PURPOSE: To acquaint students with an understanding of the basic

           forces that have shaped American life during the last third
           of the nineteenth century.
                 To develop skills in the use and interpretation of
           documents.
                 To develop skills in writing, researching, and reasoning.

REQUIRED TEXTS: Sean Dennis Cashman, America in the Gilded Age 2nd

                  Edition
                 Leon Fink, Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the
                  Progressive Era

EVALUATION: Quizzes 10%

                    1st Exam    15%
                    2nd Exam    15%
                    Final Exam  20%
                    Short Essays        20%
                    Research Project    20%

QUIZZES: There will be a quiz on each chapter in the Cashman text.

The quizzes will be given on the reading for a particular day's assignment. Each quiz will consist of two multiple choice questions. Each correct answer is worth .5 points. There will most likely be more than eleven quizzes, however. This makes it possible for students to receive more than 10 points on this part of the evaluation. Students must be in their seats at 1:00 in order to take the quiz. There are no make-up quizzes for any reason. You may take a quiz ahead of time. If you are too sick to come to class you may take a quiz over the phone by calling my office immediately before class.

EXAMS: (15-20% Final Grade) There will be three exams. The exams

will be mostly essay in format with a few identification questions. None of the exams will be cumulative. The mid-terms will be worth 15% each, the final will be worth 20%. You will be permitted to bring to the exam one 8 1/2 by 11 inch study sheet with whatever information you wish on it. These study sheets may be prepared in conjunction with other students. They will be collected and may not be typewritten or word processed. They may not be photocopies. Violators will not be allowed to use their sheets on the exam. Make-up exams are permitted and arrangements for them must be made on the first day you are back. Failure to do so will result in a loss of ten points on the exam. Make-up exams are always more difficult than the originals.
SHORT ESSAYS: (20% Final Grade) You are assigned eleven chapters in

Leon Fink, Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. You are responsible for reading and analyzing the material in each. You will, in addition, write a short essay (around 750 words) on the topics listed below. Your essays do not have to be typed but they do need to be neat. The essays are due in class on the day that a given chapter is assigned.

        Chapter  1:  How did industrial growth change Americans'
                  perception of their society?
        Chapter  2:  How did workers respond to the growth of industrial
                  capitalism?
        Chapter  5:  How did Americans cope with the tremendous growth in
                  urban population?
        Chapter  8:  To what extent did immigrants become "Americanized?"
        Chapter 11:  What did Americans assume to be appropriate sex-roles
                  for men and women?
        Chapter 13:  Why did Americans develop a mass commercial culture
                  around the turn of the century?
        Chapter  7:  Was life in the turn of the century getting better or
                  getting worse for African-Americans?
        Chapter  4:  What was so "new" about the New South?
        Chapter  3:  Was the west, as Frederick Jackson Turner claimed,
                  the "source of American democracy?"
        Chapter  6:  To what extent did politics provide an opportunity
                  for Americans to challenge the status quo?
        Chapter 14:  How did Americans justify their new place in world
                  affairs?

        Writing a good essay requires several things.  First and foremost,

it requires that you carefully read through the relevant material. Not everything in each chapter will be relevant to the question -- you will need to select relevant essays and documents to address the question. When you write your essays you need to develop a thesis that addresses the relevant question. Craft an argument that takes a point of view. Don't simply summarize the material. Your task is to interpret the evidence and to incorporate it into an essay that addresses the question. That means that you must make general statements -- but that you must support them with evidence. You must draw conclusions from your evidence and to present your interpretation in a clear manner. You will need to draw upon both the documents and the essays in each chapter.

        Your essays will be graded as follows.
                5 = excellent
                4 = good
                3 = adequate
                2 = weak
                1 = poor
                0 = no submission
        I will multiply your best 8 scores by 2.5 to get the total number

of points out of 100 for this part of the course. You may rewrite papers or submit late papers up to the final exam. Late papers or re-submitted papers will lose one point of credit.

Evaluating the essays is necessarily subjective, but these are the rough guidelines I use. An excellent essay should both address the key questions in a comprehensive way and make effective use of the material presented in the book. A good essay often does one of the above well, but generally does not make sufficient use of the material or does not address the question in a comprehensive way. An adequate essay generally addresses the question in a marginal way or misses key points which should have been obvious if the material were read with care. It may also only make marginal use of the source material or else miss the question completely.

