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This course surveys United States history from the end of Reconstruction
to the present. Our focus will
be economic and social development, political conflict, and the
cultural responses of Americans to the
enormous changes over the past 120 years.
Modern America: 1877-2001
Spring 2001: MWF 10:20-11:10, C102 Wilson Hall
|
Instructor: Mark Kornbluh Instructor: Melanie Shell-Weiss Graduate Assistant: Geoffrey Pippenger Graduate Assistant: Piril Hatice Atabay |
Discussion Sections:
Section 1: Friday 9:10-10:00 C100 Wilson Section 2: Thursday 9:10-10:00, 211A Berkey Hall Section 3: Wednesday 3:00-3:30, 319 Berkey Hall Section 4: Wednesday 12:40-1:30, 211A Berkey Hall Section 5: Thursday 12:40-1:30, 103 Berkey Hall Section 6: Wednesday 1:50-2:40, 210B Berkey Hall Section 7: Thursday 1:50-2:40, 210B Berkey Hall Section 9: Thursday 10:20-11:10, 112A Berkey Hall Section 12: Thursday 3:00-3:50, 218B Berkey Hall |
REQUIRED BOOKS:
John David Smith, Black Voices from Reconstruction 1865-1877.
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.
George Washington Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.
John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century.
Arthur S. Link and Richard L. McCormick, Progressivism.
Robert S. McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the
Forgotten Man.
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi.
David W. Levy, The Debate over Vietnam.
All other required readings are accessible through the web
pages for this class
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203.
These readings are listed in the weekly course outline below.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1: January 8: Late-Nineteenth-Century Society and Culture
Monday: Introduction
Wednesday: A Dynamic Society?
Friday: Culture, Values, and Norms
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Doing History on the Web.
READINGS:
1.Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Images of the West: http://www.treasurenet.com/images/americanwest/
Week 2: January 15: Reconstruction and Segregation
Monday: No Class, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Wednesday: The Legacy of Reconstruction
Friday: Segregation
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Black and White in America
READINGS:
1.John David Smith, Black Voices from Reconstruction 1865-1877.
2.Documents: 14th Amendment
to the Constitution, 1868; 15th Amendment to the Constitution, 1870; Civil
Rights Act of 1875
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
Week 3: January 22: Making A New Society
Monday: The Peopling of Urban America
Wednesday: Urbanization: The Challenge of the New City
Friday: Economic Expansion and the Rise of the Corporation
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Immigrant America?
READINGS:
1.Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
2.From the Pluralism and Unity Project, "The Ideal of Pluralism"
and "Race and Pluralism"
http://www.expo98.msu.edu
3.Document: Chinese
Exclusion Act, 1890
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives: http://www.cis.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html
Week 4: January 29: The Birth of Modern America
Monday: The Changing Face of Labor
Wednesday: Unrest on the Farm
Friday: Gilded Age Politics
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Labor and Capital
READINGS:
1.Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.
2.Andrew Carnegie "Wealth"
1889
3.Documents: Ocala Platform,
1890; and William Jennings
Bryan, Cross of Gold Speech.
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.William McKinley:
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/McKinley
2.Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era:
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm
3.The Union Web: http://www.unionweb.org/
Week 5: February 5: Activism
***First Mid-term Due Monday, February 5 at 10:20 in Lecture***
Monday: Imperialism
Wednesday: Cultural and Intellectual Changes for a New Century
Friday Video: "Coney Island"
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Coney Island and the Culture of Consumption
READINGS:
1.Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century.
2."Internationalism" from the Pluralism and Unity Project:
http://www.expo98.msu.edu
3.Documents: McKinley's War
Message, 1898; and Theodore Roosevelt, Strenuous Life Speech.
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.An on-line history of US Imperialism: http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html
2.The World's Columbian Exposition: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html
Week 6: February 12: The New American State
Monday: Reform
Wednesday: National Progressivism.
Friday: Democracy and the Administrative State
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Progressive Era?
READINGS:
1.Link and McCormick, Progressivism
2.Jane Addams, The
Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements
3.Documents: Plessy
vs. Ferguson, 1896; and Pure
Food and Drug Act of 1906
Week 7: February 19: America and The First World War
Monday: "The War to End All Wars:" America and the
First World War
Wednesday: The War at Home
Friday: Cultural Reaction in the Twenties
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The U.S. and the World: Isolation or Intervention?
READINGS:
1.The Scopes Trial: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/inherit/1925home.html
2.Documents: Woodrown
Wilson's 14 Points; Congressional Debate on Immigration Restriction
(1921)
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Henry Louis Mencken Site: http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html
Week 8: February 26: From Prosperity to Collapse
Monday: The Ambivalent Decade
Wednesday: From Prosperity to Depression
Friday: Video: Sit-Down Strikes
DISCUSSION SESSIONS: Cultural Heros and Cultural History.
READINGS:
1.Warren Susman, "Cultural
Heroes: Ford, Barton and Ruth;" and "Personality and the Making of 20th Century
Culture."
2.John William Ward, "The
Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight" (1958).
3.McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression, 1-32.
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/
Week 9: March 12: Depression and Response
Monday: Hoover and Roosevelt
Wednesday: Evaluating the New Deal
Friday: American Culture During the Depression
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Depression, the New Deal, and Social Welfare.
READINGS:
1.McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression, p.
33-end.
2.Documents: Herbert
Hoover, Rugged Individualism Speech (1928), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1932).
3.William E. Leuchtenburg, "The
Roosevelt Reconstruction: Retrospect" (1963).
