History Course Offerings
History Course Offerings
Yearlong Courses
U.S. History: Research Challenges
This yearlong course serves not only as an in-depth survey of American history, but also an introduction to the discipline of history itself. Both individually and in collaboration with their peers, students do the work of historians, using primary sources to explore authentic historical questions and develop arguments (written and oral) about the past from their close reading and analysis of the original evidence. This approach encourages students to think deeply and historically, to ask questions and interpret evidence, to write clearly and persuasively. Students will leave the course with a stronger understanding of American history but also with a skill set that prepares them for future study in history. Course readings come primarily from a primary source reader developed by the History Department, supplemented by scholarly journal articles, excerpts from monographs, and other texts such as the Narrative of the
Semester-long Electives
Civic Studies
This course will explore the rights and responsibilities of citizenship (broadly defined) in the 21st century. In addition to examining the basic structures and processes of American government and politics, the course will explore notions of the common good in a complex, pluralistic, and often contentious society. In addition to more traditional academic readings, students will be expected to pay attention to and discuss current events, regularly applying their learning to the world around them. Aside from traditional essays, assessments may include opinion pieces, policy proposals, debates, and/or projects.
Global Studies
This course is designed around a series of contemporary case studies of conflicts, tensions, developments, and complications. Students will be asked to combine an understanding of these current events with relevant historical nature drawn from historical readings and previous historical study. The goal for this class will be to help students further develop the context, critical thinking, and full appreciation for what it means to be an engaged global citizen. The nature of the case studies will vary year to year depending on factors such as election cycles, emerging trends across nations, international conflicts, and the important debates of the day. Points of consistency in this class will be an appreciation for the complexity of our modern world, the connection between our past and our present, and an emphasis on how to clearly and civilly explore one’s thoughts in discussion, debate, writing, and research.
Latin American History
This course endeavors to introduce students to the history of Latin America via both primary and secondary sources. Despite being a major trading partner of and the closest geographic region to the United States, Latin America is usually one of the least studied areas of the world. While a great deal of this course will follow chronological progression, we will also track themes that thread through the experience of the region over time and transcend modern international borders, such as colonialism, independence and neo-colonialism; democracy and dictatorship; development and exploitation; and revolution and response. In addition, we will explore the distinct histories of many of the nations of Latin America, thereby gaining an appreciation for how they fit into the current global and regional systems, as well as for their individual and unique experiences.
Mapping the Past: History and GIS
In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to traverse and document the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, resulting in the creation of about 140 maps depicting the territory. Not only do these maps present the geography of space in the West, but they also portray notions of land, nature, sovereignty, and empire that were reflective of their historical moment and goals, and have subsequently shaped ideas of the West, indigenous people, and American exceptionalism.
Using maps and cartography as our guide, this course will encourage students to reflect on the following questions: How do maps depict physical, social, and imaginative spaces? How have maps been used to reflect and shape experiences and perceptions of the world? What decisions do mapmakers wrestle with as they try to convey the current or historical world? The first half of the course will examine historical moments in the history of the United States, focusing on themes of empire, disease and urban blight, and migration. Students will reflect on historical literature, maps, and other primary sources in essays, before transitioning in the second half of the course to the production of their own maps using ArcGIS software. This will culminate in a map of their own creation on an independent project in line with the themes of the course, drawing on primary and secondary sources.
Advanced Study History: American Social Reform Movements
This course will examine American social reform movements that have sought to create substantive changes in their societies. Examining these movements, and the historical moments from which they emerged, we will consider numerous larger historical questions of how change—social, political, and economic—happens in society. In the course of our study, we will pay particular attention to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, class, and power, examining how these issues can both unite and divide efforts for social change. We will also study how participation in social movements shapes the identities of the individuals involved in them. While the focus of the course is historical, in understanding how and why some efforts to create change in society have succeeded while others have failed, we also may begin to see how we might work to achieve change in our own society. Topics may include utopian societies, abolition, women’s suffrage, eugenics, the civil rights and black power movements, women’s liberation, the conservative movement, and the environmental movement. The course approaches this history with extensive reading in primary sources (including literature, film, art and music), immersing students in the ideas, tactics and challenges of these movements. Articles and chapters from secondary scholarship supplement these readings, allowing us to consider and respond to the arguments historians have made about the movements we study.
