The Department aims to equip students to examine their own lives and the development, goals, and values of their society. Designed to impart a basic understanding of both Western and non-Western history from the Ancient World to the present, the curriculum emphasizes economic and social forces as well as political and intellectual factors. Throughout the curriculum, students are asked to grasp the complexity of historical causality, to analyze and discuss primary and secondary sources, and to construct developed historical arguments. They also encounter key concepts and tools of the social sciences.

Requirements:
Grade Nine: Modern World History
Grade Ten: American History

Required Courses

Grade 9: Modern World History (120)
Modern World History examines the course of world history from the Age of Global Encounters (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) until the present. It tells the story of major events, ideas, and movements that have given shape to the modern world community as it exists today. It asks analytical questions of global significance, such as: how did the different regions of the world come into contact so that almost every part of the world today is tied into global political, economic, and social systems? Why are some regions of the world more powerful than others, both politically and economically? To what extent have ideologies of liberalism and nationalism taken root around the world? What global institutions and strategies seem to hold hope for the world's future? Students write a research paper based on primary and secondary sources. The course provides an overview and a framework to support further, more specific studies in grades 10 through 12.

Grade 10: American History (130)
This course surveys the American past from the pre-Columbian period to the Reagan era. The curriculum emphasizes the development of political, social, economic, and cultural institutions and values. We examine the roles played by gender, race, and class in the making of the American nation. Exams test conceptual skills. The course emphasizes written work, including a required term paper.

Elective Courses (Grades 11 and 12)

History Electives

Advanced Placement American History (131)
Prerequisite: Completion of required courses
Admission to Advanced Placement History courses is competitive and requires B+ or better in previous history and English courses and permission of the department.
Meets every day
This college-level introduction is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge to deal critically with problems and materials in American history. Students deal with primary sources, are introduced to American historiography, and read numerous scholarly articles and monographs. Emphasis is given to writing historical essays, and students are expected to submit short essays and reports. Major themes include the following: the paradoxical growth of freedom and slavery in the American colonies; interaction with Native Americans; Republicanism; liberalism and the significance of ideology; expansionism; religion; economic development; sectionalism and patterns of segregation; race, class and gender; reform; political party development; significant issues in diplomacy; the impact of war on American society; contemporary issues in American society; and the growth and development of a democratic culture.

Advanced Placement European History (121)
Prerequisite: Completion of required courses and departmental approval
Admission to Advanced Placement History courses is competitive and requires B+ or better in previous history and English courses and permission of the department.
Meets every day
This course explores the major social, economic, political, religious, and intellectual questions that constitute modern European history from 1450 to the present. It will focus on both content and methodology and in doing so will seek to challenge students to "do history." Students will examine a rich variety of sources ranging from philosophical treatises to works of art and literature to a whole range of primary sources.

AP European History will be conducted as a colloquium in which students will be expected to discuss critically the readings and to report on various topics. In addition, students will devote time to developing their ability to write the historical essay. Students will be continually encouraged to understand the interrelationships between events, as, for example, the relationship of imperialism to internal developments in European nations. They will also examine the development of different schools of historiography from Burkhardt to Braudel and will explore how these interpretations have influenced our views of particular events.

Fundamental to the course is the idea that knowledge developed in a study of European history forms the basis of a cultural literacy that will also enable students to explore and appreciate different civilizations.

American Women's History, 1603 to Present (146)
This course explores female roles and relationships as they have developed in American history. In analyzing the experiences of diverse groups of women, we will examine the pervasive impact of gender, race, and class on our past. Focusing on the interaction between the private world of family dynamics and the public spheres of work, education, politics, and the like, we study ways in which the correlations between ideology and social structure and prescription and behavior have affected the lives of both men and women.

In seeking to understand women's ongoing quest for autonomy, we look at the varied and often subtle responses to subjugation, and our strategies, both individual and collective, for effecting positive change. Because so many of women's contributions have been achieved amidst conflictive circumstances, our studies reveal tensions and ambiguities in our culture itself.

We will rely heavily on women's voices--diaries, letters, works of fiction, speeches, songs--to reconstruct their history, but we will also gain insights by examining such rich sources as fashion magazines, toys, architecture, food and movies, as well as a variety of secondary sources. Our work will further be informed by studying significant historiographical debates: the diverse and often contradictory ways in which contemporary historians have interpreted our past.

