| Course Objectives: | History 2112 is designed as an introduction to modern U.S. history. Obviously we can't
cover everything that happened in the United States from the end of the Civil War to
the present in this class. That would be impossible. Instead, this class will
highlight important themes, vital issues, and bitter conflicts from the troubled days
of Reconstruction to the bright neon lights of contemporary Las Vegas. The emphasis
in the class will be on history from the "bottom up." We will focus on the daily
struggles of ordinary people rather than the lives and thoughts of politicians and
other public figures.
The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for
themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask
questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future,
and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The
course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples
have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and
between ethical norms and decision-making.
In general students will be expected to:
1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically.
2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the
difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or
refute--arguments effectively.
3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that
include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising,
editing, and polishing the finished papers. |
| Topical Outline: | Course Schedule [the dates are for a previous semester] (Note the readings are to be
completed on the day that they are listed on the syllabus. In addition, note when it
says DISCUSSION on the syllabus, meet in your break away discussion groups. When it
says LECTURE, come to the main lecture hall at the Law School. Please tell the
instructor if the lecture creates a schedule conflict for you.
Week One:
8/17-- Introduction
Week Two:
8/20 -- Been in the Storm So Long: The Experiences of the Freed People, 1860-1877
8/22 -- LECTURE -- 'Nothing But Freedom': The Reconstruction Balance Sheet, 1866-1877
8/24 -- Age of Capital, 1877-1914
Week Three:
8/27 -- Age of Imperialism, 1880-1920
8/29 -- DISCUSSION
Reading: Wheeler, Chapter 1
8/31 -- "How the Other Half Lives": Immigration, Industrialization, and Urbanization,
1880-1920
-- For additional information on Jacob Riis images see,
www.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html
Week Four:
9/3 – Labor Day -- No Class
9/5 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 2
ID QUIZ
9/7 -- How the West was Lost
Week Five:
9/10 -- The Search for Order at Home
9/12 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, OUT OF THIS FURNANCE, 1-258.
MEMO – One of the key tenets of the American Dream is the idea that if you work hard,
you can make it in America. Is this what happens to the characters in the book? How
are they rewarded for their hard work? What does it take to make it in America in a
factory in the Age of Capital?
9/14 – World War I: The Search for Order Abroad
Week Six:
9/17-- Henry Ford and the Second Industrial Revolution
9/19 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 3
ESSAY QUIZ
9/21– The Tensions of Modernity
Week Seven:
9/24 -- Down and Out in the Great Depression
9/26 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Wright, Black Boy
MEMO: What does Wright's memoir tells us about the Jim Crow South? How did this
system shape Wright? Perhaps even more importantly, how does it shape white people?
9/28 -- A New Deal for America, 1932-1941
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 4
Week Eight:
10/1 -- The "Good War" Abroad
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 5
10/3 -- LECTURE -- The "Good" War at Home, 1941-1945
10/5 -- MIDTERM
Week Nine:
10/8 -- The Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1950
See the Truman Doctrine, www.luminet.net/~tgort/truman.htm
10/10 -- DISCUSSION
Reading: Wheeler, Chapter 6
10/12 -- Red Scares and the Closing of the American Mind
Week Ten:
10/15 -- The GI Bill and the Making of the Great American Middle Class
10/17 -- LECTURE -- Going to Disneyland, 1955
10/19 -- The Politics of Consensus, 1948-1960
Week Eleven:
10/22 -- "Woke Up this Morning With Freedom on My Mind," The Second Reconstruction,
1945-1964
10/24 -- LECTURE -- "Say it Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud," 1965-1970
10/26 -- Fall Break
Week Twelve:
10/29 -- "America’s Longest War": The U.S. in Vietnam, 1945-1970
10/31 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 7
Quiz
11/2 -- "We are Outlaws in the Eyes of America": The Politics of Style and Culture
in the 1960s
Week Thirteen:
11/5 – "Sisterhood is Powerful": The Rebirth of Feminism in America
11/7 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Douglas, Where the Girls Are
Memo: This is a book about how we learn to behave as women and as men. Look at a
contemporary example -- say for instance TRL or Monday Night Raw. How do these forms
of popular culture teach us how to act us how to act? (Remember Douglas eschews
simple analysis and so should you.) Also think about the book itself. What does
Douglas's story tell us about gender relations in postwar America? How have they
changed? How have they remained the same?
11/9 -- The End of Prosperity, 1973-1975
Week Fourteen:
11/12 -- Archie Bunker's America and the Politics of Backlash, 1972-1980
11/14 -- LECTURE -- It's Morning In America" -- Ronald Reagan's America, 1980-1988
Reading, Wheeler, pp. 219-25
11/16 -- No Class
Week Fifteen:
11/19 -- "Journey to Nowhere": The Harshness of Reaganism, 1980-1992
11/21-23 -- Thanksgiving Break -- Rejoice
Week Sixteen:
11/26 -- CNN of the Streets Reporting: Rap and the LA Riot, 1992
11/28 -- DISCUSSION
Reading, Wheeler, Chapter 8
11/30 -- Asphalt Nation: America's Crippling Dependence on Cars, 1990s
Week Seventeen:
12/3 -- Euro-Disney and the New American Imperialism
12/5 -- DISCUSSION
Review for Test |