“Tippecanoe to George Bush Two”
U.S. Presidential
Elections in Historical Context
Syllabus
and Survival Guide
History 498 – Fall 2004
Wednesdays, 7-9:50 pm,
Sierra Hall 288
Instructor
Dr.
Thomas W. Devine
Office
Hours:
Sierra Tower 624, Tu,Th 2:30-3:30 pm and by appointment gladly given. Phone: (818) 677-3550 E-mail
The following books are at the Matador Bookstore
and are listed in the order in which we will read them. Any other readings will be provided in
class.
1. Gil
Troy, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate
[Rev. ed.]
2. Robert
Shogan, The Double-Edged Sword: How Character Makes and Ruins Presidents,
from Washington to Clinton
3. Roy
Morris, Jr., Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden and
the Stolen Election of 1876
4. Brett
Flehinger, The 1912 Election and the Power of Progressivism
5. Irwin
Ross, The Loneliest Campaign: The Truman Victory of 1948
6. Lewis
L. Gould, 1968: The Election that Changed America
7. Anonymous
[Joe Klein], Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
8. James
W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch, The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000
Presidential Election
Quizzes/1-page
Reaction Papers 20%
Paper Assignment [due October 18 or November
22] 20%
CLICK HERE FOR OCTOBER 18
PAPER ASSIGNMENT
CLICK HERE FOR
NOVEMBER 22 PAPER ASSIGNMENT
Semester Project
[final version due December 6] 30%
Spirit of the Course
In this course, we will be looking at U.S.
presidential elections throughout American history, focusing particularly, but
not exclusively, on the twentieth century.
We will discuss, among other issues, the changing role of the
presidential candidate; the impact of the media on presidential campaigns; the
“material culture” – buttons, balloons, slogans, songs, and so on – that
accompanies a presidential election; the financing of elections; candidates’
use (and abuse) of the race issue; the significance of “character” as a
qualification for the presidency (an especially salient issue in the current
and last few elections); and, through examining several case studies, how a
presidential election can be a watershed moment in our nation’s history.
Since
the course coincides with the 2004 presidential election, we will also concern
ourselves with two topics historians rarely consider – the present and the
future. On occasion, we will set aside
time in our weekly meeting to discuss the Bush-Kerry contest with an eye toward
how the current election demonstrates both change from and continuity with the
past. If there is sufficient interest,
we will watch one of the presidential debates and the election night returns as
a class. (Attendance will be optional, but I’ll be providing free food.)
In essence,
this course, along with your 497, is the capstone of your academic experience
in college. Most of you will not have
the opportunity to engage in this kind of exercise again. Make the most of it
by giving the course your full effort and doing the assigned work. Believe it or not, in later years you’ll
appreciate that you did.
Explanation of Requirements
Attendance
Since class meets only once a week, it is important, and
it is expected, that you will be at every session. Inevitably, an occasion may arise when you are unable to
attend. Out of fairness to your
classmates who do attend every week, however, each absence past the first two
will adversely affect your final grade.
Also, given the heavy weight placed on in-class discussion, any absence
is likely to detract from your participation grade. To make up for a missed class, you may turn in a 2-page,
single-spaced précis summarizing the reading for the class you missed.
There’s no getting around it – this class will require
extensive reading. But, as a senior seminar, it is supposed to. To succeed in this course, you will need to
complete the reading, but you will also need to have given it some
thought. Read with a pencil in hand –
take notes in the margins. Record terms
that are unfamiliar to you or that you don’t understand, points that you find
interesting or surprising, arguments with which you strongly agree or disagree,
or ideas that connect to things we’ve talked about in previous classes. Also, read smart – don’t read every single
word of the first 4 chapters and nothing thereafter because you ran out of time.
If you catch the argument the author is making, don’t sweat all the details or
supporting examples – skim over them and get on to the next major point. It is more important to have gotten the gist
of an entire book than to master every aspect of the first one-third of it.
The class
will be conducted in a seminar format, which means interaction and discussion
rather than note taking and lecturing (and sleeping). Our meetings will be conversations – free, open, and informal
exchanges of ideas based on the assigned reading – and I expect everyone to
take an active part. I will do my best
to insure each student has ample opportunity to contribute, but,
ultimately, it will be up to you to make certain that you remain an active
participant rather than a passive observer.
Leading Discussion
One person will be responsible for leading the discussion
each week. That person will compose a list of 8 questions that address the
major themes and issues raised in the reading.
The discussion leader will meet with me briefly ahead of time to go over
his or her questions. Before the
seminar begins, he or she will also provide each member of the class a copy of
the questions. Alternatively, the
leader may employ other pedagogical techniques – small group discussions, an
in-class debate, the use of audio-visual materials, or some other approach to
stimulate discussion. This is all to
the good, and I encourage you to structure your discussion in the way you think
will be most effective.
