2008-2009 Academic Catalog - Queens University of Charlotte

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UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
HIST 341 Civil Rights Movement
In 1903, W.E.B. Dubois argued that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of
the color line." This course explore s the unraveling of the color line in postwar America. Central
to the task will be an analysis of the strategies and tactics grass roots activists employed in
their assault on segregation. The class will also assess the tensions which emerged between
a civil rights movement based on the principle of integration and a black liberation movement
which emphasized self-separation. At the same time, the course will examine the creation of an
African-American "movement culture" that found expression in music, literature and the arts.
Prerequisite: HIST 204, POLS 201. Fall Term, even years. 3 Hrs.
HIST 345 Religion in America
This course will provide students with a survey of the most important movements, people and
events in American religious history from the settlement of the colonies to the present. The
course will examine Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish traditions, as well as important
cults and religious alternatives outside the traditional mainstream. Prerequisite: HIST 203 and
204. Students may elect this course as RELG 345. Fall Term, odd years. 3 Hrs.
HIST 346 North Carolina History
A careful study of the events and personalities which have shaped North Carolina. This course
permits students to become actively engaged in historical analysis by focusing on local history,
and in some cases, by visiting historic sites. Prerequisite: HIST 203 or 204. Summer Term,
every year. 3 Hrs.
HIST 348 Recent History of the American South
Scholars and amateur historians have long probed the question: What is the South? This
simple question has proved difficult to answer. Is there something truly distinctive about the
South or are the differences between the South and the rest of the nation imagined? This
course explores such questions, placing an analysis of contemporary southern life, politics
and culture in their proper and rich historical context. Our examination of recent southern
history will trace events back to their late nineteenth century origins. Throughout the course
we will pay close attention to changing politics of race and probe the unique expressions of
southern culture -- all in order to unlock the answer to the question of southern distinctiveness.
Prerequisites: HIST 204. Fall Term, even years. 3 Hrs.
HIST 349 The Civil War and Reconstruction
The Civil War and Reconstruction were the defining events of the nineteenth century if not the
defining events in our nation's short history. Undertaking exactly how the nation arrived at the
brink of war, divided, and finally, after horrible and bloody conflict, came back together again,
will be the central task of this course. The course will be divided into three sections. In the first,
students will explore the origins of the sectional conflict. Next students will examine the war
itself, asking questions about the inevitability of the Union's victory and the role of the African
Americans in the process of emancipation. In the last section of the course the class will study
attempts to reconstruct the relationships between whites and blacks, northerners and southerners
in the wake of the Confederacy's defeat. Attention will also be paid to popular, current interpretations
of the causes and meanings of the Civil War in popular culture. Prerequisite: HIST
203. Fall Term, odd years. 3 Hrs.