Course Guide
History 111: World History since 1500
In this course, you will be invited to explore the continuities, connections, trends, and ruptures in world history from the late fifteenth century to the present. We will investigate the historical processes that formed the modern world, including cross-cultural interactions, capitalism, global migration, colonization and decolonization, nationalism and imperialism, trade networks, revolutions, and war. Topics include the foundation of European empires, the spread of Islamic world powers, the establishment of the African slave trade, the rise of MIng/Qing China and Tokugawa in Japan, the two world wars, the rise of globalization and climate change. The course emphasizes the multiple perspectives and experiences that shaped world history, including the determinant role played by non-European societies in making the modern world. Course readings include a textbook, some documentaries or movies, and a set of primary sources that provide a window into the diverse human experiences in history. Course assignments include regular discussion posts, a midterm and a final examination. For more information or to request a syllabus, contact Professor Richard Chu: @email. (4 credits, DG HS GenEd)
History 283: American Gridiron Football
This class examines the history of American gridiron football from its earliest days as a game played primarily at elite colleges through its development into the most popular spectator sport in the United States. The class examines the complex and contentious history of race and ethnicity in football, and its place in American politics from Theodore Roosevelt’s intervention to keep the sport legal to present-day controversies over everything from race and sexuality to patriotism. For more information or to request a syllabus, contact Professor Wolfe: @email. (4 credits, HS GenEd)
History 385: Modern Boston
This course will survey the history of Boston from the nineteenth century to the present. The course will use Boston as a lens to analyze and understand how the United States in general and American cities in particular have changed over the past two hundred years. Topics include urbanization; industrialization and women and child labor; abolitionism and Boston’s role in the Civil War; Irish immigration and discrimination; class conflict and the Gilded Age; machine politics and political and moral reform in the Progressive Era; radicalism and protest; urban renewal; racism, civil rights activism, and school desegregation; immigration and migration in the twentieth century. Students will gain an understanding of Boston’s rich history and how cities can offer insight into larger historical changes. For more information or to request a syllabus, contact Professor Andy Grim: [email protected] . (4 credits, DU HS GenEd)
Learn More
For questions about course content, contact the faculty member teaching the course. For general questions about the UMass History Department's online classes, contact @email. For all other questions, including registration and records, contact U+. To register, follow the steps noted here.