History: American (HSTA)

HSTA 101H - American History I. 4 Credits.

(AM) Offered autumn. A comprehensive introductory history of Colonial, Revolutionary, and 19th century America, to 1877. Lecture-discussion. Credit not allowed for both 101H and 103H.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 102H - American History II. 4 Credits.

(AM) Offered spring. A comprehensive introductory history of the U.S. since 1877. Lecture-discussion. Credit not allowed for both HSTA 102H and 104H.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 103H - Honors American History I. 4 Credits.

(AM) Offered autumn. Enrollment by consent of instructor. A comprehensive introductory history of Colonial, Revolutionary, and 19th century America, to 1877. Lecture-honors discussion. Credit not allowed for both 103H and 101H.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 104H - Honors American History II. 4 Credits.

(AM) Offered spring. Enrollment by consent of instructor. A comprehensive introductory history of the U. S. since 1877. Lecture-honors discussion. Credit not allowed for both HSTA 102H and 104H.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 150H - The Veteran's Experience. 3 Credits.

Offered autumn and spring. Offered at Missoula College. Interdisciplinary, historical perspective of the veteran’s experience in American history, since antiquity. and in American society today. Examines the nature of military service, experiences of war, and consequences of service and war on veterans and their families through the study of sources from history, classical literature, literature, philosophy, and ethics.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 191 - Special Topics. 1-6 Credits.

(R-6) Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

HSTA 198 - Internship. 1-6 Credits.

Prereq., consent of department. Extended classroom experience which provides practical application of classroom learning during placements off campus. Prior approval must be obtained from the faculty supervisor and the Internship Services office. A maximum of 6 credits of Internship (198, 298, 398, 498) may count toward graduation.

HSTA 201E - History of American Democracy. 4 Credits.

(AM) Offered Intermittently. What does it mean for “the people” to rule? Who should be able to vote? Should social equality be guaranteed to all? This course explores how Americans have battled over these and other ethical questions of democratic governance and society from the founding of the United States to the recent past. It highlights fundamental struggles over political, socio-economic, and cultural power and their relationship to governance as well as tensions between the United States’ professed democratic commitments to equality and its persistent practices of, for example, imperialism, racism, sexism, and labor exploitation.

Gen Ed Attributes: Ethical & Human Values, Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 255 - Montana History. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered autumn. An introductory and interpretive history from Lewis and Clark to 2000.

HSTA 275 - Making History Public. 3 Credits.

(AM) Explores the wide-ranging field of public history. Examines the methods, theories, and ethics that guide how public historians exhibit history in museums, engage the public with digital projects, provide historical context in public places, work with local communities, and use historical expertise in law and policy. Discusses current and past controversies in public history and surveys how the digital age has transformed aspects of public history. Students work on a class project that will give them hands-on experience with a real public history project. Field trips included.

HSTA 285H - Sex in America: Gender and Sexuality in U.S. History. 3 Credits.

Offered intermittently. (AM) This course provides a broad overview of the history of gender and sexuality in America. This course investigates the varied and changing attitudes toward gender identity, gender roles, gender relations, sexual difference, sexual identity, and sexual relationships in North America from the fifteenth century to the present. By examining how ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality have changed over time and varied according to race, class, religion, and ethnicity, students will gain historical perspective on contemporary debates on these issues.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies

HSTA 291 - Special Topics. 1-12 Credits.

(R-12) (AM) Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

HSTA 307Y - The American Revolution and Founding Era. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered intermittently. This course introduces students to the critical period of the American Revolution and Founding era (c. 1760-1790). The first part examines the origins of the Revolution and its aftermath with particular attention to political, intellectual, economic, social, and cultural factors. The second part examines the creation and ratification of the United States Constitution.

Gen Ed Attributes: Democracy and Citizenship

HSTA 315 - Early American Republic. 3 Credits.

(AM) Prereq., WRIT 101 (or higher) or equivalent. This course explores the dynamic and formative period of United States history between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Topics include the U.S. Constitution & the early American state; political culture & the rise of democracy; western empire & Native American dispossession; religion & reform; the expansion of southern slavery & the growth of northern market capitalism; sectional conflict and the threat of civil war.

