The Major and Minor

Programs and Requirements

History courses cover the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and other regions in the modern and premodern eras.  They employ thematic, comparative, transnational, and chronological approaches and address such topics as popular culture, the nature of ideology, social and political change, economic systems, conquest, migration and settlement, and the evolving roles of race, gender, religion, and ethnicity.

The department stresses the use of primary sources, the honing of research methods, clear writing, and thoughtful analysis. Students are expected to grow in their breadth of knowledge, skills in finding and evaluating information, and the ability to think clearly as they discuss and interpret past events.

Major Requirements

A minimum of 40 semester credits (10 courses), distributed as follows:

Three core courses:

• HIST 300: Historical Materials
• HIST 400: Reading Colloquium
• HIST 450: History Seminar

Seven other history courses. At least one must be in Asian history, one in European history, and one in the history of the Americas. At least one of the seven courses must be in premodern Asian, European, or Latin American history, or in religious studies:

• HIST 110: Early East Asian History
• HIST 120: Early European History
• HIST 141: Colonial Latin American History
• HIST 210: China’s Golden Age (Tang and Song)
• HIST 219: Ancient Rome
• HIST 221: Tudor & Stuart Britain
• HIST 227: Medieval Europe, 800-1400
• HIST 259: India in the Age of Empire
• HIST 320: Humanism in Renaissance Europe
• HIST 324: Saints and Bureaucrats
• RELS 251: Medieval Christianity
• RELS 373: Reformations of the 16th Century

At least two of the seven courses must be at the 300/400 level, excluding HIST 300: Historical Materials and HIST 444: Practicum.

Students may apply a maximum of 4 semester credits from HIST 244 or HIST 444 toward the major. HIST 218: Perspectives on the Vietnam War may be counted toward either the Asian or American history requirement.

The following courses may be used as electives for the major:

Economics

• ECON 255: Technology, Institutions and Economic Growth
• ECON 256: The Industrial Revolution

Latin American Studies

• LAS 200: Latin American Cultural Studies

Religious Studies

• RELS 251: Medieval Christianity
• RELS 253: Religion in American History to the Civil War
• RELS 254: Religion in Modern America, 1865 to Present
• RELS 340: Women in American Religious History
• RELS 373: Reformations of the 16th Century

Minor Requirements

A minimum of 24 semester credits (six courses), distributed as follows:

• HIST 300: Historical Materials
• HIST 400: Reading Colloquium or HIST 450: History Seminar
• At least one course from any two of the departmental concentrations: Asian history, European history, and history of the Americas
• At least one course at the 300 level, excluding HIST 300: Historical Materials

 

For more information see:
Lewis & Clark College Catalog: History