HISTORY
122/322
U.S.
HISTORY SINCE 1877
FALL
2002
Office:
ABAC 3210
Office
Hours: MW 2:00-4:00; TTh 8:30-10:30
Phone:
529-9621. Home 454-1489 (9am-9pm
only please)
Email:
pitelka@maryville.edu
Fax:
529-9965
http://accweb.itr.maryville.edu/pitelka
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted from the past.”
Karl Marx
This
course will examine the major political events and social conditions influencing
the lives of Americans from the end of the Civil War to the present. Classes
will consist of a mixture of discussion and lecture, with students invited to
participate fully with questions and comments.
Lectures can cover only a small portion of the material.
Students are responsible for the information in the textbook, lectures,
and the supplementary books.
The
purpose of the class is to introduce students to the field of American history.
In addition to learning the major events, people, and ideas of central
importance to Americans during this period, we will explore the different ways
in which the past can be viewed, interpreted, and depicted. Another purpose is
to promote the students' imaginative entry into the lives of various people and
groups under study in order to understand the effect of historical conditions
and change on their everyday lives, and, in turn, their impact upon history.
Exams:
There will be one midterm and a final exam.
Exams will consist of short answer, objective, and essay questions.
Papers:
Good writing is an important aspect of
historical study and students should pay careful attention to the quality of
their writing. All papers should be
word-processed, double-spaced, stapled together (please do not use plastic or
paper covers).
Attendance:
Lectures will cover different material
from the text. I cannot provide lecture notes to students who miss class, so
consistent attendance and good note taking is advised. I would be happy to help
students improve note-taking skills.
Grading:
History 122:
Assignments/Papers
- 30%
Final
Examination 35%
History
322:
Final
Examination – 30%
Class
Participation/Leadership – 15%
Research
Paper – 35%
History
322 students will meet separately outside class with the professor on several
occasions.
Grading Scale
A
(90-100) Indicates
achievement of distinction with an unusual degree of intellectual initiative
C
(70-79) Average
attainment
D
(60-69) Unsatisfactory,
but passing
F
(Below 60) Failing
Classes
should not be thought of as passive events like television shows. The success of
this class depends not only on the professor but also on the active
participation of students. It will not be possible to achieve an A in this class
without consistent attendance, timely completion of assignments, including
readings, and a sincere effort to participate in class discussions and
activities.
Ø
Nelson
Lichtenstein, Susan Strasser, & Roy Rosenzweig, Who Built America?
Working People and the Nation’s Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society,
Vol Two. American Social History
Project, 2000
Ø Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace.
Ø
Ann
Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi.
Ø
Jules R.
Benjamin, A Student’s Guide to History (optional; required for
History 322 students)
Ø
History
322 students only: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Course
Schedule:
Week
One, Aug 27 & 29: Economy, Society, and
Politics in the Gilded Age (1877-1893)
Read: Who Built America? Prologue (pp. 1-15)
Begin reading Out of This Furnace
Questions to consider:
Why and how do we study the past?
What are primary sources?
How should we read them?
Wednesday:
Begin video – “The Richest Man in the World”
Read: Who Built America? Chapters 1 and 2
Continue: Out of This Furnace
Wednesday – Finish video.
Paper #1 on video due Monday, Sept 9 (2-3 pages,
word-processed,
double-spaced). Late papers will be
graded down.
Questions
to Consider:
What
were the sources of American industrial growth?
What
were the characteristics of this growth? What
were the results?
Week
Three – Sept 10 & 12: The Producing Classes and the Money Power (1893-1904)
Read: Who Built America?
Chapter 3
Continue: Bell, Out of This Furnace
Paper #1 due Monday, Sept. 9
Questions
to Consider:
Who were the Populists?
What influence did they have?
What are “Jim Crow” laws?
Why did Americans build an overseas empire?
How would you characterize the long-term significance of the 1890s?
Week
Four – Sept 17 & 19: Change and Continuity in Daily Life (1900-1914)
Read: Who Built America?
Chapter 4
Continue: Out of This
Furnace
Questions
to Consider:
What is “scientific management?”
Describe changes in the standard of living from 1900-1914
Why did leisure and entertainment become so important?
What impact did immigration have on American life in this period?
Week
Five – Sept 24 & 26: Radicals and Reformers in the Progressive Era (1900-1914)
Read: Who Built America?
Chapter 5
Continue: Out of This
Furnace
Questions
to Consider:
What
is the Progressive Movement?
What
prompted progressive reform?
What
were the results of progressivism?
What
themes unify the Progressive Era?
