WEEKLY OUTLINES

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

 Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

 Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

 

OUTLINES:

Week 1: January 8: Late-Nineteenth-Century Society and Culture

Monday: Introduction
Wednesday: A Dynamic Society?
Friday: Culture, Values, and Norms

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Doing History on the Web.

READINGS:

1.Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Images of the West: http://www.treasurenet.com/images/americanwest/

 


Week 2: January 15: Reconstruction and Segregation

Monday: No Class, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Wednesday: The Legacy of Reconstruction
Friday: Segregation

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Black and White in America

READINGS:

1.John David Smith, Black Voices from Reconstruction 1865-1877.
2.Documents: 14th Amendment to the Constitution, 1868; 15th Amendment to the Constitution, 1870; Civil Rights Act of 1875

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

 

 


Week 3: January 22: Making A New Society

Monday: The Peopling of Urban America
Wednesday: Urbanization: The Challenge of the New City
Friday: Economic Expansion and the Rise of the Corporation

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Immigrant America?

READINGS:

1.Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
2.From the Pluralism and Unity Project, "The Ideal of Pluralism" and "Race and Pluralism"
http://www.expo98.msu.edu
3.Document: Chinese Exclusion Act, 1890

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives: http://www.cis.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/title.html

 


Week 4: January 29: The Birth of Modern America

Monday: The Changing Face of Labor
Wednesday: Unrest on the Farm
Friday: Gilded Age Politics

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Labor and Capital

READINGS:

1.Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.
2.Andrew Carnegie "Wealth" 1889
3.Documents: Ocala Platform, 1890; and William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold Speech.

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.William McKinley:
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/McKinley
2.Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era:
http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm
3.The Union Web: http://www.unionweb.org/

 


Week 5: February 5: Activism

***First Mid-term Due Monday, February 5 at 10:20 in Lecture***

Monday: Imperialism
Wednesday: Cultural and Intellectual Changes for a New Century
Friday Video: "Coney Island"

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Coney Island and the Culture of Consumption

READINGS:

1.Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century.
2."Internationalism" from the Pluralism and Unity Project: http://www.expo98.msu.edu
3.Documents: McKinley's War Message, 1898; and Theodore Roosevelt, Strenuous Life Speech.

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.An on-line history of US Imperialism: http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html
2.The World's Columbian Exposition: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html

 


Week 6: February 12: The New American State

Monday: Reform
Wednesday: National Progressivism.
Friday: Democracy and the Administrative State

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Progressive Era?

READINGS:

1.Link and McCormick, Progressivism
2.Jane Addams, The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements
3.Documents: Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896; and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

 


Week 7: February 19: America and The First World War

Monday: "The War to End All Wars:" America and the First World War
Wednesday: The War at Home
Friday: Cultural Reaction in the Twenties

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The U.S. and the World: Isolation or Intervention?

READINGS:

1.The Scopes Trial: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/inherit/1925home.html
2.Documents: Woodrown Wilson's 14 Points; Congressional Debate on Immigration Restriction (1921)

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Henry Louis Mencken Site: http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html

 


Week 8: February 26: From Prosperity to Collapse

Monday: The Ambivalent Decade
Wednesday: From Prosperity to Depression
Friday: Video: Sit-Down Strikes

DISCUSSION SESSIONS: Cultural Heros and Cultural History.

READINGS:

1.Warren Susman, "Cultural Heroes: Ford, Barton and Ruth;" and "Personality and the Making of 20th Century Culture."
2.John William Ward, "The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight" (1958).
3.McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression, 1-32.

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/

 


Week 9: March 12: Depression and Response

Monday: Hoover and Roosevelt
Wednesday: Evaluating the New Deal
Friday: American Culture During the Depression

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Depression, the New Deal, and Social Welfare.

READINGS:

1.McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression, p. 33-end.
2.Documents: Herbert Hoover, Rugged Individualism Speech (1928), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (1932).
3.William E. Leuchtenburg, "The Roosevelt Reconstruction: Retrospect" (1963).

