HIST 295 Topics in History

American Frontiers: 

The Frontier is backcountry ghost town cowboys and Indians prairie and homesteaders ranchers and sodbusters. It is more than these familiar images though: the American Frontier is the encounter of the Americas and the Americans - native and immigrant from Europe Asia and Africa - with the rest of the world a historical development that began in 1492 and is still going on today. Although this is a transnational phenomenon this course is primarily concerned with the Frontier in North America and particularly in the American West and in California viewing it simultaneously as place process and myth. In this course we will also be doing our own original research in the Occidental Library's John Lloyd Butler Special Collections on Railroading so students will have a chance to make their own mark upon the American Frontier. 

Modern America: US History 1945 to Present: 

In this course we will examine the emergence of the U.S. as a world power along with the challenges and realignments that ensued: the persistence and then erosion of the New Deal order with its replacement by a politics more skeptical of a welfare system; the triumph of consumer culture; the growth of social diversity both as an ideal and a reality; and the roles played by social movements especially the civil rights movement the women's movement and the conservative movement. We will use a combination of primary and secondary sources as texts and students in addition will view a number of films from the era. Prerequisite: 1 course in history 

U.S. Intellectual History Since 1865: 

This course examines major themes in the history of thought and culture in the United States since the late nineteenth century. Among other topics we will consider the modern liberal-progressive tradition and its radical and conservative critics; the uneasy status of religion in a secular intellectual culture; cultural radicalism and feminism; consumer culture and its interpreters; the implications of American ethno-racial pluralism for national identity; the responses of intellectuals to hot and cold wars the Great Depression and the upheavals of the 1960s. In addition course readings and lectures will introduce students to ongoing debates about the public role and responsibilities of intellectuals as a distinct social group. American intellectuals have long struggled to define their vocation as inquirers and critics. In the process they have sought to understand how that vocation might best respond to the demands of a broader public sphere. Their efforts to balance intellectual integrity with civic engagement provide an opportunity to reflect on your own experiences as students and interpreters of the United States and its culture. 

Women and American Politics: 

A little under one hundred years ago American women were denied the vote. Now women make up 53 percent of the electorate women hold a record proportion of Senate and House seats and the nation has nearly elected a woman president. The change is meaningful yet the U.S. still ranks just 55th on the World Economic Forum's index of women's empowerment. This course will examine the history of women in American politics from 1920 to the present with a focus on 1960 to today. Topics will include: the politics of sexual revolution women in elections as candidates and voters liberal and conservative women's movements women and gender in the political parties feminism the intersection of race class and gender in U.S. national politics and public opinion on women's issues. Most class sessions will include film guest speakers or group projects. 

Sport and Society in the Americas: 

Organized sport offers a literal and figurative arena in which national racial and gendered borders are often reinforced or undone. This course explores the ways sports constitute and disrupt social understandings of nation race gender and sexuality within specific national contexts. Students will examine the cultural impact of a range of national pastimes across the Americas: from soccer in Argentina to baseball in Cuba from cricket in Trinidad to college football in the United States. Students will be encouraged to examine these case studies in ways that move beyond comparative nation-based approaches to the study of sports and nation and instead analyze the ways sports operate as transnational phenomena. Students will also consider the impact of sports "beyond the playing field" including the political economy of stadium construction the representation of sport in film and the politics surrounding the persistence of Native American mascots in college and professional sports in the United States. Course materials include works by historians geographers social theorists and journalists who have also been key contributors to the burgeoning field of sports studies. 

Afro-America: 

This course examines the historical experiences of people of African descent in the Americas from slavery to the present. The guiding questions of this course are: What is Afro-America? Where is it? How can we write the histories of African descended peoples in the region throughout the region? Can the histories of Africans and their descendants be contained within the confines of "nation"? Are there alternative frameworks (transnational and/or Diasporic) that can better enhance our understanding of these histories? While the course will begin in the slavery era most of our attention will focus on the histories of Africans and their descendants after emancipation. Topics we will explore include: the particularities of slavery in the Americas the Haitian Revolution and its impact on articulations of race and nation in the region the emergence of racial segregation (legalized and informal) debates on "racial democracy" the relationship between gender race and empire and recent attempts to write Afro-American histories from "transnational" and "diaspora" perspectives. While historians have written most of the work we will read in this course we will also engage the works of anthropologists and sociologists who have also been key contributors to this scholarship. 

America in the Middle East: 

This course is a history of American Foreign Policy in the Middle East from the First World War to the present day.