Undergraduate Course Descriptions
Lower Division courses - Spring 2009
This page last updated: Friday, 29-May-2009 14:55:26 PDT
| 2 - Comparative World History: World Cities | Barrows & Berry & Metcalf & Norena | |
| TuTh 11-12:30 102 Moffitt | CCN: 39002 | |
| NEW COURSE! | ||
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This course introduces students to the history of four major urban areas (from at least three continents) in particular time periods. The goal is to expose students to a broad range of city types, metropolitan cultures, and scholarly approaches to urban experience, while encouraging them to think about connections, similarities, and differences among the cities we are studying. This spring we will be focusing on Rome, from Republic to Empire, on Edo/Tokyo, "a city from Scratch," on Delhi, from dynasty to Empire, and on Haussmann's nineteenth-century Paris. Requirements include attendance at weekly discussion section, one midterm examination, one short writing exercise, one paper (6-8 pp.), and an examination during finals' week. |
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| 3 - After the Roman Empire: The East | Mavroudi | |
| TuTh 3:30-5 156 Dwinelle | CCN: 39003 | |
| A general introduction to the study of history, this course focuses on Byzantium and the Islamic world, two medieval successors to the Roman empire in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. This course has three aims: to provide an outline of events that transpired in this area from the 4th-15th centuries; to explain how a modern historian can approach medieval sources in order to reconstruct various aspects of the past; and to discuss the commonalties of pre-industrial societies, and how lessons learnt in this class can be applied to the study of other time periods and/or geographic locations. | ||
| 4B - Origins of Western Civilization | Koziol | |
| TuTh 12:30-2 101 Morgan | CCN: 39027 | |
| Rather than present a superficial chronological survey of a 1000-year period, we will examine in considerable depth two quite different periods of middle ages. The first is the age of the Carolingians and Anglo-Saxons, which saw not only the conversion of Europe to Christianity but also the creation of a distinctive European ethic of political leadership. The second is the later middle ages (primarily the 13th and 14th centuries), when monarchies reached out to public opinion and when the collapse of papal authority was counterbalanced by the integration of Christian values into the ordinary lives of (more or less) ordinary men and women. All of the major readings are primary sources. Chosen for the variety of their genres and perspectives, they range from early epic, saints' lives, and chronicles (Beowulf, the Royal Franks Annals, the Life of St. Guthlac) to late accounts of popular uprisings, popular entertainment, and the mystical Eucharistic visions of holy women. | ||
| 5 - European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present | Sheehan | |
| TuTh 2-3:30 145 Dwinelle | CCN: 39048 | |
| Updated December 18, 2008 | ||
| New description available! -------------------------- Jonathan Sheehan joined the History faculty this last year after teaching at the University of Michigan. His areas of interest include: early modern European history, the history of Christianity and religion more generally, as well as the development of secular society and culture. | ||
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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. |
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| 6B - Introduction to Chinese History from the Mongols to Mao | Wang | |
| MW 4-5:30 213 Wheeler | CCN: 39084 | |
| Dr. Di Wang specializes in Chinese social and cultural history. His books include The Teahouse: Small Business, Everyday Culture, and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900-1950 (Stanford, 2008) and Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930 (Stanford, 2003, winner of the Best Book [Non-North American] Award for 2005 from the Urban History Association). | ||
| This course is designed as an introduction to Chinese history since 1200. The course examines important social, political, economic, and cultural events from the Mongols' conquest to the rise of China's economic power. We also discuss the emergence of an urban commercial economy and its connections with an emerging world fashioned by maritime trade and answer the question how "modern China" took shape over the course of the 19th century. We will study issues of modernization, nation-building, and reformist and revolutionary movements. The course ends on an examination of dramatic transformation of today's China. No prior knowledge of Chinese history is assumed. | ||
| 7B - U.S. History Survey -- Civil War to the Present | Einhorn | |
| MWF 10-11 150 Wheeler (Wheeler Aud) | CCN: 39099 | |
| This course satisfies the American Cultures Requirement. | ||
| This course fulfills the University's American History requirement, as well as either one of the following L&S Breadth requirements: Historical Studies or Social and Behavioral Sciences. | ||
| 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 stress 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 current war in Iraq, will focus on the rise and uses of American power in the world, with the ramifications of these developments at home and abroad. Lectures, readings, discussions, films, and writing assignments (and, yes, a midterm and final exam) will stress various parts of these stories and also sharpen critical reading, interpretation, research, and writing skills. | ||
| 8B - Modern Latin America | Healey | |
| TuTh 9:30-11 106 Stanley | CCN: 39183 | |
