HIUS

HIUS 1501: Introductory Seminar in U.S. History

Introduces the study of history intended for first- or second-year students. Seminars involve reading, discussing, and writing about different historical topics and periods, and emphasize the enhancement of critical and communication skills. Several seminars are offered each term. Not more than two Introductory Seminars may be counted toward the major in history.

HIUS 2001: American History to 1865

Studies the development of the colonies and their institutions, the Revolution, the formation and organization of the Republic, and the coming of the Civil War.

HIUS 2002: American History Since 1865

Studies the evolution of political, social, and cultural history of the United States from 1865 to the present.

HIUS 2003: Slavery and Freedom at UVA and in Virginia: History and Legacies

This course examines the history of slavery and its legacies at UVA and in the region, recovering the experiences of enslaved individuals and their roles in building/maintaining the university, & contextualizing those experiences within U.S. history. It also puts that history into political context, tracing the rise of sectional tensions, secession, the advent of emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, desegregation, and civil rights change.

HIUS 2051: United States Military History 1600-1900

Military events and developments from the colonial period through the war with Spain in 1898. Major topics include the debate over the role of the military in a free society, the interaction between the military and civilian spheres, and the development of a professional army and navy.

HIUS 2052: America and War Since 1900

This is a course on war and the American experience during the last century-plus. It is a sequel to HIUS 2051, which covers U.S. military history from 1600 to 1900. This part of the course includes the how and why of traditional military history but goes further, tackling issues in intelligence or technology or economics -- from the rise of intelligence agencies to the growth of a military-industrial complex.

HIUS 2053: American Slavery

This course will introduce students to the history of slavery in the United Sates.

HIUS 2061: American Economic History

Studies American economic history from its colonial origins to the present. Cross-listed as ECON 2060.

HIUS 2071: American Power and Energies - A History of the United States

America today is a high-energy society. For over a century, the United States has also wielded vast economic, political, and military power. How do energy sources relate to social, corporate, or political power? This course examines that question across the history of the United States. It draws from political, business, technological, and environmental history to chart the growth, effects, and limits of power in its varied forms.

HIUS 2101: Technologies of American Life

From Thomas Edison to Elon Musk, we've all heard stories of heroic inventors. In this course you'll explore a different history of technology: how it's shaped the ordinary lives of Americans, and how ordinary Americans shaped our common technologies. By viewing technology from the bottom-up, you'll learn how to question and challenge the powerful stories about technology that surround us today.

HIUS 2401: History of American Catholicism

Historical survey of American Catholicism from its colonial beginnings to the present. Cross-listed as RELC 2401.

HIUS 2711: American Environmental History

Explores the historical relationship between people and the environment in North America from colonial times to the present. Topics include the role of culture, economics, politics, and technology in that relationship. Cross-listed as STS 2060. Prerequisite: First-year writing course (e.g., STS 1010, ENWR 1510).

HIUS 3011: The Colonial Period of American History

Studies the English background and the development of colonial institutions, political, social, economic and ecclesiastical.

HIUS 3012: War and Empire in Colonial America

This course examines colonial American warfare, imperial competition, and encounters with Native Americans with a special focus on historical geography and the history of cartography. We will debate ethical question relating to the expansion of European empires in North America and the Caribbean, including Indian land rights, the costs of slavery, the deportation of populations in wartime, and justifications for the American Revolution.

HIUS 3031: The Era of the American Revolution

Studies the growth of ideas and institutions that led to American independence, the creation of a union, and a distinct culture.

HIUS 3051: The Age of Jefferson and Jackson, 1789-1845

Studies the history of the United States during the early national and middle periods, including political, constitutional, social and economic developments as well as the westward movement.

HIUS 3071: The Coming of the Civil War

Examines the period from roughly 1815 to 1861 focusing on the interaction between the developing sectional conflict and the evolving political system, with the view of explaining what caused the Civil War.

HIUS 3072: The Civil War and Reconstruction

Examines the course of the Civil War and Reconstruction in detail and attempts to assess their impact on 19th century American society, both in the North and in the South.

HIUS 3081: History of the American Deaf Community

This new course will examine the history of deaf people in the United States over the last three centuries, with particular attention to the emergence and evolution of a community of Deaf people who share a distinct sign language and culture. We will read both primary texts from specific periods and secondary sources. We will also view a few historical films. Prerequisite: none (though a previous class in History or ASL is recommended)

HIUS 3131: The Emergence of Modern America, 1870-1930

Analyzes the distinct characteristics of American modernity as they emerge in the period from the end of reconstruction to the Great Depression. Explores the creation of big business and large-scale bureaucratic organizations. Includes the first military-industrial complex of World War I, the invention of R & D, the growth of research universities, and the modern organization of knowledge. Describes the landscape of new large urban hinterlands; analyzes the difficult encounters of class, ethnicity, race, and gender both at home and at work; and studies the changing leisure patterns of a consumer culture.

