Algoma University
HIST 3507: History of the United States: Civil War to the Present
Winter, 2010
Room: EW 206
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:30-1:00
Dr. Robert Rutherdale
Shingwauk Hall, Room 406
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00, or by appt.
705.949.2301 ext.4340
Student email accounts
It is very important that each of you check regularly your AU email accounts. I will be using the class list server for regular announcements, and will maintain individual contact with you through this account for correspondence on class meeting, assignments and handouts, and your essay research. Please use this account when contacting me during the week. And please take advantage of my office hours and availability on campus beyond those times.
Course Content and Approach:
Our classes offer both lectures and a variety of discussion activities, focusing on foundational themes in social, political, and economic histories from the Civil War era to near-contemporary themes. Topics include: the crises of reconstruction to 1877, Western resettlement to 1900, the Jim Crow laws, America in the Great War, morals and manners in the 1920s, the Great Depression in America, World War II and the Home Front, the move the Suburbs, Civil Rights Struggles, Second Wave Feminism and Baby-Boom/Cold War America, and American Politics in the near-contemporary era. Each meeting will engage you in a variety of small-group projects and workshops, with a focus on primary documents. The lectures, and our 'hands-on' learning exercises, provide diverse opportunities to examine essays, primary documents, and other source materials drawn from the journal literature. Themes, detailed below, will be integrated with your writing assignments and within specific research-in-progress workshops, organized to assist all students in preparing their term papers.
In all, you will be graded in five areas: an essay proposal; a critical review of a refereed journal article from the Journal of American History, a term essay, a final examination, and class participation.
Required Materials
Frederick M. Binder and David M. Reimers, The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Vol.II, 1865-Present, 6th Ed. (2008)
Review of your selected refereed journal article (from either Jeffery Moran, Kevin Boyle, or Jacquelyn Dowd Hall) from the Journal of American History course readings (15%), due end of Week 9 (in-class hand-in, 3Mar.). A criteria handout will follow, and discussion of specific approaches and considerations based on it will be ongoing to submission. Your reviews will1200 to 1500 words.
Course Paper (Proposal 5%; Paper, 40%) Proposal due end of Week 5, 3 Feb.; Term Essay due, Week 12, 29 Mar.
Your term essay will become an integral part of the course and discussions that will engage you throughout the term. From the beginning, your task will be to select materials and develop conceptual and methodological approaches for a project drawn from secondary andprimary source materials. A detailed course paper guide will be provided. The proposal (1-2 typed pgs.) must outline your central question, proposed sources, secondary and primary sources, and the argument you are pursuing. Each of you will have an opportunity to present your research-in-progress during the term. The final paper should be 2,700 to 3,000 words, including citations.
Critical Review of Refereed Journal Article (15%). Due end of Week 9, 3 March, in-class hand-in).
A hand-out, on approaches and class discussion time will follow. Your basic task is to choose one of the three refereed journal articles, read as part of this course, and prepare a critique as if the essay has been submitted to you for a critical assessment.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a serious academic offence which students must be aware of in preparing essays and other assignments. We will review AU’s definition of plagiarism as outlined in the University’s Academic Calendar, as well as the penalties that apply for ‘submitting or presenting work in a course as one’s own when in fact it is not.’ To avoid mistaken instances of plagiarism, you will also, as part of you class participation, report regularly on your work-in-progress and demonstrate ongoing progress in your writing projects, including proper citation procedures
ALGOMA UNIVERSITY -- HUMANITIES DIVISION
Grading policies for essay-writing courses in English, Fine Arts, History, Modern Languages, Music, and Philosophy
The following regulations for grading provide students with a clear understanding of policies supported by all faculty in Humanities Division at Algoma University. This outline determines standards for all essay-writing courses and includes submission of essays and written projects (i.e. critical response journals, book reviews, final writing portfolios, seminar write-ups, etc.)
1) According to Algoma University regulations, students who miss more than 20% of classes will fail the course and will be excluded from participation in the course evaluation (at the instructor’s discretion). Class participation is particularly important in Humanities since much of the education concerning critical analysis and responses to texts is not contained in textbooks. Articulating critical responses to texts is considered part of the discipline.
2) All formal assignments must adhere to standard style formatting. History will use the Chicago style (numbered endnotes or footnotes) for citing sources. A style guide will be provided, and class discussion time given to citations methods. Grades may be deducted from an assignment if the student fails to cite sources in precise and professional manner.
3) Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students caught cheating on a test or exam; stealing an essay from another student, internet, publication, or essay-service will be penalized by the division. Students must also give credit when taking ideas from lectures, others’ research and/or publications when they apply them to their essays. Please see the University calendar for penalties for plagiarism.
4) Students must make every effort to have assignments in on time. Adhering to deadlines shows respect for other students and for the professor who allots time for assessing each essay within the context of a class standard. Meeting deadlines is an important part of the discipline.
Late assignments are subject to deductions of 2% per day. Assignments will not be accepted two weeks after the deadline date, and will be awarded a grade of 0%.
Exceptions to this rule include students who i) have negotiated an extension with the professor at least one week prior to the essay’s due date; ii) provide evidence of an legitimate emergency within the 48 hour period prior to the essay’s due date; or iii) submit a medical note. In all of these cases, students must strive to notify the professor as soon as possible. Students must provide doctor’s note within two weeks of the essay’s due date.
5) Students must keep hard copies of all assignments (and be able to produce them upon request) until final course grade has been assigned.
