This course subjects films on historical topics to discussion and analysis. It probes how filmmakers treat historical subjects and introduces students to the methods historians might use in evaluating the accuracy and impact of such films.

This course focuses on two major topics: ways of historical thinking and methods of historical research. Among the varied topics of consideration are historical method, the philosophy of history, the history of historical writing, the life and works of several historians, and conflicting interpretations of historical events.

In this research seminar, advanced students produce a substantial piece of historical writing based on primary sources. In consultation with faculty advisors, students develop and refine a research topic, undertake primary research, and compose their papers. They are also required to participate in regular group and individual editing and feedback sessions in order to refine their research methodology, argument, and writing. History majors who elect to take this course are strongly encouraged to use this paper for HIST 480 Senior Capstone Seminar. Prerequisite: consent of the department.

This course is required for all senior history majors. Students choose an existing paper written for a previous course and engage in an intensive editing process to create a presentation-quality work. Students read and discuss works by professional historians with varying styles and methodological approaches and evaluate each other’s papers in order to develop essential editing skills and refine their papers. They also receive training in public presentation and present their work at the department’s annual Senior Capstone Conference.

Spanning ancient North America through the American Civil War, this course considers how different North Americans shaped their societies, economies, cultures, and the natural environments that shaped their experiences. Student also consider the nature of historical interpretation and learn to interpret primary documents and evaluate historical arguments.

This course examines major political, social, cultural, and economic themes in American History since the end of the Civil War giving special attention to the United States’ increasingly significant role in international affairs. The course also introduces students to how historians work to construct interpretations of the past.

This course examines the changing ways in which Americans have interpreted their nation’s past and used those varying interpretations in their civic, professional, and personal lives. Topics include an introduction to the academic practice of history, public history and its engagements with popular and academic history, the rise of internet genealogy, and the politically fraught nature of historical memory. Students consider debates about public monuments, history textbooks, and changing interpretations of iconic events in the North American past.

This course examines ways in which Americans’ ideas of work, leisure and consumption have evolved together from the Colonial Era to the present. We study the theoretical literature on leisure, and examine how historians have used the study of leisure to write history “from the bottom up,” providing new frameworks for analyzing the everyday lives of ordinary people and the distribution of power and resources. Special emphasis is placed on the role of leisure, work and consumption in the construction and reconstruction of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and regional identity in US History.

This period between 1914 and 1945 was a time of hardships that tested the American people, producing spectacular changes in the nation’s role in the world, in leisure and consumerism, and in the place of government in people’s everyday lives. We focus on topics such as civil liberties during World War I and World War II, radicalism during the Great Depression, race and the military, and social change during the “flapper” era of the 1920s.

This course examines the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of the struggle for American independence. Attention is given to the military and diplomatic course of the war. Finally the Articles of Confederation and the making of the Constitution are examined as initial attempts to resolve issues of nationhood exposed by independence.

This course examines the use and transformation of the American environment from the pre-Columbian era to the present. The course also considers the interpretations and perceptions of nature, wilderness, and the environment that various Americans held and developed over this period. By focusing on conceptions of nature as well as the physical interaction between people and their environment, this course challenges students to see the ways in which a cultural perspective is critical to understanding environmental issues.

This class uses primary and secondary sources to examine the many ways in which Americans have understood the existence of poverty and the poor. With emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we investigate the roots of poverty in the American economic system, in order to examine why so many people remain poor in the richest nation on earth. We also look at the evolution and larger macroeconomic purposes of the American welfare state and use first-hand accounts by poor people and antipoverty activists themselves.

This course provides a history of the American West from European colonization and settlement to the present. Issues explored include migration and settlement, the exploitation of peoples and resources, federal power and intervention, western community and urban form, and tourism. The course also focuses on the ways myths of the West have made the region into a simulacrum for American identity and ideals, obscured the realities of western history, justified the degradation of the environment, and countenanced the appropriation of land and abuse of peoples in the region.

