Undergraduate Course Descriptions
history 101 Seminars - Spring 2006
This page last updated: Sunday, 08-Jul-2007 17:25:37 PDT
Special enrollment procedures are required for these courses.
Africa |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
| 101.017 - The Making of the Third World | Pearson | |
| MW 4-5:30 205 Wheeler | ||
| See description posted under Comparative listing. | ||
Ancient |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
| 101.016 - Christianity and the Roman Empire | Anagnostopoulos | |
| MW 4-5:30 121 Latimer | ||
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This course will examine the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire in the 1st-5th century CE with particular attention to the broad themes of Roman identity and imperialism in a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic empire. By looking at primary sources in translation from various regions of the Roman Empire, including St. Paul, Pliny the Younger, Eusebius of Caesarea, Libanius, Julian, Ammianus Marcellinus, and Augustine. We will explore how these figures addressed issues such as the persecution of Christians, conflicts with neighboring powers, and the rise of a Christian monarchy. Furthermore, a selection of secondary works will provide us with a picture of the challenges faced by the historian studying this era. A reader will be available for purchase. All required books will be available for purchase and on reserve at Moffitt Library. The first week of the course will orient the students with the kinds of sources available in English translation at the UC Berkeley library. Students will submit a proposal for the thesis that will be presented to the class during the fourth week of the semester. While thesis topics beyond the scope of the course will be accepted upon instructor approval, all students will be required to attend, participate, and complete course assignments regularly. |
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Asia |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
| 101.011 - Nationalism and Popular Culture in Modern East Asia | Brown | |
| MWF 11-12 175 Dwinelle | ||
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A basic premise of this course is that popular culture - expressed through journalism, film, music, and other media - has been critical to the development of a sense of national identity in modern East Asia, both by private individuals and as a state-sponsored project. Our task will be to discuss how popular culture reflects people's conceptions of belonging to (or feeling apart from) a national community, and how this process of identification can be complicated by gender, ethnic, class, and generational differences. In the first month of the semester, we will read selected essays about popular culture in East Asia, in preparation to writing research papers on either China, Japan, or Korea (or a comparison between them). We will also discuss how to conduct historical research, including the use of maps, film, photography, music, and visual culture such as manga. Possible topics include the history of specific film industries; musicians and music genres; "cults of personality" attached to famous leaders; popular responses to war and tragedy; gender and sexuality in popular culture; the use of film and other media in state propaganda; ethnic identity expressed through art and music; popular religious practice; consumerism; and popular response to colonial projects. Students will benefit from our rich library resources, which include print and online collections of historical journals; biographical materials on famous artists, politicians, and writers; and an outstanding archive of East Asian film. |
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| 101.014 - "Lessons" from Japan | Franks | |
| TuTh 9:30-11 210 Dwinelle | ||
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This course will consider the variety of ways in which views of Japan have developed during the 19th and 20th centuries, and how both domestic and international interests have sought to produce a knowledge of Japan intelligible and ?useful? for foreign audiences. Students will be encouraged to consider how Japan?s historical circumstances have influenced its image abroad, as well as how Japan?s perceived successes and failures have encouraged various efforts to identify ?lessons? for other nations to follow. How did both Japanese and foreign observers seek to cultivate understandings of Japan, and what were the immediate social, political, and economic concerns that inspired their efforts? We will also consider how views of Japanese ?uniqueness? have confronted the motivations of government and scholarship to identify ?models? in Japan?s historical development that could guide the policies of other nations, and how these tensions have played out during, for instance, Japan?s imperial expansion in the late 19th and early 20th century, or through the decades of the Japanese ?economic miracle? following its defeat in World War II. After a series of common readings to provide a theoretical and historical basis for discussion and investigation, students will be asked to quickly identify and develop a relevant research project that will culminate in an approximately 30 page research paper to be submitted by the end of the semester. Possible topics include the policies and legacies of Japanese colonialism and imperialism, the impact of Japanese rapid industrial growth on theories of economic development, interpretations of Japan?s victory and defeat in war, and Japan?s symbolic significance during the postwar period to the emerging nation-states of East and Southeast Asia. As identifying suitable source materials is an important aspect of satisfying this course's research requirement, students who enroll in this course are encouraged to begin researching paper topics, and available resources, as early as possible. Both the Doe and East Asian libraries can provide guidance on materials, and the instructor is happy to address questions about the course and discuss paper ideas via email at lfranks@berkeley.edu. |
