Office: CA 506
Office
Telephone: 278-9020
Office
Hours: MW 1-2 and by appointment
Email: aashende@iupui.edu
Required
Course
Description and Objectives: Despite all
opinions to the contrary, history survey courses such as this one are not
designed to make undergraduates jump through hoops or torture them with
requirements to learn useless information and meaningless dates, all irrelevant
to the students’ futures. Instead, a
survey course is meant to give students a framework for understanding how both
the present and future unfold within structures largely defined by the
past. Even the fast-paced,
technology-driven society we find ourselves in today has roots in historical
precedents that are still shaping its development. This course will focus on the usual themes of
politics and economics, but will also show how ordinary people shaped those forces. History is not just a mountain of facts, but
is instead a sequence of interconnected events.
Understanding those connections and explaining them through the use of
facts is one way to sharpen your analytical skills, improve your ability to
communicate with others, and, hopefully, to learn something to apply to your own life.
These objectives are stated another way as the IUPUI Principles of
Undergraduate Learning:
www.iupui.edu/~history/principlesundergradlearning.htm. We will also discuss these on the first day
of class. More specifically, class
objectives include: understanding the
consequences of the Civil War for all regions of the country; analyzing the
rise of big business and labor unions at the end of the nineteenth century;
understanding the interplay between business and the federal government;
analyzing the move from an isolationist foreign policy to one of intervention;
analyzing the role of reform organizations; and finally, students will examine
all events from multiple perspectives to understand how all segments of society
influenced important events.
Attendance: Attendance is required and will be taken at
every class meeting. Consistent
attendance will be used to determine borderline grades. Further, material covered in lecture is not
necessarily covered in the required readings.
Attendance at every class meeting will result in a better grade for the
course.
Classroom
procedures: Please arrive on time. If you must arrive late, please enter the
room quietly. Place all cell phones on
vibrate or turn them off for the duration of the class. Please do not leave class early for other
appointments. Listening and note taking
are important study skills, therefore, no tape recorders are allowed.
Cheating
and plagiarism: Don’t do it. You will earn a zero on the work in
question. We will discuss plagiarism on
the first day of class.
Assignments: Students will take three examinations. These examinations will consist of 6
identifications and an essay question. A
study guide will be distributed in class one week prior to each exam. The study guide will include 13 possible
identifications and at least 3 possible essays.
The actual exam will be taken directly from that study guide. There will also be a quiz over Looking Backward, a quiz over Hard Times, and a quiz over LBJ and American Liberalism. The study questions for those quizzes are
part of this syllabus.
Grading:
3
examinations @ 100 points 300
3
quizzes @ 50 points 150
Total
points 450
Grades
are based on a straight scale:
450-405=A; 404-360= B; 359-315=C; 314-270= D; 269 and lower = F. A zero has a greater negative impact on your
final grade than at least some attempt to complete an assignment. Makeup examinations and quizzes are strongly
discouraged. Makeup quizzes WILL NOT be
taken from the study guide. No makeup
exam or quiz will be given without documentation proving an extreme
emergency. Documentation includes
doctors’ forms, funeral notices, accident reports, and similar verifiable
papers. The instructor reserves the
right to refuse to grant a makeup exam or quiz if the documentation is not
presented or is deemed invalid. If a makeup exam or quiz is approved it must be
completed within one week of the original exam or quiz. Incompletes are strongly discouraged and
rarely given. It is not fair to the rest
of the class to request extra time to complete the work.
Schedule of lecture topics, readings, quizzes, and examinations. Please complete the readings before class.
