American Public University/American Military University

The Master of Arts in History degree takes you on an academic journey exploring the key historical events, people, and cultures that fundamentally shaped the world today. Through research, discussion, and analysis, you will obtain a knowledgeable perspective of how future societies progressed through time. Concentrations in this online graduate program offer you the flexibility of focusing on the most favored eras in history including American, Ancient and Classical, European, Global, and Public History. This master’s degree attracts professional educators, historians, and enthusiasts alike, and is also helpful in developing professional skills that include quality writing and communications, research and analysis, and the ability to present compelling arguments.

University faculty members teaching these courses are published historians who bring unique perspectives and relevant research into the classroom. You’ll also connect and interact online with other students who share your enthusiasm for history.

Degree Program Objectives

In addition to the institutional and degree level learning objectives, graduates of this program are expected to achieve these learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of historical individuals and events and the global complexity of human experiences over time and place.
• Distinguish the historical schools of thought that have shaped scholarly understanding of the profession.
• Apply persuasive arguments that are reasoned and based on suitable evidence.
• Evaluate secondary resources, through historiographical analysis, for credibility, position, and perspective.
• Assess a variety of primary sources, digital and archival, in the process of deeply researching the past.
• Generate research that makes original contributions to knowledge, through the use of advanced historical methods.
• Produce a high-quality research paper that meets professional standards typical for a conference presentation or academic publication.

Core:

500 Historical Research Methods

501 Historiography

Concentration in Ancient and Classical History (30 semester hours)

Covers the broad sweep of European history and provides a foundation in historical theory, trends, and concepts for further study of topical history at the graduate level. Topics include Greek civilization through the 4th century B.C., the fall of the Roman empire, the development of the Ottoman culture, and the Crusades.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this concentration, the student will be able to:

• Explain and critique Ancient Greece’s political, economic, social, and intellectual movements.
• Explain and critique Roman history from its beginnings until the Age of Constantine including the political and social developments in the Republic and the early empire.
• Examine and appraise great Byzantium leaders, the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, the recapture of Constantinople from the crusaders, and the impact of Byzantium culture on Western intellect.
• Explain and assess European social, political, economic, and religious institutions and cultural and intellectual phenomena in the light of the changing historical environment from the end of the Ancient World to the Renaissance.
• Explain and assess the medieval church and rise of the Renaissance papacy; growth of humanism, including painters, architects, and sculptors; city-states and monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire; religious upheavals of Protestantism; Anabaptists; the Catholic Reformation.

531 Greek Civilization

532 Roman Republic and Empire

533 Late Antiquity and Byzantium

534 Medieval Europe

535 Renaissance and Reformation

597 Graduate Seminar in European History

611 Ancient Warfare

643 Ottoman Empire

Final Program Requirements:

691 Writing a Thesis Proposal

699 MA in History – Thesis