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| Instructor: Richard Walker email: walker@berkeley.edu office phone: 642-3901 office: 599 McCone Hall office hours: W 3-4, TH1-2, sign up on door |
Class Location: 105 North Gate Class Time: TuTh 2-3:30 Course control number: 36457 Units: 4 |
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| GSI: Heidi Kong email: hhkong@berkeley.edu office phone: office: McCone office hours: GSI: Gerardo Arellano email: gnarella@lycos.com office phone: office: McCone office hours: GSI: Theresa Krebs email: tkrebs@nature.berkeley.edu office phone: office: McCone office hours: |
Discussion Sections:
All sections meet in 135 McCone
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Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. |
| Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:30, 105 North Gate Hall. Attendance is required: lectures are where the principal themes of the course are introduced. No reading, chatting, sleeping or note-passing, please! (I will ask you to stop) I base exams heavily on lectures, so be there or beware. Sections: begin Week 2. Sections are required in the same sense as lectures: you are expected to attend and to participate (GSIs know who comes and who doesn't). Their purpose is to answer questions, review reading material, review lectures, answer questions, and view films and slides. Nine one-hour section meetings will be available each week (see schedule above). You should sign up, in class, for whichever best suits your schedule. Section signup can be altered in class; see the TAs. Examinations: Midterm and Final exams (Midterm around the 8th week). Your choice of in-class or take-home exams -- a low-anxiety system where you can take the exam or walk out and do the take-home within 48 hours. Same exam, different curves. Exams cover lecture and reading material. Grading: Final 60%, midterm 30%, section 10% of course grade. Readings: Readings are an essential complement to lectures and sections, going over the same ground but also amplifying ideas, filling out the picture and providing more empirical evidence. You are expected to follow along with the lecture schedule . Almaguer, Tomas. 1994. Racial Fault Lines: Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. UC Press. Brechin, Gray. 1999. Imperial San Francisco: Worldly Power, Earthly Ruin. UC Press. Davis, Mike. 1998. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. Metropolitan Press. Davis, Mike. 2000. Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent US Cities. Verso Press. Mitchell, Don. 1996. The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape. U of Minnesota Press. Davis, Clark and David Igler, eds. 2002. The Human Tradition in California. Scholarly Resources. Books will be available in paperback at ASUC, Ned's, Amazon.com, Alibris.com, etc And on two-hour reserve at Moffit Library. There may be used copies of some available. |
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I. DANCING ON THE BRINK OF THE WORLD: FROM CONQUEST TO DIVERSITY
Here we take up California's place in the world, its role as a global crossroads, and the collision of peoples. The first three lectures look at 'the bad old days' of Euro-American conquest and white supremacy. Not a pretty picture, and California was deeply colored by that legacy. But California has also risen above its basest instincts to be a beacon for the world, and place of great opportunity and now one of the most humanly diverse places on earth. Where does that leave us today? A truly multicultural democracy or still a largely White Republic?
1. (1/22) When Worlds Collide: The Age of European Conquest California comes into modern history as a stepchild of the European empires -- Spanish, English, and Russian -- seeking furs, subjects, and converts. To this was added the new 'American' nation, the United States, and its continental empire, driven by European immigration, Manifest Destiny, gold and silver, and access to the Pacific Ocean. Chinese join the fray in the Gold Rush. California is North America writ small: born from the collision of continents, creating something new in world history. 2. (1/24) Westward the Course of Empire: California in the Age of White Supremacy California also comes into the modern world dripping with blood, as the Europeans decimate the native peoples, push aside the Mexicans, and suppress the Chinese. This ugly side of expansion comes with a rampant ideology of White Supremacy over the conquered, dark races (often including those from the margins of Europe. This kind of blatant racism came to an end not so very long ago, with the intra-European World Wars, the fall of Nazism, and the US Civil Rights movement.