Contemporary U.S. History, 1960-2001 (160)
As the United States approaches a new century, it finds itself in the enviable position of a dominant political, military, economic, and cultural leader. Still, the United States has gone through some profound changes in the past forty years. This course will try to shed light on the key issues of the recent past by focusing on four major areas: (1) law and politics, (2) popular culture and the rise of the electronic media, (3) the United States’ changing role as a world leader, and (4) economic and social changes from post-industrialization. We will use a variety of different sources, including class discussion, films, music, art, original documents, and scholarly studies. Specific topics include:
Fall trimester – 1960’s: JFK, LBJ, the Warren Court and liberalism; civil rights, Vietnam and Containment; Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Counterculture; changes in the media; Black Power and the New Left student radicals; the Space Race; the Silent Majority and the New Right; 1968 and the conservative backlash.
Winter trimester – 1970’s and 1980’s: Nixon’s foreign policy; Watergate; the oil crisis, inflation and the decline of manufacturing; abortion, feminism and the ERA; divorce and the changing family; the crisis of cities; Disco, Country, and Punk Rock; the television sitcom and the blockbuster movie; Jimmy Carter and the national malaise; the Reagan Revolution.
Spring trimester – 1980’s and 1990’s: Reagan’s foreign policy; the conservative Supreme Court; fractured race and class relations; the 1980’s and the culture of consumption; Asian and Latino immigration; movie trends; AIDS; the restructured world economy and income inequality; Rap and the future of Rock ‘n’ Roll; the Gulf War and Bosnia; cable TV; the media and the internet; Clinton and the New Democrats; impeachment and the decline of conservatism.

East Asian History and Society (154)
This course will cover Chinese, Japanese and Korean history and society from ancient times to the present. Particular attention will be given to the period since 1830, the responses of these societies to the impact of the West, and how these societies attempted to transform themselves while maintaining their traditions, cultural integrity, and identity. An additional theme involves the cultural and political interactions among these three cultures. Special attention will be given to political, social, and economic developments of the twentieth century, including the Pacific War, Korean War, and the rapid industrialization since the 1950’s. Reading in the course will cover not only political history, but social and cultural affairs as well. Films and videos will be used extensively.

History of Technology (171)
This course examines how developments in technology and medicine have shaped the modern world and will continue to do so in the 21st century. The course will study the development of technological ideas and of individual technologies, the process of invention and the wider context (of politics, economics and social affairs) in which these developments occurred. The history of medicine, with its enormous impact on how people have lived, is an important part of the course. The course offers a balance between the history of invention itself and the social history of invention, with important emphasis on the social and cultural effects of technology. The last part of the course will consider present and future technology as it is likely to unfold in our new century and beyond, with predictions of how advances (and perhaps new dangers) in computers, the internet, communications, transport, robotics and medicine will transform the world.

Topics include: Ancient and medieval technology, in the West and China; the invention of gears and clocks; the Black death. Early Modern Technology: European exploration of the planet and the changes in ship technology, navigation and firearms that led to that; the spread of diseases to and from Europe and America; the telescope and the microscope. 19th Century Cities: new bridge and building systems. The Electric Revolution: the history of electricity and its applications; the electric motor and electric lighting. The Atomic revolution: X-rays and their introduction in medicine; the discovery of sub-atomic particles and nuclear fission; the Manhattan Project and the development of thermonuclear weapons; nuclear power. 20th Century Medicine: the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic; vitamins; antibiotics; new imaging techniques: MRI, PET, CAT; the foundations of biotechnology. 20th Century Science Fiction and its effect on the history of technology. Aviation History: the coming of commercial aviation; radar, military aviation and missile development. The Automobile: how cars changed American land use, population patterns, personal mobility and the economics of cities. Space Technology: the history of rocketry; the US and Soviet space programs; communications, spy and weather satellites; the Space Station. The Information Revolution: the history of computers and the internet. 21st Century Technology: what will the next hundred years be like: prospects and dangers.

History of the Modern Middle East
This course alternates with Modern Jewish History
Offered in 2002-2003
This course is an introduction to a region of the non-western world which is frequently in the news, but, at best, imperfectly understood. Although we begin by looking at Islam over time, the primary focus of the course will be on the modern Middle East since the eighteenth century. We will consider many critical contemporary issues such as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the tension between tradition and modernity, women and the family, Muslim "fundamentalism," and the politics of oil and water. Films, music, slides, and trips to the Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to the Islamic Center of New York will highlight the course.

