Application for Pathways to Knowledge, Social, Cultural and historical Understanding Designation
History 142 (California History)
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Date of Application: 9-28-12
Name/Department of Proposer: Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, History
Name of Department Housing Course: History
Name of Chair: Myrna Santiago
How Often is the Course Taught: every year
Course Prerequisites: None
Unit Value of Course: 1
Normal Class Size: 25
Number of Sections Expected Fall 2013: 0
Number of Sections Expected Spring of 2014: 1
Is the course appropriate for first year students : no, but it is appropriate for sophomores
Relevant learning goals: Social, Cultural and Historical understanding
Chair will oversee submission of student work: yes
Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming/asst.: yes
Teaching: Learning Outcome #1 Social, Cultural and Historical Understanding courses is to
“examine human activity from a . . . historical perspective.” Through lectures, discussions,
readings, films, debates, and group presentations students explore California history from
30,000 BCE to the present. Beginning with the state’s first people, Spanish colonization, and the
Mexican period, we move on to discuss the transition to Anglo rule, the Gold Rush, statehood,
the Gilded age, the Progressive Era, the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War Two, postwar
prosperity, the major social movements of the sixties and seventies, the economic and
environmental constraints of the “era of limits,” and the state in the new millennium. Three
major themes highlight continuity over time and provide a common, unifying thread for the
course. The first, California and its relationship to its region, nation, and the world, places
California within a national and often global context, demonstrating how the state’s political,
demographic, cultural and economic landscape has always been influenced by external forces.
The second is ethnic, class and gender diversity. As we move through time, we examine class,
gender, and ethnic diversity in Spanish and Mexican California, nativism and racism during the
transition to Anglo rule and the Gold Rush, the state’s early African American population,
Chinese immigration, the impact of Anglo settlement on Indian communities, class and racial
conflict during the Gilded Age, the role of gender and class in Progressive Era reform, Japanese,
Filipino and Mexican immigration in the early 20th century, the Dust Bowl migration and
Depression era labor protests, shifting gender roles and black migration during World War II,
postwar movements for social change (civil rights, black power, Native American, Chicano, and
Asian activism, farm worker struggles, gay and lesbian liberation, feminism, and disability rights),
and the experience of more recent immigrant groups. The final theme, relating to the second, is
competing visions of the “California Dream.” Since at least 1769, Californians have been at odds
over the allocation of economic, cultural, and political power. The dream, synonymous with
opportunity, not only placed individuals and groups in competition, but also carried different
meanings for different people. Class readings, films, debates, role playing exercises, discussions,
and lectures not only examine this rich, complex human history, they explore it from multiple
perspectives. In keeping with Learning Outcome #2 students tackle multiple and conflicting
interpretations of the past, analyze events within their period-appropriate context, and employ
the concepts of causation, contingency, and agency to historical issues and problems. They then
use this knowledge (along with additional resources that they have collected and interpreted) to
create a profile of one of the state’s recent immigrant communities, and to write a history of
their hometown. Both of these assignments, involving active involvement in reconstructing
individual and collective experience, satisfy Learning Outcome #3.
16. Learning: Social, Cultural and Historical learning goals are assessed in several ways. The essay
exam asks students to indentify the four most significant turning points/transitions in California
history, establishing “significance” on the basis of the greatest impact on the greatest number of
state residents. If, for example, they choose World War II, they must include discussion of
shifting gender roles, black migration and activism, racial discrimination in defense industry,
Japanese relocation and internment, the Bracero Program, Mexican American migration to
urban defense centers, the Sleepy Lagoon case, the Zoot Suit riots, growing acceptance of Dust
Bowl migrants (via hysteria over the influx of racialized “others”), economic opportunities for
poor and working class residents, and the wartime origins of postwar civil rights struggles. This
not only entails examining human experience in historical perspective and from multiple
standpoints, it entails accurate periodization, and proper attribution of causation, contingency
and agency. Their group project, a forty-five minute presentation on one of California’s recent
immigrant communities, requires that they address how, when, and why each group arrived,
and provide an overview of population distribution, economic, political and cultural
contributions, barriers to full equality (including immigration status, discrimination in housing,
employment and education, and negative images/stereotypes), and significant
institutions/organizations, and community leaders. A final research paper, focusing on the
history of their hometown, requires that they investigate their own community’s history of
human settlement (beginning with the first Californians), class and ethnic composition, major
resources and industries, and the people, institutions, landmarks, etc. that make it unique. Both
the group project and final paper involve collecting and analyzing primary and secondary
sources, and using that evidence to advance their own historical interpretations
17. Syllabus:
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo
Galileo 310
glemke@stmarys-ca.edu
Office hours: MWF 7:00-8:00; 15:15-11:15; 1:00-3:00
And by appointment
History 142
MWF 11:30-12:30
History of California
Disability Policy
Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, that take into account the context of the course and its
essential elements, for individuals with qualifying disabilities, are extended through the office of Student
Disability Services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Services
Coordinator at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss accommodation guidelines
and available services.
Academic Honesty Policy
Any work that a student undertakes as part of the progress toward a degree or certification must be the
student’s own, unless the instructor specifies otherwise. That work may include examinations, whether
written or oral, oral presentations, laboratory exercises, papers, reports and other written assignments. In
written work other than examinations, students must clearly indicate the sources of information, ideas,
opinions and quotations that are not their own. Under the Academic Honor Code, a student takes
responsibility for the correctness and authenticity of all work submitted by that student. Detailed regulations
concerning the Academic Honor Code and the penalties for breach of academic honesty are published in full
in the Student Handbook. Each student is held responsible for being acquainted with these regulations.