Gen Ed Attributes: Intermediate Writing

HSTA 316 - American Civil War Era. 3 Credits.

(AM) Civil War and Reconstruction; the triumph of the industrialist and capitalist ethic.

HSTA 320 - Birth of Modern US. 3 Credits.

(AM) The history of the U.S. from 1877 to 1920 is largely the story of Americans responding to profound social, cultural and economic change. In an effort to bring order to their changing world, Americans created new institutions, retooled their ideologies, and improved the nation's infrastructure. The order they created is, in modified form, still with us today. Students will explore the myriad changes that transformed the United States during this period and study the social, political, and cultural struggles that shaped the emergence of Modern America.

HSTA 321 - America in Crisis. 3 Credits.

(AM) This era in U.S. history was marked by a series of crises: the contested transition to modernity during the 1920s, the Great Depression, and World War II and its aftermath. This course will explore how Americans responded to these crises, why they responded to them the way they did, and how their responses altered the society in which they lived.

HSTA 322 - U.S. History: WWII to Present. 3 Credits.

(AM) The Cold War and its consequences, the civil rights revolution, affluence and anxiety, counter-culture, political radicalism, feminism, the Nixon years, Watergate and after.

HSTA 323 - U.S. in the 1950s. 3 Credits.

(AM) Examines the political, social, cultural, intellectual developments of America in the 1950s. Particular emphasis is placed on cultural history.

HSTA 324 - U.S. in the 1960s. 3 Credits.

(AM) Examines the political, social, cultural, intellectual developments of America in the 1960s. Topics include the Great Society, political radicalism, the counter culture, black radicalism, and Vietnam.

HSTA 326 - Digital Worlds of Early America. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered Intermittently. Surveys early American history, with particular attention to the period between 1600 and 1776. Examines the impact of our digital age on the practice of early American history and the dissemination of knowledge about it to a wide public. Through assignments and hands-on projects, students will learn about the digital humanities and explore specific digital history approaches, methods, and public outreach.

Gen Ed Attributes: Intermediate Writing

HSTA 333 - American Military History. 3 Credits.

(R-6) (AM) The French and Indian Wars to Vietnam and beyond; chronological and topical accounts.

HSTA 335 - Movie America. 3 Credits.

(AM) This course examines major topics and themes in United States history from the early twentieth century to the present using movies as primary sources.

HSTA 336E - America at War, 1898-Present. 3 Credits.

(AM) This course examines United States military history from the War of 1898 to the present, focusing in particular on the nation’s involvement in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Middle East. It takes a broad view of military history, studying battles, tactics, and diplomacy and the influence that wars and warfare have had on American society and the nation’s role in the world. This course pays particular attention to the ethical questions and dilemmas that arise in war.

Gen Ed Attributes: Ethical & Human Values

HSTA 342H - African American History to 1865. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered intermittently. Survey of the African American experience from the African background to the end of the Civil War. Focus on Black American quest for the American Dream, and how Blacks attempted to deal with the challenges of enslavement and racism.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies

HSTA 343H - African American History Since 1865. 3 Credits.

(AM) Study of the African American experience since the Civil War. Change and continuity in the African American experience, the fight against Jim Crow, the struggle for civil rights, and post-civil rights economic, political, social and cultural developments and challenges.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies

HSTA 344 - African-American Struggle for Equality. 3 Credits.

(AM) A survey of the various efforts by African Americans to achieve racial equality in the United States from the late 19th century through the 1960s.

HSTA 347 - Voodoo, Muslim, Church: Black Religion. 3 Credits.

(AM) Prereq., WRIT 101 (or higher) or equivalent. The African-American religious experience encompasses Islam, Christianity, Santeria, voodoo, and many others. In this course, students will examine the history of religious expression within the African-American community from the colonial era through the twentieth century. Central to the course is the question, "How did religion shape the experience of the African-American community?" Students will also examine the ways in which religious practice influenced social, political, and cultural changes in American history.

Gen Ed Attributes: Intermediate Writing

HSTA 361 - The American South. 3 Credits.

