The United States Since 1865 – Syllabus and Survival Guide

 

Honors History 371 – Fall 2014

                                                                                                         

TuTh 11:00 – 12:15 pm, Sierra Hall 184

 

 

History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something

to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the

past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact

that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in

many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could

scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames

of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.

 

– JAMES BALDWIN

Instructor

 

Dr. Thomas W. Devine

Office Hours: Sierra Tower 624, Tuesdays 2:00-3:00 pm; Thursdays 2:30-3:30 pm and by appointment gladly given. 

Email: tom.devine@csun.edu Phone: (818) 677-3550

 

Teaching Assistant: Rebecca Thompson  Email: rebecca.thompson.920@my.csun.edu

 

Required Reading

 

Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson

David Nasaw, Children of the City                                               

Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Michael Patrick MacDonald, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie

 

To avoid the inflated prices at the Matador Bookstore, you should buy your books on line. You are likely to find used or discounted copies at the following web sites: http://www.bookfinder.com; http://www.amazon.com; http://www/half.com

 

Spirit of the Course

 

Someone, probably a frustrated student, once complained, “History is just one damn thing after another.” Unfortunately, many history courses are taught in such a way that one can easily reach this grim conclusion. In this class, however, you will not simply be memorizing a series of facts and regurgitating them for exams. This class is specifically designed for the non-History major in an effort to persuade you that a history course, if well taught, can actually provide you with valuable skills and prepare you for a career in numerous fields that are in no way related to History per se. I will not be lecturing at you or reading you text from a powerpoint slide. Most of the time, I’ll be asking you questions, or, more precisely, asking you to think. Thinking can be hard work, which explains why most people never bother, but as college students, you should consider giving it a try. I will give you the opportunity to do so.

 

Although we will be learning a good deal about what happened in the United States between 1865 and the present, more importantly, we will be trying to figure out why things happened the way they did. Why did some Americans gain power, prestige, and prosperity while others fell behind? Why have Americans been at once so open to “progress” and “change” and yet deeply uneasy when confronted with change? Why, as James Baldwin suggests, does our history play such a significant part in determining the nation and the individuals we are today and where we might be headed?

 

In addition, the course will provide you with ample opportunities to improve your writing and analytical skills. Throughout the semester you will be critically examining historical sources – both primary (produced at the time of the historical event in question) and secondary (produced after the fact). Using evidence presented in these sources, you will be formulating arguments for a particular position (and evaluating the strength of others’ arguments based on the same evidence). We will also work on how to write a coherent, logical essay that takes a particular point of view and makes a persuasive case for it. These skills are invaluable if you are to succeed in any number of career paths and will serve you well in the world beyond History 371. In fact, it is no coincidence that many employers in fields such as finance, marketing, management, advertising, journalism, public relations, and law now prefer to hire History majors. They know that History students have been trained to think critically, analyze data effectively, argue persuasively, and write clearly – all skills in high demand in today’s job market and in very short supply in our increasingly illiterate culture.

 

Finally, as someone who believes an informed citizenry is vital to sustaining the health of our political system, I hope that by studying the unfolding of American history since the Civil War, you will leave this course a more informed citizen than when you entered. Today, most Americans are astonishingly ignorant of their own nation’s history and even more clueless about the world around them. This is not only embarrassing, but unfortunate, for as George Orwell reminds us in his novel1984, those who have no knowledge of the past are not only powerless, they inevitably are dominated by those who do possess such knowledge – something to think about as we begin the semester.

 

Themes

 

One way of making sense of a large amount of material is to identify major themes that recur throughout this period of our country’s history. Looking at a series of events through the lens of a theme, it becomes easier to see how these events are linked. A coherent “big picture” begins to emerge. Moreover, this process can reveal connections between the past and the present that we might not have seen otherwise. Though there are obviously many themes from which one could choose, I have structured the course around four in particular:

 

1.   The expanding role of government in citizens’ lives.

                       

How and under what circumstances should government exercise its coercive power in order to address social problems?

 

2.   The persistence of tensions between the various groups that make up American society.

 

                        What determines and who decides who gets rich and who stays poor? In a country of multiple races, cultural traditions, and religions, what does it mean to be American? (Or, for that matter, “Un-American”?)