| This introductory course surveys the history of modern Latin America from independence to the present, with a strong emphasis on the twentieth century. Our focus will be on broad transformations in politics, place, identity, and work. The course will be built around comparative case studies of six main countries, with occasional discussion of developments in other countries. Topics covered include dependency and development; agrarian struggles and state building; migration and citizenship; urban growth and industrialization; popular culture and mass politics; social revolution and military dictatorship; and the role of the United States. Readings will include a range of primary sources as well as historical monographs, supplemented by films and music. Requirements include participation in discussion sections, a group research project, an individual research paper, an in-class mid-term and a final. | ||
| 24.001 - The Japanese Family as Seen in the Japanese Novel | Scheiner | |
| Thurs 2-4 2303 Dwinelle | CCN: 39204 | |
| (1 unit, P/NP) -- This seminar will meet approximately every other week beginning the first week of the semester. | ||
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This semester I propose that we read Japanese novels that take the Japanese family as their subject. All of the novels I have selected were written between the late nineteenth century and the decade or so after the end of World War II. These were years of great social and economic change, extensive urbanization and industrialization and, of course, debilitating defeat in 1945 after a punishing war. In spite of these extraordinary changes many Japanese social scientists have argued that the the "traditional" family persisted and remained strong. We will read six or seven novels (and, I hope, look at a couple of pertinent films) over a period of eight weeks, meeting every other week. We will read, for example, about an elite extended family as it disintegrates; a farm family facing impoverishment (and the growing into adulthood of a young daughter); the estrangement from family and home of a young college-educated male at the turn of the nineteenth century; an elegant portrayal of four sisters from a wealthy traditional household as they deal with (or hope for or reject) the conventional marriages of their class. And, finally, we read a novel about a frightened young husband preparing for the birth of his child in the confused decade following the end of the Pacific War. Our readings will include novels by these distinguished novelists: Natsume Soseki, Shimazaki Toson, Tanazaki Junichiro and Oe Kenzaburo. I want students who will be willing to discuss our readings in class meetings. I want students who will be sufficiently engaged to forget about their shyness. I understand that all of us are shy but I hope that we can all overcome this and have a hearty discussion of our readings. I will, also, ask that every student write two book reviews during the semester. I will read them and ask, if necessary, for revisions. Revising is an important part of writing. Professor Irwin Scheiner has taught history at Berkeley for over forty years. His lecture courses have covered the period from 1600-1912, from the once-called "feudal" Tokugawa period into the Meiji era (1868-1912), when the Japanese modernized their institutions and created an autocratic and powerful industrial society. He has given small undergraduate and graduate seminars on intellectual dissidence and social protest in both the Tokugawa period and modern Japan. His work has dealt with, for example, the unexpected conversion of samurai to Christianity and, ultimately, into criticism of the modern Imperial state; peasant rebellion in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods; and the development of a socialist movement in the twentieth century. Now retired, Professor Scheiner is continuing his work on Tokugawa peasant society. |
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| 24.002 - US Supreme Court Cases on Race and Gender | Herr | |
| Tues 12-2 2303 Dwinelle | CCN: 39207 | |
| (1 unit, P/NP) -- This seminar will meet for eight weeks from Feb 3-March 31 . | ||
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We will read Supreme Court cases on issues of race and gender and place them in their historical setting. Plessy (separate but equal, 1895), Brown v. Board of Education (separate is not equal, 1954), Roe v.Wade (woman's right to terminate her pregnancy, 1973) will be highlighted but other less prominent cases will be covered, noting how the court has modified its positions. There are no requirements to enroll, only an interest in the subject. This is an Equity and Inclusion Theme seminar. Richard Herr, an active member of the History Department from 1960 to 1993, is a specialist in Spanish and French history. He has taught Western civilization (History 4D and 5) and World Civilization (UGIS 55B, which he initiated). Recently he has written on problems of group identity in modern Europe and the US. |
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| 30B - Science and Society | Lesch | |
| MWF 11-12 101 Moffitt | CCN: 39216 | |
| Note New Room. | ||
| This course fulfills any one of the following L&S Breadth requirements: Historical Studies, Philosophy and Values, or Social and Behavioral Sciences. | ||
| An introductory survey of the history of the sciences and the increasingly important place they have come to occupy in modern societies since 1700. We begin by looking at the legacy of the Scientific Revolution, the consolidation of classical physics and natural history in the Enlightenment, and popular science. We go on to consider Darwin and evolution, the organizational transformation of science in the nineteenth century, the emergence of chemistry as a science and source of new technologies, and the foundations of genetics around 1900. In the twentieth century we will emphasize the relations of science to technology, medicine, industry, government, and warfare. Course requirements include a discussion section, a midterm and a final examination, and one paper. | ||