Advanced Study History: Coming of Age: America in the Early Atomic Era
This course examines the American identity in contemporary history. It has been argued that the 1950s were a decade marked by renewed prosperity, social conformity, and political consensus. Our exploration begins once WWII ends and a new era dawns. We will examine America’s new role in the world as an emerging superpower and its relationship with former ally the Soviet Union. Closer to home, a sense of national pride led to a cultural and economic boom. This helped define the nation’s identity. Likewise, it has been argued that the 1960s were a decade of turbulence, protest and political disillusionment. With continued military operations in Southeast Asia, unease and anxiety around civil rights at home, and a slowly eroding trust in the government, the nation questioned what it meant
to live in a free and democratic society. During these decades, we witnessed some of the most compelling, most memorable and most controversial events in American history. Using an array of primary and secondary sources, our studies will allow us to hear from the history makers in these moments, while also allowing us the advantage of historical hindsight. Emphasis is placed on critical reading of these sources and written work that requires careful analysis, independent thought, and compelling argumentation. Some of the texts we will explore include David Halberstam’s The Fifties ; William Whyte’s “The Decline of the Protestant Ethic”; J. Edgar Hoover’s “Who Are the Communist”; Norman Podhoretz’s “The Know Nothing Bohemians”; Robert F. Kennedy’s Thirteen Days ; and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.
Advanced Study History: Democracy, Power and Empire: Athens in the Fifth Century BCE
What were the origins of the great Peloponnesian War, the twenty-seven-year conflict between the city-states of Athens and Sparta? What were the foundations of Athenian democracy, and how did it become a symbol of Athenian exceptionalism? What is the nature of power, and how did it facilitate the concomitant development of democracy and empire? This course will explore these questions and more through a careful study of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War . In addition, we will draw on other primary source materials — historical, literary, and philosophical — to contextualize the key ideas, moments, and themes in Thucydides’ History , as well as to understand the socio-political world of fifth-century Athens. We will also learn about the city and archaeology of Athens itself: its topography, public spaces, sacred temples, and intellectual climate. Finally, we will consider the dynamic relationship between past and present. What lessons can be drawn from studying ancient texts and juxtaposing them with our notions of war, peace, leadership, and international relations?
Advanced Study History: Empire of Liberty?—The United States in the World
In 1790, George Washington wrote, “The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment, for promoting human happiness.” Since its inception, then, many Americans have conceived of their national project in grandiose terms and have sought to promote their notions of human happiness on a wider scale. Shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, for example, Thomas Jefferson described the United States as an “empire of liberty.” This seemingly contradictory turn of phrase—the empire of liberty—lies at the heart of this course, which will explore the complex relationship between the American ideals of freedom and democracy, and the actions taken by the United States in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. How have American values shaped—and been shaped by—world affairs? The course will be structured around a series of case studies spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (with perhaps some attention paid to the twenty-first), and students can expect to read widely in primary and secondary source materials.
Advanced Study History: The History of American Conservatism
In the summer of 2015, most political pundits—even conservative ones—gave Donald Trump virtually no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump defied their predictions and would, over the next decade, go on to establish himself as a consequential figure in American political history, but his astonishing rise to power raises a question: How did we get here? This course will examine the long and winding history of conservative politics and thought in the United States, beginning with the pro-business conservatism of the early twentieth century and culminating with Trump’s populist ascendance in the twenty-first. To better understand the various strains of conservative thought and the impact of conservatism on American life, students will read widely in primary source material as well as secondary scholarship. They will also examine contemporary political media to consider the relevance of the past in the present.
Advanced Study History: Modern Africa
What were the political, economic, and cultural impacts of colonization, nationalism, and globalization in the African continent? How have people in Africa crafted and negotiated diverse identities throughout the 19th to 21st centuries? What role has Africa played in larger Black cultural movements like negritude, womanism, and decolonization. These
questions will guide students’ inquiry into the history of Africa from colonization to the present. This course will balance cultural, social, political, and economic historical lenses and the extensive history of the continent through case-studies to understand the lasting legacy of colonialism. Students will engage with scholarly research and primary sources in discussions and analytical writing to unpack historical moments like the Mau Mau Rebellion, the Rwandan Genocide, the Pan-African conferences, and the African debt crisis.
Advanced Study History: The Modern Middle East
How did the people of the Middle East negotiate their various identities under the pressure of modernization? How did the involvement of outside powers shape the region? What can recent history teach us about paths toward a more stable and prosperous Middle East? This course introduces students to the political, religious, and social history of the Middle East from the late 19th century to the present day. We will examine the late Ottoman Empire, the colonial period, the establishment of nation-states, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the rise of political Islam, the Iranian revolution, and the Arab Spring of 2011. Through work with both primary and secondary sources, we will consider issues of colonization, nationalism, religious and ethnic identity, security and physical resources.