HIUS 3132: Race, Gender, and Empire: Cultures of U.S. Imperialism

In this course we emphasize how U.S. power has been exercised in the world with focus on intersections of cultural, political, and economic power. We analyze how power is produced and contested through language and media, and how hegemonic discourses -- the dominant and most powerful blocs defining U.S. society and empire -- are produced. We are equally concerned with cracks and contradictions in these discourses, and people who challenge them.

HIUS 3141: Civil Society in Twentieth Century U.S.

Tocqueville famously described the U.S. of the 1830s as a society of voluntary associaitons in a weak state. In the 21st century, commentators point instead to the weight of big government. How did a diverse American civil society of associations, churches, noprofit organizations, and philanthropic institutions approach the great conflicts of the twentieth century at home and abroad? What kind of partnership with government did they have?

HIUS 3142: Viewing the South

History is the study of change over time. This course will examine the ways popular culture -movies, television, and fiction writing- depicting the American South have changed over time. Because this course will emphasize images the course is called "Viewing the South." Each week the class will screen assigned films, read works of short fiction and of cultural history, and write short essays. There will be a essay-type final exam.

HIUS 3150: Salem Witch Trials: History and Literature

The seminar will examine the historical scholarship, literary fiction, and primary source materials relating to the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 and enable students to work with all the original sources. Prerequisites: Restricted to Religious Studies, American Studies, English, SWAG, and History Majors.

HIUS 3151: Modernizing, Moralizing and Mass Politics: US, 1900-1945

The development of modern America is explored by considering the growing interdependence between its politics, economy, culture, and social structure in the first half of the 20th century.

HIUS 3161: Viewing America, 1940 to 1980

Built around news reels, photographs, television, films, and reviews, this course explores how Americans viewed some of the major events and trends in the post-war period.

HIUS 3162: Digitizing America

This class will explore the history of the United States from 1980 to the present through the lens of the information revolution that occurred during this period. We will examine the origins of the technological changes like the mainframe computer, merged media, the emergence of the internet, and the impact that they had on the economy, politics and social interaction.

HIUS 3171: US Since 1945: People, Politics, Power

Surveys post World War II U.S. politics uncovering the links between long range social and economic phenomenon (suburbanization, decline of agricultural employment, the rise and fall of the labor movement, black urbanization and proletarianization, economic society and insecurity within the middle class, the changing structure of multinational business) and the more obvious political movements, election results, and state policies of the last half century.

HIUS 3172: America in Vietnam

This course will cover the history of American involvement in Vietnam from 1945 through 1975. It will offer a detailed study of U.S. political, economic, cultural, and military policy through a wide range of scholarship on the U.S. engagement with Vietnam, focusing on the war's impact in Southeast Asia and in the United States.

HIUS 3173: The Vietnam War in American Film

This course will examine landmark films on the Vietnam War from the 1960s through the present. Lectures and discussion focusing on between 8 and 10 films, which students will watch as part of class, will explore the history and themes depicted in these films, highlighting directorial viewpoints, the contexts in which the films were produced and received, their historical accuracy, and their impact on the legacy of the war in American culture.

HIUS 3191: American Jewish History

This course examines the 350-year history of the Jewish people in colonial North American and the United States. It surveys the social, religious, cultural, and political life of Jews and the comparative dimension with other minority groups and Jewish communities across the world.

HIUS 3221: Hands-On Public History

This course introduces the issues and debates that have shaped public history as a scholarly discipline, but the focus of the course will be on the contemporary practice of public history. Students will all be awarded internships at local or regional historic sites, archives, museums, and databases for the duration of the semester. Readings and field trips will provide a foundation for students' hands-on engagement with public history.

HIUS 3231: Rise and Fall of the Slave South

A history of the American South from the arrival of the first English settlers through the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Cross-listed with AAS 3231.

HIUS 3232: The South in the Twentieth Century

Studies the history of the South from 1900 to the present focusing on class structure, race relations, cultural traditions, and the question of southern identity.

HIUS 3261: History of the American West

The course examines the relationships of environment and culture and of native and settler peoples in transforming North America west of the Mississippi River, 1750 to present. We will explore the expansion of the United States; its environmental consequences; and the emergence of a mythic culture casting violence as heroic.

