HIST 570, Spring 2000
Fridays, 12:10-2:50
Pullman: Murrow 54
Vancouver: Classroom Building 131
Race in World History
Sue Peabody
Assistant Professor of History
Office: (360) 546-9647
From Pullman: x69647 (free call from campus phones)
Fax: (360) 546-9036
Vancouver office: Library Bldg, 210T
Private correspondance: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
Course discussion: peablist@vancouver.wsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1-2 pm. It is a poorly kept
secret that I am usually in my office 10:00-3:00 and 4:00-5:00 daily,
except: M,W10:35-11:50, and during occasional meetings, so feel free
to call me any time during the day.
Course Description
Although recently under attack by the science of genetics, the
notion that people can be grouped according to physiological and
character traits is ubiquitous in the United States and European
history for at least the past 200 years. Have Westerners always
thought in terms of races, and if not, where did the concept come
from? What institutions have contributed to racial thinking? Is the
habit of categorizing people by race a peculiarly American or Western
phenomenon? If not, how has racial thinking developed in other
societies? This course will examine the origins of racial thinking in
Europe and other societies around the world, as well as the
institutions and social relations that have fostered the notion of
race.
The common readings of this course will focus primarily on the workings of racial ideas outside of the United States, including: Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Latin America, and Japan. By studying the development of racial thought, attitudes and institutions in a wide range of cultures, students will be able to approach race from a comparative transnational perspective. Students of U.S. history may, however, adopt a research focus that compares some aspect of race in the United States with racial thinking of another part of the world.
For the first half of the semester, students will share a common set of readings. Students will be expected to write a 2-3 page review of each weekly reading assignment. Meanwhile, students will compile their own bibliographies on a specific aspect of race in history (such as the manifestations of racial thinking in a particular region (e.g. English and Spanish attitudes toward Native Americans) or a thematic focus [e.g. scientific racism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, Pan-Africanism, apartheid]). At the end of the semester, students will present a summary of their research in class.
History of Race in Science
http://di-145c.mit.edu/racesci/
Making History, Constructing `Race'
Web.uvic.ca/~pahonen/MHCR.html
Books
All books should also be available on reserve on both
campuses.
Required
Hannaford, Ivan. Race: The History of an Idea in the West. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. 0801852234 $19.95
Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. New York : Oxford University Press, 1990. 0195053265 $14.95
William and Mary Quarterly 54:1 (January 1997) "Constructing Race" $10.00. Purchase through: http://www.wm.edu/oieahc/BI.html
Stepan, Nancy Leys. The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell U. Pr., 1992. 0801497957 $15.95
Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 0521398029. $24.95
Dower, John. War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War. New York : Pantheon Books, 1987. 039450030X $22.00
Optional Texts - Only portions will be assigned
Schwartz, Stuart B.ed. Implicit Understandings; Observing, Reporting, & Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans & Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994. 0521458803 $22.95
Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora. Edited by Sidney Lemelle and Robin D.G. Kelley. London: Verso, 1994. $20.00. 0860915859
On WHETS and Teaching
This course will be accessible to both the Vancouver and the
Pullman campuses via WHETS, the televised conferencing system that
links many campuses in Washington state. The course is aimed
primarily at graduate students in history at the Pullman campus
although it may also be attended by graduate students in other
programs (such as American Studies or the M.A. in Public Affairs at
Vancouver) and undergraduates on either campus with permission from
the instructor.
I have taught a similar graduate readings course over WHETS before (a comparative history of slavery course in 1997) that was very successful. Discussions were lively and, in the words of one student, "the scholarship I read on gender/race/class in colonial societies has really aided my thinking for thesis topics and continues to be valuable during my research…." My aim in the classroom is to assist students in designing research projects that will further their own research agendas and to provoke thoughtful, important, and informed discussions on this very vexing historical problem
While the WHETS format is admittedly not as ideal as regular face-to-face contact with a mentor, this does not mean that meaningful mentorship is impossible. I am always accessible by telephone and e-mail and will visit the campus at least twice during the semester.
Writing Assignments and Presentations
· Weekly reviews of reading assignments. Due by e-mail the Thursday before class at 4:00 p.m. at: peablist@vancouver.wsu.edu. Print and read other students' assignments before coming to class. Reviews should address the following questions:
Ø What is the author's main thesis?
