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History Classes for Spring 2010

The History Department has produced this short "catalog" to help you, the student, choose your classes for Spring semester. In it you will find short descriptions of the content, objectives and, in some cases, requirements, for the classes. We have also listed the professors who are teaching these classes. You may want to contact them directly if you have questions or want more information about a course. Just go to the EIU history department's website and click on "Faculty."

HIS 1500: WORLD CIVILIZATION: SOCIETY AND RELIGION
Drs. Lee Patterson, Ralph Ashby, Joy Kammerling and Bailey Young

This course examines the interrelationships between society and religion in the great civilizations of the ancient and medieval worlds. The emergence of distinct traditions in Egypt and the Near East, India, China, and classical Greece and Rome are examined, and the impact of the new, dynamic religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam spreading beyond their homelands through Europe, Asia and Africa are considered. By comparing the development of these different civilizations, we consider such questions as: What forces drive historical change? How do societies interact and influence one another? What is the role of environment? Of significant events and people? Of new ideas and beliefs? In shaping historical development?

HIS 1510: WORLD CIVILIZATION: SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
Drs. David Smith and Charles Foy

Slavery as an institution has been a World Wide practice. But the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade between the 15th and 19th centuries became the largest forced migration of any group in human history. This course examines the origins, nature and consequences of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the making of the Atlantic World. Such issues as slave raiding, the middle passage, slave life and culture, slave revolts, bondage and emancipation; the slave economy in the New World and other related topics will be explored. It is expected that students will be able to comprehend the contributions of the institution of slavery to European and American capitalism and the world economy.

HIS 1520: WORLD CIVILIZATION: GLOBAL INTERACTIONS
Drs. Roger Beck, José Deustua, Jin-hee Lee, and Ali Yaycioglu

This course explores many of the exciting factors contributing to the emergence of the modern world. From the end of the fifteenth century, people, goods, information and technology traveled around the world at an unprecedented pace. This is most clearly illustrated by the European explorations and conquests of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which revolutionized global dynamics with the 'discovery' of the New World and the subsequent establishment of European colonies across much of the Americas, Africa and Asia. In addition to examining the global race of colonialism, this course will introduce students to the great early modern empires of the Islamic World and East Asia. It will also engage such topics as the factors precipitating the Industrial Revolution, why it happened in Europe and not elsewhere, and its repercussions on the rest of the world. In the final weeks of the course we will turn to more recent global historical issues, including the rise of nationalism, its relationship to the decline of European colonialism, and its turbulent legacy today.

HIS 1591: WORLD CIVILIZATION: SLAVERY AND FREEDOM, HONORS
Dr. David Smith

For University Honors students.

Between 1520 and 1870, some 11 million Africans were transported to the Americas, largely on European ships, to serve as slaves. What is slavery? How did this horrible "human traffic" occur? What role did Europeans, Africans, and Americans play in this trade? This course will investigate these issues and look at the historical practices of slavery from across the globe.

HIS 2010: HISTORY OF THE U.S. TO 1877
Drs. Mark Voss-Hubbard, John McElligott, James Schwartz, and Charles Foy

At its most basic level, this course is a survey of the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the colonial and post-colonial United States. Every professor, however, structures the course somewhat differently, sometimes relying on themes such as community and culture, other times emphasizing one particular historical thread (such as politics)to provide a framework for the class. No matter how it is taught, students are introduced to the use of primary sources and the interpretive nature of history, that is, how historians reconstruct past events to write history.

HIS 2020: HISTORY OF THE U.S. SINCE 1877
Drs. James Schwartz, Terry Barnhart, and Ralph Ashby

"America grew up in the country then moved to the city," wrote one prominent American historian. A bitterly divided, largely agrarian country at the end of the Civil War, the United States grew to be a world power by the end of the nineteenth century. That power would only grow over the next 100 years--a time that could rightly be called "the American Century." But the pace of growth and development were not without consequences. Many Americans found themselves struggling to preserve and advance democratic traditions and individual opportunity. This course introduces students to the paradoxes, struggles, successes, and failures of American history, 1877 to the present.

