History 303: America, 1877-1945
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 1-150PM.
Colorado State University - Pueblo
Fall 2007
Jonathan Rees
Office: Psych 124
Office Phone: 549-2541
Office Hours: MWF, 11-12PM, MW 2-3PM
E-Mail: Jonathan [dot] Rees [at] colostate-pueblo [dot] edu
This course will examine the social, cultural and political changes accompanying America's evolution into a modern society. The topics covered will be similar to those discussed in the first part of my version of History 202, the U.S. History II survey. However, in this course we will go into a few of these topics in greater detail.
I encourage students with questions or concerns about any aspect of this course to visit me during office hours, make an appointment or contact me via e-mail. Any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a disability should speak to me during the first two weeks of class. The taping of class lectures is not permitted unless you have my explicit permission. Please turn off your cell phones before class begins.
In order to facilitate communication between you and I, having an e-mail is a requirement of this course. I will be collecting e-mails from you on the first day of the course. You will want to give me an address that you check fairly frequently because I will use it if I need to get a hold of you for course-related business. All correspondence with me should go through the university e-mail listed above. All assignments (including draft papers, but excluding final papers) should be sent to reesassignments@gmail.com.
Grading and Attendance Policies
Your grade will be based on:
- A paper based on Linda Gordon's book, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction and Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice (25%)
- A research paper based on the topic of your choice from American history during the 1877-1945 period (30%)
- Your written critique of another student's draft paper (5%)
- Three out of four pop quizzes on reading material due on Friday discussion days (5% each)
- The timely completion of questions on the Egan and Steinbeck books (10%)
- Class participation (15%)
The questions to answer on the Gordon/Boyle paper are, "What do Linda Gordon's The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction and Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice tell us about the concept of race in the United States in the early Twentieth Century? Do these two works handle race similarly or differently? What can race tell us about American history in general?" Your paper should be 8-10 pages long. A draft of the paper is due October 22nd, via e-mail, by class time. It must be delivered to me in the form of an attachment to an e-mail. It should show substantial progress towards completing the assignment otherwise I reserve the right to fail you on this assignment at this juncture. The final paper is due in paper format on November 5th at class time.
For more information on the research paper and your critique of another student's paper, click here.
For advice on how to write a good paper and the format it should take, click here.
For information on footnote and bibliography format, click here.
On four of the Friday reading discussion sections there will be a fifteen-minute three-question reading comprehension quizzes based on the assigned reading for that week. The questions will be in short answer format and factually based. In other words, if you've read the assignment, you should have no problem answering them. If you answer two of those questions correctly, you will get full credit for the quiz. Only three of the four quizzes will count towards your final grade. These quizzes will be unannounced. As you can miss one quiz with no repercussions, there will be no make-up quizzes.
Links to the questions on the Egan and Steinbeck books will be available here on this web site at least one week before the novel in question is due to be discussed in class.
The Egan questions are available here.
The Steinbeck questions are available here.
The answers to these questions are due to me at the beginning of the class period when the novel is discussed. If the answers are acceptable (in other words, they show that you've read and thought about the book), you will get full credit for the assignment (5%). If they do not arrive by E-mail at the appointed time or they are unacceptable, you will get no credit. The answers to the questions will only be returned to you if they are unacceptable. No late questions will be accepted. After all, what's the use once the discussion is over?
When determining class participation, I will be interested in the quality of your statements rather than the frequency with which you talk. If your comments demonstrate that you have not done the reading, you are better off not speaking at all. However, failure to talk at all during the class will make an above average grade on class participation impossible.
Grading will be done on an A-F scale with pluses and minuses with the exception of the exception of the grade C- which has been banned across the University. Your final grades will be recorded the same way. I will do my best to explain the criteria by which each assignment is graded before you undertake them.
It is assumed that students will make every effort to attend each class period, arrive on time and stay for the entire class. An attendance sheet will be passed around at the beginning of each class. If you arrive late to class, make sure your name is on the attendance sheet before you leave. Otherwise, you will be counted as absent. You will be permitted four unexcused absences during the course of the semester (to account for the random mishaps, mistakes and burdens of everyday life). After that, you will fail the class participation section of this course. If you miss class eight times for any reason, I reserve the right to drop you from the course.
Tests may not be scheduled early. You must arrange work schedules and travel plans in order to take tests on the scheduled dates. Make-up exams will only be given to students who have compelling reasons, such as severe illness or university-sponsored activities. No excuses will be accepted more than 24 hours after the scheduled test time.
Any form of academic dishonesty will result in a failing grade for the entire course. This includes plagiarism, the taking of words and/or ideas of another and passing them off as your own. If another person's work is quoted directly in a formal paper, this must be indicated with quotation marks and a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas must be identified in the footnotes of the text. If you do not understand this definition of plagiarism, it is your responsibility to have me discuss this topic with you further.
Required Reading
Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice.
Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time.
Fink, Leon, Ed. Major Problems in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Second Edition.