Ø What kinds of primary sources does the author use as
evidence? (E.g. letters, diaries, governmental reports, serial
data?)
Ø What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the
work?
Ø How does it relate to other books or articles that we have
read this semester?
· Preliminary Bibliography. List of at least twenty books and articles pertaining to the topic of your choice. Use "Chicago Style" citation (see Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, 6th ed., (1996) chapter 11, style "B." Located in the Reference section of both Holland and Vancouver libraries under the call number: LB2369 .T8 1996. Photocopy chapter 11. Or purchase your own copy through The Bookie.). Due Monday, February 14 by e-mail.
· Student Roundtable. Select one book or set of articles from your research project. Profile this work for the class and be prepared to answer questions about your general topic from students and Professor Peabody. About 15-20 minutes.
· Research Project. Read a minimum of ten scholarly books or articles on the racial topic of your choice. The following questions may be useful as you think about the topic of your project:
Ø How was the idea of race manifest in a particular time
for a particular group of people?
Ø What social institutions contributed to the viability of
racial thought?
Ø Was racial thinking more prevalent amongst a certain class
or other social grouping than another; if so, why?
Ø Who resisted racial thinking, how and why? The final project
can be submitted in any of the following forms:
Ø Annotated bibliography: Summarize the main ideas of each
book or article. (Appropriate for undergraduates or non-History grad
students)
Ø Historiographical Essay: Compare and contrast the approaches
of different historians toward a particular issue. What methods do
they use?
Ø Research Paper: Combines historiography with primary sources
to argue an original thesis.
· Class Presentation. Summarizes the work of your final project.
Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify the instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course. Late notification may cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable. All accommodations must be approved (Pullman students:) through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) in Administration Annex 206, 335-1566 or (Vancouver students:) Wayne Brown, in Student Services, 546-9567.
Assignment Schedule
If you have ANY questions about assignments or any other aspect of the course PLEASE call me or write me. I am just a phone call or e-mail away! 546-9647 or peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
January 14th
Orientation
January 21st
Hannaford, Race: The History of an Idea in the West, xi-184
Peabody to visit Pullman/student conferences on paper topics
January 28th
Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical
Enquiry.
February 4th
Hannaford, Race: The History of an Idea in the West, 187-233
McGiffert, "Editor's Preface," William and Mary Quarterly 54:1
(January 1997): 3-6
Davis, "Constructing Race: A Reflection," William and Mary Quarterly
54:1 (January 1997): 7-18
Braude, "The Sons of Noah and the Construction of Ethnic and
Geographical Identities in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods"
William and Mary Quarterly 54:1 (January 1997): 103-142
February 11th
From: William and Mary Quarterly 54:1 (January 1997):
Vaughan and Vaughan, "Before Othello: Elizabethan Representations of
Sub-Saharan Africans," 19-44
Blackburn, "The Old World Background to Colonial Slavery," 65-102
Sweet, "The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought," 143-166
Morgan, "`Some Could Suckle over their Shoulder': Male Travelers,
Female Bodies, and the Gendering of Racial Ideology, 1500-1770
Monday, February 14th
Preliminary Bibliography Due
February 18th
Hulme, "Tales of Distinction: European Ethnography and the Caribbean"
in Implicit Understandings, 157-197
Chaplin, "Natural Philosophy and an Early Racial Idiom in North
America: Comparing English and Indian Bodies" William and Mary
Quarterly 54:1 (January 1997): 229-252
Kupperman, "Presentment of Civility: English Reading of American
Self-Preservation in the Early Years of Colonization" William and
Mary Quarterly 54:1 (January 1997): 193-228
February 25th
"Part II: Europeans in the Visions of Other Peoples" in Implicit
Understandings, 201-323
March 3rd
Hannaford, Race: The History of an Idea in the West, 235-401
March 10th
Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin
America.
March 17th
Spring Break
March 24th
Student Roundtable: Each student profiles one book or set of articles
from their research project for the class.
March 31st
Burleigh and Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945.
April 7th
Dower, War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War.
April 14th
Tyler Stovall, TBA
April 21st
Imagining Home, selections
April 28th
Class Presentations
Monday, May 1st
Final Project Due