Spanning the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, this course examines the transformation of the United States into a modern nation. We analyze what a “modern nation” might be, paying attention to factors such as domestic upheaval, ethnic and racial conflict, economic instability, and conflicted ideas of gender. We link cultural and social history with the new political history, through the emergence of a global role for the United States abroad, and the expansion of the reach of the state at home.

This course examines the experiences of Native North Americans from their initial peopling of the continent through the present day. Topics include pre-Columbian history, American Indian responses to European colonialism, the era of Removal, the development of the reservation system, Allotment, and the politics of sovereignty and self-determination in the 20th and 21st Centuries. The course also introduces students to the interdisciplinary scholarly method of ethnohistory and ethical considerations.

The post-1945 period was an era of dramatic change in American history, one whose repercussions still shape the world in which we live today. This course focuses on major developments of the period, including the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the dramatic shift in gender roles that has changed the lives of both women and men. We also cover related subjects, such as the domestic war on poverty and the foreign war in Vietnam.

A history of Arkansas from earliest times to the present.

This course examines the major topics in African American history from the emergence of the ancient African Kingdoms to the Civil War. Emphasis is placed on the use of a multidimensional approach to analyze African American culture, lifestyles, and related issues. Major themes related to the African American experience in America, as well as experiences throughout antebellum society, are examined.

This course examines the major topics in African American history from the Civil War to the end of the Civil Rights era. Emphasis is placed on the use of a multidimensional approach to analyze African American culture, lifestyles, and related issues. Major themes such as racism, assimilation, separatism, Pan-Africanism, desegregation, and civil rights are examined.

This seminar examines the history of American Indian interactions with the natural environment. Topics include the importance of place in American Indian worldviews, changes in land use before and after the arrival of Europeans, the impact of colonial epidemics, Native interpretations of environmental change, and environmental issues in Indian Country today.

This course encourages students to examine the role that archives and archivists play in the public discourse around history. Students examine how presentations of history and record-keeping practices have evolved over time as public demands have changed.

This course offers an analysis of the sectional conflict leading to the secession crisis, the impact of war on American society, the reunification of the nation during Reconstruction, and the memory of the Civil War in American culture. Students also complete and present a major primary research project on some aspect of the Civil War and reconstruction based on archival collections at Bailey Library and in Little Rock, where students visit and conduct archival research during the course. Recommended: HIST 110

This course uses the Vietnam War as a bridge to a larger inquiry into the social upheavals of the 1960s. Starting with the 1950s, we look at the war’s role in social change within the United States. We analyze major movements, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War movement, the Women’s Movement, and the New Left and New Right. We place the war in the context of global developments such as the Cold War and decolonization. Students also read Vietnamese perspectives on the war, and study Vietnamese culture and history.

A seminar or research course in a topic in American History. This course can be repeated for additional credits as long as the section topics are different. Consult the online course schedule for information about the topics currently scheduled to be taught.

This course surveys European developments between 1789 and 1945. Particular attention is given to the major powers of Europe. Topics include Europe’s revolutions, the rise of the nation-state, and warfare.

Beginning with Roman Britain, this course traces the social, cultural, political and religious evolution of England up to the Glorious Revolution. Particular attention is given to the growth of the Common Law, the rise of parliament, and other developments of significance to our own country.

This seminar considers the long and often troubling history of German-Jewish interactions. Readings pertain to the treatment of Jews during the medieval Crusades, Protestant reformers’ ideas about Judaism, Enlightenment debates over Jewish identity, Jewish ‘emancipation’ during the Napoleonic Era, Jewish assimilation and integration during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Nazi Era, and Holocaust commemoration.

Beginning with the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity and ending with the crises of the fourteenth century, including widespread famines and the Black Death, this course covers Western Europe from about 400 to 1400. We focus on the political, social, cultural, and material changes that marked this period.

This course examines the changes in areas including art, philosophy, medicine, science, printing, exploration, and religion that have traditionally been labeled the Renaissance and the Reformation in Western Europe during the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. The course explores the consequences resulting from these changes.

Ancient Greek humoral theories about the human body and holistic styles of medical care remained authoritative in Europe until the development of germ theory in the nineteenth century. This course examines the development and dissemination of these and other medical beliefs through medieval and early modern Europe, and also considers the impact of disease on social structures.

