Core Courses

The History Department distinguishes between history courses that are "core" to its curricular goals and requirements, and those that are not, but nevertheless exhibit overlapping areas of interest (crosslists).  These distinctions become especially relevant when evaluating crosslist requests from other departments, evaluating fulfillment of Major and Minor requirements, and application of credit from transfer and study abroad courses.

Core courses, with rare exceptions, originate within the Duke History department and are taught either by our own faculty, or by qualified historians from the larger academic community.


Below is a complete list of active core courses.  Click here to view the list of Spring 2025 Core Course offerings.

 

Number Title Codes
HISTORY 89S First-Year Seminar
HISTORY 101 Introduction to Global History CCI, W, CZ
HISTORY 105 Old Worlds/New Histories, 500-1500 CE CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 106 Science and the Modern World: Introduction to the History of Science CCI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 111FS History of Global Health STS, W, CZ
HISTORY 112 Sexual Pleasure in the Modern World CCI, EI, CZ
HISTORY 113 Introduction to the History of Medicine STS, CZ
HISTORY 114 Intro to the History of Modern Warfare EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 117 Renaissance & Revolution: Religion, Science, and Politics in Europe, 1400-1800 CCI, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 119FS Religious Freedom in America: A Legal History CCI, EI, W, CZ
HISTORY 120 History of American Democracy CCI, CZ
HISTORY 121 Introduction to Contemporary Latin America CCI, CZ
HISTORY 124 History of the Present CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 129 Introduction to African Studies (DS3 or DS4) CCI, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 130D American Dreams and American Realities CCI, CZ
HISTORY 131S Gateway Seminar: Extraction: Humans and the Underground Earth CCI, EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 135 Silk Roads and China, Ancient and Medieval Transformations CCI, CZ
HISTORY 137FS Minor Utopias: Everyday Approaches to a Better World EI, R, CZ
HISTORY 138 From Stalin to Putin: The Art of Dictatorship CCI, CZ
HISTORY 139S Gateway Seminar. Germany in the World CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 140S Empires in Modern European History CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 147 Global History of the Prison CCI, CZ
HISTORY 153S Gateway Seminar: New Directions in Military History
HISTORY 156S Gateway Seminar: Cold War America EI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 157S Gateway Seminar: Empires in Historical Perspective CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 158S Gateway Seminar. Fascism: A History CCI, EI, R, CZ
HISTORY 159S Gateway Seminar: What Did Your Grandparents Do? A Global Exploration of Individual Life Histories CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 160S Gateway Seminar: The Global Sixties: Race, Revolution, Sexuality CCI, R, W, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 162S Gateway Seminar: Asia in Global History CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 163S Gateway: Solidarity! Asian American Activism
HISTORY 164S Gateway Seminar - Antisemitism: Ethnicity, Race, Religion, Culture CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 165S Gateway Seminar: Environments in Crisis R, STS, W, SS
HISTORY 166S Gateway Seminar - Anarchism and its Discontents CCI, EI, R, CZ
HISTORY 168S Gateway Seminar: How to Read a Map: The History of Cartography CCI, R, STS, CZ
HISTORY 171S Gateway Seminar: History of Intimacy: Family, Friendship, Romance CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 172S Gateway: Eyewitness to Slavery
HISTORY 175S Gateway Seminar - The United States and the World CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 177S Gateway Seminar: The Meaning of Freedom in American History R, W, CZ
HISTORY 179S Gateway Seminar: Capitalism & Its Critics EI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 182S The Law in Slavery and Freedom CCI, R, W, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 183S Gateway Seminar: Civil Rights and Asian Americans CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 186S Gateway Seminar: Living Through the Great War CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 188S Gateway Seminar: The Price of Sex: Gender and the Global Political Economy EI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 189S Gateway Seminar: Slavery and Its Afterlives EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 190 Special Topics in History
HISTORY 190S Special Topics in History
HISTORY 191L Independent Study: Digital India Lab
HISTORY 197S Gateway Seminar: Environment, Energy, Climate Change STS, CZ
HISTORY 198 Introduction to Asian American History CCI, CZ
HISTORY 201 Globalization and History CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 202 Gender and Socialism CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 214 The Modern Middle East CCI, CZ
