History (BA)

Summary

The program is designed for history majors who plan to pursue a professional degree or a graduate degree in History or a related discipline. It develops the foreign language, critical analysis, communication, and research skills needed by students who plan to work in administration or want to go into foreign service, international business, international law, or government service. 

Catalog Year

2024-2025

Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Major Credits

51

Total Credits

120

Locations

Mankato

Career Cluster

People and Cultures

Program Requirements

Major Common Core

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in United States history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in European history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in World history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

In this capstone course required for all history majors, students will study historical methods, professional standards, and ways to communicate history to diverse audiences. Students will actively engage in historical inquiry to complete a polished research project. Permission of the department and instructor is required.

Prerequisites: none

Major Restricted Electives

Survey Sequence - Choose 8 Credit(s). Students must take one of the survey sequences (World History, European History, or United States History)

A history of the physical, political, cultural, social, and economic foundations of world civilizations to 1500.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

A history of the physical, political, cultural, social, and economic foundations of world civilizations to 1500. Same content as HIST 170. Students may not take both HIST 170 and HIST 170W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Review of major changes in World Civilizations since 1500.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Review of major changes in World Civilization since 1500. Same content as HIST 171. Students may not take both HIST 171 and HIST 171W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

A survey of European civilization from Egypt to the end of the Thirty Years War.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-10

A survey of European civilization from Egypt to the end of the Thirty Years War. Same content as HIST 180. Students may not take both HIST 180 and HIST 180W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-10

A survey of European history from the end of the Thirty Years War to the present.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Survey of European history from the end of the Thirty Years War to the present. Same content as HIST 181. Students may not take both HIST 181 and HIST 181W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

This course is designed to provide an overview of America's political, social, economic, and cultural development from earliest colonization to 1877.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course is designed to provide an overview of America's political, social, economic, and cultural development from earliest colonization to 1877. Same content as HIST 190. Students may not take both HIST 190 and HIST 190W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

A survey of American History from the end of Reconstruction to the present with a special emphasis on political and social developments.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course is designed to provide an overview of America's political, social, economic, and cultural development from 1877 to the present. This course has the same content as HIST 191. Students may not take both HIST 191 and HIST 191W for credit.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Europe - Choose 4 Credit(s). Courses may not double-count between categories.

The history of Greece and Rome stressing political, social and economic institutions and cultural and intellectual achievements.

Prerequisites: none

A history of western monotheistic religions and their interactions with the secular world and each other from the beginnings of Judaism to the Crusades.

Prerequisites: none

A history of the Middle Ages stressing political, social and economic interactions and cultural achievements.

Prerequisites: none

European history from the later Middle Ages to the end of the Thirty Years' War (c. 1300-1648). Students will examine the intellectual, religious, and cultural developments in Western-Europe, with special attention given to social life and popular culture.

Prerequisites: none

The history of Europe from the Treaty of Westphalia to the eve of the French Revolution (1648-1789). Course emphasizes absolutism and constitutionalism, the construction of European empires, the scientific revolution and Enlightenment, and social and economic changes.

Prerequisites: none

A history of women from Classical Greece and Rome to the modern era. An analysis of the changing concepts of gender relations within a study of women as individuals and as members of socio-economic, ethnic, kin, and religious groups.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

A history of the witchcraft phenomenon in Europe from the Middle Ages to 1800. The course examines the rise and decline of the European witch hunts through the history of religion, politics, law, gender, sexuality, and social life.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Political, social and economic development of England and Great Britain since the death of Elizabeth I.

Prerequisites: none

Review of French history from the Revolution of 1789 to the present, including such topics as origins and course of the Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII to Third Republic, World War I, World War II and France since 1945.

Prerequisites: none

Political, economic, social, cultural, and immigration history of the Scandinavian countries, including major themes in the mass migration and history of Scandinavians in America. Emphasis on the period, 1500-present.

Prerequisites: none

This seminar course will deal with a specific aspect of European history as announced by the department.

Prerequisites: none

United States - Choose 4 Credit(s). Courses may not double-count between categories.

This course examines U.S. constitutional history from its foundations to the current day. Students will read and analyze legal material and explore how U.S. constitutional interpretations changed over time; factors affecting change and resistance; and how constitutional change both reflected and shaped U.S. society, culture, politics, and economics.

Prerequisites: none

This seminar course will deal with a specific aspect of United States history as announced by the department.

