2023-2024 Academic Catalog

Dec 21, 2024

2023-2024 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 037 - U.S. History Through Women’s Eyes

In 1933, Mary Beard published her groundbreaking America Through Women’s Eyes claiming that we would fail to understand the past until we included the words and experiences of women. This course shares and builds upon this insight by investigating U.S. history through the lens of women’s narratives: diaries, letters, autobiographies, and fiction.

Over the course of the semester, we will examine key historical developments - industrialization, enslavement, war, expansion, immigration, reform - as revealed in the writings of individual women. By approaching history from this perspective, we will trace larger trends and identify common experiences, while paying close attention to the differences and divisions among women. Throughout, we will investigate the ways in which notions of gender difference have changed over time and how a wide variety of women both created and responded to shifting and contested cultural, political, and social roles.

Course Designation/Attribute: HP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically