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HISTORY 17B—WINTER 2016

History of the American Peoples, 1830s-1920

Instructor:Lisa Jacobson

Office: HSSB 4232

Email:

Time and Room:MWF, 2:00-2:50, IV Theater 1

Office Hours:M, 11-noon, W, 3:15-4:15 and by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND COURSE OBJECTIVES

This survey of United States history from the 1830s to the end of World War I in 1919 examines how various transformations—the expansion of commerce and the rise of big business, the spread of slavery and westward migration, the influx of new immigrants and the growth of cities—intensified social and political conflict over the meanings of liberty and equality. We will analyze how Americans’ conflicting visions of freedom led them to embrace conflicting solutions to the problems and opportunities generated by social, political, and economic change. While some Americans staged strikes and took up the cause of reform, others staged World’s Fairs and launched imperial ventures. Eventually (and repeatedly), nearly all Americans became embroiled in war. To better understand how Americans attempted to advance and reconcile their competing visions of freedom, we will study traditional ruling elites—politicians, business magnates, and slaveholding planters—as well as a host of other Americans who shaped who we are today: saloon keepers, factory workers, Native Americans, enslaved blacks and freed African Americans, immigrants, suffragists, and women reformers.

This course aims not only to improve your understanding of the American past, but also to equip you with a host of analytical, writing, and critical thinking skills that you can carry with you throughout your college and post-graduation careers. By the end of the course, you will have practiced and honed several skills, including your ability to:

  • analyze primary sources—the documents and artifacts produced by historical actors—by situating them in their historical context, assessing their particular biases, and discerning their multiple layers of meaning
  • evaluate contradictory pieces of historical evidence and use them to formulate a particular interpretation of the past
  • craft a compelling thesis and advance a persuasive argument
  • understand how the past informs our current aspirations for a better world and how the past has shaped the social conflicts, ideological struggles, and problems of inequality we continue to wrestle with today

REQUIRED READINGS

Copies of the following required readings are available for purchase at the UCSB bookstore and have also been placed on two-hour reserve at the library.

  • Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American History, fourth compact edition
  • John Majewski, ed., History of the American Peoples: A Primary Source Reader
  • Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of a Slave
  • David Von Drehele, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America

Additional materials on Give Me Libertywebsite:This textbook is linked with a website hosted by the book’s publisher: While you are not required to use the website, it does contain worksheets, flashcards, and other material that you might find useful in preparing for exams and deepening your understanding of the course. The following access code will allow you to use the website: GIVE-LIB4.

How to prioritize your reading:Give Me Liberty provides a useful overview of the main events and course themes and, along with the course lectures, will supply the essential historical context you need to interpret and evaluate the other assigned readings. The discussion sections will focus on the primary source documents in the Majewski reader, Frederick Douglas’s autobiography, and the riveting history of the Triangle Fire, so it is especially important that you come to section having carefully read and thought about those particular readings.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Grades will be based on two papers, an in-class final exam, and participation in discussion section. Grades will be apportioned as follows:

Paper 1: 20% (due in class Friday, February 5)

Paper 2: 25% (due in class Wednesday, March 2)

Final: 35% (Monday, March 14, 4:00-7:00pm, IV Theatre)

Discussion Section: 20%

Description of papers and exams:The papers, approximately 5-6 double-spaced, typed pages, will ask you develop an argument based on your analysis of primary sources, secondary readings, and lecture materials. Questions will be passed out a week in advance, and your TA will provide more information, including writing advice and formatting instructions, as the quarter progresses. The final exam will consist of essay questions selected from a list of questions handed out in advance.

Requirements for a passing grade:To pass the course, students must complete all of the assignments and earn a passing grade in section. Because participation in discussion is an important part of the course, three unexcused absences will result in an automatic “F” in section (and a C- or below in the course).

Procedure for appealing grades:Your TA will grade all of the assignments as well as section participation. Should you disagree with your TA over a grade, you may appeal to me only after discussing the grade first with your TA. Every appeal to me must be submitted in writing, explaining why you believe the grade should be higher. I reserve the right to lower as well as raise grades in appeal situations. All appeals must be initiated within one week after the assignment has been returned.

IMPORTANT CLASS POLICIES

Academic Integrity:Plagiarism or any other form of cheating will not be tolerated in this course. Plagiarism involves borrowing the words from a book, article, Internet source, or classmate without properly crediting the author. Students may not use unassigned readings without permission from their TA. Any students caught turning in work that is not their own will fail the assignment, fail the course, and may face disciplinary action from the university.

IMPORTANT CLASS POLICIES (CONTINUED)

Conduct during lecture:This is a large class, and it might be tempting to think that your behavior is invisible to others. Rude and distracting behaviors, however, can affect the learning outcomes for all students. Please observe basic rules of common courtesy: arrive on time and stay to the end of class and refrain from shopping online, checking your Facebook page, talking to friends, etc. during class. If a student repeatedly acts in a rude or distracting manner—including leaving early without prior authorization—I will ask the TAs to take the student’s name and penalize his or her grade accordingly.

