Expanded Course Descriptions
The Department of History scheduled these undergraduate courses for FALL QUARTER 2026. This list and descriptions are subject to change, so please check back often.
Registration appointment times available on Schedule Builder and myucdavis.
- Lower Division
HIS 2Y: Introduction to the History of Science & Technology (World) - Professor Stolzenberg (cross-listed with STS 2Y)
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to topics and methods of the history of science and technology. Emphasis on understanding the role of science and technology in the modern world through a long-term historical perspective. (Same course as STS 002.) GE credit: AH, SL, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2017 Fall Quarter.
Description: This class explores the history of the investigation of nature and its technological manipulation, focusing on three case studies: (1) Alchemy and Chemistry from Antiquity to the Enlightenment (2) Evolution and Energy in the Age of Empire (3) Science, Technology, and the Cold War. Course material is non-technical and accessible to students from all majors. Required text: Course Reader. This course fulfills the GE for Scientific Literacy (SL) as well as AH, SS, WC, and WE.HIS 004C: History of Western Civilization (Europe) - Professor Campbell
Description: This course presents an overview of the major questions of European history from the late 18th century to the present. In the first part of the course, we will investigate the fundamental changes to European life that the French and Industrial Revolutions wrought. In the second, focusing on the 20th century, we will turn to the problems that an increasingly mobile and diverse continent confronted in world wars hot and cold, while tracing the gradual emergence of a new European order.
Grading: Grading will be based on two papers, two in-class exams, and a series of in-class quizzes.HIS 7A: History of Latin America to 1700 (Latin America) - Professor Reséndez
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to the history of Spanish and Portuguese America from the late pre-Columbian period through the initial phase and consolidation of a colonial regime (circa 1700). Topics include conquest, colonialism, racial mixture, gender, and labor systems. GE credit: AH, SS, WC, WE. Effective: 2004 Fall Quarter.
Description: This is an introduction to the history of Spanish and Portuguese America from the late pre-Columbian period through the initial phase and consolidation of a colonial regime (circa 1700). The lectures, readings, and discussion sections offer a broad overview of the indigenous roots and realities of the hemisphere, the Spanish and Portuguese conquests of this region, and the emergence of colonial regimes in the 16th and 17th centuries. It will explore the contrasting experiences of Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans and their mixed descendants in an evolving colonial world. Key topics will include the disruptions and continuities of the major indigenous civilizations of the continent, colonialism, racial mixture and race relations, gender, labor systems, identity, religion, and environmental transformation. This is the beginning of a three-course sequence devoted to the history of Latin America. Each course can be taken independently.
Grading:
1) Midterm Exam (20%)
2) Final Exam (20%)
3) Participation (class and section) (20%)
4) Two In-class essays (40%)HIS 10B: World History, 1350-1850 (World) - Professor Anooshahr
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). Major topics in world history from the 14th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Topics will vary but may include: oceans as systems of human communication and conflict; the global consequences of "industrious revolutions" in Europe and Asia, etc.HIS 17A: History of the United States (US) - Professor St. John
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). The experience of the American people from the Colonial Era to the Civil War.
Description: This class will provide a broad introduction to the history of the territory that is now the United States from the first encounters between Americans and Europeans through the mid-nineteenth century and the crisis of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Don’t let the course title fool you; this is not just a history of the United States (which, of course, did not begin to become a nation until 1776). In addition to focusing on the first century of U.S. history, this course will go back hundreds of years to briefly touch on North America before the arrival of Europeans before exploring how European colonists, Indigenous Americans, and enslaved Africans created a new world together on the continent. We’ll then move on to discuss the founding of the United States and the development, near collapse, and rebuilding of the nation in the years leading up through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The course will introduce students to some of the central themes in American history and how historians have developed this understanding by analyzing primary source material and assembling narratives. Course themes include imperialism and colonization, slavery and labor regimes, trade, resource extraction, and the emergence of capitalism, family and community formation and the evolution of American cultures, the rise of nation-states and the dispossession of Native polities, and politics and the ideology of freedom and democracy.HIS 17B: History of the United States (US)
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). The experience of the American people from the Civil War to the end of the Cold War.HIS 18B: Race in the United States Since 1865 (US) - Professor Parker
Lecture—3 hour(s); Discussion—1 hour(s). Introduction to the history of race and racial formation in America since 1865 through a comparative approach that examines the experiences of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native American and Mexican Americans and other Latino/a groups.