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| 101.017 - The Making of the Third World | Pearson | |
| MW 4-5:30 205 Wheeler | ||
| See description posted under Comparative listing. | ||
Britain |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
Comparative |
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| 101.017 - The Making of the Third World | Pearson | |
| MW 4-5:30 205 Wheeler | ||
| This seminar will focus on those broad swathes of our planet ? Latin America, Africa, the Mideast, Eastern Europe, most of Asia and much of Oceania ? that have come to be grouped as ?underdeveloped,? ?less developed,? or, more hopefully, ?developing? or ?transitional.? While these regions are tremendously diverse, their history raises theoretical and historiographical questions that will provide unifying themes. Students will devise, execute, and critique research projects of their own choosing; case studies will be welcome, comparative studies positively encouraged. The overarching question will be why the characteristics we blithely associate with ?modernity? (affluence, democracy, social mobility, personal liberties) have escaped so many parts of the globe. Within this big tent, research projects may focus on specific regions, commodities, firms, imperial ventures, political lives, etc. Relevant sources available through the UCB libraries include British Parliamentary Papers, League of Nations statistics, autobiographies, newspaper reports, political manifestos, ethnographic studies, travelers? accounts, and much else besides. Students who can read a second language will be especially well served. | ||
Europe |
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| 101.002 - The End of the World in Pre-Modern Christianity | Gabriele | |
| WF 4-5:30 2505 Tolman | ||
| Updated January 30, 2006 | ||
| New Room! | ||
| See description posted under Medieval listing. | ||
| 101.003 - The Cultural Politics of Modern European Jewry | Efron | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 175 Dwinelle | ||
| The modern period (the nineteenth century until the outbreak of World War II) was a time of great social and intellectual ferment among European Jews as they sought to come to grips with the impact of modernity. Naturally, living in so many different places under such varied social and economic conditions, they responded in a host of differing, often mutually exclusive, ways to collective problems such as secularization, embourgeoisement and antisemitism in the West and poverty, urbanization and over-crowding in the East. The issues were as basic as where Jews should live and what language(s) they should speak. Socialists, Zionists, Territorialists, Yiddishists, Hebraists and assimilationists all believed they had the answers. In this seminar we will read, as a group, what some of these responses were. This will prepare students to embark on their own original research on a topic to be decided upon in consultation with the instructor. The library holdings at UCB in the area of Jewish Studies are excellent and students are encouraged to use any and all foreign languages at their disposal in conducting their research. | ||
| 101.004 - Research Topics in German History: 1933-1949 | Feldman | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 233 Dwinelle | ||
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Students taking this course will be asked to write a research paper of 35-40 pages based on original as well as secondary sources dealing with National Socialist Germany and Germany under Allied occupation prior to the founding of the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic. Participants may work on such topics as the domestic governance of Germany under National Socialism, social and medical policies, cultural policies, National Socialist foreign policy, the persecution and extermination of German and European Jewry, National Socialist occupation policies, collaboration and resistance, the German as "victims" of Allied bombing and expulsion policies, Allied occupation policies, war crimes trials, the rebuilding of German political and social institutions. |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
| 101.015 - The History of Sports, Leisure, and Popular Entertainment in Europe, 1850-1990 | Neirick | |
| MW 4-5:30 80 Barrows | ||
