Mr. Volk
Rice 309, x8522; Steven.Volk@oberlin.edu
Class: King 337 (Discussion sections: 9-10 am; 10-11; 11-Noon)
Office Hours: Monday 2-3 PM; Wednesday 10-11 AM; Friday, 1:30-2:30 PM, and by
appointment
A chronological continuation of History 109 (Conquest and Colonization), History 110 looks at the construction of independent Latin American nations in the nineteenth century and their evolution into the twentieth. Above all, this class examines how states are formed from colonial territories and how nations, national identities, and national communities are constructed. It also focuses on questions of democratic representation, the struggles by many sectors for political, social, and economic inclusion, and the ways in which these struggles have been repressed, accommodated, absorbed, or ignored. Finally, it will suggest ways in which an understanding of historical processes is absolutely essential in the understanding of current conflicts and social and political aspirations.
COURSE FORMAT
The aim of this course is to provide a survey of Latin American history in the post-independence period. It is, of course, impossible to explore with any adequacy more than 50 political entities (nations and colonies) that make up the modern Latin American and Caribbean region. Rather than attempt such a project, we will concentrate our examination on Spanish America (with only modest coverage of Brazil), and on just a few countries.
History 110 will follow a lecture/discussion format. I always encourage students to participate actively in class by raising questions, points of discussion, or by reflecting in broader terms on how the history we are examining relates to current concerns or events. Students will be divided into smaller sections for discussions on many (although not all) Fridays.
The readings I have selected supplement rather than repeat the lectures. I often base my lectures on one national experience and supplement them by assigning readings based on others. Because there is a considerable amount of reading, not all assigned readings will be discussed in class. This is not a signal that you should ignore these readings! To get the most out of the readings (and the class), I urge you to form your own reading-study groups. These groups will allow you to share your insights with others and to get the most out of the readings.
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING POLICY
All students are expected to attend lectures and discussion sections regularly and to keep up with the reading. In addition, there are four graded assignments:
1. One 3-5 page analytic essay based on a primary source, Sarmiento's Facundo, or Civilization and Barbarism (due February 26);
2. A 3-5 page analytic essay, topic to be distributed (due March 23);
3. A map quiz and "geographic contemplation," due April 20;
4. A take-home final exam, due no later than 11 AM, May 17.
Your final grade will be determined on the following basis:
· Primary source (Sarmiento) essay: 20%
· Mid-term exam: 30%
· Map quiz/essay: 15%
· Final (take home) exam: 35%
Assignments are to be turned in on the day noted in the syllabus. Late papers turned in without prior permission - you must request an extension before the due date of the paper - will be reduced by one grade-step for each day that an assignment is late. For example, a paper due on Monday, February 26 turned in on February 27 will get a "B-" instead of the "B" that it merited; if it is turned in on February 28, it will get a "C+", etc. All work must be turned in by the last day of the Reading Period, May 15 (except, of course, for the take-home final exam).
Two additional points to keep in mind:
(1) All work must be completed for you to receive a passing grade; this is true whether you are taking the course for a letter grade or CR (Pass)/NE (Fail). In other words, to pass the course, you must do all the assignments.
(2) I reserve the right to factor excessive absence from class into the final grade.
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
SOURCES ON LATIN AMERICA:
I have compiled a great many internet sources and resources on Latin America at Sources and Resources on Latin America. This resource includes a variety of materials from the history of Latin America to organizations and publications of interest to activists working on Latin American issues.
I strongly urge you to keep up with news from Latin America through mainline news sources (e.g., New York Times, BBC, etc.), as well as a series of alternative sources and journals of opinion. I will discuss these further in class, and will post a number of them on Blackboard (under "Links").
ACCESSING THE COURSE ELECTRONICALLY
Course materials can be found on Blackboard. I will post all the outlines for the course lectures as well as the Powerpoint presentations, the syllabus, exams and paper assignments, some of the assigned readings, and other materials useful for the course on Blackboard.