| 39C - The Palestinians | Doumani | |
| Wed 2-4 204 Dwinelle | CCN: 39224 | |
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Who are the Palestinians? When and how did they become a people? And what do their experiences from Ottoman times to the present tell us about the modern world? This seminar introduces students to new scholarship that unsettles nationalist narratives of the past and goes beyond the dramas of war and politics into the social and cultural dimensions of everyday life. Aside from debunking pervasive myths and suggesting fresh perspectives, this innovative scholarship provides important insights about the very practice of producing knowledge through historical research and writing. The overall pedagogical aim of the course is to acquaint students with the skills necessary for critical readings of texts, for constructive debate, and for writing succinct and insightful essays. Beshara Doumani specializes in the social and cultural history of the early modern and modern Middle East. His abiding interest is in recovering the history of communities, places, and time periods that have been silenced or erased by conventional scholarship. His books include Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900; and Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property and Gender (editor). |
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| 39D - Animals in European History | Sahlins | |
| Fri 10-12 201 Wheeler | CCN: 39939 | |
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Drawing from the developing interdisciplinary field of "Animal Studies," this seminar introduces students to a wide variety of historical approaches to the study of animals in history, and, specifically, to human-animal relations in Europe from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The seminar explores the philosophical and literary quarrels and debates about the relations of animals and humans against the backdrop of the transformations of European society in the pre-modern and modern period. Topics include animals in the Christian tradition, animals and the Scientific Revolution, animals as entertainment, and the early development of the animal rights movement. In each case, we will read historical documents alongside the work of contemporary historians trying to write a new kind of history of Europe. European history background not necessary but helpful; students who have studied animals in other fields (life sciences, social sciences) or with relevant work and life experience are encouraged to enroll. The course is not "about" animals in themselves, but about changing social practices and cultural frameworks of human-animal relations in European history. Professor Sahlins has published books about boundaries, forests, foreigners, and the problem of national identity in early modern France. He is currently working on animals and the law in the pre-modern (and post-modern) world. |
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| 39E - The Confucian Classics | Nylan | |
| Wed 12-2 204 Dwinelle | CCN: 39942 | |
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This course will first explore the content of the Five 'Confucian' Classics and the Four Books, after which it will examine the history of the reception of those texts and of Confucius himself during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Faculty Bio: I have long been interested in the history of Confucianism, a fact demonstrated by numerous publications. In book form, these publications include: <The Five 'Confucian' Classics>, <The 'Great Plan' Chapter of the 'Book of Documents'>, and a forthcoming work, <Lives of Confucius> (Random House). |
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| 84.001 - Utopias and Dystopias: Thwarted Ideals | Rothblatt | |
| Wed 3-5 3104 Dwinelle | CCN: 39231 | |
| This seminar will meet for eight weeks of the semester, from January 28 - March 18. (1 unit, P/NP) | ||
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Utopias are perfect communities. Dystopias are ideals gone astray. Western thinkers have long been engaged in imagining perfect societies. The utopian genre goes back to Plato's "Republic," but its more modern history begins with Sir Thomas More in the sixteenth century who coined the word "utopia" to describe an ideal England. Utopias provide startling and frightening perspectives on contemporary societies. We will read four utopian novels, starting with More. We then move to the twentieth century to read Aldous Huxley's totalitarian novel, "Brave new World," and two feminist novels, "Herland" (her-land) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the brilliant "Woman at the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy. Lectures, class discussions, oral presentations and two short critical essays. No prerequisites, but students should enjoy reading original and serious novels that refer to twentieth-century social and political history. Sheldon Rothblatt is Professor Emeritus of History, UC Berkeley. His scholarly areas are Modern Britain and Modern Europe. He is former chair of the Department of History and former Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education on the Berkeley campus. He was also the first Dean of Freshman and Sophomore Studies in the College of Letters and Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Britain and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. |
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