Undergraduate Courses

This course examines the profound changes in modern Asian societies using primarily the colonial and post-colonial histories that have shaped our understanding of the dramatic and violent twentieth century. We may also read novels and memoirs. Major themes we will explore include the impact of Western imperialism, causes and consequences of violent struggle and the ambiguous legacies of independence. The aim of the seminar is to develop critical thinking and writing skills. The class will be writing intensive and satisfies the university's R1B writing requirement. In the first half of the semester, students will undertake short writing assignments - based on a single source - to develop their expository and analytic writing skills. In the second half of the semester, students will produce an 8 and a 10 page paper using several sources and we will critique each others work in class. By the end of the course, students will have learned how to assess source material and use it to construct historical arguments. Through the development of critical writing techniques, students will learn to take positions on course topics. No previous knowledge of Asian history is required.

The sub-field of African history has been fertile ground for innovative approaches to doing history. This course will explore how African historians have made use of wide ranging materials and methods in the study of the African past. Combining readings and primary source materials relevant to the study of African history, students will explore the promises and pitfalls of these sources as they attempt to integrate these insights into their own written work. Such sources include: art and sculpture, language, oral tradition, rumor, myth, and memory. Students will gain a valuable introduction to the major episodes of African history as they develop their critical reading, thinking and writing skills.

This course will endeavor to change the way students think about diplomacy and diplomatic history. Rather than viewing it as the sum-total of the machinations of a few powerful men in capital cities, this course will discuss the culture of diplomacy and its significance to world history. By examining diplomacy as a craft, or a set of practices, traditions and unwritten rules, this course will nuance the traditional understanding of diplomacy by introducing students to the importance of diplomacy to the history of state building, communication and information. Significantly, the non-Western origins of today's professional diplomacy will serve to complicate the traditional, Eurocentric narrative. Students will be introduced to primary and secondary sources that discuss or describe the "culture of diplomacy" and its impact on world history. Student essays should be based upon the voluminous number of state department and foreign ministry papers available at Berkeley and through the Library of Congress, as well as private papers and media sources available in Bay Area libraries.

From a closed country governed by an aristocratic samurai class, Meiji Japan witnessed the adoption of a conscripted army, a policy of engagement with Western powers, and an array of dizzying social reforms. In this seminar, we will focus on how contemporary samurai, novelists, academics, politicians, and others understood the rapid changes surrounding them. We will also address larger questions of how nationalism was constructed during the Meiji Period and whether an individual's relationship to the state changed during the transition from an early modern to modern society. In addition to addressing the aforementioned questions, this course aims to improve critical reading, thinking, and writing skills. Through the lens of the historian, we will examine an array of different types of primary documents in translation-treatises, novels, plays, photography, etc. We will analyze these texts to see what they can tell us about the period. During the semester,students will also be given short writing assignments based on a close reading of selected primary documents. Drafts of the essays will be workshopped with fellow colleagues. By the end of the semester,students will have developed stronger analytical skills while strengthening their ability to converts these analyses into a sustained written argument.

This course offers a broad introduction to the European Middle Ages through both textual and material sources. Change - as an individual experience and as a social phenomenon - is a central theme. Why did medieval people make radical changes in their lives? Why did European political systems, cultural expressions, and religious ideals change so dramatically over the course of the Middle Ages? The course charts the emergence of a distinctively "medieval" civilization after the demise in the west of the late Roman state and then the transformation of this early medieval civilization after the millennium. The roles of demographic and economic expansion are explored as motors for the radical political, religious, and cultural transformation of medieval society from 1000 to 1500.

This course introduces students to European history from around 1500 to the present. During this time, a small, poor, and fragmented Europe became a world civilization, whose political, cultural, and economic power now touch the four corners of the globe. Our course will ask how and why this happened. How, in other words, did "modernity" become "western," for better and worse? As we cover this half-millennium, we will look at major landmarks in European cultural, intellectual, social, political, and economic development: the Renaissance, the epochal expansion of Europe into the new world, the break-up of Latin Christianity into the competing religious communities, the construction of the modern state, the formation of overseas empires and the coming of capitalism, the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution, liberalism and the industrial revolution, socialism and the rise of labor, modern colonialism, the world wars, communism and capitalism, decolonization, and the Cold War and the European Union. Our readings will range from learned treatises in religion, classics in political theory, fiction, and other documents from the past, as well as a textbook. Work in sections centers on reading and discussion of original sources and of lectures, and on the improvement of writing skills. Three hours of lecture and two hours of section (required) per week.