3. (1/28) California Freedom? Faultlines of the White Republic The other side of the Euro-American coin was the forging of a 'white' identity among a polyglot group of European immigrants from nations who had long disliked or disparaged one another. California plays a significant role in the national drama of creating a White Republic, and in subsequent waves of acceptance and refusal of other races -- from the Chinese Exclusion Act to the Civil Rights era, from Japanese internment to Proposition 187. ). Californians did not invent racial thinking, but they gave it a few new twists, like IQ tests & eugenics & a walled border. 4. (1/30) California Dreaming: Golden Hopes, Global Impact California has been a place of economic opportunity and fantasies of a new life since the Gold Rush. The California dream has not just been a national myth but a worldwide obsession, fed by visions of Gold Mountain, western novels, the Mission Story, Hollywood movies, aeronautics, and Silicon Valley, among other things. California has served up more than images: its armaments, machines, business models, capital and consumer goodies continue to flow around the world. California has gone from outpost of the world to a major world center of economics and politics.
5. (2/4) Crossroads of the World: Open Arms, Up in Arms The most striking result of California's engagement with the world is its fabulous mix of people, who have poured into the state from all corners of the globe. California has been a permanent state of flux, but mostly remarkably perhaps in the recent past thanks to its prominence in the US and global economy and the reopening of US immigration after 1965. Despite strident efforts to shut off the tap, California -- and the US -- will never be the same. 6. (2/6) Race Today: Multiculturalism or Racism Lite? So here we are, at the end of the day, a great boiling pot of peoples of all races, nationalities, ethnicities, colors, religions, and cultures -- call it what you will, the human babel in all its glory. What is to become of us all? Have we conquered racism and learned to live together in harmony and respect? Diversity and multiculturalism are good slogans, but are they the same as tolerance, respect, equality, and, ultimately, unity under democracy? II. THE ENDLESS GOLD RUSH: LAND, ECONOMY & REGIONS In this section, we explore the natural riches of California, and how they have been used to generate instant wealth, economic development, and environmental devastation. Perhaps no place on earth has been exploited so successfully -- and mercilessly. We will get a sense of how nature and humanity have combined to shape and reshape the regions within this large state. At the same time, we’ll find that California’s greatest natural resource has always been human labor and creativity -- the contributions and exploitation of labor of many origins.
7. (2/11) Gold Rush San Francisco: The Growth of the Bay Area and Northern California Northern California moves to the front of the historical stage with the Gold Rush, and stays there through the next half century of San Francisco's preeminence in the western US and the Pacific. 'The City' sucks wealth and sustenance from every corner of the land, and uses and abuses Indian and Chinese labor as needs be. Yet the mining era lays the basis for California's great future properity, as the economy diversifies and settlement spreads into the agricultural valleys and to Southern California. 8. (2/13) Black Gold, the Silver Screen & Aluminum Wings: Los Angeles Grabs the Golden Goose LA surges to the forefront with the discovery of oil, the arrival of the movie industry, and the take-off of aeronautics in the early 20th century. The great tides of migration flow into Southern California, and a new imaginary of sunshine, starlets and surf comes into play. But beneath the sunny exterior, LA's prosperity also rests uneasily on Mexican labor and an exploitation of nature as striking as SF's.
(2/18) Guest Lecture: Gray Brechin, PhD, Geography, UC Berkeley 9. (2/20) Factories in the Fields: California's Inland Empire of Agribusiness California agribusiness was the most advanced in the world for about a century, though the model has spread to many other places by now. Agriculture was the main road to development in the interior after mining, and still dominates in the San Joaquin, Imperial and Salinas Valleys. California agribusiness combines horticultural diversity with advanced business organization, technology and marketing, as well as some appalling working conditions for largely immigrant laborers. Today, agriculture has taken a back seat to housing and high tech, and the interior regions are being rapidly urbanized.