| This thesis research seminar will examine the history of sports, leisure, and popular entertainment in Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Readings assigned during the first weeks of the semester will introduce students to a range of questions that have stimulated research in the field. How did industrialization change patterns of work and leisure in Europe? How have class differences influenced Europeans? use of free time? What were the consequences of the emergence of a leisure industry at the turn of the twentieth century? What role did popular pastimes play in the projects of colonization and decolonization? Why, and in what ways, did the socialist, fascist, and liberal democratic governments of Europe intervene in their citizens? pursuit of leisure activities? How was mass leisure effected by the globalization of European popular culture after World War II? Some readings engage these questions generally, while others examine particular leisure activities, such as cycling, bullfighting, cigarette smoking, and cricket playing, attendance at museums, music-halls, the circus, and cinema, and participation in gymnastics clubs, ladies? football leagues, and workers? clubs. These studies are intended to provide students with models for their own research into the history of European leisure, which will occupy the remainder of the semester. Students will work together to formulate topics, identify primary and secondary source materials, develop arguments, and organize and write their individual theses. Students are encouraged to consider potential research topics before the course begins. Possible sources bases to consider include newspapers and periodicals, especially printed reviews and advertisement for popular entertainments, U.S. documents related to international sports, particularly the Olympics, published plays and librettos, and films representing Europeans at leisure. Special collections at the Bancroft Library, such the Bransten Coffee and Tea Collection (which also includes manuscripts on chocolate) and the Theater and Tobacco collections, might also provide relevant primary sources. Students researching the history of a non-Anglophone country must be able to read materials in that country?s language. Students are welcome to contact the instructor to discuss prospective topics and potential sources. | ||
| 101.017 - The Making of the Third World | Pearson | |
| MW 4-5:30 205 Wheeler | ||
| See description posted under Comparative listing. | ||
Latin America |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| See description posted under United States listing. | ||
| 101.009 - Mexico | Taylor | |
| TuTh 9:30-11 204 Dwinelle | ||
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UC-Berkeley is home to one of the world?s great research libraries for Mexican history. In addition to deep and varied collections of manuscripts and pictorial materials dating from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century, The Bancroft Library librarians have built an extensive collection of rare books and supporting materials: microfilm of original materials from archives and libraries around the world; and an up-to-date collection of published primary sources, bibliographical materials, and secondary works. This 101 section offers an opportunity for students with a basic reading knowledge of Spanish and an interest in Latin American history to build a modest, well-contextualized research project in Mexican history from some of these materials. The Bancroft collections are particularly rich for the colonial period (16th-18th centuries), but the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are amply represented, too. There are many possibilities for good research projects, and students who plan to enroll in this 101 section should consult the instructor before the end of the fall semester. The challenge is to connect your broad interests and abilities with primary sources that you can master, situate, and interpret in a semester of sustained research and writing. Students who have begun research on another topic in Latin American history are welcome to contact me about registering for this 101 section. You will need to demonstrate before the end of the fall semester that you have located usable primary sources on a managable topic. Do not expect to start cold in January. |
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| 101.017 - The Making of the Third World | Pearson | |
| MW 4-5:30 205 Wheeler | ||
| See description posted under Comparative listing. | ||
| 101.019 - Latin America in the Atlantic | Candiani | |
| MWF 12-1 233 Dwinelle | ||
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This research seminar will give students the opportunity to explore themes and problems in the connection of Latin America with the Atlantic world from the beginning of that contact in 1492 to the nineteenth century. The integration of this region of the world into Atlantic networks, its role in shaping them and the impact of these interactions on the continent will be explored in the first weeks through readings that we will discuss as a group. The themes we will explore together will include trade, politics, society, environment and culture. Although it is useful to have a reading knowledge of Spanish, students without this skill will still be able to work on a broad range topics for which there are sources at Bancroft and Doe Libraries that are either translated or produced originally in English. Such topics based on English language sources could include but not be limited to piracy and illegal trade, British relationships with independent Argentina, foreign investment in Mexico, as well as many areas in social history. Other potential topics using Spanish sources could range from migrations to slavery, from environmental change to the diffusion of knowledge. Students should begin by familiarizing themselves with the History 101 Manual before class begins. In the class we will receive tutorials from Library staff and work together on problems in the interpretation of primary sources, the process of developing a thesis and writing. |