HISTORY 216S Between Moscow, Beijing and Delhi: Narratives of Europe and Asia CCI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 218 Modern & Global India CCI, EI, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 219S Indian Civilization CCI, EI, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 220 China from Antiquity to 1400 CCI, CZ
HISTORY 223 Survey of Modern China 1800-Present CCI, CZ
HISTORY 226 Ancient and Early Modern Japan CCI, CZ
HISTORY 227 The Emergence of Modern Japan CCI, CZ
HISTORY 229S Asian American Community History CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 235 Drugs, Chemicals, and Health: Histories of Substances in Economies, Environments, and Bodies CCI, R, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 238S History of Political Nonviolence CCI, CZ
HISTORY 239 History of Chinese Medicine CCI, STS, W, CZ
HISTORY 244 From History to Fantasy: Medieval Religions in Film & Fiction CCI, EI, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 248S Book Publishing & Marketing: A Case Study of the Romance Fiction Industry CCI, W, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 251 Jewish History, 1492 to the Present CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 254 Europe in the Middle Ages: Rome to Renaissance CCI, CZ
HISTORY 257 Religion, Reform, and Violence in Early Modern Europe CCI, CZ
HISTORY 258S Women and Power in the Renaissance EI, W, CZ
HISTORY 259S Contemporary South Africa CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 260 Magic, Religion, and Science since 1400 CCI, EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 260D Magic, Religion, and Science since 1400 CCI, EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 264 Latin American Wars of Independence CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 267S Global Cold War CCI, EI, W, CZ
HISTORY 269 Tudor/Stuart Britain R, W, CZ
HISTORY 272 Genocide and Human Rights CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 276 From Tsars to Commissars: Russian Cultural History CZ
HISTORY 278S Nationalism and Exile CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 279 The Foundations of Modern Terrorism CCI, CZ
HISTORY 281 Russia in World War II R, CZ
HISTORY 282 End of Russian Socialism: History of Perestroika CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 285 Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century, 1789-1914 CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 286 Europe in the Twentieth Century CCI, CZ
HISTORY 287 History of the World Wars EI, R, STS, CZ
HISTORY 288 History of Inequality CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 289S Decolonization: Histories, Meanings, Struggles CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 292 Environmental Justice: The Making of a Modern Movement CCI, EI, CZ
HISTORY 294S Art of Renaissance Politics
HISTORY 295S The History of Gardening in North America, 1607-Present
HISTORY 297 The Holocaust CCI, EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 298S Global South Asia: History and Culture of Diaspora CCI, CZ
HISTORY 301T Applied Historical Research CCI, CZ
HISTORY 302 Applied Historical Research R
HISTORY 304S History Lab: Archival Methods
HISTORY 309 Alexander Hamilton and His World CCI, CZ
HISTORY 310 The Americas and Europe in the Age of Revolutions, c. 1760s–1840s
HISTORY 311S Men, Women, and Sports: Topics in US Sports History CCI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 316S The Atlantic Slave Trade CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 317S The National Parks in American Life
HISTORY 318 The Caribbean, 1492-1700 CCI, CZ
HISTORY 319 War, Slavery, and Revolution in the Caribbean, 1700-1800 CCI, CZ
HISTORY 320 Sports and American Culture
HISTORY 323 How to Study Inequality SS
HISTORY 324 History of Mexico CCI, CZ
HISTORY 326 Colonial Latin America CCI, CZ
HISTORY 327 Afro-Brazilian Culture and History CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 328 Global Brazil CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 329 Latin America Since Independence CCI, CZ
HISTORY 332S Theorizing Liberation: From Black Power to the Age of Trump CCI, CZ
HISTORY 333S Social Engineering and Social Movements in Eastern Europe and Asia CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 336 Colonial North America CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 340 The Civil War and Reconstruction: The United States, 1850-1880 CZ, SS
HISTORY 342 The Making of Modern America: The United States from 1898 to 1945 CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 344 History of U.S. Social Movements CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 345 North American Environmental History EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 348 The Civil Rights Movement CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 349S History Wars
HISTORY 352 Immigrant Dreams, U.S. Realities: Immigration Policy History CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 354S Native American Women in History, Society, and Art CCI, CZ
HISTORY 355 American Indian History to 1815 CCI, CZ
HISTORY 357 The Insurgent South: Movements for Social Change CZ, SS
HISTORY 357S The Insurgent South: Movements for Social Change CZ, SS