 

3.  The United States’ increasing involvement in the international arena and the ramifications this brought.

 

To what extent should the United States involve itself in the affairs of other nations? Over time, what benefits and detriments has this involvement brought both to the U.S. and to other nations?

 

4.    The continuing conflict over what constitutes a “good society.”

 

How does one strike a balance between liberty and equality – the two seemingly contradictory principles upon which the nation was founded?

 

These questions have no simple answers, though today one hears no end of simple-minded ones. To grapple thoughtfully with these issues, one needs more than a 20-second sound bite, a five word slogan, or 140 twitter characters. One needs to exercise one’s brain instead of blindly following a political “line.” Accordingly, in this class, we will try to do the serious thinking that those in power understandably do their best to discourage, lest the average person become too inquisitive or informed.

 

Requirements & Grading

 

Class Participation, Quizzes, and Short Writing Assignments            25%

 

THREE STEPS TO BETTER WRITING

 

1st Paper                                                                                                        10%

 

Option A on Pudd’nhead Wilson due September 22nd

 

CLICK HERE FOR PAPER OPTION A

 

Option B on Children of the City due October 6th

 

CLICK HERE FOR PAPER OPTION B

 

2nd Paper                                                                                                       15%

  

Option A on Man in the Gray Flannel Suit due November 17th

  

Option B on All Souls due December 7th

CLICK HERE FOR OPTION B

 

Midterm Examination [October 16th]                                                             20%

 

CLICK HERE FOR MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE

 

Final Examination [December 16th]                                                              25%

 

CLICK HERE FOR FINAL STUDY GUIDE

 

Because the primary source paper was cancelled, you will receive an extra 5% on the portion of the course in which you have the highest numerical score.

                                                                                                                                               

• All grading is based on 100 points and will be done on the +/ – system.

• You must write 2 papers. If you more than one of the options for the first or second paper assignment, I will count the highest grade.

• Late papers will be penalized. Any paper turned in more than a week after its due date will not be accepted.

• Late short writing assignments will not be accepted. 

Any assignment not turned in or not accepted will receive a grade of ZERO in the calculation of the final grade.

  

Explanation of Requirements

 

Class Participation and Quizzes

Though this course will include some lectures, it is not exclusively a “lecture course.” Honors GE sections are limited to 30 students to facilitate discussion and classroom interaction. Complete assigned reading BEFORE you come to class and be ready to comment on it – the class will be far more enjoyable for you and your classmates if we can sustain a good discussion. Since not everyone is comfortable speaking in front of others, your performance on the quizzes and short writing assignments will also be considered as part of your participation grade. I will drop your lowest quiz score before calculating your quiz average. I allow make up quizzes, but you must contact me before the quiz to make arrangements for a make up.

 

Midterm and Final Examinations

The Midterm and Final Examinations will consist of 7 short essay questions and 1-2 long essays. A week or so before each exam, I will distribute review questions that will help you prepare. You are responsible for bringing an unmarked green book to the midterm and the final.

 

Paper Assignments

The two analytical papers will focus on the assigned books. There will be a choice of paper topics, which will be handed out well before the due date. You will write your first paper based on Pudd’nhead Wilson or Children of the City. You will write your second paper based on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit or All Souls. If you wish, you may do more than one of the paper options and I will count only the highest grade. Each paper must be a minimum of 1500 words.

 

Surviving History 371… 

 

Doing Well

You have chosen to pursue a college degree, and therefore – at least in this course – you will have to do college level work if you expect to pass. Given that you are eligible for an Honors section, I will assume that you take your studies seriously and that you are capable of doing something approaching college level work. That said, History 371 is a GE course, it isn’t Rocket Science. As one student evaluation put it, “If you do the reading, study for the tests, and pay attention in class, it’s pretty easy to do well. On the other hand, if you don’t do the reading, don’t come to class, and don’t study, you’ll probably fail.” That pretty much sums it up.

 

Attendance

Since active student participation is crucial to the class’s success, you are expected to be at every meeting. I do take attendance. Frequent absences will dramatically lower your course grade. If you are a person who rarely attends class and relies on copying notes from a friend, you would be best served by registering for another section of History 371. Or, perhaps more to the point, you might reconsider why you are in college in the first place. Moreover, if you are accepting tax payer dollars in the form of grants and/or subsidized loans to fund your education and you do not attend class, you are engaging in fraud. If you are paying your own way and you don’t attend class, you are simply throwing your money away (about $60 a class, but who’s counting?)

