Modern American History

Modern American History HIS 1005 Baruch College, CUNY Spring 2015 W, F 7:50 am-­‐9:05 am VC 11-­‐160 Professor Sara Fieldston [email protected] Office hours: By appointment. Please e-­‐mail me; I will be happy to meet with you. My office is room 5-­‐250B in the Vertical Campus. Thomas Hart Benton, America Today, 1931 Goals: This course is intended to acquaint students with the history of the United States from the late nineteenth century through the present. It will provide students with the basic historical knowledge and vocabulary essential to informed citizenship and prepare students for more advanced historical coursework, should they so choose. Students will learn how to articulate persuasive historical arguments, hone their writing skills, and gain competence in analyzing textual and visual sources. Course description: This course introduces students to some of the major themes of modern American history. We will explore how the people, government, and culture of the United States changed between the late nineteenth century and today. Among the topics we will consider are industrialization, urbanization and suburbanization, social movements such as the labor movement and the civil rights movement, changing patterns of immigration, and the United States’ engagement with the world. We will pay particular attention to the monumental political and social shifts of the post-­‐World War II era and America’s involvement in the defining global conflict of the late twentieth century, the Cold War. Required readings: The textbook we will use is Irwin Unger, These United States: The Questions of Our Past, fourth edition, volume 2, ISBN 9780205790784. If you prefer, you may also purchase the older (third) edition, ISBN 9780132299657 (this edition includes both volumes 1 and 2). Either edition is fine (if you are purchasing the fourth edition be sure to buy volume 2). The page numbers on the syllabus refer to the fourth edition; the corresponding pages in the third edition are indicated in brackets. The newer edition of the textbook is available in the Baruch bookstore; the older edition is on reserve at the library. All other assigned readings are available on Blackboard. 1 Assignments: Students will write one 8-­‐10 page paper and complete a take-­‐home quiz, a midterm, and a final exam. The paper assignment is attached to this syllabus. In addition, students will post a short response to a question on the reading to Blackboard each week. Posts are due by 9 p.m. on Thursday. The due dates for the assignments are as follows: Take-­‐Home Quiz: February 25 Midterm: March 13 Paper Proposal Due: April 1 Paper Due: May 15 Final: TBA Grading: Quiz: 10% Midterm: 20% Paper: 25% Final: 25% Weekly Posts: 10% Participation: 10% Participation: Class participation will be based on asking and answering questions in class and sharing your own views and ideas. Arriving late, texting during class, and other disruptive behaviors will negatively impact your participation grade. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory and counts toward your participation grade. This is an early class, but it is important to arrive on time. Arriving more than 10 minutes late to class will count as half an absence. Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will receive a failing grade for participation. Please let me know ahead of time if you know you will have to miss a class. Writing Center: Baruch College’s Writing Center is a great resource. See http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/writingcenter/ to learn more and to make an appointment. Academic honesty: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated in any form. Being caught cheating or plagiarizing will result in zero credit for the assignment and further disciplinary action will be taken through the school. Please be aware that directly copying material from a website is considered plagiarism. Please familiarize yourself with Baruch’s Academic Honesty Policy at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html 2 Schedule: Week 1 January 28: Introduction: The World’s Columbian Exposition and Modern America January 30: The Age of Enterprise Reading: • Unger, Chapter 17 • Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth” (1889) [Blackboard] Week 2 February 4: Urban America Reading: • Unger, Chapter 18 • Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890) (excerpt) [Blackboard] February 6: The West Reading: • Unger, Chapter 19 • Helen Hunt Jackson, Century of Dishonor (excerpt) (1881) [Blackboard] • Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (excerpt)(1890) [Blackboard] Week 3 February 11: Imperial America and the “Splendid Little War” Reading: • Unger, Chapter 21 • Albert J. Beveridge, “The March of the Flag” (1898) [Blackboard] February 13: Progressivism Reading: • Unger, Chapter 22 • Progressive Party Platform (1912) [Blackboard] Week 4: February 18: No class February 20: The Great War Reading: • Unger, Chapter 23 • President Woodrow Wilson, Speech to Congress on Declaring War on Germany (1917) [Blackboard] Week 5 February 25: Discussion Day • TAKE-­HOME QUIZ DUE February 27: Flappers and Fundamentalists: The Roaring Twenties Reading: • Unger, Chapter 24 • The Klansman’s Manual (1925) [Blackboard] 3 •
