This course examines the history of Southeast Asia through the 18th century. Equal attention will be paid to the development of mainland and insular states and societies in parts of the region eventually dominated by the modern nation-states of Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Core themes include the spread of Indian and Chinese influence within the region starting during the proto-historical era, the development of a regional political culture, the role of maritime trade in state development, the rise and fall of classical kingdoms, the domestication within the region of world religions including Islam and Buddhism and the transition to the early modern era. Course requirements include a mid-term, a final exam and a short research paper.

Dr. Sandria B. Freitag has long explored a range of source materials that can be used to answer new questions about non-elites in British Indian society (working on riots as windows into communal identity-formation; constructions of criminality; and visual culture for its revelations about popular values and motivations at work in public sphere activities). Publications include Community and Collective Action: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism as well as numerous essays on crime and-the current project-on the emergence of photography and poster art as the first two "mass media" produced in British India These include, for instance, "South Asian Ways of Seeing; Muslim Ways of Knowing: The Indian Muslim niche market in posters" in Indian Economic and Social History Review, 44:3 (2007):297-331; and "More Than Meets the (Hindu) Eye: The Public Sphere as a Space for Alternative Visions" essay for Richard Davis (ed), Picturing the NationÖ (Orient Longman, 2007), 92-116. She teaches visual culture and modern South Asian history in the History Department of North Carolina State University.

This course surveys the history of the Indian subcontinent from the 18th century to the present. We begin by analyzing the early modern period in the midst of dramatic change, using the legacy of the Vijayanagar empire in the south and the functioning Mughal empire in the north to establish a baseline of practices, structures, and relationships. Perhaps most important are the underlying understandings of how legitimate states operate, and how constituent groups within them are defined and incorporated. Eighteenth century changes prompted by the emergence of successor states, and British intervention in these processes, continue the narrative about states and constituent groups. For the 19th century, this narrative line enables us to analyze both the obvious economic and political changes and the less obvious impact on individual Indians' lives - implications that help us understand how local groups and local cultures shaped the formation of modern states. The rise of the Indian nationalist movement, as well as other political cross-currents at work, point to patterns that continue across independence from the British and the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Finally, we examine the relationship of state and constituents for patterns relating to the emergence of postcolonial societies and their experiences over the last 70 years.

This course offers a narrative history of China from the first Sino-Japanese War (1894) to the present. Presentations will be organized in three ways: a chronological history of major events from 1895 to 2008, biographical studies of the lives of top political leaders (Sun, Chiang, Mao, Deng), and examinations of textual and non-textual materials. Attention will be focused on the transformation of China from empire to nation in the 20th century, Chinaís changing place in East Asia, and Chinese identity and aspirations in the globalizing world. Students are expected to attend lectures and discussion sections and complete the required readings (about two hundred pages each week) on schedule. Course assignments consist of an hour-long mid-term, three response papers based on the assigned readings, and a final examination. Final course grade will be assigned on the basis of 20% for the mid-term, 15% for each paper (3-5 pages) and 35% for the final examination.

An exploration of society and ecology from the period of earliest settlement until the construction of the Tokugawa shogunate c. 1600. Includes the development of the classical imperial state, the formation of the medieval warrior governments, and the experience of mass civil war during the 16th century. We are concerned with the complex sources of power-land and food control, violence, family and class structures, literacy and knowledge, social contracts. We are also concerned with the complex expression of culture-in buildings and material objects, Shinto and Buddhist belief, myth and historical writing, poetry and fiction, drama and popular storytelling. The course draws on a rich variety of original texts (such as Tales of the Heike and The Tale of Genji) and includes extensive visual evidence. Two very short essays, one longer essay, a mid-term and a final examination. No prerequisites, all welcome.

This class examines how diverse human societies and natural environments have shaped one another throughout the history of the United States and the Americas more broadly. We will explore the consequences of the Pleistocene Extinctions, the development of agriculture, indigenous resource management, and the impacts of ecological encounters with European colonists. Our study of European colonization will emphasize the role of exotic diseases in reshaping native demography, how invasive species reconfigured ecology, and the ways that the production of staple commodities restructured relationships between labor, capital, land, race, and ecology from New England to the Caribbean. We will examine the impact of the Louisiana Purchase, the Expansion of the Cotton Kingdom, the rise of industrial manufacturing, and how agriculture contributed to the causes and outcomes of the Civil War. From the Transcendentalists and the Hudson River School to the writings of Marsh, Muir, and Leopold, the course traces the deep intellectual roots that shaped the emergence of conservationist thought. Twentieth Century topics we will explore include: environmental justice and environmental racism; water rights, water law, irrigation, and dams; the unnatural history of “natural” disasters; the role of the federal government in managing public resources and protecting public health; the rise of the environmental movement; the transition to a fossil fuel economy and its economic, environmental, and political consequences; how NGOs have shaped policy debates and pioneered conservation strategies; the changing nature of agriculture through the twentieth century; the causes and consequences of global climate change for the United States and the World.

Robert Chester earned his Ph.D. in history at University of California, Davis. Trained as an environmental historian of the United States with a special emphasis on the American West, his current book project, Comstock Creations: An Environmental History of America's Largest Silver Strike, 1859-1880, situates the emergence of corporate capitalism, technological innovation, occupational hazards, and debates over public resources in the environmental and social context of California and Nevada during and after the Civil War. Professor Chester enjoys engaging students in discussions about how environmental forces shape key historical events, as well as the many ways that popular culture continues to shape and distort how people view the past. Professor Chester also has published on the role of food and identity in environmental history and hopes to pursue further research on this topic in the future.

This course examines the period in which the United States became a continental nation and contributed to the escalating tensions that would precipitate the Civil War. As a broad overview of the this era, the class emphasizes the consequences of the War of 1812, the democratization of American politics, the rise of industrial manufacturing and the creation of transportation infrastructure, the dispossession and marginalization of Native Americans, the growth of slavery and the lives of slaves, changes in the lives of women, and the ways that religion and reform reshaped American society during these years.

In the sixty-five years between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of World War II, the United States became an industrialized, urban society with national markets and communication media. This class will explore in depth some of the most important changes and how they were connected. We will also examine what did not change, and how state and local priorities persisted in many arenas. Among the topics addressed: population movements and efforts to control immigration; the growth of corporations and trade unions; the campaign for women's suffrage; Prohibition; an end to child labor; the institution of the Jim Crow system; and the reshaping of higher education.

This course will examine the history of African Americans and race relations from the Civil War and Emancipation (1861-1865) through the modern African American Freedom Struggle (1954-1980), concluding with the post-Civil Rights-Black Power era (1980-2008). Social, cultural, and Social Change; the Harlem Renaissance; Civil Rights; Black Power; and, Beyond Civil Rights-Black Power. Possible texts: W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk; Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery; Jacqueline Royster, Ida B. Wells; James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Assata, An Autobiography; Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father. There will be two exams -- a mid-term and a final -- and two short response papers.

This course explores frontier, borderlands, cultural, social, and environmental approaches to the history of the  North American West. In the early weeks we examine the central debates over the definition of the west as a place and a process. We then move on to significant events such as the Mexican-American War, the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, the conquest and dispossession of Native American communities, the Great Depression and World War II, and the rise of the New Right. We find historical meaning in these events by considering the diverse perspectives of participants. We also zero in on the complex relationship between immigrants and settlers and the economic, cultural, environmental, and political aspects of American expansion.  Other themes include the influence of the western as an iconic genre in film and literature, the diversity of women’s experience in the American West, the importance of space and place and the question of region, conquest and colonialism,  and transformations of national identity. In the final weeks we frame the West in a “post-colonial” and “post-modern” world. How have the various legacies of conquest shaped the United States, its relation to the world, and the lives of its residents?

This course will explore the history of the U.S. relations with the external world since 1945.  It focuses on the question of how the U.S. has impacted the historical development of the world and how it in turn has been shaped by the efforts and decisions of world leaders and events.  The course will place the changing political, economic, and social influence of the of U.S. within the larger global context.  Students will examine the rise of U.S. influence in the external world by highlighting US involvement in struggles of national independence, economic and technical development, and human rights.  Particular attention will be given to the U.S. efforts and actions in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.  This course will also trace how these international and transnational encounters have affected America's domestic policy.  Some of structural themes covered in this course will include the U.S. role in the postwar new world order; the advent, intensification, and end of the Cold War; decolonization and development; search for post-Cold War order; and international conflict resolution in the post-Cold War world.

Lauren Hirshberg received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan with an emphasis in U.S. and Pacific history. Her research examines U.S. military imperialism in Micronesia following World War II through a focus on the U.S. missile testing installation at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. She contextualizes this history on a global and local level by analyzing how U.N. sanction of a U.S. colonial administration across Micronesia combined with military suburban planning on Kwajalein to position the island as part of a national story, disavowing U.S. Empire in the region.

This upper division lecture course considers the multiple layers of settler colonial, national and imperial structures in U.S. history over time. We will explore key themes and pivotal developments in the political, social, cultural, and economic histories of the United States from the civil war to the present. We will examine major eras and transformations such as Western expansion and the rise of urban industrial cities, the Great Depression and the New Deal, World War II and the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and Native anticolonial movements, the Vietnam era, the Reagan Revolution, Global Capitalism and the War on Terror.

One course goal is to prepare students to think critically about U.S. history and be able to place themselves within a historical context that helps them understand the relevance of history to their everyday lives as citizens and subjects of different communities. While this challenge allows students to reflect upon their participation in a historical moment and critically think about change and continuity, a second goal pushes students to learn and practice the craft of being a historian. The course is designed to expose students to a wide range of primary source materials, teaching them how to read multiple debates about a historical moment with this evidence and draw their conclusions based on an educated and thoughtful analysis of the sources in front of them. To foster an active and dynamic engagement with historical materials, I have selected a diverse array of secondary and primary texts for the students to critically think with throughout the semester with sources ranging from texts, films and photographs to fine art, songs, political cartoons and radio speeches.

I hope students leave the class proficient in their ability to communicate multiple sides of historical debates both orally and through their writing in a concise, clear and thoughtful manner. To this end, I've created several writing assignments and discussion expectations to help guide students through the process of conducting historical research analyzing secondary materials and articulating their arguments clearly and concisely through their writing and verbal participation in class.

For most of human history, urban living has been the experience of a distinct minority. Only in the past two hundred years have the physical spaces, social relations, and lifestyles associated with large cities entered the mainstream. This course examines the long century of urban growth between 1825 and 1933, when the modern metropolis came into being in the United States. Focusing on large cities (especially New York, San Francisco, and Chicago), we will study the way urban spaces provided sites and sources of new kinds of personal interaction, popular entertainment, social conflict, and political expression. We will also follow the way these environments became the settings for formative cultural encounters among men and women of different ethnicities (especially African Americans, European Americans, and Asian Americans), urban encounters that produced much of what we think of today as American culture. By exploring the origins and evolutions of race riots, elevated railroads, boxing matches, department stores, world's fairs, strikes, ethnic enclaves, baseball stadiums, fire companies, minstrel shows, sex work, skyscrapers, sensational journalism, apartment buildings, amusement parks, gas-lit promenades, neon billboards, personal ads, nickelodeons, and numerous other artifacts, engines, and symbols of a socially promiscuous world in ethnically heterogeneous and divided cities, we can take stock of a way of life we have come to take for granted.

Gender Matters is a course on the history of women and men, the history of gender relations, and the history of the ways in which gender has shaped American experience. We will examine changing attitudes toward gender that have contributed to the construction of power and social relations in The United States. Colonialism (of many sorts), violence, desire, the family, sexuality, race, ethnicity, production, consumption, class and religion will all figure into our study of gendered identities in the twentieth and twenty-first century. The course begins with a review of nineteenth century concepts of what ";male and female"; signified in a slave holding nation in order to set the stage for our consideration of the relationships between race, gender and class that emerged during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine how identities such as: man, woman, gay, lesbian, straight, bi and transsexual have intertwined with race, class and culture to constitute the basis through which power and policy have been dictated by and to American citizens. We will also consider the ways in which those inhabiting the broad and fluid borderlands of gender, especially cross-gender, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual people have helped to expose the ";constructedness"; of gender itself. Amidst the tapestry of twentieth century American history, we will analyze how significant changes - abolition, immigration, the suffrage movement, the rise of labor unions, women's dramatic entry into the paid labor force, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution - gave rise to America's contemporary culture wars. Finally, the course explores how consumer culture, rapid technological advances, social movements for gender equality and LGBT rights have contributed to modern debates about the ways in which Americans enact their citizenship through such things as military service, marriage, adoption and voting. We will utilize historical monographs, personal accounts, theoretical essays, novels, paintings, photography, music and film to discover some of the bounteous resources available to Berkeley students writing research papers. This course meets the American Cultures requirement.

This course covers the history of science in the U.S. from the colonial period up to the present. We focus on the unique situation of the sciences within the changing U.S. context, emphasizing debates over the place of science in intellectual, cultural, religious, and political life. As we examine the mutual shaping of national experience and scientific developments, we will also trace the emergence of institutions for the pursuit of scientific knowledge, with special attention to the relationships between science and technology and between science and the state. We will explore a large number of local examples (California geology, Ernest Lawrence, Silicon Valley, and much on UC Berkeley). The course will also examine the origins of anthropology and its historic relationship with scientific racism. Similarly, we will explore the role of scientific and medical discourses about gender and sexuality that helped further disenfranchise women and demonize homosexuals in American culture. We will examine historical explanations for and responses to epidemic disease. The course will pay special attention to how different groups and individuals throughout the course of American history have sought and gained scientific knowledge from sustained observations of environments and how these people contributed to the emergence of ecology as a discipline. Finally, we will study the ways that emerging technologies have reshaped the daily lives of Americans in the form of consumer goods and electricity, and we will examine the manifold relationships between scientific research, warfare, national security, and the emergence of a military industrial complex.

The course is aimed at students of all majors; no scientific knowledge is presupposed. Basic familiarity with U.S. history will be helpful, as the course is as much about U.S. history as about the history of science. Students interested in teaching elementary or secondary school science and math and who plan to take this course as part of the Cal Teach program will be attending a supplemental section (Weds 2-4pm). This section will focus on the techniques, skills, and perspectives necessary to apply the history of science in the juvenile and adolescent science classroom. For more information about Cal Teach, go to http://calteach.berkeley.edu/.

This course has in years past examined the “historical contexts of [several] revolutionary and counterrevolutionary societies” in modern Latin America. The focus of this semester’s course will remain the study of the rise and fall of selected revolutionary social movements in Latin America.  The premise of this course is that we can begin to understand the dynamics -and dynamism- of Latin America by examining the arc and transformation of social movements as they mobilize distinct marginalized and subaltern groups with alienated sectors of the old ruling classes elites into revolutionary movements that seek political power. The seizing of power is only the first stage of a perilous, precarious, and transformative process.  In this history course we will examine how revolutionary processes have changed the domestic and international relations of Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia. To what degree have internal circumstances [class and social tensions within the country] shaped these revolutions? To what degree, have external circumstances [economic and hegemonic] shaped these revolutions?  We will trace out a broad narrative of each country’s revolutionary movements, seizure and consolidation of power, and consequent counter-revolutionary processes.  Beyond academic reflection upon the past, this course will also, hopefully, suggest how some historical currents foreshadow Latin America’s future.

The goal of this class is to reinterpret Latin American history through the framework of gender. The course will work on two interrelated tracks. First, we will survey the experiences of women and men in Latin America from the pre-conquest period to the present. Some themes that will be addressed are: how did women's social and legal status change as a result of the conquest? What was the role of the African American family in Latin American slave societies? How were patriachal relationships affected by race and class? What did the Catholic church, through the convent or other church institutions, offer women? Did the impact of nineteenth-century liberalism "liberate" women or depreciate their role in society? Have Latin American women played a conservative political role in the twentieth century? Why was the vote for women so late coming? How did revolution and dictatorship affect women differently from men? Second, we will examine the ways that gender pervades political and other discourses, for example, the discursive feminization of the church by nineteenth-century liberals, or the masculinization of the peasant family in agrarian reform ideologies. Readings will be mainly primary sources. I will show four films. There will be two short papers, a midterm, and a final. You will also be required to attend two "cocktail" parties in which you will role-play a character from the readings. Midterm will count 25%, parties 5% each, final 25%, papers 20% each.

In 1485 at the conclusion of the Wars of the Roses, England was a small and impotent European nation whose government had virtually collapsed and whose intellectual, cultural, and political institutions were insignificant and outdated by broader European standards. Two centuries later, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, England was an emerging superpower with a global empire, it was one of the thriving intellectual and cultural centers of Europe, and it had developed new political ideas and institutions which would soon sweep the world. History 151A is at heart an attempt to understand this remarkable transformation, a process which will take us through such topics as the Protestant Reformation and the rise of puritanism; the English Revolution and the development of Republicanism; and the growth of English Imperialism from Ireland to North America and the development of the slave trade. It will also take us, along the way, through sex scandals at the royal court, early modern communism, the conundrum of Queen Elizabeth's gender, and Sir Francis Drake's astonishment at the freezing cold of San Francisco Bay.

Note: syllabus is the file copy from last year and is subject to revision.

The twentieth century was the most devastating in the history of Europe. This course surveys the major developments that led to the wars and revolutions for which the century is famous. It stresses the supreme importance of the commanding actors on the political stage as the century unfolded--Lenin and Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, Churchill and de Gaulle, Walesa and Thatcher and Gorbachev, and focuses on the differing approaches to European relations taken by American presidents from Wilson to George W. Bush. The course will seek to squeeze every ounce of drama out of the century's most famous -- and infamous -- events: Europe's last summer -- the incredible days of July 1914; the slaughter of World War I; the rise of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism; Munich; the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939; the decimation of World War II; the bombing of London and Dresden; the destruction of the European Jewry; the German invasion of Russia; D-Day, the suicide of Hitler, the origins and development of the Cold War; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the revolutions of 1989; the disintegration of the Soviet Union; the collapse of Yugoslavia; and the first and second Gulf wars. All this and more we will explore through books, documents and, not least, films and documentaries.

This upper division course surveys the rise and fall of the European Powers in the period of war and revolution preceding the downfall of Napoleon to the outbreak of World War I. Major Topics: Religious Wars and the 18th century States System, (1648-1789); French Revolution (1789-1799); Napoleonic Europe (1799-1814); Congress of Vienna (1814 1815); the Vienna System (1815-48); the Revolutions of 1848; Crimean War (1853-56); War of Italian unification waged by Cavour and Garibaldi (1859-61); the Wars of German unification waged by Bismarck (1864-71); the Bismarckian System in operation, (1871-90); Imperialism (1890 1907); the crises that led to the First World War (1904-1914). The course will contrast two periods, 1648-1815, and 1815-1914. It will argue that the first period was one of violence, rapaciousness, and unparalleled lawlessness; the second, one of peace and stability. It will, with reference to the later period, therefore seek to explain peace as much as it explains war. Peace is artificial and demands more explanation. Wars sometimes just happen; peace is always caused. Moreover, understanding why the period following the destruction of Napoleon in 1815 was more peaceful than any predecessor in European history helps explain why it ended in a war greater than any before. The explanation of this remarkable record and its disastrous end is the course's overriding theme. Mid-term, final, short paper.

The focus of the course will be on the social and political thought primarily in Germany and France, with peripheral attention paid to England and Italy. Related philosophical and cultural trends will also be discussed. The readings will consist largely of selected texts which are representative of the major currents of the period.

Mark Sawchuk received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2011. He specializes in nineteenth-century European history. His special interests include political culture, repression and surveillance, and the social history of the intersection of regional and national identities.

This course will survey the political, economic, social, and cultural development of Germany since 1914. In less than 90 years, ordinary Germans experienced five political regimes, two World Wars, and experiments with democracy, dictatorship, prosperity and peace. This course explores Germany's dramatic twentieth-century transformations and contradictions, including the impact of World War I; problems of democratization resulting from defeat, inflation, and depression; the rise of Adolf Hitler; National Socialist racism and imperialism; the Holocaust; the course and consequences of World War II; the evolution of the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic; 1989, reunification and its problems; and modern Germany's role in Europe. All this and more we will explore through books, primary source documents and film.

In 1721, Peter the Great chose the title of Emperor for himself and declared that Russia would be an Empire. The empire lasted until the revolutions of 1917, but was never entirely stable. The Romanovs believed that autocracy was the key to good governance. Yet, the reigns of almost all the Romanov Emperors were marked by coups detat, peasant rebellions, and, later, assassination attempts. Russia's expanding boundaries and growing population made it even more difficult to rule. This course will focus heavily on political history and political thought. Given the many factors that were tearing the Empire apart, it will ask, what held it together for so many years? Students will submit two papers. Students will also take a map quiz, midterm, and a final. Participation in class is encouraged and will figure into the grade.

This survey course will cover close to three millennia of Armenian history, from the process of ethnogenesis to the almost complete destruction of the Armenian "feudal" system by the end of the fifteenth century. Much as this course is based on the broad framework of Armenian political history and institutions (kingship, nakharar system, the church, etc.), it also emphasizes economic development, social change, and cultural transformations. We will reflect upon a number of themes. For instance, how could a small nation survive whose homeland was located both at the crossroads of major invasions and population movements and along the fault planes of powerful empires? What did it mean to be Armenian in Antiquity or the Middle Ages? What impact did the adoption of Christianity by the Armenian state make on the fate of this nation? The more specific topics to be covered will include the following: the ethnic origins of the Armenian people; the subsequent formation of the Armenian nation; the Yervanduni, Artashesian, Arshakuni, and Bagratuni dynasties; the transformation of a tribal society into a particular kind of "feudal";society; the Christianization of Armenia and the development of an early medieval literate culture; Armenian historiography and self-perception; trade and cities; the Cilician kingdom; and the impact of Turkic, Mongol, and Turkoman invasions on Armenian social, political, and cultural life.