Spring History Courses: Special Descriptions

The classes listed below are for History majors. The History 497 proseminar and 498 tutorial require permission numbers from the instructors. The lecture-discussion classes may be enrolled in through regular registration.

The university has informed you that email is the official form of campus communication for information related to financial aid, registration, course changes, etc. You are responsible for activating your account. You may configure your CSUN account to automatically forward email to another preferred account.

You can find information on how to activate your CSUN User ID and password by visiting https://www.csun.edu/helpdesk/stuact.html.

You can configure your mail forwarding by visiting the Campus Account Utility located at https://www.csun.edu/account.

Lecture-Discussion Classes

History 161: Survey of Latin American History Tuesday-Thursday 8:00-9:15 Professor Charles Macune

What is Latin America today? How and why did it get that way? Where is it going? Does it matter? These are some of the questions addressed in this broad survey of the history of Latin America from pre-Columbian, pre-1492, times to the present, with considerable thought to the near and long-term changes in the future. One wonders, for example, if indeed “democracy is trash” as Cuban head of state Fidel Castro proclaimed in the New York Times a few years ago, why so many in Latin Americans have and still seek so passionately to establish and protect democratic political, economic, and social institutions in their respective states? Such is the nature of inquiry into the long, rich, and fascinating history of Latin America. The first half of the semester is devoted to the history of Latin America prior to the arrival of the Europeans and Africans beginning at the end of the 15^th century through the end of most of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French colonial empires at the beginning of the 19^th century. Topics include the native American cultures, the European conquest and colonization, religion, economics, society, government, class, race, and the independence movements which swept Latin America between 1791-1825. The second half of the semester focuses on the enormous changes which have transformed and diversified Latin America in the past two centuries as each independent state charted its own unique course, politically, economically, socially, culturally.

Successful performance in the courses entails class attendance and participation, the reading and mastery of the five required texts, and demonstrated understanding of the course material in the essay mid-term and final exams. Term research papers are optional. Throughout the semester, historic figures prominent in Latin America’s experience, some from the 15^th century, others contemporary, may be expected as guest lecturers in the course in place of the professor of record.

400 level Lecture-Discussion Classes

History 409 History of Jews in the Modern Era Tuesday-Thursday 1100-1215 SH 224 Professor

Jody Myers

History 410 The Ancient Greek World Tuesday-Thursday 1400-1515 SH 184 Professor Frank Vatai

Mediterranean world from the rise of Greek civilization to the conquest of Greece by Rome.

History 434 European Colonialism Monday 1900-2145 SH 198 Professor Jeffrey Auerbach

This course explores the expansion, consolidation, management, disintegration, and consequences of the modern European empires, focusing on the ambiguities of identity produced by the encounter between European, American, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian cultures. Using readings, visual images, and film, we will explore how Europeans “civilized” themselves by constructing, denigrating, and appropriating non‑European cultures, and discuss colonial and postcolonial resistance to European imperialism. Topics include such cultural constructions as cannibalism, exoticism, orientalism, primitivism, racism, and tourism.

History 435 African History to the 19^th Century Tuesday-Thursday 930-1045 Professor Joseph Holloway

Histories of the societies of sub-Saharan Africa from the early iron age to the 19^th century.

History 436 African History since the 19^th Century Tuesday-Thursday 1400-1515 SH 198 Professor Daryle Gatlin

History of the societies of sub-Saharan African in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

History 440 History of War in the Modern World Tuesday-Thursday 1100-1215 SH 184 Professor Robert Tomlinson

Selected topics analyzing the interactions of warfare with social and technological changes since the 17^th centuries.

History 452 Medieval and Early Modern England Tuesday-Thursday 1230-1345 SH 279 Professor Clementine Oliver

This course examines a turbulent and exciting period in English history. From the Norman Conquest to the Hundred Years’ War, from the deposition of kings to the emergence of parliament as a significant political institution, from the Black Death to the Wars of the Roses, from the emergence of the vernacular to Chaucer’s pilgrims to William Shakespeare, from heretics to Puritans — these centuries have it all. Students will be required to engage in close reading of primary texts, participate in insightful discussion, produce two short papers on assigned readings, and take a midterm and a final examination.