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Medieval |
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| 101.002 - The End of the World in Pre-Modern Christianity | Gabriele | |
| WF 4-5:30 2505 Tolman | ||
| Updated January 30, 2006 | ||
| New Room! | ||
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Did Europeans continually live in constant fear of the Apocalypse? Did "modernity" finally stop everyone from running around like chickens with their heads cut off, afraid that the world might end tomorrow? In this seminar, we will explore these questions by looking at some of the modern scholarship (in English) on the subject of Christian apocalypticism from late antiquity until the Reformation. Readings will introduce students to important work on St. Augustine, the debate over the "Terrors of the year 1000 C.E.," Joachim of Fiore, and the Anabaptists, among others, in order to give the student a broad overview of possible topics for the Senior Thesis. For the Senior Thesis, students will work with primary sources in translation (the vast majority available in the Berkeley libraries or from libraries in the UC system), as well as modern scholarship on their topic. The topic of the thesis can be anything broadly related to the subject of the course but is not so limited. Students who have developed topics of their own that fall outside this course description, however, must discuss proposals with the instructor and receive his approval. Contact: gabriele@berkeley.edu. |
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Related Interest |
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| 101.007 - The Writer | Sahlins | |
| MW 4-5:30 14 Haviland | ||
| Updated January 30, 2006 | ||
| New Room! | ||
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This section is designed for seniors with well-conceived thesis projects that do not fit within the rubrics of other 101 seminars. Members of the group will observe a common schedule in developing, drafting, and critiquing material but will not share a common subject area. Admission requires a written statement and the consent of the instructor. The statement should include: (1) a two-hundred word description of the proposed thesis topic; (2) a preliminary annotated bibliography (with full citations) of suitable primary sources; (3) a short bibliography of secondary sources; (4) a list of previous coursework in the proposed field of research; and (5) the name of a departmental instructor in that field who is willing to help mentor the student by providing bibliographical guidance, occasional consultation, and a critique of the first draft of the thesis. Experience in a 103R seminar is particularly welcome. Students should submit their statements directly to the instructor's mailbox in 3229 Dwinelle by Monday, October 17. Although most applicants will not have had time to develop rigorous statements by the application deadline, they must demonstrate the viability of their projects and their commitment to serious preparation in advance of the course. This section is limited to students whose work clearly falls outside the scope of other 101 sections. |
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Science |
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| 101.005 - Scientific Change: Motives and Conflicts through the Ages | Hahn | |
| TuTh 12:30-2 104 Dwinelle | ||
| For the research paper, students will be asked to select a significant turning point in the history of science and technology in the Western world in any time period for which primary source material exists. They will be encouraged to explore the different factors -technical and cultural- that stimulated change, and the controversies they engendered. Students should consult with the instructor before signing up if they have unanswered questions. | ||
United States |
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| 101.006 - Correspondence | Henkin | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 186 Barrows | ||
| This thesis-writing seminar is open to students doing research on any time and place so long as the bulk of the primary sources are letters, broadly defined. These sources can be personal missives, business mail, junk mail, e-mail, epistolary novels, letters to the editor, or any thing that assumes the form or function of correspondence, but they MUST form the core evidence for the historical argument presented in the thesis. | ||
| 101.008 - North America before 1848 | Spear | |
| TuTh 12:30-2 204 Dwinelle | ||
| This course is designed for students who wish to write their 101 paper on any topic in North American history before 1848. Because the availability of primary source materials will greatly determine the types of projects possible, we will spend the first few weeks exploring the types of sources available on campus and on-line, including laws and court cases; published correspondence and personal papers; censuses; newspapers; travel, captivity, and ex-slave narratives; and ship passenger lists. We will also read some samples of the kinds of scholarship that is possible based on these materials. The remainder of the semester will be spent researching a chosen topic, drafting, and revising a 30-50 page thesis. | ||
