History 355H - The Caribbean

Fall
2017
01
4.00
Julio Capo
TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
UMass Amherst
32518
This honors course surveys the cultural, social, economic and political history of the Caribbean from the late fifteenth century to the present. It focuses on the Greater Antilles (i.e., Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will explore key historical moments in the region to better understand how the peoples of the Caribbean negotiated concepts of sovereignty, labor, economic independence, and self-determination. Topics include conquest and settlement, colonialism, slavery, independence, paternalism, informal and formal imperialism, Pan-Americanism, Pan-Africanism, caudillismo, political and social revolution, and neo-liberalism. Students will also learn about some of the major thinkers and political actors engaged with these debates, such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Jose Antonio Aponte, Samuel Sharpe, Jose Marti, Frederick Douglass, Ramon Emeterio Betances, Evangelina Cisneros, Isabel Gonzalez, Marcus Garvey, Rafael Trujillo, Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier. (Gen. Ed. HS, G)
This course is open to Senior, Junior, and Sophmore Commonwealth College students only. This reading and writing intensive class requires both independent research and active in-class participation.
Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.