HIUS 3262: Witnessing Slavery: Interpreting Slave Testimony in U.S. History

Course examines the history of slaves and slavery in 18th and 19th century America as revealed by the testimony of slaves themselves. We will study the important roles slavery and changing notions of race have played in U.S. history, the enduring legacy of African culture , the dynamic agency of African Americans in the face of racism and violence, and how they developed their own notions of work, family, culture, community, and power.

HIUS 3281: Virginia History to 1900

A survey that studies the development of Virginia institutions from colonial times to the Reconstruction era, emphasizing the decades before and immediately following the Civil War.

HIUS 3282: History of Virginia, 1900 to 2018

History is the study of continuity and changes over time. This course will examine social, political, and economic continuities and changes in Virginia from 1900 to 2018.

HIUS 3301: The History of UVa in the Twentieth Century

Studies the local, regional, and national trends effecting higher education, relating these trends specifically to the University of Virginia. Students are active participants in recovering the institution's history through oral interviews with alumni, faculty, and administrators and through serious archival work.

HIUS 3401: Development of American Science

Studies the history of the development of American science from the colonial period to the present, emphasizing the process of the professionalization of American science and on the relationships between the emergent scientific community and such concerns as higher education and the government.

HIUS 3411: American Business

Surveys the rise of the modern corporate form of American business and an analysis of the underlying factors which shaped that development.

HIUS 3451: History of Urban America

Studies the evolution of the American city from colonial times to the end of the nineteenth century. Emphasizes both the physical growth of the system of cities and the development of an urban culture, including comparisons with European and Asian cities.

HIUS 3455: History of U.S. Foreign Relations to 1914

Studies American foreign relations from colonial times to 1914.

HIUS 3456: History of U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1914

Studies American foreign relations from 1914 to the present.

HIUS 3471: History of American Labor

Surveys American labor in terms of the changing nature of work and its effect on working men, women, and children. Emphasizes social and cultural responses to such changes, as well as the organized labor movement.

HIUS 3481: American Social History to 1870

Topics include demographic change, the emergence of regional social orders, the shaping of American religion, the impact of the industrial revolution, and the development of important elites.

HIUS 3482: United States Social History Since 1870

Topics include the development of a predominantly urban society, with particular emphasis on sources of stability, class and stratification, ethnic patterns, religious identities, social elites, and education.

HIUS 3490: From Motown to Hip-Hop

This survey traces the history of African American popular music from the late 1950s to the current era. It examines the major sonic innovations in the genres of soul, funk, and hip-hop over the course of the semester, students will examine how musical expression has provided black women and men with an outlet for individual expression, community building, sexual pleasure, political organizing, economic uplift, and interracial interaction

HIUS 3491: Rural Poverty in Our Time

This course will use an interdisciplinary format and document based approach to explore the history of non-urban poverty in the US South from the 1930s to the present. Weaving together the social histories of poor people, the political history of poverty policies, and the history of representations of poverty, the course follows historical cycles of attention and neglect during the Great Depression, the War on Poverty, and the present.

HIUS 3501: Introductory History Workshop

Required for history majors, to be completed before enrollment in the Major Seminar. Introduces a variety of approaches to the study of history, methods for finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources, and the construction of historical arguments. Workshops are offered on a variety of topics each term.

HIUS 3523: Disco and Disillusionment: The United States in the 1970s

This lecture provides both a chronological and thematic approach to the history of 1970s America. Class will focus on significant shifts in American politics, culture, and society. The course will encourage us to think more deeply about the fate of liberalism in post-1960s America, the rise of ethnic identity and its impact on the rights revolution, gender and the politics of sexuality, religion and the rise of the South, Nixon and Watergate.

HIUS 3611: Gender & Sexuality in AM, 1600-1865

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3612: Gender & Sexuality in America, 1865 to Present

Studies the evolution of women's roles in American society with particular attention to the experiences of women of different races, classes, and ethnic groups.

HIUS 3621: Coming of Age in America: A History of Youth

This course will explore the historical experience of young people and the meaning of youth from the colonial period to the late twentieth century. We will analyze how shifting social relations and cultural understandings changed what it meant to grow up. Topics to be explored include work, family, sexuality, education, political involvement, and popular culture.

HIUS 3641: American Indian History

From the post-Ice Age migrations to the Americas to current developments in tribal sovereignty, this survey course will include such topics as mutually beneficial trade and diplomatic relations between Natives and newcomers; the politics of empire; U.S. expansion; treaties and land dispossession; ecological, demographic, and social change; pan-Indian movements; and legal and political activism.