History Through the Lens (159)
The movies have played, and continue to play, a critical role in American culture. We can think about them in various ways: as products of changes in the movie industry in this country, as a reflection of the society in which they were made, as interpreters of history, and as shapers of history. This course will introduce students to these different ways of understanding movies throughout American history. The class will watch movies from the silent era to the age of the blockbuster and will write responses to the films and do research on topics raised during the year.

Race Relations and Ethnicity (142)
The focus of the course will be on problems and issues in racial thought and policy in the twentieth century. A goal of the course will be to examine W.E.B. DuBois's comment that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." Thus, we will begin by assessing the racial arrangements that emerged in the United States in the late nineteenth century, a period when the country became a truly multicultural society. We will examine how Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, and east European immigrants fared in a nation determined to "Americanize" its plural society into a singular vision of American civilization. The last half of the course will concentrate on contemporary issues in race relations, ethnicity, and multiculturalism. The course will be interdisciplinary in focus, incorporating particular fiction and memoirs written by members of various racial and ethnic groups, and examine a diverse set of texts and films.

Religion in History (144)
This course will examine major topics in the history of religion. By its very nature, the study will be interdisciplinary and multicultural, and will help us understand particular and universal manifestations of the human experience. Combining the fundamentals of the phenomenology of religion with historical studies of the world's religions, we will explore the varieties of religious experience and examine how the religious dimension interacts with the social, economic, political, cultural and personal aspects of people in various eras in diverse parts of the world. The scope of the course will be from ancient to modern times. We will also examine current events in relation to the significant developments and themes that we study.

While examining the essential history of such traditions as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto and Native American religions, we will focus on such topics as: the definition of religion, conceptions of the Divine, mysticism, prayer, suffering, justice, war and peace, authority and protest, rites of passage (e.g., marriage, death), sexuality, diet, sacred spaces and sacred times, taboos, and critiques of religion.

Students are also given the opportunity to do independent study projects each term so that they may explore a particular problem, discover a new tradition, or deepen their understanding of a familiar area.

Tribulation and Triumph: Jewish History in the Twentieth Century (156)
This course alternates with History of the Modern Middle East
Offered in 2001-2002
This elective emphasizes the history of the Jews in the twentieth century. The early portion of the course will be devoted to a discussion of crucial developments in Jewish history during the nineteenth century (Zionism, the Enlightenment and the rise of Reform Judaism, the Dreyfus Affair and modern antisemitism, and immigration to the United States). However, the bulk of the course will concentrate on the experience of the Jews from World War One to the present. Topics will include the rise of an important community in Palestine, World War Two and the Holocaust, the creation of the modern state of Israel, the emergence of the United States as a center of Jewish life, and the continuing tension between Jewish identity and observance and the challenge of modernity.

Twentieth-Century World History (143)
This elective examines major issues and trends in twentieth-century world history. Initially, the course looks at the problem of periodization, i.e. does the twentieth century begin in 1870 with the rise of modern European imperialism
and colonialism, or in 1914 with the outbreak of World War One? Students then read a series of novels and works of non-fiction which serve to frame certain crucial problems (for example, totalitarianism, the Holocaust, and environmental destruction) which have dominated the history of the twentieth century. These include books by George Orwell, Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Koestler, Virginia Woolf, John Hersey, Alexander Donat, Rachel Carson, Chinua Achebe, and Jung Chiang. These authors’ works are complemented by relevant films such as Breaker Morant, Burnt by the Sun, The Manchurian Candidate, and The Battle of Algiers. The course requires a great deal of analytical writing and in-class documentary work.

Electives in Politics and Political Philosophy

American Government and Politics (172)
This course presents an analysis of the history, structure, and operation of the United States government and American politics. One focus of the course is the historical and philosophical evolution of the federal government and of American federalism. The thinking behind the Constitution, the construction of the document, the amendment process, and the historical contexts in which important constitutional principles have been applied are among the important issues presented here. The operation of interest groups, political parties, and the media, will also be an important component of this study of the Constitution. Students will read and analyze a number of important Supreme Court cases and will consider the nature of the law, including distinctions between civil and criminal law, torts, and the basic structure of the legal system.

In addition to reading and analyzing the Constitution and its amendments, students will study the structure and operation of the Presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court at the federal level and analogous institutions at the state and local level.

Students will discuss important policy issues, both in a historical and a contemporary context. The issue of policy formation and the various influences on the process will receive attention. Questions involving civil rights and civil liberties will play a prominent role in the course. Other topics in the course will include foreign policy, national security policy, social welfare policy, economic policy, and environmental policy.

