Undergraduate Course Descriptions
103 Seminars - Fall 2005
This page last updated: Saturday, 19-Apr-2008 10:35:36 PDT
Special enrollment procedures are required for these courses.
Priority enrollments for these courses will take place between July 9 and August 17, 2008. Most students who participate in the priority enrollment process are assigned to their first or second choice.
A complete 101 and 103 course listing will NOT BE AVAILABLE until July 7.
Sign-Up Procedure:
All submissions (online section preference forms) must be received by Friday, August 14 in order to be considered for the first round of 101 and 103 seminar assignments. Final results and course control numbers will be posted outside 3327 Dwinelle. More details on this will follow. AFTER YOU ARE ACCEPTED INTO A SECTION, YOU MUST ENROLL IN THE COURSE THROUGH TELEBEARS.
Note that ONLY ONE PREFERENCE FORM will be accepted per person. If you submit multiple entries, only the first submission will be considered. Section assignments are NOT first-come, first-served, so there is no need to submit your preferences during the first days the form is available if you are still waiting for information to be posted to the website. Although all are encouraged to submit preference forms, priority is given to History majors.
Though initial sign ups for these courses take place in mid-August, spaces are available in many of the sections after the first round of seminar assignments. Just peruse the courses still indicated as open for enrollment on our website and notify Leah Flanagan in 3327 Dwinelle if you want to fill one of the available seats.
The Online Section Preference Form will be available on this webpage beginning July 7.
Africa |
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| 103H(R.002 - The Road to Development:Theories & Practices of Progress for Africa and Latin America in the 19th & 20th Centuries | Decker | |
| W 2-4 122 Latimer | ||
| This course is also listed as 103E.003 and 103U.002 | ||
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This course will explore historical themes eventually leading towards the emergence of the development discourse in the twentieth century. Rather than a history of development as such, we will investigate the connections between colonialism, post-colonialism, gender, and notions of “progress” in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that set the stage for the post-WWII development debate. Topics of discussion will include the civilizing mission, sex and colonialism, scientific racism and notions of progress, questions of modernity, labor in colonial and post-colonial economies, education, industry, technology, nationalism, nutrition, and welfare. How did relationships formed out of the colonial experience in Africa and Latin America shape the emerging discourse of development? What drove nineteenth- and early twentieth-century interests in poverty, race, nutrition, health, medicine, sex, child welfare, sanitation, food production and reproduction? Students in European, African, and Latin American history will find this course of interest. Course requirements: Two short papers in connection with reading presentations and a longer paper at the end of the term are required. There are many options for the final paper, which may be based on primary or secondary sources. Students may write on course-related themes in European, Latin American or African historical contexts. History majors may also opt to write a prospectus for their 101 in lieu of a research paper. Grades will be based on attendance and participation, presentations & short papers, and the final paper. Please contact the instructor, Corrie Decker, at crdecker@berkeley.edu if you have any questions about this course. |
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Ancient |
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| 103A.002 - The Roman Empire and the Near East: 64BC - AD 337 | ||
| Updated July 20, 2005 | ||
| This course has been cancelled. Please see the 101 course listings for a new course listing under Ancient. | ||
| 103A.003 - Publicity, Propaganda, and Power in the Roman Revolution | Norena | |
| M 4-6 233 Dwinelle | ||
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This seminar will examine the relationship between public image and political power at Rome during a critical passage of Roman history: Julius Caesar’s rise to absolute power, the advent of monarchy under Augustus, and the consolidation of the Julio-Claudian dynasty under Augustus’ successor, Tiberius (50 BC–AD 37). Topics for discussion include the emergence of individual dynasts in the late Republic; the mechanisms available to these dynasts for projecting a specific public image across time and space in the Roman world; the aims and impact of political propaganda during periods of violent civil conflict; the nature of appeals to key “constituencies” within the Roman state (army, senate, urban population of Rome, municipal élites); and the legitimation of a new political order through law, religion, literature, art, and architecture. A central theme for the entire seminar will be the “symbolics of power” in ancient Rome. In investigating the dynamic relationship between power and its representation in various media, we will consider whether representation was