Department of History                                                                          Prof. Jane Rausch

University of Massachusetts-Amherst                                                 Herter 721: Tel: 545-6763

Spring, 2005                                                                                          jrausch@history.umass.edu

 

 

HISTORY 697Q:  CARIBBEAN HISTORY:  NEW APPROACHES: OLD DEBATES

 

History 697Q is an advanced reading and discussion course in the historiography of the Caribbean from pre-Columbian times to the present.  Since the 1960s Latin Americanists have adopted a variety of methodologies, theories and techniques to examine old and new topics concerning this complex region.  Although we will consider the region as a whole, our focus will be on Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.  We will be emphasizing recent, representative texts, monographs and essays but placing them in the context of earlier research.  Our purpose is to survey this extensive bibliography, to learn about current directions in methodology, and to identify areas of potential future study.

 

Course Organization

 

This course is organized to highlight common themes/debates in the history of our four countries in a quasi-chronological order.  Assigned reading for each week will usually include a monograph and some short essays pertinent to the topic.  We will take turns reading the discussions.  Two short essays will be due throughout the semester comparing theme and or historical approaches of the required reading.  In addition each student will choose one topic to explore in depth.  He/she will review several key works on this topic and write either a ten-page historiographical essay or a research proposal for a potential seminar topic.

 

Evaluation:

Course grades will be determined as follows:  30% class discussion: 30% short papers; 40% historiographic essay/research proposal.

 

Books

The following books can be purchased at the Textbook Annex.  U-Mass copies have been placed on reserve.  Copies are also available from the other Five College libraries.

 

Franklin W. Knight, The Caribbean. 2nd ed.  New York: Oxford, 1990.

Frank Moya Pons.  The Dominican Republic: A National History. Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1995.

David Nicholls.  From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti.

          New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, 1996.

Louis A. Pérez Jr. Winds of Change:  Hurricanes and the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba.

            Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

______. The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. Chapel Hill:

            University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

William D. Phillips, Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.  New York:

            Cambridge University Press, 1992.

César J. Ayala. American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish Caribbean,

            1898-1934.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

C.L.R. James.  The Black Jacobins. 2nd ed.  New York, 1963.

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez.  Women in San Juan 1820-1868. Princeton: Markus Wiener, 2001.

Mary. A. Renda.  Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940.

            Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Catherine Moses.  Real Life in Castro’s Cuba. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tentative Syllabus

 

1st Week          Feb. 1             Introduction and Organizational Meeting: Is the Caribbean a “Region”?

                                                Franklin Knight, The Caribbean  2nd ed  (New York, 1990), pp. xii-xvi.

            Stephen Randall, and Graeme S. Mount, The Caribbean Basin: an

            International History (London, 1998), 1-10.

            Parry, Sherlock and Maingot, A Short History of the West Indies.

                                                            4th ed. (New York, 1987), ix-xiv.

                                                Aaron Segal, “The Caribbean: Small is Scary,” Current History 90:554

                                                            (March, 1991), 105-138.

 

2nd  Week        Feb. 8             Pre-Columbian Peoples of the Caribbean

                                                Knight, 3-26; Moya Pons 1-27

                                                David Henige, “On the Contact Population of Hispaniola: History as

                                                            Higher Mathematics,” HAHR 58:2 (May 1978)217-237.

                                                R.A. Zambardino, “Critique of David Henige’s “On the Contact Population”

                                                            HAHR 58:4 (Nov. 1978) 709-712.

Mucaro Borrero, “Rethinking Taino: A Taíno Perspective,” in                                                          Haslip-Viera, ed. Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on

Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics ,139-160.

Sauer, The Early Spanish Main, 196-217

                                               

3rd  Week        Feb. 15           Columbus and the Spanish Conquest

                                                William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher

                                                            Columbus, 1992

                                                Knight, 27-65.

Moya Pons, “The Early Spanish Rule (1492-1606),” 29-50.

 

Other:  John Noble Wilford, The Mysterious History of Columbus

                                                            Lewis Hanke:  The Spanish Struggle for Justice

Alfred W. Crosby, Jr.  The Colombian Exchange: Biological and Cultural

                                                            Consequences of 1492.  Westport, CT, 1972.

 

  Feb. 21  First Paper Due: Review of Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus

 

4th Week          Feb. 22           What has been the impact of the environment on Caribbean History?

                                                Louis Perez, Winds of Change: Hurricanes and the Transformation of

                                                            Nineteenth-Century Cuba (Chapel Hill, 2001.)

                                                Stuart B. Schwartz, “The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics,

                                                            and Society in Puerto Rico, 1899-1901,” HAHR 72:3 (August 1992):

                                                             303-334.

                                                Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (New York, 1947),

                                                            excerpts.  Reprint.

 

5th Week          March 1          The Sugar Revolution and Slavery           

                                                César J. Ayala,  American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the

                                                            Caribbean. 1898-1934

                                                Knight, pp. 88-158.

                                                Nicholls, pp. l-27

6th Week          March 8          Wars of Independence        

                                                C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins

                                                Knight, 119-221; Moya Pons, 91-116; Nicholls, 1-66                                                                        

                                                Other: George Tyson, Toussaint  L’Ouverture 

                                                            Thomas O. Ott, The Haitian Revolution 1789-1804

 

Second Paper due March 11: Comparison of Pérez and Ayala

 

Spring Vacation

 

7th Week          March 22        Race, Gender and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century

                                                            Matos Rodriguez, Women in San Juan

                                                            Moya Pons, 143-164

                                                            Nicholls, 67-141

 

8th Week          March 29        The Cuban-Spanish-American War

                                                            Perez, The War of 1898

                                                            Duvan C. Corbitt, “Cuban Revisionist Interpretations of Cuba’s

                                                            Struggle  for Independence,” HAHA 32*Aug. 1963): 395-404.

                                                            Other:  John M. Kirk.  Martí, Mentor of the Cuban Nation. Tampa,

                                                            1983.

                                                           

9th Week          April 5             Assessing the Era of U.S. Intervention:

                                                            Renda, Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S.

                                                               Imperialism, 1915-1940

Moya Pons, 321-339

                                                            Nicholls, l42-164

                                                            Other:  John J. Johnson. Latin America in Caricature. Austin, 1980.

                        Choose Paper Topics.

10th Week        April 12           Dictators vs Democratic Rule

                                                            Nicholls, 165-238

                                                            Moya Pons, 357-380

                                                            Other: Richard Lee Turits.  The Foundations of Despotism: Peasants,

                                                                        The Trujjllo Region, and Modernity in Dominican History. Sanford,

                                                                        2003.

                                                                        James Ferguson. Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers.

                                                                        New York, 1987.

                                                                        Jonathan Hartlyn, The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the

                                                                        Dominican Republic. Chapel Hill,1998.

11th Week        April 19           Assessing the Cuban Revolution

                                                            Moses, Real Life in Castro’s Cuba

                                                            Knight, 227-256

                                                            Other: Marifeli Pérez-Stable. The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course

                                                                        and Legacy.  New York, 1993.

                                                                        Lois M. Smith and Alfred Padula. Sex and Revolution: Women in

                                                                        Socialist Cuba.  New York, 1996.

 

12th Week        April 26           Aristide and Lavalas in Haiti

                                                            Nicholls, 239-255; xi-xxxix

 

13th Week        May 3              Presentation of Papers

 

14th Week        May 10            Presentation of Papers

                                                Summary and conclusions