History

required for all III Form Students

This course serves not only as an in-depth introduction to American history but also as an introduction to the field of history itself. Students use primary sources to answer authentic historical questions; these "research challenges" require written responses based on students primary source reading and additional research. Prepared each class period with his or her own research and arguments, each student is actively invested in and responsible for the class discussion. This method encourages students to think deeply about the past, to ask questions and interpret evidence, to develop cogent arguments, and to collaborate with their peers. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of American history, and a well-developed ability and desire to ask meaningful questions when presented with an unfamiliar historical text, whether document or newspaper, film or book. Course readings come from a primary source reader developed by the History Department, supplemented by journal articles, excerpts from monographs, and texts, such as the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Open to VI Form Students

DOUBLE-CREDIT COURSE; CREDIT RECEIVED FOR BOTH AS ENGLISH 4 AND two semesters of AS History

This interdisciplinary VI Form course, taught jointly by members of the English and History Departments, examines how historians, novelists, and poets have wrestled with and made sense of the past, and their own relation to it. Structured around a series of case studies at the intersection of literature, history and memory, the course explores the relationship between the documented past (historical primary sources) and the imagined one (literature). Students study novels and poems deeply shaped by the social and cultural moments from which they emerged and consider how an understanding of the historical circumstances that produced a work of literature can inform their reading of it. They also examine how writers of fiction have used history as source, inspiration and charge. Can the imaginative work of literature actually help us more fully understand the “real” past? What responsibility does the novelist have to history? Students also consider how the construction of a narrative—the storytelling—of a novelist differs from that of a historian. What might each learn from the other?

Case studies and related texts may include the following:

• slavery and its legacy, with Toni Morrison’s Beloved or Edward Jones’ The Known World;
• the Trujillo regime in Dominican diasporic history, with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz;
• war and its effects, both social and personal, with Pat Barker’s World War I novel Regeneration or Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam War novel In the Lake of the Woods; and
• Reagan-era political and cultural identities and the AIDS crisis, with Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America.

OPEN TO V & VI FORM STUDENTS

REQUIRED FOR STUDENTS WHO ENTER ST. ANDREW'S IN THE SOPHOMORE OR JUNIOR YEAR

This is our U.S. history course for students who enter St. Andrew's in the sophomore or junior year; it can be taken in the junior or senior year. While the texts and topics in this course differ somewhat from those encountered in U.S. History: Research Challenges course, they share the same methods and objectives. Course readings come from a primary source reader developed by the History Department, supplemented by journal articles, excerpts from monographs, and texts, such as the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

Semester-Long Half-Credit Course

How is change—social, economic, political—achieved in American society? What role can individuals play in social change? In this Advanced Study course, we will seek answers to these questions through historical study of social reform movements that have created—or attempted to create—that change. The course pays particular attention to issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, class and power in our study, examining how these issues can both unite and divide efforts for social change. We will also examine 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, students may begin to see how social change may be possible today. Topics for the American portion of the class 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 interests of the students who take the class will help to shape this list.) 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.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

This reading-intensified 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 augmentation. Some of the text 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.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

Semester-Long Half-Credit Course

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?  

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

Semester-long half-credit course

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.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

As we seek to wrestle with the complex threat of racism and anti-Semitism today, we must understand the long and pervasive histories of these ideas and how they have grown and gained traction. This course will consider two parallel and occasionally intertwined histories in conversation with one another: American racism—particularly against African-Americans, focusing especially on the years described as the “nadir of race relations,” from the waning days of Reconstruction through the early 20th century—and German anti-Semitism, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s. We will look at the rise and emergence of these ideologies of hate in their specific cultural contexts, tracing their codification in law and reinforcement through violence, and how these histories have—and have not—been engaged in national memory. In addition to primary and secondary historical sources, we will draw on the work of social psychologists who have sought to understand racism; the course will work from a reader of primary sources, and scholarly secondary sources, such as journal articles and excerpts from monographs. Following our shared study, in the final third of the course, students will major research paper, grounded in significant work with primary source material.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

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.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

