AMST 301Rogues and Rebels

Monday

Syllabus etc

American Rogues and Rebels: AMST 301 Professor: Dr. Ian Chambers

Fall 2008  Contact Details:

Office: History Department, 315 Administration building Phone: (208) 885-6551 - E-mail: chambers@uidaho.edu

Office hours: Monday 2:00pm – 3:00pm Wednesday 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Additional office hours available by appointment

Texts Eric Larson, Devil in the White City Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed

America

A pack of six books from the book store (all books from Bedford/St. Martins): Kenneth S Greenberg, The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related documents Jonathan Earle, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry: A Brief History with Documents Shelia l, Skemp, Judith Sargent Murray: A Brief Biography with Documents Victoria Bissell Brown, Twenty Years at Hull-House Jane Adams David Howard-Pitney, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of

the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents Richard W. Etulain, César Chávez: A Brief Biography with Documents   Additional reading as issued during the semester

I will also be showing various documentaries and movies outside of class hours. Details to be issued during the first week of class 

Course Requirements Exams: A final on Thursday, December 18. 30% Research proposal 10% Group Class Presentation 20% Research paper: Students will select a topic, in consultation with the professor, and prepare a research

paper of 7-8 pages, type-written and double spaced. The paper will be due on November 19th and count as 30% of the final course grade.   Class Participation Class participation counts as 10% of the course grade and is determined by the following criteria:

attendance and classroom discussion.   Class Rules and Regulations Three-One System You must wait ONE day before contesting any grade You must write ONE paragraph explaining why your grade should be adjusted You must challenge the grade within ONE week of receiving it. Plagiarism Plagiarism WILL NOT be tolerated Late Papers You will lose one point per minute for any late work.

Schedule (subject to change)

The class will follow a weekly format Monday – General historical

overview Wednesday – Specific topic lecture Friday – Group presentations and

discussion

Groups: Class will divide in 13 groups (min 3 people max 4 per group) Each group will present on the

Rogue/Rebel under discussion that week

Additional Readings

For discussion this week James Clavell A Children’s Story

How is power worked out in this book Eric Hobsbawm chapter from Bandits

Can, as I suggest, Hobsbawm form a theoretical base for this class

Hobsbawm and Banditry What interests the

social and economic historian is primarily the structure of banditry . . . rather than the effects on the wider history of events in their time

In this class we are going to attempt to do more

We need to know the make up of the people we study

But also their position and impact in America

Why?

I want to examine America through the idea of rogues and rebels for two reasons

1) to find out why America loves them

2) to find out if America has ‘progressed’ because of their actions

For this class I will use the following definition

Rogue – someone who goes against society for no reason or for personal gain

Rebel – someone who goes against society to correct a wrong within society

1. Who are what are Rebels?

2. John Smith3. Pilgrims4. Thomas Paine5. Nat Turner6. John Brown7. Jessie James

8. Judith Murray9. Jane Adams10. HH Holmes11. Eleanor Roosevelt12. Martin and Malcolm13. James Dean and the

teenager14. Ceaser Chavez

Rogues and Rebels

Wednesday

Group work clarification

Each group will present on one of the listed Rebels/Rogues

That group will also turn in a written report on the day of their presentation

If the Rebel/Rogue does not have a corresponding book I will supply some suggestion to the group

I expect other people in the class to have read about and have knowledge of the Rebel/Rogue to enable a discussion

GroupsRogue/Rebel Presentation Group

Who are what are Rebels? Whole Class

John Smith Group 2

Pilgrims Group 3

Thomas Paine Group 5

Nat Turner Group 6

John Brown Group 7

Jessie James Group 8

Judith Murray Group 1

Jane Adams Group 10

HH Holmes Whole Class

Eleanor Roosevelt Group 12

Martin and Malcolm Group 13

James Dean and the teenager Group 11

Ceaser Chavez Whole Class

Paper Clarification

Research paper of 7-8 pages, type-written and double spaced.

Based on a Rogue/Rebel of your choice Paper must deal with the historical time

period and the impact that the individual or group had on society

Check your paper topic with the Professor before starting your paper.

