Introduction

You may be wondering why people like me make a career out of history; why it is a graduation requirement. One reason is because history 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 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 during this period: how Americans have defined themselves in contrast to others (domestically and in terms of international relations); and how people with less power in American society struggled in different ways to gain it. I think you will find that these themes have some personal as well as political meaning to you right now. To explore them we will shift back and forth between the general and the particular, the “big picture” and specific historical actors. 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 specific information as well as larger thematic ideas, it teaches information, writing, and thinking 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 a perfect world, it will help you become informed and thoughtful citizens—of your home, neighborhood, city, and nation.

Classes will consist of lectures interspersed with periods of group work and discussion. They will incorporate a variety of primary sources including a novel, a memoir, music, and the occasional film as well as a standard textbook and primary source reader. 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. 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.

Books

These books are available for sale, and there is a copy of each on 2 hour reserve in the library as well. 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 Document Set volume II (hereafter referred to as “docs”)

Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons (1918)

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968)

Requirements

1) Three written exams, given in class. Each will contain a number of identifications asking you to link a specific person, event, or idea from lecture to its historical context and significance, a section asking you to identify and explain some of the documents regularly assigned for class, 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) One 4-5 page paper, due in class on the day we discuss the book. You may choose to write on either Magnificent Ambersons or Coming of Age in Mississippi. I will make the specific assignment and paper writing guidelines available on Oncourse. This paper is worth 30% of your final grade.

3) Participation. In a lecture course such as this it is easy to be a bump on a log. But behaving this way encourages passive acceptance of ideas and values rather than engaging them or questioning them. Plus it’s boring. So, 10% of your grade will reflect your participation and signs of intellectual vigor. Each student will begin with a C-plus (78%) for this portion of their grade; informed, thoughtful comments in class or during office hours, plus pursuing outside opportunities for intellectual engagement (I will offer many throughout the semester—be ready for them) will give me fodder for adjusting this grade up; dozing off or sustained blank looks will take it the other way. With some luck this will get us all off our logs.

4) Attendance. Regular attendance is vital to your success in this course and is required. We will circulate an attendance list 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. I expect you to meet deadlines and due dates. Print out your papers well ahead of time, and always save a copy on disk. If you have an 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 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 Conduct at: http://life.iupui.edu/help/code.asp as well as campus policies on academic misconduct: http://registrar.iupui.edu/misconduct.html; and 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. Same goes for John Taylor, our TA. If you have more general questions or need guidance about pretty much anything, contact the Student Advocate Office. The Student Advocate Office is located in UC002 (278-7594 or http://www.life.iupui.edu/advocate/)

Schedule of Assignments

*Note: bring your documents reader to class, along with your notes and ideas on it.

Aug 24 Introduction

Aug 29 Reconstruction (text chapter 17 due for class; docs 17-4, 8)

Aug 31 Conquering the American West (text ch. 18; docs 18-4, 7)

Sept 5 Labor Day – no class

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

Sept 12 Race, Labor, and Industrialization (docs 19-2, 3, 20-2)

Sept 14 Urban Landscapes of Class (Magnificent Ambersons due for class)

*paper on Magnificent Ambersons due in class

Sept 19 Politics of the people (text ch. 20; docs 20-1, 4))

Sept 21 American Imperialism (docs 20-7, 9)

Sept 26 Workers and Reform (text ch. 21; docs 20-6, 21-1)

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

Oct 3 First Exam

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

Oct 10 1920s Society (docs 23-4, 5, 7))

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

Oct 17 New Deal Culture (text ch. 24; docs 24-2, 8, 9)

Oct 19 New Deal Politics (docs 24-4, 5, 6)

Oct 24 World War II and Foreign Policy (text ch. 25; docs 25-2, 3, 4)

Oct 26 World War II Homefront (docs 25-1, 5, 6))

Oct 31 The Cold War (text ch. 26; docs 26-1, 2, 3)

Nov 2 The Cold War at Home (text ch. 27; docs 26-4, 6, 7)

Nov 7 Second Exam

Nov 9 Containment Culture

Nov 14 Rebellion in the 1950s (docs 27-1, 7, 9)

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

Nov 21 Civil Rights (Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi)

* writing assignment on Moody due at the start of class

Nov 23 Thanksgiving Break – no class

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

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

Dec 5 Politics Undone (docs 28-10, 29-1)

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

Dec 12 America in the World (text ch. 31)

Dec 14 Third Exam 10:30-12:30 (in LE100, as usual)