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History
Department Chair: Dr. Thomas C. Behr, behrt@stthom.edu
As part of the liberal arts mission of the university, the history major guides us to understand the bearing of the past on the present and to appreciate the historical character of human inquiry in exploring the principal philosophical, religious, political, literary, and aesthetic traditions of Western and world culture.
Degrees and Certificates
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History, Bachelor of Arts -
History, Minor
Classes
HIST 1301: United States History I
HIST 1302: United States History II
HIST 1336: World Community II
HIST 2333: United States to 1877
HIST 2334: United States since 1877
HIST 3123: Unborn Child in Western Tradition
This course explores the history of ideas, attitudes, and practices regarding the unborn child in the Western tradition, with a special focus on the Christian tradition and on America as both an articulation of and a departure from that tradition. After outlining pagan, Jewish, and Christian views of unborn life in the ancient and medieval periods, the course moves to a discussion of the “new embryology” of early modernity and its unfolding in American life and thought from colonial times to the present. Because understandings of unborn life have been so often shaped by the broader social circumstances under which such life has come to be, the course also examines issues of fertility and family formation, women’s identity as mothers, the experience of abortion, and the roles of law and medicine. Catholic teaching forms a normative template throughout the course.
HIST 3301: Greek and Roman History
HIST 3303: Medieval Europe
HIST 3304: Renaissance and Reformation
HIST 3305: Renaissance Women
HIST 3306: Medicine and Society
HIST 3307: Giants of Science
HIST 3308: Music Since 1945
HIST 3309: History & Cultures of the Middle East
HIST 3310: East Asian History and Culture
HIST 3311: Indo-Pacific History & Culture
HIST 3312: South Asian History & Culture
HIST 3313: Opera and Ideas
HIST 3314: History of Strategic Management
HIST 3315: The Crusades
HIST 3316: History & Cultures of Africa
HIST 3317: History of Sacred Music
This course provides an in-depth exploration of the historical development of sacred music from its origins in early Christian worship to contemporary expressions of faith through music. Students will engage with significant composers, works, and styles across various Christian traditions, including Gregorian chant, medieval polyphony, Renaissance choral works, Baroque sacred music, and modern compositions. The course emphasizes the theological, liturgical, and cultural contexts that shaped sacred music, offering insights into the role of music in religious life and its continuing relevance in contemporary worship practices.
HIST 3318: Medieval Women
HIST 3319: Hist & Culture of Jewish Ppl
Jewish history from its beginnings down to the 20th century, including political history, religious practices and everyday life, Jewish philosophy and literature depending on interests of the instructor.
HIST 3320: Church Confronts Modernity
The course will survey the range of responses among Catholic laity and Church hierarchy to the crises arising from modernization in general and from the French revolution, in particular: questions of church and state, religious freedom, educational freedom, the “social question” and the rise of revolutionary atheistic socialism. Students gain an understanding of how the pillars of Catholic Social teaching (human person, common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity) developed.
HIST 3321: Liberal Learning Through the Ages
HIST 3322: The Inklings
This course explores the literary works and intellectual legacy of the Inklings, an informal group of writers and scholars who met in Oxford from the 1930s to the 1950s. We will focus on the core members—J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield—while also examining the broader circle of associated figures. The course emphasizes how the Inklings' friendships, discussions, and mutual critiques influenced their individual and collective literary output. By emphasizing both individual achievements and collaborative influences, students will gain insight into the power of literary fellowship and its influence and impact on members’ individual works.
HIST 3323: Unborn Child in Western Tradition
This course explores the history of ideas, attitudes, and practices regarding the unborn child in the Western tradition, with a special focus on the Christian tradition and on America as both an articulation of and a departure from that tradition. After outlining pagan, Jewish, and Christian views of unborn life in the ancient and medieval periods, the course moves to a discussion of the “new embryology” of early modernity and its unfolding in American life and thought from colonial times to the present. Because understandings of unborn life have been so often shaped by the broader social circumstances under which such life has come to be, the course also examines issues of fertility and family formation, women’s identity as mothers, the experience of abortion, and the roles of law and medicine. Catholic teaching forms a normative template throughout the course.
HIST 3324: Crime & Punishment in America
This course examines the history of crime and punishment in America from colonial times to the dawn of the twenty-first century. It addresses changing theories of crime and punishment and their varying applications, including corporal punishment, the rise of the penitentiary, and the attempted reforms of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course also examines changing definitions and categorization of crime in areas such as sexual conduct, economic activity, race, and religion.
HIST 3331: Age of Revolutions: Europe 1715-1870
HIST 3332: Clash of Dictators
HIST 3333: England under the Tudors and Stuarts, 1485-1714
HIST 3336: Texas History
HIST 3340: Colonial Latin America
HIST 3343: Latin American Revolutions
HIST 3348: History of Ideas in America
HIST 3350: Revolutionary America
HIST 3353: The American Civil War
HIST 3365: History of Ireland Since 1600
HIST 3369: Church History
Church history and Christian thought from apostolic times to the present.