History 502 – The United States, 1877-1929
Syllabus and Survival Guide
Summer 2001
Monday 7:00 pm – 9:50 pm,
Sierra Hall 286
Dr. Thomas W. Devine
Phone: (818) 677-3550 (office) Email: tom.devine@csun.edu
The following books – listed in the order in which we will read them – are available at the Matador Bookstore. Any other readings will be provided in class or put on reserve at the library.
**-This book is currently out of print. I have checked, and several used copies are available for purchase through www.bookfinder.com Also, it should be available at your local public library and at university and community college libraries.
To subvert the system and to save yourself some money, you might consider buying used copies of the books. I would suggest the following web sites where you are likely to find used or discounted copies at significantly lower prices:
www.bookfinder.com;
www.half.com; www.alibris.com; www.mysimon.com; www.abebooks.com
--This course will offer an interpretive survey of political, cultural, and social trends in the United States from 1877 to 1929. If all goes according to plan, you will leave with a broader and deeper understanding of the events of this period and their significance in shaping present day U.S. society.
--You will also have the opportunity to become familiar with the historiography of this period. Though the emphasis of the course will not be on historiographical issues, I will introduce and we will all discuss scholarly controversies where appropriate.
--Since several of you are contemplating teaching careers, on occasion we will also address how the material we are studying could best be presented to high school and college students.
Assignments
Leading Discussion
One person
will be responsible for leading the discussion each week. That person will compose a list of 10 questions
that address the major themes and issues raised in the reading. The discussion leader will meet with me
briefly before class to go over his or her questions. He or she will also provide each member of the class a copy of
the questions before the seminar begins.
These questions will be the basis for discussion, though we will likely
move on to other topics as well. The
discussion leader will also prepare a 2-page single-spaced précis of the
reading and distribute that to the class.
(I can handle the Xeroxing if you have your questions and précis to me
shortly before class.) I also encourage
you to compose a list of questions on the reading even when you are not the
scheduled discussion leader, since formulating questions as you read will help you
frame your ideas and assist you in articulating your arguments.
Select a topic from this period that you find to be of interest and do some outside reading on it. I would recommend a mixture of books and articles. Your choice of focus need not be directly related to the material covered in the course. Indeed, this is your opportunity to investigate a subject area that the course may neglect. Your paper should summarize your findings. You might conceive of this survey of the secondary literature as an entrée into a possible Master Thesis topic, however, you are not to hand in work that you have already prepared in conjunction with another class. You may hand in this paper any time before the end of the fall semester, though I encourage you to turn it in sooner than that.
The purpose
of this assignment is to get you to think and write about some “big
question.” You need not do any outside
research for this assignment. Rather,
you should pose a question and draw on the readings and class discussion to
help shape your answer. For example,
“To what extent is foreign policy influenced by domestic factors, that, in an
ideal world, should not be taken into consideration?” “To what extent do government ‘reforms’
achieve their stated purpose?” “Do
people’s tastes and preferences shape popular culture or do other ‘hegemonic’
forces determine popular tastes?” “Can
the US government make fundamentally sound policy based on the principles of
Wilsonian idealism?” “To what extent
did the social upheaval of the 1920s shape modern American society?” Ask big, bold questions, but be sure you can
cite evidence to back up your answers.
This assignment is due at the end of the course.
Grading
Class Participation and Attendance --50%
Review Essay [10 pages] --25%
Thematic Essay [5-7 pages] --25%
All grading will be done on the +/ – system.
Course
Format
--This is a seminar-style course in which active participation in the weekly discussions is crucial to the class’s success. Our meetings will in fact be conversations – free, open, and informal exchanges of ideas – and I expect everyone to take part. I have deliberately minimized the writing assignments and other “busy work” to give you adequate time to complete the assigned reading and to think about it critically BEFORE coming to class.
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.
Problems
--I appreciate that most CSUN graduate 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.
Discussion Topics and
Assignments
Schedule
29 May Introduction: An explanation of course objectives, mechanics, and procedures. [This meeting will last approximately one hour. It will facilitate matters if you arrive with a sense of which week you would like to lead the discussion.]
4 June Race Relations in the Post-bellum South
Reading: Williamson, A Rage for Order
Discussion
Leader: _______________________
11 June The
Gilded Age: An Overview
Reading: Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of
America
Discussion
Leader: _______________________
18
June The Rise
of Big Business
Reading: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., “The Beginnings of ‘Big Business’ in American Industry”
John G. Sproat, “Organizing and Rationalizing American Capitalism: John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. Pierpont Morgan”
Glenn Porter, The Rise of Big Business, 1860-1920, chapter 3
Robert Green McCloskey, American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise, 1865-1910, chapter 6
Discussion
Leader: _______________________
25 June Gilded
Age Politics
Reading: Summers, Rum, Romanism, &
Rebellion
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
2 July Immigration
Reading: Bodnar, The Transplanted
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
9 July The
American Empire
Reading: Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
16
July Urbanization
and the Rise of Mass Culture
Reading: Nasaw,
Going Out
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
23
July The
Search for Order: Progressive Reform, 1890-1917
Reading: J. Joseph Huthmacher, “Urban Liberalism in the Age of Reform”
Richard L. McCormick, The Party Period and Public Policy, chapter 7
Clyde Griffen, “The Progressive Ethos”
William E. Leuchtenburg, “Progressivism and Imperialism: The Progressive Movement and American Foreign Policy, 1898-1917”
David J. Rothman, “The State as Parent”
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
30
July NO CLASS
9
August** Progressive
in the White House
Reading: Gould,
The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
**-- Note
that this week’s meeting is on Thursday night
13
August Here Come
the Wobblies! – Labor Unrest and Radicalism
Reading: Dubofsky, We Shall Be All
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
20 August The
Great War
Reading: Kennedy, Over Here, Prologue, Chapters 1-4
Discussion
Leader: _______________________
Meeting #12 The
Aftermath
Reading: Kennedy, Over Here, Chapters 5-6, Epilogue
John Steele Gordon, “What We Lost in the Great War”
Thomas A. Bailey, “The Supreme Infanticide”
Arthur S. Link, “Wilson and the Liberal Peace Program”
William C. Widenor, “Henry Cabot Lodge’s Perspective”
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
Meeting #13 Nativism and Normalcy
Reading: William E. Leuchtenburg, Perils of Prosperity, chapters 4-5
Arthur S. Link, “What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920s”
Stanley Coben, “A Study in Nativism: The American Red Scare of 1919-1920”
John Higham, “The Tribal Twenties”
Robert Coughlan, “Konklave in Kokomo” from The Aspirin Age, 1919-1941, Isabel Leighton, ed.
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
Meeting #14 Trial
of the Century
Reading: Larson, Summer for the Gods
Discussion
Leader: ______________________
Meeting #15 New Woman – Old Challenges
Reading: Brown, Setting a Course
Discussion
Leader: ______________________