HELP 2022-2023 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG] History Print this Page

The word history comes from a Greek word meaning “inquiry.” The discipline of history is far more than the compilation of facts. It involves asking questions of various kinds of evidence and using answers to solve problems. Getting valid answers requires students to develop skills of critical thinking and careful evaluation of evidence from a variety of sources-literary, artistic, archeological, oral. History may be the most interdisciplinary of academic disciplines.

About The Program

Hope’s History Department offers courses that cover the globe and span time from the ancient world to the present day, from pre-colonial Africa and the Greek world to modern China, recent America and World War II. From various perspectives the discipline of history seeks to understand how men and women have lived in different times and places, what they have thought and experienced, and how to use their records that have come down to us.

Students (and their parents) often ask what they can do with a history major. The answer is simple: almost anything. History’s emphasis on critical thinking and writing gives students skills which are transferable to a wide range of fields. Hope history majors have found careers as teachers, lawyers, journalists, physicians, librarians, editors, researchers, museum curators, ministers and in government and foreign service. On a broader scale, a variety of fascinating and successful people were history majors in college including W. E. B. DuBois, Wolf Blitzer, ElenaKagan, Joe Biden, Martha Stewart, Chris Berman, Antonin Scalia, Katherine Hepburn and five U. S. presidents.

At Hope history can be studied in the classroom, as well as in domestic and foreign off-campus programs. Internships can be arranged; some students have done local history projects that afforded income-earning opportunities.

Majors

To accommodate the broad range of interests and career goals of its majors and other interested students, the History Department offers two majors and minors and a formal French/History double major, as well as an honors program.

Honors Program

The Honors Program in History challenges students to enrich the minimum requirements of the major through a focus on vocational discernment. The program recognizes the breadth of options available within the major and supports students in tailoring their co-curricular, academic,and research experiences to meet their vocational and long-term interests. In addition, students who graduate with Honors in History will have demonstrated exceptional academic rigor by maintaining a high GPA in History courses and working with a faculty mentor to complete a Senior Honors Project, the topic and format of which will complement the student’s vocational focus. Detailed information is available on the department’s webpage.

Programs

• History Education, B.A.
• History, B.A.

• History Education Minor
• History Minor

Courses

• HIST 130 - Introduction to Ancient Civilization
• HIST 131 - Introduction to Modern European History
• HIST 140 - History Workshop
• HIST 141 - The Historian’s Vocations
• HIST 159 - History of Science
• HIST 200 - Historical Snapshots
• HIST 207 - Introduction to World History to 1500
• HIST 208 - Introduction to World History since 1500

• HIST 221 - Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa: African Perspectives on Colonialism
• HIST 225 - West African Economy and Society, 18th-20th Centuries: Commerce, Colonialism and Christianity
• HIST 230 - Model Arab League
• HIST 260 - History of Latin America Since 1810
• HIST 263 - Colonial Latin American History
• HIST 270 - Modern China
• HIST 314 - The History of Japan and Korea since 1600: At the Origins of Modernity
• HIST 321 - The Making of Modern Africa
• HIST 365 - Gender and Power in Latin American History
• HIST 370 - Modern Middle East

• HIST 160 - U.S. History to 1877
• HIST 161 - U.S. History Since 1877
• HIST 175 - Michigan History
• HIST 251 - Revolutionary America: Visionaries, Rebels, and Ruffians
• HIST 252 - Civil War America: Disruption and Destiny
• HIST 255 - World War I America
• HIST 256 - Recent America: From World War II to 9/11
• HIST 351 - Slavery & Race in America, 1619-Present: The Struggle Within
• HIST 352 - Women, Gender and Sex in United States History
• HIST 355 - United States Foreign Policy, 1898-Present: Power, Promise, and Peril
• HIST 357 - U.S. Cultural History
• HIST 361 - United States Military History: Rise of a Warrior Democracy

• HIST 210 - The Greek World
• HIST 215 - The Roman World
• HIST 285 - Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity

• HIST 205 - British and Irish History to 1700
• HIST 206 - British and Irish History Since 1700
• HIST 218 - The Middle Ages: Europe, Byzantium and Islam
• HIST 242 - Twentieth Century Europe
• HIST 268 - Russian History from Peter the Great to the USSR

• HIST 280 - Modern Imperialism
• HIST 341 - World War Two: Collaboration and Resistance
• HIST 344 - Genocide in the Modern World
• HIST 364 - Latino Identities: Ethnic Diversity in Latin American and U.S. History
• HIST 371 - Paris and Shanghai: A Tale of Two Cities
• HIST 372 - Social History in Early Modern Europe: Wanderers, Warriors, and Witches

• HIST 195 - Studies in History
• HIST 295 - Studies in European, American, or Non-Western History
• HIST 395 - Special Topics in History
• HIST 490 - Independent Studies in History
• HIST 495 - Seminar in History
• HIST 499 - History Internships

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