photo, Italian immigrant family arriving at Ellis Island, ca. 1900

HIST 3821
3 credits/Fall 2001
T/Th 11:15AM-12:30PM
Anderson 270

Professor Barbara Welke
752 Social Sciences Tower
Office Hours:
T/Th. 3:00-4:30 p.m.
tel: (612) 624-7017
welke004@tc.umn.edu

 


Syllabus | Schedule | Lectures | Internet Resources

 Lecture and Reading Schedule

 

INTRODUCTION TO COURSE AND THEMES

T. 9/4 COURSE OVERVIEW

Th. 9/6 THE GREAT ARIZONA ORPHAN ABDUCTION: A TELLING STORY

Assigned Reading: Linda Gordon, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction, pp. Preface-108.

Short Paper Assignment #1 (Part 1): In 1-2 pages reflect on (1) how The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction is like or different from other history books you have read; (2) what the book is "about," and (3) what you like or don't like about the book.

T. 9/11 GENDER, RACE, & THE INDUSTRIAL FRONTIER: DOING HISTORY

Assigned Reading: Gordon, pp. 109-208 (plus photographs)

Short Paper Assignment #1 (Part 2): Photographs are one kind of primary source that historians use in writing history. Select two of the images Gordon includes and consider how they provide evidence for the argument Gordon develops in the two chapters on the Mexican and Anglo women in Clifton. What kinds of information would you want to know about a photograph in using it as a source? Are photographs different from other primary sources you can imagine? Explain. (2 pages)

Th. 9/13 LAW, LABOR, FAMILY, AND RACE: REFLECTING ON AMERICA

Assigned Reading: Gordon, pp. 209-318

Short Paper Assignment # 1 (Part 3): As a whole, what's your reaction to the tale Gordon relates here? How does it reinforce or challenge your understanding of American history at the beginning of the 20th century? (1-2 pages)

 

PART I:

PROGRESSIVE STATECRAFT, 1896 - 1919

 

RECONSTRUCTING A WHITE NATION: RACE, NATION, AND EMPIRE

(Who Built America?, ch. 3, pp. 120-165)

T. 9/18 LESSONS IN CITIZENSHIP IN BLACK AND WHITE: "JIM CROW," DISFRANCHISEMENT, LYNCHING AND THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN RESPONSE

Assigned Web-Link Readings:

Short Paper Assignment # 2: Write a 3-4 page paper reflecting on the assigned web-link readings. As you read these sources, consider the following questions: (1) what are the main points each author or speaker is making;( 2) How does each author or speaker use history?; (3) What is the relationship among self-help, manhood, and African-American progress in each author's argument?; (4) How does each author see the current state of and future prospects for white/black relations?; (5) Are there points of agreement among the authors?; (6) Which argument(s) do you find most/least compelling and why? These questions are intended to guide, not dictate as you reflect critically for yourselves on what Wells, Washington, and Dubois have to say.

Th. 9/20 "GATEKEEPING" AND AMERICAN IMMIGRATION

T. 9/25 SHOULDERING THE "WHITE MAN'S BURDEN": THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR AND THE ROAD TO EMPIRE

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND DAILY LIFE

(Who Built America?, ch. 4, pp. 166-205)

T. 10/2 CORPORATE CONSOLIDATION AND MASS PRODUCTION

Th. 10/4 THE IDEAL OF "SELF-OWNERSHIP" AND THE REALITIES OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKPLACE

Short Paper Assignment #3 (Option 1): Antislavery advocates in the 19th century held out wage labor as the antithesis of slavery. They saw the wage relationship as based on self-ownership and voluntary exchange between individuals who were equal and free. How did the realities of wage labor at the beginning of the 20th century challenge that ideal?

The primary documents for this assignment represent a wide range of sources, including documentary photographs, a chapter from a novel, workers' testimonies, governments reports, newspaper and magazine stories and photographs, etc. Use these documents to write a 4-page essay addressing the question noted above. Your essay should use material from each of the readings. You most certainly will not be able to use all of the evidence provided by these sources. The evaluation of your essay will in part depend on your sensitivity to the kinds of questions that each source allows you to address and to how well you mobilize particular evidence in support of your argument. Keep direct quotes to a minimum and use parenthetical citations for source references.

Note: You are required to complete either Option #1 or Option #2 (see 10/11 below). If you wish to write both papers, I will take your best grade on the two papers as your grade for Short Paper #3.

Th. 10/4 THE URBAN/SUBURBAN LANDSCAPE

Assigned Web-Links Readings:

T. 10/9 THE CHALLENGE TO VICTORIAN CULTURE: LEISURE AND THE BIRTH OF MASS CULTURE

REGULATING THE NEW INDUSTRIAL ORDER

(Who Built America?, ch. 5, pp. 206-253)

Th. 10/11 THE "PROGRESSIVE" IMPULSE AND THE MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Short Paper Assignment #3 (Option 2): By the turn of the century the human costs of industrialization had become painfully clear to many Americans. They turned their attention to alleviating suffering, advocating fundamental reform of the American political, economic, and social order. Above all, they demanded a new kind of American state.

