History 573 – U.S.
1877-1929
Syllabus and Survival
Guide
Fall 2021
Wednesday 7:00 pm –
9:45 pm, 109 Sagebrush Hall
Instructor
Dr. Thomas W.
Devine
Email: tom.devine@csun.edu
Campus
Office: 624 Sierra
Tower
Office Hours: Mondays 2:00-3:00 (via Zoom),
Wednesdays 2:00-3:00 (via Zoom and face to face), 5:30-6:30 (face to face) and
by appointment gladly given.
Reading
The following
books – listed in the order in which we will read them – can be purchased on line
or borrowed from either the campus library or the Los Angeles Public Library.
Any other readings will be posted on the web syllabus. To to save yourself some
money, you should consider buying used copies of the books. You are likely to
find copies at significantly lower prices at the following websites: www.bookfinder.com or www.amazon.com.
·
Glenn
Porter, The Rise of Big Business, Third Edition
·
Charles Postel, Equality: An
American Dilemma, 1866-1896
·
Jon
Grinspan, The Age of
Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915
·
Edward
L. Ayers, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction*
·
James
Barrett, The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City
·
Rosanne
Currarino, The Labor Question in America: Economic Democracy in the Gilded
Age
·
Janet
M. Davis, The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top
·
Frederick
E. Hoxie, Talking Back to Civilization: Indian Voices from the Progressive
Era
·
Benjamin
Heber Johnson, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and its Bloody
Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans
·
Natalia
Molina, Fit to be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los
Angeles,1879-1939
·
David
Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
·
Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the
Making of the Modern American Citizen
·
Kevin
Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz
Age
·
Linda
Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the
American Political Tradition
·
Joshua
Zietz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style,
Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern
* It is fine to purchase the condensed
version of this book: Edward L. Ayers, Southern Crossing: A History of the
American South, 1877-1906
Spirit of the Course
This course will offer an interpretive
survey of political, economic, cultural, and social trends in the United States
between 1877 and 1929. If all goes according to plan, you will leave in
December with a broader and deeper knowledge of the events of this period and
their significance in shaping present day U.S. society. It is my hope that you
will also finish the course with something more: a rich sense of the “fabric”
of this era – a feel for how people lived their daily lives, the tragedies they
suffered, and the triumphs they celebrated; an appreciation for the ideas,
ideologies, fads, and follies that intrigued and seduced them; an understanding
of the problems and tough decisions that confronted both everyday people and
top policy makers; and, perhaps most importantly, a recognition of the
contingencies of history and an empathy for the historical actors who benefited
from or fell victim to these contingencies.
I have made a
special effort to assign readings that represent the latest (if not always the
most widely held) views on various topics. You will notice that the readings
throughout the course come from various ideological and political perspectives.
I encourage you to be critical of both the readings and what I say in class
when you find the arguments expressed to be unpersuasive.
Themes
Though we will
be covering a wide variety of topics, there are certain themes that we will be
revisiting throughout the course of the semester:
·
the
effects of industrialization, immigration, and urbanization on the nation’s
economic and political development
·
the
changing relationship over time between government and individual citizens
·
changing
attitudes regarding race, gender, and the rights of the individual versus the
rights of the group
·
the
effect of social crises such as war and depression on American life
·
the
ongoing struggle to balance liberty and equality within a democratic context
·
the factors
accounting for the rise and fall conservative and progressive social movements
·
disputes
among Americans over what constitutes a “good society”
You
will also have the opportunity to follow the historiography that has developed
around the topics we will explore. Though the emphasis of the course will
not be on historiographical issues, I will introduce and we will all discuss
scholarly controversies where appropriate.
Grading & Deadlines
Class Participation --30%
Oral Presentation --10%
Analytical Essay 1 --15%
Option A [due Saturday, Sept. 25th]
Option B [due Saturday, Oct. 30th]
Analytical Essay 2 [due Saturday, Dec.
12th] --15%
Semester Project --30%
Draft [due November 28th]
Final [due December 20th]
Note that
written assignments are not due on the days we meet in class. They can be sent
to me as email attachments.
Explanation
of Requirements
Completing the Reading
There’s no getting around it – this
class requires a lot of reading. But, as
a Masters level 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 concepts that you don’t understand, points that you find
interesting or surprising, arguments with which you strongly agree or disagree,
methods of research or analysis that seem especially creative or insightful (or
misguided and unpersuasive), 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 get a good sense of an entire book than to master every
aspect of the first one-third of it.