HIS 2091: HISTORY OF THE U.S. TO 1877, HONORS
Dr. Terry Barnhart

For University Honors students.

The new industrial society; agrarian movement; the United States as a world power through two world wars, depression and after.

HIS 2500: HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND WRITING
Drs. Edmund Wehrle and Sace Elder

This introduction to researching and writing history aims: (1) To develop ability to assess and think critically about historical issues and how people interpret those issues; (2) To develop familiarity with a variety of sources and the conventions of citing those sources in historical writing; (3) To develop skills in analyzing historical data and reaching informed conclusions about those data. There are a number of short assignments which build particular skills, and which are interrelated in that they help build towards a required, final research paper. The techniques and sources covered in the assignments are applicable to all history courses.

HIS 2560: EARLY MODERN WORLD HISTORY
Drs. Newton Key and Ralph Ashby

His 2650 begins with classical civilizations unraveling and ends with the threads of modernity; it moves from the global civilization of the previously nomadic Mongols in the 13th century to the export of the French Revolution to the rest of Europe and the New World circa 1800. The course introduces the rich source material of the early modern world, and helps refine your skills of analysis and synthesis. It also provides a broad narrative of events.

HIS 3040: STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Dr. Lynne Curry

Martin Luther, Kangxi, Akbar, Galileo, Montezuma, Suleiman the Magnificent, Napoleon. These are only a few of the dramatic figures who helped to shape the world during the early modern era. In this class, we will investigate the political, social, economic, and cultural changes that occurred from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries as the modern world began to emerge.

HIS 3110: BRITAIN 1688 TO PRESENT
Dr. Newton Key

This course provides a narrative of British history from the era of the British reaction to the French Revolution and Napoleon through the counter-revolution of Margaret Thatcher and beyond to the sunny vistas (?) of New Labour. It also provides a chance to understand the contemporary issues in Britain from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries by using primary documents. Goals include developing an understanding of the basic narrative of modern British history, focusing on the three themes: Industrious Britain and Social Class; The Rise and Fall of Imperial Britain; and The Experience of War (the relation between the home front and the trenches).

HIS 3250: AFRICAN HISTORY
Dr. Roger Beck

From the earliest human beings to modern independence movements, Africa is a continent rich in tradition, history, and culture. This course offers a broad overview of African religious, political, economic, and social traditions before focusing on the course of African history during the last five hundred years. Hopefully the class will break down inaccurate and racist stereotypes and provide the student with enough knowledge about Africa's past that they are able to understand Africa's present and future.

HIS 3260: MODERN LATIN AMERICA
Dr. José Deustua

Survey of Latin America from Independence, including the nineteenth century struggle between liberalism and conservatism, the Mexican Revolution, popularist and authoritarian paths to development, the Cuban and Central American Revolutions, and the recent rise of neo-liberalism.

HIS 3350: TWENTIETH CENTURY RUSSIA
Dr. Anita Shelton

Studies the political, social, cultural and economic history of Russia 1917-present.

HIS 3410: FRENCH REVOLUTION
Dr. David Smith

A study of the French Revolution and the concept of the revolution in general.

HIS 3555: MODERN WORLD HISTORY
Drs. Sace Elder and Anita Shelton

This course explores the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will examine the rise of industrialization and the international division of labor that served as the basis for vast global empires in the nineteenth century. They will explore the nationalist movements that brought down those empires, the challenges of nation-building in the post-colonial world, and the competing modern ideologies that inspired and shaped those nation-building projects. Nationalism, both productive and destructive, will be contrasted with the internationalism arising from the ashes of the two world wars in the form of new institutions such as the UN and the European Union. At the end of the course will be George Bush, Sr.'s "new world order" and the challenges to Western dominance presented by the Muslim world and China as students consider globalization at the beginning of the twentieth century.

HIS 3600: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND THE NATION
Drs. Lynne Curry, Martin Hardeman, and Jonathon Coit 

History 3600 explores the legal issues that shaped the development of United States government, and the relationships of citizens to that government. The U.S. system is based on a written constitution that gives the government power and legitimacy. The course helps students understand the development of the ideas behind the Constitution and rule by law by analyzing the myriad ways that judges, lawyers, legal scholars, politicians, and ordinary citizens interpret the document. The "readings" of the Constitution by these groups often conflict, and in many instances their interpretation has changed over time. This makes it difficult to decipher the original intent of those who drafted the Constitution. Based on primary sources including the Constitution, amendments, state and federal legislation, and Supreme Court decisions, students realize how little the Constitution has changed over time but how much its interpretation has evolved to meet the demands of U.S. citizens, historically and today.

HIS 3690: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND THE NATION
Dr. Lynne Curry

For University Honors students.

HIS 3750: AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY: A SURVEY
Dr. Martin Hardeman

A general survey of African American history from 1619 to the present. The course will include both primary and secondary readings and will explore such topics as slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights movement.

HIS 3920: MILITARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Dr. Charles Titus

The military has been an important factor in the nation's history since the colonial era. History 3920 examines the military experience within this larger context of United States history. The course surveys the origins, strategies, tactics, logistics and consequences of selected American wars. The role of technology, military professionalism, and social views toward war and the military as these matters have affected United States history are also examined in the class.

HIS 3930: THE CIVIL WAR ERA
Dr. Mark Voss-Hubbard

A survey of the causes of the Civil War, the War years, and the period of Reconstruction, with major emphasis on the socioeconomic, cultural, and political differences between North and South.

HIS 3940: HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM
Dr. Sally Turner

Survey of journalism in the United States from colonial times to the present.

HIS 4400: INDEPENDENT STUDY
Various Instructors

For the advanced undergraduate student who would like to work intensively on a particular research topic under the supervision of a professor in the field. May count towards the History Major as an elective. See the Department Chair (Anita Shelton) for more information.

HIS 4444: HONORS INDEPENDENT STUDY
Various Instructors

Open to those who have been accepted into Departmental Honors (which culminates in the writing of an Honors thesis and an Honors diploma). May count towards the History Major as an elective. See the Departmental Honors Coordinator (Sace Elder) for more information.

HIS 4555: HONORS RESEARCH
Various Instructors

In consultation with a faculty member, the student designs, executes, and writes the results of an original piece of research. Any methodology may be utilized.

HIS 4644: HONORS THESIS
Various Instructors

Intensive research in preparation of a thesis on a topic in History approved by faculty supervisor and the Departmental Honors Coordinator.

HIS 4775: ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Dr. Lee Patterson

This course offers a survey of the remarkable pre-Islamic civilizations that flourished in the Near East for thousands of years.  From prehistoric beginnings to the coming of Alexander the Great, we will consider the histories and cultures of Egypt, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, Hatti, Mitanni, Elam, Urartu, Persia, and others.  Along the way we will ask important questions about, among other things, how we should use our primary sources, reconstruct chronologies, account for the rise and fall of civilizations, assess the construction of identity, and evaluate the legacy of these civilizations.

HIS 4775: JAPANESE EMPIRE
Dr. Jin-hee Lee

This course examines the emergence of Japan as a modern empire and its political, economic, and cultural dynamics under the influence of imperialism and colonialism since the 1870s.  How did modern nation-state building and empire-building projects manifest in the context of Japanese society? How did the culture of empire influence and shape people’s everyday life both at home and abroad during and beyond the era of formal colonialism? What kind of mutual influence was there between the metropole and colonies? What were the legacies and consequences of industrial modernity? What roles did women, the colonized, and ordinary people play in the making of Japan as a multiethnic empire? These are questions we will grapple with through various forms of historical evidences including primary sources translated into English and theoretical pieces concerning empires, imperialism, post-colonialism, and the process of historical knowledge production.

