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PROGRAMS OF STUDY & COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
History (HIS)

Major: Yeshiva College
HIS 1001; 1002 and an additional 24 credits in HIS courses, with not less than 6 in courses numbered 2000–2599. With the permission of the cluster advisor, up to 6 credits in Jewish history (in excess of those used to meet the Jewish Studies distribution requirement) may count toward the major. Cluster advisor: Dr. H. Kosak.

Minor: Yeshiva College
HIS 1001; 1002 and 12 additional credits in HIS courses. Up to 3 credits in Jewish History (in excess of those used to meet the Jewish Studies distribution requirement) may be counted toward the minor.

(Courses in Jewish History are listed under JHI).

1001; 1002 Western Civilization. 3 credits.
First semester: major themes in the cultural, political, and social evolution of the West from antiquity to the Reformation. Second semester: survey of European history from the age of absolutism to the end of the Cold War.

1120 Medieval Society. 3 credits.
History of European politics, society, and religion in the Middle Ages, from the 5th to the 14th centuries.

1140 The Renaissance and Reformation. 3 credits.
European thought and culture in the age of transition, from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

1148 Europe 1848–1900. 3 credits.
The industrial revolution and its economic, intellectual, political, and social impact on Europe.

1210 Early Modern Europe. 3 credits.
The 17th and 18th centuries: rise of the nation-state, first scientific revolution, the Enlightenment and its impact on political theory and religion.

1240 Europe in the Age of the French Revolution. 3 credits.
Social, political, and economic conditions in 18th-century France; the French Enlightenment and its revolutionary implications; the Revolution and its European impact; domestic and foreign policies of Napoleon.

1248 Modern Europe I. 3 credits.

1249 Modern Europe II. 3 credits.
Europe from 1900 to 1945. Imperialism, the First World War, and the rise of Fascism.

1285 The Holocaust. 3 credits.
    (Same as JHI 1285).
The emergence of modern anti-Semitism and racial ideology; Nazi implementation of the “Final Solution”; problem of the Judenrat; life in the ghettos and camps; Allied, Christian, and world Jewish reactions; resistance; post-Holocaust literary and theological reflection.

1400 Greek Civilization. 3 credits.
Political, military, social, economic, religious, and cultural history of Greece: the Bronze Age, the rise of tyranny, legendary and realistic Sparta, Athens and the triumph of democracy, the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, the Periclean age, the hegemony of Sparta and Thebes, the rise of Macedonia and the charismatic Alexander the Great.

1410 Roman Civilization 3 credits.
Political, military, social, economic, religious, cultural, and legal history of Rome: the mystery of the Etruscans, the Roman kings, the Republic, the momentous struggle with Carthage, the century of Roman civil war, the development of the Roman Empire, the relationship between the rise of Christianity and the reasons for the decline and fall of the Empire, and the reasons why the Empire lasted so long.

1451 Modern France. 3 credits.
Political, social, and cultural history of France from 1815 to the present. The Revolutionary tradition and the search for political stability in the 19th century; colonialism, the “civilizing mission” and the Algerian War of Independence; intellectuals and the ideal of “engagement”; collaboration and resistance during World War II.

1461 Modern Germany. 3 credits.
Evolution of German society, culture, and politics from the Reformation to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

1501; 1502 History of Britain. 3 credits.
Political, social, and economic history of Britain. First semester: Anglo-Saxon period to 1688; second semester: 1688 to the present.

1571 History of Russia. 3 credits.
Political and cultural history of Russia from the 5th century to the present, with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries.

1574 History of Poland: From Subjugation to Independence 1750–1989. 3 credits.
History of Poland from the mid-18th century to the East European “revolution” of 1989, which has led to the reestablishment of the country’s independence and the attempt to create a pluralistic system based on the market economy.

1601 or 1601H; 1602 European Intellectual History. 3 credits.
First semester: the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment; the development of the public sphere; cultural origins of the French Revolution. Second semester: Romanticism and the critique of Enlightenment rationality; Hegel and Marx; modernism and the crisis of historicism.

1610 Ideas of History: Antiquity to Renaissance. 3 credits.
Examines a selection of historians from antiquity to the Renaissance—such as Herodotus, Josephus, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Machiavelli—in order to set them in their intellectual context and to ask questions about the nature of history.
Prerequisite: HIS 1001 or permission.

1932H Freshman Honors Seminar II: Modernity. 3 credits.

2005; 2006 Survey of United States History. 3 credits.
Aspects of American history that have contributed to the shaping of American culture; evaluation of political, social, and economic trends in the light of changing ideals. First semester: colonial times to 1877; second semester: 1877 to the present.

2110 American Colonial History. 3 credits.
Origins and development of the English North American colonies from the early 17th century to the eve of the American Revolution. Contacts between Europeans and American Indians, Puritanism, slavery, economic growth, urbanization, relations with England.

(2130 The American Revolution and Constitution).

(2150 The United States: 1789–1850).

2170 The United States: 1850–1877. 3 credits.
Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Impact of slavery on American society. The “irrepressible” conflict. Military campaigns. The home front—North and South. The attempt to restructure Southern society and its failure.

2200 The United States: 1877–1941. 3 credits.
Industrialization and the rise of corporate capitalism; growth of cities; expansion of the state; Progressivism and the New Deal; overseas expansion and the emergence of the United States as a world power.

2250 The United States: 1941–Present. 3 credits.
Domestic politics and international relations of the United States from World War II to the 1980s. The origins and impact of the Cold War; the civil rights struggle; Vietnam War; Watergate and the imperial presidency; economic and social change.

2255 Great Depression - The New Deal. 3 credits.
Examination of the American economy of the 1920s and its weaknesses; the Depression and unemployment, and the measures undertaken by the New Deal to counteract their devastating impact; the emerging social forces that challenged the traditional political and social structures.

2301 American Cultural History. 3 credits.
Selected topics in 19th- and 20th-century cultural history, such as the myth of the frontier, the difference between “high” and “low” culture, working-class leisure activities, the rise of the film industry, the Jazz Age and the Harlem renaissance, the Depression, and the transformation of popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s.

2302 American Social History. 3 credits.
Selected themes in social history beginning with the market revolution and subsequent industrialization and its effects; the relationship between material life and the culture, values, and politics of diverse groups of Americans; working people, nascent middle class, women, African Americans, immigrants.

2401 History of the American South. 3 credits.
Southern society, politics, and culture from the colonial period to the present. Early settlements, the rise of slavery, plantation culture, sectional conflict, and the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, poverty and economic development, the civil rights movement, the rise of the Sunbelt.

2510 History of American Foreign Policy. 3 credits.
U.S. foreign policy from the American Revolution to World War II. Continental expansion, Monroe Doctrine, imperialism, Open Door, neutrality and World War I, isolationism, the road to Pearl Harbor. This course may count toward a political science major.

2530 or 2530H Immigrant Experience in America.3 credits.
The experience of national and ethnic immigrant groups from early settlements in the colonies to the present; the economic, political, and religious rationale for migration; social and cultural traditions and expectations of the immigrants, their interaction with American society, and patterns of adaptation.

2540 The United States and Vietnam. 3 credits.
The Vietnam War, with attention to traditional Vietnamese history; the struggle against French imperialism; the Cold War, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam; impact of the war on Vietnamese society; the war at home; peacemaking and withdrawal; the aftermath.

2545 American Politics and Culture in the 1960s. 3 credits.
The Vietnam War; the student, civil rights, and women’s movements; rise of youth culture.

2560 History of Women in the United States. 3 credits.
Historical survey of women's experiences in the United States from the colonial era to the present; changes in the economic role of women; family life; changing ideals of womanhood; suffrage movement and feminism.

2580 American Minority History. 3 credits.
Role of ethnicity and race in U.S. history from the colonial era to the present. The collective histories of selected groups and how these histories intersected and formed an integral part of the American experience.

2581 American Jewish History. 3 credits.
    (Same as JHI 1573).
Major political, economic, and cultural developments from colonial beginnings to the present; the Jewish experience in its American historical context; the Jewish labor movement, rise of American Zionism, and role of American Jewry during the Holocaust.

2621 The History of New York City. 3 credits.
New York from colonial times to the present. The city's economy, people, and communities; building the city's infrastructure; local politics, the image of New York in American culture; contemporary economic and political trends.

3208 Eastern Europe in the 20th Century. 3 credits.
Covers period from World War I to the Collapse of Communism, in 1989. Political, social and economic development; impact of the Russian Revolution; the Second World War; Russian domination of the region, the post-Stalinist thaw; dissident movements; the causes of the revolution of 1989.

3221; 3222 The Middle East. 3 credits.
First semester: rise of Islamic civilization to 1800; Islam's origins and political, economic, and cultural nature; relationships with non-Islamic groups. Second semester: 1800 to the present; decline of the Ottoman Empire; challenge of the European states; Arab nationalism.

3300 History of East Asia. 3 credits.
Introduction to the history and culture of the major civilizations of East Asia, with particular focus on China and Japan. The development of traditional society and the growth and transformation of Confucian ideas and institutions. Covers the differing responses of China and Japan to the challenge of Western imperialism; impact of World War II on East Asia; and the Chinese Revolution.

4150 or 4150H Historiography. 3 credits.

4301 History of the Family. 3 credits.
The family as historical institution. Traces its changing forms, functions, and meanings from the mid-15th century to the present.

4691; 4692 War in Western Civilization. 3 credits.
The relationship of war, in its broader ethical, intellectual, religious, technological, and purely military aspects, to Western civilization; concept of the Just War, war crimes, terrorism, guerrilla warfare, nuclear war.

4695 Modernity. 3 credits.
    (Same as POL 1895).
Interdisciplinary course on change and how individuals and societies respond to it. Topics may include traditional society; revolution, identity, and the state; technology.

4697 Nationalism in the Modern World. 3 credits.
The genesis and evolution of nationalism in 19th- and 20th-century Europe; contrasting styles of nationalist culture; the nation as an “imagined community”; the invention of tradition; anticolonial nationalism in Asia and Africa.

4901; 4902 Independent Study.
Meet with the Yeshiva College academic dean.

4930 Seminar. 3 credits.
In-depth coverage of selected topics. Primary materials analysis and research paper. For upper-level history majors and others with permission of the instructor.