Introduction

Students often wonder why people like me make a career out of history. One reason is because history is so relevant: it teaches us how the world works and who we are. When it comes down to it, history is all about power and identity—and these are crucial subjects for every thinking individual to explore. This course examines the United States and its people since 1865. During this period the country mended deep sectional divisions, industrialized, experienced profound economic growth as well as depression, rose as a world leader, and wrestled with the domestic and foreign ramifications of its power. We will focus on two themes that deal directly with both power and identity: how Americans have understood race, and how foreign relations have related to American society. These themes raise questions about political, economic, social, and diplomatic issues on personal as well as national levels, and they will give us a handle on what can be an overwhelming amount of history. To explore them we will shift back and forth between the general and the particular, the “big picture” and specific historical actors. Classes will consist of lectures interspersed with periods of group work and discussion. They will incorporate a variety of primary sources including a memoir, contemporary newspaper accounts, music, and the occasional film as well as a standard textbook and set of documents.

We will be covering a lot of material this semester, but the skills you will learn along the way are just as important. The point of this class is to give you a working familiarity with the period, to engage you in the process of historical and critical analysis, and to get you thinking and writing clearly. My goals are to: 1) introduce students to the main issues, events, and people that have shaped America and Americans since 1865; 2) show how historians analyze primary sources and how that skill is relevant to us all; and 3) teach you to conceptualize and write an effective argumentative essay.

Accomplishing these goals is an important part of a liberal arts education and will give you life skills that will serve you well. It is to this end that I have designed lectures, writing assignments, exams, and the general structure of the course. Beyond adding to an understanding of American society and culture, this course speaks to a number of IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning: it refines communication skills through class discussion, exams, and papers, it demands that students analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply a range of ideas and material both in class and in assignments, it teaches information and skills useful in a variety of real life situations, and in training students how to be good historians, it strengthens students’ intellectual depth and breadth. In short, history courses like this one are a good idea for everyone.

Books – you should have regular access to a copy of the following:

Faragher, et al, Out of Many: A History of the American People, brief fourth edition,

volume II (hereafter referred to as “text”)

Faragher, et al, Out of Many volume 2 Document Set (hereafter referred to as “docs”)

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968)

These books are available for sale, and I have put a copy of each on 2 hour reserve in the library as well. *Note that the editions on reserve are not the most recent editions – this should not be a problem but you should be aware of slight differences.

Requirements

1) Three written exams, given in class. Each will contain a number of identifications asking you to link a specific person, event, document, or idea to its historical context and significance, and an essay question asking you to incorporate course material into larger themes. Exams will cover class lectures and all the readings assigned during that period of the course. We will compile a list of identifications from each lecture, and I will distribute potential essay questions a week in advance of each exam. We will go over how to write a strong exam in class beforehand. Each exam will be worth 20% of your grade. The third exam will be given during finals week; it will not be cumulative. Since successful test taking often requires practice and learning is the main point of the course, I will take improvement on test scores into account when factoring final grades.

2) Two short writing assignments, due in class as noted below on the schedule of assignments. The first will ask you to find and interpret news coverage of a specific event in one to two pages. It will be worth 10% of your final grade. The second assignment, slightly longer and more in depth, will be on Coming of Age in Mississippi and is worth 15% of your final grade. More on these assignments to come.

3) Written and oral participation. This is an integral part of this course as well as the process of learning. It includes discussion of issues raised during class as well as regular short written responses to the document readings. Most days we will read and discuss two or three primary source documents, and students will turn in a short paragraph response to any two of those documents per week, ten times. Everyone needs to turn in responses to a total of 20 documents by the end of the semester. They are due to me, via Oncourse mail, by 8:00pm the evening before we discuss those particular documents. I will mark them with a check to acknowledge their receipt and use them as a basis for discussion the next day in class. These responses, plus the quality and consistency of verbal participation in class, will count for 15% of your final grade.