in the service of power, or whether, as some cultural anthropologists have suggested, power was in the service of representation. Weekly readings and discussion will focus on primary sources, both literary and material. We will draw on a wide range of literary genres, from history (Velleius Paterculus, Tacitus, Appian, Dio) and biography (Suetonius, Plutarch) to oratory (Cicero) and epic poetry (Vergil); we will also examine various public documents as well as the writings of the protagonists themselves (Caesar’s Civil War and Augustus’ Res Gestae). In order to study the visual representation of power during this period, we will also consider contemporary statues, coins, monumental architecture in the city of Rome, and relief sculpture. In addition, selections from modern studies of propaganda, ideology, and political symbolism will provide a theoretical framework and critical vocabulary for the seminar as a whole. Course requirements: attendance at all sessions of the seminar and participation in class discussion (10%), two oral presentations of 15-20 minutes (30%), and two 10-12 page papers (60%). |
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Asia |
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| 103F.002 - Formulating Women’s Lives | Irschick | |
| Tu 2-4 3104 Dwinelle | ||
| In this course our goal will be to understand the role that women play in reproduction and social and well as economic production. We will try also to look at the way these “tasks’ help or problematize the nationalist project. Our interest will be in the way in which the history of South Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries suggests outcomes for these kinds of problems. Ours will be a general enquiry, but some of the case studies will be from south Asia. We will look at Mrinalini Sinha’s account of women and politics in 19th and 20th century India. We will also look at the “women’s narratives of the Partition” by Urvashi Butalia and others and will also consider the two films The Terrorist and Fire in our attempt to understand what seem to be the exclusively gender aspects of nationalism. We will also look at Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil’s Ghost as another part of our endeavor to understand the problems women have in performing “nationalist” functions. We will use Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble as a way to understand the strength of heterosexuality in our society. We will also read Katherine Mayo’s Mother India as a way to problematize heterosexuality in India. Part of our concerns will be with how sexual activity is seen as something in the service of the nation. Our discussion will be formed against an older literature and thinking by Partha Chatterjee that argues that nationalism in south Asia basically encapsulated women in Indian patriarchy. | ||
| 103F.003 - Modern China at War | Danis | |
| M 10-12 2227 Dwinelle | ||
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This course will cover the history of China from the 1910s to the 1950s, a period defined by warfare. We will examine the warlord period (1910s and 20s), the development of the Communism as a political and military force in the 1930s, the Japanese invasion and World War Two (1937-1945), the Civil War (1945-1949), and China’s involvement in the Korean war and its aftermath. In considering warfare in this period, we will be interested in both the military aspects and war’s fundamental impact on Chinese politics, society, and culture. What was it like to be a soldier? What was it like to be a civilian? How did political leaders use the rhetoric and organizational techniques of military mobilization to achieve control and impose their visions of society on the domestic population? The conventional narrative of modern Chinese history has assumed the desirability of a strong nation-state. Thus, “internal” warsuch as fighting among warlords or between the Communists and Nationalistshas been viewed negatively, as a wasteful hindrance to China’s development. Conversely, “external” war against Japan has been glorified as heroic resistance; by the same token, the Communists’ mobilization of “peasant nationalism” has been held to be the key to their victory in 1949. Recently, however, scholars have begun questioning this nationalistic approach, for example, by re-examining the question of wartime collaboration. We will consider classic and revisionist scholarship, as well as a few novels, in our attempt to gain a more complete understanding of the fundamentally important topic of war in modern China. Students should come to seminar prepared to discuss weekly reading assignments. Written assignments will include four short book reviews (2 pages), one essay (5 pages), and one term paper (8-10 pages). Prerequisites: one survey course in modern Chinese history (e.g. 13B or 116D) or permission of the instructor. |
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| 103F.004 - An Intellectual History of Wartime Japan | deBoer | |
| Tu 4-6 201 Wheeler | ||