Participation (15%)
Each class you will be responsible for preparing for discussions. I will offer questions, perspectives, and other comments in the preceding seminar that should help focus your reading and note-taking. I will also mention any particular group exercise we might experiment with to facilitate discussion and active learning. Expect a varied learning environment, from individual presentations to film screenings and subsequent discussion. A genuine desire to contribute to discussions invariably leads to an active seminar of critique, inquiry, and shared contribution, and is expected from each of you.
Attendance
To engage sequentially in the accumulated experiences this course offers requires regular attendance. Students who miss a significant number of classes, more than 20 percent, or 5 classes, will not be eligible to write the final exam (unless there are extenuating circumstances I am informed of in advance). Attendance will taken regularly.
Final Exam (25%): This will allow you, as a student of American history with a developed interest in the course areas, to interpret key events, relationships, and processes through the exam essays you select. You will be encouraged to take positions and to defend them, not simply to demonstrate factual recall. Reviews of key themes and issues will be incorporated in our final classes.
Themes and Readings
Week 1 (4 Jan. and 6 Jan.)
1st Meeting
‘Studying the American Past in a Survey of themes since 1865: Interpretations and Perspectives’ in conjunction with course Introduction: (incorporates discussion of course themes, aims, assignments, etc.)
2nd Meeting: Use of the AU Library
Week 2 (11 Jan. and 13 Jan.)
Lecture: 'Reconstruction: Crises and Consolidations to 1877’
For Discussion: Mark Andrew Huddle, 'To Educate a Race' in Frederick M. Binder and David M. Reimers, The Way We Lived, Vol. II, 1865-Present: Essays and Documents in American Social History, 6th Ed. (hereafter Binder and Reimers)
Documents from this collection will be selected and discussed each week
Week 3 (18 Jan. and 20 Jan.)
Lecture: 'Across the Mississippi and From the Pacific: Western Resettlement to 1900'
For Discussion:
Jack Chen, 'Linking a Continent and a Nation,' in Binder and Reimers
-How does Chen's link America's western railway construction era to immigration, race, and labor exploitation?
Week 4 (25 Jan. and 27 Jan.)
Lecture: 'Mass Industry, Social Reformism, and City Lives: American Industrialization Before 1920'
For Discussion:
Jeffrey P. Moran, 'Modernism Gone Mad: Sex Education Comes to Chicago,' Journal of American History, Vol. 83, No. 2 (1996): 481-513 (access and print via AU’s electronic databases)
Week 5 (1Feb. and 3Feb.) Essay Proposal Due
Lecture: 'America Goes to War in Europe, 1917-1919'
For Discussion:
Meirion and Susie Harries, 'Building a National Army,' in Binder and Reimers
What obstacles to creating a national fighting force did Washington face, and how successful was the federal government's efforts in moving to a war footing?
Week 6 (8 Feb. and 10 Feb.)
Lecture: 'Revisiting the Roaring Twenties: Manners and Morals before the Onset of the Great Depression'
For Discussion:
John D'Emilio and Estelle Friedman, 'The Sexual Revolution,' in Binder and Reimers
What do E'milio and Friedman mean by this particular 'revolution,' and what segments in American society seemed most influenced by it? What segments seemed most shocked? How does their work compare to that of JefferyMoran, discussed earlier?
Documents
FEBRUARY BREAK
Week 7
Week 8 (22 Feb. and 24Feb.)
Lecture: 'America in the Dirty Thirties: The Violence of Unemployment, Bankruptcy, and Fear of Fear Itself''
For Discussion:
Timothy Egan, 'The Worst Hard Time,' in Binder and Reimers
How would you assess Egan’s treatment of family, classed, and gendered responses to economic collapse in America throughout the 1930s?
Week 9 (1Mar. and 3 Mar.)
Lecture: 'America and Second World War: On Home and Fighting Fronts'
For Discussion:
William O'Neill, 'The People Are Willing,' in Binder and Reimers
How was the war both a time of innovation and a time of struggle as O'Neill depicts it? What changes stand out most in your reading of this work?
Week 10 (8 Mar. and 10Mar.)
Lecture: 'Postwar Adjustments: Cold War Tensions in the Eisenhower Era'
For Discussion:
Kevin Boyle, 'The Kiss: Racial and Gender Conflict in a 1950s Automotive Industry,' Journal of American History, Vol. 84, No. 2 (1997): 496-523
-How does Boyle contextualize [place in a specific spatial and temporal (historical) setting] deeply rooted conflicts over race and sex? Do the events he describes in the historical setting he develops suggest that traditional social boundaries are being challenged, or reinforced?
Week 11 (15 Mar. and 17Mar.)
Lecture: ‘America's Civil Rights Movement: From Desegregation to Black Power’
For Discussion:
Jacqueline Dowd Hall, The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,' Journal of American History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (2005): 1233-63
How, according to Dowd, have recent debates over the ‘long’ Civil Rights struggle both reflected historical social and political histories and the politics of the near-present?
Week 12 (22 Mar. and 24Mar.)
Lecture: 'America Divided by War: From Vietnam to the War on Terror: Part I’
Jennifer Gordon, 'The New Immigrant Sweatshops,' in Binder and Reimers
How does Gordon interpret the ‘new economy’ with respect to deeper economic and social hierarchies that define American wealth redistribution in the near-contemporary era?
Week 13 (29 Mar. and 31 Mar.) Essays Due 29 Mar.
Lecture: 'America Divided by War: From Vietnam to the War on Terror: Part II’
For Discussion: Course Review and Reminders, on 29 March, of Essay Requirements, from form and format to review of past research-in-progress presentations.
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