This survey of early modern and modern Chinese history covers the rise and fall of three major conquest dynasties (the Mongol Yuan, the Chinese Ming, and the Manchu Qing), the ultimate collapse of the dynastic system, and the emergence of the nation-state in the twentieth century (first under the Nationalist Party, then under the Communist Party). Along the way, we will examine encounters between the latter territorial empires and the maritime empires of the West, increasing commercialization and urbanization, and the impact of various social revolutions. Students will be required to attend lectures, take part in discussion sessions, and read up to 150 pages each week in a variety of materials, with a strong emphasis on primary sources in English translation. Graded assignments will include weekly reading responses, active participation in discussion, two short papers, and two exams. There are no prerequisites.

This course is an introduction to the history of the United States from the Civil War to the present. It is also an introduction to the ways historians look at the past and think about evidence. Rather than a matter of memorizing names and dates, history is about framing the truest and most complete stories we can to explain wide ranges of human experience. Although this course will touch on many subjects, it will track three main narrative lines. One, from the abolition of slavery to the election of Obama, will trace changing regulations of and ideas about race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and other cultural and political markers of identity. The second, the rise and fall of industrial society, will examine major economic transitions, as the fulcrum of U.S. economic life shifted from agriculture to industry and then to services. The third, from Sand Creek and Little Bighorn to 9-11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, will focus on the rise and uses of American power in the world. Lectures, readings, discussions, films, and writing assignments (and, yes, midterm and final exams) will stress various parts of these stories and also sharpen critical reading, interpretation, research, and writing skills.

This course covers the history of Latin America from the time of Columbus to around 1870. It thus reckons with almost four centuries of encounter, colonization, accommodation, and struggle that frame the ways that Latin America was becoming Latin American. The approach is a blend of narratives (of conquest, reform, independence) and eight themes: land, labor, and demography; race and ethnicity; religion; Church and Crown; trade and global economic systems; gender and family; urban life and culture; and identity (creole, indigenous, mestizo). Each theme will be taken up twice: once for the period roughly 1550-1700, and once for the period roughly 1700 to 1810. Lectures and a mix of secondary and primary source readings and images produced during the colonial period serve as points of entry for discussion in section meetings. Final grades are based on two short papers, a mid-term exam, a final exam, and participation in section meetings.

Combining a chronological and thematic approach, this course will examine select themes of African history from the 16th Century to the present. The first four weeks of the semester will be devoted to pre-colonial Africa. The rest of the semester will focus on the colonial and post-colonial periods. Among the topics that the course will explore are: Images of Africa in Western scholarship; pre-colonial social and political organization; economic production and pre-colonial trade. Colonialism was a brief but very intensive interlude in the long history of Africa. Themes in this section include: imperialism and the scramble for colonies; White settler colonies and colonial economies; Africa and the two World Wars; the missionary project, formal education and socio-cultural changes; urbanization; women, gender and colonialism; apartheid, liberation struggles and decolonization. Rather than the euphoria that followed the attainment of independence, the last segment of the course will focus on some of the crises confronting the continent including civil war conflicts and child soldiers; and the HIV/Aids crisis. Grading will be based on section attendance and participation (15%), 2 map quizzes (5%) Midterm (30%), one research paper (20%), and a final examination (30%).

This course is a brisk introduction to the nearly two millennia of recorded Japanese history. As a survey, the course gives attention to broad themes and problems in Japan's political, social, religious, and cultural/intellectual history. Topics include the dialectic of national and local identities in shaping Japanese politics, Japan's interaction with the Asian continent and the Western world, and the relation of past to present in modern times. Readings include translations from many types of sources in Japanese, supplemented by selections from the cream of recent scholarship in English, plus a number of films. Writing requirements include exams, short reading reports and a term paper.

This intensive 5-week course is designed to complement Fiat Lux Redux, the Fall Semester 2012 bancroft Library exhibition and tribute to both the University of California and its celebrated president, Clark Kerr. His contributions were many. The class will view and discuss the exhibitions and Kerr’s lifelong work, walk about the campus to better grasp its plan, architecture and symbolism, and visit classrooms in order to appreciate how learning and space are interrelated. We will venture into the world of the internet and interactive computer instruction in order to gain some perspective on teaching and the undergraduate learning experience in the 21st century. The changing nature of student life over many years will receive special attention. Discussions of the present-day university will be viewed within the context of the 800-year old history of the university as a self-governing corporation. The overall object is to understand Berkeley’s special place within that ancient legacy, the ways in which it is both generic and unique. A small amount of reading and several very brief written exercises will be used to focus discussion. The course is designed to introduce freshman students to the history and pleasures of a great world university, to understand its rich heritage and special intellectual and cultural qualities. The hope is that such an introduction will add immeasurably to personal and intellectual growth.   This seminar is part of the On the Same Page initiative.

Sheldon Rothblatt is Professor of History Emeritus. He was Associate Dean of Students, L&S, chair of History, and Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley. His specialties are Modern Europe and the comparative history of universities. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (the body that grants most of the Nobel Prizes), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Britain and a Member of the National Academy of Education. Besides Berkeley, he has taught at other universities in the US and abroad. He has also been decorated by the King of Sweden as Knight Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (the Order was founded in 1748).

Attendance at the first class meeting on August 23, 2012 is mandatory to secure your place in the seminar. This seminar will meet on ten dates: August 23, August 28, August 30, September 4, September 6, September 11, September 13, September 20, September 25 and September 27, 2012. Food for Thought dining arrangements will be discussed in class. 

This lecture course explores some of the key themes of American crime and punishment history, from the spectacle of early colonial punishments; through the industrial prison, Western "kangaroo courts," and slave trials on the 19th century; to our own, globalizing age of zero tolerance policing and mass incarceration. In our study of each era we will ask: How has power been exercised in and around the set of practices we refer to as "the law"? Who exercises that power, and to what end? What has made that power legitimate - or illegitimate - in different times and places? How might the relationship between morality, religion, and law have changed over time? Why does criminal law change - how do we account for the criminalization of some acts (such as possession of narcotics, which had not been an offense through most of American history) and the decriminalization of others (such as debt-an imprisonable offense in the early republic)? Which people and social movements have successfully brought about change in the criminal justice system, and how did they do it? We will explore these questions through careful study of the criminal trial and its place in American culture; changing conceptions of sin and crime; slavery's impact on criminal law; the complex relationship between vigilantism and the law; mass culture and the modern security state; the Civil Rights Movement and its campaigns for rights-based, criminal law reform; and our own era's neoconservative "law and order" culture. Course requirements include participation in classroom discussions, and completing the readings, midterm exam, final exam, and one critical review essay.

History is not just so many dead presidents, and in this course we will be exploring different ways of imagining, writing, filming, commemorating, and even escaping history. This seminar begins with canonical works in the philosophy of history, surveys developments in theory and criticism from structuralism to structuralism, and concludes with recent debates about history and memory in museum and pop culture. We will be discussing the history of theory and the theories of history to learn how each tale we tell about our past depends on a theory of history, however simple or abstract. Different theories of history create different senses of what the world is like and what we should do about it. Theory and history, we will learn, shape the ways we imagine ourselves and live our daily lives.

Six major wars have been fought in Europe since the French Revolution. A seventh was fought all over the world though Europe contributed to its outbreak and provided one of the fields of combat. Many of these wars had long backgrounds or, as one historian has written, "profound causes"--conflicting creeds, public opinion, nationalism, militarism, imperialism mass psychology preaching the glories of war, historians themselves, to name but a few. But there is also a more staid version of the origin of war: the precise moment when government officials set their names to the declaration of it. Sometimes the actual signing has little to do with the profound causes. This course will examine the immediate origins of the following wars: Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire (1789-1815); Crimea and Italy (1853-56, 1859); Bismarck's Wars (1863-64, 1866, 1870-71); The First World War (1914-18); The Second World War (1939-45); The Cold War (1946-1991). We will view documentaries and films dealing with the outstanding personalities in all of these: Napoleon, Cavour, Bismarck, Wilson ,Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and Gorbachev. Midterm, final, and short paper.

Wetzel 100 Summer 2011.pdf

Syllabus is the file copy from last year and subject to revision.

Recent campus protests at UCB- protests against devastating state budget cuts that cast a shadow over Berkeley's position as one of the pre-eminent public universities in the world -- recall militant Berkeley protests of the 1960s: in that decade, Berkeley emerged as a key site and symbol of radical historical changes re-making America and the world. This course will explore Berkeley's role in the fundamental transformations that shaped the Sixties and beyond. Berkeley in the Sixties, the course, will dissect local (Berkeley) radical moments/movements of national and international importance, seeking to explain historical connections among and patterns across the local, national, and global. We will begin with an assessment of the realities and myths of Sixties Berkeley, paying particular attention to the influential documentary film "Berkeley in the Sixties." Next we will investigate central historical developments in three periods: pre-1945; 1945-1960; 1960-1980. Topics to be discussed will likely include: the town (Berkeley)-gown (UCB) connection, featuring a tour of relevant locations (i.e., People's Park); UCB's rise to international eminence; free speech struggles; the New Left; civil rights/radical struggles of communities of color; women's rights; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights; disability rights; the sexual revolution; popular culture (i.e., "Jimi Plays Berkeley"); and, the iconic image of Berkeley radicalism, featuring a section on Berkeley political posters from the era.