Description: This course explores the history of race, racial formation, and race relations in the United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Employing a mix of lectures, primary and secondary source readings, and class discussions, we will examine the experiences of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and other Latino/a groups. The course will consider the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of race and racism and cover key historical events, legislative milestones, and social movements that have shaped racial experiences in America. Key topics include Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, race in modern America (such as mass incarceration, immigration, and the Black Lives Matter movement), the influence of race on American culture, and significant legal cases and policies affecting racial equality, such as affirmative action, voting rights, education, and housing discrimination.- Undergraduate Seminars
HIS 102D: Modern Europe to 1815 (Europe) - Professor Stolzenberg
Topic: TBD
Description: TBD
HIS 102J: Latin America Since 1810 (Latin America) - Professor Reséndez
Topic: The History of Drug Trafficking in Latin America
Description: The drug wars of Latin America regularly make headlines around the world. All the right ingredients for a clandestine but lucrative business are present in the region: chemicals to manufacture narcotics, mountains and jungles to hide laboratories, weak or corrupt governments, and ruthless entrepreneurs. In this undergraduate seminar, we will explore the origins and development of various drug war zones in Latin America, stretching back to the nineteenth century, examine the efforts of various governments in the region as well as in the United States to combat these zones, and try to understand why these illegal operations are so resilient and adaptable. We will do this by reading and discussing a variety of sources ranging from personal accounts to historical and sociological treatments.Grades
Your final grade will be determined by:
1) Participation in Class (20%)
2) Mid-term presentations (20%)
3) Final papers (60%)
HIS 102K: American History to 1787 (US) - Professor Smolenski
Topic: TBD
Description: TBD
HIS 102L: US 1787-1896 (US) - Professor Downs
Topic: The History of Voting Rights in the United States
Description: This seminar examines the long history of voting rights in the United States from founding to the present but with a focus on the transitions of the 19th century. When and how did voting rights begin to expand to poorer white men? Was the United States actually founded as a republic before it became a democracy, or was it a democracy before it became a republic, and why does this matter? How did a nation founded upon slavery become only the second country to enfranchise former slaves? And, then, how did a country with nearly the broadest electorate and the most-expansive democracy in the world roll back those changes between 1890-1920, driving down voter access and voting rates to far below other comparable countries? And how did that same period of retraction produce the single-greatest expansion of voting in American history, the enfranchisement of white women? In periods where people fought vigorously over the right to vote of working men, vagrants, poor white men, women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and non-citizens, how did cultural concepts of race, gender, sexuality, and belonging shape those discussions? And how do these struggles relate to contemporary debates over voting rights, gerrymandering, and felon disfranchisement? Students will do targeted research on late 18th century voting patterns, early 19th century women's voting, and mid-19th century women's rights and Black rights movements, then complete a research paper or digital history project.- Upper Division
HIS 109: Environmental Change, Disease & Public Health (World) - Professor Davis
Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Project (Term Project). Analysis of environmental changes from pre-history to the present and their influence on disease distribution, virulence and public health. Focus on critical study of many human-driven environmental changes and the accelerated transformation/spread of pathogens under globalization. Not open for credit to students who have taken HIS 109B. (Same course as SAS 109.) GE credit: SE, SL, SS, WC. Effective: 2016 Fall Quarter. Fulfills the GE Science & Engineering; Social Science; & Scientific Literacy requirement.
Description: This course analyzes environmental change at multiple scales and how these changes have influenced public health over time. It takes as a starting point that the “environment” includes not only deserts, mountains, plains and rivers, but also slaughter houses, hospitals and our own and other animal bodies. The changes that have taken places in these varied environments have included the obvious like deforestation and the damming of rivers and the not so obvious like creating antibiotic resistance, and creating the conditions for super contamination of large quantities of food with pathogenic organisms such as E.coli 0157:H7, Listeria, and salmonella. Furthermore, these transformations may be changing our epigenomes with what we eat, drink and breathe in ways that induce illness. All of these changes have had impacts on human health. Many of these environmental changes have been driven by human action over the last several millennia. The pace and scope of such changes have become quicker and more pervasive during our era of “globalization.” It is critical to understand these changes in order to build a more sustainable future for people and the planet.HIS 146A: Europe in the 20th Century (Europe) - Professor Dickinson
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Survey of the history of Europe from 1919 to 1939.
Description: This course will cover the history of Europe in the first part of the twentieth century, from the 1890s through to the outbreak of World War II. Lectures and the course textbook will examine the broad pattern of the evolution of European societies and the European states in these decades, focusing on political, social, and cultural change. The first few weeks of the course will focus on long-term trends and changes in the decades around 1900. Our understanding of the problems and potentials of European civilization in this period will then serve as a basis for understanding the violent upheavals of the first decades of the twentieth century, from 1914 to 1939. Our readings--in addition to the textbook--will be drawn from primary documents written during the period, and from scholarly articles examining particular aspects of European social and cultural history. The documents will focus on the daily lives of particular Europeans, on key moments of political conflict, and on key ideas that shaped the thinking and expectations of Europeans in this period. These readings will focus on the ways that individual Europeans' lives "fit into" the broader sweep of history and social development, and on ways in which they experienced and thought about moments of crisis in the development of their societies. The articles we will read will present close analysis of particular aspects of the broader trends and grander events discussed in lectures and in the textbook. Readings from the course will include a textbook, some scholarly articles by historians, and selections from several autobiographies, from several novels and short stories, from a number of scholarly monographs, and from a number of works of political and social philosophy.
HIS 164: History of Chile (Latin America) - Professor Schlotterbeck
Description: In October 2019, the Chilean government’s roll-out of a 30-peso (approximately four cents) fare increase on Santiago’s overcrowded metro system ignited a wave of protests. In the immediate wake of that decision, young people from across the capital took to the streets. Many jumped turnstiles and occupied subway stations as they chanted now-famous slogans like ‘evadir, no pagar, otra forma de luchar’ (evade, don’t pay, another way to fight). Discontent quickly escalated when Chile’s conservative president, Sebastián Piñera, declared a “state of siege” in the capital, provocatively adding that Chile was “at war”. His order marked the first time since the country’s 17-year military dictatorship (1973-1990) that the Chilean armed forces had been called into the streets. Born after the 1990 democratic transition, this so-called generation without fear has returned not just to the streets but also to politics in new and exciting ways.What began as protests over subway fares quickly morphed into a challenge of the dictatorship’s market-driven policies – and by extension – the legitimacy of a political system that still maintained them twenty years after General Augusto Pinochet left office. Among various calls for economic, social, and political reforms, the most consistent demand was to rewrite the 1980 Constitution inherited from the dictatorship. In an October 2020 national plebiscite, the overwhelming majority (78%) of Chileans affirmed not only the desire for a new constitution, but also for a democratically elected Constitutional Convention to include representatives from a broad cross-section of society. Yet, after three years of debate, in September 2022, 62% of Chileans rejected the progressive new constitution that would have legalized abortion, adopted universal healthcare, granted indigenous rights, and set a global record of more than 100 guaranteed constitutional rights. Most recently, in December 2026, Chileans elected President José Antonio Kast, marking the first time since the return to democracy in 1990 than an open supporter of the Pinochet dictatorship held the presidency and mirroring a broader trend of right-wing populism in Latin America.
How did Chile arrive at this juncture? Departing from current events, three central questions will guide our historical thinking: how did everyday people experience key moments of social and political transformation? What role have young people played historically as agents of change? And finally, how does taking the historical agency of marginalized subjects—in this case, the urban working poor, indigenous people, and children—into account challenge our larger assumptions about history?