List as many different types of reform as you can
Internet:
“Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century” http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/
(1914-1945)
Week
Six – Oct 1 & 3: Wars for Democracy (1914-1919)
Read: Who Built America? Chapter 6
Questions
to Consider:
What
role did America play in World War I?
What were the effects of the war on American society?
What were the political and diplomatic outcomes of the war?
Week
Seven – Oct 8 & 10: A New Era (1920-1929)
Read: Who Built America?
Chapter 7
Finish: Out of This Furnace for
discussion this week (this discussion will be led by the 322 students)
Questions
to Consider:
How
were the 1920s different from the Progressive Era?
What changed in economics, society, and politics?
What reactions arose in response to the New Era?
Week
Eight – Oct 15 & 17: The Great Depression and the First New Deal (1929-1935)
MIDTERM EXAMINATION – TUES OCT 15
List of paper topics will be distributed this week.
Read: Who Built America?
Chapter 8
Begin: Coming of Age in Mississippi
Questions
to Consider:
What
were the causes of the Great Depression?
What were the characteristics of the Great Depression?
How were different groups of Americans
affected by the Depression?
Internet:
“America from
the Great Depression to WWII: Photographs” http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html
Week
Nine – Oct 22 & 24: Labor Democratizes America (1935-1939)
Read: Who Built America? Chapter 9
Questions
to Consider:
What
was the New Deal?
Did it cure the Depression?
What
is its long-term significance?
What
was the legacy of the CIO?
Week
Ten – Oct 29 & 31: The U.S. in World War Two (1939-1946)
Read: Who Built America?
Questions
to Consider:
How
do you explain the course of world affairs during the inter-war period?
What role did the U.S. play internationally during that period?
What forced the end of U.S. isolationism?
What role did the U.S. play in WWII?
What effect did the war have on American society?
“Baseball,
the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson,” http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/jrhtml/jrabout.html
U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.) http://www.ushmm.org/
Part Three: Cold War America – and After (1945-1999)
Week
Eleven – Nov 5 & 7: The Cold War Boom (1946-1960)
Read: Who Built America? Chapter 11
Finish: Coming
of Age in Mississippi - discussion on Tuesday.
For Discussion:
Choose two
or more passages in the book that struck you in some way (surprised, saddened,
appalled, moved, or intrigued you). Write
a paragraph about each passage and your response to it.
This paragraph is to be turned in on the discussion day.
For the discussion, we will share the passages and responses.
At least one passage must be chosen from part four of the book.
Questions
to Consider:
What was the Cold War?
What caused it?
What were the consequences of the Cold War?
What was the Second Red Scare?
How did atomic weapons affect how Americans viewed the world?
In what ways were the 1950s a "golden age"?
What were the consequences of American affluence?
Were
the prosperity and opportunities of the post-war period shared equally?
Week
Twelve – Nov 12 & 14: The Rights Conscious 1960s
Read: Who Built
America? Chapter 12
Questions
to Consider:
What
is liberalism?
How
was it expressed domestically and internationally?
What
were its limitations?
What
were the major social movements of this decade?
Do you see common themes among them?
What impact did these movements have on American society?
Week
of Nov 19 & 21: Economic
Adversity (1973-1989)
Read: Who
Built America?
Chapter 13
Papers due on November 19.
Questions
to Consider:
What
were Nixon's major foreign and domestic policy initiatives?
How did Nixon justify his actions against his enemies?
How do you explain the economic woes of this decade?
What were the social repercussions of the economic situation?
Week
Thirteen – Nov 26 & 28: Thanksgiving
Holidays
Week
Fourteen – Dec 3 & 5: The Age of Global Capitalism (1989-2000)
Read: Who Built America? Chapter 14
This
syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor to accommodate
instructional and/or student needs
The
composition of any paper must be entirely the student's own work. If the exact
words of another are used, even to a limited degree, quotation marks must be
used and a documentary reference (a note) given. If information or ideas are
taken from another work, although not a direct quotation, a student must give
credit in the notes as to the source of the information. (I will distribute
complete instructions for all this before papers are assigned.) Failure to give
such credit is plagiarism, and is equivalent to cheating on an examination. Submission
of a paper that is copied from another work or written by someone other than the
student, or which contains fictitious notes, will be cause for failure in the
course.
PAPERS WITHOUT BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND SOURCE CITATIONS
WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
IMPORTANT: STUDENTS MUST KEEP THEIR NOTES AND SUBSEQUENT DRAFTS OF PAPERS UNTIL THE PAPER HAS BEEN RETURNED WITH A FINAL GRADE. I MAY ASK TO SEE YOUR NOTES AND OTHER WORK IF I HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR SOURCES.