Participation in Discussion
This is a seminar-style course in which
active participation in the weekly discussions is crucial to the class’s
success. Our meetings will be conversations – free, open, and informal exchanges
of ideas based on the assigned readings – and I expect everyone to take 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. I evaluate
participation based on quality, not quantity. At times, recounting an anecdote
or a personal experience can shed light on a concept covered in the reading,
but be aware that it is easy to overdo this. “Quality” participation demands
keeping your comments grounded in the reading.
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 each of the assigned readings for the week.
Well-formulated questions will open up discussion and allow for various points
of view. They should not intrude the questioner’s own opinion or quiz people on
specific facts to which there is only one answer (“guess what I’m thinking
questions”). Each discussion leader should meet with me briefly to go over his
or her questions. (This exchange can also be done via email or Zoom.) The
discussion leader should submit his/her questions to me at least 24 hours
before the seminar meets so I can distribute them to everyone via email
attachment. Your leading of discussion will not receive a grade per se,
but will be taken into account in the calculation of your participation grade.
As leader, you must do more than simply read each question aloud and let others
talk. Rather, take an active part in facilitating the discussion by indicating
how various comments are related, occasionally summarizing what has been said,
and reminding the class how the various comments contribute to answering your
original question. When necessary, guide everyone back to the text and the
question at hand if you believe the discussion has gone on a tangent. You
should also be “reading” the room – make sure everyone gets a chance to speak
and, when recognizing people, favor those who have not spoken yet ahead of
those who have already contributed. Resist the urge to answer your own
questions since that is the fastest way to shut down discussion. If you believe
the class has missed pertinent points, phrase follow-up questions that are
likely to extract these points without tipping your own hand. If you have never
led a discussion before, or would like some helpful tips on doing so, I
encourage you to meet with me ahead of time. Though it would be helpful if you
had already formulated some of your questions before we met, this is not
necessary.
Précis
One person will be responsible for
producing a single-spaced 2-3 page précis of the
readings for each week. Please adhere to this page limit. Your précis
should be a summary
rather than a review – focus on what
the book says and how it says it
rather than giving your own assessment. Your précis should identify the book’s
central arguments, briefly note how it is organized, indicate the kinds of
sources employed and how the author uses them, and summarize the main points of
each chapter (or group of chapters, if that seems more appropriate). The person
who writes the précis should email me a copy 24 hours in advance of the
seminar. I will look it over, make any appropriate edits, and send it to the
rest of the class the night before we meet. This assignment, too, will not
receive a grade per se, though in calculating your participation grade,
I will take into account the quality of and amount of effort you appear to have
put in to your précis. If there are readings beyond the main book, you should
summarize them as well.
Oral
Presentation/Written Critique
One person will be responsible for
producing a 1500-word critique of the assigned reading each week. This may be
handled in one of four ways:
1) a summary of the book’s critical
reception and your own assessment of it
2) a historiographical review that
explains where the assigned book or articles fit within the existing secondary
literature (you might counter pose the assigned reading against a book or
article that takes a contrary point of view).
3) a brief essay that focuses on a
particular theme or argument in the week’s reading that you found especially
interesting and wanted to explore further in other sources.
4) a report grounded in primary sources
in which you discuss whether the sources you examined led you to the same kinds
of interpretations that the author offers.
I can provide you with both primary
source suggestions and historiographical background, so don’t hesitate to ask.
At some point during class, usually right after the break, you will have the
floor to present your findings and field questions from the class. Please do not read your critique verbatim or read to
the class the text you have put on a series of Powerpoint
slides. That said, you should feel free to include an audio-visual component if
you think it would enhance your presentation. Your presentation should last 15
minutes. I will not allow you to go beyond 20
minutes, so be sure you know ahead of time how long your presentation will
run. The written critique will be due a week from the date of your
presentation. Your grade will be based on the written product (2/3) and the
quality of your oral presentation (1/3). The quality of an oral presentation is
judged on how organized, informative, and prepared you are in your delivery.
The written critique will be graded the same as any paper.
Analytical Essays
These
two 1500-word assignments will give you the opportunity to respond to a
specific question in a concise, tightly argued essay. You will have several
topics from which to choose. I will distribute the topics ten days before the
paper is due. If you wish,
you may do both first paper options and I will count the higher grade.
Please submit the paper to me via email on the day it is due.
Semester Project
Select a topic
from the period covered in the course that you find to be of interest and
familiarize yourself with the secondary literature that has been written on it.
