Undergraduate Courses

Laura Pfuntner will receive her Ph.D. in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from UC Berkeley in May 2013. Her dissertation focused on the settlement landscape of Sicily in the Roman imperial period. Her main academic interests are the history and archaeology of the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean (c. 200 BC - AD 200) and Greek and Latin historiography of the Roman period.  Note that the attached syllabus is the file syllabus from 2012. It will be updated as this year's syllabus becomes available.

This course offers an introduction to the history of the Roman Republic, from the foundation of the city in the 8th century BC to the cataclysmic civil wars that destroyed the Republic in the 1st century BC. The central theme of the course is Rome’s imperial expansion, first within Italy and then throughout the Mediterranean, with special attention to the political, economic, social, and cultural impact of Roman imperialism, both on conquered territories and on Rome itself. Each class session will consist of a lecture, followed by discussion of primary-source readings. Lectures will provide an essential historical narrative and interpretations of central problems in Roman Republican history. The discussion portion of class will give students an opportunity to engage with key texts and documents from the period.

106A summer syllabus Pfuntner.pdf

Note that the syllabus is the file copy from 2011 and is subject to revision.

This course considers the history of Japan since Hiroshima--since the atomic bombings and Soviet declaration of war brought "retribution" and cataclysmic defeat to the Japanese empire in 1945. We start with an exploration of the war itself and its complex legacies to the postwar era. Guided by the best recent scholarship and a selection of translated novels, essays, and poetry along with film and art, we then look at the occupation era and the six postwar decades that followed, examining the transformations of Japanese life that those years have brought. We try, finally, to answer the question: has "postwar" itself come to an end? And if it has, how should we characterize the current era?

Barshay N119A Summer 2011.pdf

A complete description is forthcoming. Please check back.  The attached syllabus is the file syllabus from 2012 and is subject to revision.

Mujal N124B Summer 2011.pdf

This course is an introductory survey of California’s history. Thus, the class will start by discussing some of the central themes that structure our study of the state’s past. Among the more important topics we will revisit throughout the semester are the following: historical perceptions of California as a land of opportunity and inclusion versus a place of exploitation and exclusion, radical political experimentation, intergenerational conflicts, human migrations and demographic transformations, diversity versus assimilation, and environmental adaptation and stewardship versus economic development and the conquest of environmental constraints. Chronologically, the course begins by examining how the environment shaped the emergence of distinct indigenous cultures in pre-contact California. Then, we will explore the founding of the missions, the Mexican-American War, and the Gold Rush. All of these events reveal the ways that religion, racism, and greed enabled the tragedies suffered by California’s diverse native cultures during continued European expansion. The Gold Rush simultaneously precipitated a more diverse society and more violent and racist reactions by whites to that diversity, as they viewed the Chinese, Mexicans, California Indians, and other groups as economic competition, alien cultures, racially inferior, and/or easily exploited. Tensions between distinct groups and communities help frame many of the case studies we will examine, especially immigrant and migrants such as the Chinese, the Japanese, “Okies,” African-Americans, and Mexicans. Each of these groups experienced these tensions in ways that not only shaped their lives but the larger society and politics of California during key periods in the state’s history.

As we proceed through the second half of the nineteenth century, changes wrought by railroads and the expansion of agriculture help illuminate the rapid development of California’s economy and the establishment and growth of many new communities. Next, the class examines the causes and consequences of urban growth in San Francisco and Los Angeles with special attention paid to corruption and reform, natural disasters, water politics, and the cultural significance of Hollywood. Then, we will explore the economic, sociological, and political aspects of the “Okie” migration during the Great Depression and its legacies for later generations. After examining the economic and demographic transformations of California driven by World War II and suburbanization, we turn our attention to intergenerational tensions arising from debates over civil rights, free speech, women’s liberation, identity politics, and anti-communism. Students will also read about the origins, growth, and increasing solidarity of the LGBT community in California.

The class will repeatedly analyze the changing roles played by women in California history. The instructor will also challenge students to understand a variety of conceptual approaches to California history. For example, we will discuss how gender has been socially situated and culturally constructed. Similarly, students will learn how members of the LGBT community have historically been forced to define their gender and sexuality in terms that emphasize their deviance from the hegemonic paradigm of heteronormativity rather than allowing individuals the freedom to enjoy autonomous lives and identities. Ultimately, no history of California would be complete without an emphasis on two major themes: the impacts of the initiative process and Mexican immigration. By highlighting where these two themes converge we will discuss the power of language to shape political campaigns and distort perceptions of less powerful groups. In particular, we will explore how supporters of Propositions 13, 187, and 8 all deployed language in culturally coded ways to evoke specific emotional reactions intended to legitimate the persecution and disenfranchisement of vulnerable minorities.

127AC Syllabus 2013.pdf

Karen McNeil's research explores the relationship between women, gender, and the built environment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with transnational forays into higher education, professionalization, and feminism. She has been teaching California history and working in historic preservation for the past four years. In 2011-2012 she will be using a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete an intellectual biography of iconic California architect and Bay Area native, Julia Morgan (1872-1957). Note that the syllabus is the file copy from Summer 2011 and will be revised.

Gender Matters explores the social, political, cultural and economic history of women and men's lives, as well as changing sexual attitudes toward gender, the family and sexuality. We will use urban landscapes of nineteenth and twentieth-century America to explore how women from different classes and diverse minority and immigrant populations experienced, challenged, defined, and redefined dominant notions of proper womanhood (and manhood) since the market revolution gave rise to the city and modern family during the antebellum period. We will also explore how women helped shape public policy and social movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, the course will explore how consumer and popular culture, technology, and social movements for gender equality, gave rise to new debates about the role of the family, gender roles and the attempt to regulate sexuality and reproduction.

History 136AC Syllabus.pdf

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

Note that the syllabus is the fille syllabus and may be updated.

Wetzel 158C Summer 2011.pdf