PART I: A FRACTURED REPUBLIC

I. The Market Revolution, Expansionism, and American National Identity

Jan. 4: Introduction to History 17B

Jan. 6: Commercial Development and American Political Culture

Jan. 8: An Empire for Liberty? Slavery, Native Americans, and Western Expansion

Readings for Discussion Section Week 1:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter9 (pp. 320-341, 347-353), Chapter 10 (esp., 355-364, 379-394)
  • Documents on GauchoSpace:
  • Document 1: “Alexis de Tocqueville Marvels at the Mobile Northern Society, 1831”
  • Document 2: “The United States Democratic Review Argues That ‘White Slavery’ Threatens the Urban North, 1842”

II. Domestic Ideology, Moral Reform, and Feminism

Jan. 11: Domestic Ideology and the Rise of the Middle Class

Jan. 13: Moral Reform and Abolitionism

Jan. 15: The Emergence of Women’s Rights

Readings for Discussion Section Week 2:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 9 (pp. 341, 344-347, 349-351; sections on “The Great Awakening,” “Mormonism,” “The Cult of Domesticity,” “Women and Work”), Chapter 12
  • Nancy Cott, “Feminism and the Private World of Women” (linked to on GauchoSpace)
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 2, 3, 4, 5 (pp. 7-23, 27-28)

III. Slavery and Race

Jan. 18: HOLIDAY—NO CLASS!!

Jan. 20: Southern Society and Proslavery Ideology

Jan. 22: Slave Culture in the Antebellum South

Readings for Discussion Section Week 3:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 11
  • Douglass, Narrative of the Life of a Slave

Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Document 6 (pp. 29-32)

IV. The Coming of the Civil War

Jan. 25: Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War (Receive Topics for Paper #1)

Jan. 27: Sectionalism, the Republic Party, and the Tumultuous Politics of the 1850s

Jan. 29: Abraham Lincoln and the Secession Crisis

Readings for Discussion Section Week 4:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 13
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 7, 8, 9, 10 (pp. 33-55)

V. Civil War and Reconstruction

Feb. 1: The Civil War as Total War

Feb. 3: Who Freed the Slaves?

Feb. 5: Was Reconstruction a Failure?(Paper #1 Due)

Readings for Discussion Section Week 5:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 14, 15
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 11, 12, 13 (pp. 57-81)

PART II: THE INCORPORATION OF AMERICA

VI. The Westand the Rise of Big Business

Feb. 8: “Redeeming the South, Conquering the West”

Feb. 10: Cultural Conflict and Dispossession in the West

Feb. 12: The Rise of Big Business

Readings for Discussion Section Week 6:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 16 (pp. 592-621)
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 14, 15, 16 (pp. 85-98)

VII. Labor,Capital, and the Cities

Feb. 15: HOLIDAY—NO CLASS!!

Feb. 17: “Eight Hours for What We Will”: Labor and Leisure

Feb. 19: Cities and the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago

Readings for Discussion Section Week 7:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 16(pp. 621-636)
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 17, 18, 19 (pp. 99-116)
  • Drehle, Triangle (begin reading—this week’s reading is relatively light and next week’s is relatively heavy, so this is a good week to read at least half of Triangle in preparation for next week’s discussion)

PART III: POPULISM AND PROGRESSIVISM:

CONTESTED VISIONS OF THE NATION AND AMERICAN GLOBAL POWER

VIII. Radical (and not so Radical) Responses to Corporate America

Feb. 22: The Populist Response to Big Business (Receive Paper #2 Topics)

Feb. 24: Varieties of Progressivism and the Growth of the State

Feb. 26: The Triangle Fire and the Promises and Limitations of Progressive Reform

Readings for Discussion Section Week 8:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 17 (pp. 637-648; section on “The Populist Challenge”) and Chapter 18
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 (pp. 119-149)
  • Drehle, Triangle (finish reading)

IX. Racial Ideology, Nativism, and Progressive Reform

Feb. 29: Southern Progressivism and African American Responses to Jim Crow

Mar. 2: Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism(Paper #2 Due)

Mar. 4: Prohibition and Pressure Politics

Readings for Discussion Section Week 9:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 17 (pp. 648-680; sections on “The Segregated South,” “Redrawing the Boundaries,” “Becoming a World Power”)
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 25, 26, 27 (pp. 151-167)

X. World War I: the Culmination of Progressive Reform?

Mar. 7: Women’s Suffrage and the Politics of War and Peace

Mar. 9: State Power and Wartime Citizenship

Mar. 11: “Safe for Democracy”?: The Contested Meanings of Freedom

Readings for Discussion Section Week 10:

  • Foner, Give Me Liberty, Chapter 19
  • Majewski, Primary Source Reader, Documents 28, 29, 30 (pp. 169-181)

Mar. 14: Final Exam, 4:00-7:00pm, IV Theater