Prerequisites: none

History of relations of major East Asian countries with the United States from the late 18th century to the present.

Prerequisites: none

This course will examine Minnesota's social, political, and economic development from the earliest human habitation to the present.

Prerequisites: none

This course will examine America's political, social, economic, and cultural development from the earliest settlement of the continent by indigenous peoples to 1763, when provincial Americans began to demand more than token equality in the British Empire.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will examine the social, economic, ideological, political, diplomatic, and military experiences of the United States between 1763 and 1820, in order to understand the creation of the American political nation and the culture which developed within it.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will discuss the social, economic, and political issues from the rise of Jackson through the beginning of the Civil War. Major issues to be covered include: Jacksonian Democracy, Industrialization, Reform, Westward Expansion, Slavery, and the 1850's.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will explore the immediate causes and consequences of the Civil War as well as the rise of an industrial/urban United States. Major issues to be covered include: causes of the Civil War, the war itself, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and Populism.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Reform/domestic themes and U.S. foreign policies during the Progressive Era, the Roaring 20's, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the two world wars.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Social, political and foreign affairs since World War II.

Prerequisites: none

An examination of the major factors influencing U.S. diplomacy since 1900. Students will examine how influential policy makers defined their diplomatic goals, and how both domestic and external factors have contributed to America's reaction to wars and revolutions around the world.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Occupation of the area between the Mississippi and the Pacific from Spanish exploration to the late 19th century.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course looks at the social, political, and economic developments that transformed the 20th Century American West.Fall

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will discuss slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World (Africa, Latin America, and the United States). Students will discover how slavery and emancipation differed in different regions and over time.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course surveys African American history from slavery to the twenty-first century. We will explore the history of enslavement, black resistance, African American culture, freedom, migration patterns, and black political thought and participation as well as how historians have interpreted and re-interpreted this history.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will examine the Vietnam War. Students will discover how and why the U.S. became involved in Vietnam, examine the specific problems faced by American diplomats and military officials, and how the war affected American society.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will examine the U.S. civil rights movement in the 20th century. Students will study the African American freedom movement and other civil rights campaigns to understand the basis of both oppression and civil rights in the U.S. and will apply this historical context to contemporary civil rights struggles. The course will emphasize reading, research, and writing skills.

Prerequisites: none

Topics in intellectual history or popular and traditional culture.

Prerequisites: none

An examination of the history of labor and the emergence of social welfare within the context of the modernization of western society and the diversity of the United States.

Prerequisites: none

A historical study of the immigration and ethnic experience in America. Includes an examination of political, social, and economic changes that resulted in population movements to the U.S. and of the development of immigration laws in response to the arrival of outsiders. Attention is given to the rise of anti-immigrant movements at various times in American history.

Prerequisites: none

This course will examine the interaction between humans and the American environment from pre-Columbus to the present.

Prerequisites: none

This course is designed to provide a survey and analysis of the historical experiences of women in the United States from earliest settlement by indigenous peoples to the present in order to aid students in understanding the contemporary situation of women in American society.

Prerequisites: none

Discussion of disasters in US history from colonial times to the present. Contemporary descriptions of the events will be reviewed as will the changing response of both the public and the government to these events.

Prerequisites: none

World - Choose 4 Credit(s). Courses may not double-count between categories.

Review of World History as a field of study.

Prerequisites: none

A history of western monotheistic religions and their interactions with the secular world and each other from the beginnings of Judaism to the Crusades.

Prerequisites: none

This seminar course will deal with a specific aspect of World History as announced by the department.

Prerequisites: none

A comparative history of the Chinese and Japanese nations from the 19th century to 1945.

Prerequisites: none

A comparative history of the rise of the Chinese and Japanese nations from 1945 to the present.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

History of relations of major East Asian countries with the United States from the late 18th century to the present.

Prerequisites: none

Investigation of historical developments across the African continent from pre-history through the eighteenth century. Topics will include ancient empires of West Africa, the Swahili coast, the spread of Islam, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the formation of South Africa's multi-racial society.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Investigation of historical developments in Sub-Saharan Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics will include trade with Europe and America, European colonization and African resistance, life in colonial Africa, independence movements, South Africa's apartheid state and the Rwanda genocide.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course traces the rise and fall of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in America. Specific focus is given to the interactions between the European, African, and indigenous populations as they formulated societies in the Americas.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course traces the history of Latin America from the late colonial period through the present as the various countries in the region attempted to transcend their colonial past and confront the pressures of modernization and globalization.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

How do we define the Middle East? In our popular culture and media sources that we are exposed to daily, the Middle East is one of the more discussed and yet, one of the most misunderstood topics. Our goal is to both to unlearn misconceptions and to create an accurate representation of the region. Our class will start with an introduction to the region and its history and the misconceptions that are attached to it. It will then proceed from the late 18th century to the revolutionary events of recent years dubbed the Arab Spring and their aftermaths.

