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Spring 2014 M. Barnhart

The United States Since 1877Course Description:

This course is a college-level introduction to the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the close of the Cold War. Its primary objective is to explain how the United States, both as a nation and a society, came to be what it is in our time. Its primary approach is to examine how the American political system was affected by social and economic change at home and an often perilous international environment, and how changes in the politics of the United States influenced Americans' everyday lives and those of other peoples around the world.

The course has two other objectives. One is to provide a basic understanding of how our past has made our present. Where and how we live, how we work, how we play, why we go to school and how those schools operate, how we meet each other—all of these came to be because of historical factors and forces. The final objective is to sharpen communication skills and will be especially stressed in the course’s recitation sections.

Teaching:

The course provides three sources of information about American history. The textbook, The American Story (volume 2) by Divine, Breen, et al., offers a broad, comprehensive examination of the history of the United States in a wide variety of respects. Read its chapters to establish the broad context of developments and events in the United States since the Civil War.

The second source will be the instructor's lectures. These will not attempt wide coverage of American history during these years. Instead, each lecture will focus on a particular aspect of America's past, such as the rise of the department store, the impact of the automobile, or the course and consequences of the Vietnam War, that illustrate wider trends of importance.

Recitation sections represent the third source of information, and a way to discuss the topics raised in the recitation readings, the textbook, and the lectures. The main source for recitation reading is Clashes of Will by John Broesamle and Anthony Arthur. Section reading assignments, including assignments on electronic reserve or on Blackboard, are described on each section’s syllabus. (NOTE: Section syllabi are not identical. Please refer only to the syllabus for the section you have enrolled in.)

Evaluation and Course Rules:

The final examination counts for one third of your overall grade. Two in-class surprise quizzes together will count for one sixth of your grade. The other half will be determined from each student's performance in the recitation sections through the semester. This performance will be judged through a combination of papers, exams (quizzes or essay-type), and discussion in sections. Attendance in sections is a vital part of this course, and it is just as vital to attend the correct section.

An examination may be made-up only by giving the instructor appropriate and timely evidence of the student's inability to attend the exam at the proper time. A quiz may be made up only if the instructor has been notified in advance of your absence for a valid, approved reason.

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Incompletes will be given only in the very rarest cases. These are not automatically given to students failing to submit the required course work. They must be requested by the student-- in writing--no later than the commencement of the final exam, and preferably much before that time. They must be accompanied by an excuse the instructor finds valid and acceptable.

Please read the attached statement on plagiarism. Note that the first offense of plagiarism, even if unintentional, will result in a failing grade for the course, and possibly worse. If you are in doubt, consult the instructor before submitting "doubtful" work.

Students are expected to abide by all university policies relevant to this course. At the instructor's discretion, any student failing to submit on time any component of the course's requirements may be given a grade of "F." This course does not have a “Blackboard” site. All course information is provided in class and during office hours.

Any students in this course with a physical, psychiatric/emotional, medical or learning disability that may affect course performance should contact the Disability Support Services office. That office will determine procedures appropriate for this course. All information in this regard is confidential.

Office Hours

Hours for the instructor and all section leaders will be announced during the first week of class. They will also be posted on the instructor's office door, room N-321 in the Melville (Social & Behavioral Sciences) Building.

Course Schedule and Assignment

UNIT ONE:Lectures:

The South Redefines ItselfSocial Politics in the Midwest

Text: chs. 16-17.

UNIT TWO:Lectures:

Railroads: Modern Organizations America’s Secular Religion: The Coming of the Mass Market

Text: chs. 18-19.

UNIT THREE:Lectures:

The Imperial RepublicCommercializing America

Text: chs. 20-21.

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UNIT FOUR:Lectures:

“Benevolent Assimilation:” The Chicago Schools in 1900The Great Crusade

Text: chs. 22-24.

UNIT FIVE:Lectures:

Women Get the VoteThe End of Victorianism

Text: ch. 25.

UNIT SIX:Lectures:

The New Deal for the WorkersThe New Deal for the Farmers

Text: ch. 26.

UNIT SEVEN:Lectures:

The Good WarThe Dating Game

Text: ch. 27.

UNIT EIGHT:Lectures:

SuburbiaThe Cold War

Text: chs. 28-29.

UNIT NINE:Lectures:

Civil RightsSmoking Out

Text: ch. 30.

UNIT TEN:Lectures:

The Man Who Rules Your LifeThe Great Satan, “Globalization,” and 9/11

Text: ch. 31-32.

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1Plagiarism:

Plagiarism occurs when the student submitting a paper for a course:

1. Does not properly attribute words or ideas to a source. That is, even if you're not quoting directly from a book you've read on "Macbeth"—a book that's helped you formulate ideas for your paper—you should nevertheless footnote that book at the point in the text where that other author's ideas helped shape your own essay. It is also important, if you've had a conversation with a peer or a professor who has helped you substantially in establishing your ideas on a given text, that you cite that conversation at the appropriate point in your essay. (e.g. "My ideas about Macbeth derive in part from a conversation with Professor Jones." The citation can be more specific than this, depending on the level of detailed assistance you received.)

2. Quotes from another author's writing without citing that author's work. This, of course, includes failing to cite material you take from the World Wide Web, as well as copying material from library books or your peer's papers.

3. Cites, with quotation marks, portions of another author's work, but uses more of that work without quotation marks and without attribution. Note that if you're taking material from a source and rehashing it slightly, but not giving a citation for that rephrased material, you're still plagiarizing the work you're representing as your own, since the ideas, the argument derive in fact from another's writing. If you cite and surround with quotation marks only some of the words you've taken from a source, you also commit plagiarism, since you're taking words from another without fully acknowledging the extent of your borrowing.

Turning to an electronic rather than a printed source does not change the rules of citation and acknowledgement when you are submitting an essay for a course.

4. Takes a paper, in whole or in part, from a site on the Web or a "library" of already-written papers.

5. Steals a paper from another student and then submits that paper as coursework.

6. Submits the same paper twice for two different assignments.

7. Takes the results of another's research and attempts to pass those results off as his or her own work. This includes "citing" material from sources that have been gathered by another author. You can, of course, cite materials that you have found in another published text, but you need to make it quite clear that you are availing yourself of another author's research: your citation should specify where you found the material, rather than simply giving that material's original source.

If you are caught plagiarizing:

a. You will fail the assignment and the course.b. Your case will be forwarded, with an explanatory letter and all pertinent materials, to the Committee on Academic Dishonesty.