HIST 5960 3.0: Social History of Commodities
(Winter 2016, Tuesdays, 11:30-2:30)—
draft syllabus, feel free to send suggestions!
Professor Gillian McGillivray ([email protected])
This seminar will explore the growing body of scholarship on the demand for sugar, cotton,
tobacco, coffee, cocoa, banana, and yams (for the birth control pill) in North America and
Europe, as well as the literature on the production of these commodities in Latin America
(especially Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Honduras but with a
comparative look at the United States, Costa Rica and other places). We will consider
studies on demand, production, and chains by European and U.S. anthropologists and
historians like Sidney Mintz and Steven Topik, and we will compare the communities and
nations that produced and consumed commodities (and the changing nature of the studies
about this production and consumption—from a focus on class, race, and gender, to
increased attention to environment and globalization). You are free to choose any
commodity—in the time and place of your choosing—for your research paper and
presentation. We will visit the Redpath sugar museum in downtown Toronto at one point
during the semester.
The main question driving the course (alongside consideration of how historians and
anthropologists have changed their approaches to the study of commodities over time) is:
What was the comparative economic, social, political and environmental impact of sugar
versus cotton, tobacco, cassava, coffee, bananas, or yams on the societies producing them?
In answering this question, we will zero in on the experience of workers, peasants, and
nation-states, keeping in mind where each “link” fits into the global commodity chain.
Evaluation
5 written questions to serve as discussion base for weekly seminars : 35%
Oral presentation on you research (presentations begin after reading week) : 10%
Research paper (due March 7) : 20%
Comparative analysis using course readings to address the question above (due April 11):
35%
Schedule and Readings
1. Jan. 10. METHODOLOGY / COFFEE & SUGAR & GLOBAL CHAINS
Topik, Steven C. “Coffee Anyone? Recent Research on Latin American Coffee Societies,”
Hispanic American Historical Review 80: 2 (200), 225-266
Topik, Steven, et. al. “Introduction,” From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity
Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000. Duke UP, 2006.
Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New
York: Penguin Books, 1986
2. Jan. 17. COTTON
Beckert, Sven. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
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3. Jan. 24. SUGAR, TOBACCO, CASSAVA
Barickman, B.J. A Bahian Counterpoint: Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Slavery in the
Recôncavo, 1780-1860. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998
Watch “Black Gold” (accessible through York Library) for next week
4. Jan. 31. COFFEE (19th c.)
Stein, Stanley J. Vassouras, a Brazilian coffee county, 1850-1900. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1957
Pereira de Melo, Hildete, “15. Coffee and Development of the Rio de Janeiro Economy,
1888-1920,” in The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia and Latin America, 1500-1989,
ed. Clarence-Smith, W. G. and Topik, Steven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003.
5. Feb. 7. COFFEE (20th c.)
Roseberry, William, et. al. Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1995
Introduction (Roseberry)
Jiménez, Michael F. “From plantation to cup: coffee and capitalism in the United
States, 1830-1930”
Gudmundson, Lowell. “Peasant, farmer, proletarian: class formation in a smallholder
coffee economy, 1850-1950”
Kutschbach, Mario Samper. “In difficult times: Colombian and Costa Rican coffee
growers from prosperity to crisis, 1920-1936”
Font, Mauricio A. “Labor system and collective action in a coffee export sector: São
Paulo”
Stolcke, Verena. “The Labors of Coffee in Latin America: the hidden charm of family
labor and self-provisioning”
Topik, Steven, et. al. From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the
Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000. Duke UP, 2006.
Chapter 5. The Latin American coffee commodity chain: Brazil and Costa Rica
(Topik and Samper)
The global coffee economy in Africa, Asia and Latin America, 1500-1989, ed. ClarenceSmith, W. G. and Topik, Steven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Dore, Elizabeth. “9. Patriarchy from Above, Patriarchy from Below: Debt Peonage on
Nicaraguan Coffee Estates, 1870-1930”
Charlip, Julie. “10. Small Farmers and Coffee in Nicaragua”
Watch the film “Gabriela” for next week
6. Feb. 14. CACAO
Mahony, Mary Ann. “7. The Local and the Global: Internal and External Factors in the
Development of Bahia’s Cacao Sector,” in From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American
Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000. Duke UP,
2006, 174-203.
Clarence-Smith, William Gervase, ed. Cocoa Pioneer Fronts since 1800: The Role of
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Smallholders, Planters and Merchants. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Chapter
1. Cocoa Pioneer Fronts: Clarence-Smith and Ruf; Chapter 2. Venezuela:
Vallenilla; Chapter 4. Ecuador. Maiguashca; Chapter 5. Bahia: Greenhill.
7. Feb 28. BANANAS (FARMERS/ STATE-FORMATION) or
(DEMAND/PRODUCTION WORKERS/ENVIRONMENT)
LeGrand, Catherine. Frontier expansion and peasant protest in Colombia, 1850-1936.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
Soluri, John. Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in
Honduras and the United States. Austin: University of Texas press, 2006. (see also
Marquardt, Steve. “Pesticides, Parakeets, and Unions in the Costa Rican Banana Industry,
1938-1962,” Latin American Research Review 37, 2 (2002): 3-36.
Feb. 21 Reading Week: Finish Research Paper
8. March 7. SUGAR (WORKERS/ RETURN TO THE BAHIAN RECONCÂVO
Fraga, Walter. Crossroads of Freedom: Slaves and Freed People in Bahia, Brazil 18701910. Translated by Mary Ann Mahony. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.
HAND IN RESEARCH PAPER
9. March 14. SUGAR (WORKERS/ ENVIRONMENT)
Rogers, Thomas. The Deepest Wounds: A Land and Environmental History of Sugar in
Northeast Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Scott, Rebecca. “Defining the Boundaries of Freedom in the World of Cane: Cuba, Brazil,
and Louisiana after Emancipation,” American Historical Review, 99, 1 (Feb. 1994): 70-102
LeGrand, Catherine. “Informal Resistance on a [Canadian-]Dominican Sugar Plantation
during the Trujillo Dictatorship,” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 4
(Nov., 1995), pp. 555-596
10. March 21.SUGAR (WORKERS/ STATE-FORMATION)
Turits, Richard. Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity
in Dominican History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
11. March 28. SUGAR (PEASANTS/ STATE-FORMATION/ MEXICO)
McCormick, Gladys I. The Logic of Compromise in Mexico: How the Countryside Was
Key to the Emergence of Authoritarianism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 2016.
(optional: Oscar Chamosa, Donna Guy, or Patricia Juarez Dappe on Argentina)
12. April 4. THE PILL (WILD YAM/ STATE-FORMATION/ MEXICO)
Laveaga, Gabriela Soto. Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and
the Making of the Pill. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.
April 11: Hand in final paper reflecting on overall question, incorporating course readings
(and, if desired, some of your research—but main goal is to work with common
readings).ity
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