4) Attendance. Faithful attendance is vital to your success in this course and is required. An attendance list will be circulated at some point during each class, and if you miss signing in due to lateness or an early departure, you will be counted as absent for the day. Since emergencies plague even the most diligent, however, you may miss up to four classes without penalty, no questions asked or excuses required. *For each and every class missed past four, I will deduct two points from your final grade average. Avoid this at all costs! Save your free misses for emergencies! If you maintain a perfect or near perfect attendance record for the semester, I will add a point or two to your final average.

The success of our class lectures and discussions depend upon students keeping up with the reading and getting involved in class. I expect you to meet deadlines and due dates. Print out your papers well ahead of time, and always save a copy on disk. Late papers will have their grade reduced 1/3 a letter for each day they are late. Having said that, it is much better to turn in a very late paper than none at all; even an F, 55%, is better than zero. If you have a serious conflict with an exam, you must come talk to me BEFORE the exam, otherwise I will need documentation of illness or other emergency. If you miss an exam with no explanation you will receive a zero for the exam, which usually results in failure of the course. Avoid intellectual dishonesty at all costs—representing someone else’s words or ideas as your own counts as plagiarism, and if I catch you doing this or cheating on exams you will face anything from failure of the work in question to failure of the course and disciplinary action from the university. (See the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, p. 36 in the latest IUPUI Bulletin, or visit http://www.hoosiers.iupui.edu/studcode/stucode.htm#part%203, or come see me if you have questions.) Please take advantage of my office hours and email account if you have questions, need help, or just want to talk about the class.

Schedule of Assignments

*Note: bring your documents reader to class, along with your notes and ideas on it, every time document readings are due. Remember to turn in your response paragraphs to me via Oncourse the evening before we discuss them.

Aug 26 Introduction

Aug 31 Reconstruction (text chapter 17 due for class; docs 17-4, 8)

Sept 2 Conquering the American West (text ch. 18; docs 18-4, 7)

Sept 7 Economic and Environmental Conquest (text ch. 19; docs 18-1, 19-1)

Sept 9 Race, Labor, and Industrialization (docs 19-2, 3, 20-2)

Sept 14 Class and Consumer Culture (docs 19-8, 10)

Sept 16 Politics of the people (text ch. 20; docs 20-1, 4))

Sept 21 American Imperialism (docs 20-7, 9) *New York Times Assignment Due

Sept 23 Workers and Reform (text ch. 21; docs 20-6, 21-1)

Sept 28 Progressivism (docs 21-6, 8, 9)

Sept 30 World War I (text ch. 22; docs 22-5, 6, 8)

Oct 5 Exam

Oct 7 1920s Society (docs 23-4, 5, 7))

Oct 12 1920s Economy (text ch. 23; docs 23-2, 3)

Oct 14 no class (begin reading Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi)

Oct 19 New Deal Culture (text ch. 24; docs 24-2, 8, 9)

Oct 21 New Deal Politics (docs 24-4, 5, 6)

Oct 26 World War II and Foreign Policy (text ch. 25; docs 25-2, 3, 4)

Oct 28 World War II Homefront (docs 25-1, 5, 6))

Nov 2 The Cold War (text ch. 26; docs 26-1, 2, 3)

Nov 4 Containment (text ch. 27; docs 26-4, 6, 7)

Nov 9 Exam

Nov 11 Rebellion in the 1950s (docs 27-1, 7, 9)

Nov 16 Civil Rights (text, ch. 28; docs 28-1, 2, 3)

Nov 18 Civil Rights (Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi)

* writing assignment on Moody due at the start of class

Nov 23 American Society and Liberal Consensus (docs 27-6, 8, 28-9)

Nov 25 Thanksgiving - no class

Nov 30 Vietnam (text, ch. 29; docs 29-4, 5, 9)

Dec 2 Politics Undone (docs 28-10, 29-1)

Dec 7 New Conservatism (text ch. 30; docs 29-11, 30-5)

Dec 9 America in the World (text ch. 31)

Dec 14 Third Exam 10:30am-12:30pm (in CA 217, as usual)