Advanced Study History: A World at War
The dawn of the 20th Century was filled with great promise. Innovation and industrialization redefined society and suggested that progress would be bountiful for individuals and nations alike. Soon after the turn of the century, however, greed, corruption and arrogance made waste of this promise and ushered a somewhat reluctant world into war not once, but twice. In this course, we will look at the reasons the wars started, the way they were fought, and the way these wars were ended. To best understand the first half of a century marred by catastrophe and loss, we must also carefully study genocide. We will try to understand the motivations behind these events, as well as the international response. Our examination will require us to dig deep to better understand nationalism, militarism, fascism, communism, republicanism and other “isms” at play. Students will work to gain a better understanding of each war’s unique narrative. In short, we will examine the causes and consequences of the world wars. Discussion questions include: When should a country go to war? How should a nation best apply the lessons from the past? How should a nation respond to a country it has identified as its enemy? Emphasis is placed on critical reading of primary and secondary sources and written work that requires research, careful analysis, independent thought, and compelling argumentation. Some of the texts we will explore include Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf , Modris Eksteins’ Rites of Spring , and Vera Brittain’s Chronicle of Youth .
Advanced Study History: Revolutions
What is a revolution? How does a revolution differ from a rebellion, a reform movement, or simply a momentary disruption in history? This course examines revolutions as transformative moments that fundamentally reshape societies, systems of power, and ways of thinking. Students will explore political, social, economic, religious, and intellectual revolutions across different time periods and regions of the world. The course begins by interrogating the definition of “revolution,” asking how historians identify revolutionary change and, eventually, considering why certain revolutions succeed while others fail. Students will study several foundational and conceptual revolutions that set the stage for modern global change. Topics of study may include the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and/or the French or Haitian Revolutions. These case studies will allow students to deepen their understanding of what makes a “revolution”, compare causes, methods, ideologies, and outcomes, and to consider how revolutionary ideas travel across borders and evolve over time. In the second half of the course, students will conduct a research project on a revolution of their choosing. Through close reading, discussion, and research, students will develop their historical thinking skills while grappling with enduring questions about power, resistance, ideology, and change.
Advanced Study History: 1492 and the Creation of the Modern World
In the introduction to 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Charles C. Mann argues that “Columbus’s voyage did not mark the discovery of a New World. It marked the creation of the new world in which we live now.” This course builds on Mann’s thesis by examining how medieval global networks, European expansion, and the Columbian Exchange reshaped societies across the Atlantic and beyond. Students will trace the roots of Atlantic exploration by analyzing patterns of trade, power, and ideas in Europe, Africa, and Asia before 1492. Drawing on examples from the Silk Road, Marco Polo’s travels, and the Mongol Empire, they will explore how earlier empires and trade networks reshaped global connections and created conditions that later enabled European exploration and expansion. Using Haiti as a case study, the course analyzes how exploration, colonization, slavery, resistance, and independence unfolded over time. Students will examine both the immediate consequences of Columbus’s first voyage and the long-term political, economic, social, and environmental transformations that followed. Throughout the course, students will use historical thinking skills to evaluate causation and continuity and change over time, situate events in broader historical contexts, and analyze how historians construct and challenge narratives about the past. By the end of the course, students will understand the Columbian Exchange not as a single moment, but as a transformative global process that continues to shape the modern world.
Advanced Study History: Public History
In this course, students will consider history not merely as a traditional academic discipline, but by exploring the diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world (as the National Council on Public History defines the field). In the first half of the semester, students will examine how public historians bring the past to a broad audience through monuments, memorials, and museums, as well as a variety of media (film, television, podcasts, social media, etc.) through readings, viewings, and essays. If possible, the course will also include field trips to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and/or other relevant sites. In the second half of the semester, students will apply their learning by approaching the history of St. Andrew’s School as public historians, with the opportunity to conduct oral histories; curate exhibits; design monuments or markers; develop digital history projects; and/or record podcasts or documentary films.
Advanced Study History: Research Seminar
This course is an immersion in scholarly research. We begin the semester with a brief study of some examples of the best historical writing, examining these historians’ use of evidence and how they have crafted and constructed their arguments, and honing and refining students’ historical research skills. Each student then pursues a major independent study on a topic of their own choosing, deeply grounded in the primary source material, and in conversation with the historiography on that topic. The course culminates with students’ completion of the research paper, which should constitute a meaningful contribution to the scholarly conversation.