HIUS 3651: Afro-American History to 1865

Studies the history of black Americans from the introduction of slavery in America to the end of the Civil War.

HIUS 3652: Afro-American History Since 1865

Studies the history of black Americans from the Civil War to the present.

HIUS 3654: Black Fire

This course examines the history and contemporary experiences of African Americans at the University of Virginia from the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the present era.

HIUS 3671: History of the Civil Rights Movement

This course examines the history and legacy of the African American struggle for civil rights in twentieth century America. It provides students with a broad overview of the civil rights movement -- the key issues, significant people and organizations, and pivotal events -- as well as a deeper understanding of its scope, influence, legacy, and lessons for today

HIUS 3752: The History of Early American Law

Studies the major developments in American law, politics, and society from the colonial settlements to the Civil War. Focuses on legal change, constitutional law, legislation, and the common law from 1776 to 1860.

HIUS 3753: The History of Modern American Law

Studies the major developments in American law, politics, and society from the era of Reconstruction to the recent past. Focuses on legal change as well as constitutional law, legislation, and the common law.

HIUS 3756: American Legal Thought since 1880

A survey of American legal thought from Holmes to Posner. Emphasizes theories of property, contract, tort, corporations and administrative law in Legal Realism, Legal Process Jurisprudence, Law and Economics, and Critical Legal Studies.

HIUS 3851: Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States to 1865

Analyzes the traditions of thought and belief in relation to significant historical events and cultural changes from the 17th century to the Civil War.

HIUS 3852: Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States since 1865

Analyzes the main traditions of thought and belief in the relationship to significant historical events and cultural changes from the Civil War to the present.

HIUS 3853: From Redlined to Subprime: Race and Real Estate in the US

Course examines the relationship of race, real estate, wealth, and poverty in the 20th c. US. Readings focus on the role homeownership and residential location played in shaping educational options, job prospects, living expenses, health, quality of life, and ability to accumulate wealth; the impact of federal policies and industry practices on patterns of residential racial segregation; and struggles for integration and equal access.

HIUS 4160: History Behind the Headlines

This course takes advantage of the nationally known academic experts, journalists, and policy-makers who come through UVa's Miller Center of Public Affairs each week. Based on the work of these visiting scholars, students will consider the historical background of some of our most pressing policy and public affairs issues. Assignments will include extensive weekly readings, a few short op-eds, and a lengthy original research essay.

HIUS 4260: Voices of the Civil War

This course uses the writings of participants to examine major themes relating to the American Civil War. Assigned texts will illuminate, among other topics: (1) Why the war came; (2) How it evolved from a struggle for Union to one for Union and emancipation; (3) How the conflict affected civilians on both sides; (4) Why soldiers fought; and (5) How men and women on each side remembered the war and how those memories influence current perceptions.

HIUS 4501: Seminar in United States History

The major seminar is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the seminar. The work of the seminar results primarily in the preparation of a substantial (ca. 25 pp. in standard format) research paper. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4511: Colloquium in United States History

The major colloquium is a small class (not more than 15 students) intended primarily but not exclusively for history majors who have completed two or more courses relevant to the topic of the colloquium. Colloquia are most frequently offered in areas of history where access to source materials or linguistic demands make seminars especially difficult. Students in colloquia prepare about 25 pages of written work distributed among various assignments. Some restrictions and prerequisites apply to enrollment. See a history advisor or the director of undergraduate studies.

HIUS 4591: Topics in United States History

Topics courses are small, discussion-oriented classes available to any student with sufficient background and interest in a particular field of historical study. Offered irregularly, they are open to majors or non-majors on an equal basis.

HIUS 4993: Independent Study in United States History

In exceptional circumstances and with permission of a faculty member any student may undertake a rigorous program of independent study designed to explore a subject not currently being taught or to expand upon regular offerings. Independent Study projects may not be used to replace regularly scheduled classes. Enrollment is open to majors or non-majors. Note: These courses are open only to Human Biology majors.

HIUS 5000: African-American History to 1877

This course will introduce graduate students to the differing interpretations, methodologies, and analyses of African-American History to 1877.

HIUS 5022: Economic Culture in Early America

This discussion-based colloquium, open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, examines economic life in colonial and Revolutionary America. Our readings--on topics that include market agriculture, transatlantic commerce, and the slave trade--will features works of history that describe economic behaviors and, at the same time, interpret production, trade, and consumption in cultural terms.