A NOTE ON THE READING
All required readings are on reserve in the library. All the reserve reading except books that are recommended for purchase can be found on Electronic Reserve (ERes) or under "Course Documents" on Blackboard. The syllabus will specify where to find each reading. Please contact me if you cannot locate an article has been assigned. Books that are "Recommended for Purchase" are available at the Oberlin Bookstore. You can find used versions of many of the books at various online booksellers (e.g. Amazon.com).
I don't use a standard textbook in this course. If you are interested in texts that can provide a good overview, I would recommend David Bushnell & Neill MacAulay, The Emergence of Latin America in the 19th Century, 2nd ed. (NY: Oxford University Press), 1994 for the nineteenth century and Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, 6th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press), 2004 for the twentieth.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR PURCHASE
Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits, Magda Bogin, trans. (NY: Bantam Books), 1986.
Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Revolution (Modern Library) 2002.
Sandra Lauderdale Graham, Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2002.
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala. A History of Race and Nation (Durham: Duke University Press), 2000.
Mariano Ben Plotkin, Mañana es San Perón: A Cultural History of Perón's Argentina (Wilmington, DE: SR Books), 2003.
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism, Mary Peabody Mann, Trans., Ilan Stavans, intro. (Penguin Classics).
Photo: Sebastião Salgado
Syllabus
Feb. 5,7, 9: Introduction: The Challenge of Independence: State and Nation
in Latin America
Reading:
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala. A History of Race and Nation (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), Introduction, Prelude, Chs. 1-2 (pp. 1-81).
Feb. 12, 14, 16: Constructing the Nation: "Modernity" vs. "Tradition" (Argentina)
Domingo
Faustino Sarmiento
Reading:
David Bushnell & Neill MacAulay, The Emergence of Latin America in the 19th Century, 2nd ed. (NY: Oxford University Press, 1994, Ch. 6), pp. 117-140 [Blackboard, "Course Documents"].
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants, eds. Mary Tyler Peabody Mann and Ilan Stavans (New York: Penguin Classics, 1998), Chapters 1- -7 (vii-xxxviii and 9-122). NOTE: An electronic version of a different, but very good, edition is available at:
Feb. 19, 21, 23: Alternative Constructions of the Nation: Uruguay, Paraguay
Reading:
Bushnell & MacAulay, The Emergence of Latin America, Ch. 5 (pp. 83-116) [Blackboard, "Course Documents"].
Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala, Chs. 3-4 (pp. 82-109)
First Paper Due: Feb. 26 (at the start of class)
Feb. 26, 28, March 2: Alternative Constructions of the Nation: Women and the Nation
Reading:
Arlene J. Díaz, "Vicenta Ochoa, Dead Many Times: Gender, Politics, and a Death Sentence in Early Republican Caracas, Venezuela," in William E. French and Katherine Elaine Bliss, Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Latin America since Independence (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pubs., 2007), pp. 31-51 [ERes and Regular Reserve].
Rebecca Earle, "Rape and the Anxious Republic. Revolutionary Colombia, 1810-1830," in Elizabeth Dore and Maxime Molyneux, eds., Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), pp. 126-146 [ERes and Regular Reserve].
Sarah C. Chambers, "Republican Friendship: Manuela Saenz Writes Women into the Nation, 1835-1856," Hispanic American Historical Review 81:2 (May 2001), pp. 225-257 [Also available on Blackboard, "Course Documents"].
March 5, 7, 9: The Political Economy of Statehood: The Market, Modernity, and 19th Century Spanish America
Reading:
Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala, Chs. 5-7 (pp. 110-197).