Martin.syllabus100x.pdf

This course will consider the emergence and decline of the Yugoslav state (1918 - 1991) from two different but closely related standpoints - that of history and politics, and that of language, literature and culture. Throughout Eastern Europe, but especially in the former Yugoslavia, these two aspects have been so interconnected that it is not possible to understand one without some comprehension of the other. Literature and other artistic expression take as their primary topics historical or current politically charged events, major political actions are often precipitated by or at least closely connected with literary events or figures, and conceptions of national identity are so closely entwined with the idea of language as to be inseparable. Students are required to attend lectures, see two (of three) films, write two short (3-5 pp.) papers, and take a map quiz and final examination. This course is also listed as Slavic 158.

This course introduces students to the intellectual and cultural history of the Middle Ages, with particular emphasis on the 13th-15th centuries and with particular focus on changing ideas and sensibilities about the natural world, miracles, and magic. Topics will include medieval science (cosmology, physics, human biology and psychology), alchemy, learned and popular magic, medicine, concepts of the body and space, visionary experience, institutional frameworks (e.g. schools, pilgrimages, church courts), media of communication (e.g. art, books, inscriptions, sermons, rituals, folklore), and the murky relationship of philosophy, theology, and popular culture. The course will also consider the late medieval background to Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. Sources in English translation, discussion of relevant works of medieval art (and on the use of medieval art by cultural historians). Christopher Ocker is Professor of History at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, and an affiliated member of the History Department at the University of California. A specialist in late medieval religion and thought, his publications include Biblical Poetics before Humanism and Reformation (Cambridge 2002), Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany, 1525-1547 (Leiden 2006, runner-up for the first Gerald Strauss Prize of the Sixteenth Century Studies Society), Johannes Klenkok: A Friar's Life, c. 1310-1374 (Philadelphia 1993), and numerous articles that explore the intersection of theology, religious mentalities, politics, and social life between the year 300 and 1600. Awarded fellowships by the Institute for European History in Mainz, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society, Ocker has been a visiting scholar of the Max Planck Institute for History in Gottingen, Germany, the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Constance, Cambridge University, and the American Academy in Rome.

The course presents an introduction to the medieval culture of East Slavic peoples, precursors of the Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorusians. The formation of the specific Russian worldview well known from the writings of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy is analyzed from a historical perspective, extending from the pagan prehistory through the slow advance of Christian civilization up to the turmoil of the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the Orthodox spirituality and its Byzantine background. The repercussions of Christianization for cultural and political practices are described in the framework of political and intellectual history. Icon painting, rituals, folklore, and literature are discussed in their cultural and social context. All readings are in English.

There will be one midterm paper of 4-6 pages, based on one of the topics discussed in the class (or another topic chosen by the students in consultation with the instructor), and one final examination. The final grade will be determined according to the following distribution: midterm paper 33%, class participation 17%, final examination 50%.

NOTE: Formerly numbered History 100.008

 No movement in modern Jewish history has had a greater impact on Jewish life than Zionism. Bringing millions of Jews together in a new state, the movement has radically altered the way Jews view themselves and the nature of their internal relations as well as their interaction with the surrounding society. This course will examine the origins of Zionism, the ideological alternatives to the movement, the influence of other ideologies and cultural settings on Zionist ideology, and its critiques.

No prior knowledge of the subject is required.

Key Books Used in the Syllabus
Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea (Philadelphia, 1959)
Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism (New York, 1972)
Shlomo Avineri, The Making of Modern Zionism (London, 1981)
Gideon Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology (Hanover, 1995)
 

Students will pursue individual research projects based on primary sources. Possible topics, bibliographies, outlines, and drafts will be discussed in class.

This seminar will allow students to pursue research interests in US History in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The guiding historical problems are threefold and interrelated: (1) the development and impact of specific forms of difference (i.e., race, gender, sexuality, class); (2) how these differences come to be expressed as identities; and (3) the role of power in shaping these various, at times overlapping, histories of difference and identity formation. I anticipate that research topics will range across social, intellectual, political, and cultural history. Students with interdisciplinary, comparative, and adventurous research projects will be welcomed. As an integral part of the seminar, we will discuss selected interpretive, theoretical, and methodological issues generated by a limited number of core readings, in part to be designed by the participants. Doe and Bancroft Libraries have innumerable resources that students might consult, from newspapers, government data, letters and archival collections, on one hand, to special collections on Social Movements and the recent Social Movements of Communities of Color, on the other. Also there are specialized libraries, like those in Ethnic Studies and African American Studies, and special research holdings, like Professor Alan Dundes' Folklore Archive and various collections in the Music Library, that might prove useful. A core reading will be James W. Cook, et.als., eds., The Cultural Turn In US History (U Chicago Press, 2008).