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Hist 200b Professor Michael Willrich
Spring 2014 Office Hrs: M, 2:30-4; W, 11-12
W, 2-4:50 Olin-Sang 217; 6-2292
The Colloquium in Modern U.S. History
Colloquium: A conversation, dialogue, colloquy . . . – Oxford English Dictionary
H.C. White, View of Homestead Steel Works, Pennsylvania, ca. 1907
This graduate seminarexamines the history of the United States since the Civil War. Each week we will discuss major recent works (and a few not-so-recent books that have already become classics), along with “state-of-the-field” essays and articles that aim to open new lines of inquiry. We will consider a broad range of historical problems (including politics and political economy, the history of capitalism, war and state formation, westward expansionand empire, race and nationalism, civil rights struggles, the Cold War and its domestic reverberations, deindustrialization and the urban crisis, and the enduring power of religion in American public life). Throughout we will explore an array ofhistoriographical approaches (including social, cultural, economic, political, legal, intellectual, urban, and transnational history). A central theme of the seminar will be the promises and pitfalls of disciplinary specialization and the possibilities for synthesis across subfields. This class is a serious undertaking. It is designed especially for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. Undergraduates wishing to take the class require the instructor’s permission.
Requirements and Grading
1. Regular attendance and informed participation in discussions are essential to the success of the colloquium—and thus to each student’s grade. As part of this requirement, each week students must prepare two coherent and concise discussion questions that raise significant issues related to the week’s readings. Students must circulate these via the course mailing list no later than 5 PM on the afternoon before the class meets. 30 %
2. Outside Book Presentation: on a book related to the week’s readings. The presenter should briefly describe the book, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of its argument and evidence, and consider its relevance to the assigned readings. This presentation should be well organized, concise, and engaging, lasting15 minutes. Presentation dates TBD. 10 %
3. Field Presentation: on a specific historiographical problem. The presentation should include:
1)a 20-minute formal lecture (based upon a written outline) followed by:
2)a 30-minute class discussion, led by the presenter, of relevant short primary documents (no more than 25 pages total). These documents must be distributed to the professor and seminar members via e-mailno later than the Friday morning before the meeting so we can all prepare for the discussion. Each seminar members should print their own copies of the documents, read them carefully, and bring them to seminar.
3)In addition, the presenter should provide each class member with a one- or two-page selected bibliography of relevant secondary works on the topic.
The presentations should introduce the class to the major historiographical issues shaping the study of a particular topic; suggest new ways of thinking about or conceptualizing the topic; provide the class with primary documents that might be suitable for teaching undergraduates; and allow the presenter to sharpen her/his skills as a lecturer and discussion leader.
Presentation dates TBD. 20 %
4. Short essay (4 pages) on the assigned book for a particular week. The essay should briefly summarize the argument of the book, describe the most important evidence used by the author to support this argument, and assess the overall effectiveness of the argument and its presentation. Short papers are due 5 PM on the day prior to the relevant meeting. At that time, authors will circulate the papers to the seminar via the mailing list. I will need a hard copy, too. Students should come prepared to critique the papers in class. Due dates TBD. 10 %
5. Final Paper: an original historiographical essay (10-12 pages with proper footnotes) on a significant issue in the field of modern American history. You may choose a topic from the syllabus (e.g., immigration and ethnicity, the New Deal, urban social policy, Cold War diplomacy) or a separate topic that interests you (subject to the professor’s approval). Students are encouraged to choose a topic related to their own long-term research and/or teaching interests. In any event, the essays should critically assess a substantial body of historical literature (the equivalent of four books not on the syllabus, in addition to any relevant readings from the syllabus). A one-paragraphstatement of your topic, with a preliminary book list, is due Mar. 19. Final papers are due on April 30 in my mailbox outside the History Department and should also be sent to me as an electronic attachment. 30 %
The Fine Print
1. You must complete all assignments to receive a passing grade.
2. Late papers will automatically be marked down. Plan ahead.
3. If you have a question about any grade you receive, please come to my office hours or make an appointment. I will not discuss grades over the phone or e-mail. I am always happy to discuss questions about the course material via e-mail.
4. Academic Honesty: The University policy on academic integrity is distributed annually as section 4 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. I take this policy very seriously.
5. Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability at Brandeis and wish to request a reasonable accommodation for this class, please see me immediately. Please keep in mind that reasonable accommodations cannot be provided retroactively.
6. Laptops: Because they can interfere with class discussion, laptops are not allowed.
Required Books: All are available in the Brandeis Bookstore. Please bring a copy to class.
Steven Hahn, A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration. (2003).
Richard White, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America (2011).
Jonathan Levy, Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America (2012).
Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (2007).
Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (1998).
Paul A. Kramer, The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines (2006).
Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (2009).
James T. Sparrow, Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government (2011).
Nick Cullather, The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia (2010).
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement (2011).
Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (1996).
Darren Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (2010).
Schedule of Meetings and Assignments
Abbreviations: (unless noted, all articles and chapters are available via Library OneSearch)
AHN American History Now, edited by Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr (2011)
AHR American Historical Review
JAH Journal of American History
JEH Journal of Economic History
JGAPE Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
JUH Journal of Urban History
LHR Law and History Review
PHR Pacific Historical Review
RAH Reviews in American History
SAPD Studies in American Political Development
Jan. 15 Introduction
Reading: Alice Kessler-Harris, “Capitalism, Democracy, and the Emancipation of Belief,” JAH, 99 (2012): 725-740.
