Shouldn't we give more coverage to Asia?

================= ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ================= In a word (actually two): absolutely yes. Returning to California and teaching US Ec Hist from a standard text (either Hughes or Walton/Rockoff -- I've used both), I was frankly embarrassed as the teacher to realize that I had almost nothing in there that spoke to the experiences of relevance to over half of my students. I've since expanded my reading list to include both writings on Latin American History, and the influence of the Spaniards on Mexico (here, I focus on property rights institutions, since the contrast of the British system in New England and the encomienda system in "New Spain" makes for a good way of illustrating the role of property rights in economic development, distribution, and so on.) Also the students find it fascinating to learn that much of the East Bay Area was a grant to the Peralta family from the Spanish crown. And I include explicit discussion of the recruitment of Asian laborers for the building of the railroad, as well as the EEH article by Galenson and ____ on the Chinese Six Companies & credit=ticket system. When I have taught the summer school version, enrollment 35-45, I have them write term papers. Maybe 1/4 of them write papers on some aspect of Asian American history. I've learned a lot from those papers, both in terms of references but also in terms of the questions that matter to the students. One question that comes up again and again revolves around the creation of a Chinese community (in this case, in SF particularly). What are the economic reasons that underlie the development of an ethnic enclave? Does this impede or enhance growth in standards of living in that community? What role does discrimination (or expected discrimination) play in establishment of such communities? Good, important questions, that touch on things relevant to many. The same question can be asked not only about the establishment of Chinatown in the late 1800s, but about Black Muslim communities, and about efforts within the gay community to encourage us to support only g/l/b owned businesses. M. =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Martha L. Olney Economics Department, UC Berkeley MOlney@econ.berkeley.edu ============ FOOTER TO ECONHIST.TEACH POSTING ============ * To post a message to this list, send it to ECONHIST.TEACH@cs.muohio.edu. * To get all the messages posted to this list only once a day, send the message "set ECONHIST.TEACH mail digest" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. * To view past posting to this list, look in the directory "List Archive" in the Cliometric Society Server. The address is: cs.muohio.edu. * For more information and instructions, send the message "info ECONHIST.TEACH" to lists@cs.muohio.edu. ==================================================== >