Course Description:

This course will examine the history of California from the 1500s to  the present.  Beginning with the  study of contact and conquest between California Indian peoples and Europeans and Euro-Americans, we will pay special attention to  the role that migration and immigration has played in creating the extraordinary social and cultural diversity of our state.  We will investigate the complex and sometimes violent process of populating, repopulating, and settling this region on the western edge of the American frontier.  We will explore the cultural construction of the  “California Dream” and evaluate how different groups have responded to  its promises of opportunity and social renewal.  Last, we will examine the historical origins of some important issues confronting California today.

Course Requirements:

Assignments include participation in class discussions with occasional written components (35%), two  short (2-pages max) lesson plans (10% each) and three  short (3 pages) essays based on course readings (15% each).  History M.A. students must complete a lengthier research paper (10-12 pages) as a substitute for the lesson plans and one of the essays.  There will be no examinations in this class.  The essay assignments, class discussion topics, and  late paper policy will be distributed separately.  Students who fail to complete all assignments will not receive a passing semester grade.

Regular attendance and class discussions are an important part of the course.   All students are expected to  have completed the reading assignments before each class session and should be prepared to answer questions and participate in class discussions.   Students are expected to sign the attendance  sheet at each class meeting. The course website can be found at http://www.csulb.edu/~quamwick/calhome.html

Required Readings:

Jean François de La Pérouse, Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786
Albert L. Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California
Carey McWilliams, Fool’s Paradise: A Carey McWilliams Reader

Reader:  “4  Documents on Chinese Immigration” and Bret Harte, “Wan Lee: The Pagan”
                George Sanchez, Chapter 2: “Across the Dividing Line,” and Chapter 4: “Americanization and the Mexican Immigrant,” in
                   Becoming Mexican American  (pp. 38-62, 87-107) [R]
                George Lipsitz, “Land of a Thousand Dances: Youth, Minorities, & the Rise of Rock and Roll,” 267-284 [R]
                Elisabeth Orr, “Joy Neugebauer: Purchasing the California Dream in Postwar Suburbia,” 177-191 [R]
                John Findlay, “Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth,” in Magic Lands, 52-116 [R]
                Alida Brill, “Lakewood, California: ‘Tomorrowland’ at 40,” 97-112 [R]

Students who desire additional reference readings may wish to purchase or read one of the following optional textbooks:  Rice, Bullough, & Orsi, The Elusive Eden: A New History of California or Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, eds., Major Problems in California History.

All books are available for purchase in the university bookstore, and are on 3-hour course reserve in the Reserve Book Room of the Main Library (First floor-east).  The course reader [R] is available at CopyPro, 1785 Palo Verde, Long Beach.

Schedule of Lectures, Discussions, and Readings
Week
1                   June 3       Introduction. California: “A Great Exception?”
                                           Multimedia: The “California Mystique”
                                       California’s environment and first people
                                           Discussion group organization

                     June 5      European colonization: Spain’s world empire and immigration to California
                                     Demographic collapse: The consequences of Spain’s mission system
                                            Discussion Group Work: Constructing a California History Timeline
                       Readings:   Pérouse, Life in a California Mission, 3-50, and Hurtado, Intimate Frontiers, xxi-xxix
                                                  Optional: Rice, Elusive Eden, pp. 1-47 or Chan & Olin, Major Problems, pp. 1-39

2                 June 10      Syncretism and cultural change: Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans on la frontera
                                          Discussion 1: Evaluating the Spanish Mission System
                                       Cinematic representations of Mexican California
                       Readings:         Pérouse, 51-111; Hurtado, 1-19        Optional: Rice, 69-109 or Chan, 39-83

                   June 12       Quiet conquest: Mexicanos and Americanos and the Bear Flag Revolt
                                               Legacies of Mexican California  -- Film: Ramona
                                        Discussion Group Work: California History Timeline II
                     Readings:         Hurtado, 21-44; McWilliams, Fool’s Paradise, 3-15
                                                Optional: Rice, 51-68, 111-167 or Chan, 84-109
                                                        Due Date: Essay 1