HISTORY 358S The South in Black and White CCI, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 359 Violent Jihad in the Twentieth Century - A Global History CCI, CZ
HISTORY 362 United States Political History, 1900 to the Present CZ, SS
HISTORY 363 History of Capitalism in the United States EI, W, SS
HISTORY 365D The Modern Regulatory State EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 366S Latinx Social Movements CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 369 History of Public Health in America R, STS, CZ
HISTORY 370 Aztecs and Mayans CCI, EI, R, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 371 Feast and Famine: Food in Global History CCI, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 373 American Indian History Since 1806 CCI, CZ
HISTORY 374 Women, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History CCI, EI, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 374D Women, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History CCI, EI, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 382S Digital Durham R, STS, W, ALP
HISTORY 383 Engineering the Global Middle East CCI, EI, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 384 The People's Republic of China, 1949-Present CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 387S History Through Fiction CCI, W, ALP
HISTORY 389S Family Rights/Human Rights CCI, EI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 390 Topics in History Lecture
HISTORY 393 Research Independent Study R
HISTORY 394 Research Independent Study R
HISTORY 402S Cairo - A Global History CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 403S Capstone: Medieval Trials & Ordeals
HISTORY 411S Historicizing Whiteness CCI, EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 415S Capstone: Information History R, STS, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 430S Capstone Seminar: Slavery and Capitalism EI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 438S Race & Conservatism in the Twentieth Century U.S. CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 449S The History of Modern Syria, 1921-2021 CCI, W, CZ
HISTORY 454S Capstone Seminar - Globalization: Asia and Asian America CCI, R, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 457S Capstone Seminar: Maroon Societies in America CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 464S Capstone Seminar: Geopolitics of War and Empire in the Modern World R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 468S Capstone Seminar: Literature & Terrorism CCI, EI, R, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 469S Capstone Seminar: Islamic Law In History CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 470S Capstone Seminar: Leadership in American History EI, R, CZ
HISTORY 471S Capstone Seminar: Latin American Left Turns: A New Politics for the 21st Century? CCI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 472S Capstone Seminar: Russia in World War II CCI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 476S Capstone Seminar: American Militarism EI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 482S Capstone Seminar: Post-Civil Rights America: The Search for Social Justice, 1968-Present EI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 490 Special Topics in History
HISTORY 490S Seminars in Special Topics
HISTORY 495S Senior Thesis Seminar R, W, CZ
HISTORY 496S Senior Thesis Seminar R, W, CZ
HISTORY 501S History of Sexuality CCI, CZ, SS
HISTORY 512S Travel Japan CCI, R, CZ, SS
HISTORY 514S Culture and Environment in Modern Chinese History CCI, EI, STS, CZ, SS
HISTORY 515S Oral History Methods EI, R
HISTORY 517S The Latinx South: Immigration, Race, and the Nuevo South CCI, R, CZ
HISTORY 520S Microhistory CCI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 522S Jerusalem after Rome CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 526S Columbus: A Global History CCI, R, W, CZ
HISTORY 531S Art and the Holocaust: Architecture, Art, and Cultural Politics during the Nazi Period CCI, EI, ALP, CZ
HISTORY 548S Global History of Medicine CCI, EI, STS, CZ
HISTORY 550S Life Stories: How to Write Them, What They Mean CCI, R, W, CZ, SS
HISTORY 553S Urban Histories in Global, Comparative, and Historical Perspective CCI, CZ
HISTORY 590S Topics in History Seminar
HISTORY 701S Research Seminar in History
HISTORY 702S Research Seminar in History
HISTORY 703S Focusing on Teaching and Pedagogy
HISTORY 704S Focusing on Preparing Portfolios for Preliminary Certification
HISTORY 790S-01 Topics in European History
HISTORY 790S-02 Topics in Latin American History
HISTORY 790S-03 Topics in African and Asian History
HISTORY 790S-06 Topics in Law and Society
HISTORY 790S-07 Topics in Politics, Public Life, The State
HISTORY 790S-09 Readings in Racial Formations
HISTORY 790S-10 Readings in Empires, Colonial Encounters
HISTORY 790S-11 Topics in Labor Systems, Capitalism, Business Cultures
HISTORY 790S-13 Topics in Methods and Theory
HISTORY 790S-14 Readings in Cultural History
HISTORY 791 Reading Topics: Independent Study
HISTORY 792 Reading Topics-Independent Study
HISTORY 890S-05 Research Topics in Global Connections
HISTORY 890S-07 Research Topics in Politics, Public Life, The State
HISTORY 890S-08 Research Topics in Gender
HISTORY 890S-13 Research Topics in Methods and Theory