| Fall 2009 |
History 151: USA Since 1876 | D. Glassberg Department of History UMass Amherst |
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Fall 2009 David Glassberg
Teaching Assistants: Daniel Allosso Kimberly Fuller What can we learn from history that's important? This semester we'll help you develop some answers to this question, as well as a different way of looking at American history than what you might have encountered previously. For the next 14 weeks, we'll help you learn to use historical information to make sense of your present. There's no point in memorizing facts and dates about the past unless you can connect them to today. During class, I will mention a lot of information, but also explain why I think this information matters. If I'm not being clear about how it matters, feel free to interrupt. The course is designed not only to help you think about the connections between past and present, but also to sharpen your skills in reading, visual analysis, writing, and oral expression. Each week, you will read several short primary sources-- selections written in the period under discussion. Through class exercises and discussions, you will practice analyzing these sources. Assigned textbook passages provide background information to help you understand the lectures and other readings. Course Requirements: All assignments will be posted on the course website (http://courses.umass.edu/hist151g/) 1) Complete 3 in class exams (40 %) 2) Complete 5 take home writing assignments (40%). 4) Attend and actively participate in 13 discussion classes (20%); no more than 3 unexcused absences allowed. We expect you to attend all lectures and discussion sections and complete all of the readings. Please read the assigned textbook passages (in parentheses) by Monday and Wednesday, before the lectures, and the other assigned readings by Friday, before the discussion sections. You must take the exams at the times they are offered, and hand in the take-home exercises on the days they are due. Alternative arrangements are available only for medical or religious reasons. Note that discussion sections will meet Friday.September 11. We also expect that all written work you hand in is your own, written in your own words. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, attached to the syllabus is a brief guide. Students violating the University's academic dishonesty policy will get an F for the assignment; a second violation will result in an F for the course. Books available for purchase at Amherst Books, 8 Main Street and on Reserve, (Tower Library, 3rd Floor): J. Henretta, et. al., America: A Concise History, vol. II (any edition) Note: All of the required weekly readings are available on line. Please print them out for yourself, read them, and bring them to class for discussion. 9/9 Introduction: America in 1876 9/11 Discussion: God and Nation Reading: Joseph Twichell, "The Grand Mission of America: An Address Delivered at the Centennial Celebration, Hartford, Connecticut, July 4, 1876” (handout in class) What, according to Twichell, was America's “mission” in 1876? Does America have a mission today?
9/14 Industry (505-14) 9/16 Labor (514-34) 9/18 Discussion: Rich and Poor Reading: America, ch. 17, Capital and Labor in an Age of Enterprise Andrew Carnegie, "Wealth," North American Review 148 (June, 1889). http://alpha.furman.edu/~benson/docs/carnegie.htm What, according to Carnegie, could be done about the growing inequality between rich and poor in 19C America? How might the poor best be helped? Does his philosophy still apply today? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1 (GROUP A) DUE Start reading DuBois, Souls of Black Folk, for discussion 10/2
9/21 Building a Middle-Class Home (539-45) 9/23 Reforming the City (549-65) 9/25 Discussion: Women and Men Reading: America, ch. 18, Rise of the City Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” New England Magazine (January 1892) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GilYell.html Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” (1892) reprinted in Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/ADDAMS/ch06.html
B. Israels, “The Way of the Girl,” Survey 22 (July 3, 1909): 486-97. (ereserve) Why, according to Jane Addams, should middle class women work in settlement houses? How, if at all, does Addams lecture relate to the theme of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper?” How, if at all, does it relate to the kinds of recreation favored by working girls at the turn of the century? WRITING ASSIGNMENT # 2 (GROUP B) DUE