3                 June 17          Gold!     Film: The Speck of the Future
                                        “A Banishment from Good Society”: California’s mining districts
                                            Discussion Group Work: Constructing a meaningful lesson plan
                      Readings:            Hurtado, 45-113; McWilliams, 79-84

                 June 19            Law and society in frontier California
                                         The Workingmen’s Party and the Asian exclusion movement
                      Readings:            Hurtado, 115-141; McWilliams, 85-97; “Four Documents on Chinese Exclusion” and Harte [R]
                                                     Optional: Rice, 169-227  or  Chan, 110-16, 120-135
                                        Due Date: Lesson Plan 1 -- Teaching the Gold Rush

4               June 24           Two paths of urban development: San Francisco and Los Angeles, 1880-1920
                                          Discussion 2: Reconstructing Turn-of-the-Century Working-Class San Francisco 
                                        Urban California Crisis -- Film: 1906: The Great San Francisco Earthquake
                    Readings:             McWilliams, 17-75; Sanchez, “Across the Dividing Line,”  38-62 [R]
                                                    Optional: Rice, 231-353 or Chan, 131-161, 176-193

                 June 26            A thirsty state: Water, politics, and the environment
                                        Discussion Group Work: An electoral lesson  in “Urban Boss Politics”
                                        Progressive California
                     Readings:         McWilliams, 147-174; Sanchez, “Americanization & the Mexican Immigrant,” 85-107 [R]
                                                    Optional: Rice, 354-377 or Chan, 194-196
                                                Due Date: Essay 2

5               June 30            Depression-era California -- Film: We Have a Plan!
                                            Group Discussion Work: California History Timeline III
                                         The “Okie” migration
                     Readings:         McWilliams, 99-106    Optional: Rice, 379-449 or Chan, 196-297
                                            Due Date: Lesson Plan 2 -- Social Aspects of California Progressivism

                 July 2               Wartime California: “Greater California”
                                           Discussion 3: Japanese-American communities and internment
                                           Postwar California: Suburbia -- The case of Orange County
                     Readings:           McWilliams, 107-144, 175-206; Lipsitz, and Orr, both in [R]
                                                 Optional: Rice, 451-487 or Chan, 298-360

6                 July 8              The politics of postwar immigration -- Cinematic representations of the ethnic “other”
                                           Sunbelt Cities: Civil Rights, Watts, and the King Rebellion
                                              Film: On Strike!  San Francisco State College; excerpts: Watts & Berkeley in the ‘60s
                                           Multimedia: Public Enemy, Burn Hollywood Burn
                                                 Kid Frost, “This is for La Raza”
                                                 NWA, “Straight Outta Compton”
                                                 Ice Cube, “Dead Homiez”
                                           Group Discussion Work: California History Timeline IV
                      Readings:            McWilliams, 209-253; Findlay, 52-116 in [R]
                                                        Optional: Rice, 488-597  or  Chan, 452-489

                 July 10               Mainstream politics, 1960s-1990s
                                           Dystopia and exurbia: L.A. and southern California in the post-Fordist era
                                               Discussion 4: Contemporary issues: California’s many transformations
                        Readings:            Brill, 97-112 [R]
                                                                Due Date: Essay 3
 

EXTRA CREDIT:   Students may earn up to 5 extra credit points by completing one of the following options:  1) complete a comprehensive review of a feature film that depicts some aspect of California’s history or society, or 2) complete a comprehensive review of any California history website.

SEMESTER GRADES:  Semester grades will be calculated as follows:
  A         90-100%
  B         80-89.9%
  C         70-79.9%
  D         60-69.9%
  F          below 60%

WITHDRAWAL POLICY:  It is the student’s responsibility to file the appropriate withdrawal form at the University College and Extension Services (UCES) Office.   Please note the following university deadlines:

 June 13:  Last day to withdraw without receiving a “W” grade; requires a “summer sessions request to withdraw form” from UCES
 June 20:    Last day to request a medical withdrawal from UCES (requires a special form)
 July 3:  Last day to withdraw with a “W” grade (requires instructor's and chairperson's signatures)