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This course examines the role of intellectuals in wartime Japan (1931-45). Readings will expose students to supporters and critics of Japanese state policy on issues pertaining to nationalism, militarism, and colonialism. Using scholarly work on radical nationalists, pan-Asianists and internationalists in Japan, in addition to translated primary sources, students will begin to understand the psychology of (ultra)nationalism and the conditions that gave rise to fascism in the 1930s. The course will also reveal the tension within the liberal critique of empire and explain how Japanese leftists could reconcile themselves to supporting colonial policy in the 1930s and 1940s. |
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Comparative |
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| 103U(R.002 - Theories & Practices of Progress for Africa and Latin America in the 19th & 20th Centuries | Decker | |
| W 2-4 122 Latimer | ||
| This course is also listed as 103E.003 and 103H.002 | ||
|
This course will explore historical themes eventually leading towards the emergence of the development discourse in the twentieth century. Rather than a history of development as such, we will investigate the connections between colonialism, post-colonialism, gender, and notions of “progress” in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that set the stage for the post-WWII development debate. Topics of discussion will include the civilizing mission, sex and colonialism, scientific racism and notions of progress, questions of modernity, labor in colonial and post-colonial economies, education, industry, technology, nationalism, nutrition, and welfare. How did relationships formed out of the colonial experience in Africa and Latin America shape the emerging discourse of development? What drove nineteenth- and early twentieth-century interests in poverty, race, nutrition, health, medicine, sex, child welfare, sanitation, food production and reproduction? Students in European, African, and Latin American history will find this course of interest. Course requirements: Two short papers in connection with reading presentations and a longer paper at the end of the term are required. There are many options for the final paper, which may be based on primary or secondary sources. Students may write on course-related themes in European, Latin American or African historical contexts. History majors may also opt to write a prospectus for their 101 in lieu of a research paper. Grades will be based on attendance and participation, presentations & short papers, and the final paper. Please contact the instructor, Corrie Decker, at crdecker@berkeley.edu if you have any questions about this course. |
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Europe |
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| 103B(R.002 - Jerusalem and Crusading in the Medieval West | Gabriele | |
| Th 10-12 210 Dwinelle | ||
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The words “Jerusalem” and “crusade” conjure up many images, not least of which may be Ridley Scott’s recent box-office flop, “Kingdom of Heaven.” But because crusading in the medieval West lasted for well over 200 years, directed against Muslims, heretics, and even other Christians, the movement cannot be boiled down to just 2 hours. Saladin, the Templars, and Richard the Lion-Heart are indeed a part of this history, but still only a part. The bigger picture is much more complex. This course will focus exclusively on crusading in the medieval West, examining the motivations of the crusaders, the impact of the crusades on Europe, and crusading’s shift inwards in the later Middle Ages. Along the way, we will touch on themes as diverse as the political and religious uses of written history, apocalyptic expectation, and the place of non-Christians in the medieval West. The course will help prepare participants for future research in the field. Requirements will include participation in discussions, a brief oral presentation, a pre-prospectus exercise (to prepare for a future 101), and a final paper. |
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| 103B.003 - Empires: The European Struggle for Global Supremacy in the Early Modern Period | Goldman | |
| W 12-2 332 Giannini | ||
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Global military empires are nothing new. Stretching back to Alexander the Great and beyond, the Western world has seen a succession of land- and sea-based empires that spanned much of the Old World. The United States in the twenty-first century is only the latest in a series of European-based global empires founded even before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Beginning with the Portuguese and Prince Henry the Navigator, Europeans of the Early Modern period (ca. 1400-1800) sailed their ships to far-flung regions of the Earth, conquering peoples and exploiting continents as they went. An unbroken stream of empires connects those early forays through the conquest of the New World all the way to the modern American Empire. Empire studies is a growing field as historians attempt to understand the historical legacy that has led to American global hegemony and wars such as Vietnam and Iraq. This course will address the major themes of Early Modern empires in a comparative setting, as well as provide an analysis of the various methodologies of Imperial Studies. The main focus of the course will be Spain’s global empire and the experience of both Spaniards and New World natives