HIUS 5081: Turning Points in U.S. History: Micro-Analytic Methods

The course has two main objects. The first is to linger over several turning points in the history of the United States. The second is work on `micro-analytic' methods to use in studying such critical episodes.

HIUS 6010: Settlement of Am West, ca 1848-1900

This course will examine the settling of the American West. Roughly 5 decades the course covers are some of the most turbulent in Am History-the Civil War, Indian Wars, and coming of railroads and millions pouring into land across the Mississippi.

HIUS 6011: Learning History

This course is the 2nd in a series which will explore what it means to be a teacher leader in history education. There are 3 goals 1) planning and implementation successful history learning experiences, 2) continuing conversation about sharing effective instructional approaches, 3) introduction to observing instruction/reflecting on instruction.

HIUS 6012: Responding to Crises of Modernity: the US in the Progressive Era

This course will explore how industrilization, urbanization, immigration, and technological changes of the late 19th and early 205h centruies led to a strong and diverse wave of reform in the roughly 2 decades preceding US entry into WWI. This course is restricted to Center for the Liberal Arts students.

HIUS 6014: The Progressive Era, the New Deal and the Transformation of American Democ

This course will explore the first 4 decades of the 20th centruy, when a diverse array of government officials, academics, social activitists, and crusading journalists instigated changes in the ideas, institutions, and policies that shaped American politics

HIUS 6015: Leadership in History

This course is the third in a series that will explore what it means to be a teacher leader in history education

HIUS 6016: Hearing the Civil Rights Movement

This course explores key moments in the civil rights movement through sound and film recordings, related to them.

HIUS 6017: The Other Liberalism: The United States in Vietnam

This course will cover the history of American involvement in Vietnam from 1945 thru 1975

HIUS 6018: America and the Sixties

This course will address those events and people crucial to understanding 1960's America. From the promise of a Kennedy presidency to the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson to the quagmire of the Vietnam War, participants will consider not only American participation in Vietnam, but the impetus behind the war to eradicate poverty, and the important people, orgs, and battles in the cursade to end racial and social injustice.

HIUS 6019: The Paradox of Prosperity

This course will explore how the growth of America into a dynamic nation was fraught with paradoxes and how paradox ironically inspired Americans from a variety of fields and walks of life to believe they could meet and conquer any challenge which might emerege.

HIUS 6029: Cold War Battle for Hearts and Minds

The seminar will explore the internationa, intellectual, idealogical and cultural aspects of superpower struggle that consumed much of the 20th Century. It will trace East-West competition from roots to WWII and extends study past 1991 into Cold War World.

HIUS 6030: Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

Explores key moments in Civil Rights Movement thru sounds and fil recording related to them. Among topcs are rhetoric of Rev King Jr. residencies of Kennety, Johnson and Nixon and reaction from the White House to severl civil rights crises.

HIUS 6031: The Origins of the US Welfare State

Explore emergence and development of U.S. welfare state. Assess meaning of term "welfare state" in an American context: what counts as part of the welfare state, who is included in its benefits, and what rights--and obligations--does it suggest?

HIUS 6032: Methods Teaching

Provides teachers with overview of effective approaches to planning and implementing successful history learning experiences for students. Emphasis will be placed on exploring the relationship between educational theory and development of practical teaching techniques for every day use in the classroom.

HIUS 6033: Collaboration and Identity in Early America

Participants will study the question of America from the founding and through the legacy of Jamestown and examine the collaborative effort that went into the formulation of America's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

HIUS 6034: Meeting Challenges of World History Survey

This short course will alert teachers of social studies in all grades to resources and approaches on which they might draw, considered in context of the intellectual challenges of transcending the, inevitably modern (and thus implicity euro-centric) approaches to the subject that will prevail in available materials.

HIUS 6035: The Progressive Era and the Reform Impulse

This course will explore how the Progressive Era brought together diverse groups of people who sought to address and redeem the injustices of the Gilded Age and reform an America that marginalized many of its citizens, including, women, blacks, and the poor.

HIUS 6036: Methods Course in Teaching History

This class provides teachers with an overview of effective approaches to planning and implementing successful history learning experiences for students. Emphasis will be placed on exploring the relationship between educational theory and the development of practical teaching techniques for every day use in the history classroom.

HIUS 6037: Methods Course in Teaching History

This class provides teachers with an overview of effective approaches to planning and implementing successful history learning experiences for students.  Emphasis will be placed on exploring the relationship between educational theory and the development of practical teaching techniques for every day use in the history classroom.

