UPPER DIVISION COURSES

HIST 300- Seminar in Historical Analysis
Sherry Katz, Laura Lisy-Wagner ,Kyle Livie, Julyana Peard, Charles Postel
In 1828 T.B. Macaulay wrote, “to write history respectably . . . is very easy. But to be a really great historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions.” Despite the somewhat hyperbolic quality of Macaulay’s comment, there is a great deal of truth in it. The purpose of this course is to start you on the road to appreciating great history by familiarizing you with the techniques of writing and evaluating history. As an apprentice historian, you will learn something of the craft of the profession. You will explore some of the varieties of history and of historical explanation, and you will engage in your own historical project. In most sections, students will both present critiques of the work of historians, and conduct and present their own research project. Most sections will cover the various stages of creating a successful historical essay- selecting a subject, locating sources, gathering useful notes and data, organizing a presentation (written or oral), and compiling footnotes and a bibliography. Some sections will use a particular topic as a means of exploring historical analysis, historiography, and research methods. Students are advised to complete all Segment I requirements before taking History 300, and also to complete History 110, 111, 120, and 121.

EUROPEAN HISTORY TO 1500

313 Comparative History of Love and Sexuality
Laura Lisy-Wagner
Development of and changes in the attitudes and practices surrounding love and sexuality on selected western and non-western cultures from antiquity to the present. [GE]

HIST 327 The Medieval Mediterranean (GE)
Fred Astren
Examination of the interaction of geography, economy, religion, state, and society in the Mediterranean from the 6th to 15th centuries and complex Christian, Muslim, and Jewish conceptualizations of culture.

HIST 329 The Early Christian Church
Megan Williams
Christian Church from Theodosius I to Iconoclasm. Establishment of the Imperial Church; monasticism; doctrinal controversies of the 4th through 8th centuries; rise of the papacy; Iconoclasm; church in the Carolingian age.

HIST 330 The Early Middle Ages
Megan Williams
Political, military, social, economic and cultural history of the Near East, Mediterranean and Europe, 600‐1000. Emphasis on the emergence of European, Byzantine and Islamic civilizations in the wake of the break‐up of the Roman order. Comparative and systemic analysis of new institutions and cultural forms, with attention to continuity with Roman precedents.

History 334, The Renaissance (GE) 
Jarbel Rodriguez
The Renaissance: its mere invocation is powerful enough to fill our imaginations with images of artistic geniuses, architectural marvels, humanistic scholars, and none-too-pious popes. But during this time (14th-16th centuries), Europe was much more than this. It was also an age of famines, horrendous pandemics that killed millions, wars that lasted a hundred years (and more) and threatened to engulf the entire continent, inquisitive explorers that sought distant lands and inquisitors that tried to ensure true belief in the Catholic Church. The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of Europe between 1300 and 1550 as it went through repeated and tumultuous periods of crisis and rebirth.

HIST 349 Medieval Popular Beliefs
Jarbel Rodriguez
The aim of this class is to provide an introduction to medieval and renaissance popular beliefs. Using saints, relics, miracles, magic, charms, folk traditions, fantastic creatures and places as our points of entry, we will attempt to understand what role popular beliefs played in medieval society and more importantly what these beliefs reveal about the medieval world. The class will be a combination lecture/discussion course in which we will have weekly debates on primary and secondary source readings drawn from saints’ lives, proceedings from witchcraft trials, inquisitional records, the writings of mystics, penitential books, and stories about ghosts and supernatural creatures, among others.

EUROPEAN HISTORY SINCE 1500

HIST 344  19th-Century Europe
Sarah Curtis
This course will look at the development of European society from 1815 to the eve of World War I.  It will concentrate primarily on the historical experience of Britain, France, Germany, and Russia.  Instead of focusing exclusively on political events or diplomatic relations, we will examine the transformations in society and culture that shaped the European world view.  Topics to be covered include: attitudes towards poverty after the Industrial Revolution, the Romantic movement, utopian and Marxist socialism, the Revolutions of 1848, urbanization and city planning, the emancipation of the Russian serfs, Darwinism, the unification of Germany, the "new woman," European imperialism, and the new mass movements at the end of the century.  Reading materials will be novels, memoirs, and other documents.

HIST 348- Modern European Intellectural and Cultural History (GE)
Sarah Curtis
This course surveys the intellectual and cultural history of Europe from the Enlightenment through the present day.  It examines changes in European thought from the rationalism of the "age of reason" to the belief in science and progress in the nineteenth century to the crisis of modern thought in the twentieth.  Special attention is also paid to the ways in which artistic movements like Romanticism, Impressionism, and Modernism have paralleled and reflected intellectual trends, and how both intellectual and cultural history have reacted to the changing European social and political landscape over two centuries.  All of the reading for this course is based on primary sources (philosophic texts, novels, poetry, and the like; some in entirety and others in excerpts) and one class session per week is devoted to discussion of these texts.  Careful reading, class attendance, and participation in discussions is very important to success in this course. This is a Segment III course.


