Course Offerings

Spring 2025

 

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1000 Level Courses

HISTORY 1100/1100H. SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1865. (Honors Section--Must be eligible for Honors Standing). Introduction to U.S. history through the Civil War, surveying political, economic, social and cultural development of the American people. No credit will be given to students who have received credit in HIST 1400 (AP credit for US History).

HISTORY 1200/1200H. SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1865. (Honors Section--Must be eligible for Honors Standing). Introduction to U.S. history since 1865, surveying political, economic, social, and cultural development of the American people. No credit will be given to students who have received credit in HIST 1400 (AP credit for US History).

HISTORY 1510/1510H. HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE. (Honors Section--Must be eligible for Honors Standing). This course will explore the ideas, institutions and events that shaped modern Western civilization and culture, focusing on Western Europe, but also giving attention to the relationship between the West and the rest of the world. Students will first be offered a brief overview of 17th and 18th century Europe. These centuries were a crucial period in the evolution of attitudes that have shaped the modern world, and that still exercise a profound influence on our lives today. The course will begin by outlining the structures of the Old Regime and by examining the ways in which Enlightenment thinking of the 18th century challenged such traditional structures. It will then turn to the French Revolution - an attempt on the part of the French to put Enlightenment ideas into practice. Students will examine the roots of modern democratic principles raised by the French Revolution as well as reactions to the ways in which the French revolu-tionaries carried them out. The course will then explore the relationship between Romanticism, Liberalism, and Nationalism and the emergence of the Nation-State. It will then give special attention to the Industrial Revolution, and the various ways in which writers, theorists, and social reformers imagined and critiqued its consequences on social life. Attention will then turn to the ideas of Mill and Marx and then to the dominance of science in the later 19th century. Students will analyze the growth of commodity culture, the rise of the middle-classes, and the politics of imperialism. The course will then embark on the 20th century which was dominated by three fundamental currents: Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, which led to the struggle between totalitarianism and democracy in Europe. Attention will be given to the Suffrage Movement, WWI, the Russian Revolution, the Interwar Years, and WWII. It will conclude by examining the backlashes of the 1950s and if time allows the radical challenges of the 1960s and 1970s. The course will introduce topics such as the construction of national identity, urban migration, the cult of science, the rise of consumer mass culture, commodity racism, policing crime, eugenics, feminism, war technology, fascist politics, existen-tialism, imperialism, and the construction of “Others”. Emphasis will be placed on close readings of primary texts, which will be framed by the lectures. Background information will be provided by the assigned textbook. 

Instructor: I. Karthas
Time: 10-10:50 MW
Readings: Textbook, two novels, online readings.
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 1840. COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA. Surveys the economic, social, political, and cultural history of Latin America before 1810. Beginning with a detailed discussion of the pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations and climaxing with the Haitian Revolution and rumblings of discontent in Spanish and Portuguese colonial possessions, it demands a rigorous study of primary sources to get at the lived experiences of Latin American residents. Applying a mixed approach to the region, both chronological and thematic, the class will place special emphasis on the multi-cultural character of colonial Latin American history–African, indigenous, and European. The course seeks both to sharpen the students’ understanding of the region and to stimulate an appreciation for the techniques of historical inquiry and analysis. Exams and papers: One exam, one paper, ten short comments, and fifteen quizzes. Readings: Three texts. Professor

Instructor: R. Smale
Time: 11:00-11:50 MWF
Readings: Three tests.
Exams and papers: One exam, one paper, ten short comments, and fifteen quizzes. 

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2000 Level Courses

HISTORY 2400. SOCIAL HISTORY OF U.S. WOMEN. (Same as Women and Gender Studies 2400). This course introduces students to the history of US women from the colonial period to the present. Lectures and readings will juxtapose the lives of individual women with larger cultural, scientific, and legal/political trends which helped to shape women’s lives. Although many aspects of women’s experiences are often assumed to be trans-historical, even the most seemingly essential do have a history. Students will explore the changing conceptions of what it means to be female as well as how understandings of female roles – e.g., mother, wife, worker – have changed over the past four hundred years. Students will also explore American’s women’s history in its more traditional legal and political contexts. Although this course will cover many events included in more conventional American history courses, students may find that seemingly familiar events and documents, from the American Revolution and the writing of the US Constitution to the counter-cultural movements of the twentieth century and beyond, look different when seen through the eyes of America’s women. 

