Bachelor of Arts in History
If you’re curious to learn how the past has shaped the world in which we live, Berkshire’s bachelor’s degree in history will challenge you to explore different worlds, times, places, and cultures. You’ll absorb the fascinating work of historians as you examine court documents, diaries, letters, and newspaper accounts; conduct research; write; teach; evaluate; and make recommendations.
Available online or on-site, NU’s curriculum is a future-focused course of study designed to help you build a solid foundation of knowledge that can be applied to a broad range of career fields. You’ll focus on research-intensive cultural knowledge and develop writing and critical thinking skills to advance your career, pursue a new role, or prepare for a graduate degree.
Preparation for the Major
ENG 240 Advanced Composition* – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
An advanced course in writing that emphasizes discipline-specific research strategies, formulating research niches, and framing persuasive arguments in the disciplines.
HIS 220A United States History I* – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Survey of American history from pre-colonial times through Reconstruction. Explores economic, political, social and cultural factors that shaped the origins of the nation, including the Revolution, the Constitution and the Civil War. Special attention is paid to issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity. Includes study of the Constitution.
HIS 220B United States History II* – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Survey of American history from Reconstruction to the present. Explores economic, political, social, and cultural factors that shaped the development of the nation, including industrialization, America’s emergence as a world power and the challenges of the late 20th century. Pays special attention to issues of race, class, gender and ethnicity.
HIS 233 World Civilizations I* – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Discusses how distinctive cultures, economies and societies of the world developed from prehistoric times to the European conquest of the Americas (ca. 1500 C.E.). Explores issues of gender, class, personal identity, war, religion, urban life, and ecology pertaining to the history of civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
HIS 234 World Civilizations II* – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Discusses how the cultures, economies, and societies of the world developed since 1500 C.E. Explores issues of class and class conflict, personal and cultural identity, race, work, industrial development, colonialism, ecology, and political and economic life pertaining to the history of civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
Required for the Major
HIS 431 The Ancient World – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233
Examines ancient world history from 10,000 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E., including Neolithic revolution; rise of settled agriculture; complex societies and organized states in North Africa, Southwest Asia, South and East Asia, Mesoamerica, and South America; rise and decline of great powers in those areas; formation of Aegean civilization in Greece.
HIS 432 The Classical World – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233
Examines religious, political and philosophical innovations of classical period (500 B.C.E. to 500 C. E.) in Mediterranean region, China, and India; rise and fall of Greek, Roman, Han, Mauryan and Gupta empires; rise of important regional states like Meroë, Angkor, Teotihuacán, and Maya city-states in Mesoamerica.
HIS 433 The Post-Classical World – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 233
Examines expansion and collapse of Byzantium; nomadic invasions of Europe and development of feudalism; rise of militant Christianity; diffusion of militant Islam; spread of Indian classical culture; Chinese reunification, commercial revolution, and cultural revival; Japanese feudalism; development of African states; civilizations of Mesoamerica; settlement of Polynesians throughout Pacific.
HIS 434 Modern World, 1500 to Present – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 234
Examines colonial expansion of Europe; Islamic empires of Asia; regional powers in Eurasia; revolutions in the Atlantic world; the Industrial Revolution; the new imperialism; revolutions in Eurasia and Latin America after 1900; global wars and their consequences; national liberation and decolonization; the Cold War; post-Cold War realignments.
HIS 400 Historical Theories & Methods – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240
Investigates the important methodologies and theories of history that buttress contemporary historical scholarship. Includes introduction to historiography; examines transformation of the historical profession over last 150 years and philosophical foundations of historical practice today; explores writings of historian, their historical assumptions, and theoretical framework of their interpretations.
HIS 360 American Colonial Experience – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220A
Examines the various peoples and the economic, environmental, cultural, and political forces that shaped American development from the period before Europeans settled through the American Revolution. It evaluates key ecological changes after 1500 and the shaping of North American colonial society by mercantilism, merchant capitalism, and the slave trade.