(AM) Social history of the American South with particular attention to race, class, and gender.

HSTA 364 - Native American History to 1830. 3 Credits.

Offered autumn. Examines Native American relations with European colonial empires and the United States from first contact to 1830. Discusses policies and mission work Europeans directed at Indigenous peoples as well as Indigenous efforts to retain their lands, cultures, and sovereignty. Also considers ways European-Indigenous relations contributed to alliances and conflicts among Europeans and among diverse Indigenous nations.

HSTA 365 - Native American History from 1830. 3 Credits.

Offered spring. Examines Native American relations with the United States federal government as well as other non-Native groups from the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act through the mid-1970s, ending with the transition from Termination Policy to Self-Determination Policy. Focuses on U.S. federal policies; strategies different Indigenous communities employed to resist non-Native encroachment; and the short and long-term consequences for Indigenous peoples.

HSTA 370H - Women in America: Colonial Period to Civil War. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered autumn. Interpretive overview of major themes and events in U.S. womens history to 1865. Same as WGS 370H.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies

HSTA 371H - Women in America: From the Civil War to the Present. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered spring. Interpretive overview of major themes and events in U.S. women’s history from 1865 to the present.

Gen Ed Attributes: Historical Studies

HSTA 373 - The History of American Thought to 1865. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered alternate years. This course introduces students to major themes, questions, topics, and problems in American intellectual life from the early seventeenth century until the Civil War. It addresses the intellectual traditions upon which the United States was built and explores the history of American thought at the intersections of the history of religion, art, politics, scientific explorations, education, gender, race, and culture. Gen Ed Attributes: Writing Course-Intermediate

Gen Ed Attributes: Intermediate Writing

HSTA 374 - Doing Local History: Missoula. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered Intermittently. This course introduces students to the history of Missoula and the surrounding area, as well as to the practice of public history. Students will complete a hands-on project in researching and disseminating local history. Possible approaches include conducting oral histories, engaging in digital history, and/or creating historical exhibits or tours.

HSTA 377 - Alcohol in American History. 3 Credits.

(AM) This course explores the controversial history of alcohol in American history beginning in the colonial period and ending in the recent past. It blends varied historical approaches, including political, legal, business, social, and cultural history, to interrogate the manifold ways that alcohol has shaped the American nation and the everyday lives of its citizens.

HSTA 380 - United States Constitutional History. 3 Credits.

(AM) An examination of major issues in the American constitutional past. Topics include the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the problem of original intent, courts and judicial review, slavery and anti-slavery, the Bill of Rights, industrial capitalism and the welfare state, and majority rule and minority rights in American democracy.

HSTA 382 - United States Legal History. 3 Credits.

(AM) This course explores the development of American law and its interaction with broader society during the long nineteenth century (1787-1933). Topics include the creation of the U.S. Constitution; the legal promotion and regulation of economic life; slavery, antislavery, and the law; the changing legal status and activism of women, African Americans, immigrants, and workers; the emergence of the modern American state; and struggles over civil rights and civil liberties. No prior knowledge of the law is required.

HSTA 385 - Families & Children in America. 3 Credits.

(AM) Prereq., WRIT 101 (or higher) or equivalent. Historical overview of families and children in the United States from the colonial era to the present. Topics include changing patterns of family life, the evolution of attitudes toward children and youth, the relationship between the American family and the nation-state, and debates over "family values" from the nation's founding to the present.

Gen Ed Attributes: Intermediate Writing

HSTA 391 - Special Topics. 1-12 Credits.

(R-12) Experimental offerings of visiting professors, experimental offerings of new courses, or one-time offerings of current topics.

HSTA 405 - Public Problems & United States Democracy. 3 Credits.

(AM) Offered Intermittently. This course challenges students to engage in the craft of researching and writing history. It is structured around the general theme of public problems and American democracy. Students are required to make an original contribution to our historical understanding of this theme by crafting a substantial research essay rooted in the analysis of primary sources. Level: Undergraduate and Graduate. Graduate students must receive advisor approval before registering for this course.