History

Chair: Janet Farrell Brodie
(909) 621-8612
Humanities@cgu.edu
www.cgu.edu/history

Academic Program

Coordinated by the core faculty of the Graduate University, the faculty in history draws on the combined faculties of The Claremont Colleges with a resulting staff equivalent to that of a major university. Yet, because of the unique organization of the Graduate University, the history faculty can emphasize individual instruction in seminars.

The History Department has followed a policy of limited enrollment so students have maximum access to staff and facilities. A small number of students enter the program each year and are carefully selected on the basis of interest and proven ability.

The faculty in history offers three distinct programs, each leading to advanced degrees in history. At the master’s degree level, the comparatively conventional history program offers a wide variety of major fields (see below), and at the doctoral level the program offers concentrations in United States and European history. In addition, the faculty in history offer multidisciplinary programs in American studies and in European studies. Interdisciplinary studies are especially important as they reflect the multicultural elements in American and European history. This emphasis is encouraged in all history degree programs.

The history program provides advanced professional education as preparation for a variety of careers. Traditionally, historians have worked in academic settings as scholars and teachers, or in closely related institutions such as libraries, archives, and museums. Increasingly, however, advanced education in history is being regarded as broad-based humanistic training, equipping students with research capabilities, analytical methods, and communications skills that are useful in many fields. The History Department welcomes students who wish to teach in secondary schools, community colleges, four-year universities, and students who intend non-teaching careers.

Instruction in history is carried on in seminars. Classes are small and each student’s program is designed individually. A favorable student-faculty ratio allows for an unusual amount of individual attention from faculty members. Students work with faculty advisers in planning their course of study; candidates for the Ph.D. work closely with a faculty committee composed of professors in the student’s fields of study.

The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges provide excellent research facilities and resources. Also in Claremont is the library of the Claremont School of Theology. The Huntington Library, one of the world’s finest research libraries for English and American history, is in nearby San Marino.

Courses

Following is a selection of courses offered recently in history. All courses are 4 units each unless otherwise indicated. For a current course schedule, please contact the arts and humanities office.

Civil War and Reconstruction
Topics in Environmental History of the U.S.
Topics in American Intellectual and Cultural History
U.S. Women’s History
Intellectual History of the U.S. South
Women and Biography
War and American Culture
Nineteenth-Century U.S. Social History
Twentieth-Century U.S. Social History
Cold War America: A Social and Cultural History
Religious History of the U.S.
Social Reform in America
Cold War America: a Social and Cultural History
California and the West
History of Genocide
The Enlightenment
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Intellectual and Social History
Women’s Lives in Early Modern Europe
History of Human Rights

OTHER COURSES

Any history course in the 100 range taught at one of The Claremont Colleges by any member of the graduate faculty is available for graduate credit to master’s students and first year Ph.D. students. Permission from the chair of the faculty in history is required before graduate studentsmay take these courses for credit. All are four units each. Students in history, American studies, and European studies may take such courses.