American History Courses

Courses

American History

HIST 1510: U.S. Birth of a Nation, 1607-1789

Survey of the development of the U.S. from the colonial period through the ratification of the Constitution, with emphasis on causes, events, and results of the American Revolution. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirement: Explore-Arts, Humanities, and Cultures. GT-HI1.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1520: U.S. Expansion and Division: 1789-1877

Survey of the major issues related to interpretation of the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian eras with emphasis on the challenges derived from westward expansion and the social, economic, and political factors contributing to disunion and civil war. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirement: Explore-Arts, Humanities, and Cultures. GT-HI1.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1530 U.S.: Emergence of Modern American, 1865-1920

Survey of the economic, social and political development of industrial America from the reconstruction through World War I. GT-HI1.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1540: U.S. Recent America, 1918 to present

Survey of America’s social, political, economic and cultural history during the time the U.S. has been a world power. The roots of contemporary society, with emphasis on the emergence of a multicultural America. Approved for LAS Humanities Area requirement. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness; Explore: Arts, Humanities and Culture. GT-HI1.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1550: African American History: From Africa to the Present Day

Explores the experiences and contributions of African Americans from the colonial period to the present. Emphasizes the social and economic lives of African Americans, their roles in politics and war, their achievements, and movements for Civil Rights and power. Approved for LAS Cultural Diversity and Humanities area requirements. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1560: Introduction to Environmental History of the U.S.

TBD

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 1575: History of the American Southwest

TBD

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3580: Immigrant Histories

The history of immigrants/migrants from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe as of 1840 to the present will be examined. Emphasis will be placed on U.S. immigration laws, the development of ethnic-based communities and connections to U.S. policy. Approved for LAS Cultural Diversity requirement. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Sustainability; Writing Intensive. Meets with WEST 3580.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3600: The Global Sixties

This course examines the social, political, and cultural changes arising in the turbulent and transformative years of the 1960s. Special attention will be given to global and international social movements, the Vietnam War, and other challenges to traditional culture and values.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3650: Economic History of the United States

American economic organization and institutions and their development from colonial times to the present. Prer., ECON 2020 or permission of instructor. Meets with ECON 3500.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3700: Colonial America, 1607-1763

This seminar examines the colonization of North America between 1607 and 1763, exploring how and why an often fractious group of colonies came together to oppose the political and legal institutions that ruled the lives of Europeans and indigenous populations. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global Diversity) and Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3710: Good Wives and Nasty Wenches: American Women’s History, 1607-1877

A survey of the history of American women from the Colonial era through the Civil War, concentrating on the nineteenth century. It will introduce students to the changing economic, gender, and familial roles of American women. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global Diversity) and Writing Intensive. Meets with WEST 3710.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3720: From Slavery to Freedom: Slavery & the African-American Experience in Colonial and Antebellum America

Introduces students to the major political, social and cultural developments in the history of African Americans from 1619 through Reconstruction. Meets with WEST 3720. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity) and Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3730: Vision and History of Native-American and African-American Narrative

Reading and analyzing varied examples of academic disciplines and genres of writing to comprehend how cultural relations in North America & the western hemisphere impact indigenous, African-American, and multicultural peoples, ca. 1700 to the present. Prer., 10 works ([historical] monograph, autobiography, biography, political science, anthropology, survey texts containing primary documents & other primary sources). Approved for Compass Curriculum requirement: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity).

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3740: African-American Social and Political Thought, 1790-1980

Surveys the historical basis of socio-political thought in North America’s diasporic (African-American) communities. Meets with WEST 3740.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3750: Orphans, Paupers and Other Vagabond: Poor Relief in the U.S., 1607-1937

Examination of the history of the American Welfare System, from its roots in English Poor Laws to the establishment of the current system in the 1930s, and the implications for future generations. Special attention paid to children’s and women’s experiences. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3760 Bombs, Bullets and Brotherhood: History of American Labor

American history is labor history. The emergence and growth of capitalism involved social, cultural, political, and economics processes that often resulted in conflict and violence as notions of race, ethnicity, gender, and citizenship changed the nature and meaning of work. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3770: A Strange Quiet: Epidemics in U.S. History, 1607-1920

Examines the impact of epidemics on Americans from the 17th century to the early 20th century. Special attention is paid to the correlation between vulnerability, prejudice, sociopolitical climates, and responses to contagion. Case studies include smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, and tuberculosis as mechanisms of social change. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3780: Welcome to the World’s Fair

Students develop a broader understanding of the emergence and development of modern America through the lens of World’s Fairs. Topics include World’s Fairs as marketplaces of ideas and products; activism and imperialism; architecture and space; modernity and blight.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3790: Body of Liberties: Law in American History, 1620-1920

Examines the historical implications of the evolution of American legal codes to 1920. Attention is paid to law as a response to and a mechanism of change used to organize American society. Case studies highlight periods of change in social, racial, political, and gendered attitudes.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3810: History of U.S. Medicine and Health

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to the history of medicine and health in the United States from the colonial period to the late twentieth century. Topics include the persistence of lay healers, health reform movements, the professionalization of medicine and nursing, and the effects of devastating smallpox, yellow fever, and influenza epidemics. Students will also consider the medical challenges and innovations of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II, as well as Colorado’s role as a popular destination for tuberculosis patients. Students will interrogate how health has been central to debates over politics, economics, gender, and race, and how changing medical discourses have shaped understandings of the body in sickness and health.

HIST 3850: Historical Geography of the United States

Historical Geography as a method for exploring the intersections between history and geography. Course focuses on physical, social, political and economic forces operating on individuals, communities and landscapes to better understand changes in the natural and cultural landscapes overtime. Meets with GES 3850.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 3980: The Vietnam War Through Film

A survey of the war in Southeast Asia through the eyes of Hollywood. Major periods include France’s war with Vietnam, early American involvement, the war through Asian eyes (as portrayed in Hollywood), the soldiers’ war back home, and the fall of Vietnam.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4510: The American Revolution: The Forging of the Union, 1763-1789

A comprehensive survey of the social, political, economic and intellectual transformations in America during the revolutionary era. The focus will be on the causes of the war, the war itself, the consequences of independence, and the ratification of the constitution.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4520: “The Last Great Necessity”: Cemeteries and Memory

Cemeteries are collective representations of shared beliefs and attitudes, and are evidence of how and why such attitudes change over time. This course examines U.S. history through the study of cemeteries.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4530: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877

Intensive study of the causes and consequences of the Civil War, and the struggle over reconstruction. Course focuses on the period 1850 - 1877. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4540: American Religious Cultures, 1945-2000

Intensive research seminar focusing on primary texts of recent American religions from Cold War Protestantism to New Age Buddhism.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4580: The American West

A continuation of the study of the westward movement extended to the region beyond the Mississippi, beginning with the Spanish exploration and continuing through the end of the 19th century. Emphasis on the association of Western interests with those of a rapidly developing industrial society in the east. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4690: Colorado History

A history of Colorado from prehistoric Indians to nuclear projects. Topics covered will include exploration and conquest, the mountain men, settlement and pioneer life, Indians, mining, economic and political developments, exploitation and preservation of the environment, and recent trends. Approved for Compass Curriculum requirements: Inclusiveness (Global/Diversity); Writing Intensive.

3 Credits (Minimum) 3 Credits (Maximum)

HIST 4710: Asian American History

TBA