History 257-01
Empires
Professor Weisensel
Old Main 307
Office Hours: MWF 3:30-5:00 and by
appointment
Phones:
Office x6570
Home 222-5794
Course Description and Objectives
This
course intends to introduce students to the controversies that have arisen in
the study of empires. To cover our subject the course begins with the era of
the European Renaissance (ca. 1400-1600) and ends with the current
post-colonial era of independent states.
The subjects we will discuss lie at the heart of today's world politics,
and they are filled with emotion and anger. We will try to approach them as
scholars (i.e., without a priori prejudices). We will strive to come to
some tentative conclusions about the strengths and weak points of the
Course Activities and Evaluation
Each
class session we will consider the reading indicated for that day (the readings
must be read for discussion on the day indicated in the syllabus). Other days
we will hear and discuss oral reports and participate in debates. I will
lecture for part of some class sessions when the readings have gaps. In general
class activities will be diverse.
Students
will be evaluated according to the following system:
2 argumentative essays (4-5 pp. each)- 30%
Research paper (12-15 pp., due May 2nd)- 30%
Mid-Term and Final Exams (2 one-hour
exams)- 30%
Quality and frequency of class
participation- 10%
The
most important part of your grade will be the essays and research paper. I
think it is important to understand what I am looking for so that you know how
to approach these assignments. In all of these essays it will be crucial to
have an argument, or a point of view, which your essay will try to get your
reader to accept. Remember that the writer is like a lawyer arguing a case
before a jury (his/her readers); the goal is to convince the jury to agree with
you. The facts or data are important too, but only as evidence to back up your
argument. You will get the facts from readings and lectures. However, a paper
which is just a "fact pit", lacking an argument, will not get a very
good grade, just as a paper which is nothing more than telling what you think,
like a letter to the editor, without evidence to support it, also will not get
a very good grade. I will help you by posing your essay assignment questions as
"problems" which I will explain but which you will solve. Posed that way you should have no trouble presenting a paper which
has an argument.
I
will look for the following key features in your essays:
1.
The introductory paragraph. This will be where you will explain the problem and
where you will tell your readers what you are going to argue. This is the most
important part of the essay and it cannot just float aimlessly.
2.
A thoroughly developed argument. Here in the middle part of your essay you will
thoroughly make your argument. Each paragraph will make a separate point. Each
paragraph will serve the argument of the essay; a paragraph will not be a
dumping ground for "interesting stuff" which you don't know how to
use elsewhere. Evidence from readings, lectures and discussion sessions will be
utilized to back up your points. Here also, you shouldn't overlook anything
important from the class materials that can help you. Needless to say, you will
have to read everything assigned for the essay by the time you write the essay.
Footnotes are not necessary! If, however, you want to quote an author
word-for-word, then cite the source of the quotation in parentheses (...) in
the text immediately after the quote.
3.
A conclusion. Here you may want to summarize your argument. However, the most
important element of the conclusion will be your explanation of the
significance of your findings. For example, how should your findings guide our
thinking in the future? Or, What do your findings tell
us about potentially fruitful lines of inquiry in the future (what should
researchers do next)? etc.
In
the past the following problems have frequently appeared in students' essays:
a.
Essay lacks a clear point/goal/argument. The essay just "talks about"
a subject rather than presents an argument about it.
b.
Essay fails to use the material at hand, especially ideas that could really
help you, suggesting that you didn't understand a book or article, or worse,
that you didn't read it.
c.
Essay is not written clearly for an audience of readers. Writers sometimes
overlook the fact that writing means writing for others to read and understand.
If a writer's syntax, or choice of terms, or organization
is so idiosyncratic that only the writer understands what's going on, the
purpose of writing in the first place is lost. The reader is like a blind man
walking in a lightless tunnel unless you "take his hand" by being
clear and organized.
d.
Presenting an essay that has not been proofread, leaving it full of
misspellings and sloppy and unintelligible syntax.
e.
Essay lacks a conclusion, or has conclusion that does nothing more than summarize the argument.
(Books are available for purchase at
"Ruminator Books," and most are on reserve in the Macalester Library
under our course's name).
David Landes, The
Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Norton paperback);
Robert Marks, The Origins of the
Modern World (Rowman and Littlefield paperback);
David Cannadine,
Ornamentalism (
Edward Said, Orientalism
(Penguin paperback);
R. Lim and David K. Smith, eds., The West in the Wider World. Vol.
2. From Early Modern
Selected chapters and
articles from other books and journals. These will be either handed out in class or will be
available on the Internet at the College's web page under "Course
Folders" and the number of our course, "Hist.
257-01" (indicated in the syllabus as CF).
Jan. 24. Introduction.
Expansion,
1400-1733. And, Does
Jan.
26. Said, “Introduction,” in Orientalism.
Jan.
28. Bernard Lewis, “The Question of Orientalism,” in
Lewis, Islam and the West (1993) (handed out in class).
Week 2. Jan. 31-Feb. 4.
Jan.
31. Landes, Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Chs. 1-2; Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chs. 1-2.
Feb.
2. Landes, Ch. 3-4; Lim and Smith, eds., The West
in the Wider World, documents from Ch. 1(“Two Worlds Collide…”).
Feb.
4. Landes,
Ch. 5-6. Were the Europeans
Racists? Africans in European Art in the Renaissance.
Week 3. Feb. 7-11.
Contraction,
1776-1824. And, Does
Feb.
7. Lim and Smith, eds., The West in the Wider World,
documents from Ch. 2 (“Challenges to Christendom in Reformation Europe”).
Feb.
9. Same continued.
Landes, Chs. 7-8.
Feb.
11. Phase II: Contraction, 1776-1824.
Week 4. Feb. 14-18.
Contraction,
1776-1824 (continued).
Feb.
14. Phase II: Contraction (continued).
Essay
#1 due in class.
The
European Enlightenment: Question of the Origins of European Racial Prejudice.
Feb.
16. De Waal Malefijt, "The Proper Study of Mankind is Man,"
in De Waal Malefijt, Images
of Man, Ch. 5. (CF)
Feb.
18. The Enlightenment and Its Implications. Discussion
of:
Lim
and Smith, eds., The West in the Wider World, documents from Ch. 5
(“Rethinking the World: The Enlightenment”).
Week 5. Feb. 21-25.
Racism
and the European Enlightenment (continued).
Feb. 21. The Enlightenment and Its
Implications (continued). Discussion of:
George
Stocking, "French Anthropology in 1800," in Stocking, Race,
Culture and Evolution. Essays in the History of
Expansion,
1824-1912. Industrial Revolution and the New Colonial Age.
Feb.
23. Phase III: Expansion, 1824-1912.
Feb.
25. Phase III: 1824-1912 (continued). Read Marks, Origins of
the Modern World, Ch. 4 (compare with Landes from
Feb. 25).
Week 6. Feb. 28-Mar. 4.
Industrial
Revolution and the New Colonial Age (continued).
Feb.
28. The European Industrial Revolution and Rationalism: Was it a “Slam-Dunk” at
Home? Discussion of: Lim and Smith, eds., The
West in the Wider
Running the Empires. Collaborators.
Mar.
2. Discussion of Osterhammel, Colonialism, Chs. II, V; and
Crowder, “The White
Chiefs of Tropical Africa,” in Gann and Duignan,
eds., Colonialism in
Running the Empires (continued). Race and Segregation in Empires.
Mar. 4. Discussion of Ballhatchet, “On the Margins of Social Distance,” in Ballhatchet, Race, Sex and Class under the Raj. (CF).
Week 7. Mar. 7-11.
Race
and Segregation in Empire (continued).
Mar.
7. Discussion of: Kennedy, “Securing Social Norms,” in Kennedy, Islands of
White (1987). (CF).
Mar.
9. Discussion of Cannadine, Ornamentalism,
Preface, Chs. 1-4.
Mar
11. Discussion of Cannadine, Ornamentalism , Chs. 5-9.
Week 8. Mar. 14-18.
Mar. 14.Discussion of Cannadine, Chs. 10-end.
Mar.
16. Mid-Term Exam.
Economics of Empire.
Mar.
18. Film: “The Life of Brian” (Monty Python)
Week 9. Mid-Term Break.
Week 10. Mar. 28-Apr. 1.
Economics of Empire.
Mar.
28. Second Essay Due In Class; Phase IV: Unstable Equilibrium,
1914-1939.
Mar.
30. Phase IV (continued); Lenin, “Imperialism, the Highest
Stage of Capitalism (excerpts),” in Howe, ed., Documents from the History of
Socialism. (CF); Landes,
Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Ch. 13-15.
Week 11. Apr. 4-8.
Economics
of Empire (continued).
Apr.
4. Pham Cao Duong, Vietnamese Peasants Under French Domination (excerpts); Elson, “Peasant
Poverty and Prosperity under the Cultivation System,” in Booth, O’Malley and Weidemann, eds, Indonesian
Economic History in the Dutch Colonial Era (both CF).
Culture
of Empire
Apr.
6. Read Edward
Said, Orientalism, 113-200 (start); Film
"Sanders of the River" (1935). Time TBA.
Apr.
8. Read Said, Orientalism, 113-200
(finish).Film “Four Feathers” (1938). Time TBA.
Week 12. Apr. 11-15.
Powerlessness? The Subaltern
Studies Group.
Apr. 11. Introduction
to the Subaltern Studies Group. Read
Apr.
13. Read: Chakrabarty, “Trade Unions in a Hierarchial Culture. The Jute Workers of
Apr.
15. The Morality of Empire.
Week 13. Apr. 18-22.
The Post Colonial World. How Much Has Changed?
Apr.
18. Colonial Contraction. 1945-1980. Read: Said, Orientalism, Ch. 3 (“Orientalism
Now”), 201-328 (start).
Apr.
18. Colonial Contraction (continued). Read Said, 201-328 (finish).
Apr.
20. Read Landes, Wealth and Poverty of Nations,
Chs. 26-29;
Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped
Africa (excerpts)
(CF); Onimode, Imperialism and
Underdevelopment in Nigeria (excerpts) (CF)
Apr.
22.
Week 14. Apr. 25-29.
Post
Colonial World (continued).
Apr.
25. Read: Fieldhouse, “Arrested Development in
Anglophone Black
Apr.
27. Read Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld,” Atlantic
Monthly (March, 1992). CF
Apr.
29. Read
Week 15. May 2-3.
May
2 Research Paper due in class. .
Exam Period.
Final Exam. Time TBA.