HIUS 6038: The Executive Branch and National Policy

This course will explore the impact of the executive branch on domestic and foreign policy making in the United States with an emphasis on developments during 1960s.  It will focus on a range of  topics, including health, care, civil rights and the war in Vietnam.  In addition to exploring executive policy making in these areas, it will also address interactions between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

HIUS 6175: Law in American History: The Twentieth Century

A survey of law in American history in the twentieth century. Some topics to be covered include jurisprudence and legal education from Legal Realism through "aw and"; regimes of mass media law; the emergence of administrative law; and several chapters on constitutional jurisprudence from 1930 to 2000, including foreign relations, equal protection, free speech, and due process.

HIUS 6240: Constitutional Law II: Poverty

This course will explore the Supreme Court's flirtation with constitutional protection for poor people during the 1960s and 1970s. We will place the Court's efforts in the context of the civil rights movement and ongoing concerns about race. Finally, we will discuss the demise of such protections, the reasons for it, and the recent developments in constitutional interest in poverty, income inequality, and their relationship to racial inequality.

HIUS 6301: Legal History of the Founding Era

This class explores the legal world of the late eighteenth century, from the period just before the Revolution to the ratification of the Constitution. Among other topics, the class covers debates over the economic and political conditions that shaped the constitutional moment, and the implications of those debates for constitutional interpretation.

HIUS 7002: Introductory Colloquium in American History

American history from 1607 to the present, emphasizing various approaches and current problems in recent historiography.

HIUS 7011: Colloquium in US History to 1877: Teaching the American History Survey

This course is designed to help students craft an undergraduate course on the first half of the US Survey. Through both reading and discussion, we will focus on the big questions of the period and consider the various ways in which one might convey a narrative(s). Attention will be given to pedagogy and content, with emphasis on best practices in the classroom. Students will design their own course with a syllabus, assignments, and lectures.

HIUS 7021: Comparative Cultural Encounters in North America, 1492-1800

This course examines Spanish, French, Dutch, and British encounters with the native peoples of North America during the initial centuries of colonization: 1492-1800. It combines the "Atlantic" approach to early America with a "Continental" approach that accords dynamism and agency to native peoples in their interplay with colonizers.

HIUS 7031: Colonial British America

This colloquium offers an introduction to themes, regions, and debates in the history of colonial and Revolutionary America. It will focus on colonization, development, and cultural encounter in early North America, West Indies, and the Atlantic World in the early modern period, ca. 1600-1800, from a variety of historical approaches.

HIUS 7041: The Early American Republic, 1783-1830

Reading and discussion in national political history from 1789 to 1815.

HIUS 7051: Antebellum America

Studies selected problems and developments in the period 1830-1860 through reading and discussion.

HIUS 7055: Law in American History II: From Reconstruction Through the 1920s

A survey of selected topics in American legal history from Reconstruction through the 1920s. Among the topics covered are civil rights in the Reconstruction era, law and the opening of the transcontinental west, foreign relations law, immigration law and policy, tort law, the treatment of crimes, legal education, and the internal work, due process cases, race relations cases, and free speech cases of the Supreme Court.

HIUS 7057: Judicial Role in American History

A survey of leading American Supreme Court judges from Marshall through the Burger Court. The course consists of lectures and readings, along with discussions of topics on contemporary issues. The course also provides an overview of the two hundred-plus year history of the Court and its role in the American constitutional system.

HIUS 7071: Civil War and Reconstruction

Studies selected problems and developments through reading and discussion.

HIUS 7072: Civil War And The Constitution

This course will examine the constitutional history of the United States from 1845 to 1877, paying attention to how the U.S. Constitution shaped the Civil War, and also to how the war left its mark on the Constitution.

HIUS 7073: Writing Legal History

Students in this course will write a 40 page paper based on original research in legal history. During class sessions, students will be introduced to the basics of the discipline of legal history and learn how to incorporate these ideas into their own original projects. Additionally, students will meet individually with the instructor to discuss the progress of their research over the course of the semester.

HIUS 7082: Foundational Texts of the 19th Century US

This course will acquaint students with foundational texts relating to 19th-Century U.S. history. The primary goal is to provide a sound understanding of books, essays, and other documents that often are mentioned but too seldom read carefully. The readings will convey crucial insights into the political, social, cultural, military, and economic history of the century--though they are not intended to offer comprehensive coverage of the era.

HIUS 7101: Early American Military History

Introduces the military history of the American colonies and the U.S. between 1689-1815. Topics include the history of early conflicts with the Indians; the colonial wars; the American Revolution; and the War of 1812. Explores the significance of warfare for the emerging republican culture of the U.S., focusing on the social contexts of war as these have been revealed in the 'new military history.'

