History 203

Spring Term 1999, History 203	Professor Bill Toll
History of the United States	Download Word97
09:00-09:50 MWF / 138 GIL	Download Text-Only
CRN: 33033	Office Hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will examine how the United States, between 1900 and the 1990s, grew from one of many industrial powers into the world’s predominant continental nation and financial power. The basic themes will contrast the domestic agenda of America’s people with the nation’s growing international commitments and changing place among nations. For the early 20th century, we will examine immigration, the ethnic and racial diversity of the American people and the concomitant internal migrations in response to industrialization that led to conflicts among us. We will examine how government expanded to meet economic and social crises, like the Great Depression, and especially World War II. We will look particularly at how intellectuals debated the issue of moral responsibility in the face of war.

For the post-World War II period, we will examine how America became economically predominant and how our economic and military policies have had vast international implications. We will then examine how the internal revolution of civil rights challenged laws and customs about racial hierarchies but even mores presented the nation with new domestic priorities and led to new government policies. New immigration legislation in 1965 soon changed the composition and interests of the American people, while changes in the work force and the nature of work created new opportunities, new gender relations, and new cultural politics. Finally, we will examine the place of America in a post-Cold War world.

COURSE POLICIES

Format: This class meets MWF 9:00 to 9:50 for lectures and occasional video presentations. Students also have signed up for a discussion section, which meets for one additional hour each week. Attendance at discussion sections is required and participation will count 20% of your grade. The discussion sections should examine the assigned readings for each week, and prepare students to meet the writing requirements for the course.

Assignments: This course will have four primary assignments:

An essay comparing the political views of George Washington Plunkitt, a Termini Hall politicians, and Jane Adams, a feminist reformer . This essay will be due in section meetings during the third week of class and will be worth 20% of your grade.

A second essay examining the idea of political responsibility using several of the essays in the packet assigned for the course. This essay will be due in section meetings during the 9th week of class and will be worth 20% of your grade.

A one hour mid-term examination in the lecture class on Friday, April 30th, worth 20% of your grade.

A two hour final examination, on the date and time announced in class schedule. This examination will be worth 30% of your grade.

Test formats: Questions on the mid-term and final examinations will require knowledge of both lectures and readings. A set of examination questions will be distributed a week in advance, and at the examination students will be given some choices from the pre-distributed essay questions.

Participation in discussion sections will be worth the final 10%. The weekly schedule of lectures is accompanied by assignments from the packet of readings or from the three required books. The readings and books will provide the basis for discussion and assignments in the sections, so they need to be read before attendance at weekly discussion sections

REQUIRED TEXTS

Available for purchase at the University Bookstore book store:

Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

William Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

Studs Terkel, Hard Times

Packet for History 251

Recommended Reading:

Mary Beth Norton, et.al., A People & a Nation, A History of the United States, Brief Edition, 4th or 5th edition

Note: The lectures are intended as a framework to interpret the historical importance of the readings in the packet, which has been assembled with the lecture themes in mind. The recommended text, A People & a Nation: A History of the United States, Brief Edition, is intended as a reference book. You may use it or any other recent text that provides basic information about 20th century American political, economic and social history as a reference when preparing all papers for this course.