Instructor: M. Morris
Time: 2:00-3:15 TTh
Readings: Two books, other articles and primary sources as assigned. 
Exams and papers: Quizzes, midterm and final and two four-five-page papers.

HISTORY 2820. TAIWAN: THE FIRST CHINESE DEMOCRACY. The relationship between China and the United States has hit rock bottom since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The two most powerful nations in the world fundamentally disagree with each other on a number of issues. One of the most prominent and long-standing disagreements is on the status of Taiwan. Pundits have long predicted that if there is going to be an actual war between China and the United States, this war will most likely start with the dispute over Taiwan. The island of Taiwan (Formosa) lies about 100 miles off the southeastern coast of China. It is small, roughly the size of Maryland. However, the island state is an important strategic ally of the United States in the West Pacific. It is also a dynamic economic powerhouse that produces vital high-tech IT components for the global market, especially semiconductor chips. The Chinese Communist Party leaders see Taiwan not as an independent country, but a breakaway province to be recovered at all costs. Beijing authorities have also argued that a Western-style democratic system will never function properly in a Chinese society. Yet, positioned right next to China, Taiwan is known for being the world’s first Chinese democracy and one of the most prosperous, open, and socially progressive societies in the world. In 2019, the island state became the first country in the conservative Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Today, most Taiwanese, despite their Chinese cultural heritage, have constructed a new national identity, one that not only challenges Beijing’s brand of Chinese nationalism, but also some of the core ideas of being “Chinese.” How did the United States become entangled in “the Taiwan question”? When and how did Taiwan become a democracy? What exactly is the role played by the United States in the history of Taiwan and the history of Taiwan-China dispute? How will the dispute over Taiwan influence Sino-American relations in the future? This entry-level course provides a basis for students to think critically about these issues. Prior knowledge of Taiwan, China, or East Asia is neither expected nor required. Requirements for credit include class attendance/participation, short essay assignments, and exams. 

Instructor: D. Meng-Hsuan Yang
Time: 11:00-12:15 TTh

HISTORY 2950.1. SOPHOMORE SEMINAR: FOUNDATIONS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. (Consent of the Department Required. Please email Brittony Hein, corneillierb@ missouri.edu, Sr. Academic Advisor for Permission Number). This course introduces students to African Americans' complex history from the Revolution to Reconstruction. It challenges students to think broadly about African Americans' role in the development of the American state, race, and the meaning of freedom and bondage in a local, national, and even global perspective. Breaking away from a focus solely on slavery, this course encourages students to think of black Americans as political actors who actively shaped their own destinies in freedom and in slavery, North and South, and made great strides towards reimaging what it means to be American by the end of Reconstruction. 

Instructor: K. McPartland
Time: 11:00-11:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced.
Exams and papers: To be announced.

HISTORY 2950.2. SOPHOMORE SEMINAR: FOUNDATIONS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. (Consent of the Department Required. Please email Brittony Hein, corneillierb@missouri.edu, Sr. Academic Advisor for Permission Number). This class explores North American Borderlands from the Colonial Period to the opening of 20th century. Borderlands are often characterized as peripheral regions; this course by contrast highlights their significance and centrality across centuries of North American history. Students examine the social, political, and cultural narratives of spaces, ideas and practices that have consistently challenged and redefined identities at the local, national and imperial levels. Debates over use, sovereignty, resources, migration, control, costs and citizenship through diverse sources and narratives of Indigenous, settler, and transnational communities to better understand the porousness and impact of the many borderlands in North American history and explore how such spaces are central to larger historical processes. 

Instructor: S. Mason
Time: 2:00-3:15 TR
Readings: To be determined.
Exams and papers: To be announced.
 

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3000 Level Courses

HISTORY 3515. PTOLEMAIC EGYPT: ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO CLEOPATRA. The core of this course explores the history of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BC), founded by Alexander’s bodyguard Ptolemy, which lasted until the death of Cleopatra VII and the annexation of Egypt by the future Roman emperor Augustus (30 BC). In order to provide sufficient context for the Ptolemaic period, however, some early portions of the course will include a brief overview survey of ancient Egypt and its rulers from Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom, continuing with some emphasis on the 1st millennium BC changes down to Late Period Egypt under Persian rule. The course will shift to the rise of Alexander the Great and the eventual establishment of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. The primary focus of the course is political and military history, but various social and economic aspects of Egyptian society are also considered, as well as the literary and scientific output of scholars at Alexandria, the intellectual center of the Hellenistic world. Topics include: the legacy of old Egypt in the Hellenistic period, Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia (including Egypt) and his influence on the Successors; the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty by Ptolemy, the reigns of Ptolemy I to Cleopatra VII, with special focus on Cleopatra VII; Egyptian society; Alexandria; and Cleopatra in the context of Roman imperialism.