While the course is not specifically designed as an Advanced Placement course, it will offer sufficient coverage of material presented on the AP American Government examination to allow qualified students to take the examination on a voluntary basis.



Topics in Political Philosophy (147)
In his Republic, Plato begins his discussion of the ideal state by asking a question: what is justice? In one way or another, every political system must deal with that question; at heart, political philosophy ponders the definitions of right and wrong. In other words, political philosophy is a branch of moral philosophy, one with a specific focus. Fundamentally, political philosophy is concerned with the relationship between the individual and society; more narrowly, it is concerned with the relationship between the individual and the state, and with the design of that state. This course will deal with the basic questions of political philosophy as they have been asked throughout Western history. What is the nature of justice? What are the rights of the individual, and on what are they founded? What are the responsibilities of the individual? Is there such a thing as natural law, and natural morality? What are the responsibilities of the government? What is the legitimate source of political authority? How are goods distributed in a just society? When, if ever, should the common good take precedence over individual liberty? The course will follow the historical dialogue, from the time of Plato to the present day; the aim of the course is to teach students how to think philosophically about political issues. Students will read the work of thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Moore, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Freud, Marx, Thoreau, and Wollstonecraft.

Electives in Economics

Economics (140)
This course provides a basic introduction to modern economics, especially as it applies to people, the choices they make, what role they have in the American economy and what role the U.S. economy plays in the world economy. Economics is the study of how people use limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants and is not limited to markets and money. In the widest sense, all decisions are economic decisions because our resources, including time, are limited but our desires are not.

Central to the course are these questions: How do markets (for goods and services, for resources, for labor) work? How does international trade work? What role should the government play in regulating business? What can we do about environmental pollution and overuse of resources? What can we do about poverty? What should the government do to help achieve low unemployment, stable prices, and economic growth? How do banks and financial markets work? How does the Federal Reserve regulate money supply, interest rates, and the economy? How are industries organized? Why are some industries dominated by so few large companies? How much should government regulate business to prevent monopoly and ensure competition with antitrust laws?

In addition to basic economics, the course will also cover American economic history since the Civil War, including the rise of big business and labor unions, antitrust laws, the First World War, the Great Depression and the New Deal, the Second World War and developments since 1945. Finally, the course will cover fundamentals of securities investment and financial planning, covering the common investment vehicles used by investors, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

This is a "hands on" course, designed to develop basic economic and financial reasoning. There is an economic way of thinking and an investor way of thinking, and students will learn both and how to apply them to real-world problems and situations. Economics and investment are things that you do rather than simply bodies of material for study.

Advanced Placement Economics (141)
Prerequisite: Completion of required courses and departmental approval.
Admission to Advanced Placement Economics is competitive and requires B+ or better in previous history and mathematics courses and permission of the department. Economics is not a prerequisite for this course. Students who have taken Economics may later elect the AP course.
Meets every day
This is a comprehensive course in modern economics for college credit, with additional work in securities investment. Most of the course is devoted to the analysis of economic problems. Major topics include the nature of markets, the structure of the American economy, government regulation of business, taxation, the monetary system, business cycles, and the patterns and problems of economic growth and inflation. Much attention will also be given to international economics, finance and trade, to the role of the United States in the world economy, and to issues of American productivity and competitiveness.

The course has a strong public policy orientation, and current economic problems, including the problems of poverty, environmental pollution and overuse of resources are stressed throughout. Since most of our contemporary social problems have economic roots, the course will provide students with the economic understanding to address these problems and come up with possible solutions. In its broadest sense, economics is not about money and wealth. It is about the use of limited resources to satisfy human wants, including those far removed from the material.

This is an economic training course. The aim is to train students to think clearly and economically--to master the economic way of thinking and apply that thinking. This is done with a minimum of mathematics. Economics is an activity as much as a subject; it is something you do.

An additional aim of the course is to provide students with a foundation for sensible financial planning for the future. To that end, securities markets and the major investment vehicles (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, futures) will be studied in detail, again with the goals of understanding and application in mind.

Readings will include an economics textbook, a securities investment textbook, and a book of articles on economic policy. Students will also use The Wall Street Journal and other publications to keep up with current developments.


Readings will include an economics textbook, a book on investment and possibly one on marketing. Students will also use Business Week and other publications to keep up with current developments.