History 454 Hitler’s Germany Monday 1620-1850 SH 198 Professor Tomas Ungvari

Study of the evolution and nature of National Socialism in Germany. Reviews the ideological foundations and traces the rise of the Nazi party and the Hitler cult in the Weimar Republic; the establishment of totalitarian power between 1933-45; the diplomatic patterns and military climax; the question of national guilt.

History 466 Mexico Tuesday-Thursday 930-1045 SH 279 Professor Charles Macune

In this course, the curious and the fearless will explore modern Mexico’s extraordinary historical experience the past two centuries. For the three previous centuries, as the Viceroyalty of New Spain, it has been by far the richest and most valued of the colonies in Spain’s worldwide empire. And for many centuries, even several thousand years, prior to that Mexico’s vast expanse had been the home of numerous city states and empires inhabited by millions of highly sophisticated indigenous peoples bearing names such as Olmec, Maya, and Teotihuacan to Zapotec, Toltec, Monte Alban, Mitla, Aztec, and Mixtec. All of that critical, as well as fascinating, historical background will draw the class’ attention, if only briefly, in readings, lecture, and discussion. Otherwise, recent Mexico’s history makes little sense.

Looking at explanations for the Latin American independence movement, 1791-1825, including the particular variables pertinent to Mexico, the class will treat the difficult and extremely complicated political, military, economic, religious, and social issues confronting this sprawling, deeply conservative state in the 19^th century. The journey includes the “Forty Years of Wandering in the Wilderness,” the first decades after independence, the desperate struggle against secessionist movements, civil war, and foreign invasion, and the late 19^th century achievement, not a moment too soon, of political order and economic progress under the Liberal Porfirio Diaz regime, 1876-1911. But that too at a price that will be paid with the Revolution of 1910. Much attention will be devoted to the causes of that Revolution, its development, and consequences. Delivering on the sweeping promises of the various revolutionary factions, the establishment of an enduring “Revolutionary Family” political establishment in the 1920s, the redistribution of land and nationalization of resources in the 1930s, and the emphasis on economic development, modernization, and industrialization since the 1940s, the political democratization which accelerated dramatically in 2000, and Mexico’s growing interdependence with the U.S., globalization, and prospects for the future are all major topics. Throughout the semester, historic figures prominent in Mexico’s experience may be expected as guest lecturers in the course in place of the professor of record.

History 478 Economic History of the U.S. Thursday 1900-2150 SH 279 Professor Ronald Davis

This course covers the history of the U.S. economy from colonial times to the modern period, emphasizing the causes and nature of economic growth, the institutions and people involved, and the impact of economic change on American society. The class will look at several distinct but related historical themes over the semester, including class relations (labor/poverty/wealth), the American economy as a world economy, money and banking, the role of the government and law in the economy over time, the relative efficiency and profitability of slavery and racism, economic collapse and depressions, and the place of technology in the economy from the 1600s to 2005.

History 481 The American West since 1848 Tuesday-Thursday 1230-1345 SH 198 Professor Thomas Andrews

This course explores the history of the trans-Mississippi West from the Mexican War through the present-day.  We will begin with the Anglo-American conquest of the region and its consequences for native peoples and Mexican Americans.  We will then consider the rise of extractive economies, metropolitan societies, and frontier myths through the late nineteenth century.  Finally, we will grapple with the history of the American West during the twentieth century through such topics as racial conflict, the impact of World War II, suburban sprawl, and enduring myths about the nation’s frontier past.  Readings will emphasize primary
sources such as Native American autobiography, poems from Chinese immigrants interned at Angel Island, and narratives from the Overland Trail.  Assignments will include a final
paper project in which students will write a film pitch for a “true western” that engages the cinematic genre of western film within the boundaries of historical truth.

History 483 Constitutional History of the U.S. since 1877 MWF 900-1050 SH 288 (Solar No. 14712) Professor James Sefton

This course deals with the American Constitution and the Supreme Court from Reconstruction to the present. It combines lecture and discussion, with opportunity for student resolution of mock cases. The reading consists of a basic text, supplemented by excerpts from leading Supreme Court opinions as provided in class. The course has a narrative core, but the approach is extensively analytical and interpretive. Principal topics include Reconstruction and the effect of the Civil War on historic concepts of Federalism and relations between individuals and the state; the changing interpretations of the 14th Amendment from Reconstruction to the present; government regulation of business and commerce; the growth of the Presidency and the war powers; expansion of civil liberties through the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment; the expansion of criminal due process; race, gender, and other modern constitutional issues. The course strengthens the student's understanding of the historical context of modern constitutional issues and enhances the student's ability to teach American History and Government in secondary schools.

History 488 California History Tuesday-Thursday 1400-1515 SH 310 Professor Michael Ward

Political, economic, social, and intellectual growth of California from Spanish times to the present, with emphasis on current characteristics and problems.

History 489 A History of the African-American People in the United States Tuesday-Thursday 930-1045 SH 198 Professor Josh Sides

In this course we will explore the major developments in African American history from the origins of the slave trade to the present. We will pay particular attention to the rise and fall of slavery, the institutionalization of Jim Crow, African American strategies of resistance, patterns of migration, the civil rights movement, and contemporary African American culture and politics.

History 493 History of Modern Japan Tuesday 1900-2145 SH 184 Professor Richard Horowitz

This course explores the history of Japan in modern times, beginning in the Tokugawa era and ending in the 1990s. For historians and social scientists Japan’s modern experience is of particular importance. Japan was the first non-Western country to successfully industrialize, and for almost 75 years it was the only major Asian economic power. At the same time, Japan went from being the victim of Western imperialism in the latter half of the nineteenth century, to having an empire of its own, and the major military threat to its Asian neighbors in the first half of the twentieth century. Finally, in the last fifty years, Japan transformed itself from the rubble of defeat into the world’s second economic power, while paradoxically remaining a minor player in international politics.

This course will emphasize the use of fiction (including works by Saikaku and Tanizaki), and film (ranging from Yasujiro Ozu’s remarkable Tokyo Story, to Juzo Itami’s comedies to the Godzilla films), as a lens to examine Japan’s modern transformation.

History 496RH Middle East Political History MWF 1100-1150 SH 288 Professor Rachel Howes

This course focuses on the Modern History of the Middle East from 1798 to the present. The Middle East in the period from 1798 to the present has seen sweeping changes. It has gone from an area dominated by multi-ethnic empires dominated by hereditary Middle Eastern rulers, to an area dominated by European empires, and finally to an area dominated by nation-states with a wide variety of political systems. Just as the politics of the region has changed, so has the spectrum of political and intellectual thought. The study of the politics and ideology of this

period in history is usually done through the study of the political and ideological movements it produced. This class is going to take a slightly different approach. We are going to look at a series of different perspectives on and reactions to events and ideas. We look at both modern

historians and contemporaries to the events. Students will be expected to write a series of small papers designed to test the students mastery of the assigned material. The class will culminate in a longer paper on a topic of the student's choice. Any questions can be directed to Professor Howes at rachel.howes@csun.edu.

History 497G Law, Gender, and Sexuality in American History Thursday 1900-2150 SH 288 Professor Joyce Broussard

This proseminar/directed research course examines the relationship of law to the gender roles and sexuality of Americans from the colonial times to the present. It is designed for students interested in legal history and gender studies as tools of historical analysis. Gender is a term generally used to describe differences in culturally or socially constructed sexual roles but it is often used to indicate biological differences as well. Sexuality deals with sexual behavior and attitudes. How the law shaped, and/or responded to, sexual behavior and gender roles is the key issue that will frame the student investigations. The goal of this proseminar/directed research course requires each student to produce a research paper based upon original sources such as diaries, correspondence, legal records, newspapers, judicial decisions, depositions, oral interviews, and so forth. Possible student research topics could include: the use of divorce as a means of control and empowerment for men and women over time; the gender-controversy surrounding sports and Title IX; prostitution and the issue of sexual rights in American society (abortion, birth control, and pornography) as legal means for defining masculinity and femininity; the use of sexually-driven vigilante law to define womanhood and masculinity in the American South; the changing legal treatment of rape and its impact on gender roles within American society; the meaning of miscegenation as a punishable crime for women but not for men; using the law of child custody rights to define gender roles; and the gender-implications surrounding the laws that help define domestic violence in America. Graduate students are encouraged to research and write on Supreme Court decisions that have either been impacted by gender bias or that have effected gender roles over the course of American history. Each of these topics, as well as others can be modified in terms of region, place, and time, with a focus on a specific issue for research.

History 497A American Institutions Tu 1900-2150 Professor Nan Yamane

This is a research seminar centered on the history of American institutions, from formal more “closed” institutions such as prisons and hospitals, to more open and significant institutional traditions, such as education, marriage, the family, etc. How are institutions created and maintained? What is the role of leadership in maintaining power, or of reform movements and Revolution?  In the first weeks, while students are designing individual research topics of related interest, we will read together, discuss, and answer some of these questions. Shared readings serve as a guide to questions and themes in individual research projects, from which you will be asked to contribute a short article or document to class readings.  We will then break as a group, allowing time for student research, and will regroup for the last few weeks to present research.

History 497K Historical Fact, Historical Fiction MW 1300-1415 SH 279 Professor Kathleen Addison

The historical novel and epic have allowed people to draw a loose conception of history against a background that is considered more accessible than the traditional narrative or methodological forms of history. Some, such as The Davinci Code, have drawn people into further research to explore the time and place of previously imaginary spaces; others, such as Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities, functioned as social commentary within a fictional realm, and are usable as a lens to see one author’s perception of a real space. On a fundamental level, for the historian, is the question of bias and filtration of sources: Can historical epics realistically function as usable history, as in The Epic of Gilgamesh or the Song of Roland; or does the fictional concept take such dramatic license with legitimate historical events as to render the popular conception of history as the “true” source, such as Richard III or The Death of King Arthur? While a traditional complaint within the field of history is that movies and media obfuscate “true” history, the same is often true of the novel; and yet, because as a printed medium, it is somehow imbued with more veracity. This seminar will use historical novels and films to examine how history is perceived by both the creators and their audiences, and how the interpretation of events and people are colored when compared to traditional “academic” history.

History 497S San Francisco's Changing Neighborhoods: History, Methods, and Research Tu-Th 1400-1515 SH 186 Professor Josh Sides

In this undergraduate proseminar, students will master the growing literature on the history of San Francisco, develop skills to conduct research on the history of particular neighborhoods in San Francisco, and conduct field research in San Francisco at the end of the semester (cost of travel will be covered for students). Paying particular attention to demographic change, the development of public and private spaces, and the ever elusive “culture” of neighborhoods, students will become experts on particular pockets of the mythical metropolis. For their final project, students will present research papers and oral presentations on their neighborhoods and map out a research agenda for future scholarship on San Francisco.

