HIST 253 History of the United States since 1877

Course Overview

This class will present an overview of U.S. history since 1877. The class will explore general trends in political and social history, such as immigration, civil rights, and industrialization, as well as specific watershed events such as the Haymarket bombing, the Dust Bowl, and the Watergate scandal. Students will examine these events through secondary literature and a variety of online primary sources, including newspaper articles, films, music recordings, radio programs, photographs, advertisements, and posters.

Texts

Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, Volume 2, Seagull Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), at the University bookstore at the Sir George Williams (downtown) campus.

Primary documents, all available online.

Assessment

Successful completion of the course depends on regular attendance in class, evidence of preparation and application, active participation in class discussions based on close readings of the required texts, and completion of all assignments on time.

1. Class participation - 10%

2. Document Analysis I (3 pages) - 20%

3. Document Analysis II (3 pages) - 20%

4. Final Exam - 50%

Participation

Students will be graded based upon their attendance at lecture and their participation in any discussion provoked by the lecture and/or readings in class. Attendance at lectures is essential-to complete all written assignments you will need information provided during lectures.

Deadlines

The penalty for late papers and projects will be 5% of the grade per day. No extensions will be granted except in cases of a DOCUMENTED emergency.

Assignments

Document Analysis

For this assignment, choose any document assigned in class for the previous four weeks and write a 2-3-page analysis of this document. If several documents are assigned for a particular day, you should use all of them for your essay.

Purpose of Assignment and Procedure

This is an exercise to allow you to think about how historians use primary sources (that is, direct historical evidence) to understand the past. The most persuasive historical arguments are those based directly on this sort of evidence. Accordingly, your job is to build an argument about an aspect of American History using the document as your basis. For background, use the lectures and the textbook. You should, however, rely primarily on the document itself for your essay. While reading the document, be alert for themes, comparisons, issues that arise. These will form the basis of your paper.

In answering the main question of the assignment, "What does this document tell me about U.S. history?," you must always think about where the evidence comes from: Who produced it? When? Why? What was the document's purpose? You may not be able to answer all of these questions fully, but you should take advantage of lectures and your textbook to try to understand the context.

Writing the Essay

The purpose of a historical essay is to put forward an argument, clearly, logically, and concisely. According to proper historical method, your argument will be based on the evidence from the document, and you will present both the argument and the evidence to the reader in your essay.

Although each essay will be short, it should still have a proper form: a short introduction, a middle section or body where you will develop your points, and then a conclusion, drawing the material together. Presentation of your ideas is important. Be sure to write carefully, and once you finished a rough draft, revise it, thinking about whether or not you have said things as clearly as you can. Others will find your ideas more persuasive if they are presented clearly. Use criticisms of the first Document Analysis assignment to improve your second assignment.

You can present the evidence both by quoting the document and by providing references to it. Every time you refer to a specific point in the document you are analyzing, use footnotes or endnotes to provide references. Remember that the whole point of providing such notes is for another reader to be able to retrace your steps, so make the notes clear. No bibliography is necessary. Each paper should be double-spaced, include a cover page, and use 1-inch margins, Times 12 point font, and page numbers.

In your first footnote for each source, include full bibliographical information:

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'," Forum 63 (1920).

Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, Volume 2, Seagull Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), 25.

After the first footnote for each source, use the name of the author, short title (everything before the column), and page number, if available:

Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'"

Foner, Give Me Liberty, 30.

You can consult Chicago Manual of Style citation guidelines and the document analysis tutorial.

Document Analysis I will be due in class on Tuesday, 6 February
(choose one of the documents assigned for Weeks II-V)

Document Analysis II will be due in class on Tuesday, 13 March
(choose one of the documents assigned for Weeks VI-IX)

Final Exam

View Study Guide

The final exam will consist of two parts, both based on lectures and assigned primary documents. Part A quotes will be taken from documents assigned for weeks X through XIII. Six essay study questions will be given in advance on the last day of class.

Part A: Identify, situate chronologically (approximately), and briefly explain any FOUR of the SIX provided quotes from primary documents assigned for this class (worth 40%). Answer these questions about each: Who said it? What was he or she referring to? What major theme in post-1877 American history this quote relates to? Why are this quote and the person who said it important?

Part B: Answer any TWO of the FOUR provided questions with a complete, well-organized essay (worth 60%).

The final will take place during the exam week, date TBA.

Writing Help

You should take advantage of writing help from the marker/mentor for this class, Paul Sischy (paulsischy@hotmail.com), who will be holding office hours once a week for two weeks preceding each Document Analysis due date. You can also contact him by email if you need advice on your early drafts. Paul will grade all Document Analysis II assignments and, for some students, Document Analysis I (I will grade the rest).

Paul will be holding office hours at 3:30-5:30 pm in LB 529-7, on the following Thursdays:
25 January, 1 February, 1 March, 8 March, 29 March.

Policies

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is an affront to me and to your peers. Plagiarism is submitting work that is not your own as if it were yours. This includes copying material, even a few sentences, from published or unpublished sources, from the internet, or from another student without citing the source. It also includes presenting another person's ideas or paraphrasing the work of another person without citing the source. Plagiarism also includes handing in bought papers, papers obtained from free essay websites, or having another person write your paper for you. Anyone suspected of copying other people's work without clear acknowledgement, or of any comparable act, will be reported to the Faculty of Arts and Science for plagiarism.

Syllabus: I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus during the year if/as necessary. Please check the online syllabus before every class.

Schedule

Use textbook chapters as background reading for each week. All assigned readings are available online. You are expected to print out the item so that you will have it with you in class.

Week I: Introduction

Jan. 4. Course Introduction

Week II: The Gilded Age (Foner, Ch. 16)

Jan. 9 Industrialization - slides
Document: Louis Ling, Address to the Court, Famous Speeches of the Chicago Anarchists (Chicago: 1912). Reprinted in Dave Roediger and Franklin Rosemont, eds., Haymarket Scrapbook (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1986), 46-47.

Jan. 11 Westward Expansion - slides
Document: George Kills in Sight Describes the Death of Indian Leader Crazy Horse

Week III: Limits of Freedom at Home and Abroad (Foner, Ch. 17)

Jan. 16 Populism - slides
Document: Mary Elizabeth Lease, Speech to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1890

Jan. 18 Imperialism - slides
Document: Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899"

Week IV: The Progressive Era (Foner, Ch. 18)

Jan. 23 Immigration - slides
Document: B.E.G. Jewett (Evansville, Indiana), "To the editor," Detroit Socialist, 4 May 1878.

Jan. 25 Progressive Reform - outline - slides
document analysis tutorial - Chicago Manual of Style citation guidelines
Document: John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906), 163-165.

Week V: World War I (Foner, Ch. 19)