Mission

The history program at LAU aims to instill in students an in-depth appreciation of the past by exposing them to a global focus on both Eastern and Western civilizations through a consideration of the complex interactions across cultures over designated spans of time—interactions that collectively constitute the sum total of the human experience.

Learning about the past has the dual purpose of helping students to acquaint themselves with the accumulated wisdom of the ages, while at the same time allowing them to discern the errors of eras gone by in order to avoid repeating them. A proper and systematic grounding in history therefore becomes the sur­est way to form character, cultivate perspective, illuminate context, and refine an understanding of what it means to belong to the human family.

Program Objectives

The B.A. in History aims to:

1. Develop in students a healthy intellectual curiosity about other cultures as well as their own and how these have fared over the centuries;
2. Offer students a rich and wide selection of interpenetrating historical narratives with a view to having them discover those thematic threads with which they can most closely identify in order to help reveal to them who they are;
3. Nurture in students the love of reading and thinking critically about the past so as to better understand the present and plan intelligently for the future; and
4. Provide students with a sufficiently solid cultural background to enable them to pursue productive careers in any field by making it possible for them to refer with ease to meaningful and relevant precedents in order to uncover latent yet at times subtle connections between such precedents and complex current situations.

Program Outcomes

Graduates of the B.A. in History shall:

1. Possess a comparative perspective on leading historical events and personalities;
2. Understand the principal themes and arguments that have informed the weighty historical disputes and conflicts;
3. Be able to draw perceptive analogies between what happened in the past and what is occurring today, or what might unfold tomorrow;
4. Distinguish periods of gradual and steady progress from others of stag­nation, or even occasional regression;
5. Perfect the skill to converse maturely and influentially about matters of historical substance that continue to have a decisive bearing on our lives in the present; and
6. Appreciate the intricate and cumulative nature of positive human expe­rience over time in order to fathom the factors and decipher the purposes of change in the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and personal spheres of humankind’s grand overall story.

Admission Requirements

To enter the major, students must meet the general university requirements

Graduation Requirements

A total of 92 credits are required to graduate, based on:

Program Requirements

• HST205 / Historical Tools (3 credits) is a prerequisite for all history majors

Major Requirements (42 Credits):

Four required courses (12 credits):

• HST205 / Historical Tools (3 cr.)
• HST231 / From the Imarah to the 1975-1990 War (3 cr.)
• HST401/Special Topics (3 cr.)
• HST499/Senior Study (3 cr.)

Choose one of the courses from the following (3 credits):

• HST220/Pre-History to Pericles (3 cr.)
• HST221/Greece and Rome (3 cr.)

Choose one of the courses from the following (3 credits):

• HST240/History of the Arab Peoples (3 cr.)
• HST241/History of Islam in the Middle East (3 cr.)

Choose one course from the following (other than the course chosen in the above section) (3 credits):

• HST240/History of the Arab Peoples (3 cr.)
• HST241/History of Islam in the Middle East (3 cr.)
• HST242/Europe and the Middle East (3 cr.)
• HST243/Economic History of the Middle East (3 cr.)
• HST244/History of Arab-Israeli Conflict (3 cr.)

Choose two courses from the following (6 credits):

• HST301/Europe in Late Antiquity (3 cr.)
• HST302/Medieval Europe (3 cr.)
• HST303/Early Modern Europe (3 cr.)
• HST304/Modern Europe (3 cr.)
• HST305/Contemporary Europe (3 cr.)

Choose three courses from the following (9 credits):

• HST330/History of Byzantium (3 cr.)
• HST331/History of Russia (3 cr.)
• HST332/History of China (3 cr.)
• HST333/History of South Asia (3 cr.)
• HST334/History of North America (3 cr.)
• HST335/History of Central and South America (3 cr.)
• HST336/History of Africa (3 cr.)

Choose two courses from the following (6 credits):

• HST340/Topics in the History of Ideas (3 cr.)
• HST341/Topics in the History of Science (3 cr.)
• HST342/Topics in the History of Religion (3 cr.)
• HST343/Topics in Economic History (3 cr.)

Sample Study Plan

Year One

Fall: 16 credits

• HST205 / Historical Tools (required)
• HST221 / Greece and Rome
• ENG202 / Sophomore Rhetoric
• LAC Social Science
• CSC201 / Computer Applications 
• ARA—-

Spring: 16 credits

• HST231 / Lebanon Imarah to 1975-90 War (required)
• HST240 / History of Arab Peoples
• ENG203 / Fundamentals of Oral Communication
• LAC Science
• LAC Literature
• HLT201 / Basic Health

Year Two

Fall: 14 credits

• HST242 / Europe and the Middle East
• HST302 / Medieval Europe
• LAC Social Science
• ETH201/Moral Reasoning
• PED—-
• Free Electives (3 cr.)

Spring: 15 credits

• HST331 / History of Russia
• HST303 / Early Modern Europe
• HST340 / Topics in History of Ideas
• LAC Arts
• Free Electives (3 cr.)

Year Three

Fall: 15 credits

• HST330 / History of Byzantium
• HST401 / Special Topics (required)
• LAC Literature
• Free Electives (3 cr.)
• Free Electives (3 cr.)

Spring: 16 credits

• HST334/History of North America
• HST342/Topics in the History of Religion
• HST499/Senior Study (required)
• LAC Arts
• Free Electives (4 cr.)

Remark: All History courses non marked as required can be replaced by other courses as found on the Contract Sheet.