HIUS 7131: The Emergence of Modern America, ca. 1870-ca. 1930

Studies the distinctive characteristics of American modernity as they emerged in the period from the end of reconstruction to the 1930s. Concentrates on the interplay between large national changes and local life as America became a world power. Investigates the reciprocal relations between society and politics, social organization and science and technology, large-scale bureaucratic organizations and the changing class structure, culture, and ideology.

HIUS 7141: America Since 1930

Studies the rise and fall of domestic liberalism and the political economy that sustained it.

HIUS 7151: The United States, 1945-Present

An intensive reading course emphasizing historiographic approaches to synthesizing post-war America.

HIUS 7231: The American South Before 1900

Surveys major themes and interpretations of the American South, especially 19th century.

HIUS 7232: The South Since 1900

A colloquium on selected themes in 20th century southern history.

HIUS 7261: American Political Development in Action

Readings drawn from the leading works in this field that span history, political science, and sociology. Students will also attend colloquia where works in progress will be presented by leading scholars.

HIUS 7451: Urban History

Reading and discussion of primary and secondary sources focused on different topics annually.

HIUS 7471: American Labor History

Readings and discussion on U.S. working class, including its institutions, consciousness, social composition, politics.

HIUS 7481: Approaches to Social History

Study of the relationships between social history and other disciplines through readings and discussions about broad interpretative problems in 19th and 20th century American society.

HIUS 7611: Women's History

Readings and discussion on selected topics in the history of women in the U.S.

HIUS 7621: Topics in United States Gender History

This colloquium will survey foundational and cutting-edge scholarship on the social construction of femininity and masculinity in U.S. history, from the colonial era to 1900. We will explore how gender conventions take shape, and how they are perpetuated and contested. Our readings reconsider key events in women's and gender history such as the Salem witch trials and Seneca Falls convention.

HIUS 7641: The American West Since 1850

This is a graduate readings seminar in which students will become familiar with the major issues in the history of the American West including, but not limited to, American Indians, the environment, and the federal presence in the region.

HIUS 7651: The History of United States Foreign Relations

Colloquium on selected themes and topics in the history and historiography of U.S. foreign relations.

HIUS 7652: Constitutional History I: From the Revolution to 1896

The history and historiography of American constitutional development from the revolution to 1896.

HIUS 7653: Constitutional History II: The Twentieth Century

The history and historiography of American constitutional development in the context of social, political, and cultural change in the twentieth century.

HIUS 7654: Civil Rights from Plessy to Brown

Studies in the role of law and lawyering in the political, social, and cultural history of civil rights struggles from 1896 to 1954.

HIUS 7655: American Legal History

Intensive study along topical and chronological lines of the ways in which fundamental legal forms (federalism or property or contract) have shaped (and been shaped by) American politics and society from the eighteenth century to the recent past.

HIUS 7656: Crime & Punishment in American History

Studies in the history of American criminal justice

HIUS 7657: Colloquium in Modern US History -- Conservatism and the Right

Studies selected aspects and problems in the history of American thought.

HIUS 7658: Nineteenth-Century American Social and Cultural History

Reading and discussion of primary and secondary sources.

HIUS 7659: Twentieth Century US Cultural Hisory

This readings course introduces graduate students to the theory, methods, and historiography of cultural history through a survey of key texts in twentieth century US history.

HIUS 8002: Topics in United States Political History Since 1840

Graduate seminar to facilitate research papers on aspects of U.S. political history since 1840.

HIUS 8021: Research Seminar in Early American History

This course offers JD/MA and PhD students an opportunity to research and write an article-length research essay of publishable quality on a topic in the history of early America, ca. 1500-1877. Research will be conducted with the guidance of the intended dissertation adviser. A revised version of essay can be submitted to fulfill the master's essay requirement for students in U.S. History.

HIUS 8022: Research Seminar in Modern American History

This course offers MA/JD and PhD students an opportunity to research and write an article-length research essay of publishable quality on a topic in the history of modern America, ca. 1877-present. Research will be conducted with the guidance of the dissertation adviser. A revised version of the essay can be submitted to fulfill the master's essay requirement of students in U.S. History. Prerequisite: PhD students History or permission of instructor

HIUS 8041: The Age of Jefferson

Intensive study of different aspects of problems of this period of American history by means of discussions, readings, and research papers.

HIUS 8051: Antebellum America

Research on selected topics in the period 1830-1860.

