A Course in Global Perspective
Quebec: History and Culture (HS 294) examines the issues surrounding the history and culture of Quebec, Canada especially in the 17th-19th centuries. Students examine the early history of Quebec as a French colony in the New World and its economic foundation as a fur trading outpost. Next, students examine the political history of Quebec and its complex series of conflicts with Britain and the early emerging American colonies during the revolutionary war. In the 19th century, students examine the tragic history of Grosse Ile, an immigration quarantine station in the Saint Laurence river near Quebec City where thousands of Irish immigrants died during the period of the Irish famine.
The course travels to Montreal to study St. Patrick's Cathedral, opened during the height of the famine in 1847, and students spend several days in Quebec City including a day trip to the Grosse Ile national historic site and tours of the historic Old City.
