The American Reform Tradition, 1890-1990

Syllabus and Survival Guide

Spring 2002

Thursday 7:00 pm – 9:50 pm, Sierra Hall 288

 

 

Instructor

 

Dr. Thomas W. Devine

Office Hours: Sierra Tower 624, Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 and by appointment gladly given.

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

 

Required Reading

 

The following books – listed in the order in which we will read them – are available at the Matador Bookstore.  All other readings will be distributed in class.

 

  1. Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform
  2. Robert M. Crunden, Ministers of Reform: The Progressives’ Achievement in American Civilization, 1889-1920
  3. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
  4. Allen Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s
  5. Gareth Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement: The Transformation and Decline of Great Society Liberalism
  6. Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform
  7. Richard J. Ellis, The Dark Side of the Left: Illiberal Egalitarianism in America
  8. Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion Revised ed.
  9. Steven Gillon, That’s Not What We Meant To Do: Reform and its Unintended Consequences in Twentieth-Century

 

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.abebooks.com

 

 

Objectives

 

This seminar will examine the so-called “American Reform Tradition.”  Indeed, whether such a thing exists will be one of the questions we will pose. Over the course of the semester, we will be studying various reform movements that have engaged intellectuals, social activists, politicians, and the public at large since the late nineteenth century.  We will also consider the challenges to and critiques of liberal reform that have come from both the left and the right.  We will be reading both recent and older scholarship as well as several primary sources representing views from across the ideological spectrum.  The course will address the historiography of various reform movements, but is not a historiography course as such.

 

Requirements and Grading

 

Requirements include active in-class participation, two short (2-3 page) interpretative pieces based on the assigned readings, an oral presentation on a relevant topic of your choice, and a final comprehensive essay of 10 pages.

 

Class Participation                                      --35%

1st Paper [due 21 March]                            --10%

2nd Paper [due 16 May]                               --10%

Oral Presentation                                        --15%

Final [due 23 May]                                      --30%

 

 

All grading will be done on the +/ – system.

All components of the course must be completed to receive a passing grade.

 

Surviving

 

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.  Allow yourself time to complete the assigned reading and to think about it critically BEFORE coming to class.

--One person will be responsible for leading the discussion each week.  One option will be for that person to compose a list of 8-10 questions that address the major issues raised in the reading that he or she will provide to each member of the class by the Monday preceding Thursday’s seminar.  The leader may also wish to 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.  Each discussion leader will also prepare a 2-page single-spaced précis of the reading and distribute it to the class.  In addition, I suggest you 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.

 

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.  If you do miss class, it will be acceptable if you turn in a 2-page précis of that week’s reading at the next meeting.

 

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

 

31 January          Introduction: An explanation of course objectives, mechanics, and procedures.

 

7 February                    The American Reform Tradition: A First Look

Reading:  Richard Hofstadter. The Age of Reform

              Alan Brinkley, “Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform Reconsidered,” ch. 8, Liberalism and Its Discontents (1998)

              Michael Kazin, “Hofstadter Lives: Political Culture and Temperament in the Work of an American Historian” RAH  (Spring 1999)

 

                                      Discussion Leader: _______________________

 

14 February                  Raising Less Corn and More Hell: The Populists

                                      Reading:  James Turner, “Understanding the Populists,” JAH (Sept. 1980)

                                          Oscar Handlin, “Reconsidering the Populists,” Agricultural History, 39, 2 (1965)

                                          Lawrence Goodwyn, “The Alliance Develops a Movement Culture,” The Populist Moment, 20-23, 25-35, 90-93 (1978)

                                          Chistopher Lasch, selections from The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics, ch. 5 (1991)

                                          1892 Populist Party Platform

                                          William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold Speech”

 

Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

21 February                  The Progressive Mind: Reform in Politics and the Arts

                                      Reading: Robert Crunden, Ministers of Reform

 

                          Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

28 February                  Gendered Progressivism?  TR and “Manly Reform”                

Reading:   James R. McGovern, “David Graham Phillips and the Virility Impulse of Progressivism,” New England Quarterly, 39 (1966)

Arnaldo Testi, “The Gender of Reform Politics: Theodore Roosevelt and the Culture of Masculinity,” JAH (March 1995)

              Peter G. Filene, “Men and Manliness,” ch. 3, Him/Her/Self, 3rd ed. (1998)

              Paula Baker, “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920,” AHR (June 1984)

              Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life”

                  

                                      Discussion Leader: __________________________

 

7 March                         New Deal or New Deck? – Change and Continuity in Reform, 1930-1940

Reading: William Leuchtenburg, Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal

 

Discussion Leader: ___________________________                    

 

14 March                       Evaluating Liberal Reform and Reformers: Contemporaries, Historians, Critics, and Knaves

 

Reading: Thomas K. McCraw, “The Progressive Legacy,” from The Progressive Era, Lewis L. Gould, ed. (1974)

             Richard M. Abrams, “The Failure of Progressivism,” from The Shaping of Twentieth-Century America, 2nd ed., Richard M. Abrams and Lawrence Levine, eds. (1971)

Fred Siegel, “The New Left, The New Right, and the New Deal,” ch. 11, The Liberal Persuasion, John Patrick Diggins, ed. (1997)

             Jerold S. Auerbach, “New Deal, Old Deal, or Raw Deal: Some Thoughts on New Left Historiography” JSH (Feb., 1969)

             Geoffrey Blodgett, “The Mugwump Reputation, 1870- Present,” JAH (1983)

Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

21 March                       Locating the “Vital Center:” Americans for Democratic Action and Cold War Liberalism

Reading: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., selections from The Vital Center (1962)

             Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., “Reinhold Niebuhr’s Role in American Political Thought and Life” from The Politics of Hope (1963)

                                                       Steven Gillon, chs. 1-2, Politics and Vision: The ADA and American Liberalism, 1947-1985 (1986)

                                                       Barton Bernstein, “The Ambiguous Legacy: The Truman Administration and Civil Rights,” from Politics & Policies of the Truman Administration, Barton Bernstein, ed. (1970)

                                                       Mary H. Blewett, “Roosevelt, Truman, and the Attempt to Revive the New Deal,” from Harry S Truman and the Fair Deal, Alonzo Hamby, ed. (1974)

 

28 March                      SPRING BREAK

 

4 April                           Asking Not What Your Country Can Do For You – Liberalism at High Tide

                                       Reading: Allen Matusow, The Unraveling of America, Parts I and II

                            

Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

11 April                         Turning Left, Going Wrong? – The Great Society

                                      Reading: Gareth Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement

 

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

18 April                         New Left, New Right – Attacking the “Vital Center”

Reading: Allen Matusow, The Unraveling of America, Part III

  Selections from Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (Princeton, 2001)

                                                      Students for a Democratic Society, “The Port Huron Statement”

                                          Young Americans for Freedom, “The Sharon Statement”

 

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

25 April                         Reform in the Classroom: Education and the American Reform Tradition

                                      Reading: Diane Ravitch, Left Back

 

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

2 May                            Challenges to Liberalism I – The Egalitarian Left

                                      Reading: Richard J. Ellis, The Dark Side of the Left

 

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

9 May                            Challenges to Liberalism II – Working Class Populism

                                      Reading: Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion

 

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

 

16 May                          Reprise: The Irony of American History

                                      Reading: Steven Gillon, That’s Not What We Meant to Do

                            

                                      Discussion Leader: ___________________________

 

23 May                          Dinner at Chez Devine 7pm