RESEARCH PROJECT: See handout.

ATTENDANCE POLICY: Students are expected to attend every class.

Attendance will be taken in every class. I recognize that legitimate reasons may force students to miss an occasional class. The first four classes missed will not negatively affect your final average. The fifth and sixth classes missed will cost 1.5 points each. The seventh and eighth classes missed will cost 3.0 points each. The ninth and tenth classes missed will cost 4.5 points each, and so on. There are no exceptions; there are no excused absences. Students are advised not to miss classes in the beginning of the semester to avoid losing credit because of emergencies towards the end. Students who have missed too many classes may "make up" a class they have missed by writing a report which will cover the material missed. Absences are counted from the first day of class, not the first day the student began attending class.

A WORD TO THE WISE: Students who wish to win favor with professors

are urged to learn their names and to use them correctly. This is particularly true with those of us who have unusual last names. Mine is Cecil-Fronsman. It is not Cecil; it is not Fronsman.

A FINAL NOTE: I reserve the right to raise final averages by as much

as two points on the basis of interest shown in the course. Interest will be judged by attendance, participation in discussion, and in questions asked.

A FINAL, FINAL NOTE: Part of my job is to help you learn. I am happy

to stop class and answer questions. I am happy to have you come in and see me in my office to help you in any way I can. I am genuinely interested in seeing you understand as much as possible. But I cannot help you if you do not take the initiative. It is your responsibility to do this.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

PART I: THE RISE OF AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY                           .
Mon     Aug     23      The Legacy of the Civil War       ---
Wed     Aug     25      Industrial Revolution   Cashman 1
Mon     Aug     30      Rise of Big Business    Cashman 2
Wed     Sept     1      Justification of Big Business   Fink 1
Mon     Sept     6      Labor Day -- No Class     ---
Wed     Sept     8      Critique of Big Business          ---
Mon     Sept    13      The World of the Worker Fink 2
Wed     Sept    15      Labor:  1865-1886       Cashman 7
Mon     Sept    20      Labor:  1886-1900         ---
Wed     Sept    22      First Exam      Good Luck

PART II:  URBAN AMERICA                                            .
Mon     Sept    27      The Rise of the City    Cashman 4
Wed     Sept    29      Governing the New Cities        Fink 5
Mon     Oct      4      The New Immigrants      Cashman 3
Wed     Oct      6      The World the Immigrants Made   Fink 8
Mon     Oct     11      The World the Middle Class Made   ---
Wed     Oct     13      The Victorian Mind        ---
Mon     Oct     18      Women & Family in Victorian America     Fink 11
Wed     Oct     20      Challengers to Women's Sphere     ---
Mon     Oct     25      Popular Culture in the Victorian Age    Fink 13
Wed     Oct     27      Second Exam     Better Luck

PART III:  THE SOUTH, THE WEST, POLITICS, FOREIGN POLICY            .
Mon     Nov      1      Black Life in a New South       Cashman 5/Fink 7
Wed     Nov      3      The New South   Fink 4
Mon     Nov      8      Defeat of the Indians   Cashman 8
Wed     Nov     10      The New West    Fink 3
Mon     Nov     15      The Farmers' Dilemma    Cashman 9
Wed     Nov     17      Agrarian Protest          ---
Mon     Nov     22      Structure of Gilded Age Politics        Fink 6
Wed     Nov     24      Thanksgiving Vacation     ---
Mon     Nov     29      From Hayes to Cleveland:  1877-1893     Cashman 6
Wed     Dec      1      Years of Crisis:  1893-96         ---
Mon     Dec      6      Origins of an American Empire   Cashman 10
Wed     Dec      8      The New Empire  Cashman 11/Fink 14
Mon     Dec     13      (1:30) Final Exam       Best Luck

Bill Cecil-Fronsman           zzceci@acc.wuacc.edu
Department of History         Office:  (913) 231-1010 x1317
Washburn University           Fax:     (913) 231-1084

Topeka, KS 66621

Return to H-SHGAPE Home Page.

	Generously Supported by:				Comments to Patrick D. Reagan Tennessee Technological University Copyright ©1999, H-Net, Humanities OnLine
		&