The Immigration Act of 1924 [Blackboard] Week 6 March 4: The Great Depression and the New Deal Reading: • Unger, Chapter 25 • Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Commonwealth Club Address” (1932) [Blackboard] March 6: World War II Reading: • Unger, Chapter 26 • Memorandum to President Roosevelt from Attorney General Biddle on Japanese Internment (1942) [Blackboard] • “Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry” (1942) [Blackboard] • Eleanor Roosevelt, “Woman’s Place after the War” (1944) [Blackboard] Week 7 March 11: Midterm Review March 13: MIDTERM EXAM Week 8 March 18: The Cold War at Home and Abroad Reading: • Unger, Chapter 27, pages 634-­‐651 [660-­‐672] • The Truman Doctrine (1947) [Blackboard] • “Bert the Turtle Says Duck and Cover” (1950) [Blackboard] March 20: The Age of Affluence Reading: • Unger, Chapter 27, pages 621-­‐630 [645-­‐655] • Richard Nixon, “What Freedom Means to Us” (1959) [Blackboard] Week 9 March 25: Atomic Diplomacy and the Space Race Reading: • “Man Will Conquer Space Soon,” Collier’s (1952) [read “What Are We Waiting For?” on page 4; the other articles are optional] [Blackboard] March 27: The Civil Rights Movement Reading: • Unger, Chapter 27, pages 631-­‐633 [656-­‐659] • Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) [Blackboard] Week 10 April 1: Discussion Day • MUSEUM CATALOG PAPER PROPOSAL DUE April 3: No class, spring break 4 Week 11 April 8: No class, spring break April 10: No class, spring break Week 12 April 15: From the New Frontier to the Great Society Reading: • Unger, Chapter 28, pages 657-­‐667 [687-­‐698] • President Lyndon B. Johnson, Speech at the University of Michigan (1964) [Blackboard] April 17: To the Brink: The Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis Reading: • Unger, Chapter 28, pages 652-­‐657 [681-­‐687] • John F. Kennedy, Cuban Missile Address to the Nation (1962) [Blackboard] Week 13 April 22: The Sixties Revolutions Reading: • Unger, Chapter 28, pages 667-­‐674 [698-­‐706] • Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society (1962) (excerpt) [Blackboard] • J. Edgar Hoover, “An Open Letter to College Students” (1970) [Blackboard] April 24: The Vietnam War Reading: • Unger, Chapter 28, pages 674-­‐681 [706-­‐714] • President Lyndon B. Johnson, American Policy in Vietnam (1965) • John Kerry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement (1971) Week 14 April 29: From Détente to Watergate: The Rise and Fall of Nixon Reading: • Unger, Chapter 29, pages 682-­‐696 [715-­‐730] • United States v. Nixon (1974) May 1: The “Me Decade” Reading: • Unger, Chapter 29, pages 696-­‐710 [730-­‐746] • Tom Wolfe, “The ME Decade” (1976) Week 15 May 6: “Born in the USA”: The Reagan Revolution Reading: • Unger, Chapter 30 • Jerry Falwell, “Listen America” (1980) May 8: Discussion Day 5 Week 16 May 13: America Today Reading: • Ethan Zuckerman, “Does Facebook Unite Us or Divide Us?” (2010) • Unger, Chapter 31 May 15: Final Review • MUSEUM CATALOG PAPER DUE Final Exam: TBA 6 Museum Catalog Paper Assignment • Proposal due April 1 in class • Paper due May 15 by the end of the day to [email protected] You are a museum curator. Your museum has decided to organize an exhibit about modern American history. You have been asked to come up with a theme for the exhibit and to find five primary source pieces to add to the exhibition. Your theme can relate to any aspect of modern American history (for example, the changing face of Chinatown, fashions in the 1920s, women in World War II, the atomic bomb, space exploration, the 1964 World’s Fair…). At least two of the pieces you select should be documents (a newspaper or magazine article, pamphlet, book, text of a speech, etc.) and at least two should be visual images (a painting, drawing, photograph, video clip, etc.). The nature of the fifth piece is up to you (it can be either a document or a visual source, or it can even be an object such as a piece of furniture or an article of clothing). Proposal: • A proposal containing your historical theme and a preliminary bibliography is due on April 1. Write a few sentences explaining the historical theme that you have chosen and include a list of the primary and secondary sources you will be using for your paper. You should consult at least 3 secondary sources on the topic, at least one of which must be a book. • Your proposal should also consider some of the arguments that you might make about the topic you have chosen. What are some possible arguments about the theme that you have chosen that your primary sources support? Paper: Write a museum catalog (8-­‐10 double-­‐spaced pages total, not including images) that introduces your exhibit to museum-­‐goers. Your catalog should have two parts: Part 1: Introduction • Your catalog should provide museum-­‐goers with some historical background on the topic you have selected and explain what your exhibit teaches museum-­‐goers about the topic at hand. Examined together, what do the historical pieces you have found teach museum-­‐goers about your topic? Your museum catalog should make an argument about the past. What argument can you make using your primary sources as evidence? Part 2: Individual Catalog Entries • Write a catalog entry for each of the primary sources you have chosen that explains its significance. Each entry should address the following questions: • What is the history of this piece? Who created it? When? Why? • How does this piece add to our understanding of the historical theme of the exhibit and of the time period in which it was created? • How do the creator’s artistic choices (such as word choice or visual composition) relate to the message of the piece? 7 •
Include a copy or picture of each of the pieces you have selected (in the case of a video, include a link) with a full citation (name of creator, title, where published (if applicable), date). Please note: • I am happy to read drafts, if time allows. Please e-­mail me if you would like me to read anything you have written. • Paper extensions will be given only for a medical-­related absence with a doctor’s note or a family death. Late papers will be marked down 1/3 of a grade (for example, from B to B-­) for each day late. 8