US HISTORY II: FROM
1877 TO THE PRESENT
AMST 202—Spring 2007
Colin
S. Cavell, Ph.D. Course Room No.: S17-229
Class
UTH: 11:00-11:50 INTERNET: cscpo@arts.uob.bh
Office
Hours: By appointment Office No.: S17-263
VOICE:
17438775 (W) 17729091 (H)
Survey of US history from the end of the era of
Reconstruction to the present. The rise
of new constitutional and political developments, America’s ascent to
industrial supremacy, America’s rise as a world power, World War I, the Great
Depression, World War II, the Cold War, social, political and cultural changes
since the 1960s, and the rise of neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism.
Grading Policy: 20%
for Attendance*; 20% for the Class Presentation; 20% for the Midterm Exam; 20%
for the Research Paper; and 20% for the Final Exam. A Guidelines sheet will be
distributed outlining the requirements for your Class Presentation and for your
Research Paper.
Grading
Scale: 93-100=A; 90-92=A-; 88-89=B+; 83-87=B;
80-82=B-; 78-79=C+; 73-77=C; 70-72=C-; 68-69=D+; 63-67=D; 60-62=D-; 0-59=F
Attendance Policy*: Attendance in class is mandatory. It is the student’s responsibility to sign
the attendance sheet each day of class; failure to sign the attendance sheet—even
if in attendance—will be counted as an absence.
If your unexcused absences exceed 25% of the total number of lectures of
the course in this semester, you will be automatically withdrawn from the
course and be given a grade of (WF) which will be counted towards your
GPA. As well, you are expected to follow
the syllabus and accordingly be prepared for each day's class. This means that you must read the
pre-assigned readings before class so that you will be prepared to discuss and
debate in class the subject matter scheduled for that day and answer questions
related to the issues being covered.
* Absence from class may be made up by preparing a two-page, typed (i.e. using maximum 12 point font size and maximum
double-spaced text with one-inch margin on all sides), summary on the missed material scheduled to be covered the
day(s) of your absence. The summary must
be in your own words and must not be copied material from the text(s),
the internet, or any other source(s).
Cell
Phone Policy: TURN OFF all cell phones during class. Any student whose cell phone rings, sounds
alarm, or makes any noise whatsoever during class must immediately leave
the classroom for that day. This policy
applies to any electronic device students carry with them.
Required
Texts:
Nash, Gary B. & Julie
Roy Jeffrey, et al. 2006. The American People: Creating A Nation and A Society.
Seventh Edition. New York, NY: Pearson
Education, Inc. (ISBN: 0-321-46334-X)
PART FOUR: AN INDUSTRIALIZING
PEOPLE, 1865-1900
Feb. 25: The Post-Civil War
Period: A New Foundation
Readings: Nash, et al., Review Chs. 1-16
Feb. 27: Rural America: The West and the New South
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 17 “Realizing Dreams: Life on the Great Plains,” “Modernizing Agriculture,” “How Others See
Us: A. Egmont Hake and O.E. Wesslau,
‘The American Tariff War’,” “The West,” “Resolving the Native American
Question,” “Recovering the Past:
Magazines”
Mar.
1: Rural America: The West and the New South
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 17 “American Voices: Sister Blandina Segale, From Her Diary,
November 1882,” “The New South,” “Farm Protest,” “Conclusion: Farming in the Industrial Age”
Mar.
4: The Rise of Smokestack America
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 18 “Telling His Story: O’Donnell and the Senators,” “The Texture of
Industrial Progress,” “Analyzing History:
Steel—The Engine of Industrial Growth,” “Urban Expansion in the
Industrial Age,” “The Industrial City, 1880-1900,” “The Life of
the Middle Class”
Mar.