HIST 349 Medieval Popular Beliefs
Jarbel Rodriguez
The aim of this class is to provide an introduction to medieval and renaissance popular beliefs.  Using saints, relics, miracles, magic, charms, folk traditions, fantastic creatures and places as our points of entry, we will attempt to understand what role popular beliefs played in medieval society and more importantly what these beliefs reveal about the medieval world.  The class will be a combination lecture/discussion course in which we will have weekly debates on primary and secondary source readings drawn from saints’ lives, proceedings from witchcraft trials, inquisitional records, the writings of mystics, penitential books, and stories about ghosts and supernatural creatures, among others.

HIST 386 Soviet Russia, the West, and the Cold War (GE)
Tony D’Agostino
An attempt at a world history of the the Cold War. At center stage is the nuclear arms race and the ideological and political confrontation between the two superpowers. We want to try to understand how their cooperation against the fascists in World War Two was transformed into a hostile standoff in the center of Europe that threatened the incineration of the planet. We trace this problem up to the fall of Soviet Communism in the Gorbachev reforms. But this period also saw the British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese empires give way to revolutionary forces in the third world. Both the superpowers threw themselves into struggles on every continent, and imposed a Cold War dimension on the de colonization process. The Cold War thus became a matter not only of the nuclear face-off in Europe, but also of the Chinese, Cuban, Iranian, and other revolutions. A generation of youth rose up against the Cold War and transformed the world. Europe challenged the supremacy of the dollar and OPEC plunged the western economies into the crisis of the oil shocks. We seek to make sense of these things in a global context. A number of films will be shown for visual backup to the lectures and discussion periods. Texts include: Walker, The Cold War, and Judge and Lang don, The Cold War in Documents.

HIST 390 – European International History, 1918-1945 (GE)
Tony D’Agostino
World politics in the era of the world wars. The course investigates the unraveling of the balance of power achieved by the seeming defeat of Germany and its allies at the end of World War One. We trace the differences between Britain and France over how to treat Germany to their antagonism in the Middle East. We weigh the claims of the fascists to the role of white knights protecting European civilization from the Russian revolution. We try to view the clash of Japanese and American spheres of influence in the Pacific alongside the British and French imperial interests and the Soviet revolutionary influence in China. We consider the charge that the French caused the great depression. We follow the march of the fascist dictators and the frantic measures taken by the British to appease their appetites. We take note of the rise of the United States to a global role. Intellectual, cultural, and spiritual influences on international relations get their due attention. A few films provide visual backup to the lectures and discussions. Texts include Carsten, The Rise of Fascism, Yergin, The Prize, and possibly Marks, The End of European Ascendancy.

HIST 400 History of Modern European Imperialism
Dayna Barnes
History 400 is a class about 19th and 20th century imperialism. Loosely defined, imperialism centers around the act of political subjugation of one peoples by another. However, imperialism by definition never entails complete assimilation culturally, economically, or (it turns out) politically. Thus it is more a give-and-take relationship than total domination; resistance to and subversion of the imperial mission is commonplace. This class is about conquest and domination, but it is also about gender, race, class, and culture. We will discuss ‘imperialism’ as an internalized ideology amongst Europeans and to a lesser extent American and Japanese societies. We will also look at imperialism’s partner colonialism in terms of the relationship between metropole and colony. The first part of this class will center upon a discussion of the origins and context from which modern imperialism arose. We will then look closely at the reasons for, and events of, imperial expansion. We will spend much of this course seeking to understand the reciprocity of the colonial relationship, as well as its ultimate oppression, and finally we will look at decolonization, and ask whether colonialism has actually met its end.

UNITED STATES HISTORY

HIST 422 The founding of the American Nation
Eva Shepard Wolf
The American Revolution was more than a war of national independence. It was the moment when the new nation defined itself.  This course will examine the emergence of American nationalism and the problems of nation-building.  This process involved first a struggle for national independence and then a struggle to frame the state and national governments, not once, but twice in the space of a little more than a decade.  It also absorbed various kinds of Americans in negotiations and contests over the definition of the new nation.  Each group attempted to use the opportunities presented by that defining moment to improve their prospects and their claims to citizenship.  Americans of that era thus confronted issues of class, culture, economics, gender, politics, race, region, religion, and the relationship of individuals to society.  They began to fashion a pluralistic, interest-group politics and a democratic capitalist socioeconomic order.  This course will explore this complex historical process.

