Course Description
The political, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Latin America from 1776 to the present. Spanish-American revolutions, the Monroe doctrine, United States expansionism, the Pan American system, United States intervention, the Good Neighbor policy, Latin America in the Cold War, and United States and Latin American revolutions.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to write a research paper focused on the historiography of a critical issue in U.S.-Latin American relations.
Athena Title
U.S. AND LATIN AMER
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
Week 1 Antecedents Week 2 Early Pan-Americanism Week 3 The Monroe Doctrine Week 4 The Mexican War Week 5 The Filibusters Week 6 Foreign Interventionism Week 7 Latin America versus itself Week 8 The New Pan-Americanism Week 9 The Big Stick Week 10 Dollar Diplomacy Week 11 The Good Neighbor Week 12 Beginnings of the Cold War Week 13 The Cuban Revolution Week 14 The Rise of the Right Week 15 The Central American Crisis Week 16 The Neo-Liberal Order Week 17 Popular Backlash and the Future of Inter-American Relations
Syllabus