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Origins of Modern America

Analytical Thinking
Communication
Critical Thinking

Course Description

Economic, social, diplomatic, and political trends in the United States, 1877-1917.

Athena Title

The US 1877-1917

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 origins of modern America, from Reconstruction to World War I, 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 social history of America (including interactions between natives, white settlers, and formerly enslaved black people) has shaped social and cultural identities, 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.

Topical Outline

  • Introduction
  • The United States in 1877
  • The West: Cattle, Wheat, Silver, and Gold
  • Discussion: Calloway, ed. Our Hearts Fell to the Ground
  • The Idea of the West
  • “Civilizing” and the Dawes Act
  • The Long Shadow of the Civil War: The Post-Reconstruction Political System
  • The Populist Moment
  • The Defeat of Populism
  • Black Possibilities to 1900
  • Shrinking Options: Jim Crow, Disfranchisement, Lynching, Riots
  • Industrialization: Steel as a Case Study, Part 1: In the Mines and Mills
  • Conveying Goods and People on the Railroads
  • Corporate Control
  • Alan Trachtenberg, “Mysteries of the Great City”
  • Organizing Labor
  • The “Distinct” South: Birmingham
  • The High Tide of Immigration
  • Moody-Sankey Evangelicalism
  • Protestant Reform
  • Holiness-Pentecostalism
  • Vaudeville, Baseball, Moving Pictures, and Medicine Shows
  • White Solidarity: Watch “The Birth of a Nation” (excerpts)
  • Black Migrations; second essay due
  • The Victorian Ideal and Working Women’s Realities
  • The Long Struggle for Women’s Suffrage
  • The Progressive Sensibility
  • Progressivism in the Cities
  • Progressive Law-Making at the National Level
  • Socialism and Anarchism
  • To the Brink of World War

Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes

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.


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