Topics in US History

Topics vary

Topics vary

Topics vary

This course will study the history of Afro-Americans from their first encounter with Europeans in the 16th century to emancipation during the Civil War. The course will concentrate on the variety of black responses to capture, enslavement, and forced acculturation in the New World. The difference in the slave experience of various New World countries, and the methods of black resistance and rebellion to varied slave systems will be investigated. The nature and role of the free black communities in antebellum America will also be studied.

In the past decade, Brazil has emerged a leading global power. As the world's fifth-largest country, by size and population, and the ninth-largest by GDP, Brazil exerts tremendous influence on international politics and the global economy, seen in its position as an emerging BRIC nation and a regional heavyweight in South America. Brazil is often in the news for its strides in social welfare, leading investments in the Global South, as host of the World Cup and Olympics, and, most recently, for its political instability. It is also a nation of deep contradictions, in which myth of racial democracy -- the longstanding creed that Brazilian society has escaped racial discrimination -- functions alongside pervasive social inequality, state violence, political corruption, and an unforgiving penal system. This course examines six centuries of Brazilian history. It highlights the interplay between global events -- colonialism, slavery and emancipation, capitalism, and democratization -- and the local geographies, popular cultures, and social movements that have shaped this multi-ethnic and expansive nation. In particular, the readings will highlight Brazil's place in Latin America and the Lusophone World, as well as the ways in which Brazil stands as a counterpoint to the United States, especially in terms of the legacy of slavery and race relation. In this lecture, we will also follow the current political and economic crises unfolding in Brazil, at a moment when it has become all the more important to evaluate just how South America's largest nation has shaped and been shaped by global events.

From the crisis of the Great Depression through the 1970s, the United States and Latin America produced remarkable efforts to remake society and political economy. This course analyzes the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions, as well as social movements that transformed the United States: the black freedom movement, the labor movement, and changing forms of Latino politics. In all three countries, Americans looked for ways to reform capitalism or build socialism; address entrenched patterns of racism; define and realize democracy; and achieve national independence. They conceived of these challenges in dramatically different ways. Together, we'll compare national histories and analyze the relationships between national upheavals. In studying the US and Latin America together, the class allows students to explore central questions in both regions' histories. What did capitalism, socialism, and communism amount to? What did democracy mean? What were the roots of racial inequality and how did Americans address it? Why were Americans so enticed by economic growth, and how did they pursue it? How did the Cold War shape social movements? What purposes did unions serve? How did Christianity inform movements for and against social change? Studying these regions together also allows us to explore international interactions. How did the black freedom movement in the US relate to the Cuban revolution? How did Latin American immigration shape the US labor movement? How did US Cold War policy influence Latin American revolutionary movements? The goal of this class is for you to interpret the readings and decide what you think. What you learn in this class, and the quality of our experience together, depends on your reading closely, coming to class with informed ideas and questions, and being prepared to help your classmates answer theirs. We will read approximately 100 pages per week. No background is required.