HIS 4800: THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION
Dr. Joy Kammerling

A study of the intellectual and spiritual rebirth of Europe from 1350 to 1559. The Renaissance and Reformation movements shattered the medieval world-view, challenged its institutions and authorities, and ushered in the modern world.

HIS 4815: THE HISTORY OF IRELAND AND THE IRISH, 1600 TO THE PRESENT
Dr. Newton Key

Course focuses on twentieth-century issues and events in Ireland but roots these in the Anglo-Scot settlements of the seventeenth century, the romantic nationalism of the late-eighteenth century, and the rural conflict and famine of the nineteenth.  It also examines the Irish diaspora outside the isle, as well as modern Northern Ireland.  In addition to undergraduate requirements (exams and papers), graduate students will be expected to map major schools of Irish historiography, and include in paper presentations the relation of their particular subjects to world history themes (as might be presented in lower-division or junior college course).

HIS 4820: TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORLD HISTORY
Dr. Roger Beck

Twentieth Century History, H 4820, is a broad review of the major people, events and ideologies that shaped the twentieth century, including Freud and Einstein, both world wars and the Cold War, "isms" from Communism to Post-Modernism, art from Picasso and Chaplin to Andy Warhol, and the great changes brought about by technology, urbanization, the civil rights movement, and globalization. There are two exams, a research paper, and three book reviews required.

HIS 4900: HISTORICAL PUBLISHING
Dr. Michael Shirley

The official catalog description is simple: "Writing, editing, and producing professional journal articles, book and exhibit reviews in history for a journal and newsletter in print and online."  In practice, what it means is students produce a call for papers for Historia, Eastern's student-written and student-edited history journal, read the submissions, choose which papers to publish, and edit them for publication. Students also edit the History Department's annual newsletter. Graduate students have extra editing duties, acting as editors-in-chief of Historia, and write an extra essay on the history of a particular scholarly journal.

HIS 4960: CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
Dr. Edmund Wehrle

This course will examine the social, political, and cultural history of the United States from World War II to the present.  In order to impose some structure on this complex and diverse period, the course will be divided (somewhat artificially) into four parts. The first section, entitled “Consensus,” examines the 1940s and 1950s and stresses binding forces of prosperity and anticommunism. In our second section, focusing on the 1960s, this consensus comes under fire, especially by young people. By 1968, the consensus of the 1950s lay in ruins and a period of political, economic and social chaos commenced, constituting our third unit of analysis.  Beginning in the 1980s, the United States entered into an uncertain period of revival—our fourth period—but questions about America’s diversity, role in the world, and political and economic direction remain hotly debated.

HIS 4970: HISTORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA
Dr. Jon Coit

This course will provide both an introduction to some of the major figures in American intellectual history, and to the theoretical and methodological questions which have influenced the development of the field. 

Throughout the course we will examine the nature and importance of intellectual work as a subject of historical study.  While the course is geared towards examining writings of authors who fit neatly in commonplace definitions of the word “intellectual,” these individuals and their works yet pose ample questions about the historical enterprise.  What is the relationship between intellectuals and the social, cultural, political, and institutional contexts in which they lived and worked?  What do historians of intellectual life gain (and lose) by foregrounding such a context?  To what extent can intellectuals act in this context, or act independently of it?  Is there a distinctive “American” intellectual tradition, and how might such a tradition be best described? 

The Following Courses are Open to Graduate Students Only:

HIS 5030: ARCHIVAL METHODS
Dr. Terry Barnhart

Study of the purpose, content, and organization of archival collections and of editorial techniques involved with historical materials.

HIS 5050: HISTORY AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE
Ms. Nora Small

The course acquaints the student with the development of architecture in this nation from its European roots to the recent past, emphasizing how style and form reflects cultural, economic and technological changes in our history.

HIS 5060: HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Dr. Nora Small 

Introduction to the practice, theory and history of the field of historic preservation.

HIS 5110: HISTORY MUSEUM EXHIBITS I
Mr. Rick Riccio

A study of the role, function and development of history museum exhibits as a part of the interpretation process. Students will research and design a temporary exhibit.