10. (2/25) Techno Gold: Coastal California Astride the New Economy Today's California, from Silicon Valley and the SF Dot-Coms to Orange County and San Diego, is best known as the High-Tech capital of the world, and the heart of the so-called New Economy of venture capital, business start-ups, IPOs, and flexible labor supplies. It continues many of the best conditions of the past, like open opportunity and creativity, but carries on with some of the other traditions of high exploitation of ordinary labor of many colors. 11. (2/27) The Mountainous Rim: Rivers, Forests, & Recreation California mined its back country for more than gold. The Sierra Nevada and the far North are best known for the extraction of timber and metals, and the diversion of great rivers to the south. Less known is the role of Basin and Range and the Desert, which yielded silver, borax, phosphate and more. Today, the mountains, forests and deserts are best loved for recreation, from skiing to gambling. The Coast and Ranges nearer the cities have been heavily exploited as well, giving of timber, quicksilver, furs, and today's parks and trails. But who enjoys the leisure, who does the work in the backcountry? (3/4) Midterm Review (3/6) MIDTERM EXAMINATION III. THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE: DIVERSITY, DANGER AND DEVASTATION In this section we take a tour through the physical geography of California -- a far cry from the racial and economic questions that have occupied us to this point. Or so it might seem. Yet nature is more than backdrop in this place; it set the table for the economy of plunder on which we have all depended, and sets the stage for the regional differences we continue to play out. More than this, it is where we enact our dreams and disasters, and sometimes a reference point for our relations to each other. 12. (3/11) An Island Called California: Topography and Hydrology California is a unique province of North America, set off by mountains and deserts from the restof the continent. It is also a dynamic land, rocking up against the Pacific plate: volcanic, twisted, and crumpled. California complex geology holds the secret of its mineral wealth. Its mountains cut the state into several provinces. They also catch the clouds and feed the rivers that cut them down to size, fill the Valleys with soil, and supply the underground acquifers that make this a place of abundant water for the most part. 13. (3/13) An Island Called California: Climate and Biology California is one of only five Mediterranean climate zones in the world, resting on the border between the rainy Northwest and the arid Southwest. The regime of winter rains and summer drought gives rise to distinctively adapted plant and animal communities. The great range of topographic features and rainfall regimes only magnifies the diversity of biota, and any transect from east to west or north to south will yield a dozen different zones and hundreds of species.
14. (3/18) Unruly Nature & Normal Disasters: Making Peace with California Geography The exceptional in to be expected when it comes to California's natural phenomena, from earthquakes and landslides to floods and droughts. So are the wide disparities in rain, sun and snow. Somehow, humans are never ready for the natural variations that make this such a rich and astonishing place. We build our cities and our dreams without regard to nature's hazards, then awake in shock to the disasters we invite. We blame nature and try to bring it to heel. This is more than innocence: the legacy of conquest continues, and with it the same ecology of fear that is next of kin to race and war panics. 15. (3/20) Devouring a Golden State: Making War on California Geography Great economic success, vast cities, and huge population have come at a cost. California has some of the most dramatically altered landscapes on earth. It began with mine wastes and clearcut forests, continued with vast irrigation and drainage schemes, and sucking resources into the great cities. It has spread endless pavement and hardscapes across the fields and hillsides, and now consumes wholesale the coasts, foothills and mountains for urban recreation and second homes. All to say nothing of the fouling of the air and waters, and wholesale replacement of ecosystems. Who bears the cost? (3/25 - 27) Spring Break (4/1) Guest Lecture - TBA
16. (4/3) Greener Pastures: Saving California The curious thing about California's rapciousness is that it created its opposite, the world's first mass environmental movement. Conservation ideology arrived here early and grew into a major part of the state’s identity. Environmentalists have saved the Bay, Coast, forests and streams, remnant species, and parklands around our cities. California's greens have exported their ideas around the world. But aren't Greens really just Whites? Today’s environmental rallying cries are Smart Growth, Organic Food and Habitat Restoration – but do these speak to people of color equally? IV. COSMOPOLIS: THE SPACE OF URBANITY In this part of the course, we look at the most critical sites of human interaction and self-government: the city. California is one of the most urbanized places on earth, with some of the most sprawling cities. While cities bring us together as Californians and make us 'cosmopolitan', they also leave us widely separated -- even segregated -- into unequal and mutually incomprehending little worlds. Our big cities have changed over time and changed us in the process – for better, one hopes.
17. (4/8) California Reinvents the City: The Exploding Metropolis The most all-consuming landscape of modern California are the urban regions. This has always been an urban state, but the cities have exploded across the coastal plains and far into the interior. These are no longer walkable cities like old San Francisco, no longer suburban fringes like the old San Fernando valley, but sprawling metropolises -- with many centers, high density, and far-flung exurbs. They are powered not just by population growth, but by vibrant economies and vigorous real estate development -- both subject to wild swings and intense speculation that threatens many residents and communities. 18. (4/10) Urban Realms: Cities and Internal Borders California's cities are immensely diverse, but also highly segregated into distant and often mutually incomprehending communities. Some of this is due to ethnic affinity, some to workplace links and class divisions, and some to racial hostility. Our governments, schools and welfare rest to a large degree on this geographic differentiation, which is by no means equal, just or democratic. Sometimes it has proved explosive in urban rebellions. Yet the urban mosaic can be immensely useful to those who inhabit it and exciting to those bold enough to cross its invisible borders. And as fluid as it is vibrant.
