ETHNIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
HISTORY 270 (3 units)
Section 1 (M/W 5:30 - 6:45)
Room CEC-203

WELCOME!!!!!

What is the importance of race and ethnicity in American history? Why do some people refer to themselves as Chinese Americans or Italian Americans, while others say they are simply "American"? Is it important that some refer to themselves as "black" or white"? What about biracial children? Why do issues such as affirmative action and multiculturalism create so much controversy? What caused the L.A. Riots?

Through multi-media lectures, readings, group activities, and non-print media (film, images, music), this course will survey the history and current conditions of a range of ethnic and racial groups in the United States, examining the distinctive features and contributions of different ethnic groups and cultures, as well as the range of variations in relations between ethnic groups and in their particular perspective on the institutions of the wider society. The history of issues interconnecting race, class, and politics are addressed to provide greater context for understanding various current issues in ethnic and race relations.

Required Texts

The following additional materials (arranged by assignment) are on reserve in the library.

Attendance Policy

-- Regular attendance and punctuality is required.  Each tardiness will constitute a reduction of 1 point in attendance grade.  More than one absence will constitute a reduction of 2 points for each additional absence.

General Class Policies

1. Cell phones and beepers must be turned off in the classroom.
2. Any student who feels he/she may qualify for accommodation for any type of disability, please make an appointment to see me or call Ruth Proctor at the Learning Center.
3. Save this syllabus as evidence for transfer to a four-year institution.
4. Class participation and COMPLETING THE ASSIGNED READING by the beginning of each topic are essential to passing this course.
5. ***Plagiarism/cheating will be treated as automatic failures for the course and offenders will be referred to the Dean of Academic Affairs.***

Dates to Remember

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1

1/30
Overview:  An Introduction to United States Ethnic History
        Readings: Takaki, Ch 1; Schlesinger, pp. 9-49

Week 2

2/4
Definitions
First Contact:  White Perceptions of the "Other"
        Readings:  Takaki, Chs 2, 3

Week 3

2/11, 2/13
Broken Promises: Indian Removal and Reorganization
The Origins of Slavery
        Readings:   Takaki, Chs 4, 9

Week 4

2/18
HOLIDAY

2/20
African Americans and the Peculiar Institution
        Readings:  Takaki, Ch 5; Levine, "Slave Songs and Slave Consciousness"

Week 5

2/25
Up From Slavery:  Race and Segregation in the Post-Civil War Era
        Readings:  Takaki, Ch 13

2/27
MIDTERM #1

Week 6

3/4, 3/6
Mexicans in America
Race and American Imperialism
        Readings:  Takaki, Ch 7; Handouts

Week 7

3/11, 3/13
European Immigration and the Ambiguities of the American Dream
        Readings:  Takaki, Chs 6, 11

Week 8

3/25 - 4/1    SPRING BREAK
        READ:  THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET (entire)

Week 9

4/1
HOLIDAY

4/3
El Norte:  Latino Immigration to the United States
        Readings:  Takaki, Ch 12; Cisneros (entire); Handouts

4/3 - SHORT PAPER ON CISNEROS DUE

Week 10

4/8
World War II
        Readings:  Takaki, pp. 373-428

4/10
MIDTERM #2

Week 11

4/15, 4/17
Civil Rights
The New-New Immigration
        Readings: King/Malcolm X Readings; Jacklyn Fierman, "Is Immigration Hurting the U.S.?"; George Bojas, "Tired, Poor, on Welfare"

Week 12

4/22, 4/24
Asian/Pacific Americans and the Model Minority Myth
Transplanted Heritage and Generational Change within Ethnic America
        Readings:  Okihiro, "Perils of the Body and Mind"

Week 13

4/29, 5/1
Can We All Get Along? Los Angeles as a Case Study
Changing Faces: Interracial Unions and the Census
        Readings:  Rieff, pp. 114-167; Cooper and Goldin, "Some People Don't Count"; Davis, "Las Vegas"

Week 14

5/6, 5/8
Racial Intolerance in Modern Society
        FILM:  American History X
        Readings:  Schlesinger, Chs 2, 3

Week 15

5/13, 5/15
Politics, Race, and Ethnicity:  The Disuniting of America?
        Readings:  Schlesinger, Chs 4, 5, Epilogue

5/14 -- PAPER DUE (Tuesday)

FINAL EXAM -- Monday, May 20, 4:00-6:00

Suggested Readings in American Ethnic and Racial History

African American

Taylor Branch, Parting the Water: America in the King Years, 1954-1963
Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963--65
John Dittmer, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi
Alex Haley, Malcolm X
Winthrop Jordon, White Over Black
Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness
Edmund Morgan, American Slavery-American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
Joel Williamson, A Rage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation

Asian American
John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy, 1850-1990
Jean Wakatsuki Houston, Farewell to Manzanar
Yuji Ichioka, The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924
Joann Lee, Asian Americans
Gary Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture
Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans

Immigration
John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration and Patriotism in the 20th C.
Peter Brimelow, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster
Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life
Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted (about immigrant struggles)
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860-1925
Reed Ueda, Postwar Immigrant America: A Social History
Virginia Yans-Mclaughlin, Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics

Los Angeles
Mike Davis, City of Quartz
David Rieff, Los Angeles: Capital of the Third World
Edward Chang and Russell Leong, Los Angeles - Struggles Toward Multiethnic Community

Latino American
Antonio Darder and Rodolfo Torres, The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy, and Society
Douglas Monroy, Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles From the Great Migration to the Great Depression
G. Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano L.A. 1900-1945

White Culture/ White Racism

Tomas Almaguer, Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California
Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism
Nancy MacLean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan
David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of The American Working Class
Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in 19th Century America

General
Richard Polenberg, One Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the U.S. Since 1938
Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan, Beyond the Melting Pot
R. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
Michael Omni and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States
Jill Quadagno, The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty
Ronald Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America
William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy