Spring 1998
Professor Samuel C. Pearson
This course surveys the history of modern America beginning with the aftermath of the Civil War and examining such topics as Reconstruction, the westward expansion, industrialization and urbanization, Progressivism, the First World War, the Great Depression and New Deal, the Second World War, and the Cold War. It is primarily designed to assist students in developing a clearer understanding of the nature of contemporary America and the historical forces that have created it. Because this is a "survey" or introductory course, we shall be considering many aspects of recent American history: political, economic, social, and intellectual. The purpose of history is neither to praise nor to blame but rather to understand. This is neither a course to reinforce your patriotism nor one designed to debunk the past though a serious study of the period will reveal much of which Americans may feel proud and much else which we may regret. Additional course objectives include familiarizing students at an introductory level with the historical method and with the reasons for disagreements among historians examining the same topic and providing students with an opportunity to read a few historical documents and to apply their critical skills to analysis of them. The course satisfies the Constitution requirement and may be offered as an advanced social sciences course in the General Education program. This course follows History 200, but that course is not a prerequisite.
The textbook for this course is Out of Many: A History of the American People, volume 2, by John Mack Faragher et al. Readings are also assigned from Voices of the American Past: Documents in U.S. History, volume 2, edited by Raymond M. Hyser and J. Chris Arndt. Both books are available in Textbook Rental. Weekly assignments are indicated below.
There will be three examinations in the course and two short papers. Each of the hour examinations constitutes 25% of the course grade, the final examination constitutes 30%, and each of the papers constitutes 10%. Further information will be given concerning the examinations about one week before each is scheduled, and information to assist you in writing the short papers is provided at the end of the syllabus. The class meets at 8:00 a.m. on MWF in PB 3313. Grades will be lowered for students with more than three absences (arrival after the roll is called will be considered half an absence), and make-up examinations or incomplete grades will be given only in real emergency situations.
My office is in PB 2336, and my telephone number is 692-3685. My e-mail address is spearso@siue.edu or samuel.pearson@internetmci.com. My office hours for this term are 9:00 to 10:30 on MWF or by appointment. Please contact me if you must miss class or if you are having difficulty with the course. Students are expected to read the assignments from the textbook, to attend class and take notes, and to submit the required papers when they are due. I believe that if you do this you will be successful in the course. If you are doing these things and still are having difficulty, we need to talk and the sooner the better.
January 12
Introduction to the course
January 14
Impact of the Civil War on Modern America
Out of Many (OM), ch. 17
January 16
Reconstruction
VAP, I, 1 (items 1 through 6)
January 19
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday; no class
January 21
Settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West
OM, ch. 18
January 23
Transformation of the West
VAP, I, 2 (items 7 through 12)
January 26
Development of Business in Post-Civil War America
OM, ch. 19
January 28
Labor and the City
VAP, I, 3 (items 13 through 18)
January 30
Culture and Society in the Age of Business
FIRST PAPER DUE FROM GROUP I
Group I is composed of all students whose surnames begin with
letters A through L. Paper is based on VAP, I, 2 items 7 through 12).
February 2
Growth of Government and Politics
OM, ch. 20
February 4
Organization of Farmers and Workers
VAP, II, 1 (items 34 through 39)
February 6
Imperialism and the Spanish-American War
FIRST PAPER DUE FROM GROUP II
Group II is composed of students whose surnames begin with letters
M through Z. Paper is based on VAP, I, 3 (items 13 through 18).
February 9
Urban America
OM, ch. 21
February 11
National Progressivism
VAP, II, 2 (items 40 through 45).
February 13
FIRST EXAMINATION
February 16
World War I
OM, ch. 22
February 18
American Involvement in the War
VAP, II, 3 (items 46 through 51).
February 20
Peace and the League of Nations
February 23
The 1920s
OM, ch. 23
February 25
Business and Government
VAP, II, 4 (items 52 through 57).
February 27
Dissent, Resistance, and Oppression
SECOND PAPER DUE FROM GROUP I. Paper is based on VAP, II, 2 (items
40 through 45).
March 2
The Great Depression
OM, ch. 24
March 4
Election of 1932 and the New Deal
OM, ch. 24
March 6
The Second New Deal and the Limits of Reform
VAP, III, 1 (items 58 through 64).
SECOND PAPER DUE FROM GROUP II. Paper is based on VAP, II, 4. (Items
52 through 57).
March 9
The Coming of World War II
OM, ch. 25
March 11
U.S. Entry into the War
VAP, III, 2 (items 65 through 71).
March 13
Allied Offensives, Victory, and Atomic Warfare
March 16-20
Spring break
March 23
Search for Collective Security
OM, ch. 26
March 25
Containment and Cold War
March 27
SECOND EXAMINATION
March 30
Eisenhower and American Society in the '50s
April 1
Mass Culture and Its Critics
VAP, III, 3 (items 72 through 78).
April 3
Election of John Kennedy; Continuing Cold War
April 6
Origin of the Civil Rights Movement
OM, ch. 28
April 8
Martin Luther King and the Student Protests
VAP, IV, 1 (items 79 through 85)/
April 10
The Movement at High Tide
April 13
The Vietnam War
OM, ch. 29
April 15
Domestic Conflict
VAP, IV, 2 (items 86 through 92).
April 17
The Nixon Presidency and Watergate
April 20
The Oil Crisis and Stagflation
OM, ch. 30
April 22
The New Poverty and Grass-Roots Politics
VAP, IV, 3 (items 93 through 99).
April 24
The New Conservatism
April 27
The Reagan Revolution
OM, ch. 31
April 29
Reagan's Foreign Policy
May 1
The End of an Era?
May 4
FINAL EXAMINATION (8:00 to 9:40)
You will be better prepared to write your papers if you consider the three objectives of this assignment: 1) to assure that each student has an opportunity to prepare and submit thoughtful and grammatically correct written work for evaluation both for its content and its style; 2) to enable each student to read and reflect upon some of the source materials used by historians in the writing of history; and 3) to encourage each student to reflect on the relationship of source materials (documents) to narrative history. You should read all of the items in the section assigned for your group and the corresponding material in the textbook (OM). Then write a short paper (no less than three double-spaced typewritten pages and no more than four) in which you discuss the theme of the section or the problem on which it focuses, the views of the authors of the documents with respect to that problem, and your own views as you look at the problem and the views of contemporaries from the vantage point of 1997. Grades will be based on the quality of your writing and the clarity and accuracy of your description of the problem(s) considered in the section and of the views reflected in the several documents as well as on evidence that you have thought seriously about the readings. If you have problems with composition, you should prepare your paper early and take it to the Writing Center (first floor, Peck Building) for review and help. Papers will be accepted for reduced credit during the class meeting following the due date, but they will not be accepted beyond that date.