Beginning with the construction of the Chilean nation in the 19th century, we will examine how states are formed from colonial territories and how national communities are defined and consolidated along exclusionary lines of race, class, and gender. Turning to the 20th century, we will assess competing strategies for economic development and demands by different sectors for political, social, and economic inclusion. The final unit on historical memory in the post-dictatorship era considers how the past continues to act on the present and asks what elements of this history might be of value in imagining alternatives in the present and future.
HIS 168: History of Inter-American Relations (Latin America)
Description: Diplomatic history of Latin America since independence, intra-Latin American relations, relations with the United States, participation in international organizations, and communism in Latin America.
HIS 170A: Colonial America (US) - Professor Smolenski
Description: This course examines the settlement, growth, and development of European colonial societies in North America from the era of contact and conquest through the Seven Years’ War. Colonial America was a diverse, complex, vibrant, and often violent place; its history contains numerous stories of tragedy and triumph, struggle and survival, cooperation, and coercion. Out of these interactions between Indians, Europeans, and Africans emerged multicultural, creole societies. Over the course of this quarter, we will address many facets of this rich history, exploring such topics as the European “discovery” and conquest of America; the settlement of European colonies; the Indian response to European invasion; the rise of African slavery in the Americas; the evolution of colonial thought and culture; and the rivalry between European imperial powers over the Americas. The course also means to challenge and develop your abilities to think critically about diverse evidence and to argue persuasively in support of your conclusions. You should not undertake this course unless you are willing and able to attend lectures consistently and to perform the considerable reading and writing assignments punctually. The papers will be critically examined for style as well as content.HIS 172: American Environmental History (US) - Professor Warren
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper. American history through connections between people and nature, pre-Columbus to climate change. Native America; conquest; epidemics; extinctions; industrialization; pollution; environmentalism; climate change and global warming; ideas of nature.
Description: From Native American domestication of corn to colonial epidemics, from the making of the atomic bomb to global climate change, this course reveals a new way of understanding the American past by asking big questions about humans, nature, and the shifting bonds between them. How does American history look different when we consider germs, mosquitoes, pigs, plants, and coal as key actors in stories about people? How did Americans go from fearing wilderness to loving it? How did the pursuit of leisure change the landscapes they appreciated, and with what consequences? (When did hiking become "fun"? And were all those national parks actually unoccupied when they were created?) What are the roots of our current industrial food crisis, and how is it connected to the invention of the refrigerator and the automobile, and hamburgers and fish sticks? When did the environmental justice movement begin? How is environmental justice connected to the environmental movement? How did fears of overpopulation contribute to the development of the birth control pill -- and with what consequences for ideas of sex, gender, and nature? Who invented Earth Day and the EPA? How did decisions about agriculture and urban growth contribute to the frequent droughts we are experiencing today? Who discovered global warming, and what does it have to do with the inundation of New Orleans and parts of New York during recent hurricanes? Why and how have climate change deniers seized the upper hand in public debate—or have they? Join us to learn the answers to these and similar questions as we see American history in a new light. Lectures, discussion, readings, film.HIS 174D: Selected Themes in 20th-Century American History (US) - Professor Parker
Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Interpretive overview of a single topic in the history of the United States in the 20th century with attention to the phases and processes of historical change.
Topic: Revolutionary Lives: Black Women in U.S. History
Description: This course traces the history of African American women from the era of the Great Migration to the present. It examines how race, gender, and class have intersected to shape Black women’s lives, attending both to the constraints imposed by racist institutions and to the strategies Black women developed to challenge them.Centering Black women as thinkers, organizers, and political actors, the course explores their diverse visions of freedom and justice—from early twentieth-century reform efforts and the transformative impact of the Great Migration to the labor-centered civil rights struggles of the 1930s and 1940s; from the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Women’s Liberation movements to late twentieth-century antipoverty campaigns and the reconfiguration of inequality in the post–Civil Rights era.