Gordon, Colin. Major Problems in American History, 1920-1945.
Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction.
Steinbeck, John. Once There Was A War.
Weekly Topics and Reading Assignments
Week of August 27:
Reading:
- Sharecroppers' Contracts, [Fink, pp. 87-8].
- Grady, [Fink, pp. 88-91].
- Ayers, "Mill and Mine," [Fink, pp. 98-107].
Session Topics:
1. Introduction and the Columbian Exposition of 1893.
2. Redemption, Lynching and Jim Crow.
3. Reading Discussion
Week of September 3:
Reading:
- Immigrant Distribution in Six Cities, [Fink, p. 120].
- Advice Column for Jewish Immigrants, [Fink, pp. 128-31].
- Bodnar, "Families Enter America," [Fink, pp. 141-57].
- Start L. Gordon, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction.
Session Topics:
1. Industrialization and the Ideology of Industrialization.
2. Immigration in an International Perspective.
3. Reading Discussion
Week of September 10:
Reading:
- George, [Fink, pp. 20-22].
- Program of the Knights of Labor, [Fink, pp. 24-25].
- Fink, "Class Consciousness American Style, [Fink, pp. 34-45].
- Continue The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction.
Session Topics:
1. What Are the Rights of Labor?
2. The Frontier Thesis.
3. Reading Discussion.
Week of September 17:
Reading:
- Finish The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction.
Session Topics:
1. Gender and the Women's Movement.
2. Discussion: What is Race?
3. Great Arizona Orphan Abduction Discussion.
Week of September 24:
Reading:
- Beveridge, [Fink, pp. 270-72].
- Thompson, [Fink, pp. 328-332].
- Barth, "Baseball and the Values of Industrial America," [Fink, pp. 336-46].
- Begin Boyle, Arc of Justice.
Session Topics:
1. High Culture.
2. Low Culture
3. Reading Discussion [Research Paper Topic due September 28th].
Week of October 1:
Reading:
- Theodore Roosevelt's Conservation Message, [Fink, 413-15].
- A Lumberer's Perspective on California Redwoods, [Fink, 415-17].
- Enos Mills Mourns the Death of a One-Thousand -Year-Old Pine, [Fink, 417-20].
- Continue Arc of Justice.
Session Topics:
1. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
2. The Great War
3. Reading Discussion
Week of October 8
Reading:
- Finish Arc of Justice.
Session Topics:
1. The Great War at Home.
2. Arc of Justice Discussion (Part One).
3. Arc of Justice Discussion (Part Two)
Week of October 15:
Reading:
- Two Treatments of the Color Question During Wartime [Fink, 455-56].
- Wilson's Fourteen Points [Fink, 457-59].
- Attorney General Palmer's Case Against the "Reds," [C. Gordon, 26-27].
Session Topics:
1. History Sources [Class will be in the Psychology Building Computer Lab].
2. Research/Library Skills Refresher [Class will be in the Psychology Building Computer Lab].
3. Class Canceled.
Week of October 22:
Reading:
- Bruce Barton Sees Jesus as an Advertising Man, [C. Gordon, 97-98].
- F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Jazz Age, [C. Gordon, 119].
- The Ku Klux Klan Defines Americanism, [C. Gordon, 157-59.]
- Walter White Documents a Lynching [C. Gordon, 159-60]
Session Topics:
1. Paper Discussion [Draft Gordon Boyle Paper due October 22nd].
2. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Archives (directions forthcoming).
3. Reading Discussion
Week of October 29:
Reading:
- Hoover, [C. Gordon, pp. 183-85].
- Rosenof, "Understanding the Crash," [C. Gordon, pp. 193-200]
- Begin Egan
Session Topics:
1. The Twenties
2. Houdini
3. Reading Discussion
Week of November 5:
Reading:
- "The Plight of the Unemployed," [C. Gordon, pp. 278-79].
- "The New Deal is No Revolution," [C. Gordon, pp. 308-10].
- Gordon, "Business vs. the New Deal," [C. Gordon, pp. 389-96].
- Continue Egan
Session Topics:
1. Film: The Plough that Broke the Plains (and discussion)
2. The Great Depression from the Bottom Up.
3. Reading Discussion
[Final Gordon/Boyle Paper due November 5th].
Week of November 12:
Reading:
- Finish Egan
- Start Steinbeck
Session Topics:
1. [Final Gordon/Boyle Paper due November 5th].
2. Labor and Social Movements of the 1930s.
3. Egan Discussion [Egan answers due November 16th].
Week of November 19:
Thanksgiving Break
Week of November 26:
Reading:
- Finish Steinbeck.
Sessions:
1. Hiroshima Right or Wrong?
2. Steinbeck Discussion [Steinbeck Answers due November 28th].
3. Draft Research Paper Discussion [Draft Research Papers due November 30th].
Week of December 3:
Work on your papers and work on your critiques.
Critiques of other students' papers are due December 7th at class time.
Final research papers are due at the start of the final exam period.