Professor: J. Stevens
Time: 3:30-4:45 TTh
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined.  

HISTORY 3545. WORLD WAR II. Examines the origins, conduct, and consequences of the Second World War from a transnational perspective, with an emphasis on the wartime experience and occupation regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Course materials analyze the political, military, cultural, and economic factors that shaped the nature of the war as an ideological struggle and a clash of empires. Special attention paid to assessing historical interpretations of the topic and dispelling common myths that surround it. 

Professor: B. Nichols
Time: 2:00-2:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

 

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4000 Level Courses

HISTORY 4004.1. TOPICS: ITALY FIELD SCHOOL (2nd 8 weeks). (Consent of the Department Required; Must be accepted to Study Abroad Program). MU students accepted into the Monteleone Sabino Archaeological Field School will be introduced to the history and archaeological background of the ancient site of Trebula Mutuesca in preparation for their participation in summer field work as part of the MU Global Research Study Abroad Program at an active archaeological excavation in Monteleone Sabino, Italy. Upon completion of the summer program, MU students will be expected to present their research experiences in the appropriate undergraduate research venue. Professor: J. Stevens; ARR.

HISTORY 4232/4232H. WHITE COLLAR AND CELEBRITY CRIME IN 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY AMERICA. (Honors Section--Must be eligible for Honors Standing). This course focuses on white collar and celebrity crime in America since about 1970, from Silicon Valley and the dark web to the opioid crisis, corporate coverups, wall street trading, art heists, international financial corruption and money laundering, and fraud involving religious groups. The idea is not necessarily to determine who was guilty or innocent, but to examine how white collar and celebrity crime has been perceived in broader American culture and its consequences. The books we will read are mostly best sellers and many connect to current events. 

Professor: J. Wigger
Time: 2:00-3:15 TR
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4280. AMERICA IN THE REAGAN ERA. Examines the major political, economic, social, and cultural currents and developments of Stranger Things-era America, or the "Long Eighties," from Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech" of July 1979 to Bill Clinton's mid-1990s embrace of welfare reform and pronouncement that the era of big government was over. 

Professor: S. Anderson
Time: 10:00-10:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4530/4530H. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (Must be eligible for Honors Standing). This course will survey the political, social, and military history of the first half of the Roman Empire from the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and the establishment of the ‘Principate’ under Augustus, down through the fall of the Severan Dynasty in the first part of the 3rd century. The course will examine the evolution of the Roman imperial structure and the many ways the various peoples in the provinces navigated daily life within the Roman Empire. 

Professor: J. Stevens
Time: 11:00-12:15 TTh
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4650. REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE, 1789-1815. The French Revolution is one of the most memorable events and turning points in history, an event with enormous repercussions for both French and world history. The personal dramas, sudden changes of fortunes, political roller coaster ride, and dramatic consequences of the Revolution have inspired innumerable artists, novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers over the centuries. Regarded as the first “social” revolution, it marked a decisive transition in European history, established the “rights of man” as a new ideal of legitimacy, and created the model of the modern nation-state. This course examines the origins, process, and impact of the French Revolution. It will begin by tracing the ancient regime and those structures that the revolutionaries attempted to dismantle. The course will follow with an examination of Enlightenment concepts and their influence on revolutionary fervor. With an understanding of the historical processes leading to revolution, the course will then launch into an investigation of both traditional and more recent interpretations of the Revolution itself. Students will participate in mock trials of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  We will conclude with the rise of Napoleon and the establishment of his Empire and Civil Code.

Professor: I. Karthas
Time: 1:00-1:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4835W/4835HW. RACE AND POLITICS IN SOUTH AFRICA. (Honors Section--Must be eligible for Honors Standing; Department Consent Required and Writing Intensive; Same as Black Studies 4835W and Constitutional Democracy 4835W). This course is about the nexus between race and politics in the history of South Africa Between 1948 and 1994, when race was the formal organizing principle of the South Africa under apartheid. Significantly, democratic South Africa is still grappling with the legacies of racialized rule after the transition to democracy. Organized around seminars, guest lectures and tours, the course introduces students to how scholars have understood race and politics in this Southern African nation. It further examines the social and economic context in which race was deployed as an instrument of making difference and exercising power and how this is contested. 