HIUS 8141: American History, 1929-1945

A research seminar in which students write a major paper on some aspect of American history during this period. Prerequisite: Graduate status; at least one upper-division undergraduate course, including this period or a relevant graduate course.

HIUS 8230: The Nineteenth-Century South

Research on selected topics in the history of the American South during the eras of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the New South.

HIUS 8235: Topics in Modern Southern History

A research seminar. Prerequisite: HIUS 7232 or instructor permission.

HIUS 8451: The History of United States Foreign Relations

A research seminar.

HIUS 8755: American Legal History

Directed research in selected areas of American legal history.

HIUS 8756: Lawyers in American Public Life

Reading and biographical research on the legal profession and the role of lawyers in American government and politics since 1789.

HIUS 9021: Tutorial in Transnational US History

Seminar rethinks United States history (18th century-present) by moving beyond the geographical boundaries of the nation. Thematic readings focus on way in which transnational and comparative scholarship is reshaping American historiography. Our goal is to better understand how assumptions and certainties of 'America' have been called into question by transnational history. Course is intended to help prepare students for general exams.

HIUS 9023: Tutorial in Early American History to 1763

The course examines the historiography of colonial British America and the Atlantic world from the late sixteenth century through the late eighteenth century. It surveys scholarship on the imperial and Atlantic contexts of early modern colonization and focuses on the regional histories of settlement and development in North America and the Caribbean with a special focus on Native Americans and African Slavery.

HIUS 9024: Tutorial in US Enviornmental History

This course will survey the history and historiography of environmental policy and ecological change in the 20th century United States, with a focus on governmental and societal response to disaster, and the dynamic relationship between public understanding of health and environmental risks and emergence of new technologies.

HIUS 9025: Tutorial in Post-World War II U.S. Political History

This course will survey the history and historiography of American politics and political economy from 1945 to the present. Readings and meetings will address major themes in American political history, including: liberalism and conservatism, education, housing, suburbanization and the urban crisis, racial inequality, and the culture wars.

HIUS 9026: African American History since 1865

Course readings include a selection of field-defining works of African American history, from Reconstruction to the modern U.S. civil rights movement. Themes to be discussed include African American leadership, African American political behavior, analyses of the political economy of race, literary and cultural production, Black nationalism, mass social movements, the criminal justice system, and African American gender politics.

HIUS 9027: Tutorial in Foundational Texts in 19th-Century United States History

This course acquaints students with foundational texts relating to 19th-Century U.S. history. The primary goal is to provide a sound understanding of books, essays, and other documents that often are mentioned but too seldom read carefully. The readings will convey crucial insights into political, social, cultural, military, diplomatic, and economic history .

HIUS 9030: Tutorial in Race, Religion, the Law and the Struggle for Justice in the US

This course examines the ways in which the U.S. legal system and American religion have shaped and challenged African Americans' conceptions of freedom and justice in the United States from the post-emancipation period to the present.

HIUS 9031: Tutorial in U.S. Labor History

This graduate tutorial introduces students to some of the major interventions and debates in the field of U.S. Labor history over the past 30 years. How the U.S. working-class has been divided along ethnic, racial, gender and regional lines will be a major focus of our readings and discussions.

HIUS 9034: Topics in Modern American History

This tutorial is designed to achieve two somewhat contradictory objectives: 1)  ground the interests of those taking it in the broader literature relevant to their scholarly interests in the period covered (Reconstruction through the 1990s), and 2) ensure that they acquire a knowledge of twentieth-century U.S. History sufficient to teach undergraduate courses in this field at the college level.

HIUS 9035: Tutorial in American Economic History

A graduate tutorial devoted to close analysis of key issues in American Economic History from 1750 to 1940.

HIUS 9036: Tutorial in Capitalism and Slavery

This graduate tutorial will introduce graduate students to the history and historiography of capitalism and slavery in the United States. Each student will complete a 20-25 page historiographical essay on a topic relevant to their potential dissertation topic.

HIUS 9037: US Urban History

This course will survey scholarship in US urban history. It is intended for graduate students who intend to specialize in this sub-field and/or conduct research that engages themes in urban history and historiography, broadly conceived.

HIUS 9070: Tutorial in Civil War and Reconstruction

A course devoted to the era of the American Civil War with emphasis on the period 1861-1865. The lecture portion of the course will address such questions as why the war came, why the United States won, and how the war affected various elements of American society. The seminar portion of the tutorial will examine 15 books. Each student will write a 25-page historiographical essay on a topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor.