Today was Professor Leon Litwack’s last lecture in his undergraduate American history class (History 7B: US History from the Civil War to the Present). Litwack has taught the course for nearly 40 years, educating around 30,000 Berkeley undergraduates. The ten minutes or so of standing ovation he received at the end of the lecture was a testament to the esteem not only in which his current students hold him but also how he is regarded by the many former students and colleagues who came from around the country to attend.

Several weeks ago Professor Litwack delivered his “Ideal Last Lecture” which was part of his Golden Apple Award. That honor was presented by Berkeley students. His “Ideal Last Lecture” is Webcast unlike (unfortunately) his actual last lecture.

The general theme of his lecture was “fight the power” and he spent the hour talking about race and class in the contemporary, post-Civil Rights Movement United States. His argument was that economics and discrimination based upon class has supplanted Jim Crow and overt racial discrimination. He began the lecture with an anecdote from Elliott Jaspin’s Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America about a town in Georgia that manages through a variety of practices to keep out blacks. Legal equality means little in the face of economic and social reality.

Professor Litwack cited a litany of statistics and examples to show that black Americans are disproportionately hurt by poverty. Particularly resonant with me was what he mentioned about the educational system in the United States. During the 1960s and 1970s the goal was public school integration, that is, to get blacks into schools with whites. Since the 1980s, Professor Litwack argued, the goal has been to keep them there while simultaneously middle class whites have “fled” to suburbs and increasingly to private schools. Statistically, schools remain racially stratified, and it is only the form of segregation that has changed.

There were quite a few meaningful and interesting points in the lecture. My only complaint was that the cumulative effect was to leave the audience with a sense of the world getting worse, or at least not getting any better. I suppose it is not the job of a historian to tell us what to do or how to change the present, but I could not help wishing that he had another hour to tell us ways that we could positively impact the depressing trends he laid out for us.

The closest he came to that sort of call to action was the suggestion throughout the lecture that America as a nation needs to own up to its history of slavery and racial discrimination. Education, of course, takes us part of the way to achieving that. Professor Litwack’s committment not only to his scholarship but also to his teaching of so many undergraduates has done so much more than any of the rest of us.

Despite my academic interest in British history, the lecture inspires me to read two recent books about racism in the United States:

The “History in the Movies” presentation at Cal Day today was a huge success. The room was packed, and although some people came and went throughout the two hours attendance was at least 250.

Professor Hollinger began the event with an introduction about the department and he noted in particular the recent teaching awards received by faculty (Professor Einhorn, 2006-2007 Graduate Division Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs; Professor Noreña, 2006-2007 Distinguished Teaching Award for the Division of Social Science; and Professor Taylor, 2006-2007 Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award given by the Berkeley Graduate Assembly). He emphasized the fact that the department is not only one of the top three in the country in terms of scholarship and research but also that it fosters excellent undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Professor Brady’s discussion of The Wind That Shakes the Barley came next. He played four different clips from the film. Only one of them was even remotely lighthearted and Brady reported that this clip contained the only humorous moment in the entire film. Two of the other clips depicted brutal violence. One showed the “Black and Tans” harassing a group of Irish and killing one of the men in front of his family. Another one showed how the British oppression of the Irish begat more violence as several IRA members execute two of their friends and family members for betraying the cause. The final clip from the film depicted a local debate about the peace treaty with Britain and the question of partitioning the north and south. The film seemed powerful and evocative. Even from only four clips it was evident that the film fairly effectively presents the terrible nature of the conflict between the British and Irish.

Professor Mackil followed with her discussion of 300. Just as readily as she noted the inaccuracies in many of the depictions, she seemed to admire some of the visual artistry of the film as well as the graphic novel upon which it is based. One of the major historical problems with the film that she pointed out was the fact that it emphasized the heroism of the Spartans at the expense of the larger Greek alliance that was the real force that defeated the Persian invasion.

Professor Yeh presented her thoughts on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon next. She thought the film was trash insofar as it did not accurately depict much of anything about Chinese culture and society during the period. It does say something about the way that the Chinese diaspora exists at the time the film was made because of the fact that the four main characters and the director came from disparate Chinese communities.

Professor Brilliant on Unforgiven.

Professor Laqueur on Amazing Grace.

Tomorrow is Cal Day, UC Berkeley’s Open House, and I am busy preparing the technical aspects of the History Department’s presentation. The theme this year (like last year) is “History in the Movies.” Professors will be discussing the historical underpinnings of different films, what the historical truth behind them is and what is made up by Hollywood. I’ve been busy assembling the clips that they want to show as well as making sure that the PowerPoint files they’ve prepared will work.

The technical problem I’ve dealt with is how best to combine five separate presentations, each with film clips, into a unified show that is seamless for the audience (and the multiple presenters). I decided not to rely on DVDs for the film clips, so then I had to find out how to create MPEG or MOV clips from DVDs (some copy-protected). Some clips I managed to download from the films’ websites. The next challenge was whether to combine all these video clips into a single presentation file, or be constantly double-clicking files, or be swapping laptops. Micro$oft PowerPoint completely choked on c. 500 MB total of video files in a file, with other slides, images, etc. Apple’s Keynote was exactly what I needed. I was able to put all of the video files into a single Keynote, and I managed to incorporate Keynote’s stunning themes, transition effects, etc. There was absolutely no delay switching from slide to slide as the video loaded. Another triumph for Keynote on the Mac!

Here’s the complete program:

From the slave trade in Great Britain to the anti-British rebellion in Ireland, from ancient Greece to the Qing Dynasty and the American West ­ that’s entertainment! But is it history? Join us as five historians present 20-minute discussions of the real stories behind some famous “historical” movies. Introduced by Professor and Chair David Hollinger

* 2:10 pm: Professor Thomas Brady on The Wind That Shakes the Barley
* 2:30 pm: Professor Emily Mackil on 300
* 2:50 pm: Professor Wen-Hsin Yeh on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
* 3:20 pm: Professor Mark Brilliant on Unforgiven
* 3:40 pm: Professor Thomas Laqueur on Amazing Grace