To understand banditary and its history we must see it in the context of power

That is control by governments of what goes on in the territories and among the populations over which they claim control

The history of banditry including social banditry

Cannot be understood or properly studied except as part of the history of political power

Power to control increasingly concentrated in territorial or ‘national’ states

Claiming and exercising power over everything that goes on within its boarders

Power reaches down to interact with every person in its territory.

In modern world volume of information travelling and number

of people make it difficult for American government to

control all power If it could there would be no people in jail Inability to stop certain acts of behavior

displays a similar gap between claimed and real power

But power limited by ability to maintain large and effective body

of armed and civil servants an efficient system of information,

communication and transportation These potential weakness of power

contain the potential for banditry

Social Banditry

For the law, anyone belonging to a group of men who attack and rob with violence is a bandit,

Historians and sociologists cannot use so crude a definition.

Social bandit :-People not regarded as simple criminals

by the people

Power of bandits to operate is always, ironically, defined by the same gap that allows their creation.

Eventually state power will react and either negotiate or crush

Bandits have to come to terms with whatever centers of power are prepared to tolerate them or go under

Social Banditry Universally found wherever societies are

based on agriculture and consist one groups ruled, oppressed and exploited by someone else lords, towns, governments, or even banks

3 main forms Noble robber Primitive resistance fighter Terror bringing avenger

social bandits state regards as criminals considered by their people as

heroes champions Avengers fighters for justice leaders of liberation

It would be unthinkable for a social bandit to snatch the peasants harvest in his own territory.

Those who do lose the peculiar relationship which makes banditry ‘social’

In practice such distinctions are less clear than in theory

Modern agrarian systems no longer those of traditional peasant society

and cease to produce social bandits except in countries of what has been called

‘settler capitalism’ = The USA, Australia, Argentina

Settler capitalism exploitation by one country over another

Britain, the country which gave the world Robin Hood the international paradigm of

social banditry has no records of social bandits

after the early 17th C

And Now something

completely different

Banditary becomes epidemic in times of pauperization and economic crisis

more than able bodied men who take what they need by arms rather than starve.

the resistance of entire communities or people against the destruction of its way of life

Unless It becomes the symbol, even the spearhead,

of resistance by the whole of the traditional order against the forces which disrupt and destroy it.

Or If the dream of every peasant for a society

free from evil and oppression is awakened

What part if any do Bandits play in the transformation of societies

According to Hobsbawm banditry itself is not a program for peasant society but

a form of self help to escape it in particular circumstances

However, reformist or revolutionary, banditry does not constitute a social movement

Friday

When banditry merges into a large movement, it becomes part of a force which can and does change society.

But the results are not always what were expected

This does not devalue their historical position or power however

To understand social composition of banditary

look primarily at the mobile margin of peasant society

Importance of age Male youth between puberty and marriage Before the responsibility of family life

Men not integrated in society Ex service men shepherds

But possibly the most important type of person to contribute to the bandit category

People who were unwilling to accept the ‘meek and passive social role’

“men who make themselves respected”

FridayDiscussion

I want to make Friday a regular discussion day I want to spend a little time today organizing the

structure of the discussion First I want you to individually think about and

then write down: A) The best group discussions you have been in and

why were they good? B) The worst group discussions you have been in and

why were they good? Think about what factors made them the way

they were they structured, free flowing, did they build on previous

weeks, did everyone have to speak etc

Now I want you to get into your groups

Compare and discuss you individual answers

Then I want each group to come up with three ideas/rules for the class discussion

Not everyone has to speak Although you all can

Use examples – from text or from your life that relate to discussion Read the text

Be respectful to other participants Be to the point Teacher to encourage not run

discussion

Some start up questions What struck me most about the text we read

to prepare was….. The question I’d most like to ask the author

is … The part of this weeks class that made the

most sense was ….. The part of this weeks class that made least

sense was ….

Not everyone has to speak Although you all can

Use examples – from text or from your life that relate to discussion Read the text

Be respectful to other participants Be to the point Teacher to encourage not run

discussion