Professor: M. Frierdich
Time: 3:00-5:30 M
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4910W. HISTORY IN THE PUBLIC: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF PUBLIC HISTORY. (Department Consent Required and Writing Intensive. Please email Brittony Hein, corneillierb@missouri.edu, Sr. Academic Advisor for Permission Number). This course introduces students to public history, exploring the countless ways that we encounter history every day—whether we’re professional historians, or not. We will examine the production of historical narratives for public audiences, and question how we can more effectively engage with and interpret those narratives. Students will learn about the variety of ways to be a professional historian and learn to put their skills as a historian into practice, using the collections of archives, libraries, and museums to analyze historical evidence and create compelling narratives that appeal to diverse audiences. Students will also confront the issues facing public historians as they do their work, including limited and diminishing resources, changing constituencies, and competing histories. Together, we will explore how historians working in libraries and archives, museums, historic preservation, oral history, and digital history understand, give meaning to, and communicate the past. 

Professor: K. McPartland
Time: 10:00-10:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4970W. WAR, ATROCITY, AND MEMORY POLITICS IN MODERN EAST ASIA. This history senior seminar course examines a number of traumatic events in modern East Asia. These include the Rape of Nanking (China), the Cultural Revolution (China), the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan), the comfort women (Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China), the 228 Massacre (Taiwan), and more. The course focuses not only on the history of these events per se, but also their legacies in today’s world. We discuss issues concerning commemoration, reparation, apology, museums, public exhibitions, media or social media representations, and international politics. As a writing intensive course, the attainment of credit requires students to produce a full-length research paper through a multi-step process. The process involves: (1) identification of a historiographical research question via seminar learning and discussion; (2) a draft-producing practice, where students submit two preliminary drafts and receive multiple rounds of instructor comments for revision and feedback from their peers via class presentations and Q&A sessions. Students are required to do at least two rounds of draft revision to take account of the comments, criticisms, and corrections raised by the instructor and their peers in an effort to produce a high-quality final research paper. This course takes a transnational and comparative perspective. Students working on American and European topics of war, atrocity, trauma, memory, and public history can take this course. Prior knowledge of modern Asian history or Asian languages is not required. Assignments: weekly reading comments, in-class presentations, one project plan/essay outline, two preliminary drafts, and the final polished paper. Professor: D. Meng-Hsuan Yang; 2:00-4:20, R

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SENIOR SEMINARS

THESE COURSES ARE RESTRICTED TO HISTORY MAJORS ONLY
DEPARTMENT CONSENT REQUIRED

Please email Brittony Hein, corneillierb@missouri.edu, 

Sr. Academic Advisor for Permission Number

ALL SEMINARS ARE WRITING INTENSIVE

HISTORY 4970W. WAR, ATROCITY, AND MEMORY POLITICS IN MODERN EAST ASIA. This seminar examines a number of traumatic events in modern East Asia. These include the Rape of Nanking (China), the Cultural Revolution (China), the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan), the comfort women (Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), the 228 Massacre (Taiwan), and more. The course focuses not only on the history of these events, but also their troubled legacies in today's world. We look at commemor-ation, reparation, apology, museums/public exhibitions, media and social media representations, and international relations. As a writing intensive course, this seminar will require students to produce a full-length research paper through a multi-step writing process. The process involves extensive research, as well as class discussions and presentations to develop preliminary arguments, first in essay outlines and then in rough drafts. Students are asked to incorporate feedback, respond to criticism, provide revisions to drafts in an effort to produce a high-quality final paper. Professor: D. Meng-Hsuan Yang; 2:00-4:20, R

HISTORY 4971W. EUROPEAN COLONIALISM. This seminar explores the social, political, and cultural impacts of colonialism as a world-historical phenomenon. Students will read, discuss, and critique a series of monographs, journal articles, and theoretical works on various aspects of European global expansion and the complex encounters it produced, with special attention to the emergence of race as an instrument of domination. The aim of the course is to provide a broad understanding of the topic itself while familiarizing students with the analytical and deliberative practices of professional historians. 