Focused study of aspects of Greek and Roman history. Topics vary by semester. No prerequisite. Cross-listed as HIST 294. Cross-listed as CLAS 294.

An integrated survey of the history, society, art, and literature of ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age to Alexander the Great. No prerequisite. Cross-listed as CLAS 301.

An integrated survey of the history, society, art, and literature of ancient Rome, from the early Republic to the height of the Roman Empire. No prerequisite. Cross-listed as CLAS 302.

This course explores the multiple ways in which Europeans viewed other cultures before 1492, and how those other cultures viewed Europeans. Through travel literature, accounts of wars, romance and even merchant account books, we discover how Europeans interacted with those whom they imagined as outside their own culture, whether because of where they lived, what religion they practiced, or how they dressed.

This course examines the relationship between magic and religion from the early Middle Ages, through the Great Witch Hunts of the early modern period, and into the Enlightenment and Romantic fictionalizations of the witch figure. We approach both popular and elite understandings of magic and witchcraft, and the interactions between the two.

This course examines Europe’s turbulent 18th-centry Enlightenment with an eye toward determining the causes of the upheavals that followed. The French Revolution of 1789 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s later conquest of Europe are then considered. Particular attention is given to intellectual, political, and military history.

The Middle Ages saw an increase in governmental control over human behavior though law codes and judicial systems. This course examines those legal mechanisms, looking particularly at changing beliefs about what constitutes a crime, how the justice system should operate, and what kinds of punishments were appropriate.

This course use cases studies of particular epidemics in order to consider how different cultures have responded to disease. While the course discusses the epidemiology of these diseases, the main focus is on medical, political, social, and cultural responses to disease and how these changed over time.

A topics course in European history. This course can be repeated for additional credits as long as the section topics are different. Consult the online course schedule for information about the topics currently scheduled to be taught.

This general survey course explores African history from the era of the partition of the continent in the late 19th century to independence. The course examines such topics as the colonial state, resistance movements, problems of independence, and development.

This course examines key developments and interactions that contributed to the formation of East Asia as a coherent and distinctive political, social, and cultural entity, from early history through the sixteenth century, C.E. Special focus will be placed on cultural (religious, ideological, institutional) innovation, exchange, and dispersion, as well as migration, trade, and military conflicts. As an introductory-level history course, students are introduced to basic historical methods, including the evaluation and analysis of primary and secondary source materials, historical thinking and argumentation, and formal historical writing and citation.

This course covers the Islamic world from the foundations of the religion to the early Ottoman Turkish Empire. It focuses on the growth of the early Islamic Empire, its fragmentation, and the development of distinct cultures in Spain, Egypt, and Persia.

This course surveys the recent Chinese past from the late imperial dynasty to the late 1980s. It explores the revolution in China through a study of the people, events, and personalities that have given Chinese history its dramatic and often tragic tone. Particular attention is also paid to the social, cultural, and intellectual currents that lay behind the more visible manifestations of change.

This course surveys the recent Chinese past from the last imperial dynasty to the late 1980's. It explores the revolution in China through a study of the people, events and personalities that have given Chinese history its dramatic and often tragic tone. Particular attention is also paid to the social, cultural and intellectual currents that lay behind the more visible manifestations of change.

This course surveys the political, social, cultural, and environmental history of Japan from 1800. The course examines early modern Japanese politics, society, economy, and culture, taking note of the dynamic developments well underway by the mid-nineteenth century. Next, we look at the upheaval of Japanese society from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of World War II. The course also examines the origins, experiences, and legacies of the Pacific War (1931-1945), then look at developments in Japan during the postwar period, the years of the Japanese economic “miracle” and the late decades of the twentieth century.

This class focuses on twentieth century South Africa and explores such issues as racial oppression, the development of capitalism in a racially defined state, nationalist mobilization, and the historical imprint of Apartheid on contemporary South African society, economics, and politics.