HIST 424  U.S. History 1827-1877 (GE)
Mark Sigmon
Internal development and expansion of the American people and the rise of sectional conflict, culminating in the Civil War and Reconstruction era.


HIST 427 U.S. History 1916-1945
Charles Postel
During these three decades, the United States experienced the speculative Roaring Twenties as well as the economic trauma of the Great Depression, and took part in two world wars. This course will address the conservative triumph of the 1920s and the innovative New Deal reforms of the 1930s. It will focus on social and cultural movements including the new Ku Klux Klan, Sit-Down Strikers, and the birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement. It will also analyze America’s path to global power, from neutrality at the outset of the First World War to the atomic bombing of Japan.


HIST 450  California History (GE, CA, CSLG)
Phil Dreyfus, Mark Sigmon
History 450 covers the history of California from the period preceding Spanish colonization to the present. While particular topics vary from section to section, most sections treat the following- the consequences of the Native American/European contact, the making of Hispanic California, the Gold Rush, the ultimate rise of American dominance, and California’s role in the twentieth-century U.S. history. The course addresses the characteristic social, economic and political patterns that define the state, and examines conflict and accommodation between Californians on the basis of race, ethnicity class and gender. Most sections employ a text and supplementary readings, and all require written work. [Please consult with an advisor to determine whether or not you need this course to meet the California State & Government requirement].

HIST 463 – History of Raza in US (USH) Cross-listed with RAZA Studies (RAZA 376.2) and (RAZA 376.2)
Almaguer
Raza history from pre-colonial to contemporary times. Social, cultural, political, and
economic heritage of La Raza and their contributions to American society. –Bulletin
Description. Please contact instructor for detailed course description.

HIST 465  American Ethnic and Racial Relations 1890 to Present (GE)
Mabalon
Effects of ethnic and race relations on American life from the closing of the frontier to the present: Russian Jews, American Irish, Mexican Americans, Japanese, and African-Americans. [GE]

HIST 468 Women in the U.S.  1890 to Present
Sherry Katz
American women differ by race, class, ethnicity, age, culture, sexual orientation, and family situation.  Yet gender remains a significant category for historical study.  This course examines the histories of women in the modern United States, from the 1890s to the present.  The course also explores the ways in which gender ideology has changed over time, and through this process, enables students to think about the ways in which ideas about gender have been socially-constructed (not biologically determined).  We will analyze the many factors that reshaped both gender ideology and women’s lived experiences, including the influences of feminist movements.  Finally, the course introduces students to the methodologies of women’s history and to the often hidden ways that gender has shaped many aspects of the American past.  Course requirements include a willingness to engage in some exciting reading, to participate in class discussions, and to write two medium length take-home essays on the course materials, a book review, and an oral history paper.

HIST  471  The U.S. Constitution Since 1877
Waldrep
This class will look at constitutional and legal history in the United States from the Civil War to the present. Students will analyze primary source documents, including landmark Supreme Court opinions as well as the writings of leading historians. There will be two primary source research assignments as well as weekly readings. Two midterms will precede the final examination.

HIST 473 Unfree Labor in Early America  x-list wtih etHS 473
Eva Shepard Wolf
Before the ascendancy of capitalism in America, a large proportion-in many places the majority-of people labored
as unfree workers: servants, apprentices, and slaves. These forms of labor shared important features but also differed in
significant ways. This lecture-discussion course examines and compares various forms of unfree labor in early
America from the colonial period to the American Civil War, tracing change over time and investigating the
relationship among economic systems, ideology, and social relations. The course ends with the triumph of free labor
over bonded labor in the nineteenth century. Issues of power, race, and gender, which were intimately tied to labor, figure largely in our investigation. Assignments include participation in class discussions, two papers, several quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

HIST  474  History of Labor in the United States  x-list with ECON 474 and LABR 474
Steve Leikin
This course is about the history of American labor in its broadest possible meaning.  We will take as fundamental the place of work in establishing human identity and meaning.  We will then explore the changing nature of work from the 17th century to the present.  We will also take as fundamental the role of labor systems and class in distributing power and wealth in American society.  Consequently we will examine how systems of labor changed over time and the way in which people participated in and resisted these changes.  We will explore the intersections of race, gender and class in the making and unmaking of labor systems in, among other contexts, the slave South and free labor North, the new mass production industries of the early 20th century, and during wars both hot and cold.

