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Instructor: Allen Carden

Dr. Allen Carden is a distinguished historian, educator, researcher, and writer with more than five decades of experience in higher education teaching and administration. He is an Emeritus Professor of History and former president of Fresno Pacific University, where he continues to serve as a professor and instructor in continuing education. His subject expertise includes American and European history, with a particular passion for making complex historical events, people, and ideas understandable and relevant to students. Dr. Carden holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine; an MA in History from California State University, Fullerton; and a BA in History from BIOLA College. He has developed 17 continuing education courses, primarily in history as well as education and cross-cultural studies, enriching professional learning for educators. His extensive international travel, including numerous student-group trips, has further broadened his historical and cultural perspective. Dr. Carden lives in Fresno, California, and is a member of Trinity Community Church in Clovis.

Classes by this instructor

CSS-901: Build a College-Going Culture

This course addresses the need for educators to engage with students as effective college-going advocates. National economic competitiveness as well as effective civic engagement require a well- educated work force and population. There are many obstacles that prevent far too many students from considering both the benefits and their ability of going to college.

EDU-905: Holidays, History and Values

Most everyone enjoys holidays, but few clearly understand the meanings, traditions, and values behind these special days. Holidays tell us much about the past and also about the values that those in the present find worth preserving for the future. Learn how to use holidays to teach a variety of subject areas across the K-12 curriculum.

SOC-939: Ancient Greece

The study of the ancient Greek world is foundational to discovering who we are today. Western Civilization, and indeed the world, owes much to the innovations developed by the ancient Greeks. Learning about their ideas concerning philosophy, government, drama, athletic competition, medicine, astronomy, military strategy, architecture, and art will explain much about our own history and ways of seeing the world.

SOC-943: Boston and the American Revolution

Discover why Boston became the center of much patriot activity that moved England's American colonies toward revolution and independence. The American Revolution began in the Boston area and was fed by the fervor of its citizens. Many of the most sacred sites of early American history are found in or near this remarkable city. You will explore the ideas, events and people of the Boston area that provided direction for the new American nation.

SOC-947: Puritan New England

This course will explore the ideas and way of life followed by many early colonists in New England. It was a society and culture that detractors mockingly called 'Puritan' and which has had a profound influence on American life and thought to the present. Learn what drove thousands of Puritan English settlers to seek refuge in the wilderness of New England where thy sought to establish a model Christian society - a 'city on a hill' for the world to see.

SOC-955: America Goes Modern: The 1920's

Designed to take the educator back in time, this course puts you on the road with the legendary, Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens may have been born in Missouri but Mark Twain was born in the West. Christened with the name Mark Twain in Virginia City, Clemens used it out of necessity when his writing became offensive to the targets of his writing. You are taken through Clemens' years in the West and will experience the context within which this author created many of his most profound literary contributions.

SOC-956: The Civil Rights Movement

Engage in an overview and details of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's that grew out of decades, if not centuries, of discrimination and humiliation experienced by Black Americans. Galvanized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, Black Americans and other minority groups who underwent struggles of their own brought national and international attention to racial injustice in this country and helped turn America in a new direction of living up to its creed of equality for all.

SOC-957: America's Founding Documents

This online course will explore the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. Historical contexts, personalities, and debates in the development of these documents will be studied. The contents, implications, and changing roles of these documents throughout our history will be examined, incuding present-day impact on American life.

SOC-958: Lincoln and Civil War America

The greatest crisis facing the United States since independence was the secession of eleven southern slave states determined to create a separate nation based on the perpetuation of human slavery. Elected president of the United States in 1960, it fell to Abraham Lincoln to manage this crisis, wage war to preserve the Union of states as one nation, not two, and ultimately to end the enslavement of nearly four million Americans.

SOC-960: Slavery in America

Trace the history and study the development of American slavery from early colonial times to the end of the Civil War. The profound impact of slavery on the development of American social, political and economic life will be explored, as well as the moral debate generated by the existence of slavery in a nation whose founders professed that 'all men are created equal.'

SOC-961: Ancient Rome

Discover how a small village of hills near the Italian coast grew to dominate the Mediterranean world and become the center of the strongest empire in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Designed to cover national social studies standards for this content area, the course will help you understand how much we, as part of Western Civilization, owe to the ancient Romans.

SOC-963: A Nation of Immigrants

Explore the multi-ethnic heritage of the United States, providing valuable insights through the experiences of earlier generations who came to this land as 'new' American and the reactions they generated from those already here. The trials and triumphs of those coming to America is often a story of painful discrimination and injustice and yet probably no nation in human history has given more opportunity to strangers.

SOC-967: The Scientific Revolution: 1500-1800

his course delves into the major discoveries, influential theories and prominent figures of the Scientific Revolution in Europe during the 16th to 18th centuries. It will explore the profound impact of the period, the important scientific discoveries of the time and the tensions they created with traditional religious and cultural beliefs.

SOC-968: The American Presidency

Explore the development of the American Presidency from its Constitutional beginnings in 1787 through the development of political parties, primary elections and modern media-centered campaigning. Discover who the key individuals were and their strengths, weaknesses and contributions to the office that have helped make the presidency the most powerful political position in the world.

SOC-969: The Great Depression

Explore the Great Depression, the single most important economic event of the 20th Century. Attention will be given to the causes, events, policies, movements, personalities, and human tragedy and triumph of this era through an interdisciplinary historical perspective that will examine economic, political, psychological, and sociological aspects of the greatest economic crisis ever faced by the United States.