Professor: B. Nichols
Time: 3:00-5:20 W
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

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CROSS LISTED SECTIONS

HISTORY 2100. THE REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA. (Same as Constitutional Democracy 2100; Consent of the Department Required--Contact Thomas Kane, kanetc@missouri.edu, to be put on a waiting list should seats open up). This course examines the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution. Students will consider both leaders and ordinary citizens of the revolutionary era as real people through readings and activities that include reading primary sources (letters, diaries, memoirs, pamphlets, newspaper reports and essays written by people who lived through the events of 1763-1783) and secondary sources (texts written by recent historians that offer varying interpretations of America’s revolutionary past), as well as engaging in a role-playing game that simulates the experience of men and women considering Independence in the 1770s. In this immersion, we consider what made the Revolution so revolutionary and what the Revolution meant to the broad spectrum of people who lived through it. In this course, students will be encouraged to make their own assessments of just how radical, transformative, and global the Revolution truly was and what its legacy is today. 

Professor: L. Santoro
Time: 3:30-4:45 TR
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 2100H. THE REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA. (Must be eligible for Honors Standing; Same as Constitutional Democracy 2100H). This course covers the causes, course, and consequences of the American Revolution. Our readings and discussion will push us to see the Revolution not as a straightforward march towards American independence, but rather as a complex series of interrelated political, military, social, economic, and cultural events that unfolded across the larger eighteenth-century world. Students will engage with both primary sources and scholarly assessments as they reconstruct the origins and outcomes of the Revolution from wide-ranging perspectives. 

Professor: A. Reichardt
Time: 2:00-3:15 TR
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 2120. THE YOUNG REPUBLIC. (Same as Constitutional Democracy 2120). This seminar engages a number of historical themes and historiographic trends in the period of early American history that began in 1789 and extended into the 1830s. In our seminar, we will generate a sustained discussion of scholarship focusing on both elements of Constitutional Democracy (i.e. politics, political culture, and legal history) and the history of social and economic developments (i.e. race, class, slavery, capitalism, western expansion, gender, and religion). As such, this seminar’s main goal is to read and discuss key historical monographs and supporting secondary articles. Students will also be introduced to some primary source materials grounded in histories of the "Young Republic." Our seminar will center on student-centered collective class discussions, written assignments, and historical-based debates. In accomplishing these aims, we will develop a range of ideas that we will, in turn, use to better understand the historical processes involved in the development of the “Young Republic.” 

Professor: A. Stewart
Time: 2:00-2:50 MWF
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 2120H. THE YOUNG REPUBLIC. (Must be eligible for Honors Standing and Same as Constitutional Democracy 2120H). This course examines the early years of the United States. Our focus will be on abandoning our preconceptions about the nation's early history and thoroughly understanding the contingencies, crises, and challenges that faced the American Founders after 1776. 

Professor: J. Pasley
Time: 2:00-3:15 TTh
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 3210. HISTORY OF RELIGION IN POST-CIVIL WAR AMERICA. (Same as Religious Studies 3210). This course will explore the explosion of diverse religious communities beginning in the late 19th century in what was already an incredibly kaleidoscopic religious landscape in the US. The major social, political, and economic issues will be explored through the lens of Religious Studies, taking for granted that the beliefs, practices, norms, and biases inherent in both individual and institutional religious identities are some of the key features of those issues. 

Professor: M. McLaughlin
Time: 2:00-3:15 TTh
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4235. THE WIRE: RACE, URBAN INEQUALITY AND THE “CRISIS” OF THE AMERICAN CITY. (Same as Black Studies 4335). The HBO/MAX series “The Wire”, a crime drama based on the city of Baltimore, exposed the interlocking, structural realities giving shape to the landscapes, neighborhoods, and lived experiences of urban American during the early twenty-first century. Through vivid storytelling, “The Wire” complicates understandings of the “urban crisis” through a focus on the inner

workings of major institutions such as the media, public schools, politics, underground economies, public housing, and the criminal justice system and on the ways in which poor and working-class black residents negotiate power and survival. Using the show as a lens, this course will explore the way in which the carceral state – policing, incarceration, capitalism, racism, and public policy, has contributed to urban inequality in the post-1945 United States. 

Professor: W. Mack
Time: 11:00-12:15 TR
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined. 

HISTORY 4400. HISTORY OF AMERICAN LAW. (Same as Constitutional Democracy 4400).This course will provide an overview of the history of American law from the colonial period to the present. This course will emphasize the social construction of law. How does law influence the broader social world, and how do social currents and movements inflect legal change? This course will also focus on how law intersects with questions surrounding race, gender, sexuality, and class, and vice versa. No matter the field that students are interested in, the ability to critically analyze their world, and convey that analysis in writing, will be vital skills that students will be able to deploy going forward. 

Professor: M. Feldman
Time: 9:30-10:45 TTh
Readings: To be announced. 
Exams and papers: To be determined.