March 12, 14, 16: Brazil: Slavery and Freedom in the 19th Century
Reading:
Sandra Lauderdale Graham, Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2002. [Entire book]
Midterm Due: March 23 (at the start of class)
March 19, 21, 23: The Apogee of the Oligarchic State: Mexico during the Porfiriato
Reading:
Michael J. Gonzales, The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002), Introduction and Chapter 1 (pp. 1-59) [ERes and Regular Reserve and Blackboard "Course Documents"].
March 24-April 1: Spring Break
April 2, 4, 6: And the House Comes Tumbling Down: The Mexican Revolution
Reading:
Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Revolution (Modern Library) 2002 [Entire].
Mexican soldadera
April 9, 11,13: Expanding the Nation: The Rise of New Citizens in the 20th Century
Reading:
Jeffrey D. Needell, "Rebellion against Vaccination in Rio de Janeiro," in Vicente C. Peloso, ed., Work, Protest and Identity in Twentieth-Century Latin America (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2003), pp. 25-61 [ERes and Regular Reserve].
Theresa R. Veccia, " 'My Duty as a Woman.' Gender Ideology, Work, and Working-Class Women's Lives in São Paulo, Brazil, 1900-1950," in John D. French and Daniel James, eds., The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers: From Household and Factory to the Union Hall and Ballot Box (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), pp. 100-146 [ERes and Regular Reserve].
Thomas Miller Klubock, "Working-Class Masculinity, Middle-Class Morality, and Labor Politics in the Chilean Copper Mines," Journal of Social History 30:2 (Winter 1996), pp. 435-464 [Blackboard "Course Documents"].
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala, Ch. 8 (pp. 198-219).
April 16, 18, 20: Populism
Reading:
Mariano Ben Plotkin, Mañana es San Perón: A Cultural History of Perón's Argentina (Wilmington, DE: SR Books), 2003. [Introduction, Parts I-III (pp. 3-134) and the conclusion (pp. 195-202).]
Eva Perón
Map and "Geographical Contemplation" quiz, April 20
April 23, 25, 27: Post-Populist Changes in Latin America (I): Cuba
Che Guevara, "Socialism and Man in Cuba," (March 1965).
Selected chapters from: Aviva Chomsky, Barry Carr, and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff, eds., The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham: Duke University Press), 2004.
Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott, "How the Poor Got More," pp. 344-353.
Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott, "The Agrarian Revolution," pp. 378-385.
Margaret Randall, "The Family Code," pp. 399-405.
Carlos Moore, "Silence on Black Cuba," pp. 419-423.
Juan Antonio Blanco and Medea Benjamin, "From Utopianism to Institutionalization," pp. 433-442.
Susan Eckstein, "From Communist Solidarity to Communist Solitary," pp. 607-622.
Haroldo Dilla, "Civil Society," pp. 650-659.
Carollee Bengelsdorf, "Cuba - the First Decade: Paternalist Centralization and Anarchic Decentralization," and "Cuba in the Seventies: Centralized Decentralization," in The Problem of Democracy in Cuba. Between Vision and Reality (NY: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 66-133.
[All the above, except Che Guevara, on ERes and Regular Reserve]
April 30, May 2, 4: Post-Populist Changes in Latin America (II): Chile
Reading:
Simon Collier and William F. Sater, "Democracy and Dictatorship, 1960s-1990s," in A History of Chile, 1808-1994 (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 305-389 [Blackboard, "Course Documents"].
Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits, Magda Bogin, trans. (NY: Bantam Books), 1986 [Entire book, reading about half this week, half next].
May 7, 9, 11: The Night of the Dictators
Reading:
Allende, House of the Spirits [Finish book].
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala, Conclusion (pp. 220-233).
General Augusto Pinochet
The final project for the course is a take-home examination which is due no later than Thursday, May 17 at 11 AM. Any exam which is turned in later than that time must have an official incomplete or it will not be counted.
I will only allow incompletes in the course for the
final project (i.e., the take-home examination). All work which was due prior
to that must be turned in by the last day of reading period, May 15, if it is
to be counted (and if you are to pass the course).