Undergraduate Course Descriptions
Summer 2011
This page last updated:
2012-01-31 16:25:24
First 6 Week Summer Session: 5/23 -7/1 |
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| 100.001 - How Wars Begin: Europe and the World, 1789-1991 | Wetzel | |
| TuWTh 2-430P 160 Dwinelle | CCN: 48975 | |
| 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. | ||
| 100.003 - Latin American History on Film | Healey | |
| TuTh 1-5P 109 Dwinelle | CCN: 48990 | |
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This six-week summer course will offer students an intense introduction to modern Latin America history, to the history of Latin American films, and to the uses and limits of films as historical documents in general. We will watch, analyze and discuss ten films, as well as seeing excerpts from several more. Working from the background provided by the films and a survey history of modern Latin America, we will look closely at issues of production, representation and reception of films, and at the connections between film and politics. Our readings will include primary documents, manifestos, poems, essays and short articles. Student grades will be based on three short reaction papers, class participation, and a final exam. Films include: How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Brazil, 1971); Compadre Mendoza (Mexico, 1933); Bananas Is My Business (Canada/Brazil, 1994); The Battle of Chile (Canada/ Cuba, 1976); Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, 1968); Land In Anguish (Brazil, 1967); Nine Queens (Argentina, 2000); Crane World (Argentina, 1999); Central Station (Brazil, 1999); City of God (Brazil, 2003) |
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| 100.004 - The Goddess and the Knights: Gnostics, Templars, Wiccans, and Other Standbys of Popular Medieval History | Koziol | |
| TuWTh 1230-3P 122 Wheeler | CCN: 48995 | |
| This course satisfies the pre-modern requirement for the History Major. | ||
| There was once an ancient religion of the Goddess. The Gnostic Gospels transmit true teachings of Christ and Mary Magdalene. Freemasons and Illuminati kept the Templars? secrets about the origins of the Church. Witches in early modern Europe were the remnant of a once widely practiced fertility cult. All these statements are widely believed to be true, knowledge and evidence of their truth being suppressed by the Church and establishment historians. In fact, they're all fantasies, though they are very widely believed and reported and have very long histories. In this class we will study both the myths and their refutation. We will also ask questions of even broader and continuing importance. How can non-specialists tell when a common belief is a myth? How can historians know what is true and what is not? If these popular beliefs are really modern mythologies, why do so many people continue to believe in them? Does it matter if they do? | ||
| 106.B - The Roman Empire | Doran | |
| TuWTh 10-1230P 175 Barrows | CCN: 49000 | |
| This course satisfies the pre-modern requirement for the History Major. | ||
| This course surveys the political, social, and cultural history of the Roman Empire from the death of Julius Caesar to the fourth-century emperor Constantine the Great, the great promoter of Christianity. Themes include the means by which Augustus secured power, the struggle between the Emperors and the Senate, slavery, women's roles, ethnic conflict, family life, the economy, population structure, and the "Fall of Rome." Ward's excellent textbook "A History of the Roman People" will provide the overarching narrative with Rodney Stark's "The Rise of Christianity" providing a sociological look at the growth of the strange new religion. We will closely read many superb literary productions of the period such as the sober and sardonic history-writing of Tacitus, the hilarious Petronius and Juvenal, and the bizarre Apuleius, and use other documentary sources such as inscriptions to understand the period. | ||
| 112B - The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Modern South Africa | Kanogo | |
| TuWTh 1230-3P 174 Barrows | CCN: 49005 | |
| Last year South Africa was the first African nation to host the soccer World Cup -- yet twenty years ago it was an international outcast condemned for its system of apartheid and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. This course will examine three centuries of South African history that account for the origin and development of this recently dismantled apartheid regime. Our aim is to understand the major historical forces that progressively shaped what became a turbulent socio-cultural, economic, political, and racial frontier. We will look at the nature of indigenous African societies in South Africa on the eve of European arrival; initial European settlements and the origins of competition for resources; expansionist trends among Dutch settlers and the responses of African societies; mfecane/difacane and the aftermath; the role of the frontier in shaping race relations; emergence of Afrikanerdom and the creation of Afrikaner republics; competing African/Boer/British nationalisms; corporate mining and its impact on labour migrancy; the Anglo-Boer war and the creation of the Union. The 20th century witnessed the formulation, articulation, and racialization of trade unions, the emergence of increased political mobilization among African, Afrikaner, and Indian populations. The course will examine the complex relationship between key protagonists, and the creation and dismantling of the apartheid apparatus. Course requirements will include a midterm exam (35%), one review paper (20%), and a final exam (35%). Attendance and participation in class discussion will account for 10% of the grade. | ||
| 119A - Postwar Japan | Barshay | |
| TuWTh 930-12P 209 Dwinelle | CCN: 49010 | |
| 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? | ||
| N131B - Social History of the United States: 1914-Present | Cho | |
| TuWTh 3-530P 88 Dwinelle | CCN: 49025 | |
| 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. | ||
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This course will explore the social history of the United States from the end of World War I to the present, addressing the contours of social relations and cultural practices that have both united and divided Americans. We will move through the chronology of American history and address the trends, conditions, and events that reflected the tenor of a multiethnic America with diverse social experiences. Among the subjects that will be discussed include: the emergence of new educational and social institutions, rise of mass culture and consumer culture, immigration and ethnicity, changing gender and sexual norms, changing composition of “communities,” volatile race and class relations, and the role of technology in the American society. Book Selections: Studs Terkel, Hard Times Gary Cross, An All Consuming Century Jason DeParle, American Dream (various articles with stable URL through JSTOR or MUSE; possible links to ebooks available through UCPress) |