Along the way, we will engage not only political activists such as Ella Baker, Coretta Scott King, Elaine Brown, and Angela Davis, but also cultural figures like Diana Ross, Nina Simone, Josephine Baker, and Maya Angelou, whose work reshaped Black womanhood, visibility, and power in the public imagination.
HIS 183A: The Frontier Experience: Trans-Mississippi West (US) - Professor St. John
Description: This lecture course will provide an introduction to the early history of the place that we now know as the U.S. West. A vast and varied region stretching from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean, the West has both been characterized by its diversity and bound together by a shared regional identity and history. Beginning with the eve of European expansion in the seventeenth century and continuing through the 1870s, this course will focus on the historical processes that have defined the West. It will explore the central role of Native people in shaping the West, both before and after Europeans entered the region, explore how European empires, Mexico, the United States, and other powers struggled to control it, and explain how it was that it finally came to be a part of the United States. Course themes include: competition for land and natural resources, Native power, the expansion of markets and settlement, conquest, nation-building, the role of women and families, and racial and ethnic diversity. Using a range of primary and secondary sources, we will explore the struggles for land, resources, identity, and power which have characterized the West and its role in the nation.
HIS 196A: Medieval India (Asia) - Professor Anooshahr
Description: This course offers a chronological survey of South Asian history from circa 1000CE to circa 1750. It discusses the political history of the subcontinent both in South India and the north. It ends with he rise of the Mughal Empire, the second wealthiest state in the early modern world, and ends with the conquest of South Asia by the English East India Company. We will emphasize political, social, religious, and some economic history. The aim is to be acquainted with broad patterns and also begin to think historically: focus on change over time and be critical of sources and interpretations.- Graduate Seminars
HIS 202H: Major Issues in Historical Interpretation: United States – Professor Warren
Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper. Fundamental issues and debates in the study of history. United States. Readings, papers, and class reports.
Topic: Race, Nature, & Conquest in North America
Description: This course will explore major themes in the history and historiography of the field of US environmental history from the field’s origins in the late twentieth century through some of the most recent works to appear in the last few years. The class will consider how the field’s early insights into how Americans thought about and transformed the environment and were in turn shaped by it have evolved over time. A provisional list of topics includes class, race, gender and sexuality, Indigenous history, Black ecologies, conquest and settler colonialism, environmental justice.HIS 202I: Major Issues in Historical Interpretation: Latin America - Professor Schlotterbeck
Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper. Fundamental issues and debates in the study of history. United States. Readings, papers, and class reports.
Description: This intensive reading course provides graduate students with an in-depth exploration of the historiography of Latin America in the twentieth century. The course covers a range of topics, including state formation and the influence of mass politics and populism, the Cuban and Central American revolutions, the military dictatorships and democratic transitions in the Southern Cone, and the social, economic, and cultural consequences of neoliberalism.Scholarship produced in the past four decades has addressed traditional questions in Latin American history, such as land, labor, politics, social relations, economic development, and external pressures. However, these scholars have applied new conceptual frameworks, including gender, race/ethnicity, and subaltern studies, and employed methodological approaches such as oral history, post-structural analysis, and discursive analysis. These approaches challenge conventional assumptions about periodization, agency, and interpretation.
In addition to acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the region’s historiography, students will develop the skills to identify potential dissertation topics and align their emerging research interests with the broader paradigms and turning points that have shaped Latin American history.
Graduate students from all disciplines are encouraged to enroll in this course. This course fulfills elective requirements for the Women and Gender History (WGH) minor field and the Human Rights DE. It is a prerequisite for any history graduate student completing a preliminary exam or minor field in 20th-century Latin America. For the reading list, please contact the professor at [email protected]
HIS 203A: Research Seminar - Professor Warren
Seminar 3 hour(s), Tutorial 1 hour(s). Designed for students preparing for higher degrees in history. Individual research and analysis resulting in substantial research paper of publishable quality. Completion required of all Ph.D. candidates. The three courses must be taken in continuous sequence, ordinarily during second year.HIS 204: Historiography - Professor Dickinson
Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper. Major issues in the philosophy and methodology of history.