Paper Assignment
This
paper assignment will focus on the material covered in the assigned reading and
during class discussions. There will be
a choice of topics, which will be handed out well before the due date. There will also be two separate assignments
– one at the one-third point of the semester and the second at the two-third
point. You may choose the option that works best for you. Papers
should be four to six pages with reasonable margins. Grades will be based on the quality of your ideas and how
effectively you present them.
This
assignment allows you to be Mark Hanna, Jim Farley, Clark
Clifford, Susan Estrich, Lee Atwater or Carl Rove. (If you don’t know who these
folks are, you will by the end of the semester.) Your task is to choose one US
presidential election, and one candidate and then devise a comprehensive
campaign strategy that you believe will get your guy elected. We will discuss the specifics of this
assignment in more detail as the semester progresses. Your final product will be the equivalent of a 10-page paper. I
will ask you to submit a draft and a final version.
The
last, and undoubtedly most onerous requirement is to memorize all of the
presidents in their proper order. There
will be a quiz which you can take as many times as you want, but you will need
to get a 100% by the end of the semester.
Surviving History 498…
Common Courtesy & Academic Honesty
Since I assume that
all of you possess impeccable manners and are of upstanding character, most of
this should go without saying, but I put it in writing here so that there will
be no misunderstanding. Please turn off
all cell phones and pagers while you are in class. Please arrive on time and do not walk out in the middle of class
or leave at the break unless it is an emergency or you have spoken to me about
it ahead of time. Do not tell me things
that are not true and expect me to believe them. Do not cheat. Do not plagiarize.
If you do so, I will find you out and make your life miserable.
(References available upon request.)
Problems
I
appreciate that many CSUN evening students are stretching themselves quite
thin, often working full time while taking classes at night. 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 know. Do not wait until the end of the
semester when it will be too late.
I am more than willing to work with you to insure you “survive,” but I
need to know you are having difficulties. You will find that as long as you keep me up
to speed, I will be very sympathetic.
25
August Introduction:
An explanation of course objectives, mechanics, and procedures.
1
September The
Evolution of the Presidential Campaign: The 19th Century
Reading:
Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 1-132
Discussion Leader: Tom
Adams
Reading: Troy,
See How They Ran, pp. 133-282
Discussion
Leader: Devin Engebretsen
15
September Presidential
Character (and Characters)
Reading:
Shogan, The Double-Edged Sword, pp. 1-102
Dallek, Hail
to the Chief, Chapter 4
Discussion
Leader: Matt Vacca
22
September The
“Character Issue” in Recent Presidential Campaigns
Reading:
Shogan, The Double Edged-Sword, 103-287
Discussion
Leader: Art Nelson, Blanca Rivera
29 September Racial
Politics in the Modern Presidential Campaign
Reading: Excerpts
from Jeremy D. Mayer, Running on Race
Discussion
Leader: Jonathan Sharpe
6
October “We’ll
Sell Him Just Like Soap Flakes:” Mass Media Campaigning
Reading:
Excerpts from Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Packaging the Presidency
Discussion
Leader: Ilana Lopez, Tom Taverner
13
October “The
Best President Money Can Buy:” Campaign Finance Reform
Reading:
Steven Gillion, That’s Not What We Meant To Do, Chapter 5
Excerpts from
Jeff Birnbaum, The Money Men
Bradley A.
Smith, “Campaign Finance Regulation: Faulty Assumptions and Undemocratic
Consequences”
Discussion
Leader: Cris Canchola
20
October “The
Stolen Election:” Hayes vs Tilden
Reading: Roy
Morris, Jr., Fraud of the Century
Discussion Leader: Steve
Batham
Reading: Brett
Flehinger, The 1912 Election
Discussion
Leader: Karen Cantarero
3
November “Tippecanoe
and Trinkets Too:” The Material Culture of Presidential Campaigns
Reading:
Excerpts from Keith Melder, Hail to the Candidate
Discussion
Leader: Jennifer Elliott
10
November “Dewey
Defeats Truman:” The Democratic Upset of 1948
Reading:
Ross, The Loneliest Campaign
To listen to
Truman’s acceptance speech CLICK HERE
Discussion
Leader: Melinda Crisler
17
November “The
Hard Year:” The 1968 Campaign
Reading:
Gould, 1968: The Election That Changed America
To
listen to RFK’s announcement of MLK’s death CLICK HERE
Discussion Leader: Holly
Estes
24
November On
The Campaign Trail in the 1990s
Reading:
Anonymous, Primary Colors
Discussion Leader: Thomas
Williams
1
December Bush
vs Gore: The Election of 2000
Reading:
Ceaser and Busch, The Perfect Tie
Discussion
Leader: Jeremy Williams