Jan. 22Capitalism and Culture in the Long 19th Century
Levy, Freaks of Fortune.
Thomas L. Haskell, “Persons as Uncaused Causes: John Stuart Mill, the Spirit of Capitalism, and the ‘Invention’ of Formalism,” in Haskell, ed., Objectivity Is Not Neutrality: Explanatory Schemes in History (1998): 318-67.
Sven Beckert, “The History of Capitalism,” AHN.
Outside book: Joyce Appleby, The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (2010); or Louis Hyman, Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink (2012).
Jan. 29The Problem of Freedom
Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet.
Kate Masur, “Patronage and Protest in Kate Brown’s Washington,” JAH, 99 (2013): 1047-1071.
Adam Rothman, “Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction,” AHN.
Outside Book: Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (2010); Heather Cox Richardson, West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America After the Civil War (2007); or Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor, Marriage, and the Market in the Age of Slave Emancipation (1998).
Feb. 5The Gilded Age
White, Railroaded.
Naomi R. Lamoreaux, “The Mystery of Property Rights: A U.S. Perspective,” JEH, 71 (2011): 275-306.
Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Daniel M. G. Raff, and Peter Temin, “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History,” AHR, 108 (2003): 404-433.
Stephen Aron, “Frontiers, Borderlands, Wests,” AHN.
Field Presentation: Business History; or the History of the American West
Outside Book: William J. Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991);
or Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896. (2003).
Feb. 12The PopulistRevolt
Postel, Populist Vision.
Robert D. Johnston, “The Possibilities of Politics: Democracy in America, 1877 to 1917,” AHN.
Field Presentation: Populism
Outside Book: Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 (1983); or Michael Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2006).
Feb. 19Midterm Recess
Feb. 26The Progressive Era
Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings.
Michael Willrich, “The Two Percent Solution: Eugenic Jurisprudence and the Socialization of American Law, 1900-1930,” LHR, 16 (1998): 63-111.
Robert D. Johnston, “Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography,” JGAPE, 1 (2002): 68-92.
Field Presentation: The Progressive Era
Outside Book: Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. (1955); or Robert Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (1967).
Mar. 5Empire
Kramer, The Blood of Government.
Julian Go, “Introduction,” The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives, ed. Julian Go and Anne L. Foster (2003). * Latte
Colin D. Moore, “State Building Through Partnership: Delegation, Public-Private Partnerships, and the Political Development of American Imperialism, 1898-1916,”SAPD, 25 (2011): 27-55.
Erez Manela, “The United States in the World,” AHN.
Field Presentation: Diplomatic History
Outside Book: Warwick Anderson, Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines (2006); or Julie Greene, The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal (2009).
Mar. 12Gender, Sexuality, and the State
Canaday, The Straight State.
Martin Meeker, “The Queerly Disadvantaged and the Making of San Francisco’s War on Poverty, 1964-1967,” PHR, 81 (2012): 21-59.
Rebecca Edwards, “Women’s and Gender History,” AHN.
Field Presentation: History of Sexuality
Outside Book: George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (1994); or Chad C. Heap, Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940 (2009).
Mar. 19The New Deal andWorld War II
Sparrow, Warfare State.
William Novak, “The Myth of the ‘Weak’ American State,” AHR, 113 (2008): 752-772; “AHR Exchange: On the ‘Myth’ of the ‘Weak’ American State,” AHR, 115 (2010): 766-800.
Field Presentation: American Political History
Outside Book: Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal (2010).
* Final Paper Topics Due *
Mar. 26The Civil Rights Movement
Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent.
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” JAH, 91 (2005): 1233-1263.
Kevin Gaines, “African-American History,” AHN.
Field Presentation: Civil Rights History
Outside Book:Danielle L. McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power(2010); Serena Mayeri, Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution (2011); or Andrew W. Kahrl,The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South (2012)
Apr. 2The Cold War
Cullather, Hungry World.
Melvyn P. Leffler, "The Cold War: What Do 'We Now Know'?" AHR, 104 (1999): 501-24.
Field Presentation: The Cold War
Outside Book:Laura Briggs, Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption (2012); or Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Piece in Vietnam (2012).
Apr. 9The Urban Crisis
Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis.
Wendell E. Pritchett, “Which Urban Crisis? Regionalism, Race, and Urban Policy, 1960-1974, JUH, 34 (2008): 266-286.
Heather Ann Thompson, “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History,” JAH, 97 (2010): 703-734.
Kim Phillips-Fein, “1973 to the Present,” AHN.
Field Presentation: Urban History
Outside Book: Samuel Zipp, Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York (2010); or Elihu Rubin, Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape (2012).
Apr. 16Spring Break – No Class
Apr. 23Religion and the New Right
Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt
John T. McGreevy, “American Religion,”AHN.
Kim Phillips-Fein, “Conservativism: A State of the Field,” and roundtable responses, JAH, 98 (2011): 723-773.
Outside Book: Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Great Depression (2012); or Robert O. Self, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s (2012).