Spring Term 1999, History 357 Professor James Mohr

RECONSTRUCTION

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CRN: 23138/23161

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11:00-11:50 MWF / 342 GIL Office Hours

Course Site: http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~hdavidso

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course allows us to take a close look at one of the most tumultuous, fascinating, and significant periods in our national history: the so-called Reconstruction, when Americans faced the awesome task of trying to rebuild their republic after the cataclysm of the Civil War. The decisions they made at that time laid the foundations upon which the modern United States evolved, and many of those decisions still reverberate clearly into our own times.

COURSE POLICIES

This will be primarily a lecture course, with some discussion interspersed along the way and a couple of days set aside specifically for discussion of specific readings (see syllabus).

Paper assignment: The Knight Library holds the New York Times newspaper for the entire period we will be looking at in this course. It is on microfilm. You are to select any one week between June 1, 1865 and December 31, 1878 and read the Times thoroughly for that week; every page, ads and all. Then write a paper that addresses any of the chief issues of that week or any aspects of American everyday life revealed in the Times during that week. You may explore subjects beyond your chosen week and beyond the Times if you wish to do so, but you are not required to do so. Your papers may vary a great deal depending upon what was going on during your week, what you decide to write about, what context you decide to put the material into, and which themes you select for analysis. 

Each student will have individual help available for this paper assignment and each student will be required to have at least one formal paper-discussion session with Mr. Higgens-Evenson. Failure to have such a session will reduce your paper grade.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Foner, Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877

Benedict, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson

Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865-1873

Benedict, "Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877: A Reconsideration of Reunion and Reaction," Journal of Southern History, Vol XLVI, No. 4 (Nov 1980), 489-524. 

(The books are paperback and available in the Bookstore; the article will be available separately)

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week I:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 1-34

Lectures: Mar 31: Outline and introduction

Apr 02: "How-to" paper discussion

Week II:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 35-76; begin Benedict, Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson

Lectures: Apr 07: Evolution of a two-Aim War

Apr 09: Wartime roots of post-war policy

Week III:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 77-345; continue Benedict

Lectures: Apr 14: Johnson's Failure, 1865-1867

Apr 16: Congressional, or "Radical," Reconstruction

Week IV:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 346-411; finish Benedict

Lectures: Apr 21: Radical Reconstruction in Practice in the South

Apr 23: Readers only discussion session on Benedict, Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson

Week V:

Reading: Begin Times reading; begin Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love

Lectures: Apr 28: MID-QUARTER EXAM

Apr 30: Freedpeople and the Southern Economy

Week VI:

Reading: Continue Times reading; finish Jones

Lectures: May 5: Readers only discussion session on Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love

May 7: Reconstruction in the North

Week VII:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 412-511; finish Times reading for paper

Lectures: May 12: Grantism

May 14: Counter-Reconstruction in the South

Week VIII:

Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 512-612

Lectures: May 19: Counter-Reconstruction at the National Level

May 21: The Role of the Supreme Court in the Counter-Reconstruction

Week IX:

Reading: Benedict, "Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877"; finish papers

Lectures: May 26: No class; Memorial Day

May 28: The Election of 1876 and the Crisis of 1877

Week X:

Reading: No additional assignments; review for exams

Lectures: June 02: PAPERS DUE (at beginning of class)

The Consolidation of a New Era, Part I: Trends in the New Economy and Some of its Implications

Jun 04: The Consolidation of a New Era, Part II: The Foundations of Modern America

Week XI: Jun 10: Final exam (at 15:15)