HIS 5113: DIGITAL APPLICATIONS IN MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES II
Mr. Richard Riccio

Digital Applications in Museums and Archives II. (0-1-1) S. Museum Digital Applications II. This two-semester sequence course will teach students current standards in digitizing museum and archival collections and provide hands-on experience in digitizing two and three-dimensional objects. HIS 5113 is offered spring semester, during which students will apply knowledge gained in the fall to a collection.

HIS 5160: ATLANTIC WORLD
Dr. Charles Foy

This course introduces students to the variety of approaches and themes that comprise one of the newest and fastest-growing fields in our discipline. The Atlantic World provides a useful conceptual and methodological framework in which to analyze the development of European empires, the creation of American colonial societies, and the emergence of trans-imperial networks in the early modern period (roughly 1400-1800) and beyond. We will read a selection of major works that have defined the field, identify different perspectives and approaches, and trace the development of the historiography. We will also consider the challenges involved in comparative, cross-cultural historical research, and the limits of an Atlantic approach.

HIS 5160: RACE & DEMOCRACY IN 19TH CENTURY US
Dr. Mark Voss-Hubbard

This is a research and readings seminar in the history of race and democratic practice in the United States.   Assigned readings will range broadly across US history, from the Colonial period to the early decades of the 20^th century, but special attention will be placed on the northern states in the decades surrounding the Civil War, a crucial period during which Americans of various racial, regional, and ethnic backgrounds re-negotiated racial thought and policy.  Along the way we will examine the category of race in light of its historical, social and especially political construction through time.  Students will gain a valuable introduction to important historical literatures on slavery and antislavery; race and racism; whiteness and the legal construction of race; and US politics and racial policy broadly defined.  The major writing assignment will involve a research project based in part on primary sources on some aspect of race, slavery and democracy in Illinois, or the Midwest generally.     

HIS 5350: TWENTIETH CENTRY AMERICAN CULTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Dr. Jonathon Coit

This version of 5350 focuses primarily on historians’ debates about race and ethnicity in the twentieth century. As historians have moved beyond recovering the history of subaltern individuals and groups in U.S. history, they have struggled with several thorny conceptual issues. What is the process by which racial or ethnic identity is socially constructed? What is the relationship between race and class? What is the structure of dominant racial identity, and how is it impacted by, among other influences, immigration, economic change, and social movements? Are racial identities stereotypes constructed by relations of domination, social identities which emerge from commonalities in lived experiences, or a series of performances which position the subject in discursive fields?

HIS 5444: CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Dr. Bailey Young

This course offers a topical introduction to the study of the Middle Ages, treating such topics as feudal society and chivalry, Papal Monarchy and Heresy and Church Reform, social structure and transformations in town and countryside, the impact of economic growth and the money economy on society and civilization.  Readings balance original sources in translation with modern interpretative studies from a variety of methodological and historiographical viewpoints.

HIS 5700: DEBATES IN MODERN MIDDLE EAST HISTORY
Dr. Ali Yaycioglu

This course is an introduction to the history and the historiography of the modern Middle East for graduate students. It covers the period from the late eighteenth century until today and focuses on key issues, events, and figures as well as major historiographical debates in Middle Eastern Studies. The themes include the crisis of the Ottoman Imperial system in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; regionalisms and nationalisms in the Balkans and Middle East challenging the Ottoman Empire; the politics of notables and Ottoman reform politics; disintegration of the empire and formation of the Arab states and Turkey; population movements and construction of the national histories, memories, spaces, culture; Nation, Islam, and Orientalism; colonial control in the Middle East; decolonization of the Arab world; formation of Israel and emergence of the Arab-Israeli conflict; Arab, Turkish and Iranian nationalisms; Cold War in the Middle East; Oil and the Gulf states; secularism, socialism, conservatism and Political Islam; Gender, Family and Popular culture; and America in the Middle East. No prior knowledge of Middle Eastern history is assumed or required.