Course Descriptions

Arts & Letters-History. This course integrates social, political, and cultural history, acknowledging the important contributions of women and men from all strata of society -including the nobility, religious leaders, rural peasants, urban dwellers, merchants, and others. HI-101 begins with our first human ancestors and ends with the Age of Exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. HI 102 begins with the Atlantic Slave Trade and continues through the present age of globalization.

Arts & Letters-History. An introductory survey of the American experience from the Age of Exploration to the present, with emphasis on those national traits which continue to influence American attitudes and actions.

Arts & Letters-History. This course covers the history of Modern Europe from 1789 to the decade before World War I, organized around political, social, and economic developments and conflicts. As we explore the ways nineteenth-century Europeans grappled with the creation of the modern world, the course will address several specific themes, including the tension between liberty and control in modernizing states, new belief systems (ideologies), migrations, imperialism, reform movements, and cultural developments.

Arts & Letters-History. This course examines Europe's 20th century, starting with Europe at the height of its relative wealth, power, and population in 1900 and continuing through war, trauma, division, and resurgence to the year 2000. We will survey major political, economic, social, and intellectual events and trends from several perspectives including individual experience, culture, and geopolitics, emphasizing the role of ideology. The course includes lectures, discussions, readings, and two papers. Country assignments will help students bring national perspectives to class, and special assignments will help students tie past events to present-day issues and controversies.

Arts & Letters-History. An introductory survey of Montana's past and its importance in the development of the West, from the period of exploration to the present.

Cultural Diversity, Arts & Letters-History. For purposes of this class, the modern Middle East is defined as 1914- present, territorially and politically stretching from Egypt to Iran, including Israel/Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, and Turkey. As time allows, we will consider North Africa as a region with cultural, linguistic, and religious ties to the Middle East but also very different, as well as Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This course carefully considers how history, culture, politics, economics, and geography, as well as all three Abrahamic faiths-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-shaped the region's past, are inextricably tied to its present, and help us think about what the future might hold. This class also addresses matters of gender, violence, terrorism, and the chances for a lasting peace. Finally, colonialism and imperialism continue to resonate throughout the Middle East, making it necessary to exam the roles of such countries as Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.

Cultural Diversity. Arts & Letters-History. This course is a survey of the relatively recent histories of China, Japan, and Korea, from the 19th century to the present. Through readings, lectures, and films, we will chronicle the transformation of these three East Asian countries from quasi-medieval dynasties to subordinate semi-colonies of the Western powers in the 19th century, to the revolutionary and bloody upheavals of 20th century nationalism and communism that led to human suffering and war on an almost unimaginable scale. Today, Japan is an economic power that still hasn't fully come to terms with its wartime past, Korea is divided between a prosperous South that only recently embraced democracy and a bizarrely anachronistic Communist North, while China is finally emerging from more than a century of turmoil to become a global power that will do much to shape the course of the 21st century. The fascinating stories of how and why all of this occurred will be the subject matter of this course.

Arts & Letters-History. Special Topics courses include ad-hoc courses on various selected topics that are not part of the regular curriculum, however they may still fulfill certain curricular requirements. Special topics courses are offered at the discretion of each department and will be published as part of the semester course schedule - view available sections for more information. Questions about special topics classes can be directed to the instructor or department chair.

Arts & Letters-History. 'Saving Strangers': The History of Humanitarianism International humanitarianism has come about to assist the victims of man-made and natural disasters, sometimes in the form of lobbying, sometimes as direct aid, and sometimes as military intervention. The current practice of humanitarianism is of unprecedented size and scale, but it is built on the foundations laid by pioneers over a hundred years ago. Since the beginning, it has been critiqued as naïve, open to self-interest, colonial in its practices, and sometimes doing more harm than good. Yet international humanitarianism is also the mark of humanity at its best: making sacrifices to assist suffering strangers in faraway lands. We will examine the motives, methods, and effectiveness of humanitarian action by studying examples such as Congo reform, Armenian relief, Oxfam, Biafra, and LiveAid. At the same time, we will consider critiques of relief efforts from different perspectives in order to develop a better understanding of the factors contributing to success and failure. Successful students will understand the types of humanitarian action, will be able to think about present practices in historical context, consider how governments can promote or thwart humanitarian impulses, and analyze the factors tending to make a humanitarian action successful.

Arts & Letters-History. This is a stacked class, offered at both the 200-level and the 300-level. All students will attend the regular class meetings. Students enrolled in this course at the 300-level will have the additional requirements. HI 304 - Description Two Reformations, one Protestant the other Catholic, a host of explorers, often behaving badly when viewed through our 21st century lens, and the daily life of ordinary people in the early modern age occupy our study this semester. More than just the reforms of Martin Luther and the travails of Christopher Columbus, this course looks critical and analytically, and at times even with great humor, at the people, events, ideas, values, cultures, and perspectives of this turbulent and fascinating time in history. We will consider carefully topics including the body and the spirit, sex and gender, the plight of the poor, and of course witchcraft. . We will venture beyond the confines of Europe in an attempt ascertain what might be learned about both the "discovered" and the "discoverer" from a wide array of travel narratives. We will consider the use of maps as both ideological statements and navigational tools, and we will conduct our own search for the elusive Prester John. Monopods, Atlantic Flying Fish, and a Ninety-Five Theses are sure to remind us that we are not in the Renaissance anymore. Cross listed with HI 206 - students may not get credit for one course if they have taken the other.