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.The WPA Federal Writers Project (excerpts)
http://rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html
2.Images from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information
Files.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
3.The Scottsboro Boys
http://www.afroam.org/history/scott/scotts.html
Week 10: March 19: World War II and the Cold War
Monday: Going to War
Wednesday: Mobilizing for War
Friday: From Hot War to Cold War
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War
READINGS:
1.Martin J. Sherwin, "The
Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War" (1975).
2.Robert L. Messer, "New
Evidence on Truman's Decision" (1985).
3.Gar Alperovitz, "More
on Atomic Diplomacy (1985).
4.Documents: Roosevelt's
Infamy Speech (1941); Executive
Order No. 9066; The
Yalta Protocol of Proceedings (1945); Harry S. Truman, Announcement of Atomic Bombing
(1945); Harry
S. Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947); and Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Eisenhower Doctrine
(1957).
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Women at War: http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/sus_women.html
2.Web Resources on Japanese-American internment: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html
Week 11: March 26: The Postwar Years
*****Second Midterm Due Monday, March 26 at 10:20 am at Lecture*****
Monday: Anti-Communism at Home
Wednesday: The Affluent Society
Friday: Organization Men and Housewives
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Growing Up in the Fifties.
READINGS:
1.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
2.Betty Friedan, Chapters One
and Two,
The Feminine Mystique (1963).
3.Elaine Tyler May, "Explosive
Issues: Sex, Women and the Bomb"
4.Documents: Truman's
Loyalty Oath (1947); Joseph
McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia (1950);
Raymond
B. Allen, "Communists Should Not Teach in American Colleges"
(1949); Walt
Disney's Testimony
before HUAC (1947); Dwight
D. Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex" (1961);
and Adlai Stevenson
Describes a Women's Place (1955).
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Archives on McCarthyism (including audio clips)
http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/
2.Hypertext Resource on Hollywood Blacklist
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/blacklist.html
3.The Original (Unofficial) Elvis Homepage:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/elvis/elvishom.html
4.The Fifties Archives
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fifties.htm
Week 12: April 2: Civil Rights and Social Justice
Monday: The Civil Rights Movement I
Wednesday: The Civil Rights Movement II
Friday: Video: Eyes on the Prize
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Civil Rights in Modern America
READINGS:
1.Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
2.Documents: Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); Martin Luther King, "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail (1963); The
Civil Rights Act of 1964; John
F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address; Students for a
Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement; Lyndon B. Johnson, Great Society Speech (1964).
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.Sound clips from Civil Rights struggles: http://webcorp.com/civilrights/
2.King and the Civil Rights Movement: http://www.seattletimes.com/mlk/index.html
3.Photo tour of the Civil Rights Movement: http://www.seattletimes.com/mlk/movement/PT/phototour.html
4.The Sixties Project: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/sixties/
Week 13: April 9: Vietnam and Rebellion at Home
Monday: The Counter-Culture
Wednesday: The Origins of the Vietnam War
Friday: The Vietnam War
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Vietnam
READINGS:
1.Levy, The Debate Over Vietnam
2.Richard Rogin, "Joe Kelly
Has Reached His Boiling Point."
3.Documents: Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Domino Theory (1954); Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution (1964); Lyndon
Johnson, "Why We Are in Vietnam (1965); J. William Fulbright, "The Arrogance of Power" (1966);
Martin
Luther King, Jr. "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam"
(1967); "A Call to Resist Illegitimate
Authority" (1966); War
Powers Act of 1973.
Week 14: April 16: The Seventies and Eighties
Monday:The Women's Movement
Wednesday: The "Me Decade" and Post-Modern America
Friday: The Reagan Eighties
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Feminism
READINGS:
1.Documents: N.O.W. Statement
of Purpose (1966); N.O.W. Bill of Rights, 1968; "What Are We
Complaining About?" (1970)
2.Rebecca Klatch, "Women
Against Feminism"
3.Susan Faludi, "Blame
it on Feminism," Introduction to Backlash (1991).
4.Documents: Ronald Reagan, Address
on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater (1964); Jimmy
Carter, The
Crisis of American Spirit (1979); Executive Summary, Independent Council's Report on Iran-Contra.
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
1.The Diggers Archives OnLine
http://www.diggers.org
2.Timeline of Women's Movement
http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1953.html
3.Ronald Reagan OnLine:
Week 15: April 23: Recent America:
Monday: The New Pluralism: Bill Clinton's America?
Wednesday: Race, Gender, and Class in Contemporary America
Friday: No Class
DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Coming to Grips with Modern America
READINGS:
TBA
ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:
*****Final Paper Due Monday April 30, 10 AM*****
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This class is designed as a lecture, reading, and discussion course.
There will be three lectures each week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
from 11:30-12:20, 109 South
Kedzie. Lecture material is essential for the midterms and the final.
Discussion Sections are an integral part of this course. These meet on various
days during the week and are
required. Attendance and participation in discussions are essential.
This course makes substantial use of Internet technology to deliver course
material and facilitate student
exploration of modern American history. Students will be expected to subscribe
to the History203 electronic
discussion list and to use the course webpage on a weekly basis.
GRADING: Participation will count for 25 percent of
the course grade. Short written assignments will be due each
week. These will be assigned weekly off of the course webpage
and will usually entail listing questions for discussion,
outlining a reading, writing a short think-piece, or utilizing
the Internet to explore an issue further. Completing all of
the weekly readings and preparing for discussion by putting effort
into these weekly assignments can significantly
improve one's final grade. Participation grades will be based
equally on these assignments and on oral participation.
The major written requirements for the course are two take-home
midterm essays and a take-home final paper. The
midterms each will be worth 20 percent and the final 35 percent
of the course grade. (Please note the due dates of
these papers. All three will be assigned well in advance and are
expected in on time.)
created: February 10, 2000
last updated: January 8, 2001
Copyright 2001, Mark Kornbluh