Mr. Volk
Rice 309, x8522 (Steven.Volk@oberlin.edu)

Class: MWF 9:00-9:50 AM (King 337)
Discussion sections will take place most Fridays in one of three slots:
9-9:50AM (King 337); 1:30-2:20PM (King 335);or 2:30-3:20 PM (King 335).

Office Hours: Mondays 10-11 AM; Tuesdays 10-11 AM; Wednesdays 11-Noon, and by appointment.

Emiliano Zapata, tattoo by 
"Lowrider Tat2"

The course has been designed with a number of goals in mind:

To introduce students to some of the forces, events, and conflicts which have helped shape current-day Latin America and the Caribbean, including:

• The manner by which Latin American countries, emerging from colonialism, chose and constructed their various state systems. Unlike their neighbor to the north, Latin American countries experimented with a variety of non-republican forms of government.
• The post-colonial construction of nationalism.
• The economic choices faced by the newly independent countries and how their economies fit into a world largely shaped by Great Britain and, then, the United States.
• The essential lines of national social organization including race, gender, class.
• The challenges posed to the state by emerging social movements, including the Mexican and Cuban revolutions.
• The rise of military power and the emergence of neo-liberal dominance.

To understand and use a variety of sources (or evaluate the lack of sources) which make up the contemporary "archive" of historians, including:

• Primary written sources and how to consider them.
  
• Secondary sources and how to evaluate them critically.
  
• Non-written sources (including images and artifacts).
  
• The absence of sources: how to listen for the voice of the voiceless, how to hear silences, how to read "across the grain."

To find, understand, and critique historical argument:

• The central task of reading history in college and beyond is understanding an author's central argument, and being able to evaluate that argument based on evidence, sources, narrative, and logic. While, as beginning Latin American historians, you will be unable to evaluate an author's argument to the same extent as specialists in the field, it is a goal of this course to enable you to locate arguments, consider the sources used, and look for the logic of the presentation.

To understand, and appreciate, ambiguity in historical argument and presentation:

• By focusing on various controversies in the historiography of the Americas, we will attempt to gain an historical perspective on the complex question of dependence and independence in Latin America, particularly how societies and cultures are shaped because of and despite the power inequalities of various actors involved, and how historians continue to present evolving arguments to account for these factors.

To appreciate that while the "past is a foreign country," it is intimately connected to the present through the work of the historian. Your task is to understand that the past is not the same as the present, but that the work of historians means that the questions we now ask of the past will be different than those asked by previous generations, for a variety of reasons.

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.

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) essay: 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 13 (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.

USING BLACKBOARD

Most materials for this course can be found on Blackboard: outlines for the course lectures, Powerpoint presentations, the syllabus, exams, paper assignments, and most of the assigned readings. You should be enrolled automatically in Blackboard for this course when you register for the class. Let me know if you have any problems accessing it.

A NOTE ON THE READING

All books that are recommended for purchase are on reserve in the library. These books can be purchased at the Oberlin Bookstore as well as at various on-line booksellers (where they are also available in used, cheaper, editions). All the reserve reading except these books are posted in Blackboard under "Readings." 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

Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History (New Haven: Yale University Press), 2004.

Sandra Lauderdale Graham, Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society (New York: Cambridge University Press), 2002.

Alicia Hernández Chávez, Mexico: A Brief History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 2006.

Daniel James, Doña María's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity (Durham: Duke University Press), 2000.

Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), 1995.

Domingo F. Sarmiento, Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism (New York: Penguin Classics), 1998.

Peter Winn, Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press), 1989.

SYLLABUS

PART I: THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

Feb. 4, 6, 8: Thinking about the State in Latin America: The unfinished tasks of independence.

Reading:

Miguel Angel Centeno, "The Latin American Puzzle," in Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2002), 1-32. [Blackboard: Readings]

Florencia Mallon, "Political History from Below: Hegemony, the State, and Nationalist Discourses," Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), Ch. 1: pp. 1-20.

Recommended if you haven't taken HIST-109:

Alicia Hernández Chávez, Mexico: A Brief History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006): Chapters 1-4.