Arts & Letters-History. While feminism, masculinity, and gender as fields of study within the discipline of history are relative newcomers, complex and varied interactions among people have existed since our first human ancestors. Beginning with a short introduction to the science of sex and gender we consider the possibility that while there may be two chromosomal sexes, constructs of gender are more complex and nuanced. Throughout the semester we will consider the many ways in which notions of women, men and gender are shaped by a broad range of forces including history, culture, religion, and place, as well as how gender norms and expectations have shaped the world and its peoples. Utilizing a wide variety of sources including scholarly texts, art, literature, social media, and film, we will together consider questions of feminism and masculinity, the body and sexuality, marriage, faith and much more as not only integral to a better understanding of history but also part of conversations currently taking place among people all over the world.

Intermediate Writing. Arts & Letters-History. French Revolutions, 1789 to present: French History. For centuries, France was the most populous and powerful European state between Russia and the Atlantic Ocean, with a cultural and intellectual impact to match. This course covers topics of importance in French history from the late 18th century to the present, starting with the world-changing Revolution and Napoleon, proceeding to the crises and modernization of the 19th century, and finishing with the disasters and successes of the 20th century and today's challenges of national integration and terrorism. The course will be organized as a set of student research projects combined with common readingss and short lectures.

Intermediate Writing. Arts & Letters-History. Russia has become a major player once again in the political affairs of the world, generating controversy through its annexation of territory, its intervention in foreign conflicts such as Syria, its resurgent anti-Western nationalism, and its attempts to influence elections in the leading Western democracies. Understanding the dramatic sweep of Russia's history helps us to understand the challenges the country faces and poses today. This course will begin with Tsar Alexander II's authoritarian attempts to modernize Russia in the 1860s, explore the Russian Revolution and the resulting coercive utopian project of the Soviet Union, and then study the solutions Russia has embraced to find a post-Communist identity. The 300-level students will be expected to develop their research and argumentation skills by writing a research paper that brings new information and interpretations to the class, showing they can evaluate primary source documents. The 300-level students will also be expected to develop their own ideas about historical connections and comparisons. 300-level students will be excused from taking quizzes, but will be expected to attend six discussion sessions and will mentor 200-level discussions. Students not meeting the prerequisites are encouraged to take the crosslisted course, HI 230 (students can't take or get credit for one course if they have taken the other).

Arts & Letters-History. An analytical survey of major developments and trends in United States diplomacy from the 1898 to the present. Major issues include American imperialism, the World Wars, Cold War, and War on Terrorism.

Intermediate Writing. Arts & Letters-History. World War II was the most destructive conflict in history; about 60 million people were killed worldwide in a 'war of annihilation.' This course covers the historical origins of the war in Europe and the Pacific, the major political and military aspects of the conflict in Europe, Asia, Africa and in the Pacific, how it led to genocide, and issues related to the war's lasting impact. We will balance the study of the war's leading personalities with exploration of the experience of the millions of everyday soldiers and civilians who endured unspeakable suffering. The course will attend to the 'moral history' of the war: the obliteration of law and combat rules, deliberate starvation, bombing of cities, war crimes, atrocities, the fraught experiences of countries under occupation, and, for the Germans, the centrality of the Nazi Rassenkampf ("race struggle"). By reading, analyzing, and discussing texts in addition to the textbook, you will sharpen your critical reading and analytical skills, your writing skills, and your ability to discuss concepts in a group situation. The course will be conducted through reading, discussion, and lectures. Class participation will be an important component of the final grade. The 300-level students will be expected to develop their research and argumentation skills by writing a research paper that brings new information and interpretations to the class, showing they can evaluate primary source documents. The 300-level students will also be expected to develop their own ideas about historical connections and comparisons. 300-level students will be excused from taking quizzes, but will be expected to attend six discussion sessions and will mentor 200-level discussions. HI 382 students will also serve as leaders during regular class discussion. Students not meeting the course prerequisites for HI 382 are encouraged to take the cross-listed course, HI 282. Students can't take or get credit for one course if they have taken the other.

Independent study is open to junior and senior students only. At the time of application, a student must have earned a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. A student may register for no more than three (3) semester hours of independent study in any one term. In all cases, registration for independent study must be approved by the appropriate department chairperson and the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

A formal seminar in which the students research, write, and evaluate major papers based on primary and secondary source materials. This course also serves as a preparatory seminar for students in the history major and related fields who are writing senior theses in history.

An Integrative Learning course where students receive CORE credit in both Arts & Letters-History and Social Science.

The destruction of European Jewry is among the most heinous crimes of Nazi Germany. The Holocaust seems almost inconceivable; yet, close study shows it as a set of comprehensible human interactions. This course integrates psychological perspectives into the study of the historical event. Misconstrued psychological concepts (e.g., personality and racial differences) informed German policies under Hitler. Psychological scholars immigrated to the United States as the Nazi party gained power, and fields of psychological inquiry developed after World War II to better understand what had occurred (e.g., obedience to authority, racism). This ILC will explore the motivations and actions of those involved while familiarizing the students with the origins and operation of this genocide. Disciplines: History and Psychology. An Integrative Learning course where students receive CORE credit in two distributions. Distribution 1 Arts and Letters-History. Distribution 2 Social Science.

An Integrative Learning course where students receive CORE credit in both History and Theology.

This course will seek to weave together the problem and question of God with historical case studies illuminating humanity's capacity for cruelty, atrocity, and genocide. By exploring some of the leading philosophical and theological arguments regarding the problem of evil, for example, alongside real historical examples, we will force the class to confront the reality that neither discipline has all the answers to the difficult questions posed by the human potential for evil.