 

History Writing Center

Most CSUN students, like most Americans, lack college level writing skills. (In fact, recent evidence indicates that most CSUN students write at a 6th grade level.) To help address this serious problem, the History Department has established its own Writing Center. You can make an appointment with one of the writing tutors by calling the History Department at 818 677-3566 or you can talk to me about setting up an appointment. The tutor will read a draft of your paper and discuss with you ways to improve it. You may then resubmit your paper up to a week after your appointment with the tutor and I will grade the revised version. If you graduate still unable to write a coherent paragraph, beyond being embarrassing, it will be difficult for you to advance very far in your career of choice. Make an effort to improve your writing. I will make every effort to help you do so.

 

Problems

If you are feeling overwhelmed, find yourself falling behind, or are having any problems outside of class that are adversely affecting your performance in class, be sure to let me or the TA know.  Do not wait until the end of the semester when it will be too late. We are more than willing to work with you to insure you “survive,” but we need to know you are having difficulties. Come to see me or send an email as soon as a problem arises and we can work something out

 

Getting Help

Contrary to what you may have heard about professors in large state universities, I go out of my way to be available for students on a one-on-one basis, so if you need advice or help – even if your problem is not directly related to this course – do not hesitate to email me, come to my office hours, or set up an appointment. Students who make the effort to get to know their professors end up getting far more from their college education than those who don’t.  Professors are paid to help you (and you pay – more each year! – to benefit from our help.) Get your money’s worth.

 

Laptop Policy

Since “multi-tasking” is a constant temptation, laptops, tablets, and smart phones end up being more of a distraction than an aid. I do not allow you to use a laptop, tablet, or any electronic device in my classroom unless you have a medical note stating that you must have one.

 

Common Courtesy

You are at a university among professional people so you should try to act like you belong here. Do not embarrass yourself by behaving badly. Don’t speak while others are speaking. Please turn off and put away all cell phones and other electronic gadgets while you are in class. Texting or constantly playing with your phone during class is rude and distracts both me and your classmates. Beyond that, it makes you look foolish, and people – like me – will judge you accordingly. Arrive on time and do not walk out in the middle of class unless it is an emergency or you have spoken to me about it ahead of time. Go to the restroom before class or wait until class is over. In short, act courteously and professionally. It’s part of being an educated person.

 

Academic Honesty

Do not lie to me about why you missed class or failed to turn in an assignment. It is unnecessary and it insults my intelligence. Do not cheat on the quizzes or exams. I will catch you and you will receive an automatic zero for the assignment. Do not plagiarize from written sources or from the web. Since plagiarism is always obvious and easily caught (I know how to use Google too), it is better to hand in your own work and get a C than someone else’s and get an F. Plagiarized assignments will receive a grade of zero. Beyond that, your name will be circulated among other faculty as someone who lacks integrity and you risk being expelled from the University. If you are unsure what plagiarism is, please consult with me or the TA BEFORE you hand in an assignment.

 

 

Schedule of Topics and Assignments

 

Tues. 26 Aug.          The Civil War: What was won? What was lost?

                                   

                                    REVIEW QUESTIONS

 

Thurs. 28 Aug.        “Restoring the Union: Reconstruction in the North and South”

                                    Reading: John David Smith, “Radical Terrorism”

 

                                    STUDY QUESTIONS

 

REVIEW QUESTIONS

                                     

Tues. 2 Sept.           “The Iron Horse” – Railroads as the Herald of the Industrial Age

Reading: Burton W. Folsom, Jr., “James J. Hill and the Transcontinental Railroads”

William Cronon, “Railroads and the Reorganization of Nature and Time”

                                   

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1

 

Thurs. 4 Sept.          “Let us Prey” – Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and the new Corporate Order

Reading: Mark Summers, “Industrialism Unleashed”

 

STUDY QUESTIONS

 

Tues.  9 Sept.          “Worse Than Slavery?” – Black Poverty, the Plantation Economy, and the Rural South

Reading: Jay Mandle, Not Slave, Not Free, Chapters 1-5

 

STUDY QUESTIONS

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE

           

QUIZ #1 – Mandle, NOT SLAVE, NOT FREE

 