HIS 361 Making and Sundering of Union – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220A
Examines development of American society from the early national period through the Civil War (1783-1865), including framing of Constitution, westward expansion, economic development, slavery, sectional conflict, as well as an evaluation of the social, political, and military problems faced by the contending sides in the Civil War.
HIS 362 U.S. Between Wars, 1865-1917 – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220B
Examines transformation of America and expansion of American influence after the Civil War through World War I. Includes reconstruction; demographic and economic expansion; industrialization and its consequences for labor and social relations; mass immigration; growth of American imperialism; socialist, populist, and progressive movements; and World War I and Wilsonianism.
HIS 363 U.S. Since World War I – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102; HIS 220B
Examines social, economic, cultural, and political contours of modern America from 1920 to the present, including Great Depression, social dimensions of World War II, affluence and anxieties of 1950s, political and social movements of 1960s, and challenges of structuring a new global political economy in the 1970s and after.
HIS 499 Capstone Research Project – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240 or equivalent; HIS 400 and and completion of 31.5 quarter units of core courses in the major
This seminar is the capstone course for the history major. The objective of the capstone course is to produce a paper that is exemplified by extensive research, critical thought, and intellectual engagement. The project should excite students and deepen their historical understanding. As a “senior project,” it will combine primary sources with secondary interpretations in an original and interesting way.
Upper Division Electives
HIS 320 Culture of Global Capitalism – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Places contemporary cultural, economic and technological issues in a global and historical perspective. Examines the ways that capitalism, culture, and technology have interacted over the past 500 years to shape the places, peoples and societies that have come into existence in the modern world.
SOC 350 Cultural Diversity – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Examines race, gender, ethnicity and class in 20th century American society. Introduces students to methods for studying the changing nature of our society and explores ways in which our increasingly urbanized and technological culture affects all aspects of professional and unskilled work. May involve work in oral history.
HIS 410 California History – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
This is a broad survey of California’s history that began 12,000 years ago when indigenous peoples first arrived in the region and that continues through the post-World War II period when the state emerged to become one of the world’s largest economies with a richly diverse population of 39 million people. Spanning California’s human history up through the present, the course covers pre-colonial Native California, Spanish colonization, the Mexican period, and the Anglo-American conquest, and it addresses a range of topics in California history, including: colonization and race relations, climate change and the environment, the garrison state and the high-tech economy, and class conflict and governance.
PHL 320 World Religions – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Major world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are surveyed in their philosophical, historical, art historical, and literary contexts. Important aspects of the philosophy and sociology of religion are addressed, and parallels in the study of myths, rituals, conversion experiences, and rites of passage are compared. Recent and contemporary religious trends are also addressed.
SCI 300 Geography – 4.50
Examination of relationships between geographical features of the earth and human societies. Includes the study of map construction, mapping tools, geographical data, and the influence of geomorphological features on the development and spatial distribution of political systems, languages, and religions.
Recommended
SOC 330 Film in a Global Context – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240
Examines how international cinema represents various aspects of societies and cultures outside the U.S. Representative films of Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia and Oceania, and Canada may be studied.
HIS 340 Ecological Revolution – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240
Examines the relationships between humans and the natural environment over the last 500 years. Topics include conceptions of nature, the use of resources in different societies, the consequences of various forms of economic organization (particularly capitalism) on the environment, and the impact of technological change on the world’s ecology.
HIS 330 The Global Economy – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240
Examines changes associated with globalization since World War II, including changes in technology, urbanization, finance, markets, lending, the internationalization of production, the organization of work, and power relations among nations and world cultures. Investigates both theories of and popular responses to the new global economy.
HIS 325 Modern World Migration – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Human migration is the story of individual lives enmeshed in larger historical issues of identity, culture, work, social institutions and various forms of coercion. Explores how work and migration have intersected in the last 500 years to shape the world in which we live today.
HIS 342 History of Modern Middle East – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Investigates roots of present-day events in Modern Middle East since 1600 CE. Surveys history of the region, pre-modern empires, European colonization, and renaissance of Middle East culture in the 18th and 19th century, movement toward independent states, and emergence of Pan-Arabism and Islamist ideologies of the 20th century.