COURSE SCHEDULE


Week	Dates	Lecture Topic	Assigned Readings
1	3/29-3/31	American in 1900: A Social Profile	Norton, People & Nation, ch.19; Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
	4/2	Promise of American Life	Jane Addams, “Problems of Municipal Administration” (RBR)
2	4/5	Immigration & Immigrant Districts	Bingham,.” Foreign Criminals in NY”
	4/7	Women & Political Space	Jane Addams, “Larger Aspects of Women’s Movement”
	4/9	Racism & African American Responses	DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”
3	4/12	Progressivism	Norton, People & Nation,ch.21
	4/14-4/16	Foreign Relations & WW I	DuBois, “African Roots of War” (RBR); R. Bourne,“War & Intellect’ls”
			Norton, People & Nation,ch.23
4	4/19-4/21	Cultural Conflicts in 1920s	Norton, People & Nation, ch 24; S Lewis, Babbitt (finish)
	4/23	Onset of Great Depression
	Essay on Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt due in section meeting durng 5th week
5	4/26	Emergency New Deal	S. Terkel, Hard Times, 13-81,198-235
	4/28	Permanent New Deal	Norton, People & Nation, ch25
	4/30	Labor Activism: CIO & CP	Terkel, Hard Times, 105-47,293-327
6	5/3	Mid-Term
	5/5	WW II & American Involvement	Norton, People & Nation, ch26 & 27; Fussell, “Real War,” 267-97
	5/7	American Homefront & WW II	Takakai, “Myth of Military Necessity”; Morton, “Decision to use the Bomb;” D. MacDonald, “Responsib of People”
7	5/10	Cold War Ideology & Politics	Norton, People & Nation, ch 28 & 29; G. Kennan, “Soviet Conduct”
	5/12	Civil Rights Movement	King, “Pilgrimage to Non-violence”
	5/14	Black Power & Urban Rioting	Shabbaz, “Malcolm X..”; Norton, Nation & People, 621-31
8	5/17	Vietnam War	R.Nixon, “Myth of Vietnam”
	5/19	Vietnam War	; Chomsky, “Responsibility of Intellectuals”; Norton, People & Natiopn, ch.31
	5/21	The Poor: Liberal Policies	Norton, People & Nation, ch.32
	Essay on Political responsibility due in section meeting during 9th week
9	5/24	The Poor: Conservative Reactions	Norton, People & Nation,ch 32 & 33
	5/26-28	New Immigration
	5/28
10	5/31	Memorial Day-No class
	6/2	Deregulation & “Reagonomics”	Reagan packet; K. Phillips, “Middle Class Decline”
	6/4	Geo-Politics of Oil & Trade	Norton, People & Nation, ch.34

11		Final Exam in (see Class Schedule for day & time))

COURSE PACKET:

	*Jane Addams, “Problems of Municipal Administration,” American Journal of Sociology X, 4 (Jan. 1905),425-444
	*Jane Addams, “Larger Aspects of the Women’s Movement,” Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, 56 (November, 1914), 1-8
	*Theodore Bingham, “Foreign Criminals in New York,” North American Rev,CLXXXVII(Sept. 1908), 383-394
	WEB DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” from DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, (Fawcett, Greenwich CN,1961), 15-22;
	*WEB DuBois, “African Roots of War,” in A WEB DuBois Reader, edited by Meyer Weinberg (Harper Torchbooks, NY, 1970), 360-371 [reprinted from Atlantic XLVII (May, 1915)]
	*Randolph Bourne,”The War and the Intellectuals,” in Bourne, War and the Intellectuals,Collected Essays, 1915-1919 (Harper Torchbooks,NY,1964),3-14
	*Ronald Takaki, “Myth of Military Necessity,” in Strangers from a Different Shore, A History of Asian Americans (Little,Brown, Nboston, 1989),379-405.
	*Paul Fussell, “Real War,” in Wartime, Understanding & Behavior in the Second World War (Oxford U Press, 1989),267-297.
	*Louis Morton, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” in Command Decisions (Cernter of Military History, Washington,DC, 1990), 493-518.
	*Dwight MacDonald, “The Responsibility of People,” in MacDonald, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (Meridian Books, NY, 1958),33-72
	*George Kennan, “Sources of Soviet Conduct,” in Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950 (Mentor Book,,1964),89-106;
	Martin L King, “Pilgrimage to Non-Violence”; ”Letter from a Birmingham Jail” [see History 251* packet for clearance]
	Betty Shabbaz, “Malcolm X as Husband & Father” in Malcolm X,The Man and His Times, edited by John H Clarke (Collier Books, 1969),pp. 132-143, 273-287; Malcolm X,”Ballot or the Bullett” In Malcolm X Speaks (Grove Press, NY, 1965), 23-44[ see History 251* packet for clearance]
	*Richard Nixon, “Myths of Vietam,” in No More Vietnams (Avon, NY, 1985), 9-23
	*Noam Chomsky, “The Responsibility of Intellectuals, “ in Chomsky, Amerian Power and the New Mandarins (Random House, NY, 1969), 323-359
	Regan Packet