This class focuses on two crucial periods in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the Congo Free State under King Leopold II (1885-1908) and the unraveling of the first independent Congo and the assassination of the first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba (1960-c. 1965). More broadly, a close reading of the stories told about these two periods of history allows us to ask questions about documenting violence, the role of memory in assessing historical events, and the use of evidence in constructing historical narratives and memory.

This course encourages participants to think more critically about the definition and practice of development in Africa. This course provides an historical survey of what people and institutions have meant by the term ‘development’ and asks why, despite enormous amounts of investment and earnest effort, Africa has remained a place that is still ‘developing.’ How have theorists, practitioners and people in Africa explained Africa’s place in the world? Students engage in case studies that highlight historical definitions of development and the projects that emerge from such ideas.

This course examines political, economic, and cultural aspects of the relationship between East Asia and the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, focusing on moments of collision, conflict, and exchange. Particular attention is paid to American imaginings of “the East” and East Asian imaginings of America as well as state-to-state diplomacy, trade, migration, and war.

This course examines the origins, experiences, and legacies of World War Two in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on Japan. Particular attention is paid to imperial Japan’s expansion and belligerence, the course and settlement of fighting in China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, diverse experiences of war both on the front lines and on various home fronts, and the immediate and lasting consequences of this conflict. In addition, students examine postwar debates and conflicts over how the war has been and should be remembered in Japan, greater East Asia, and the West, as well as in their local communities.

This course examines the history of Korea from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present, paying close attention to political, social, and cultural cleavages that contributed to and perpetuated the division of the peninsula into two separate states. Utilizing a variety of primary and secondary sources, including literature and film, students investigate the origins of this division, consider alternative visions of modern Korea, analyze the politics that made division real and lasting, and consider the contemporary significance of division in North and South Korea and beyond.

This course examines the origins, experience, and memory of the Korean War, at once a civil and global conflict that took the lives of more than two million people, laid waste to the entire Korean peninsula, and ceased after three years without significant territorial gains by either side. After exploring the roots of this conflict, this course examines the execution of the war. We also look at lasting political, social, and cultural legacies of the conflict, which left Korea divided, highly militarized, and deeply traumatized.

This course examines the conceptualization of crime and corresponding theories, practices, and institutions of punishment in East Asian history. The course traces the development of ideas and institutions of criminal punishment in China, Korea, and Japan from early times through the nineteenth century. We then turn our focus to the adoption and adaptation of Western penal forms and principles in East Asia from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth. We address assumptions and stereotypes about “oriental barbarism.”

This course examines the formation, contestation, and negotiation of meanings attributed to sexual difference at various points in time in China, Korea, and Japan. After surveying theoretical approaches to using gender as a category of historical analysis, we consider case studies, looking at how philosophical, religious, and political traditions, along with significant historical events and changes in technology and production, combined in various constellations to shape the way people in these societies conceptualize femininity, masculinity, and sexuality, utilizing primary documents, literature, art, and secondary studies.

This course examines the Iraq War that began in 2003. While a variety of background topics are covered, including the United States’ historical relationship with Iraq, Operation “Desert Storm,” and the impact of 9/11 on U.S. policy toward the Middle East, emphasis is placed on the more immediate build-up to the 2003 war, the execution of that war, and the challenges that face the Iraqi state.

This is an introduction to the interconnected history of the Americas (Brazil, Caribbean, United States) and Africa. We examine the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on African peoples and follow the transportation and settlement of enslaved Africans to the Americas. Our focus is the contribution of African peoples to the history, culture, and politics of the Americas.

This seminar focuses on selected readings in cultural and African history. Topics may include gender and representation, Christianity and conversion, health and medicine, etiquette and authority, art and identity, and theory and method.

This course examines the major genocides that have occurred during the 20th and 21st centuries. The course’s case-studies include Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and Darfur. These are investigated with an eye toward determining the causes of genocide in the modern era.

This course treats the on-going Arab-Israeli conflict. Emphasis is placed on the political, military, and social history of the period starting with the rise of Zionism in the late 19th century and continuing through to the conflict’s most recent developments.

A topics course in global history. This course can be repeated for additional credits as long as the section topics are different. Consult the online course schedule for information about the topics currently scheduled to be taught.