Calendar

Class # Topics Readings/Viewings Assignments Links
Introduction
1 Introduction None    
Reconstruction
2 Legacies of War
  • Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877. Pp. xi-xvi, 1-15, 104-123.
    
3 The Politics of Reconstruction (*PR 1)
  • Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877. Pp. 124-198.
  • You may want to look at the chapter on Reconstruction in Pauline Maier, et al., Inventing America... Pp. 535-560, if there is anything that you want to examine in further detail, but you are not expected to read that as well.
    
The New Industrial Society: Center and Margins
4 The "Winning" of the West
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 564-573, 582-584, 599-602.
 ROUGH DRAFT of first paper due at the beginning of class. We will spend most of the class working on peer editing.  
5 The New Industrial Society (*PR 2)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 573-580, 584-588.
  • Carnegie, Andrew. "How I Served My Apprenticeship."
  • Conwell, Russell H. "Acres of Diamonds."
  • Sumner, William Graham. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. Pp. 7-24, 63-87.
    
Work and Play in Urban America
6 The Modern Labor Movement
  • Kasson, John F. Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. Begin reading.
 REVISED DRAFT of first paper due at the beginning of class.  
7 The Emergence of Consumer Culture (*PR 3)
  • Kasson, John F. Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. Finish reading.
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 607-616, 633-638.
    
America in the World
8 Immigrants Remake America (*PR 4)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 588-593, 603-604.
  • Yezierska, Anzia. "How I Found America."
    
9 The Wars of 1898 (*PR 5)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 661-662, 664-673.
  • Roosevelt, Theodore. "The Strenuous Life."
  • Twain, Mark. "As Regards Patriotism."
  • Cabranes, José A. "Some Common Ground."
   Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935
Progressivism and Its Limits
10 In Search of Progressivism (*PR 6)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 617-625, 638-640, 694-706.
  • Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).
  • Muller v. Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908).
 FIRST DRAFT of second paper due at the beginning of class.

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Muller v. Oregon (1908)
11 Violence in the Postwar South
  • Allen, James, et al. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.
  • Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery. Pp. 217-237.
  • DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Pp. 36-50.
  

Without Sanctuary
War and Depression
12 War, Revolution, and the Flapper (*PR 7)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 720-731, 741-749.
  • Susman, Warren I. "Culture Heroes: Ford, Barton, Ruth."
    
13 The Great Depression (*PR 8)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 752-758, 761-767, 770-778.
  • Allan, Lewis. "Strange Fruit."
 REVISED DRAFT of second paper due at the beginning of class.  
World War II
14 World War II
  • The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter.
    
15 The Legacies of War (*PR 9)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 814-844. Everyone will be responsible for a section of this chapter, although you should read any parts of it that you need to help you learn about World War II.
  • Luce, Henry R. "The American Century."
  • United Nations General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 REVISED ESSAY for group one due in class.

UN Declaration of Human Rights
The Cold War
16 The Cold War as a Political Crisis (*PR 10)
  • May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Pp. ix-xxvi, 1-29, 80-203. Begin reading.
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 847-879, 882-913. Read only those sections that you need to help you understand Homeward Bound.
    
17 The Cold War as a Cultural Crisis (*PR 11)
  • May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Pp. ix-xxvi, 1-29, 80-203. Finish reading.
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 847-879, 882-913.
 REVISED ESSAY for group two due in class.  
The Civil Rights Movement
18 The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. Pp. 1-117.
  • O'Connor, Flannery. "Everything That Rises Must Converge."
    
19 What the Civil Rights Movement Did (*PR 12)
  • Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. Pp. 261-384.
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 921-922, 933-935, 943-944. Recommended as background reading.
 REVISED ESSAY for group three due in class.  
Why Were We in Vietnam?
20 Vietnam (*PR 13)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 952-957, 968-971.
  • Johnson, Lyndon B. "Speech at Johns Hopkins University."
  • O'Brien, Tim. "On the Rainy River."
    
The Sixties and Beyond
21 The Sixties and Its Legacies (*PR 14)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 944-945, 957-967.
  • Ginsberg, Allen. "America."
  • Friedan, Betty. "The Problem That Has No Name."
  • Berry, Wendell. "The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character."
    
22 The Seventies: From Watergate to Disco (*PR 15)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 978-981, 984-988, 993-999, 1003-1007.
    
The New Conservatism
23 The Reagan Revolution (*PR 16)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 1008-1011, 1014-1034. Everyone will be responsible for a section.
  • Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker. Begin reading.
    
24 A Changing America (*PR 17)
  • Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker. Finish reading.
    
The Next American Century?
25 The American Dream in a Global Age (*PR 18)
  • Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America. Pp. 1044-1048.
  • Reich, Robert B. The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for Twenty-First-Century Capitalism. Pp. 3-9, 43-57, 119-135, 301-315.
    
26 The American Dream after September 11   FINAL PAPER due at the beginning of class.