History and Social Science

The History curriculum focuses on providing students with the necessary skills to understand our cultural and historical roots. Courses build student understanding and appreciation of the wide divergence of social, cultural, religious, and intellectual experiences that make up the global, interconnected world of the 21st century.

Required Course

U.S. History and Government
Students explore the following eight key themes in United States history: the immigrant experience, political participation, gender relations, race relations, religion and secularism, foreign policy, the economy, and the American Dream. Analysis of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources is central to this work. Students use newly gained historical knowledge to revisit and better understand examples of the themes in our world today. Consistent with the Bay School's mission, the following curricular emphases are interwoven throughout the course: diversity and community, ethics and spirituality, and science and technology.

Elective Courses

Comparative Government and Politics
The primary goals of this course are to familiarize students with various types of political systems and cultures; to help them think, read, and write critically, and to prepare them for successful university study and responsible citizenship. The course begins with a foundational unit in American democracy and democratic traditions, followed by comparative country studies (Mexico, France, China, and Iran). Students are asked to conduct their own country studies independently and to present their findings during the last two weeks of the course.

Introduction to Political Economy
The first part of this course grounds students in the fundamental principles of micro- and macro-economics. Thereafter, the course explores the relationship between politics and economics and how that relationship has changed over time. The course includes a historical focus, tracing the evolution of economic systems (mercantilism, capitalism, Marxism, socialism), followed by an examination of the modern world economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. Students gain a critical understanding of globalization, economic interdependence, and problems of resource allocation.

Latin American Studies
In this course, students will learn about Latin America in the 20th century, exploring the relationship between cultural expression and the politics, economy, and history of the region. The course will begin with a brief overview of major historical forces—pre-Columbian societies, conquest, colonization and slavery, independence, and civil strife. Emphasis will be placed on four key themes in the 20th century—neocolonialism, nationalism, revolution, and reaction. Students will investigate these themes in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Brazil, and Argentina. A variety of sources-film, novels, poetry, short stories, songs, and historical documents—will be examined.

Modern Genocide: From Mass Violence to Reconciliation and Repair
The phrase never again was born in response to the Holocaust of WWII. While world leaders have repeated the phrase time and again, genocide and mass violence continue to be features of the 20th and 21st centuries. In this course, students examine the roots of genocide and mass violence during the last century through in-depth case studies of Weimar Germany, South Africa, Rwanda, and Colombia/Guatemala. Students investigate questions such as: How do identity and membership influence behavior? What roles do conformity, obedience, resistance and propaganda play? What should happen to people who allow or commit these crimes? The course also considers how societies repair and rebuild themselves and ultimately grapple with the question, "What is justice?"

U.S. Foreign Policy
This course is an introduction to the basic concepts, themes, and issues in U.S. foreign policy. This course familiarizes students with trends in U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the present and introduces them to the patterns of post-WWII international relations and U.S. overseas interventions. Employing a case study approach, students look at the short- and long-term effects of U.S. policy on different regions, debate America's role in world affairs, and assess the costs and consequences of this role at home and abroad. Specifically, this course examines several key aspects of United States foreign policy towards East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

Western Civilization
Western Civilization is a two-trimester, interdisciplinary survey course that critically examines the ideas, values, and trends of Western culture from the Greco-Roman period to the mid-20th century. Adopting a chronological framework, the course explores some of the most influential writings, works of art, and ideas that have shaped the intellectual and cultural heritage of the Western world. Students acquire a broad knowledge of the Western historical and cultural heritage through analyzing and evaluating primary and secondary sources. Students also develop an ability to accurately and critically read, weigh evidence, make judgments, draw conclusions, and interpret historical writings in their political, social, religious, and cultural contexts. This course may be taken as a year-long (two-trimester) course, or either half may be taken as a onetrimester elective.