History and Humanities
History 103 - American Experience I
Co-requisite: English 101.
A history of the United States through the Civil War using a critical- thinking approach. Social, religious, ethnic, and economic components of major events and movements in American history will be examined. Countervailing essays on select critical issues will help cadets hone their analytical skills. Highlights of American Experience I will include studies of Native Americans, the colonial and early slave experience, the founding of our nation, the growth of a national economy, 19th century reform movements, and the rise of sectionalism and the Civil War.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
History 104 - American Experience II
Co-requisite: English 101.
Highlights in American Experience II will include the rise of “Jim Crow” and segregation; the urbanization and industrialization of America, and the impact of immigration; America becoming a colonial empire and joining the international world balance of power; the effects of major war and Depression on American society; the New Deal; the transformation of America into a national security state due to World War II and the Cold War; the transformation of American society from Civil Rights to Black Power, from Women’s Rights to Women’s Liberation; and the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
History 111 - World Civilization I: The West In The World I
Co-requisite: English 101.
History 111 begins with the ancestors of the earliest humans in Africa and the domestication of crops and animals in the earliest river societies of Babylonia, India, and China. The development of surplus, cities, religion, mythology, and writing of Sumeria and Egypt follows along with the impact of monotheism of the Hebrews on Western civilization; the course also tracks the spread of Indian religions, primarily Buddhism, throughout Asia, the great age of Confucius, the earliest Chinese empires, and the process of East-West trade via the Silk Road. The course outlines the lasting legacies of both Greek and Roman civilization and their contribution to the political, architectural, and philosophical roots of the West through government, art, drama, and imperial expansion. The course covers the religious role of the Catholic Church in the feudal and medieval eras, the significance of the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, and the contest for power and influence among the papacy, nobility, and monarchy as demonstrated in the Crusades, the Investiture Crisis, and the Holy Roman Empire. The rise and spread of Islam, the great Arab empires, and the contribution of Arab science and philosophy to Western thought are noted. The course ends with the intellectual accomplishment of the Renaissance and the twin disasters of The Plague and Hundred Years War.
Three hours per week; three credit hours.
History 114-World Civilization II: The West in the World II
Co-requisite: English 101
History 114 begins with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The Ottoman seizure of Constantinople spurred the voyages of discovery that gave rise to European influence in the disappeared, victim to European gunpowder, greed, and disease. Students study the tumultuous 17th century civil and religious wars that led to parliamentary democracy in England and reactionary absolutism in France. The Scientific Revolution and its advances in astronomy, mathematics, and physics are recalled along with the Enlightenment of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The course outlines the causes and consequences of both the American and the French revolutions as well as the age of Napoleon. Coverage of the Industrial Revolution centers on its impact on population, standards of living, alienation and Marxism as well as its economic and political impact on Africa, South East Asia, China, and Japan. Nationalism, imperialism, and competing alliances brought about the World War I. The collapse of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and German empires and the Versailles Treaty witnessed the rise of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. The Second World War, the Holocaust, and atomic weapons are emphasized. The Cold War and its proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam are covered. The course ends with the uncertain future of globalization and the rise of Asia amidst the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Three hours of instruction and three credit hours.
History 203 - American Military History
Prerequisite: History 111 or 114.
American Military History, 1607-2003. A one semester course in the military history of the United States from 1607-2004. Coverage includes the Jamestown colony of 1607, colonial militia systems, the wars of annihilation against Indians and the struggle for Empire among the Europeans, culminating in the American Revolution. The War of 1812, Mexican War and Spanish American Wars are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korean, Vietnam, Gulf War and Iraq. Topics include the civil-military relationship; the unique impact of American geography, weak neighbors, and dual military traditions; the Root reforms; the National Defense Act of 1947, and the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Major exams, frequent quizzes on assigned reading and a critical book review are assigned.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
History 205 - World War II
Prerequisite: HI 111 or HI 114 (offered alternating years)
History 205 examines World War II as the central event of the twentieth century and seeks to study the war as a phenomenon in the history of the century. The course begins in 1919 and ends in 1949 with the culmination of the Chinese revolution, the Soviet atomic bomb, the Stalinization of Eastern Europe and the construction of the American Cold War consensus following the Berlin blockade and airlift. The forces, ideologies, and events which destroyed Europe’s hold on its colonies are also covered with the collapse of European colonialism predicted by the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific. The military aspects covered are: war in the air, on the land, on the sea and under it. Historiography and the historical controversies are also enumerated.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
History 206 - The Vietnam War
Prerequisite: History 111 or 114 (offered alternating years)
A political, diplomatic, and military history of the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1975. The student will study Vietnam in its Asian and colonial context, including struggles with China, occupation by the French, the history of Indochina, the revolution of Ho Chi Minh, the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords, and the division of Indochina at the 17th Parallel. Study of the American intervention centers on actions taken in the context of the Cold War under the administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. The assassination of Diem, the Tonkin Gulf Affair, the bombing of North Vietnam, the war protest movement, the draft, and the Americanization of the war are covered. The various strategies of the French, US, and Vietnamese are compared. Nixon, Watergate, the Paris Peace talks, prisoners of war, and victory of the North over the South conclude the course. Major exams, frequent quizzes on assigned reading, a critical book review, and several small papers are assigned.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
History 207 - The Holocaust
Prerequisite: History 111 or 114 (offered alternating years)
The course examines the origins, the administration, and the consequences of Hitler’s final solution to the Jewish question. Using a multi-dimensional approach, the class examines the historicalreligious foundation of anti-Semitism in Europe, the role of German culture and political forces leading to Hitler’s rise to power. The Third Reich’s design and implementation of genocidal policies toward Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Slavs and the disabled from 1933 to 1945. The class concludes by examining the Holocaust in a comparative context of other genocides.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit.
Humanities 201 - Contemporary French Civilization and Culture
An examination of the cultural, economic, social and political institutions that define contemporary French society. The course will focus on the conflict between tradition and change and the struggle to establish linguistic and cultural identity. Areas of study will include the political and administrative structure of the French government, the changing structure of the family, the educational system, the media, the notion of leisure, food and wine and French consumerism. Course will be taught in English.
Three hours per week; three semester-hours credit