fictional treatments of colonial experiences. (HSII, GPR)

HS 4000. Colloquium on the Great Historians (2)

An introduction to the theory and practice of the historian’s craft, this course reviews acknowledged masterpieces of historiography and examines important issues raised in the writing of history. Readings in the great historians are supplemented by consideration of such topics as the nature of history and the problems of historical causation, objectivity and use encountered by historians. Required for history majors.

HS 4100. History as Biography (3)

This course examines the lives and historical impact of selected individuals who have significantly influenced the history of western civilization, or who have embodied much that is representative of the periods in which they lived. Concomitantly, the student is introduced to several varieties of historical interpretation, using both primary and secondary sources.

HS 4900. Senior Seminar in History (1)

A one credit-hour seminar on research methods in history including regular presentations and discussion of issues and problems in historical research and the completion of a major research paper, conducted under the supervision of a history department faculty member and presented orally near the end of the semester. Required for history majors.