This semester-long course provides students an introduction to European history from the late eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Amongst other themes, ideas, as well as events, it examines the origins and rise of European nation-states, emergence of European and national identities, as well as Europe’s connections with the rest of the world. How have war and revolution shaped European and, by extension, global history? What did it mean for Europe to become “modern,” and how did this happen? Why was Europe engulfed by violence in the middle of the twentieth century? What is the importance of social, political, and economic developments in Europe to the Americas, Asia, and Africa? Major topics include the French Revolution, industrialization and other notions of modernity, twentieth-century conflicts, and how these influenced the landscape, worldviews and cultural practices of the present-day across the world. Focusing on the development of historical thinking skills, students will be exposed to a wide array of historical and contemporary sources and be trained how to read critically in order to understand the past, write clearly and persuasively to support their interpretation of it, as well as speak clearly and confidently to present their ideas.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

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 the recent history teach us about paths toward a more stable and prosperous Middle East? This course introduces the 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. We will discuss issues of colonization, nationalism, religious and ethnic identity, security and physical resources. Students will examine primary sources and write an in-depth research paper.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

Semester-Long Half-Credit Course

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.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

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 wars’ unique narrative. In short, we will examine the causes and consequences of the world wars. Discussions 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 text we will explore include: Modris Eksteins’ Rites of Spring; Vera Brittain’s Chronicle of Youth; and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Open to V and VI Form students

Prerequisite: at least one AS History course

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 working to hone and refine students' historical research skills. Students then pursue a major, independent study on a topic of each student's 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.

All students must take this course as a graduation requirement, but the course can be taken more than once for those who are passionate about research and writing.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

Semester-Long Half-Credit Course

What forces—cultural, economic, environmental, and political—will shape the twenty-first century? Drawing on a range of disciplines, including ethics, economics, geography, ecology and cultural and literary study, students work to develop an intellectual toolkit for understanding some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. This work will serve as the foundation for crafting informed points-of-view, responding to the ideas of others, and attempting to articulate paths forward. Students first examine the duties and obligations of citizens in an increasingly global society, and ways in which the media and popular culture shape—and misshape—our understanding of people and events. Further topics include: the scope and limits of military power, international human rights,  climate change, world poverty, migration; and the cultural and political impact of economic globalization. Each unit is framed around a series of readings that offer multiple perspectives on a single issue. Texts include Brooke Gladstone, The Trouble with Reality; Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World; and Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion.

Open to IV, V, VI Form students

Semester-long, half-credit course

This semester-long course provides students an introduction to world history from approximately 10,000 B.C.E. to the early sixteenth century by analyzing civilizations, ideas, and developments across the globe. What factors led to the development of civilizations across the world? How did different forms of government and religion emerge? What are the forces responsible in the eventual creation of the early modern world? Amongst other central themes, ideas, and events, students will examine the origins of early humankind, the evolution of social, political, and religious belief systems, as well as different civilizations in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Through a wide array of historical sources—both primary and secondary—students will further cultivate their skills as historians by reading critically in order to understand the past, writing clearly and persuasively to support their interpretation of it, developing a foundation for historical research, and speaking clearly and confidently to present their ideas.

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

Globalism is a powerful feature of today’s world, but it is not the first time different cultures have come into sustained contact. This course will examine the interaction of the many peoples around the Mediterranean basin from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of al-Andalus. We will ask: How did people of differing faiths negotiate their beliefs? How did commerce, conflict, and conquest inform cross-cultural relations? What were some experiences of religious minorities, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and linguistic minorities under various majorities? How did some individuals bridge identities or cross borders—pirate/trader, ruler/exile, plutocrat/pauper, infidel/convert, pilgrim/holy warrior?

Open to IV, V, VI Form Students

SEMESTER-LONG HALF-CREDIT COURSE

Beginning with the murder of Remus at the hands of his brother Romulus, Romans took great pains to celebrate glorious victors of their culture such as Romulus as well as to commemorate those whom they defeated, like poor Remus. Starting with this myth and tracing the development of Rome as a city and then an empire, we will examine who and what the Romans glorified as well as how the depicted those they defeated. In particular, we will examine how the Roman reaction to civil conflict such as Romulus and Remus, the murder of Julius Caesar, and even the persecution of Christians led to major changes in the government and daily lives of Roman citizens. In this course, we will focus on primary documents from Rome including poems, histories, and inscriptions as well as material evidence such as buildings and statues. Following our in-depth study of the Roman identity, we will spend the final portion of the course on a major research paper.