printer friendly pageHISTORY 50C: The United States in the Twentieth Century (AFRICAAM 50C)
(Same as
HISTORY 150C. 50C is 3 units; 150C is 5 units.) 100 years ago, women and most African-Americans couldn't vote; automobiles were rare and computers didn't exist; and the U.S. was a minor power in a world dominated by European empires. This course surveys politics, culture, and social movements to answer the question: How did we get from there to here? Suitable for non-majors and majors alike.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 51B: The End of American Slavery, 1776-1865 (HISTORY 151B)
How did the institution of American slavery come to an end? The story is more complex than most people know. This course examines the rival forces that fostered slavery's simultaneous contraction in the North and expansion in the South between 1776 and 1861. It also illuminates, in detail, the final tortuous path to abolition during the Civil War. Throughout, the course introduces a diverse collection of historical figures, including seemingly paradoxical ones, such as slaveholding southerners who professed opposition to slavery and non-slaveholding northerners who acted in ways that preserved it. Historical attitudes toward race are a central integrative theme.
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 52Q: Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past (EDUC 122Q, POLISCI 20Q)
This January, an armed insurrection assaulted the U.S. Capital, trying to block the Electoral College affirmation of President Biden's election. For the past four years, American democracy has been in continual crisis. Bitter and differing views of what constitutes truth have resulted in a deeply polarized electoral process. The sharp increase in partisanship has crippled our ability as a nation to address and resolve the complex issues facing us. <br><br>There are reasons to hope the current challenges will be overcome and the path of our democracy will be reset on a sound basis. But that will require a shift to constructive--rather than destructive--political conflict. <br><br>This Sophomore Seminar will focus on U.S. democracy and will use a series of case studies of major events in our national history to explore what happened and why to American democracy at key pressure points. This historical exploration will shed light on how the current challenges facing American democracy might best be handled. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center).
Last offered: Spring 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 53S: Black San Francisco (AFRICAAM 53S)
For over a century African-Americans have shaped the contours of San Francisco, a globally recognized metropolis, but their histories remain hidden. While endangered, Black San Francisco is still very much alive, and its history is an inextricable piece of the city's social and cultural fabric. This course aims to uncover the often-overlooked history of African-Americans in the city of San Francisco. The history of Black San Francisco unravels the myth of San Francisco liberalism showing how systemic racial oppression greatly limited the social mobility of non-whites well into the 20th century. Conversely, this course will also highlight the rich cultural and artistic legacies of Black San Franciscans with special attention on their ability to create social. Starting with the small, but influential middle and upper classes of African-Americans, who supported abolitionism from the West in the mid-late nineteenth century, to the rapid growth of the black population during WWII and moving through post-war struggles against the forces of Jim Crow and environmental racism. This course will explore: What is Black San Francisco? How did African-Americans shape the culture and politics of San Francisco, and where does the history of Black San Francisco fit into the broader national historical narrative? Conversely, what is unique about San Francisco and similar black communities in the West? How do we reconstruct the past of people going South to West as opposed to South to North? And finally, as raised in the critically acclaimed 2019 film, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and eluded by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, where does black San Franciscans, go from here?
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 54: The History of Ideas in America, Part I (to 1900) (AMSTUD 54)
(Same as
HISTORY 154. 54 is 3 units; 154 is 5 units.) How Americans considered problems such as slavery, imperialism, and sectionalism. Topics include: the political legacies of revolution; biological ideas of race; the Second Great Awakening; science before Darwin; reform movements and utopianism; the rise of abolitionism and proslavery thought; phrenology and theories of human sexuality; and varieties of feminism. Sources include texts and images.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 54B: The History of Ideas in America, Part II (AMSTUD 54B, AMSTUD 154B, HISTORY 154B)
This course explores intellectual life and culture in the United States during the twentieth century, examining the work and lives of social critics, essayists, artists, scientists, journalists, novelists, and sundry other thinkers. We will look at the life of the mind as a narrative of ongoing yet contested secularization and a series of debates about the meaning and nature of truth, knowing, selfhood, and the American democratic experience. Persistent themes include modernism and anti-modernism, shifts and changes in political liberalism and conservatism, disagreements about the role of the United States in the world, and the importance of distinctions based on race, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 54S: From Stanford to Stone Mountain: U.S. History, Memory, and Monuments (AFRICAAM 54S)
The future of America's memorial landscape is a subject of intense debate. How do societies remember? Who built the nation's monuments and memorials, and to what ends? Can the meaning of a memorial change over time? In this course, we will survey the history of memorialization in the United States, paying close attention to the interplay of race, gender, and nationalism. Case studies include: the political uses of textbooks and memoirs; Civil War memory and the Lost Cause; the re-interpretation of slavery at historic sites; and the renaming movement on Stanford's campus.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 55F: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1830 to 1877 (AFRICAAM 55F, AMSTUD 55F, AMSTUD 155F, HISTORY 155F)
(
History 55F is 3 units;
History 155F is 5 units.)This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War. The Civil War profoundly impacted American life at national, sectional, and constitutional levels, and radically challenged categories of race and citizenship. Topics covered include: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problems and personal experiences; the horrors of total war for individuals and society; and the challenges--social and political--of Reconstruction.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 57S: "Don't Tread on Me!": The Spirit of 1776 in U.S. Politics & Culture, From the Constitution to Jan 6 (AMSTUD 57S)
Are the people responsible for the American Revolution demigods or devils? What did they really believe, and what would they think of the United States today? The answers to these questions have been fraught - yet important - since the Revolution. This course explores the many ways in which the memory of the Revolution has been interpreted, appropriated, and remixed. We will explore the politics of memory, interrogate America's relationship to its founding, and study rhetoric from across the political spectrum - from abolitionists to fascists to Hamilton and beyond.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Depew, J. (PI)
HISTORY 58E: Stanford and Its Worlds: 1885-present (EDUC 147)
The past and future of Stanford University examined through the development of five critical "worlds," including the Western region of the United States, the US nation-state, the global academy, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the complex phenomena summarized by the name Silicon Valley. Students are asked to consider and theorize these worlds, their interrelationships, and the responsibilities they entail for all of us who live and work at Stanford in the present.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-ER
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