Thurs. 11 Sept.       “Sharecropping, Free Labor, and Paternalism” – Northern and Southern Economies Contrasted

                                   

[Continue discussion of Mandle, Not Slave, Not Free]

 

Tues. 16 Sept.         “Separate but Equal?” – Mark Twain and the Irony of American Race Relations

                                    Reading: Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson

 

                                    STUDY QUESTIONS

 

                                    Recommended Reading:

Shelley Fisher Fishkin, “‘The Tales He Couldn’t Tell:’ Mark Twain, Race, and Culture at Century’s End: A Social Context for Pudd’nhead Wilson

 

Thurs. 18 Sept.       Continue Discussion of Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE

 

QUIZ #2 – Twain, PUDD’NHEAD WILSON

 

Tues. 23 Sept.         “The Four D’s: Duty, Destiny, Defense, Dollars” – Explaining American Expansionism

 

                                    LECTURE NOTES

 

Thurs. 25 Sept.       Responses to Immigration and Urbanization: Social Darwinism vs Progressivism

                                    Reading: David Nasaw, Children of the City, Chapters 1-4

                                   

STUDY GUIDE

 

Tues. 30 Sept.         “Life in the Big City” – Street Kids and Progressive Reformers

                                    Reading: David Nasaw, Children of the City, Chapters 5-10

  

Thurs. 2 Oct.            Continue Discussion of Nasaw, Children of the Ctiy

Reading: David Nasaw, Children of the City, Chapters 11-end

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #4 DUE

 

QUIZ #3 – Nasaw, CHILDREN OF THE CITY

 

Tues. 7 Oct.              “Over There and Over Here” The US Experience in World War I

                                   

Thurs. 9 Oct.            “Flaming Youth”: The Legacy of the First World War and Cultural Conflict in the 1920s

Reading: Joshua Zeitz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women who made America Modern

                        PART I

                        PART II

 

STUDY QUESTIONS

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #5 DUE

 

VIDEO ON LOIS LONG AND 1920S MANHATTAN

 

 

Tues. 14 Oct.           “From Harding to Hard Times” – The Origins of the Great Depression, 1919-1933

 

Thurs. 16 Oct.                      MIDTERM EXAMINATION 

 

Tues. 21 Oct.           “Nothing to Fear” – FDR and the Culture of the Great Depression

 

Thurs. 23 Oct.          Class Cancelled

 

Tues. 28 Oct.           The New Deal and the Emergence of the Modern Welfare Sate

Reading: David Kennedy, “What the New Deal Did”

                                   

                                    WRITING ASSIGNMENT #6 DUE

                                   

Thurs. 30 Oct.          From Munich to Hiroshima: The Second World War

                                   

Tues. 4 Nov.            “Anxiety and Anticommunism” – From World War to Cold War

 

                                    POWER POINT PRESENTATION – 4 “A”s

 

Thurs. 6 Nov.           “Affluence and Alienation” – American Life in the 1950s

                                   

Tues. 11 Nov.          VETERAN’S DAY – NO CLASS

 

Thurs. 13 Nov.        “Out of the Army and into the Rat Race” – Adjusting to the Postwar World

                                    Reading: Wilson, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

                                               

                                    STUDY GUIDE

 

 QUIZ #6 – Wilson, MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT

 

Tues. 18 Nov.          Kennedy and the Promise of the ‘60s

 

Thurs. 20 Nov.        “1968: The Unraveling of America”

 

Tues. 25 Nov.          Right Turn” – Foreign and Domestic Challenges during the 1970s and 1980s

 

Thurs. 27 Nov.        THANKSGIVING – NO CLASS

 

Tues. 2 Dec.             The Greatest Place in the World”: Busing, Gangs, and Urban Poverty in South Boston, 1965-80

Reading: MacDonald, All Souls

 

STUDY GUIDE

 

QUIZ #7 – MacDonald, ALL SOULS

 

Thurs. 4 Dec.           Continue discussion of All Souls

  

Tues.  9 Dec.            “The End of the American Dream?” – Economic Inequality and Class Mobility in the Early 21st Century

Reading: Tony Judt, Ill Fares the Land, Charts and Tables

Michael Sandel, “Morality and the Free Market” [Video Clip]

 

 

Tues. 16 Dec.                      FINAL EXAMINATION – 10:15 am – 12:15 pm