Undergraduate Courses

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 introductory course, designed for lower-division undergraduates with little or no background in Chinese history, celebrates key features of early and middle-period Chinese civilization, including its distinctive writing system, its compelling forms of historiography and philosophy, its construction of the social and heavenly orders, and the density of its urban life in antiquity, partly through the incredibly rich material record revealed by scientific excavations (mainly since 1949) and also through the hallowed literary traditions.  Upon occasion, lectures will contrast the imperial order of early China with that of Rome under Augustus and Hadrian, in order to highlight the diametrically opposed premises on which these two empires operated; sometimes lectures will contrast conditions in early China with those seen in today's China.

This course is an introduction to the history of the United States from the Civil War to the present. Readings, lectures, films, discussions, papers, and exams will all familiarize students with the ways historians look at the past, think about evidence, and write clearly about complex relationships of cause and effect. By exploring Reconstruction, the Indian Wars, Jim Crow segregation, changing immigration policies, and the suffrage and civil rights movements, the course will explore changing, overlapping, and stratified processes of inclusion and exclusion that have redefined categories of whiteness, citizenship, and American identity. We will also analyze how industrialization, immigration, westward expansion, and the increasing intervention of state and federal governments illuminates the causes and consequences of the United States’ rapid and transformative economic growth in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Ultimately, social and political movements emerged to address the uneven distribution of economic, environmental, and social burdens created by this economic expansion. Students will study the ways that consumer culture, new media, and suburbanization influenced American popular attitudes and perceptions of the political process, the economy, the environment, and a variety of social movements. This course will finish by charting the origins, influence, and legacies of the Cold War, de-industrialization, and Neoliberalism. Students must attend lecture and discussion and complete assigned readings, a research essay, a midterm exam, and a final exam. 

Syllabus is the draft Summer 2013 Syllabus and is subject to revision.

7B Summer 2013-1.pdf

An introductory survey of the history of Africa.  A complete description is forthcoming. Please check back.

This seminar will review documentaries to explore different categories of child and youth endangerment in contemporary Africa. As well as providing ample data for further interrogation, the documentaries give voice to the children and youth therein. Among the themes to be explored are concerns about child trafficking and enslavement, child brides, child laborers, HIV/AIDS orphans, street children, urban gangs, and youth in situations of political violence. In order to historicize and contextualize the study, we shall, in addition to the documentaries, refer to a limited amount of published sources.  Limited to freshmen, one unit.

This course will introduce students to a number of ways of thinking about the war that George F. Kennan described as the "seminal evil of the twentieth century": the Great War of 1914 to 1918. We will be examining some key works of political, social and cultural history, including first-person accounts and literary sources, in an attempt to identify and explore some of the ways in which this war permanently altered the history of Europe. 

This course presents an introduction to the Early Modern Russian culture; it encompasses the period from the Time of Troubles (beginning of the seventeenth century) to the reign of Catherine the Great (1762 – 1796). The formation of the particular Russian version of modernity will be traced from the crisis of medieval world-view in the virulent years of impostors, foreign adventurers, and civil disorder through later developments: the efforts to reform the Orthodoxy that resulted in the Great Schism; violent reign of Peter the Great who tried to rebuild Russia along western European lines by force and terror; imperial grandeur of Catherine the Great’s autocracy. We will pay close attention to religious theories, political consciousness, progress in arts and architecture as well as literature. Lectures and readings (of historical summaries, interpretations, and primary sources) will be in English. Relevant films will be viewed.

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%.A complete description is forthcoming. Please check back.

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

Geoffrey Hamm completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. His research focused on the relationships between European imperial interests and local political developments in the Middle East from the late 19th century until 1918, and on the resulting campaign in the Middle East during the First World War from 1914-1918. He has published in the Journal for Strategic Studies, and has work forthcoming in the International Journal, and in Intelligence and National Security.

