History

The History Department introduces students to the serious study of the world's civilizations, and cultivates a perspective through which students begin to see themselves as individuals with opportunities and responsibilities in a modern, post-industrial world. With a focus on primary documents, our aim is for students to gain a particular knowledge of their own immediate culture through the study of United States history, as well as to initiate a study of the human condition in the broadest sense of the term.

By learning to evaluate and use evidence to make qualified generalizations, our students develop analytical skills that will serve them in college and beyond. All history courses require short, carefully structured papers that demand close analysis of primary sources, and longer term papers that require extensive research on a particular topic or issue.

Ultimately, we are committed to the notion that the study of history is an integral component in the general humanizing process of a liberal education. We encourage our students, as they study specific periods, cultures, and historical themes, to develop the intellectual skepticism and analytical rigor to identify demagoguery, hagiography, and the parochialisms of ethnicity and gender.