Spring 2005
History 457/557 19th C United States: III: Reconstruction
| James C. Mohr |
CRN: 35232/35250 |
| 383 McKenzie |
CLASSROOM: 229 McKenzie, TU, TH 8:30-9:50
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Phone: 346-5903
Office Hours:
U&H 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
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E-MAIL: jmohr@uoregon.edu
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Required Readings:
Foner, Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877
Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865-1873
Mohr, ed., Chapters of Erie
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
Ross, “Justice Miller’s Reconstruction: The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873,” Journal of Southern History, Vol LXIV, No. 4, (Nov 1998), 649-676.
(The books are paperback and available in the Bookstore; the articles will be available in the Knight Library and on reserve)
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.
This will be primarily a lecture course, with some discussion interspersed along the way and one class session set aside specifically for discussion of the Jones book.
There will be a mid-quarter exam (30%); a paper of five to ten pages (30%); and a final exam (40%).
| Week I: |
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Reading: |
Foner, Reconstruction, 1-76. |
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Lectures: |
Mar 29: Outline and introduction |
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Mar 31: Wartime roots of post-war policy |
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| Week II |
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Reading: |
Froner, Reconstruction, 77-280 |
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Lectures: |
Apr 05: Johnson's Failure, 1865-1867
Apr 07: No class; get ahead on the reading, including Jones, Soldiers. |
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| Week III: |
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Reading: |
Foner, Reconstruction, 281-345; continue Jones, Soldiers |
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Lectures: |
Apr 12: Congressional, or "Radical," Reconstruction
Apr 14: Radical Reconstruction in Practice in the South |
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| Week IV: |
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Reading: |
Foner, Reconstruction, 346-411; finish Jones, Soldiers |
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Lectures: |
Apr 19: Reconstruction in the North
Apr 21: Readers only discussion session on Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love |
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| Week V: |
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Reading: |
No additional assignment; review for mid-term exam |
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Lectures: |
Apr 26: MIDTERM EXAM
Apr 28: Freedpeople and the Southern Economy |
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| Week VI: |
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Reading: |
Foner, Reconstruction, 412-511; Chapters of Erie, 1-100, 137-193; do not forget your Times reading for the paper |
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Lectures: |
May 03: Grantism
May 05: Counter-Reconstruction in the South |
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| Week VII: |
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Reading: |
Foner, Reconstruction, 512-612; continue Times paper |
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Lectures: |
May 10: Counter-Reconstruction at the National Level
May 12: The Election of 1876 and the Crisis of 1877 |
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| Week VIII: |
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Reading: |
Benedict, "Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877"; Ross, “Justice Miller’s Reconstruction: The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873”; begin writing your Times paper |
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Lectures: |
May 17: The “Compromise” of 1877 and its aftermath
May 19: Legal history and the Reconstruction era |
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| Week IX: |
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Reading: |
No additional assignment; finish Times paper, which is due Thursday |
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Lectures: |
May 24: Native American policy 1865-1887
May 26: PAPERS DUE (at beginning of class)
Reconstruction and Religion |
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| Week X: |
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Reading: |
No additional reading; review for final exam |
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Lectures: |
May 31: The Consolidation of a New Era, Part I: Trends in the New Economy and Some of its Implications
Jun 02: The Consolidation of a New Era, Part II: The Foundations of Modern America |
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| Week XI: |
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Jun 08: FINAL EXAM (Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.)
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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, editorials, 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. If you wish to do so, you may explore your subject beyond the week you chose and you may explore your subject in sources other than the Times, 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.
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