Course Description
Using fiction and film as well as traditional texts, the history of working-class women and men in the United States. The emphasis will be on the everyday lives of the laborers--what they did at work and at home, in the union hall, and on the picket line.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional research and or paper(s) are normally required for graduate level coursework.
Athena Title
Working Class America
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of the working class in the United State by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of working-class America shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward labor and class, race and ethnicity, gender, and morality, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
- Here are the assigned books and a course outline from a previous installation of this class. The readings and films will change every semester, but the information below still provides a glimpse of what we will do in Working Class America.
- Week One
-- Introduction to Film and Labor History
-- Course Introduction
-- Go Over the Syllabus
-- What is History?
-- Reading Day
-- Read Sinclair, The Jungle
-- Film and History Reading: Rosenstone, "Like Writing History Like Lightening" (CP)
-- Film Workshop
-- Watch Paterson in Class
- Week Two
-- Industrialization and the American Working Class
-- Film and History Workshop
-- Watch 1877: Grand Army of Starvation
-- Overview of American Industrialization
-- Immigration and the Formation of the American Working-Class
-- Finish Sinclair, The Jungle
- Week Three
-- Shop Floor Lives (View Modern Times)
-- Discuss The Jungle *MEMO IDEA* Imagine that you are making a film of the Jungle? How would you film the opening scene? Literally what would be the first thing that the viewer sees or hears? Remember film is a multi-dimensional medium. (Note opening scenes are crucial. They often set the tone for the whole film.)
-- Set up Modern Times: Scientific Management Reading: B & L, 318-23
-- Set up Modern Times: Fordism Reading: B & L, 333-44
-- Film Lab
-- Begin reading BELL!!!!
- Week Four
-- Union Building
-- A Difficult Task (View Matewan)
-- Discuss Modern Times *MEMO IDEA* Think about how the film portrays the relationships between science and labor, and workers and management? Is this a pro-labor film? If so, how? What are the politics of this film?
-- What is a Union? What does it do? Reading: B & L, 231-32, 234-35, 236-39
-- Why Strike?
-- Film Lab
-- Read BELL!!!!
-- Discussion of Matewan
-- Why the Union Failed? Readings: Brier, "A History Film Without Much History" (CP) Sayles, "Thinking in Pictures" (CP)
- Week Five
-- There is Power in the Union: The Growth American Unions
-- (View Salt of the Earth)
-- Unions, 1919-1935 Reading: B & L, 236-39
-- Unions, 1935-1950 Reading: Wehrle, "Labor Comes Into is Own" (CP) B & L, 362-69, 415-23, 428-49
-- Discuss Bell No memo, but think about what roles that work, family, and the union play in the lives of each generation in Out of This Furnace. How is the book structured? Do you think the generational approach is a useful one to understanding the past? If so, why? If not, why not? 10/16
-- Film Lab
-- Discuss Salt of the Earth Readings: NYT 15 March 1954; 1 February 1980 (CP) Miller, "Salt of the Earth Revisited" (CP) *MEMO IDEA* Compare the results of the strike in Matewan with the one portrayed in Salt of the Earth. How do the trade unionists in Salt of the Earth win their strike? What makes a strike successful? What role do the family members of strikers play in strikes? Can you have a successful strike without community involvement? Also how do these films deal with gender and race.
- Week Six
-- The Union and Power: Postwar Labor History (On the Waterfront)
-- The American Standard of Living: Postwar Working-Class History Readings: B & L, 423-28
-- Union Corruption? Much to do About What? Readings: Raskin, "Why they Cheer for Hoffa?" (CP) PROPOSAL FOR FINAL PROJECT DUE
-- Film Lab
-- START READING HAMPER, RIVETHEAD
-- Film Lab
-- Discuss On the Waterfront *MEMO IDEA* Read Biskind. Is On the Waterfront about labor or McCartyism or both? Explain. What does it say about the relationship between workers and their unions? What is the relationship between corruption and unions? Why is this an attractive subject to filmmakers? Readings: Biskind, "The Politics of Power in On the Waterfront" (CP) B & L, 497-99, 506-10
- Week Seven
-- The Southern Story (Norma Rae)
-- Is the South different from the rest of the country? Reading: Simon, "Why Are There So Few Unions in the South?" (CP)
--"Uprising of ‘34" Reading: Hall, Korstad, and Leloudis, "Cotton Mill People" (CP)
-- Film Lab
-- Read Hamper, Rivethead
-- Film Lab
-- Discuss Norma Rae Readings: Goldfarb and Iiyashov, "Working-Class Hero" (CP) *MEMO IDEA* How is the South portrayed in the film? How are southern attitudes towards unions depicted? Why does the union succeed in Norma Rae? How does this film relate to your own experiences? If you are southern, were you raised to be suspicious of unions? If you grew up outside the South, were you raised to be suspicious of the South?
- Week Eight
-- Representations of Race and Class in Postwar America (View Blue Collar)
-- Note -- This week we will watch the film at the screening room on the seventh floor of the library.
-- The American Dream?
-- Blue Collar Blues
-- Discuss Rivethead
-- Discuss Blue Collar *MEMO IDEA* How does class shape the relationships in the film? How does race shape the relationships in the film? Which one is more important? Race or class? Can these two things be separated?
-- Film Lab
- Week Nine
-- Women at Work (View 9 to 5)
-- A History of Women at Work
-- Gender Issue at Work: Women’s Work Culture Reading: B & L, 258-73, 546-53, 567-78
-- Pink Collar and Homework
-- Film Lab
-- Discuss 9 to 5 Reading: NYT, 12/19/80 (CP) *MEMO IDEA* Think about the ending of the film. What does this say about the issues of gender and work raised by the story? Does this cut against the grain of the rest of the film?
- Week Ten
-- De-Industrialization (American Dream)
-- Archie Bunker and Working-Class Conservatism
-- Bruce Springsteen and Rust Belt America Reading: Lyrics to "My Hometown" and "Youngstown" (CP) B & L, 587-90, 594-96, 648-51
-- Roger and Me
-- Film Lab
-- Discuss American Dream Reading: Gary Crowdus and Richard Porton, "American Dream: An Interview with Barbara Kopple" (CP) Roger Horowitz, Review of American Dream, AHR, (CP) *MEMO IDEA* -- What is the American Dream? Which way for organized labor? What is the future of organized labor in America? Should it have a future? Have unions outlived their usefulness? Why? Why not?
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
Social Awareness & Responsibility
The capacity to understand the interdependence of people, communities, and self in a global society.
