History

Return to: College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Introduction

Without knowledge of the past, we are, as one writer has phrased it, like victims of collective amnesia groping in the dark for our identity. History as a discipline is rooted in that fundamental human urge, curiosity. It confronts and weighs the relative significance of chance, inevitability and choice in the passage of time.

History is humanistic in its emphasis on the influence of ideas and values, its capacity to both instruct and entertain, and as interpretive literature. In its investigation of social processes, groups and institutions, and the examination of human motivation, it is a social science. It acts as a bridge among disciplines, borrowing from all and contributing a sense of context and sequence to the perception of actions and individuals.

The American historian Carl Becker wrote: “The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves — a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future.”

Faculty

KEVIN A. LEONARD (1997) Chair and Professor. BA, Pomona College; MA, PhD, University of California-Davis.
SUSAN E. COSTANZO (1993) Associate Professor. BA, MA, PhD, Northwestern University.
CECILIA A. DANYSK (1996) Associate Professor. BA, Concordia University; MA, PhD, McGill University.
PETER D. DIEHL (1992) Associate Professor. BA, Yale University; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles.
SUSAN AMANDA EURICH (1986) Professor. BA, Portland State University; MA, PhD, Emory University.
CHRISTOPHER C. FRIDAY (1992) Professor. BA, Lewis and Clark College; MA, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles.
STEVEN J. GARFINKLE (2001) Professor. BA, Tufts University; MA, University of London; PhD, Columbia University.
LAURIE HOCHSTETLER (2006) Assistant Professor. BA, Johns Hopkins University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia.
RANDALL C. JIMERSON (1994) Professor. BA, Earlham College; MA, PhD, University of Michigan.
A. RICARDO LÓPEZ (2008) Assistant Professor. BA, National University of Colombia; MA, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park.
GEORGE MARIZ (1970) Professor. BA, MA, PhD, University of Missouri.
JOHANN N. NEEM (2004) Associate Professor. BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia.
KATHLEEN A. NUZUM (2012) Assistant Professor. BA, Western Washington University; MLitt, PhD, University of St. Andrews.
JENNIFER SELTZ (2012) Assistant Professor. BA, Brown University; MA, PhD, University of Washington.
MART A. STEWART (1992) Professor. BA, Willamette University; MA, Portland State University; PhD, Emory University.
ROGER R. THOMPSON (2003) Professor. BA, Stanford University; MA, PhD, Yale University.
DIANA E. WRIGHT (1997) Associate Professor. BA, MA, University of Michigan; PhD, University of Toronto.
SARAH ZIMMERMAN (2012) Assistant Professor. BA, Ohio University; MA, PhD, University of California-Berkeley.

Affiliated Faculty

KITTY FRIESEN, Archives and Records Management.
ROBERT H. KELLER, Professor Emeritus. Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies.
ANTHONY KURTZ, University Archivist/Records Manager.
RUTH STEELE, Archivist. Center for the Pacific Northwest Studies. 
MIDORI TAKAGI, Associate Professor. Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Other Departmental Information

Mid-Program Checkpoint

A student seeking to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in history within a four-year time span should have completed at least three courses from HIST 103, 104, 111, 112, 113, 280, 281 or EAST 201 or 202 by the start of the junior year. Major omissions from this list will make it difficult or impossible to complete this degree within two additional years.

Graduate Study

For concentrations leading to the Master of Arts degree and for information concerning the archival training program, see the Graduate School  section of this catalog.

Programs

• History — Elementary, BAE
• History, BA
• History/Social Studies, BA

• Foreign Cultures Minor
• History Minor
• Latin American Studies Minor
• Public History Minor

• Archives and Records Management Certificate Program
• History, Archives and Records Management, Thesis, MA
• History, Non-Thesis, MA
• History, Thesis, MA

Courses

Courses numbered X37; X97; 300, 400, 500 are described in the University Academic Policies  section of this catalog.

• HIST 103 - Introduction to American Civilization: American History to 1865
• HIST 104 - Introduction to American Civilization: American History Since 1865
• HIST 111 - Introduction to Western Civilization: Prehistory to 476
• HIST 112 - Introduction to Western Civilization: 476-1713
• HIST 113 - Introduction to Western Civilization: 1713-Present
• HIST 121 - World History to 500
• HIST 123 - World History, 1500 to the Present
• HIST 131 - Going to College in America
• HIST 151 - Communities of the Ancient World
• HIST 152 - Being Human
• HIST 158 - Race and Identity in Modern America
• HIST 262 - African American History to 1865
• HIST 263 - African Americans Since 1865
• HIST 265 - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Experiences in U.S. History
• HIST 273 - Latin America: 1492-1824
• HIST 274 - Latin America: 1824 to the Present
• HIST 275 - The Indian in American History
• HIST 277 - Canada: A Historical Survey
• HIST 278 - Multiculturalism in Canada
• HIST 280 - Introduction to East Asian Civilizations
• HIST 281 - East Asian History in the Early-Modern and Modern Eras
• HIST 285 - Introduction to African Civilizations
• HIST 286 - Modern Africa
• HIST 287 - Introduction to Islamic Civilization
• HIST 289 - Islam in France
• HIST 310 - History of Ancient Mesopotamia
• HIST 311 - History of Ancient Egypt
• HIST 312 - History of Ancient Greece
• HIST 313 - History of Ancient Rome
• HIST 314 - The American and European Enlightenment
• HIST 315 - Europe in the Early Middle Ages: 300-1050
• HIST 316 - Europe in the High Middle Ages: 1050-1450
• HIST 320 - War in the Middle Ages
• HIST 321 - Reformation Europe and the Age of Religious Wars
• HIST 333 - Imperial Russia: 1689-1917
• HIST 334 - 20th Century Russia
• HIST 341 - France 1500-1815
• HIST 342 - France 1815-1945
• HIST 350 - American Colonial History
• HIST 353 - Latinas/os in the US West
• HIST 359 - America and Vietnam
• HIST 360 - History of Religion in Early America
• HIST 361 - History of Religion in Modern America
• HIST 362 - Asian-American History
• HIST 363 - The American Revolution
• HIST 364 - Film As History
• HIST 365 - History of Sexuality in the United States
• HIST 366 - The Early American Republic
• HIST 367 - US Women to 1865
• HIST 368 - US Women from 1865
• HIST 370 - Chinese History to 600 Ad
• HIST 372 - Chinese History: 1800 to Present
• HIST 374 - Premodern Japanese History
• HIST 375 - Modern Japanese History
• HIST 376 - French Colonial Canada: 1534-1763
• HIST 377 - Japanese History Through Film
• HIST 379 - Canadian American Relations
• HIST 385 - Pre-Colonial Africa
• HIST 386 - Southern Africa
• HIST 387 - History of the Jews
• HIST 388 - East Africa
• HIST 390 - Topics in History
• HIST 391 - History of the Pacific Northwest
• HIST 401 - Methods of Research and Analysis
• HIST 405 - The Traditional Middle East
• HIST 406 - Middle East, 1800 to the Present
• HIST 407 - History of the Israel/Palestinian Conflict
• HIST 408 - World War II: the European War
• HIST 409 - World War II: the Pacific War
• HIST 410 - The First Cities: Urbanization in the Ancient World
• HIST 415 - Undergraduate Seminar in Medieval History
• HIST 418 - Medieval England
• HIST 421 - Gender in Early Modern Europe
• HIST 422 - History of Medieval Italy
• HIST 428 - Modern Europe: 1914-1945
• HIST 432 - Germany: 1914 to the Present
• HIST 440 - Britain: 1688 to the Present
• HIST 447 - History of the Sciences of Nature
• HIST 448 - European Intellectual History
• HIST 449 - East Central Europe and the Balkans Since 1900
• HIST 452 - U.S. Intellectual History, 1776-1900
• HIST 453 - U.S. Intellectual History, 1900-Present
• HIST 454 - The Civil War and Reconstruction
• HIST 456 - Protest and Rebellion in Early America
• HIST 457 - Crime and Punishment in Early America
• HIST 459 - The United States Since 1941
• HIST 460 - American Environmental History
• HIST 461 - US Urban History
• HIST 462 - Industrialization and Reform: Us 1865-1920
• HIST 464 - Saturday Night Live and the United States in the 1970s
• HIST 467 - American Cultural History: 1790-1880
• HIST 470 - World History of Democracy, 19th and 20th Centuries
• HIST 474 - U.S. Latin American Relations
• HIST 477 - World War I & Canadian Society
• HIST 478 - History of Nationalism in French Canada
• HIST 479 - Medieval and Early-Modern Chinese History
• HIST 480 - Modern Chinese Social History
• HIST 481 - The Chinese Revolution
• HIST 483 - Early Modern Japan
• HIST 484 - Women in Japanese History
• HIST 485 - Japanese Military History: Samurai Fact and Fiction

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