during the Early Modern period. In addition, the class will explore several other empires – Portuguese, French, Dutch, Ottoman and English – in comparison with the Spanish. It will begin with a discussion of what constitutes an Empire, and continue with readings and discussions on a wide range of topics, including: technological advancements that allowed the Europeans of the 15th century to begin the exploration of unknown lands; the ability of impoverished Iberia to conquer much of the New World; the causes of the collapse of the Spanish Empire; and the role of religion and the European justifications of Empire, among others. The second half of the course will focus on the French, Dutch and English empires of the 17th and 18th centuries and on the lessons learned by those later empires, and the differences in their imperial experiences. The readings will also offer insights into different historical methodologies preparing students for 101 courses. Course requirements: weekly attendance in seminar and active participation; two short papers (2-3 pages) throughout the semester; short presentations in conjunction with papers; and a final paper. The final paper can be based on any of the themes we encounter in class, and history majors may also choose to prepare a prospectus for a 101 in lieu of the final paper. Please contact the instructor, Bill Goldman, at wgoldman@berkeley.edu with any questions concerning this course. |
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| 103B.005 - Gender and Nationalism in Modern Europe | Shulman | |
| Mon 12-2 3104 Dwinelle | ||
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Why are men expected to die for their nation? This seminar will explore gendered approaches to the subject of nationalism in Europe beginning with the French Revolution through the end of the twentieth century. Both nationalism and the meanings assigned to gender differences are historically specific forms. Historians have begun to trace the role of gender ideologies as one of the dynamics in the origins of European nationalisms. In the European context, the rise of modern nationalism shaped new and enduring ideals of normative masculinities and femininities. Symbols of national aspiration were typically gendered and incorporated ideals of difference between men and women. State-building in Europe often involved not only the assertion of gender difference but also the subordination of women and minority groups. Manly ideals played dominant roles in fashioning ideas of nationhood and war. Using case studies on European nationalisms and gender, we will consider the following questions: What were the historical conditions for the production of new national identities and the place of gender in that process? How were nations and national communities "imagined" in gendered terms? What were the differences between men's and women's participation in the discourse of nationalism? Did men and women imagine the nation in different ways? What are the connections between women's roles as biological reproducers of the nation and their rights as women and as citizens? How did notions of masculinity and manliness influence nationalism as a political movement and how did nationalist movements tap into and shape ideals of manliness? Course requirements include weekly readings, active participation in discussion, two oral presentations, two short papers (3-5 pages), and a final paper. |
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Latin America |
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| 103E(R.003 - Theories & Practices of Progress for Africa and Latin America in the 19th & 20th Centuries | Decker | |
| W 2-4 122 Latimer | ||
| This course is also listed as 103H.002 and 103U.002 | ||
|
This course will explore historical themes eventually leading towards the emergence of the development discourse in the twentieth century. Rather than a history of development as such, we will investigate the connections between colonialism, post-colonialism, gender, and notions of “progress” in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that set the stage for the post-WWII development debate. Topics of discussion will include the civilizing mission, sex and colonialism, scientific racism and notions of progress, questions of modernity, labor in colonial and post-colonial economies, education, industry, technology, nationalism, nutrition, and welfare. How did relationships formed out of the colonial experience in Africa and Latin America shape the emerging discourse of development? What drove nineteenth- and early twentieth-century interests in poverty, race, nutrition, health, medicine, sex, child welfare, sanitation, food production and reproduction? Students in European, African, and Latin American history will find this course of interest. Course requirements: Two short papers in connection with reading presentations and a longer paper at the end of the term are required. There are many options for the final paper, which may be based on primary or secondary sources. Students may write on course-related themes in European, Latin American or African historical contexts. History majors may also opt to write a prospectus for their 101 in lieu of a research paper. Grades will be based on attendance and participation, presentations & short papers, and the final paper. Please contact the instructor, Corrie Decker, at crdecker@berkeley.edu if you have any questions about this course. |
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| 103E.002 - Latin American Cities, 1880-2005 | Trumper | |
| F 10-12 3104 Dwinelle | ||
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This course focuses on the history of, and the experience of living in, modern Latin American cities in the late 19th and 20th centuries. We will cover the social and cultural histories of a variety of different major urban centers, including Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago de Chile. We will address topics as diverse as modernity, urbanization, the experience of "race", class and gender, urban utopias, urban violence, and state terror as they were lived in different ways in these different cities throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Course requirements include active participation in seminar, three short reaction papers, and a final essay that integrates primary and secondary sources. History majors may write a prospectus for their 101 in lieu of a research paper. Please contact the instructor, Camilo Trumper (ctrumper@hotmail.com) if you have any questions about this course. |
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Medieval |
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| 103B(R.002 - Jerusalem and Crusading in the Medieval West | Gabriele | |
| Th 10-12 210 Dwinelle | ||
|
The words “Jerusalem” and “crusade” conjure up many images, not least of which may be Ridley Scott’s recent box-office flop, “Kingdom of Heaven.” But because crusading in the medieval West lasted for well over 200 years, directed against Muslims, heretics, and even other Christians, the movement cannot be boiled down to just 2 hours. Saladin, the Templars, and Richard the Lion-Heart are indeed a part of this history, but still only a part. The bigger picture is much more complex. This course will focus exclusively on crusading in the medieval West, examining the motivations of the crusaders, the impact of the crusades on Europe, and crusading’s shift inwards in the later Middle Ages. Along the way, we will touch on themes as diverse as the political and religious uses of written history, apocalyptic expectation, and the place of non-Christians in the medieval West. The course will help prepare participants for future research in the field. Requirements will include participation in discussions, a brief oral presentation, a pre-prospectus exercise (to prepare for a future 101), and a final paper. |
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Science |
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| 103S.002 - Brave New Worlds: Biology and American History from the 1860s to the 1990s | Varno | |
| Tu 12-2 210 Dwinelle | ||
| This course is also listed as 103D.006 | ||
|
At the turn of the 21st century, with the sequencing of the human genome complete, scientists and politicians hailed the coming of a new biotechnological age. Craig Venter prophesied “a new starting point” in human history, while James Watson promised a “giant resource that will change mankind, like the printing press.” President Clinton announced that “today we are learning the language in which God created life.” These bold visions were accompanied by deep anxieties and fears. New technologies posed new ethical challenges, and the eugenic programs of the first half of the 20th century cast a long shadow. In this seminar, we will broadly historicize our current biotechnological moment by considering the place biology has occupied in American history since the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Topics we will address include Social Darwinism, the growth of biology as a professional discipline, the eugenics movement, the emergence of Mendelian genetics, the Scopes Trial, the conservation movement and environmentalism, public displays of nature in zoos and museums in the 1950s and 1960s, the biotech boom of the 1980s and 1990s, the relation of film and literature to biology, biology and gender, and the place of biology in American politics. Along with focusing on well-known biologists like Thomas Hunt Morgan and Rachel Carson, our readings will also cover the history of the animals (like fruit flies and laboratory rats) that have been instrumental to creating our biological knowledge. We will read a wide range of types of sources: canonical texts, recent monographs, plenty of primary sources (including sizable excerpts from The Origin of Species and Carson’s Silent Spring), some journal articles, a biography (of Barbara McClintock), and a novel (Huxley’s Brave New World). Our readings will be supplemented by occasional short lectures on the history of biological thought. Course requirements include weekly readings, active participation in seminar, three structured short essays (5-7 pages each), and occasional short weekly assignments. At the end of the semester, students will submit a writing portfolio that consists of revised versions of the three short essays. |
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United States |
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| 103D(R.007 - Religion in 20th century American life | Burns | |
| Fri 12-2 2227 Dwinelle | ||
| Updated August 30, 2005 | ||
| Note optional research component added! | ||
| Drawing upon a mixture of primary and secondary sources, this seminar will consider the place of religion in 20th century American life. The seminar will move chronologically, but will center thematically on the problem of secularization, particularly among intellectuals; increased religious diversity twinned with the continued assertion of America’s identity as a Christian nation; and the rise of the religious right. Episodes to be considered include the 19th-century inheritance, the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the 1920's, the rise of neo-orthodox theology, the development of religious conservatism, the Cold War and Christianity, the post-1965 growth in nontraditional and non-Western religions, and the intersections between gender, politics and religion. Course requirements include active participation, two short papers (5pp.), and a longer research paper (10-15pp). This class is also being offered as an optional research seminar (103R). Students who chose this option will complete a number of library research assignments in place of the two short papers, and will also write the final research paper. Because assigned books may not be available in campus bookstores by the beginning of the semester, students are advised that the following books will be used in the first three weeks: Roger Finke and Rodney Starke, The Churching of America (please bring to first class meeting), Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods, Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. All of these texts may be ordered on-line at amazon.com or half.com. Students should also have a copy of the Bible handy for easy reference throughout the semester. | ||
| 103D.002 - Post World War II US: the Unheralded Revolution | Frydl | |
| W 4-6 206 Wheeler | ||
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Did the formative years of 1945-1960 represent a revolution in progressive reform or the birth of a dynamic conservative movement? Did the US expand its empire “by invitation” or merely resist Soviet expansionism? Did Americans grudgingly accept federal power or did this new Leviathan antagonize its subjects? Those who long for simplicity will be disappointed to learn that the readings for this course will, to some degree, support all of the options enumerated above. Perhaps even more importantand more disturbing for those who would wish for a false but unalloyed claritymany of these questions are related to each other in both articulation and answer. In uncovering the many threads that weave together to form an understanding of the postwar United States, we will be particularly attentive to the ways in which this historical moment constituted a radical departure from what preceded it and can indeed be fairly described as an unheralded revolution. |
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| 103D.003 - Soul Power: A Natural History of Black Cultural Politics | Martin | |
| W 10-12 210 Dwinelle | ||
| This seminar will examine the origins, development, meanings, and consequences of Black Cultural Politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Put another way, we will examine the nexus between the Black Freedom Struggle, on one hand, and Black Culture, on the other. The particular emphasis will be the relationship between black expressive culture, especially black folk culture and black popular culture, and black politics. Possible topics to be covered include: Antebellum Slave Culture; Free Black Culture in the Nineteenth Century; The Harlem Renaissance; The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s; Early Hip Hop, Rap and Post-Black Power Politics. Possible genres to be discussed include: Black Music; Black Humor; Black Visual Art; Black Sports; and, Black Literature. Possible texts: Angela Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism; Shane and Graham White, Stylin': African American Expressive Culture; Sterling Stuckey, Slave Culture; Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness; Tricia Rose, Black Noise, Rap Music and Black Culture. | ||
| 103D.004 - Spectatorship and Performance in American Culture, 1800-1945 | Wagner | |
| Th 2-4 104 Dwinelle | ||
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It has become commonplace to assert that the spectacles of violence we encounter on television or at the movies desensitize us and encourage us to experience real-life violence as voyeuristic spectators. In fact, movie-going, television watching, and other acts of modern spectatorship affect us in myriad and complex ways; they can both engage and alienate us, give us a sense of vicarious experience, horrify us, amuse us, and inspire feelings of sympathy, anger, and moral responsibility. In this seminar, we will attempt to gain a better understanding of the central role of spectatorship in modern life by tracing the emergence of new forms of visual performance and display, and new modes of watching among spectators in America between 1800 and 1945. Specifically, we will explore the ways in which innovative technologies such as the motion picture, new institutions of the visual, from popular museums to the vaudeville stage, and a variety of novel visual amusements and attractions, including world’s fairs, sporting events, art exhibitions, department store displays, and amusement parks, transformed the texture of life in America. We will also examine consistent themes in the history of spectatorship, such as the central and often contested place of violence and sexuality, the struggles of African Americans, women, and other groups to assert their own identities through various forms of visual self-representation, and the relationship between spectatorship, advertising, and mass consumption. Texts for this seminar include Leo Charney and Vanessa Schwartz, Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, Bluford Adams, E Pluribus Barnum: The Great Showman and the Making of U.S. Popular Culture, Andie Tucher, Froth & Scum: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and the Ax Murder in America's First Mass Medium, Sharon Ullman, Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America, and Shane White and Graham J. White, Stylin': African American Expressive Culture from its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. We will also analyze a variety of primary source materials, including autobiographies, fiction, photographs, art, and movies. Course requirements include weekly readings, active participation in discussion, three short reading response papers, and a final paper exploring one of the major themes, issues, or events covered in seminar. |
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| 103D.005 - United States Culture Between the World Wars, 1919-1941 | Agee | |
| Th 4-6 102 Barrows | ||
| This course will explore American culture during the Twenties and Thirties. During these turbulent decades America emerged as a modern society. The nation was forced to come to terms with urbanization; massive internal migrations; an expanding corporate order; a growing consumption culture; and later, the cataclysmic effects of the Great Depression. These various developments confused traditional hierarchies of race, gender, ethnicity, age, and class, and complicated the question, “Who is an American?” Our seminar will explore how Americans sought to answer this question by looking at high culture, mass culture, and popular culture. Our topics will range from the Harlem Renaissance, to Hollywood, to the Ku Klux Klan. The seminar will utilize primary documents, films, and secondary readings, such as Roland Marchand’s, "Advertising the American Dream," Edward J. Larson’s, "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion," James N. Gregory’s "American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California," and Anthony Lee’s "Painting on the Left: Diego Rivera, Radical Politics, and San Francisco's Public Murals." | ||
| 103D.006 - Brave New Worlds: Biology and American History from the 1860s to the 1990s | Varno | |
| Tu 12-2 210 Dwinelle | ||
| This course is also listed as 103S.002 | ||
|
At the turn of the 21st century, with the sequencing of the human genome complete, scientists and politicians hailed the coming of a new biotechnological age. Craig Venter prophesied “a new starting point” in human history, while James Watson promised a “giant resource that will change mankind, like the printing press.” President Clinton announced that “today we are learning the language in which God created life.” These bold visions were accompanied by deep anxieties and fears. New technologies posed new ethical challenges, and the eugenic programs of the first half of the 20th century cast a long shadow. In this seminar, we will broadly historicize our current biotechnological moment by considering the place biology has occupied in American history since the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Topics we will address include Social Darwinism, the growth of biology as a professional discipline, the eugenics movement, the emergence of Mendelian genetics, the Scopes Trial, the conservation movement and environmentalism, public displays of nature in zoos and museums in the 1950s and 1960s, the biotech boom of the 1980s and 1990s, the relation of film and literature to biology, biology and gender, and the place of biology in American politics. Along with focusing on well-known biologists like Thomas Hunt Morgan and Rachel Carson, our readings will also cover the history of the animals (like fruit flies and laboratory rats) that have been instrumental to creating our biological knowledge. We will read a wide range of types of sources: canonical texts, recent monographs, plenty of primary sources (including sizable excerpts from The Origin of Species and Carson’s Silent Spring), some journal articles, a biography (of Barbara McClintock), and a novel (Huxley’s Brave New World). Our readings will be supplemented by occasional short lectures on the history of biological thought. Course requirements include weekly readings, active participation in seminar, three structured short essays (5-7 pages each), and occasional short weekly assignments. At the end of the semester, students will submit a writing portfolio that consists of revised versions of the three short essays. |
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| 103D.008 - Readings on Business in the History of American Life | Abrams | |
| Tu 10-12 107 Mulford | ||
| Updated August 18, 2005 | ||
