<p>Of the three 200-level history classes I took last year, all were on the pre-modern era, and two were excellent. These were Medieval Europe (fantastic), History of Islamic Civilization to 1566 (really awesome), and Early Modern Europe (passably decent but not great). Islamic Civ is not offered in 08-09, but the other two are. If I was you I would take Medieval Euro with Gary Shaw in the fall, because he is a F-ing bawse. He was the coolest professor I had all year, and even though medieval European history isn’t always that stimulating, I thoroughly enjoyed the class. I don’t know if everyone liked him as much as I did, but my classmates that I talked to at the time seemed to, so…</p>
<p>You are actually spoiled for choice in European history in the fall, but I guess you have a point if you were trying to call attention to the lack of classes on Asian/Latin American history (I don’t know where you were going with the whole “pre-Modern” thing). If indeed that was your intention, then you’re right. I noticed the same thing. But you know what? That’s one of the drawbacks of going to a small liberal arts school. They don’t offer a 100% geographically- and chronologically-balanced portfolio of classes every semester or even year. And you’re absolutely right, it blows. </p>
<p>So my advice is, either make do and choose a history class from the selection available, or just wait until next semester/year. Take interesting classes from other disciplines/fields instead, i.e. film or english or russian lit or bio or I don’t even know, and just wait until the next registration period comes around and the exact history classes you want are offered. In the meantime, explore!</p>
<p>PS </p>
<p>If by “Pre-Modern” you mean like, WAY old, as in, say, 5000 or 10000 years ago…Those courses are probably located in anthropology or archeology course clusters. </p>
<p>ANTH204-01 Introduction to Archaeology
ANTH202-01 Paleoanthropology: The Study of Human Evolution
ANTH250-01 Foragers to Farmers: Hunting and Gathering and the Development of Agriculture </p>
<p>Hope that is helpful. Everyone stresses over their courses, so don’t worry too much, but make sure to choose carefully or else you could end up stuck in a bunch of classes that you don’t enjoy. That is a miserable experience, let me tell you.</p>