6: The Rise of Smokestack America
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 18 “How Others See Us: Herbert Spencer, ‘The Americans’,” “Industrial
Work and the Laboring Class,” “Recovering the Past: Congressional Hearings,” “American
Voices: Helen Campbell, Interview with a
Domestic Servant,” “Capital Versus Labor,” “American Voices: Lee Chew Protests the Treatment of the
Chinese in the United States,” “Conclusion: The Complexity of Industrial Capitalism”
Mar. 8: [Last day for dropping courses]
Mar. 8:
Politics and Reform
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 19 “A Utopian Novelist Warns of Two Americas,” “Politics
in the Gilded Age,” “Middle-Class Reform,” “American Voices: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Speaks Out for a
‘Woman’s Bible’”
Mar. 11-May 3: Withdrawal Period with (W)
Mar. 11: Politics and Reform
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 19 “Politics in the Pivotal 1890s,” “American
Voices: Ignatius Donnelly, A Minnesota Farmer Issues and Angry
Call for Reform,” “Recovering the Past:
Political Campaign Artifacts—Buttons and Posters,” “Conclusion: Looking Forward”
Mar. 13: Becoming a World Power
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 20 “Private Grayson Kills a Soldier in the Philippines,” “Steps Toward Empire,”
“Expansionism in the 1890s,” “War in Cuba and the Philippines”
Mar. 15: Becoming a World Power
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 20 “American Voices: Jane Addams Speaks Out Against Imperialism,
War, and Violence,” “Recovering the Past:
Political Cartoons,” “Theodore Roosevelt’s Energetic Diplomacy,”
“Conclusion: The Responsibilities of
Power”
PART FIVE: A MODERNIZING PEOPLE,
1900-1945
Mar. 18: The Progressives Confront Industrial
Capitalism
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 21 “A Professional Woman Joins the Progressive
Crusade,” “The Social Justice Movement,” “Recovering the Past: Documentary Photographs,” “American
Voices: Rosa, An Italian Immigrant
Learns English at a Settlement House in Chicago,” “The Worker in the
Progressive Era”
Mar. 20: The Progressives Confront Industrial
Capitalism
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 21 “American Voices: Pauline Newman, Conditions in a Garment
Factory,” “Reform in the Cities and States,” “Theodore Roosevelt and the Square
Deal,” “Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom,” “Conclusion: The Limits of Progressivism”
Mar. 22: The Great War
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 22 “A Young Man Enlists in the Great Adventure,”
“The Early War Years,” “The United States Enters the War,” “The Military Experience,” “Recovering the
Past: Government Propaganda”
Mar. 25: The Great War
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 22 “American Voices: Private John Figarovsky, American Soldiers
Get a Warm Welcome in France,” “Domestic Impact of the
War,” “American Voices: An African
American Woman Decides to Move North,” “Planning for Peace,” “Conclusion: The Divided Legacy of the Great War”
Mar. 27: Affluence and Anxiety
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 23 “A Black Sharecropper and His Family Move
North,” “Postwar Problems,” “A Prospering Economy,” “How Others See Us: Luigi Barzini, Jr., An Italian Student Falls in Love with the United States,” “American Voices: Babe Ruth Homers in the 1927 World Series,” “Recovering
the Past: Advertising”
Mar. 29: Affluence and Anxiety
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 23 “Hopes Raised, Promises Deferred,” “The
Business of Politics,” “Conclusion: A
New Era of Prosperity and Problems”
Mar.
31: Prophet’s Birthday Holiday
Apr. 1: The
Great Depression and the New Deal
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 24 “Coming of Age and Riding the Rails During
the Depression,” “The Great Depression,” “Economic Decline,” “Roosevelt and the First New Deal,” “American
Voices: Mrs. Ivan G. Martin, ‘What Is to
Become of Us?’ An Oregon Woman Writes to Eleanor and
Franklin Roosevelt,” “One Hundred Days”
Apr. 3: The
Great Depression and the New Deal
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 24 “The Second New Deal,” “The Last Years of the
New Deal,” “The Other Side of the 1930s,” “How Others See Us: Georges Duhamel, A French Writer Visits the United States and Finds Nothing to
Admire,” “Recovering the Past: The Movies,”
“Conclusion: The Mixed Legacy of the
Great Depression and the New Deal”
Apr. 5: World
War II
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 25 “A Native American Boy Plays at War,” “The
Twisting Road to War,” “The Home Front,” “Social Impact of the War,” “American
Voices: PFC Robert Kotlowitz Faces Battle”
Apr. 8: World
War II
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 25 “A War of Diplomats and Generals,”
“Recovering the Past: History, Memory,
and Monuments,” “How Others See Us:
Yamaoka Michiko, on the Ground at Hiroshima,” “Conclusion: Peace, Prosperity, and International
Responsibilities”
Apr. 10: Midterm Exam
PART SIX: A RESILIENT PEOPLE,
1945-2005
Apr. 12: Postwar America at Home, 1945-1960
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 26 “An Entrepreneur Franchises the American