| New Course Added. Description now available. | ||
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"The business of America is business," Calvin Coolidge is supposed to have remarked, in his crass and laconic way. Probably most American academicians--especially those who labor in the humanities and give themselves to the life of the mind and aesthetic appreciation--have at some time or other snickered in disapproval. But they also probably acknowledge that it would be hard to dispute what for them may seem to be its drab truth. In their study of American life, however, they have on the whole chosen simply to ignore it. Witness, for example, how the UCB history department regularly offers not a single undergraduate course on the age of the industrial revolution in the U.S., while business history in general has been left to business schools and some Big 10 universities. This seminar is predicated on the proposition that if business has indeed been a preoccupying activity for most Americans throughout most of American history, it may be sensible to study it. It will proceed, moreover, on the premise that modern capitalism, and in particular the American socio-economic system of relatively autonomous, growth-oriented private business venturing, could not have materialized except for the ascendancy in the 16th Century in especially northwestern Europe of a new world view, a new rationale that at least conceded, even if only implicitly at first, the possibility, the legitimacy, perhaps even the desirability of secular, material progress. That legitimacy derived particularly from Protestantism's implicit, albeit unintended, sanctioning of private materialistic ambition. These highflying generalizations are code for the successful challenge in especially England and the Low Countries of Calvinistic Protestantism to the system of authority and social order embodied in traditional Roman Catholicism. Not that Protestantism underwrote capitalism. Not a bit of it. Rather, some of our reading may suggest how remarkably perverse the march of history can be, how the best laid dicta of righteous people gang aft agley, and how great changes grow not from great events but from the wanton interaction of small ingredients thrust into an already vigorous culture. Having ruminated on the significance of the cultural variable in the history of economic growth, we will proceed to examine the possibility that variations in subcultures within the same large social environment may have acted to produce different "success" ratios among various American ethnic groups. That may lead us, moreover, to inquire into changing definitions of "success" in America. We may also inquire as to whether, even given the "proper" cultural mix, it would have all been in vain if not for a legal and political environment that changed over time to favor different growth-stimulating activities. To bring things up to date, we shall inquire into the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the character of Work, on the structure of business, on U.S. foreign relations, on the effects of "globalization," and on the military in American life. Since this is a seminar, its effectiveness depends on regular ATTENDANCE, and INPUT, from each member. Absences and failure to contribute meaningfully to class discussions on the assigned readings will be duly noted. Apart from regular participation in seminar discussion each week, course requirements include TWO papers. Each paper (15-25 pages, 12-point type, double-spaced, normal margins, presented in sufficient copies for each seminar member to have one) will be in the nature of a HISTORIOGRAPHICAL or REVIEW ESSAY. The subject of each essay will be selected from among the subjects stipulated in the weekly syllabus. Each essay will endeavor to present a more comprehensive assessment of the literature on the subject than the assigned and suggested readings permit within the time constraints of weekly assignments. You must get my approval for each topic you choose before you begin. |
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| 103D.009 - Post World War II US: the Unheralded Revolution | Frydl | |
| M 4-6 108 Wheeler | ||
| Updated September 12, 2005 | ||
| Room now assigned. New Section Just Added! | ||
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Did the formative years of 1945-1960 represent a revolution in progressive reform or the birth of a dynamic conservative movement? Did the US expand its empire “by invitation” or merely resist Soviet expansionism? Did Americans grudgingly accept federal power or did this new Leviathan antagonize its subjects? Those who long for simplicity will be disappointed to learn that the readings for this course will, to some degree, support all of the options enumerated above. Perhaps even more importantand more disturbing for those who would wish for a false but unalloyed claritymany of these questions are related to each other in both articulation and answer. In uncovering the many threads that weave together to form an understanding of the postwar United States, we will be particularly attentive to the ways in which this historical moment constituted a radical departure from what preceded it and can indeed be fairly described as an unheralded revolution. |
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