Header image  

Pomona College
History 100G Fall 2013
W 7:00- 9:50 pm, Mason 202

Professor Victor Silverman

 
 

 

The Topic
 

From the European conquest to the current economic crisis, Californians have contended with a series of upheavals often at a great human cost. The effects of these changes have been projected into the future through stories and films as well as more sober predictions. The great transformations of the state have sometimes followed careful plans at other times been chance occurrences. This upper-division reading seminar offers students a chance to learn the current scholarship about this tarnished golden state while gaining insight on how the place has been formed and what yet may come. . .

top

 

Assignments:

Course Requirements and Grading:

 

Attendance and class participation;

20%

Attendance at outside events

5%

In-Class Presentations

15%

Weekly 1 page reaction papers

15%

1 mid-sized paper (1500-2000 words)

15%

1 Longer Paper ( 3000-4000 words)

30%

History Department Grading Standards

 

top

 

The Fine Print:

Class Policies:
Email copies of the papers are due Fridays at 12:00 noon (unless otherwise noted). You must have my permission to turn in a late paper. Late assignments will be docked one full grade for each day they are late. Attendance in class is required.  You are allowed 1 unexcused absence. (mean, ain't he?)

Required Readings: The following books are available at the Bookstore, the reserve desk in the Library and in the History Department library. Additional readings are/will be linked to the syllabus and class web site during the semester.

Double-check the online syllabus and Sakai for updated readings!

top

Books are available for purchase at Huntley and on reserve in the History Department Library and in Honnold.

Lisbeth Haas, Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 1769-1936
Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream
Ruth Gilmore Golden Gulag
Richard Walker, The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California
Robert Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland
Reyner Banham Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies
 

While there is no text book for the class, students may wish to buy one or get one from the library to provide background. I recommend one of the following:
Rice, Bullough, Orsii The Elusive Eden: A New History of California
Cherny, Lemke-Santangelo, Griswold del Castillo Competing Visions: A History of California
Rawls & Bean California an Interpretive History
Additional readings linked to web site and on Sakai
 

top

 

"How to read a book"
David Rumsey Map Collection
NPS, Five Views of California
California Geo Tour
Calpedia Labor History
California History online
Calisphere
LOC, California As I Saw it
Rough and Tumble (news aggregator)
USGS, Recent Earthquakes

top

 
Section 1: Encounter and Conquest

Week 1: 9/4: Introduction and Geography/natural history

Week 2: 9/11: Reading packet 1

Meet at Big Bridges for tour of Native American Artifacts

Week 3: 9/18: Hass,Conquests and Historical Identities

Week 4: 9/25: Reading Packet 2

In-Class Presentations on Paper 1

Week 5 10/2: Begin reading: Starr, Californians and the American Dream


Possible Field Trip to "Never Built Los Angeles" at the Architecture and Design Museum

Section 2: Building California

Week 6: 10/9:Finish Starr and begin: Walker, Conquest of Bread, ch.1-4

Paper 1 due Friday 10/11 at Noon

Week 7: 10/16: Walker, Conquest of Bread, ch. 5-7

 

Week 8: 10/23:Reading Packet 3 (on Sakai)

Meet at Special Collections in Honnold Library
Section 3: Suburban State

Week 9: 10/30: Self, American Babylon

Week 10: 11/6: Banham, Los Angeles

Week 11: 11/13: Gilmore, Golden Gulag

Set up appointments to choose readings for final paper

Week 12: 11/20: TBD

Week 13: 11/27: Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 14: 12/4: Presentations on Paper 2

Week 15: 12/11: Individual meetings

 

Final Paper Due 12/13 at Noon
   
Requirements
Books
Useful Links
Weekly Assignments