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the key aspects of social diversity (e.g., race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
ability, age and political identification) as they relate to California history
2. Articulate how these categories have shaped the state’s cultural, political, economic, and social
institutions, affected individuals and communities, and informed contestations over resources
and the very meaning of the “California Dream”
3. Demonstrate geographical literacy (ability to identify natural and human-constructed
boundaries)
4. Identify the major events/transitions/turning points in California history, and place them in
proper, chronological order
5. Integrate your knowledge of the above—along with primary and secondary sources—into a
history of your own community
6. Locate primary and secondary sources on a specific ethnic group, and use this evidence to
construct a profile that you will present to the class
Readings
Lemke-Santangelo, Competing Visions
Course Reader
Grading
Class Participation and Attendance
25%
Essay Exam
25%
Group Project
25%
Research Paper
25%
Schedule of Readings and Discussions
M, Aug. 29
W, Aug. 31
F, Sept. 2
W, Sept. 7
F, Sept. 9
M, Sept., 12
W, Sept. 14
F, Sept. 16
M, Sept. 19
W, Sept. 21
F, Sept. 23
M, Sept. 26
W, Sept. 28
F, Sept. 30
M, Oct. 3
W, Oct. 5
F, Oct. 7
Course Introduction
California’s Natural Setting
Reader: Rangelands; California’s Geologic Past; Wildlife in Transition; Changing Face of
the San Joaquin Valley
First People
Competing Visions: 1-28; Reader: Native World Views; Native Cultivators; Aboriginal
Fishers; Indian Lands
Exploration and Conquest
Competing Visions: 29-60; Reader: Intrusion
Spanish California and the First People
Reader: Mission Life; Brutal Appetites
Mexican California
Competing Visions: 61-91; Reader: Aftermath
Debate: Mission Life vs. Secularization
War, Conquest and Gold
Competing Visions: 92-123; Reader: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
War, Conquest and Gold
Reader: Destruction of the California Indian; Federal Agent Assesses Mining’s Impact on
the Indians; Mining’s Impact on the Land
Ethnic Diversity and Conflict in Anglo California
Competing Visions: 124-158; Reader: Conquest and Gold; American California
Film: Ishi
California in the Gilded Age
Competing Visions: 159-193; Reader: New Struggles in the Gilded Age
Progressive California
Competing Visions: 194-230
Progressive California
Reader: New Black Pride and Pressure Groups
New Cultural and Economic Developments
Competing Visions: 235-247
California and the Great Depression
Competing Visions: 247-265; Reader: Upton Sinclair
California and the Great Depression
Reader: Dust Bowl Legacies
M, Oct. 10
W, Oct. 12
M, Oct. 17
W, Oct. 19
F. Oct. 21
M, Oct. 24
W, Oct. 26
F, Oct. 28
M, Oct. 31
W, Nov. 2
F, Nov. 4
M, Nov. 7
W, Nov. 9
F, Nov. 9
M, Nov. 14
W, Nov. 16
F, Nov. 18
M, Nov. 21
M, Nov. 28
W, Nov. 30
F, Dec. 2
M, Dec. 5
W, Dec. 7
F, Dec. 9
Film Clips: Grapes of Wrath
Reader: Grapes of Wrath selections
Discussion/analysis
Group Project Update; Bibliographies Due
World War II and the Great Transformation
Competing Visions: 266-300
Gender and Race on the Home Front
Film: Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
Postwar California: Economic Expansion and Political Liberalism
Competing Visions: 301-336
Postwar California: Race, Gender, and Class in an Era of Prosperity
Decade of Discontent
Competing Visions: 337-372
Decade of Discontent
Reader: Watts Manifesto; Chavez and the United Farmworkers
Decade of Discontent
Reader: Black Panther Party Platform; Alcatraz Proclamation; Chicano Militancy; Asian
American Activism; Mario Savio
Era of Limits
Competing Visions: 373-391
Era of Limits
Competing Visions: 392-408
California Enters the New Century
Competing Visions: 409-448
Exams due and discussed
Group Presentation: Native Americans
Group Presentation: Mexican Americans
Group Presentation: Filipino Americans
Group Presentation: Chinese Americans
Group Presentation: Vietnamese Americans
Group Presentation: El Salvadoran, and Guatemalan Americans
Group Presentation: South Asian Indian Americans
Group Presentation: Korean Americans
Group Presentation: Iranian Americans
Home Town Papers Due
Group Projects
Beginning on Wednesday, November 16 we will focus on the experience of California’s largest
recent immigrant communities (with the exception of California Indians). Working in teams of two or
three, you will research a specific group and share your findings with the entire class. In your
presentations, please include the following information: how, when and why each group arrived in
California, and an historical overview of population distribution; economic, political, and cultural
contributions; barriers to full equality (immigration status, discrimination in housing, education,
employment, etc.); organized resistance to discrimination; significant institutions and organizations; and
influential community leaders. Feel free to enhance your oral presentations with handouts, visual aids,
cultural artifacts, and sound recordings. Your presentation should run for forty-five minutes, allowing
fifteen minutes for questions and discussion.
Research Paper: Your Home Town
For this assignment you must research and write about your own community, describing its natural
setting and resources, history of human settlement and development, class and ethnic composition, and
the people, institutions, landmarks, etc. that make it unique and special. Your paper should be 10-15
pages in length (typed and double-spaced), and based on a minimum of five print (book or extended
journal article) sources. You may also include oral sources. Footnotes or endnotes, and a complete
bibliography must be attached to your paper. If you grew up outside of California, you may choose to
write about one of our local, bay area communities. This assignment is due in class on Friday, December
9. I will not accept late papers.