HIS 345 Latin American Studies – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Introduction to Latin American history and culture focusing on diversity of Latin American societies and their multicultural heritage. Topics include colonialism and indigenous societies, growth of plantation and mining economies, enslavement of Africans, struggle for independence, distribution of political power, recurrence of popular rebellion, and artistic and cultural life.
HIS 348 Asian Studies – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Overview of contemporary Asian history and culture focusing on the diversity of Asian societies. Includes distribution of political power, ideological and structural stratification between East and West, impact of “Orientalism” in global context, impact of imperialism, effects of sexual and religious stratification, and discussion of political and religious differences.
HIS 349 African Studies – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Survey of major themes, issues, and personalities in African history since 1500. Topics include: kingdoms and empires, population movements, spread of Islam, slave trade era, abolition of slave trade, European imperialism, impact of colonialism, religious and cultural movements, nationalism and pan-Africanism, ethnicity and identity in modern Africa.
HIS 490 Guided Study – 1.50
Individual study under direction of instructor. Requires prior approval of appropriate academic department.
MUS 326 American Music – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
A survey of American music from the Colonial period to the present. Emphasizes political, social and economic developments as related to the evolution of American music, including popular, religious and art music in a broad array of styles.
SOC 325 Popular Culture – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
Introduces students to the concept and origins of popular culture and to social theories used by academics to analyze its impact on self and culture in modern consumer societies. Topics include mass media, TV, the internet, video games, sports, leisure, fashion, celebrity, shopping, advertising, and youth culture.
SOC 328 Art, Culture, and Civilization – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
An expansive overview of the history of world consciousness through various civilizations, exploring the interconnectedness of art, culture, politics, religion, economies, and the social environment in which they emerge. Draws on the contributions of people from different fields of creativity, the world’s outstanding thinkers, and the interconnectedness of their works.
HIS 336 American Film and Society – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 102
This course examines the film industry’s role in shaping popular consciousness and politics in the United States. It explores how films both reinforce and disrupt the dominant value systems and social institutions of their times, including how they serve as a vehicle for shaping public understanding of such things as the nation’s history, its social and political systems, and its different races, classes, genders, and religions. The course focuses methodologically on helping students to cultivate critical skill sets in visual literacy, historical and sociological analysis, and the application of media theory to the examination of film across different periods and genres.
SOC 410 Gender and Society – 4.50
Prerequisite: ENG 240
Examines the sociological and historical experiences of sex, sexuality, and gender in the USA, focusing on their intersectionality with race, class, and other social variables. Analyzes dominant representations of gender roles and stereotypes in public culture as well as LGBTQ and other representations that challenge prevailing power structures.
Degree and Course Requirements
To receive a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in History, students must complete at least 180 quarter units as listed below, 45 of which must be completed in residence at National University, 76.5 of which must be completed at the upper-division level and a minimum 69 units of the University General Education requirements. The following courses are degree requirements. In absence of transfer credit, additional general electives may be necessary to satisfy the total units required for the degree. Students should refer to the section on undergraduate admission procedures for specific information regarding admission and evaluation. All students receiving an undergraduate degree in Nevada are required by State Law to complete a course in Nevada Constitution.
If the foreign language requirement is not completed in General Education, the equivalent must be completed as preparation for the History major either by testing or by satisfactorily passing two courses in one of the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. Other languages are acceptable upon approval of the director of the program.
Program Learning Outcomes
As a graduate of Berkshire’s Bachelor of Arts in History, you’ll understand how to:
Assess the significance of major trends in World History.
Assess the significance of major trends in U.S. History.
Analyze a variety of primary sources.
Analyze secondary sources for their arguments and use of supporting evidence.
Discuss current concerns, new theories, new evidence, and issues that shape interpretation in history and the social sciences.
Conduct research in history and the social sciences supported by appropriate primary and secondary source materials.
Admissions
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