History 498C Old Shanghai in History, Fiction, and Memory, Thursday 1900-2150 SH 198 Professor Richard Horowitz

Between 1845 and 1950 Shanghai was a truly global city. Divided into sections governed by Chinese, French, and international authorities, it was the most important trading center on the Pacific Rim. European, American, and Asian merchants came in hopes of gaining a share of the China market, and to buy tea, silk, porcelain, carpets and other Chinese luxuries. Christian missionaries hoped to save a billion souls, and adventurers sought escape from humdrum middle class life at home. Chinese came to trade, to get jobs, to learn about the outside world, and plot revolution. Soldiers came from India to serve as policemen and guards. As barriers to immigration rose elsewhere after the First World War, Shanghai became a haven for refugees from the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, and a mecca for dissidents, outcasts and spies. Shanghai was infamous for its seedy bars, brothels, casinos and opium dens.  "If God lets Shanghai endure, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology" wrote one missionary. But Shanghai also spawned China's movie industry and a modern commercial culture.

In this course we will be studying old Shanghai, and how it is presented and interpreted in three different modes of representing the past:  history, fiction (both written and on film), and memory. 

Students who wish to enroll in this course must contact Dr. Horowitz at  richard.s.horowitz@csun.edu, or 677-3556 to get a permission number.

History 498C: Readings in the History of Pleasure and Vice in the Pre-Modern Middle East Wednesday 1900-2145 SH 198 Professor Rachel Howes

The debate over what constitutes legitimate pleasure and what is vice raged unabated in the Medieval and Early Modern Middle East.  This class will explore this topic by looking both at primary and secondary sources.  We will look at the writings of such pleasure seekers as the licentious poet Abu Nuwas and the more sober al-Jahiz.  We will also look at the writings of the stricter jurists such as ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyya.  Finally we will read modern scholars who investigate Medieval Middle Eastern attitudes to such issues as homosexuality, birth control and coffee houses.  Students will be expected to write a series of review essays on assigned readings, and the class will culminate with a bibliographic essay on a topic of the student's choice.For answers to questions and for permission numbers please email me at rachel.howes@csun.edu

History 498C Photography as a Historical Resource Dr. James Sefton, Monday 1400-1650 SH 288

In this course, students learn to interpret and use photographs as a source of political, social, and cultural information about the particular society and time period depicted.  A variety of examples of important historical photography from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the Crimean War, the Civil War, the Depression era as recorded by the Farm Security Administration, and other bodies of work will be analyzed and interpreted in class.  The early history of photography and the development of photographic processes such as the daguerreotype, as well as the way those processes facilitated and limited the political and cultural uses of photography, will be covered.  Students will also prepare photo essays on subjects of historical importance around Los Angeles or Southern California, which will involve writing short essays and doing the photography that illustrates them.  Access to 35MM camera and some elementary knowledge of its use is important.  However, advanced photographic skills are not required.  The class will include necessary assistance with camera technique so that students' skills improve during the semester.  The course is appropriate for the general History major and particularly useful to those interested in archival work, public relations, and teaching.  Interested students should contact Dr. Sefton during is office hours, Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10:00-10:45 a.m. or call (818) 677-3549.

History 498C Tutorial in Latin American History: Biography Tuesday 1400-1645 SH 288 Professor Charles Macune

To German Classical historian, John Gustav Droysen (1808-1884), “the life of the gifted, creative individual means more to the historical process than all of the theories of cause and effect.” Maybe. But there can be little question of the impact significant individuals have had on history and the value of studying the lives of such figures for historical understanding. This 3 unit reading tutorial will focus on the reading, class discussion, and written reviews of biographies/ autobiographies of individual men and women who illustrate a range of important themes, issues, and developments in the history of Latin America since the 15^th century. In each of the fifteen weeks of the semester, the class will examine a topic, such as Exploration and Conquest, Theory and Practice of Empire, Church, Economy, Society, Indians, and Slavery in the colonial period or Independence, Labor, Land, Women, Literature, Economic Development, Politics, Foreign Relations, and Revolution in the national period. In the course of the semester, each student will read a combination of 6 articles or book-length biographies of the lives of individuals important in those topical areas. One could, for example, read Fraser & Navarro’s biography of Evita Peron for the subjects of women or politics. Successful completion of the course requires class attendance and participation and submission of the six 5- page book reviews which indicate the contents and thesis of the works and their value in the understanding of their respective topics in Latin American history.