History 693A:
U.S. and South Africa
Fall 2007, Wednesday 12:20 - 2:50 pm
Synopsis:
This course focuses on the impact of discontinuous industrialization and agrarian transformation in southern Africa and the southern part of the United States from 1870 to 1945. Unlike previous attempts at a comparative examination of the advent of segregation in these two regions, ours will examine industrialization and agrarian transformation as mutually reinforcing aspects of the same phenomenon, as opposed to discrete experiences with only a coincidental relationship to each other. We will also examine the attempts of Africans and African-Americans to escape painful constraints on their aspirations and physical mobility in the form of various pass laws, restrictive covenants, and sweeping instances of land enclosure. But we will not be unmindful of the national differences that informed the particular character of these unjust measures. We will be especially mindful of these differences insofar as they affected the course of disputes between labor and capital. Hence our emphasis on the state’s role in establishing the tenor of exploitative relationships.
Syllabus: Not available
Course Website: Not available
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