HIST 476 American Environmental History
Phil Dreyfus
This course examines the history of Americans’ interactions with the physical environment of the current United States from the European colonial period to the present. We will address a number of inter-related questions. How have natural environments established parameters for human economic and social activity? How have human beings interpreted and then reshaped their environmental surroundings in an effort to satisfy their perceived needs? How have different groups of human occupants of American soil interacted in their quest to manage, control and distribute the resources of the land? What impact has "race" and gender exerted on perceptions of our place in and relationship to the non-human environment?  Students will have an opportunity to answer these questions through exposure to some of the best current literature in the field, and will additionally have a chance to consider some of the philosophical and political issues surrounding resource use as the class studies the views of advocates such as John Muir and Aldo Leopold, as well as late-twentieth century environmentalism and government policy.

HIST 481 Thought and Culture in America: 1880 to Present  x-list with HUM 481
Molly Oshatz

HIST 489- Dynamics of the U.S. City (GE ) Cross-listed with Urban Studies (USP 400.1) (USP 400.2)
Das
Historical development and contemporary condition of urban America, city planning, federal-city relations; dynamics of urban policy making; class, gender, race and ethnicity in urban America.

LATIN AMERICA


HIST 500 Colonial Latin America
Julyana Peard
This course covers the colonial history of Latin America from the late fifteenth century through the Independence movements of the early nineteenth century. We will look briefly at pre-Columbian civilizations and Iberia before its westward expansion, at the colonization and settlement of America, and at indigenous resistance. We will analyze the economy and society of mature colonies and their linkages to an emerging world system. Finally, we will look at the broad reorientations of the eighteenth century, which unleashed the movements for independence.

HIST 501 Latin America: The National Period x-list with ANTH 501 and RAZA 501 and SS 501 (GE)
Abdiel Oñate
This course is a social, political, and cultural history of Latin America from the independence movements of the 1800s to the present. It emphasizes the process of nation building and the distinct national identity that emerged in each country. We will explore the characteristic culture, race, and gender relations of several countries including the prospects for future democracies and economic development. A ten-page essay analyzing the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marques will illuminate many of the themes covered in class. Skidmore and Smith Eds. Modern Latin America, ( Oxford University Press). Guardino, Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico 's National State : Guerrero, 1800-1857, ( Stanford University Press). Sarmiento, Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism, (Penguin Classics) Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba : Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press). Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina , Chile , and Uruguay 1890-1940, ( Nebraska University Press). Loveman , Chile , The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism ( Oxford University Press) Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude*. (Harper Collins) *Note: Spanish version is recommended but not required.

HIST 550 Social Change in Modern Latin America x-list with SS 550
Abdiel Oñate
In History/Social Science 550 we shall explore major new developments in Latin American history: the transition from societies that were traditional, rural, largely agricultural, and had authoritarian governments, to modern, industrial, urban nations, which, since about 1985, have dismantled public sectors, opened up their economies, and moved toward different forms of liberal democracy. As far as possible, each region or country is treated in the same fashion, with the idea that students will be able to analyze similarities

ASIA

HIST 571   History of Modern China
Pi-Ching Hsu
Over the past few centuries the combination of political disturbances within and Western penetration from without produced crises of social and cultural disintegration throughout most of Asia.  How did China, the oldest continuous civilization on earth, respond to such crises? This course investigates the search for modernity in China’s recent history from 1600 down to the present.  We study how China has been adapting and changing, while preserving some of its immutable social-cultural values.  We explore the ethnic and political tension within and between China and Taiwan in the last few centuries.  We also take a close look at the complex landscape of contemporary Chinese politics, economy, and society.

HIST 578 History of Japan
Pi-Ching Hsu
Japan is an island country of modest geographic size and a late developer in world history, but today it has emerged as a giant in world economy and politics. Throughout its history Japan has borrowed first from China, then from the West; yet it has preserved its own cultural identity and has developed one of the most distinctive cultures in the world. This course traces the evolution of Japanese civilization from past to present. While we look at Japanese history from all aspects--geographic, political, economic, social, cultural, and demographic--we pay special attention to Japan's cultural heritage, social structure, and international relationships through the ages

MIDDLE EAST


HIST 605 Islamic World II: 1500 to present (GE)
Maziar Behrooz
This course is a study of Islamic civilization (the Middle East), history, and culture from the 1700 to the present. It focuses on a core region (the area between Nile and Oxus rivers). Topics for the first part of the course include politics and society in the 18th and 19th centuries, the impact of European imperialism on the region's economy and culture, the response of regional (especially Ottoman) reform movements. Topics for the second half of the course include the transformation of empires into nation-states, the rise of Arab nationalism, Arab-Israeli conflict, and the history of Iran, particularly its two 20th century revolutions. The course also seeks to explain the rise of political Islam in light of its historical context. Students will be able to identify the political and social forces that have contributed to the modern Middle East. Students will discuss and analyze the region in light of divergent processes toward modernity by comparing and contrasting a variety of roads to and choices about modernity in the Islamic world.

Africa

HIST 611 – Modern Africa  (GE)
Getz
TThis upper division course covers the history of Africa from the historical crossroads of the early 19th century forward to the modern day. The dual trends of state-building and foreign intervention collided during this period, resulting in both the colonial period of the 1880s- 1960s and the successful struggle for independence that culminated in the free elections in South Africa in 1994. Behind these political trends we will discover the coalescing of African societies prior to colonialism, their resistance and negotiations with the colonial states, and their experiments in replacing the colonial apparatus. Much of the important evidence of these processes is found in trends of culture, gender, art, and economics within African societies. Equally important are the trends of exchange- between African societies, with European and Islamic neighbors, and with diasporan Africans. This course will emphasize reading, research, and writing and will utilize lectures, primary and secondary source materials, discussions, and simulations. This course satisfies General Education requirements for Segment III.

SINGLE-SUBJECT CREDENTIAL IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

HIST 681- Community Service in Schools  (Cross-listed with Social Science (SS 681.1)
S. Keith
Community service learning in schools offers history majors the opportunity to work directly with middle and high school students and teachers in a variety of school settings in the San Francisco Bay Area. This field-based course provides a close look at teaching history and the chance to share knowledge and skills history majors are developing through their academic studies at SFSU. Students volunteer a minimum of 45 hours in one or two classrooms. Volunteer activities may include tutoring, facilitating small group discussions, preparing materials, reading student papers, assisting students with independent projects and research papers, and computer based instruction. History 681 meets the "Early Field Experience" requirement for entrance into any single or multiple subject credential program in the state of California as well as fulfilling a requirement for the History/Social Science subject matter program at SFSU. Students planning to enroll in History 681 should make provisions prior to the beginning of the semester to have a police finger print clearance and current tuberculosis test (requirements for all volunteers who work with students in any California public school). TB test may be obtained at the SFSU Student Health Center. A "Live Scan" Finger print clearance can be obtained through the campus police, at a special discount for SFSU students, or your local police department.

HIST 690 – Edit & Publish the History Journal (Ex Post Facto)
Arranged, please contact C. Waldrep
Supervised experience in editing and production of an annual journal of research done by SFSU students. Not applicable to major or minor fields within history majors. No more than a combined total of eight units may be earned in History 690 and 890. Credit/no credit grades only. May be taken for 1 to 4 units.

COURSES FOR THE HISTORY HONORS CONCENTRATION

HIST 697- Honors Thesis
Arranged, please contact R. Hoffman
Tutorial leading to an honors project or thesis based on intensive study of a topic or problem. Topic to be determined by student and faculty member selected by the student.

HIST 698- Directed Reading in History
Arranged, please contact B. Loomis
Directed reading in selected areas of history under the supervision of a faculty member.

COURSES BY INDIVIDUAL STUDY

HIST 680 Archives/History Internship
Arranged, please contact B. Loomis or D. Mabalon
An internship represents an unusual opportunity to earn credit by working at some off-campus site dedicated to the preservation of historic artifacts or documents. Students might work in an archive, learning the various elements of the work there in organizing papers or photographs, preserving documents, and making such articles available to researchers. Students might choose instead to work with an agency for historical preservation, learning the various elements involved in preserving or restoring buildings or artifacts, researching their history, and using them to inform the public. Among the agencies where the student might work are the Labor Archives (on campus), the local branch of the National Archives, the Maritime Museum, or the Heritage Foundation. Each internship will be separately arranged and every effort will be made to match your interests with an appropriate site for the development of those interests. Students taking History 680/880 for the first time should register for four units. May be taken for 3 or 4 units.

HIST 690 Edit & Publish the History Journal
Arranged, please contact C. Waldrep
Supervised experience in editing and production of an annual journal of research done by SFSU students. Not applicable to major or minor fields within history majors. No more than a combined total of eight units may be earned in History 690 and 890. Credit/no credit grades only. May be taken for 1 to 4 units.

HIST 699 Special Study in History
Arranged, please contact the faculty member you are interested in working with.
Supervised study of a particular problem selected by the student. A petition for Special Study and an add form must be signed by the instructor and turned into the history department office before the student can register for the course. A petition for Special Study that clearly outlines learning objectives and methods as well as evaluation of learning objectives must be completed and signed by the course instructor, student’s faculty advisor, and the History Department Chair before a student may enroll in this course.  May be taken for 1 to 4 units