Feb 11, 13, 15: Making Nations in Post-Colonial Latin America

FIRST PAPER (SARMIENTO ESSAY) DUE, IN CLASS, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20

Feb 18, 20 [Note: No class on Friday - or think about film or other speaker]: Alternative constructions of the Nation (Uruguay/Paraguay):

Reading:

Mallon, "Contested Citizenship (1); Liberals, Conservatives, and Indigenous National Guards, 1850-1867," and "Alternative Nationalisms and Hegemonic Discourses: Peasant Visions of the Nation," in Peasant and Nation, Ch. 2 and 4, pp. 23-62, and 89-133.

Feb 25, 27, 29: Writing women into 19th century history

Reading:

Mallon, "The Conflictual Construction of Community: Gender, Ethnicity, and Hegemony," Peasant and Nation, Ch. 3: pp. 63-88.

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 [Blackboard, "Readings"].

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 [Blackboard, "Readings"].

March 3, 5, 7: The Political Economy of Liberalism in Latin America

Reading:

Hernández Chávez, Mexico: A Brief History, Chapters 6-7 (pp. 117-169).

Mallon, "Contested Citizenship (2). Regional Political Cultures, Peasant Visions of the Nation, and the Liberal Revolution in Morelos," Peasant and Nation, Ch. 5: pp. 137-175.

March 10, 12, 14: Slavery and the Making on the Brazilian State

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]

March 17, 19, 21: The Crisis of 19th Century Liberalism: Mexico and the Porfiriato

Reading:

Hernández Chávez, Mexico: A Brief History, Ch. 8: pp. 170-202.

Mallon, "From Citizen to Other. National Resistance, State Formation, and Peasant Visions of the Nation in Junín," Peasant and Nation, Ch. 6, pp. 176-219.

"Juárez, símbolo de la República contra la Intervención Francesa", Antonio González Orozco

MIDTERM ESSAY DUE IN CLASS, FRIDAY, MARCH 21 (OR BEFORE)

SPRING BREAK

PART II: THE NATURE OF THE RESPONSES

March 31, April 2, 4: The Revolutionary Response (Mexico)

Reading:

Hernández Chávez, Mexico: A Brief History, Ch. 9-11, pp. 203-294.

April 7, 9, 11: The Rise of Organized Labor in Latin America (Chile)

Reading:

Peter Winn, Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989): Introduction, Chapter 1-2, pp. 3-52.

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 "Readings"].

April 14, 16, 18: Populism in Latin America (Argentina)

Reading:

Daniel James, Doña María's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity (Durham: Duke University Press), 2000: Prologue and The Transcript (pp. 3-116), and "Tales Told Out on the Borderlands," Reading Doña María's Story for Gender" (pp. 213-243).

MAP/GEOGRAPHY QUIZ IN CLASS: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23

April 21, 23, 25: Armed Revolution in Latin America (Cuba)

Reading:

Richard Gott, Cuba: A New History (New Haven: Yale University Press), 2004: Chapter 5 to the end (pp. 147-320), required; Chapters 3-4 recommended.

Recommended: Change in Cuba: A set of articles sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) which discuss the future of Cuba now that Fidel Castro has stepped down. Essays from Lisandro Perez ("Predicting Change: The Havana, Miami, and Washington Triangle"), Louis A. Perez, Jr. ("Thinking Historically about Cuba"), Nelson P. Valdes ("Raul Castro, Team Work and the Search for the Spirit of Capablanca"), Miguel Angel Centeno ("Raul's Turn at the Helm"), and Sujatha Fernandes ("Cuba's Changing Leadership and the Dynamics of Civil Society").

(Cover from a set of trading cards distributed in Cuba in the early 1960s along with cans of tinned fruit. You can see José Martí in the clouds in the upper right. The ship is the "Granma," and the fighting is during the Bay of Pigs, 1961)

April 28, 30, May 2: The Peaceful Road to Revolution (Chile)

Reading:

Peter Winn, Weavers of Revolution, Chapter 3-end. Read over the next two weeks.

May 5, 7, 9: State Terrorism and the End of Revolution (Chile)

Finish reading Winn.

YOUR FINAL PROJECT WILL BE A 5-8 PAGE ESSAY (BASED ON PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES) DUE ON THURSDAY, MAY 15. IT MUST BE TURNED IN NO LATER THAN 11AM. INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE GIVEN ON THIS LATER.

Please note that I will not accept the final project after the due date and time unless you have requested an official, signed incomplete in the course.