| 101.010 - Politics, Culture, and Society in the San Francisco-Oakland Metropolitan Area, 1850-1980 | Agee | |
| TuTh 8-9:30 206 Wheeler | ||
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This course will examine the history of the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area between 1850 and 1980. The San Francisco-Oakland region has long been celebrated (and denounced) for its cosmopolitan culture and its liberal politics. Indeed, conventional wisdom has often assumed that the region accepted cultural diversity and that this cultural inclusiveness led directly to greater political inclusiveness. This course will explore both of these assumptions. Although our focus will be local, we will also discuss the extent to which the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area can be used as a model for the study of other metropolitan centers. Students for this course may conduct their theses on any facet of the region's social, political, and/or cultural history between 1850 and 1980. The course will introduce students to the historical archives on campus and the greater Bay Area. The class will follow a workshop-style format in which students help each other frame their paper topics and refine their research strategies. During the second half of the semester, students will present rough drafts to the class and will read and comment on the papers of their fellow students. Attendance is mandatory and any unexcused absences will result in lowering of the final grade. The final paper should be approximately 30-40 pages, footnotes and bibliography included. |
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| 101.012 - Immigration, Citizenship, and the State in Twentieth-Century America | Kwon | |
| MWF 10-11 175 Dwinelle | ||
| This research seminar will explore U.S. immigration and naturalization policies in the twentieth century. We will look particularly at the role the federal government has played in shaping immigration patterns and in defining legal meanings of citizenship, as well as try to understand the complex, often conflicting ways in which ideas about immigration, citizenship, and the nation intersected. The first few weeks of the course will be spent discussing selected readings and methodological questions; the remainder of the semester will focus on the process of researching and writing the 30-50-page final paper. Our campus libraries offer a wide range of primary source material (e.g., journals, government documents, newspapers, personal correspondences, etc.) for students to use as they pursue their projects. Students may choose from a number of possible topics but are strongly encouraged to locate specific research interests early in the semester. | ||
| 101.013 - The Settlement of California and West, 1846-1950. | Eigen | |
| MWF 11-12 102 Barrows | ||
| Updated November 28, 2005 | ||
| Note New Schedule! | ||
| This research seminar will explore the influence of diverse groups of settlers on the development of California and the West. Within a few years of California's entry into the United States, the discovery of gold drew an international flood of immigration to the state. Almost a century later, the vast expansion of defense industries during World War II caused an equally dramatic migration in what historians have called the "second gold rush." During the one hundred years between, the region was shaped by numerous other groups who settled there, including Chinese laborers during and after the Gold Rush, Mexican American agricultural workers, "Okies" and other Midwestern farmers during the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, and many others. Instead of focusing merely on the history of immigration and migration, students will be encouraged to choose topics that explore the effects of diverse settlement on the creation of the West Coast as a region. Although class readings will focus primarily on California and the Pacific Coast, students with an interest in writing on settlement in other areas of the trans-Mississippi West are also welcome. Students can benefit from the wealth of resources about West Coast settlers available at the Bancroft Library on Berkeley's campus and at the California State Historical Society in San Francisco. | ||
| 101.018 - US Women's History Since 1945 | Barbas | |
| WF 4-5:30 202 Wheeler | ||
| What is women?s history? How do historians write women?s lives? This research seminar focuses on the social, cultural, and political history of women in the US since 1945. We will explore key themes in postwar women?s history and major historiographical debates as well as historical research and writing methods and strategies. By the end of the semester, students will have planned, researched, and written a 30-50 page thesis based on primary sources. Possible research areas might include feminism and feminist movements; women as consumers/producers of mass media and popular culture; gender and racial identities in different historical/cultural contexts; women in politics, the professions, and the arts; biographical studies; the politics of motherhood and sexuality; body image and self-fashioning. Students are expected to attend weekly class sessions in addition to individual meetings with the instructor, participate in formal critiques of fellow students? work, and turn in a bibliography, prospectus, rough draft, and final draft. | ||
| 101.020 - 20th Century U.S. | McNeill | |
| MWF 12-1 104 Dwinelle | ||
| Updated November 17, 2005 | ||