Topics Course Descriptions Summer and Fall 2013
Each semester, the History Department offers several "topics" courses. These are often new or cross traditional chronological and geographical divides. American History topics fall under HIST 533, European topics fall under HIST 597, and Non-Western topics fall under HIST 598. The KSU catalog does not offer a full description of these topics classes, so we do so below.
HIST 533: TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS
HIST 533 - Manifest Destiny - FALL 2013
T U 3:55 - 5:10 p.m. #13578
The focus of this course will be very different from any you have completed in the
past. It will not center on the history of a particular person or place or period
or event. This course, rather, will chart the history of an idea. Specifically, it
will assess the importance of the idea of “Manifest Destiny” in the first three centuries
of American history. It will open with a survey of Pre-Columbian patterns of land
ownership and use in North America and then examine the ways in which colonial conceptions
of property, divine imperative and natural rights shaped the history of colonial development
from the time of the first settlements at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. We will
then move into the 19th century and explore the connections between Manifest Destiny
and events such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Louisiana Purchase, Indian
Removal, the Texas Revolution, overland migration and the war with Mexico. It will
close with a study of American motives and objectives in the Spanish-American War,
the American decision for overseas empire, and the occupation of the Philippines.
SANDERS
HIST 533 - Lost Kansas Communities - FALL 2013
T U 1:05 - 2:20 p.m #15836
Introduces students to the diversity of Kansas towns founded between 1840 and WWI.
With over 6,000 documented ghost towns, Kansas is fertile ground for the study of
human migration, settlement history, and the failure to persist. This class fulfills
the Kansas History credit for education majors; it is also a field research course
featuring off-campus trips, oral history, mapping, and work with archival documents
and photographs. Students with creative ability in art, photography, cartography,
and writing are especially welcome. MORGAN
HIST 598: TOPICS IN NON-WESTERN HISTORY
HIST 598 - Conquests and Conquistadors - ONLINE SUMMER 2013 Division of Continuing
Education
This course will explore the dynamic and extraordinary conquests of Spanish America.
How did just a few hundred Spaniards topple the expansive Aztec empire? What are the
legacies and myths of conquest that persist today? We will examine relations between
indigenous inhabitants of the Americas and European conquistadors and explore the
nature of religious conversion through historical texts, artwork, literature, film
and games. McCREA
HIST 598 - Modern Middle East - FALL 2013
T U 1:05 - 2:20 p.m. #14200
This course explores critical themes in the history of Islam and the broader Middle
East (including North Africa) from the sixteenth century to the present. Topics covered
include the rise of early modern empires, closer contact with Western Europe and East
Asia, the impact of Western imperialism, state-sponsored defensive reforms, the development
of religious modernism, social movements and constitutionalism, the emergence of nationalism,
oil-dependent economies and rentier states, the origins of religious activism, and
the contemporary struggle for civil rights. KAZEMI