19. (4/15) San Francisco: Cosmopolitan Center of the Left Coast San Francisco did a remarkable about-face from ragged mining town to cosmopolitan center noted for its tolerance, beauty, and liberality. This came about through long struggles of the working class for a place at the table in the early 20th century, and through a postwar explosion of countercultures and political activism by Beats, Hippies, Gays and Lesbians, and immigrants, among others. Oakland and Berkeley played counterpoint to SF's themes, from a different class, race and political base. That legacy is in jeopardy today, as the Bay Area finds itself isolated from the national mainstream, and becomes richer and less accessible to (and tolerant of) the poor and deviant. 20. (4/17) Los Angeles: Capital of the 20th Century LA long had a reputation as a callow city of glamour, suburbs and sunshine, but little substance -- and less tolerance for racial minorities, bohemians or the left. Orange County was even worse. The LA Times, LAPD and the war industries ruled the roost for decades, and the city exploded in the Watts Riots. But SoCal's astounding growth could not fail to overwhelm provincialism, and LA was catapaulted to global prominence as an industrial, technical, and cultural center. It also drew more immigrants than anywhere else, becoming synonomous with the new multiculturalism and globalism -- and the densest city in America, as well. But is all well in this monster of a city?
21. (4/22) Silicon Valley: Do You Know the Way to San Jose? Who thinks of Silicon Valley except as a technology center, the greatest electronics and IT cluster on earth? Certainly no one thinks of it in the same breath as San Francisco and LA as cosmopolitan cities (like San Diego, it's always the lesser cousin). Yet Silicon Valley has undergone a transformation not unlike LA's, from suburbia to multicultural center -- or part way. It still suffers from a split geographic personality, a sub-urban outlook, an unorganized working class, splintered racial communities, and political quiescence, and has never quite lived up to its civic potential. V. GOVERNING CALIFORNIA: POLITICS OF DISUNITY AND DISTRESS California's political impact on the country, and the world, has been immense, especially in recent years. Yet we Californians take remarkably little interest in how we are governed (compared to how our sports teams fare, for example). Why is this? And if we are badly governed or undemocratically represented, what does it imply for the possibilities for racial harmony and the commonweal? Government and politics are crucial to how we come together as a people, or fall apart. 22. (4/24) The Machinery of Government: Lessons in Political Economy We Californians take little interest in our stateand local governments, except as they promote economic growth and stay out of the way. This is a deeply American prejudice, in which the government is the problem and private riches are the solution. As a result, we are blissfully ignorant about what government does, how it is organized and how it is financed. A closer look will help us explain the permanent fiscal crisis of the state and local governments, why the legislature is not to blame, and why governors come and go without changing very much – including the latest, Arnold Schwarzennegger.
23. (4/29) Who Shall Govern? A New California of the Same Old Faces Californians have long had a distrust of politicians and love of quick solutions, from Propositions to Governators. Our party system has always been weak, the influence of money and media strong. The result has been relatively little mass political input -- despite our claims to be the great land of government by and for the people. Also, despite mass migration of people of color, a White minority continues to dominate the electorate, as it dominates the economy and civic leadership. In reaction, many immigrants have become citizens and some have become angry enough to begin organizing for political representation and change. Is Arnie the result? 24. (5/1) Revanchist Policies: Crimes of Poverty, Race and the State The Democrats broke through to power after World War II after a century of Republican dominance. California modernized state government, built up its infrastructure, and entered the Civil Rights and Free Speech eras. But the leftward tilt of the Sixties resulted in a fierce counterrevolution from the New Right, centered in SoCal and led by Ronald Reagan (and Nixon). The Conservative Republicans emphasized law & order, cutting taxes and government, and setting the market free. Enter the age of Neo-Liberalism, in which the rich pay little in taxes and the state goes bankrupt, and the Carceral State of California that imprisons more of its (poor, dark) people than anyplace else on earth. |