Department of History
History is the systematic examination of the significant events, people, and ideas that have shaped human civilization. The study of history humanizes us by multiplying the range of experiences in which we share. It civilizes us by demonstrating how institutions and ideals, past and present, have developed; at the same time it offers critiques of those institutions and ideals. Finally, the study of history liberates us by freeing us from a narrow view of time and place. It offers a frame of reference for making critical judgments about the present and the future.
History trains our critical faculties to arrive at valid conclusions based on all available sources of information. The historical way of knowing is not narrow or technical. It is applicable to a broad range of human activities from business (case studies) to health (medical case histories). Historical method is a formal but very general means of discovery and insight with nearly universal application.
The department of history enthusiastically supports and contributes to Xavier University's commitment to being an institution for which the intellectual pursuit of the truth, enriched by value-oriented teaching and active scholarship, is the highest priority.
The history faculty engages in research and is active in a wide array of professional and civic organizations. It is, however, first and foremost a teaching faculty. The faculty is readily available to students during regularly scheduled office hours. Students are encouraged to participate in history-related activities outside the classroom. Classes are small, and students and faculty get to know each other on an individual basis.
1 Opium: The First War on Drugs
This team-taught course examines the origins and outcomes of the First Opium War fought between Britain and China from 1839 to 1842. In addition to exploring the basic narrative of the conflict itself, the class will attempt to disentangle and analyze the many elements of this complicated clash of cultures. From the European perspective, we will focus on British imperialism, including the "narco-military" state built by the British East India Company, nineteenth-century perceptions of the "East," and the impact of industrialization on empire. From the Chinese perspective, we will examine the Chinese imperial system, including the centuries-old tributary system of foreign relations, the nineteenth-century dynastic decline of the Qing empire, the socio-political effects of opium smuggling and addiction in China, and the era of unequal treaties following Chinese defeat in the Opium War. By employing a comparative approach, this class will give particular attention to the historically contingent nature of Britain's rise and China's simultaneous decline, challenging common assumptions about the inevitability of Western global dominance.
2 Black Gumshoes and Dime Novels
This course will examine the establishment, development, and trajectory of the presence of African American detectives and domestic workers in the literature penned by pulp novelists and historians since the Civil War and where they stand in relation to United States history. Organized chronologically and thematically in scope, the course will examine the manner in which Civilization Discourse, the Jazz Age, the Great Depression and New Deal, Popular Front Politics, World War II, and the Modern Civil Rights Movement figured in the writings of Pauline Hopkins, Richard Wright, Chester Himes, Ann Petry, Walter Mosley, Paula Woods, and others during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Finally, we will also interrogate how social scientists and literary critics have interpreted the literary traditions and how their interpretations of the genre have changed over time.
3 Cathedrals, Crusaders & Colleges
This course examines medieval civilization in Europe for the period generally known as the High Middle Ages (1000-1300). We will organize our exploration of this period with three emblematic developments of the High Middle Ages: cathedral-building, the crusading movement, and the rise of universities. We will discuss the foundations of these developments, addressing the nature of the agricultural and commercial revolutions, high medieval religion, and medieval politics and patronage.
4 History of Central America
Intended for students participating in Xavier's Nicaragua Service Learning program, this course surveys a variety of broad themes and critical issues in the history of Central America, including, but not limited to the following; the pre-Columbian civilizations of Central America; the "encounter" between indigenous Central Americans and Spanish colonizers; the process of independence from colonial rule; the formation of nation-states in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the struggle to overcome persistent violence in the middle and later twentieth century; and the turn toward new economic, political, and cultural realities in the twenty-first century.
5 History of Jews in North America
This course is part of the new Jewish and Interfaith Studies Program recently formed by Xavier University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the first partnership of its kind between a Jesuit, Catholic university and a reform Jewish rabbinic seminary. The course will explore 350 years of Jewish history in the North America, focusing on historical and sociological factors- immigration, anti-Semitism, class, gender, ethnicity, and religion- that have informed the Jewish experience in America, and helped shape American Jewish identity.
Undergraduate Admission