Prerequisites: none

An examination of the major factors influencing U.S. diplomacy since 1900. Students will examine how influential policy makers defined their diplomatic goals, and how both domestic and external factors have contributed to America's reaction to wars and revolutions around the world.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will discuss slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World (Africa, Latin America, and the United States). Students will discover how slavery and emancipation differed in different regions and over time.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will examine the Vietnam War. Students will discover how and why the U.S. became involved in Vietnam, examine the specific problems faced by American diplomats and military officials, and how the war affected American society.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Major Unrestricted Electives

Upper-Division Electives - Choose 12 Credit(s). Courses may not double-count between categories.

Prerequisites: none

General Electives - Choose 4 Credit(s). Courses may not double-count between categories.

Prerequisites: none

Other Graduation Requirements

Choose 8 credit(s): take one series Language

Minor

Any minor is accepted.

4-Year Plan

The 4-Year Plan is a model for completing your degree in a timely manner. Your individual 4-Year plan may change based on a number of variables including transfer courses and the semester/year you start your major. Carefully work with your academic advisors to devise your own unique plan.
* Please meet with your advisor on appropriate course selection to meet your educational and degree goals.

First Year

Fall - 14 Credits

Students in this course approach writing as a subject of study by investigating how writing works across a variety of contexts.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-1A

Spring - 16 Credits

Second Year

Fall - 14 Credits

Spring - 14 Credits

Third Year

Fall - 16 Credits

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in United States history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Spring - 14 Credits

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in European history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in World history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Fourth Year

Fall - 16 Credits

In this capstone course required for all history majors, students will study historical methods, professional standards, and ways to communicate history to diverse audiences. Students will actively engage in historical inquiry to complete a polished research project. Permission of the department and instructor is required.

Prerequisites: none

Spring - 16 Credits

Transfer Pathways

A Transfer Pathway is a partnership between the Minnesota community colleges and Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Pathway suggests a plan for students with a specific associate degree to complete the last two years for a designated bachelor’s degree.

Students who are transferring to Minnesota State Mankato from a Minnesota community college should meet with an advisor in your college advising office to ensure the Pathway is an appropriate option for completing your degree.

More information on Transfer Pathways is available at https://mnsu.edu/pathways/about/

Third Year

Fall - 16 Credits

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in United States history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Spring - 16 Credits

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in European history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Fourth Year

Fall - 16 Credits

Students will read primary and/or secondary sources in World history and complete writing assignments to prepare for future graduate study.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

Spring - 12 Credits

In this capstone course required for all history majors, students will study historical methods, professional standards, and ways to communicate history to diverse audiences. Students will actively engage in historical inquiry to complete a polished research project. Permission of the department and instructor is required.

Prerequisites: none

Policies

Admission to Major. Admission to major is granted by the department when the student declares a History major.

GPA Policy. A minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.0 is required in the major.

Pass/No Credit Policy Undergraduate history courses may be taken either for P/N or letter grading except HIST 490 (workshops), HIST 497 (1-12 credits), and HIST 499 (1-3 credits), which are available only on P/N grading. No more than one-fourth of the credits in a history major or minor may be taken as P/N.

Transfer Policy. Transfer students should contact the Department of History and Gender Studies to have their transfer credits reviewed prior to registration for classes. All transfer students majoring in history are required to take at least 8 semester credits with the Minnesota State Mankato History program.

Accelerated Combined Degree (BA/MA and BS/MS): Students interested in receiving both their undergraduate and graduate degrees in History at MSU, may apply to the Department for admission into the Accelerated Graduate Program. Interested majors may apply upon the completion of 60 credits if they have a minimum GPA of 3.0. If accepted, students will work with an advisor to design an accelerated program in which up to 12 credits of 500-level courses can be applied to both their undergraduate and graduate programs. If accepted, students must maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA overall and a 3.0 in the major to continue in the program. Interested students should contact the Department for more information.