History 109C examines some of the major developments in the history of the modern Middle East, from the late 18th century, through the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of modern nation states, to the present. Though the geographical focus is on the Arab Middle East, we will also look at neighboring areas (Turkey, Israel, Iran) in order to offer a broader perspective. Major themes will include: the creation of a new state system and the growth of state power, the emergence of national consciousness, the relationship between religion, politics, and culture, the impact of the oil industry, the role of outside powers, and recent developments connected to the “Arab Spring.”

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

During the half-century before World War II, the United States became an industrialized, urban society with national markets and communication media. This class will explore some of the most important changes of this period and how they were connected. We will also examine how these changes elicited a variety of responses, from optimism to anxiety, from experimentation to conservatism. Among the topics addressed: the institution of Jim Crow, population movements and efforts to control immigration, conflicts between Capital and Labor, reform campaigns, territorial expansion, popular and high culture trends, and shifting conceptions of citizenship and self-hood.Gabriel Milner will complete his PhD in U.S. History at Berkeley in May. His research interests center on popular cultural depictions of national history between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I. 

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 examines African American history from Emancipation to the Obama administration. It is designed not simply to help students consider the experiences of those on the margins, but to encourage them to think critically about how those experiences have shaped broader national developments. We will explore a wide variety of topics, including migration, labor and class, gender, cultural expression, the shaping of political ideologies, rights activism, and changing notions of citizenship. Class materials and assignments will focus, in particular, on the notion of the "American Dream" its definitions, its limits, its symbolic power, and the manners in which it is pursued in the context of the African-American experience. To guide us through this and other themes, the class will engage with the works of historians along with an array of primary sources, like memoirs and speeches, court cases and legislation, letters and novels, photographs, film, and music. I've created a course website www.feliciaviator.com/history125B with a collection of resources to help you through the session. Feel free to refer to it often. The attached syllabus is the draft Summer 13 syllabus.

VIATOR.HIST125B.su13 .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

Christopher Shaw will complete his PhD in American history in May of 2013. His historical interests include capitalism, politics, and everyday life.  Note that the attached syllabus is the file syllabus from 2012 and will be updated as soon as possible.

This course covers the social history of the United States from the close of the Progressive Era to the present day. We will explore how technological, economic, diplomatic, and political developments shaped the experience of Americans who lived through these tumultuous times.  The broader themes we will address include the creation of a mass middle class and the growth of consumer culture, the reconstitution of gender norms and race relations, the establishment of the New Deal welfare state and the subsequent backlash that it provoked, and the rise of suburbia and the Sunbelt. Lectures, readings, films, and course assignments will stress various aspects of how the lives of Americans changed over the course of the twentieth century.

Chester N131B Summer 2012.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

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.

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

This upper division course surveys the rise and fall of the European Powers in the period of war and revolution preceding the downfall of Napoleon to the outbreak of World War I. Major Topics: Religious Wars and the 18th century States System, (1648-1789); French Revolution (1789-1799); Napoleonic Europe (1799-1814); Congress of Vienna (1814 1815); the Vienna System (1815-48); the Revolutions of 1848; Crimean War (1853-56); War of Italian unification waged by Cavour and Garibaldi (1859-61); the Wars of German unification waged by Bismarck (1864-71); the Bismarckian System in operation, (1871-90); Imperialism (1890 1907); the crises that led to the First World War (1904-1914). The course will contrast two periods, 1648-1815, and 1815-1914. It will argue that the first period was one of violence, rapaciousness, and unparalleled lawlessness; the second, one of peace and stability. It will, with reference to the later period, therefore seek to explain peace as much as it explains war. Peace is artificial and demands more explanation. Wars sometimes just happen; peace is always caused. Moreover, understanding why the period following the destruction of Napoleon in 1815 was more peaceful than any predecessor in European history helps explain why it ended in a war greater than any before. The explanation of this remarkable record and its disastrous end is the course's overriding theme. Mid-term, final, short paper. Attached syllabus is a draft for 2013 and is subject to revision.

162A Summer 13.2.pdf