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.The WPA Federal Writers Project (excerpts)
http://rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html
2.Images from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information Files.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
4.The Scottsboro Boys
http://www.afroam.org/history/scott/scotts.html

 



Week 10: March 19: World War II and the Cold War

Monday: Going to War
Wednesday: Mobilizing for War
Friday: From Hot War to Cold War

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: The Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War

READINGS:

1.Martin J. Sherwin, "The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War" (1975).
2.Robert L. Messer, "New Evidence on Truman's Decision" (1985).
3.Gar Alperovitz, "More on Atomic Diplomacy (1985).
4.Documents: Roosevelt's Infamy Speech (1941); Executive Order No. 9066; The Yalta Protocol of Proceedings (1945); Harry S. Truman, Announcement of Atomic Bombing (1945); Harry S. Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947); and Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Eisenhower Doctrine (1957).

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Women at War: http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/sus_women.html
2.Web Resources on Japanese-American internment: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html

 


Week 11: March 26: The Postwar Years

*****Second Midterm Due Monday, March 25 at 10:20 am at Lecture*****

Monday: Anti-Communism at Home
Wednesday: The Affluent Society
Friday: Organization Men and Housewives

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Growing Up in the Fifties.

READINGS:

1.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
2.Betty Friedan, Chapters One and Two, The Feminine Mystique (1963).
3.Elaine Tyler May, "Explosive Issues: Sex, Women and the Bomb"
4.Documents: Truman's Loyalty Oath (1947); Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia (1950);
Raymond B. Allen, "Communists Should Not Teach in American Colleges" (1949); Walt Disney's Testimony
before HUAC (1947)
; Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex" (1961); and Adlai Stevenson
Describes a Women's Place (1955)
.

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Archives on McCarthyism (including audio clips)
http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/
2.Hypertext Resource on Hollywood Blacklist
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/blacklist.html
3.The Original (Unofficial) Elvis Homepage:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/elvis/elvishom.html
4.The Fifties Archives
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fifties.htm


Week 12: April 2: Civil Rights and Social Justice

Monday: The Civil Rights Movement I
Wednesday: The Civil Rights Movement II
Friday: Video: Eyes on the Prize

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Civil Rights in Modern America

READINGS:

1.Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
2.Documents: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954); Martin Luther King, "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail (1963)
; The Civil Rights Act of 1964; John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address; Students for a
Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement
; Lyndon B. Johnson, Great Society Speech (1964).

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Sound clips from Civil Rights struggles: http://webcorp.com/civilrights/
2.King and the Civil Rights Movement: http://www.seattletimes.com/mlk/index.html
3.Photo tour of the Civil Rights Movement: http://www.seattletimes.com/mlk/movement/PT/phototour.html
4.The Sixties Project: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/sixties/

 


Week 13: April 9: Vietnam and Rebellion at Home

Monday: The Counter-Culture
Wednesday: The Origins of the Vietnam War
Friday: The Vietnam War

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Vietnam

READINGS:

1.Levy, The Debate Over Vietnam
2.Richard Rogin, "Joe Kelly Has Reached His Boiling Point."
3.Documents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Domino Theory (1954); Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964); Lyndon
Johnson, "Why We Are in Vietnam (1965)
; J. William Fulbright, "The Arrogance of Power" (1966); Martin
Luther King, Jr. "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam" (1967)
; "A Call to Resist Illegitimate
Authority" (1966)
; War Powers Act of 1973.

 


Week 14: April 16: The Seventies and Eighties

Monday:The Women's Movement
Wednesday: The "Me Decade" and Post-Modern America
Friday: The Reagan Eighties

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Feminism

READINGS:

1.Documents: N.O.W. Statement of Purpose (1966); N.O.W. Bill of Rights, 1968; "What Are We
Complaining About?" (1970)

2.Rebecca Klatch, "Women Against Feminism"
3.Susan Faludi, "Blame it on Feminism," Introduction to Backlash (1991).
4.Documents: Ronald Reagan, Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater (1964); Jimmy Carter, The
Crisis of American Spirit (1979)
; Executive Summary, Independent Council's Report on Iran-Contra.

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.The Diggers Archives OnLine
http://www.diggers.org
2.Timeline of Women's Movement
http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1953.html
3.Ronald Reagan OnLine:

 


Week 15: April 23: Recent America:

Monday: The New Pluralism: Bill Clinton's America?
Wednesday: Race, Gender, and Class in Contemporary America
Friday: No Class

DISCUSSION SECTIONS: Coming to Grips with Modern America

READINGS:

TBA

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

 

*****Final Paper Due Monday April 30, 10 AM*****

 


created: February 10, 2000
last updated: February 23, 2000

Copyright 2001, Mark Kornbluh