Course Sampler
History coursework covers a fascinating span of eras, societies, and narratives
While expanding views of the wider world, COCC’s History program sharpens skills of inquiry, interpretation, discourse, and idea expression. Coursework provides foundational knowledge — through blended mediums like map-making, graphic novels, and documentary films — with topics and themes applicable to many careers and daily life. The subject of the day might be WWII, the Sexual Revolution, Native American cultures, or ancient Greek traditions, but events and storylines connect to here-and-now relevancy.
The following course roundup provides a sense of the History program’s depth of study.
In Ancient Societies (Pre-history-500 C.E.), students consider cultures, belief systems, and lifestyles from prehistoric times through 500 C.E., exploring civilizations in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Africa, China, and the Indian subcontinent. The course also covers the establishment of early European civilizations, the world of the Greeks and Romans. For a more pointed look at the development of the Greek and Roman empires, check out Classical Europe until the year 600 C.E., which covers the social, cultural, and political development of Western Civilization.
Learn how Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other major religions spread worldwide in The Expansion of World Religions (500-1700). With a perspective that incorporates political, cultural, social, and intellectual angles, the course focuses on the regions of Asia, Africa, and India, together with Europe’s first worldwide expansion.
In Native American History, students examine Native American (or First Peoples’) lifestyles and lived experiences before and after contact with European colonists. With increasing demands by whites and new immigrants for land, Native Americans struggled for survival implementing various tactics to retain control of their homelands and retain their unique cultures.
Gain a full view of the development of the “modern” in Modern World from 1800 to the Present. Trace the impact of industrialization and all the voices who contributed to visions of what modernity could become.
From World War I and modernity to Civil Rights and recent politics, 20th and Early 21st Century United States History (1920-present) covers an incredible overview of U.S. history that examines cultural and societal shifts and major developments of the last 100 years.
With a focus on how gender and sexuality changed over the course of the tumultuous 20th century, Sexuality in 20th Century Europe surveys sexual cultures, politics, identities, and practices in Europe, from the waning of Victorianism to the collapse of communism. Periods covered include colonization, the sexual revolution, the AIDS crisis, and the rise of Islam in Europe.
Explore these and other engaging courses in the diverse world of History at COCC.