Section Leaders

Peter Barker	Zachary Carmichael	Jenny Ernie-Steighner	Cody Hefner
Aaron Pride	Joseph Wachtel	Adam Wefler

COURSE GOALS

This course is the second half of the American History Survey, covering the period from Reconstruction to the present. It examines the major events in the development of the United States from an agricultural nation to an industrial producer, from an isolationist frontier society to a dominant and actively engaged world power. More important, it examines American diversity in its many forms by looking at the lives of ordinary Americans from all social and ethnic groups in the unfolding of these larger themes. With particular attention to the experience of African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and women, the course explores how the United States has changed in the past 150 years. It considers the impact of immigration, industrialization, and urban growth on the millions of Americans who often found themselves socially and politically disfranchised, assesses the force of 20th century reform on their lives, and examines how they responded to the experience of war.

But the course is more than just a chronicle of events that have occurred in the past 150 years. We want to help you think about why things have happened. What alternatives were possible in a given situation? Why were choices made that led events to unfold as they did? How did Americans of various persuasions interact with one another in what were essentially contested decisions with far-reaching consequences for both individuals and the country?

As we examine what happened over the course of the last century and a half, we will also try to introduce you to the kinds of questions historians ask about the past, the nature of the evidence they employ, and the ways in which they construct arguments – or interpretations – to answer the questions they raise. While we will talk about specific people, places, and events, our main concern is to get you to think about why the nation is what it is today. We will be asking questions about the origins and nature of democratic government, industrial capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, demographic transformation, and social pluralism. Above all, we will be concerned with the way different groups of Americans have struggled with one another – sometimes in violent confrontations – to force the nation to fulfill its rhetorical promise of liberty and equality for all. At the same time, as we look at the central events of our collective past – Reconstruction, wars, depressions, protest movements, and presidential elections – we will do so from the perspectives of recent scholarship by historians concerning questions of gender, race, environmentalism, class, and region, as well as political life.

This course will be particularly concerned with a variety of questions. How have both newcomers and people already present in America struggled with one another for a voice in social and political affairs? How have different groups of people – African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and women – responded to larger political issues, such as the onset of the Great Depression, or involvement in World War II, and what changes occurred in their own lives? How have the actions of such groups affected the role the nation has chosen to play in the larger world? How have their beliefs and values changed the beliefs and values of the nation as a whole and made it a very different entity than it was in the time of the Civil War? How has their conversation with each other and with members of all of the other groups created the larger civic conversation that continues today? How do people gain and keep social, political, and economic power? And how has our landscape shaped American history?

MIAMI PLAN

HST 112 is a Foundation Course in the Miami Plan for Liberal Education. It fulfills the Humanities Requirement (IIB), the United States Cultures Requirement (IIIA), and the Historical Requirement (H). In keeping with the goals of the Miami Plan, we will ask you to think critically, to understand contexts, to engage with other students intellectually, and to reflect and act thoughtfully. Above all, we want you to participate actively in all parts of the class. Throughout the semester, we will ask you to question the ways in which history has developed, to think about the ways in which history has been used to justify the present and to legitimize existing social and political relationships. We want you to understand why the United States has developed as it did. We also wish to encourage you to understand and then to challenge the assumptions and methodologies historians employ to study the past. By its very nature, history is an exercise of imagination. We do not know, nor will we ever know, exactly what happened in the past. Traditionally, historians have explained events by asking specific kinds of questions, gathering information in the form of primary sources (letters, diaries, account books, oral history interviews, and other materials) and then weaving these items into a narrative answer to their questions. The basic question has always been, "How did we get from point A to point B?" We assume the necessity of a story in attempting to answer this question, but we need to do more than simply tell a story. In History 112, as in History 111, we will ask you to understand, to practice, and to critique the techniques and methods historians use.

We also want you to think about the ways in which historical methods have worked to the benefit of those groups in power in a society, the problems inherent in any narrative (especially with regard to those people and events you omit), the ways in which a historian's assumptions and personal background lead him or her to frame certain kinds of questions, and the notion of whether or not a linear, narrative conception of history is appropriate for studying the history of peoples who are not white, male, prosperous, and European in origin.

To accomplish the goals of the Miami Plan, including encouraging you to interact with each other and to reflect and act on what you are learning, we will ask you to do several things. Twice a week, you will attend lectures designed as much to raise questions about the past and the ways in which we choose to make sense of it as to transmit specific information. Ideally, the lectures will help you frame your thoughts about the issues under consideration. We will ask you to read chapters in a textbook, to help provide a framework and a focus for specific issues and events. We will also ask you to read documents (including some novels and book-length memoirs) that convey the voices of a wide variety of Americans on topics discussed in lectures. And we will ask you to see five feature films that provide still another source of evidence. Once a week, you will meet in groups of about 25 students to consider what you have heard and read. These meetings, which are integral parts of the course, provide you with an opportunity to talk with each other in order to develop your own sense of American history. We will ask you to complete an array of writing assignments, chosen by your section leader, intended to help you to learn how to understand and analyze primary sources.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• Regular attendance at lectures (M & W, 10:00-10:50 AM )
• Regular participation in your weekly section meeting
• Completion of all assigned readings
• Completion of writing assignments in sections
• Viewing of all five films
• Two Mid-Term Examinations
• One Final Examination

LECTURES

Lectures, along with the textbook chapters, provide the framework for the course. While a lecture outline will be posted on the Web the night before each lecture, and should be printed and brought to class, these will NOT suffice to give you an adequate sense of what we are doing. They are meant to free you from having to copy them during class, to make it easier for you to listen to the lecture, and to encourage you to think about the issues raised. It will be difficult to succeed in the class without that framework.

SECTIONS

Sections are an integral and essential part of the course. You are expected to attend all section meetings AND to participate fully in section discussions. Each section leader will make his or her own reading assignments, and will require specific writing assignments, either in section or outside of class. These will be explained at the first meeting of your section. Each section will have roughly comparable reading and writing requirements. Be aware that the section leaders will also grade your exams.

READING

The following books are available at the bookstores. Read chapters in The American People in the order on the lecture schedule. These will not necessarily be discussed, but are required to provide a framework for the course. Specific assignments in all other books will be made in sections. Section leaders will also occasionally assign other materials to their own groups.

FILMS

Five films will be shown during the course. These are:

Each film will be shown twice, on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM and on Monday evening at 7:30 PM, in a room to be announced. Then each film will be shown on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, at 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and 9:00 PM, on Miami University television. Please see the lecture schedule for the specific week for each film. These films ARE course assignments.

EXAMINATIONS

All three examinations (two mid-term exams and one final exam) will be completed in class. The mid-terms will consist of one essay (with several questions from which to choose) and a number of short-answer identification questions. The final (which will be comprehensive) will follow a similar pattern. Further details will be announced in class.

GRADING

The final grade for this class will be determined by the total number of a possible 500 points you have accumulated by the end of the semester. The assignments will be worth the following:

At the end of the semester,

BLACKBOARD

The syllabus and other materials are posted on the History 112 Blackboard site. Outlines will be posted on the Blackboard site the night before each lecture.

LECTURE SCHEDULE

JANUARY 14

JANUARY 16

JANUARY 21

JANUARY 23

JANUARY 28

JANUARY 30

FEBRUARY 4