History & Policy
Carnegie Mellon's Department of History pioneered in developing policy history as a field of study in American universities. The history and policy courses cover a broad range of timely topics such as criminal justice, education, health, environmental concerns, military personnel and strategy, science and technology, and urban policy. Students gain insight into current policy debates by examining how various issues came to be controversial, and what public and private initiatives have been taken to solve social problems in the past. Students in history and policy are broadly trained to develop an interdisciplinary perspective.Below is a sample of some of our history and policy courses. Please see the undergraduate catalog for a more complete list.
Crime and Punishment in American History introduces students to the historical study of crime in the US, highlighting both changes in criminal behavior and the different ways that Americans have sought to deter, punish, and rehabilitate. Primary topics include historical patterns of violence, the role and organization of the police, and the evolution of punishment in theory and practice. This course also emphasizes differences in crime and punishment by race, gender, and age.
American Environmental History explores the changing attitudes toward nature; forms of rural and urban development and environmental effects; the impacts of technology and industrialism; the conservation and environmental movements; and environmental problems and prospects today.
The History of Modern Warfare investigates the role of war in society and history during the 19th and 20th centuries. Central themes include the relationship of war to the state and its financial and managerial resources, to military technology, and to technological change in the means of production. Equally central are military leadership and the will to combat, both military and civilian.
The Nature, Art, and Science of Engineering in History explores engineering's grand successes and spectacular failures, such as the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the invention of the telephone, the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the development of the digital computer, and the Challenger disaster.
The Rise of Industrial Research and Development examines the factors that gave rise to modern R&D; industrial R&D laboratories and their effect on the character of science, technology, and business; and how the institutionalization of R&D has affected the work of the individual inventor and scientist. Through several case studies, students manage real R&D projects.
The Arab-Israeli Condition: War & Peace explores the historical origins and contemporary parameters of the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts and considers the processes by which these conflicts may be moving toward resolution.
The Cold War and Beyond examines the political events that precipitated the Cold War, the new institutions it created, how it conditioned society and culture, how it shaped foreign policy, the scientific and technological developments that fueled its arms race, and what "the end of the Cold War" means for citizens of the United States and the former Soviet Union.