9/28 No class—Yom Kippur 9/30 Race and Reunion (581-87) 10/2 Discussion: Blacks and Whites Reading: America, ch 19, Politics in Age of Enterprise W. E. B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (1903), ch. 1,3, 6. 9-10, 14 Booker T. Washington, “Speech Before the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition, October 18, 1895,” reprinted as “Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address,” in Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (1901) What does Du Bois mean by the “double consciousness” of African Americans? What does he mean by the phrase “talented tenth”? How does Du Bois's view of black-white relations differ from that of Booker T. Washington? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3 (GROUP A) DUE 10/7 Progressive Reform (611-27) 10/9 Discussion: Government & Business Reading: America, ch. 20 The Progressive Era, Ch 21 Emerging World Power Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life” (1899) www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trstrenlife.html Theodore Roosevelt, “Annual Message, 1908” (handout) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29549 What, according to Roosevelt, are America's responsibilities in the world? How can it meet those responsibilities? What does he believe is the proper relationship of the federal government and big business? REVIEW FOR FIRST HOUR EXAM
10/12 No class—Columbus Day 10/13 FIRST HOUR EXAM 10/14 World War I (662-87) 10/16 War & Society Reading: America, ch. 22, War and American State Woodrow Wilson, "War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917” http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wilson%27s_War_Message_to_Congress John Dos Passos. "The Body of an American," from 1919 (1932) http://www2.english.uiuc.edu/finnegan/English_300/body_of_an_american.htm Why according to Wilson, must America go to war? What did Dos Passos think of the ceremony dedicating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Virginia? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #4 (GROUP B) DUE
10/19 Politics of Reaction (687-99, 707-16) 10/21 Modern Culture (702-07) 10/23 Discussion: Parents and Children Reading: America, ch. 23, Modern Times, the 1920s Robert and Helen Lynd, “Childrearing,” from Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture (1929) (electronic reserve) Based on the Lynds' chapter, how was childrearing different in the 1920s than the 1890s? What accounts for the differences? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #5 (GROUP A) DUE
10/26 Crash and Depression (723-50) 10/28 Making a New Deal (752-78) 10/30 Discussion: History and Memory Reading: America, ch. 24, Great Depression; ch 25, New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933”; “Fireside Chat #5, June 28, 1934, http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/roosevelt/ What, according to Martha Gellhorn, are the main problems with federal emergency relief programs in Massachusetts? What is her view of the recipients? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #6 (GROUP B) DUE
11/2 World War Two (780-87, 799-809) 11/4 Cold War (817-31) 11/6 Discussion: The Atomic Bomb Reading: America, ch. 26, World at War Truman Library, The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb (excerpts) http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/bomb.htm Based on the assigned documents, do you believe that the USA was justified in using atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #7 (GROUP A) DUE
REVIEW FOR SECOND HOUR EXAM 11/9 EVENING: SECOND HOUR EXAM 11/9 Postwar Landscape (849-62) 11/11 No class—Veterans Day 11/13 Discussion: Family Life Reading: America, ch. 27, Cold War, ch. 28, Affluent Society Betty Friedan, "The Happy Housewife Heroine,” from The Feminine Mystique (1963) http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/documents/friedan2.html Barbara Ehrenreich, "Playboy Fights the Battle of the Sexes" (ereserve) How, according to Betty Friedan, did women's roles change in the 1950s? On what does she base her analysis? What are its limitations? How, according to Barbara Ehrenreich, did men's roles change in the decade? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #8 (GROUP B) DUE
11/16 Civil Rights (868-79) 11/18 Politics of Dissent (893-907) 11/20 Discussion: Integration, Black Power, and Affirmative Action Reading: America, ch. 29, War Abroad and at Home Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter From Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963" http://www.mlkonline.net/jail.html
Malcolm X, "Message to the Grassroots, November 10, 1963.” http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1145 Louis P. Masur, The Soiling of Old Glory:The photograph that captured Boston's busing crisis: How it was taken, and why it still matters.Slate, April 10, 2008, http://www.slate.com/id/2188648/ What, according to Malcolm X, is the principal problem with King's Civil Rights movement? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #9 (GROUP A) DUE
11/23 Vietnam 11/25 No class Thanksgiving Break
Start reading Christian Appy, Patriots (selections) 11/30 Vietnam (880-89) 12/2 Politics of Scarcity (908-13) 12/4 Discussion: Legacies of Vietnam Reading: America, ch. 29, War Abroad and at Home Lyndon Johnson, “Speech at Johns Hopkins University, April 7, 1965” http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/650407.asp
Based on the accounts in Appy's book, what were the “lessons” of the Vietnam War? Do these lessons fit with vision that Lyndon Johnson announced in 1965? WRITING ASSIGNMENT #10 (GROUP B) DUE 12/7 Modern Environmentalism 12/9 Course Overview 12/11 Discussion: Review for Third Hour Exam
Finals Week: THIRD HOUR EXAM, 1960-2009
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