August
26: Introduction to the Course/Reconstruction
Read: EV Chapter 16
August
31: Reconstruction
September
2: The Rise of Big Business
Read: EV Chapter 18 and 19
September
7: The Rise of Big Business
September
9: Labor
September
14: Labor
September
16: Farmers
Read: EV Chapter 20 to p. 629
Read: EV Chapter 21 and Looking Backward
September
23: QUIZ
over Looking Backward
October
5: Imperialism
Read: EV Chapter 20, pp. 629-38
October
7: World War I
Read: EV
Chapter 22
October
12: The 1920s
Read: EV Chapter 23
October
14: The Depression
Read: EV Chapter 24 and Hard Times
October
26: World War II
Read: EV Chapter 25
October
28: World War II
Read: EV Chapters 26 and 27
November
4: EXAM
II
November
9: The Civil Rights Movement
Read: EV Chapter 28
November
11: The Civil Rights Movement
November
16: Vietnam
November
18: Vietnam
November
23: The 1960s
Read: EV Chapter 29 and LBJ
November
25: Thanksgiving
Holiday—No classes
November
30: The 1960s
December
2: QUIZ
over LBJ
December
7: That 70s Decade
Read: EV Chapter 30
December
9: The 80s
Study
Guide for Looking Backward
Introduction: What were some of the causes of “disharmony”
at the end of the nineteenth century?
What were historical cases of utopianism in the United States? What attraction did Looking Backward have for the middle-class? To farmers?
What did nationalists want to do in the United States? What were some of the criticisms of Bellamy’s
utopia?
Chapters
1-4: Explain the coach story and what it
means. Why did people strike? How did
West arrive in 2000?
Chapters
5-7: Why does Dr. Leete
say unions existed in 1887 and how was the labor problem resolved by 2000? Describe the industrial army and how it
worked.
Chapters
9 and 10: How do people acquire goods
with no merchants or banks? What
motivates people to work? How did stores
function?
Chapters
11-14: What does music come from in
2000? What can people inherit? Who does the laundry and the cooking? How does this aid women? What sorts of honors did people receive? How does this system work world-wide? Can you walk in the rain?
Chapters
15, 17, 19, 21: How are books and
newspapers published? How is the United
States president chosen? Describe crime
and criminals and prison in 2000. Why
does Congress meet so infrequently?
Describe the system of education.
Chapter
22: How can the government afford to
support everyone? In other words, how
does the economic system operate?
Chapter
25: Describe women’s lives in 2000.
Study
Guide for Hard Times
You
are required to read through page 281, omitting the sections entitled, “Bonnie Labor
Boy” and “Sixteen Ton.”
1. “The March” describes the
Bonus March on Washington, D.C. Who were
the Bonus Marchers? What was their
goal? Did they succeed?
2. “Hard Travelin’”
describes the ways people looked for work during the Depression. What types of jobs did people find? How did they find those jobs? How did people acquire food? Describe life in the Civilian Conservation
Corps.
3. How did the families in “Big
Money” and “Old Families” respond to the Depression?
4. What strikes are depicted in
“Three Strikes?” What happened?
5. How did the farmers who were
interviewed for the section entitled, “The Farmer is the Man,” respond to
possible and actual foreclosures? How
did they try to raise farm prices? Did
they join any organizations? If so, what
were they?
6. Using evidence from
“Concerning the New Deal,” how did the government develop some of its New Deal
programs?
Study
Guide for Lyndon B. Johnson and American
Liberalism
You
do not have to read the documents section of the book.
Chapter
1: Describe LBJ’s
early years. How did LBJ participate in
New Deal activities?
Chapter
2: What were three new areas of focus
for liberals in the late 1940s and 1950s?
How did LBJ function as Senate majority leader? What changes did he make in the office? How did the Democratic Senate work with the
Republican president? How did Johnson
deal with racial issues in the 1950s?
Chapter
3: What were LBJ’s
views on racial policy and Vietnam as vice-president? How did he respond to poverty programs
introduced to him when he became president?
How did he persuade Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964? What was the political response of the South?
Chapter
4: What was the philosophical basis of
the Great Society? How did LBJ pursue
his programs with Congress? Describe
some of the Great Society programs. What sorts of problems did some Great
Society programs encounter? Why didn’t
the middle-class think the Great Society benefited them when it actually did?
Chapter
5: What was the impetus for the Voting
Rights Act of 1965? Why did universalism
appear not to work with the civil rights problems? How did the EEOC change in the late 1960s?
Chapter
6: What principles and ideas shaped LBJs attitude toward Vietnam? Why did LBJ get the United
States more involved in Vietnam? What
problems did soldiers face in Vietnam?
What was the credibility gap?
Chapter
7: What were the economic consequences
of funding both the Vietnam War and social programs? Why did people leave the “liberal coalition?”