IUPUI
HISTORY
106
3 Credit Hours, Fall 2005
Saturdays, 12:00 p.m. to 2:40 p.m.
Cavanaugh Hall 217
Office Hours: before and after class and by appointment
E-mail: jgiesen@iupui.edu
Home Phone: (317) 736-6659
Course Description: History 106 is a brief introduction to US history from the Civil War to the present. Through lectures, historical accounts, fiction, film, and music, we will develop an understanding of how “big” political, economic and social events changed ordinary Americans’ lives. The course will be structured around the theme of American freedom. We will examine how Americans’ concept of freedom changed over this period and how the everyday lives of Americans changed as well. By the end of the semester students will have gained not only a better understanding of the events of the American past, but more importantly they will have a well-developed understanding of how history is made and how it changes over time. This class will also work with students to develop their critical analytical writing and speaking skills, core components of the school’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning.
Course Requirements:
1. First and foremost you must do the assigned readings and come to class prepared not only to sit and take notes, but to engage new ideas, ask questions, argue, and agree. Your participation in in-class conversations each week will constitute 10% of your final grade.
2. There will be one mid-term exam and one final exam. These will constitute multiple choice questions, short answers, and essays. The final exam will have a cumulative component.
3. You will write two 3-4 page critical essays on two of the “outside” books that we will read for class. You must write about either The Jungle or A Lynching in the Heartland, and about either The Things They Carried or Nickel and Dimed. This will insure that you write one paper before the mid-term and one after it. These papers are due on the day that we discuss the books (see schedule below).
Grade Value
Breakdown:
Critical Essays 20% (each)
Mid-Term 25%
Final 25%
Assorted Class Policies:
· Students are required to attend all classes. You will only be able to turn in assignments in class. If you are not in class to turn in an assignment I will not accept it.
·
Please read your student
handbook regarding academic honesty
(http://life.iupui.edu/help/docs/Part_3all.html). Plagiarism and/or cheating will not be
tolerated. If you have questions about
what constitutes plagiarism please ask the instructor prior to completing an
assignment
·
Please bring all reading assignments with you to
class on the days they have been assigned.
·
I reserve the right to give pop quizzes at any
time and to make changes to these requirements, the grade breakdown and the
course schedule if needed.
Required Books:
George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, America: A Narrative History, Brief Sixth Edition, Volume Two.
Upton Sinclair, The
Jungle.
James H. Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in
America
Course Calendar:
Please note that all reading and written assignments should be completed prior to class on the date listed below.
August 27: Introduction & Reconstruction: The Unfinished Revolution.
September 3: The New South? Discovering the West? Race and Regions,
1880-1910
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapters 18 & 19.
September 10: The Dawn of the Industrial Age. 1880-1914
Reading: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle; Tindall & Shi, Chapter 20.
DUE: Jungle Papers
September 17: Populism, Progressivism, Imperialism, and War, 1880s to 1919
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapters 21-25.
September 24: The Roaring Twenties and Depression, 1920-1942
Reading: Madison, A Lynching in the Heartland; Tindall & Shi, Chapters 26-28.
DUE: Madison Papers
October 1: World War II, 1940-1945
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapters 29-30.
October 8: MIDTERM EXAM
October 15: War’s Bounty: The Cold War and Prosperity at Home and Abroad
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapters 31-33.
October 22: The Civil Rights Movement
Reading: Tindall & Shi,
Chapter 34
October 29: The Longest War and Reaction at Home
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapter 35.
November 5: The Cultures of the 1960s
Reading: Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
DUE: O’Brien papers
November 12: More Movements and Their Meanings
November 19: The End of Prosperity and the Rise of the Right, 1970-1988
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapter 36
December 3: Globalization and Work in the 1990s
Reading: Ehrenreich Nickel
and Dimed.
DUE: Ehrenreich papers.
December 10: The US in a Global Perspective: 9-11 and Beyond.
Reading: Tindall & Shi, Chapter 37
December 17: FINAL EXAM