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| 151C - Postwar Britain: The transition from Imperial Powerhouse to Multicultural What? | Corbally | |
| TuWTh 10-1230P 109 DWINELLE | CCN: 49033 | |
| Dr. John Corbally currently teaches as a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for the Humanities at Stanford University. He has also taught courses in Irish, European, and World History at UC Davis, Mills College, Menlo College, and Las Positas College. He is currently working on a manuscript entitled Differing Shades of Derision: Irish, Caribbean, and South Asian Immigration to the Heart of the British Empire, 1948-1971. John earned a B.A in European History since 1500, an M.A in World History since 1500 and a PhD in British Imperial History. | ||
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This course will consider the radical changes Britons have experienced since their self-conceived glorious victory over totalitarianism in 1945. While incorporating and exploring the traditional political and economic narrative, we will focus especially on social and cultural change: the welfare state, the sudden arrival of immigrants of color, the teenage revolution, the sexual revolution, Americanization, punk and the road both to and from Thatcherism. A broad array of music and film selections will be incorporated into the course. We will ask the following questions among others: Was Britain's decline after World War Two inevitable? Did it indeed decline? What role did a centuries-old empire play in the postwar era? How did ordinary people react to the new Britain? Is Britain best represented today by Lady Diana and the Windsors or The Arctic Monkeys and David Beckham? |
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Second 6 Week Summer Session: 7/5 - 8/12 |
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| 7B - US: Civil War to the Present | Bielenberg | |
| MTuWTh 12-2P 102 Moffitt | CCN: 48920 | |
| 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 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. | ||
| 124A - The United States from the Late 19th Century to the Eve of World War II | Bielenberg | |
| TuWTh 3-530P 200 Wheeler | CCN: 49013 | |
| During the first half-century before World War II, the United States became an industrialized, urban society with national markets and communication media. This class will explore in depth some of the most important changes and how they were connected. We will also examine what did not change, and how state and local priorities persisted in many arenas. Among the topics addressed: population movements and efforts to control immigration; the growth of corporations and trade unions; the campaign for women's suffrage; Prohibition; an end to child labor; the institution of the Jim Crow system; and the reshaping of higher education. | ||
| 124B - The United States Since WWII | Mujal | |
| TuWTh 12-230P 123 Wheeler | CCN: 49015 | |
| This course examines the history of the United States from World War II to the Vietnam Era. After the economic downturn of the 1930s and the Great Depression, the United States entered World War II, recovered its economic footing, and was transformed into a modern military power. The national mobilization for World War II created immediate and long-term changes in the home front and re-directed our foreign policy. After the war’s end, the Civil Rights Movement was established in the 1950s as a grass roots movement for social equality in the South. Abroad, containment in the Cold War paved the way for liberation rhetoric and the rise of McCarthyism. By the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement had laid the groundwork for a series of other social movements throughout the nation, and the Cold War had brought the United States into its involvement in the Vietnam conflict. By the 1970s, Nixon Republicanism had been impacted by the Watergate crisis while negotiations occurred in the Paris Peace talks in search of an exit strategy from Vietnam. The course will end with a final assessment of the effects of the Great Society, the importance of social movements, suburban flight and urban renewal, and the effects of OPEC on the United Sates economy. A key component of this class will be student-directed research on many of the topics under discussion at our class meetings. Along with our readings and exams, each week a mini-research paper based on primary and secondary topics will be due. | ||
| 127AC - California | Mujal | |
| TuWTh 9-1130A 182 Dwinelle | CCN: 49020 | |
| This course satisfies the American Cultures Requirement. | ||
| For centuries, California has been imagined and experienced in a variety of ways. For Native Americans, the land we call California was part of their fabric of life. For the imperial builders of the Spanish empire, it was both a link to expansive trade and "el ultimo rincon del mundo." For Mexican ranchers, it was a pastoral land filled with natural abundance and accented with deprivation. Mindful of the effects which the discovery of gold had in the post-1848 era, Carey McWilliams called California "the great exception." However, to the immigrants who emigrated and continued to arrive in California in the twentieth century, it was a place as real as it was un-real, exceptional as well as unexceptional. In the process, successive waves of people from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim have been attracted and recruited to assist in making California more that it was. This course traces the development of globalization as a cultural flow and phenomenon, the internationalization of economies, and the transnational character of human migrations. Through an historical and comparative approach, the course explores the migration of specific groups as a means of understanding the economic and cultural interactions between California and the world, including their effects here and abroad. | ||
| 136AC - Sex in the City: Women and Gender in Urban History | McNeill | |
| TuWTh 1230-3P 156 Dwinelle | CCN: 49032 | |
| This course satisfies the American Cultures Requirement. | ||
| 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). | ||
| 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. | ||
| 158.C - "Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?-- Europe 1914 to the Present?" | Wetzel | |
| TuWTh 3-530P 213 Wheeler | CCN: 49035 | |
| 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. | ||