Dream,” “Economic Boom,” “Demographic and Technological Shifts,” “Consensus and
Conformity,” “American Voices: Betty
Friedan, From The Feminine Mystique,” “Recovering the Past: Clothing”
Apr. 15: Bahrain Grand Prix (Possible Holiday) Otherwise In-Class
Presentation Day
Apr. 17: Postwar America at Home, 1945-1960
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 26 “American Voices: Allen Ginsberg, ‘Howl’,” “Origins of the
Welfare State,” “The Other America,” “Conclusion: Qualms Amid Affluence”
Apr. 19: Chills
and Fever During the Cold War, 1945-1960
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 27 “A Government Employee Confronts the
Anti-Communist Crusade,” “Origins of the Cold War,” “Containing the Soviet Union,” “How Others See Us: A West German Poster on the Marshall Plan,” “Recovering
the Past: Public Opinion Polls”
Apr. 22-26: Mid-semester Break [No classes]
Apr. 29: Chills
and Fever During the Cold War, 1945-1960
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 27 “Containment in Asia, the Middle East, and
Latin America,” “American Voices: Speech
to Troops by Colonel Lewis ‘Chesty’ Puller, Commanding Officer of the 1st
Regiment of the Marine Corps in Korea in 1950,” “Atomic Weapons and the Cold
War,” “The Cold War at Home,” “American Voices:
Interrogation of Writer Ring Lardner, Jr., by the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947,” “Conclusion: The Cold War in Perspective”
May 1: Labor Day Holiday
May 3: Reform and Rebellion in the Turbulent Sixties,
1960-1969
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 28 “A Young Liberal Questions the Welfare
State,” “John F. Kennedy: The Camelot
Years,” “Recovering the Past:
Television,” “Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society,” “American
Voices: Anne Moody, From Coming of
Age in Mississippi,” “Continuing
Confrontations with Communists”
May 6: Reform and Rebellion in the Turbulent Sixties,
1960-1969
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 28 “War in Vietnam and Turmoil at Home,”
“Analyzing History: The Vietnam War,” “American
Voices: Tom Hayden and Other Members of
Students for a Democratic Society, Port Huron Statement,” “Conclusion: Political and Social Upheaval”
May 8: Disorder and Discontent, 1969-1980
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 29 “An Older Woman Returns to School,” “The
Decline of Liberalism,” “The Ongoing Effort in Vietnam,” “Recovering the
Past: Popular Music”
May 10: Disorder and Discontent, 1969-1980
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 29 “American Voices: Interview with Paul Meadlo on the My Lai Massacre,” “How Others See
Us: French and German Posters on the
American War in Vietnam”
May 13: Disorder and Discontent, 1969-1980
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 29 “Constitutional Conflict and Its
Consequences,” “The Continuing Quest for Social Reform”
May 15: Disorder and Discontent, 1969-1980
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 29 “American Voices: Helen Chávez, Reflection on the Family’s
Struggle,” “Conclusion: Sorting Out the
Pieces”
May 17: The Revival of Conservatism, 1980-1992 [Research Papers Due]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 30 “A Young Woman Embraces Republican Values,”
“The Conservative Transformation”
May 20: The Revival of Conservatism, 1980-1992
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 30 “An End to Social Reform,” “American
Voices: Jesse Jackson, Address to the
1984 Democratic National Convention,” “American Voices: Sherman Alexie, Four Related Poems”
May 22: The Revival of Conservatism, 1980-1992
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 30 “Economic and Demographic Change,” “Recovering the Past:
The Internet and the World Wide Web,” “Analyzing History: The Computer”
May 24: The Revival of Conservatism, 1980-1992
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 30 “Foreign Policy and the End
of the Cold War”
May 27: The Revival of Conservatism, 1980-1992
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 30 “Conclusion:
Conservatism in Context”
May 29: The
Post-Cold War World, 1992-2005 [Last
Day for In-Class Presentations]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 31 “An Immigrant Family Struggles as the Economy
Improves,” “The Changing Face of the American People,” “Economic and Social
Change”
May 31: The
Post-Cold War World, 1992-2005
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 31 “American Voices: Michelle Kennedy, ‘Mothering Without a Net’,”
“American Voices: Marilyn Chin, ‘How I
Got That Name’”
June 3: The Post-Cold War World,
1992-2005
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 31 “Democratic Revival,” “Recovering the
Past: Autobiography”
June 5: The Post-Cold War World, 1992-2005
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 31 “The Second Bush Presidency”
June 7: The Post-Cold War World, 1992-2005
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 31 “Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World,”
“How Others See Us: Elfriede Jelinek,
‘No New Wars’,” “Conclusion: The Recent
Past in Perspective”
June 10: Last day of
classes; Review
June 17: Final Exam
11:30-13:30
June 26: Last day for
submitting grades