New Course Addendum
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Course
Prefix/Number:
Programmatic
Objectives Related
to this Course:
Student Learning
Outcomes:
General Outline of
Course Content:
Methods of Student
Assessment (e.g.
type, number,
percent):
HIST 3630
Course Title:
History of Modern Latin America
Courses in the Department of History emphasize the following Programmatic Objectives:
1. Historical Knowledge: covering a range of historical information relevant to modern Latin
American history, focusing on the complex issue of historical causation.
2. Historical Thinking: emphasizing the complex nature of the past, appreciating the
diversity of situations, events, and past mentalities, and how change occurs over time.
3. Historical Skills: development of critical thinking, reading, and writing skills when it
comes to interpreting modern Latin American history.
This course will impart historical knowledge on students regarding the struggle for independence
of early Latin American republics, the major political, economic, and social changes that took
place in these countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the region’s interaction
with the rest of the world, and how historical developments contributed to Latin America’s
current situation in the twenty-first century. Furthermore this course will help to develop
students’ ability to think historically, recognizing and appreciating how Latin Americans have
existed, acted, and thought in the context of the modern period. Thoughtful reading and analysis
of primary source materials, paired with class lectures and discussions will help to sharpen this
ability. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this course will work to develop students’
historical skills in terms of critical thinking and writing. An analytical research paper, with an
emphasis on primary source research, will require students to demonstrate their capacity to
engage in historical argumentation of a major theme or aspect of Latin American history during
the nineteenth or twentieth century in an appropriate and valid fashion.
This course follows a thematic outline that, for the most part, is also chronological. Case studies
will be examined as particular nations or regions dealt with particular themes of the modern
period.
1. Wars for Independence in the nineteenth century
2. Nation building and political disorder, 1820s-1870s
3. Political oligarchies and economic growth, 1870s-1920s
4. Populism and economic development, 1930s-1950s
5. Ideological Extremism and Cold War Latin America, 1960s-1970s
6. Neoliberalism, 1980s-2000s
7. Contemporary Latin America
Assignments:
Two (2) Content Quizzes (10% each, 20% total)
Two (2) Exams (Midterm, Final) (30% each, 60% total)
One (1) Research Paper (20% total)
Grade Scale:
A 100-94%
C 76-73%
A- 93-90%
C- 72-70%
B+ 89-87%
D+ 69-67%
B 86-83%
D 66-63%
B- 82-80%
D- 62-60%
C+ 79-77%
F 59-0%
Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources (London:
Routledge, 2010).
-orSkidmore, Thomas E., et al. Modern Latin America, 7th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010).
Possible Text
(or other materials):
Secondary Readings:
Beezley, William H. Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico (Lincoln, NE:
University of Nebraska Press, 2004).
Schlesinger, Stephen, et al. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala
(Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, 1999).
Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, 2nd Edition (New York:
Verso, 2010).
Appropriate and relevant primary source documents to be included.
Other Information:
Areas in bold are required.