HIST F342/H521 Prof. Michael Snodgrass
Fall 2003 Office: Ca 503S 278-7761
Cavanaugh 221 Office hours: M,W 11-12
M 5:45-8:25 E-mail: misnodgr@iupui.edu
LATIN AMERICA: EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION
Course description and objectives:
This course explores the major developments that have shaped the lives of Latin Americans since they declared their independence from European colonial rule in the early 1800s. We focus primarily on four countries - Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico - whose histories exemplify the experience of all twenty Latin American nations. Many of the issues covered will be familiar to students of United States history: the challenge of forging European colonies into stable, unified, and truly democratic republics; the experiences of Native Americans in nations ruled largely by European-Americans; and the nature and consequences of slavery and immigration.
Yet the entrenched legacies bequeathed by three centuries of Spanish and Portuguese rule also distinguish Latin America’s history from that of the USA or Canada. Those distinctions include Latin America’s economic dependency on commodity exports and foreign capital investment, the unique power of the Catholic Church, the political activism of the military, and a legacy of white minority rule in lands of great racial diversity and economic inequality. Those distinctions made Latin Americans’ quest for sustained economic development, for racial and social equality, and for genuine democracy more elusive than in North America. And as many Latin Americans would tell their North American friends, their region’s history has been further complicated by their ambivalent relation to their powerful neighbor to the North. Thus the history of US-Latin American relations will necessarily be a key issue covered in this course.
Consistent with IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning, this course is designed to develop student skills of critical and comparative analysis, improve writing proficiency, and enhance one’s capacity to organize and express his or her thoughts. Students will sharpen these skills by writing short essays, engaging in classroom discussions and constructive debate, and preparing for examinations.
Required readings:
* Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Evita: The Real Life of Evita Peron (l980)
* Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (l973)
* Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, editor, I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (l983)
* Articles posted at the IUPUI Library’s Electronic Reserves system (ERROL). (To access these readings, go to the website at http://errol.iupui.edu, go to Snodgrass under instructor, click on our class F342 and then enter the password HISTF342 to open the documents.)
This syllabus, class announcements, weekly lecture outlines, assignments, and grades will be posted to the Oncourse system (https://oncourse.iupui.edu/). Students unfamiliar with Oncourse may find a “Getting Help” guide at the website or come to the professor for assistance.
Course requirements and grading (based upon 1,000 total points):
Two exams (250 points each) = 400 points
Two essays (200 points each) = 400 points (assignments to provided in class)
Class participation = 100 points
Critical reading analyses (4H25 points) = 100 points*
* Students will prepare four brief (1-2 pages) analyses of that week’s readings based upon questions and/or issues provided by the professor in advance and posted to the Oncourse system (under the SCHEDULE tab). Students may choose to write these thought pieces on any eight of the readings indicated in the course schedule by an asterisk (*).
History graduate students enrolled in H521 will research and write a 15-20 page historiography essay in lieu of the two examinations. Guidelines and due dates will be provided in class.
Final grade scores: A (1,000-930), A- (929-900), B+ (899-880), B (879-830), B- (829-800), C+ (799-780), C (779-730), C- (729-700), D (699-600), F (599 or less).
Remember...
* Persistent absenteeism results in lower grades. Students must make prior arrangements with the professor if extraordinary circumstances cause them to miss any exams. Otherwise no makeups will be given except in documented cases of emergencies.
* All late assignments will be penalized as follows: 1/3 grade for assignments not turned in on due date (B to B-), one full grade for first week late (B to C), two full grades thereafter (B to D).
* Be sure to save all papers on your hard drive and a diskette and retain all copies of graded work until final grades are posted.
* Plagiarism and cheating will be punished in accordance with university policy, as outlined in the Indiana University Academic Handbook (p.123) and the IUPUI Campus Bulletin, 2000-2002 (p.36). The following is from the School of Liberal Arts official statement on plagiarism:
“Plagiarism is the use of the work of others without properly crediting the actual source of the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, entire articles, music or pictures. Using other students’ work (with or without their permission) is still plagiarism if you don’t indicate who initially did the work. Plagiarism, a form of cheating, is a serious offense and will be severely punished. When an instructor suspects plagiarism, he/she will inform the student of the charge; the student has the right to respond to the allegations. Students whose work appears to be plagiarized may be asked to produce earlier drafts of work or all the books/articles used in a paper or speech. Students should, for this reason and as a protection in cases of lost papers, retain rough drafts, notes, computer files and other work products for three weeks after the end of each semester. The penalties for plagiarism include reprimands, being failed for a particular take-home exam, paper, project or the entire course, disciplinary probation, or dismissal. Faculty, after consulting with their chair and/or the School of Liberal Arts Dean of Students must notify students in writing of their decision. Students have the right to appeal such decisions by submitting petitions to the Academic Affairs Committee. Petitions can be obtained in CA 401. For further information, see ‘Code of Student Ethics,’ available in CA 401.”
COURSE SCHEDULE
Aug. 25 From Colonies to Republics, 1492-1820s
Sep. 1 Labor Day Holiday
Sep. 8 The Legacies of Colonialism, 1820s-1870s
Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America, ix-133*
Sep. 15 Latin America’s Era of Order and Progress
Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America, 134-204*
Sep. 22 Immigrants in Argentina
ERROL #1-#4: Excerpts from The Argentine Reader, Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo, editors: a) “General Introduction,” pp. 1-13; b) Sarmiento, “Civilization or Barbarism?” pp. 80-90; c) Alberdi, “Immigration as a Means of Progress,” pp. 95-101; d) Sola, “Making it in America,” pp. l88-92
Sep. 29 Slavery and Abolition in Brazil
ERROL #5-#6: Thomas Skidmore, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change, xiii-xiv, 52-88
Oct. 6 Cuban Independence and US Interventionism in Latin America
ERROL #7-#8: a) Ben Keen, “Cuba Under Spanish Rule,” pp.424-32; b) Louis Perez, Jr., The War of 1898, pp.108-33*
Oct. 13 Examination #1
Oct. 20 The Mexican Revolution
ERROL #9: Frank Tannenbaum, “The Revolution: l910-46"
Oct. 27 Peronism in Argentina
Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Evita
Essay #1 due today
Nov. 3 Populism in Brazil
ERROL #10: Joel Wolfe, “‘Father of the Poor’ or ‘Mother of the Rich’”?*
Nov. 10 Cuban Revolution
ERROL #11-#13: a) Fidel Castro, “History Will Absolve Me”; b) Castro, “The Duty of a Revolutionary,” c) Alma Guillermoprieto, “The Harsh Angel”*
Nov. 17 The Cold War in Central America
Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu
Essay #2 due today
Nov. 24 Argentina’s Dirty War
ERROL #14: Tina Rosenberg, “The Good Sailor”*
Dec. 1 Dictatorship and Democracy in Brazil
Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America, 205-85*
Dec. 8 The Environmental Costs of Development
ERROL #l5-#l7: Joel Simon, Endangered Mexico, 157-204, 236-50*
De. 15 Examination #2