300-400 level courses are on special topics and are more advanced. They often presuppose some basic knowledge in the field and should be more difficult courses than courses at the 1-199 levels. The department is trying to insure that some 400 level courses, although substantially more difficult, are also small in size; they thus may be suitable for graduate students.
HIST 345 Gender in American History to 1865
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
From the sixteenth century, when Native American populations flourished on the North American continent, to the Civil War, when North and South collided over the question of slavery, women as well as men played critical roles in making American history. This course traces the history of gender in North America during this period with special emphasis on the impact of reproductive and economic expectations for women and men upon ethnic, racial, regional, and class relations. Slides and readings from primary documents introduce students to the conditions of women's and men's lives during the colonial and revolutionary periods and follow the path of women's activism in the nineteenth century. Dramatic changes in courtship, wage labor, parental authority, female access to public forms of power, and ideas about sexuality make this an exciting period of historical transformation in the most basic features of women's and men's lives, ushering in ideals for manhood and womanhood that still influence how we experience gender and sexuality today.