You should choose a topic narrow enough that you are able to master a good deal
of the scholarship over the course of 8-10 weeks. For example, “World War I” is
too broad; “Reasons for U.S. entry into World War I” is more manageable. “Nativism
and Immigration” is too broad; “Origins and Legacy of the 1924 Immigration Act”
is better. I recommend drawing on a variety of book chapters and articles. When
you have completed your reading, write a 3500-word essay (approximately 12
pages) in which you indicate how historians have treated the topic – what
have been the main areas of emphasis and/or contention among scholars who write
on your topic? To what extent have historians’ views on your topic changed over
time? How has the scholarly conversation on your topic proceeded and what
factors have caused historians to come to differing points of view or to reach
some sort of consensus or “conventional wisdom”? In addition to addressing the
historiography of your topic, you should provide your own assessment of the
scholarship. After reading the literature pertinent to your topic, what
conclusions do you draw? Which scholars’
work is most compelling to you and why?
How would you synthesize the various scholarly views you have read to
present your own interpretation? The more sources you incorporate, the more
thorough your essay will be. So as to prevent you from putting this assignment
off until the last moment, we will approach it in a three-step process. At week five (September 29), I will ask for a
tentative annotated bibliography and a one-page status report which you offer
your early impressions on how scholars have approached your topic and what some
of the emphases and issues of contention have been. During weeks nine and ten,
I will hold extra office hours so each student can meet with me to discuss his
or her topic. At this point, you should have completed nearly all of the
reading for your project and be well on your way toward completing a first
draft. I highly recommend submitting a complete draft on November 28th.
Though this is not required, having the chance to respond to my comments is
likely to improve the finished product.
Surviving History 573…
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.
To make up for a missed class, you may submit written responses to any four of
the eight discussion questions (the total of the four responses not to exceed
1500 words). These will be due in class one week after the class you missed.
Missing four or more classes will have a significant negative effect on your
grade.
Problems
I appreciate
that most CSUN graduate students are stretching themselves quite thin, often
working full time or raising kids 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. If you need advice on how to improve your performance, ask
for it. 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.
Masks
In these crazy
times, wearing a mask could quite literally ensure your survival in History
573. Please keep your mask on (covering your nose and mouth) while you are in
the classroom.
Discussion
Topics and Assignments
Schedule
Sept.
1 Introduction
Sept.
8 The Emergence of Corporate Capitalism
Reading: Porter, The Rise of Big
Business
David Nasaw,
“Gilded Age Gospels”
Sept. 15 Confronting Inequality in the Gilded Age
Reading: Postel, Equality: An American Dilemma
Sept.
22 Good Government vs The Popular Will:
Democratic Politics after the Civil War
Reading: Grinspan, The Age of Acrimony
Sept. 29 The Jim Crow South – Reconstruction or
Retrenchment?
Reading: Ayers, The Promise of the New South
[or Southern Crossing]
Due
in Class: Annotated
bibliography and a one-page status report on your Semester Project
Oct.
6 Urbanization and Immigration
Reading: Barrett, The Irish Way
Oct. 13 “What Does the Worker Want?” – Control
vs Consumerism
Reading: Currarino, The Labor Question in
America
William Dean
Howells, “Are We a Plutocracy?” [1894]
Oct. 20 “The Greatest Show on Earth:”
Industrialization, Modernization, and Popular Culture
Reading:
Davis, The Circus
Age
Oct.
27 “Beyond Wounded Knee” – Native American
Histories in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Reading: Hoxie, Talking Back to Civilization
Extra office hours
scheduled to discuss your semester projects
Nov.
3 Pluralism in the Progressive Era
Reading: Johnson, Revolution in
Texas
Extra office hours
scheduled to discuss your semester projects
Nov.
10 Citizenship and Public Health in the
Multi-Ethnic City
Reading: Molina, Fit
to be Citizens?
Nov.
17 Labor, Gender, and Working Conditions in
the Progressive Era
Reading: Von Drehle, Triangle
Nov. 24 The Expansion of the American State
during the Great War
Reading: Capozzola, Uncle Sam
Wants You
Dec. 1 “Jim Crow North” – Race and Housing
Discrimination in the Rust Belt
Reading: Boyle, Arc of Justice
Dec. 8 “Normalizing Nativism” – The Tribal
Twenties
Reading: Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK
Dec. 15 “Ain’t We Got
Fun?” – Cosmopolitan Women in “The New Era”
Reading: Zeitz, Flapper