Write a 4-page essay reflecting on the kinds of changes advocated in the readings for today. What did these authors see as the fundamental problem? What did they assume Americans should be able to take for granted? What role did they see for the state? How did the problems they saw and the reforms they advocated capture the tension between personal freedom and regulatory governance? Your analysis should incorporate all of the readings. Keep direct quotations to a minimum. Use parenthetical references for cites to sources.

T. 10/16 FACTORY REFORM, ANTITRUST, AND AMERICAN LABOR

Th. 10/18 REFORM POLITICS

OVER HERE & OVER THERE: THE U. S. & THE "GREAT WAR"

(Who Built America?, ch. 6, pp. 254-313)

T. 10/23 DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN A NATION AT WAR

Th. 10/25 VERSAILLES AND AFTER: RETREAT TO ISOLATIONISM AND REPRESSION AT HOME

Assigned Web-Links Readings:

T. 10/30 MIDTERM EXAM

 

PART II:

1920-1945

 

THE 1920s

(Who Built America?, ch. 7, pp. 314-365)

Th. 11/1 THE CONSUMER REVOLUTION

T. 11/6 THE BOUNDARIES OF BELONGING

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL

(Who Built America?, ch. 8, pp. 366-423)

Th. 11/8 THE ONSET OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

T. 11/13 HARD TIMES: DAILY LIFE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION I

Th. 11/15 HARD TIMES: DAILY LIFE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION II

(Who Built America?, ch. 9, pp. 424-481)

T. 11/20 THE NEW DEAL AND AMERICAN LABOR

Short Paper Assignment # 4: Using the internet links page, class notes, and your survey text, write a 3-4 page paper comparing two major labor conflicts. Your two strikes should have significant points of difference in time , gender, race, or ethnicity of workers, geography, and/or industry. Possibilities include the 1899 silver miners strike in Couer d' Alene, Idaho; 1909 N.Y. garment workers strike; 1912 "Bread and Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts: 1913 strike in the Colorado coalfields; 1936 GM sitdown strike; general textile strike. At least one of the strikes you focus on must have taken place during the Depression or WWII. The questions you should consider include: (1) What were the workers chief complaints in each case? (2) How did workers decide to strike and how did companies respond to the strikes once they started? (3) How long did each strike last? (4) Were there violent incidents associated with them? (5) What was the public response to the strikes; (6) What were the lasting outcomes of the strikes? (7) How did the specific time and place in which each strike took place influence the outcome? (8) How did other points of difference (gender, race or ethnicity, etc.) between the strikes you're considering shape each of these questions? (9) Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the sources available to you to evaluate the two strikes. What questions did the sources leave you with or raise for you? (10) What conclusions did you draw from studying these two labor conflicts? Your paper should clearly identify the two strikes you are comparing and the sources on which you rely. You should include footnotes or parenthetical references for citations to primary sources and secondary materials.

Th. 11/22 NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

T. 11/27 THE NEW DEAL AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN FEDERALISM

A NATION TRANSFORMED: THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II

(Who Built America?, ch. 10, pp. 482-539)

Th. 11/29 A WORLD AT WAR AND "THE WAR OF THE WORLDS"

T. 12/4 THE "ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY": WORLD WAR II, AMERICAN INDUSTRY, AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSFORMATION

Assigned Web-Link Readings:

Th. 12/6 (RE)DRAFTING GENDER: FIGHTING MEN AND ROSIE THE RIVETER

T. 12/11 RACE & WAR: ON THE HOMEFRONT AND ON THE BATTLEFIELD

Short Paper Assignment #5: Write a 3-4 page paper on some aspect of the American experience of World War II using 3 letters of your choice from each "Book" (total of 12) of Studs Terkel, "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II. The focus of your paper is up to you. It is important though that your paper have a point to make. For example, you might focus on differences between and among men and women in their experience and memory of the war, or you might focus on how the war changed America's position in the world as reflected in Terkel's oral interviews, or you could reflect on the war and its implications for civil rights, or you might consider how reading oral interviews changed your understanding of the war . The possibilities are really limitless. Be creative. Bear in mind that writing a good paper, will require reading far more than 12 interviews. Your selection should reflect care in framing a topic. Your paper should draw on relevant chapters from the survey text and from class lecture and discussions. Please include a list of the interviews on which you rely at the end of the paper (not included in page limit). As always, keep direct quotations to a minimum. Citation format may be either footnotes or parenthetical references.

Th. 12/13 THE ATOMIC BOMB, DEMOBILIZATION, AND THE ROAD TO THE COLD WAR

Th. 12/20 FINAL EXAM DUE (no later than 5:00 p.m., 752 SST)

Main | Syllabus | Lectures | Internet Resources | top