There's more than one way to find success in college and the path to getting there is different for every student. Our goals in this course are to connect with fellow students and the instructor as you become a contributing member of the community, both at UMass and beyond; start planning your individual academic goals and pathways toward achieving them; explore the different majors in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and start thinking like a social scientist.

"Everything has a history," the American Historical Association tells us. In order to understand why something is the way it is today, we need to understand how it began and how it got to be this way. This seems so obvious to historians that they are surprised to find not everyone thinks like this. Historical reasoning needs to be taught. We begin by looking at the ways that historians formulate questions, evaluate evidence, and draw conclusions. We then explore the many styles of historical writing. And the fact that something was not "always this way" means it can change.

What are markets and how are they created and organized around the world? What is the appropriate relationship between society, governments and markets? How can we transform our economic systems to address climate change? What role has racism played in the development of global capitalism and how does it continue to impact economic outcomes? This course addresses these questions by introducing students to a variety of approaches and theories.